Minute With Mallon: Get Up & Dance!

Welcome to Minute with Mallon! 

Something I Taught:

I really enjoy all of my clients, but every once in a while someone just truly puts a smile on my face.

I coached one of those clients today—Caitlin S. A couple months ago we set this goal:

“This quarter, I’m going to have dance parties with my children every day—so we have more fun, release the work and stress anxieties, and enjoy my kids to the utmost while they’re at this age.”

P.S. We made a deal: if she misses even one day, she has to cut the grass herself instead of her husband. 😂

And she lives down in Florida…where the grass actually grows this time of year! 🤣

I asked her if the kids were loving it. She said they absolutely are—and now they excitedly pick their own songs on the way home from school. She told me it’s become one of the most special parts of the day for their family.

Caitlin is a leader in a large corporation, so I asked her, “How would something like that work in the workplace?”

She said she’s actually used it with her team when the energy is low. It’s a five-minute stop where she simply says, “Get up—let’s go.” Everyone gets excited, morale rises, and no matter how heavy the work is, they end up having a lot of fun.

Then I asked her about the “thinker-type” personalities who would never want to do something like that. She said, “You don’t have to dance—but you do have to be part of it. Stop your work and watch if you want, but you have to remove yourself from work for the next five minutes while we do this.”

You may laugh at the idea, but stop and think for a second: when things aren’t going well, one of the best things you can do is change your state. 

Stand up. Get moving. Get fresh air. Get sunshine. Reset your body and your mind.

That’s what she’s doing for her team—she’s changing their state.

And as a leader, that’s brilliant.

Where could you build a 5-minute “state change” into your day—at home or at work?

Something to Ponder:

"Reading to your children regularly is the best school they will ever get." 

Kevin Kelly

Something I Learned:

Let me introduce you to a word you’ve almost certainly experienced… even if you’ve never heard it before.  I read it in a great book called "My Friends" by Fredrik Backman and had to look it up.

Think about the end of a long, hot stretch of weather when everything feels dry and worn out. Then a rainstorm finally rolls in, and those first drops hit the ground. There’s a very specific smell that rises up from the earth — cool, fresh, and oddly comforting. 

That smell actually has a name. It’s called petrichor.

It’s the scent released when rain falls on dry soil, rocks, and plants. And interestingly, our brains are naturally wired to respond positively to it. Most people don’t even realize it, but when that smell hits, something in us tends to relax and reset a little.

Interestingly, scientists have discovered that humans can detect one of the main compounds in petrichor, called geosmin, at levels as small as about five parts per trillion. That makes it one of the most sensitive smells we can detect — some researchers even say we can detect it more easily than sharks can detect blood in water. Pretty incredible when you think about it.

You’ve probably smelled petrichor many times in your life — you just didn’t know what to call it.

Now you do!

Something I Saw:

Acadia National Park in Maine

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Hope you have an incredible week! 

Robert