by Caroline Leach | Apr 15, 2016 | Change, Work/Life
Do you feel deluged with data every day? Overwhelmed with emails, texts, posts and pings? How do you sift through it? How do you make sense of it all?
Often I’ll start reading through a new piece of research, trying to take it all in, absorb it and synthesize it. But in the end it seems that nothing truly stands out.
The alternate approach works better. What is it? It’s being on the lookout for the one key takeaway from whatever it is I’m reading. Or doing. Or observing.
What’s the headline? What’s the tweet? What’s the snap? What’s the one thing I’d share with someone else?
Daniel Pink made this easy in his book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. It has a Twitter summary – “Carrots & sticks are so last century. Drive says for 21st century work, we need to upgrade to autonomy, mastery & purpose.”
One of my great bosses, Leigh Anne Nanci, had the perfect mantra for going to professional conferences. Instead of trying to remember and act on everything, she advised identifying the one change you’d make as a result of attending.
And in the now-classic film City Slickers, there’s the moment when Jack Palance tells Billy Crystal that the secret to life is “just one thing.” And we each have to figure it out ourselves.
What’s your one thing?
by Caroline Leach | Apr 10, 2016 | Change, Learning, Work/Life
Driving across the Golden Gate Bridge this week got me thinking about how small steps add up to big things over time.
Was it really true that the bridge has to be painted 365 days a year? Turns out the answer is no. It’s an urban legend.
Of course, touch ups are required. Just as they are in our own lives.
And spending a few minutes each day on important goals can make it easier to achieve them. That’s what I’m attempting with my Spanish studies. If I can’t consistently devote a half hour every day, how about 10 minutes?
Technology makes this even easier than when I made my first attempt to learn Spanish a few years ago. Now I have a Rosetta Stone app on my phone and my tablet. It’s available anytime and anywhere. The only start-up time required is plugging in my earbuds and tapping on the app. Easy and effortless.
My daughter was amused last night at the airport when I squeezed in my 10 minutes of Spanish. But if I keep this up for a year, it will equal 60 hours of study. That’s better than zero. And perhaps as the days and months go by I’ll find that I can double and triple the time.
After all, it’s easier to ramp up the momentum on something already underway.
The photo above was taken in spring 2014 when my sister, Katie, and I walked across the Golden Gate Bridge and back from Marin County. Small steps added up to a beautiful and invigorating 3-mile walk that morning.
by Caroline Leach | Apr 8, 2016 | Change, Learning, Work/Life
Once habits become part of a daily routine, they become a catalyst for other changes and function as the calm in the midst of a storm.
Habits can be a grounding a comforting force that enable you to navigate the really big changes in life. Maybe it’s a new career, evolving family relationships or a change in your health.
This became clear to me during this week’s road trip visiting colleges with my daughter. Although we’re in a place where in theory I should be right at home, I feel a bit out of my element.
Last night we took a dusk-to-dark drive along a beautiful yet desolate stretch of California’s Highway 1. We thought it would be fun to experience it. Even after a Google search surfaced something about a “devil’s slide,” we decided to go for it.
Yet the experience felt felt cold and foreboding at that time of day. The Pacific Ocean was more grey and angry looking than I’m used to seeing.
Maybe it was the absence of many other people and the familiarity of city life and civilization that felt different. If something happened to our car or if nature really asserted herself, could we handle it?
Surely we could. We know we can handle anything that comes our way. We can figure it out.
And seemingly a few minutes later we were steps from Union Square, checking into a boutique hotel. Being there re-energized us.
Yet as lovely (and trendy) as it was, I didn’t feel comfortable. I didn’t feel at home. That pushed me to remember that there are things to be discovered, learned and observed everywhere you go. You don’t have to be in your comfort zone to do it.
Part of that realization came from finding solace in the familiarity of my daily dozen. Writing my morning pages, getting some exercise and doing 10 minutes of Spanish calmed me down.
These are things I do each day, regardless of where I am or what else is happening. Doing them made me forget my unfamiliar surroundings. And even better, it moved me closer to my goals.
When it feels like everything around you is changing, it’s easier to be flexible and agile by staying grounded in a set of daily habits. Not to mention feeling healthier, more rested and better able to not only navigate change but to reap the benefits of it.
Recent Comments