Business tips

Start where you are

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How’s this for a premise: “If a problem isn’t actionable, it’s not a problem. It’s reality.”

Bill Burnett and Dave Evans develop this idea in their new book, Designing Your Life; How To Build a Well-lived, Joyful Life as they apply “design thinking” to making important life choices.

When you’re organized, you don’t like to waste time. And what’s a huge waste of time? Worrying – especially when you worry about stuff you can’t change. This doesn’t mean you don’t have stuff you wish you could change – a grouchy boss, a noisy neighbor, an obnoxious family member. But if you can’t change them, then they aren’t a problem – they are reality. And you can’t outsmart reality or bend it to your will. It’s still reality. Continue reading →

Relaxing into a schedule

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If you’ve been thinking about doing something cool, set a deadline and put together a schedule. A deadline is effective even if it’s something only you know about; when you write a due date on a calendar you’re making a written commitment to yourself to get something done.

A cool benefit of having a schedule, besides meeting deadlines and getting stuff done, is the peace that comes from deciding what you’re working on and when you’re going to do it. You may feel like a schedule limits you. I would counter that when you schedule something, you quiet your brain and the idea stops nagging at you.

“Are you going to work on me now? Now? Now?”

Continue reading →

The 8-week Sprint

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A friend at work recommended a blog about how to get stuff done. I checked it out and read through a long, long, long post about why I should pay the blogger to help guide me through an 8-week sprint to get a creative project done. I read – and read, and read – and thought, “I don’t need a coach. I just need to do the work.”

Here’s the plan I came up with for my 8-week sprint. Continue reading →

“Never take chaos personally”

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If you’re a planner, like me, you like linear patterns. If you do A, B happens. If you get a good education, you’ll get a good job. If you eat good food and exercise, you’ll be healthy. If you do work you’re called to, you’ll be successful. Life is logical and fair.

Except when it isn’t.

The Universe actually prefers chaos to straight lines. How many straight lines do you see in nature?! You tidy up; things get messy. Sidewalks crack. People age. The most natural thing on earth is that things we build up break down. Continue reading →

Starting a Kindness Ritual

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I’m listening to an excellent audiobook called The Path: What Chinese Philosophers Can Teach Us About the Good Life, by Michael Puett. This is one of those books I’m going to have to read as well because there is so much content I want to digest.

Here’s the thought for today. We know that much of what we do is based on habit. What time we get up. What we eat. When we eat. How we get to work or school. How we function there.

Habit even shapes many conversations. I say this. You say that. And on we go with our day.

If you want to make changes to your world, you have to think of inventive ways to break habits because they are powerfully engrained in our day-to-day life because you repeat them over and over!

I think of habits as functional tasks. Michael Puett looks at them as ritual. For him, a ritual is something you do and repeat until it becomes the norm. And you mark it in some special way to treat it as unique each time.

And here’s his question: Can you make a ritual of being kind? You could also think of this as a “kindness habit” but the idea of ritual carries sanctity and reverence. This isn’t a kind gesture; it’s a new norm. Continue reading →

Getting things done by adding levels

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“Action leads to insight more often than insight leads to action.”
– Dan and Chip Heath, The Power of Moments

In The Power of Moments, the Heath brothers have some great ideas about breaking big goals into small parts – and rewarding yourself along the way. They compare this to video games where you feel accomplished each time to go up a level.

Let’s say you’ve always wanted to learn to play that guitar you’ve had hanging around for years. In a standard scenario, you know to break big goals into small parts so you make a plan to:

  • Tune up the guitar.
  • Find a great book on how to play.
  • Find some online class options.
  • Commit to practicing for a half-hour, 3x a week.
  • Block out time this week and get to work.

This plan works great for the first week or two, but then it gets a little boring and you start to skip practice time. And before you know it, the guitar is banished to its case, collecting dust at the back of the closet. Continue reading →

Finding your place in a transition

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Last August, I took a job as the adult program manager with our library. The library hired me to bring in innovative programming and to help build community. For the last 6 months, I’ve brought in a mix of presenters. From naturalists to authors. From scientists to songwriters. From tiny opossums to wise young owls. I’ve loved giving each speaker and critter a platform to help educate and enlighten our community.

I knew I’d love meeting speakers, and tailoring programs to meet the community’s needs and that’s been awesome.

What I didn’t know was how disruptive and out of place I’d feel. Continue reading →

10 ideas to clear your clutter

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If you’re looking for a way to lift your energy and escape the final-days-of-February doldrums, how about doing a little decluttering this week? If that sounds like more of a drain than an energy lifter, you might be surprised to find how different you feel when you take control and change even one small part of your environment.

Here are 10 ideas to help you make this happen: Continue reading →

The Olympics and DNA

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We’re watching the Olympics on a pretty regular basis (at least until 10:00 PM or so). While I love seeing incredible performances, the practical side of me can’t believe the amount of physical effort that’s needed to carry out Olympic feats. And I can’t comprehend how you put that much work into something that has mostly a negative impact on your finances, where the smallest error takes you out of the running, and where you only get to compete every four years!

That being said, look at these folks! Those who succeed have incredible physical abilities built into their DNA. AND I love hearing about the incredible habits that got them this far.

Coinciding with the Olympics, I got results from my 23&Me spit test this week, supplemented with additional info from a site called Promethease. I am amazed at some of the stuff that’s hard-baked into my body. Do I have the genes of an Olympic athlete? No! But here’s a bit of what I learned: Continue reading →