Nothing used to bother me more than an Interrupter. After listening to Women at Work: Make Yourself Heard from Harvard Business Review…I can’t wait to face my next interrupter. I’m …
Leading with frozen eyelashes
Temperatures in my childhood home town would reach 30 degrees below zero (Fahrenheit). I did not reside in Antarctica. I lived in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The cold front would last …
How to make the right decision, every time.
What if there was one, simple criteria to use that would enable you to make the best decision every time?
We’re all faced with massive complexity and thousands of decisions in a single day — at work, at home, in life.
It can feel overwhelming.
But, the band The Fray solved it all for us in their song All at Once.
The hardest thing and the right thing are the same.
Yep, that’s it.
- Don’t know whether to finish a work assignment on a Saturday or play LEGOs with your son? (The hardest thing and the right thing are the same). BTW – I believe the hardest thing is playing LEGOs and saving the work assignment for after your son has gone to bed. They both need to be done, and the easy way out is to justify doing it at a regular hour, but there are other options.
- Don’t know whether you should hash out a contentious conversation today or next week? (The hardest thing and the right thing are the same).
- Don’t know whether to give someone feedback or trust they’ll figure it out themselves? (The hardest thing and the right thing are the same).
See?
It works.
This no-fail compass also works when evaluating your day. Do the hardest thing (aka the right thing) first and save the easier stuff for later.
Unfortunately, humans tend to choose the easy path because it’s more comfortable.
However, it’s not getting us where we need to go.
Where we need to go is towards courage, refinement, strength. ‘Easy’ doesn’t lead there. The ‘hardest thing’ leads there.
What are you facing this week?
Say it with me. “The hardest thing and the right thing are the same.”
Now you know what you ‘should’ do.
Will you?
Recipe Saturday: Bruschetta Chicken
This one is a crowd pleaser (count me in any time there is fresh basil involved). Easy weeknight dinner and leftovers are great for lunch. Bruschetta Chicken Happy Saturday, friends.
Too busy not to exercise
It’s been a doozy of a week at work. The last three…actually.
I like to work in the morning. I get a lot done. The rest of the day, I’m usually in meetings.
I also like to exercise in the morning. If it’s after 8am and I decide to go for a run…fuggedaboutit.
This week, I woke up. And, I “had so much to do.” I told myself, I didn’t have time to fit in exercise.
Then, an inner voice with more volume and clout interrupted and said, “You won’t make it through this day if you don’t exercise.”
We are mind, body, spirit.
To be at our best, to solve problems, to have presence and composure, and to bring energy to our team (family, friends), we must not only churn through the ‘busy’ but nurture our body and our spirit.
Don’t let anything get in the way of caring for yourself. You’ll get more done in a shorter amount of time, and be happier doing it. Exercise, prayer, meditation…they’re equally important to your success as getting stuff done.
We are human beings, not human doings. (I didn’t make this expression up and don’t know who did…but it’s brilliant. Confession…I sometimes repeat it like a mantra when I need to reset my perspective and when I fear I’m just not going to complete the tasks I signed up for.)
Linger
Do you notice when you do it? When you linger? In a moment. In a conversation. Take note. These are your happiest places. The ones you stall, hoping not to …
Catch your balance
Today, I stood on a bamboo floor in steamy air. I was standing on one leg, arms in the air, and raised my eyes to the sky. Unsteady, my arms …
How asking for help changed me
I’m still not very good at it. But, I’ve gotten better. Out of fear it inconveniences another (I’m guessing at one time, before I knew how to speak up for …
Why performance vs. potential is the wrong way to think about talent.
One popular way of looking across talent in an organization is the 9-block. A matrix that compares performance of an employee against their potential. One year, following our company’s use …
Do you pay to work here?
Friday was Take Your Kids to Work Day at my place of employment. My son was having a great time with the jumbo-Jenga in our office, and got a small …