Monday, September 21, 2009

Learn to Discern

You know that feeling you get after overindulging, kind of like after Thanksgiving dinner? My brain starts to feel bloated in that same way. Sometimes we overload our thought system with too much data, and it makes us feel sluggish. Information is so readily available at our fingertips now, that we must develop a new skill: discernment. Here are 3 questions to ask to help keep your focus on what's most important:
  1. What are my top 3 priorities this week? Today?
  2. How much time is required (ball park) to give them my best?
  3. How can my professional reading time be best used today, and how much time, exactly, am I giving to that?
Once those priorities are identified, be true to them. Decide in advance how much time you will devote to answering emails or on returning calls. Idle curiosity can lead us to a news site that becomes like a rabbit hole that we don't emerge from for two hours. That leaves no time for our best creative expression or the realization of our dearest goals. No one else is going to stand over us and encourage our most inspiring contribution. That is up to each of us. Discernment is a skill worth cultivating.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Authenticity

Ever notice how easily we compare ourselves to others and feel like we come up short? I noticed over the weekend how many fashion mags show perfect young women with no laugh lines or visible flaws. Then saw how many wrote in to a magazine that published a photo of a model comfortably baring it all even though she had a bit of a tummy pooch. Readers wrote in that finally, they were seeing a woman who looked like them. Can't we all relate to that?

I caught myself this morning feeling a bit critical of my own work process, until I stopped and realized that it is my natural process which works well for me and so what if it doesn't follow a 9-to-5, Monday through Friday format? As a writer, I gather for a period of time and then when it feels just right, I synthesize what I've gathered, re-package the information into an article, book, workshop and distribute. It isn't always linear. I enjoy the organic nature of my work. I love having clients come for coaching at just the right moment in their lives to make the greatest impact. My process may not look pretty on a chart, but it feels just right and feeds my authentic self and my soul. Who can ask for more than that? What a relief it is to say, "My way is a little different than most, and it works for me."