In John C. Maxwell’s book “Today Matters: 12 Daily Practices to Guarantee Tomorrows Success,” he talks about this concept of making sure you’re not feeding your spouse your “leftovers.” The example was simple. Something big would happen and throughout the day, John would share the wonderful news many times over with friends, select family members, and colleagues; then by the time he would arrive home and his wife would inquire about his day, this great news was no longer fresh if even newsworthy at all by that point. What were leftover were stale sound bites of a once wholesome feast of good news.

Lately I’ve been thinking about this concept of leftovers, but not so much in the How to Improve Your Marriage sense (although I can attest sharing the first bite with your better half tastes soooo good); but more so in the sense of if we’re bringing our leftover self in the form of energy to our work.

This is often the struggle of the starving artist, entrepreneur, or even corporate rung climber. We spend so much time working on things that quite frankly must get done and when it’s time to do the work, that epic, life-changing work… we’re often forced to bring our leftover self to the table.

My challenge to myself is simple: either start my day bringing my fresh, nutrient enriched self to my epic work, and if that is not possible…if I have to use my leftover self to continue the great work, then I show up like a piece of my late Grandmother’s homemade apple pie that for some reason always tastes great if not better, as a leftover.