Welcome to Minute with Mallon!

Hey friends —

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Thank you.

Something I Taught:

A new client came to me recently. Great guy. Hard charger. Driven and successful.

Married with two sons. As we walked through different areas of his life — fun, recreation, family — he paused and admitted something: he'd been coming down too hard on his boys lately. Not much lightness. Not much fun. On a scale of 1 to 10, he gave himself a three.

Then he started talking about his father. A disciplinarian. Not much play, not much warmth. And he realized — slowly, uncomfortably — that he was becoming the very thing he had promised himself he wouldn't.

It wasn't just affecting his boys. It was quietly creating distance between him and his wife.

So we wrote this goal:

This quarter, on weekdays, "Susan" and I will go out on the patio as soon as we both get home and spend 15 minutes together — just the two of us — decompressing and reconnecting.

Then we painted the picture. He walks in. They step outside overlooking the pool. Maybe a glass of wine, maybe iced tea. Fifteen minutes. Talking, or just sitting quietly together. Reconnecting before pouring into the boys.

Simple. But powerful.

I've seen this work before. Ten years ago, a different client, same tension. That small daily reset changed the tone of an entire home.

Sometimes leadership at work improves when leadership at home softens.

So let me leave you with this:

Where might you be unintentionally becoming the very thing you once said you wouldn't?

On a scale of 1–10, how much fun and connection are you bringing into your home right now?

What small daily reset could quietly change everything?

Something to Ponder:

"The higher you go, the harder it is to find the truth. And the lonelier it can get."

Craig Groeschel

(And that’s why you need to coach!)

Something I Learned:

Grit” by Angela Duckworth explains that long‑term success depends less on talent and more on a combination of passion and perseverance she calls grit. People should read it because it offers practical stories and tools for sticking with meaningful goals over many years, even when progress is slow or obstacles are discouraging.

"Warren Buffett—the self-made multibillionaire whose personal wealth, acquired entirely within his own lifetime, is roughly twice the size of Harvard University’s endowment—reportedly gave his pilot a simple three-step process for prioritizing. The story goes like this: Buffett turns to his faithful pilot and says that he must have dreams greater than flying Buffett around to where he needs to go. The pilot confesses that, yes, he does. And then Buffett takes him through three steps. First, you write down a list of twenty-five career goals. Second, you do some soul-searching and circle the five highest-priority goals. Just five. Third, you take a good hard look at the twenty goals you didn’t circle. These you avoid at all costs. They’re what distract you; they eat away time and energy, taking your eye from the goals that matter more."

Here’s the truth: Most of us don’t fail because we lack grit. We fail because we lack focus.

We don’t quit the top five goals. We dilute them with the other twenty.

Buffett’s brilliance wasn’t in picking five priorities. It was in declaring the other twenty dangerous. Not bad. Not wrong. Just dangerous — because they quietly steal time, energy, and attention from what matters most.

Grit keeps you going.

Something I Saw:

While walking at night in Laikipia, Kenya, this guy was about 20’ away. Huge! When we put the flashlight on him it scared us pretty good! 🤣

Hope you have an incredible week!

Robert

Minute With Mallon: Break the Pattern!