What excites and intimidates

In July 2017, a guest speaker asked a room full of CEOs, “How do you manage vitality?” What I recall is the looks on the faces of the executives in the room were a mixture of confusion and uncertainty that summed to a collective, “Huh?”

To that point for this group, vitality wasn’t something we’d thought a lot about and was perceived as more of a byproduct than something to be managed. But what I learned that day has had a profound impact on my life and career since.

I remember that day because I was 30 days away from formally transitioning the CEO peer groups to a new leader to set out fully on a private consulting practice. Our speaker that day showed us that vitality is a function of two factors that must both be present: What excites and intimidates. This duality was game-changing.

Plenty of things excite and are fun but don’t necessarily intimidate. And things that intimidate but don’t excite, most of us would just as soon avoid those. But as we processed this combo, we could recognize times in our lives and careers when we were involved in projects or circumstances that brought excitement and intimidation, resulting in all synapses firing and the vitality we were experiencing.

Being on the doorstep of walking away from a successful and known platform to truly hang my own shingle was certainly exciting and intimidating. This pair even became my client criteria such that I would look for projects that brought both, and where either was not strong, I learned to pass.

Fast-forward to 2024. My decision then to walk away from that practice and join the team at Hope Cancer Resources has brought for me a new act of what excites and intimidates. I join an exceptionally strong organization, doing important work, succeeding a respected retiring leader in a region and segment of health care that are growing, with increasing demands and expectations.

Excitement and intimidation? Check and check.

I share all of that to ask the question: What about you? Are you managing vitality? Are you pursuing things that excite and intimidate? Please know that I’m not advocating for a career change. Most of you are right where you need to be, and the rest of us need you to be doing the thing you do as a profession. Yet in that, are you mindful about what excites and intimidates such that it’s bringing out the best in you and having a different level of impact as a result?

Let’s get out of the workplace for a minute. What about in our homes? There are choices that can be made there in terms of what we pursue as families that drive vitality into us as we grow together. Hobbies and personal interests provide another front to inject vitality into our lives. Where could you explore something new as an area of personal growth or new experiences?

I would not claim to have mastered this. I’m very much a work in progress. What I have learned along the way is that rinsing my commitments and opportunities through this lens has brought me to a place where serving cancer patients and caregivers, being a husband and father, the causes I invest in the community, and what I pursue for personal wellness have created levels of vitality that have me leaning in. And my hope is that this lens could do the same for you.

Editor’s note: Chuck Hyde is the president and CEO of Hope Cancer Resources, a nonprofit organization providing cancer support and education to patients and families in Northwest Arkansas. The opinions expressed are those of the author.