As spring arrives and flowers begin to make their appearance on porches and in meadows, I want to share with you a way of thinking that I was taught during my nine years of service in the United States Marine Corps: grow where you’re planted.

We’ve all been there. The workday has only just begun, and you don’t know where to start! When work piles up, how do you tackle an endless barrage of people and things that need your attention? The answer is triage.

In the summer of 2008, my father and I went kayaking for my birthday. I’d handled a few rapids before on a group tour, but he was new to it—but come on, how hard could it be? A relative recommended the perfect place for two novices like us—the Dismal River.

Our awesome personal injury and marketing team just came out with brand new welcome boxes for our clients and I’m incredibly excited about using them. All sorts of thought and care went into their development. It really got me thinking about last weekend when I bought a rock.

How many of us are guilty of losing motivation and slowing down when we transition from one big thing to the next? You might recognize this problem as “senioritis” when high schoolers have their college acceptance letters in hand and their grades suddenly drop.

The only things with instant results are polaroids and pudding. And even then, you still have to do some shaking and stirring.

I’ve got 99 problems and being ungrateful is one of them!

But some of you may be wondering – okay, it’s great to be a rotisserie chicken. But what if I need rotisserie chickens?

But my first love? Infomercials. Specifically, the Ronco Showtime rotisserie oven. Some of you may even remember its famous slogan – “Set it and forget it!” It was all about putting your meal in the oven, pushing the button, and never thinking about it until dinner time. I gave it some thought one day and realized that’s the kind of attitude I strive to have at work.

Proper planning prevents poor performance.

In the book Switch: How to Change When Change is Hard, authors Chip and Dan Heath talk about habits, changing them, and why it’s so dang difficult.