by Caroline Leach | Oct 30, 2015 | Change, Learning, Work/Life
Being here now.
Easier said than done.
There are always plans to make. Projects to start. People to see. Posts to do.
Except for one thing. If you’re constantly living in the future, it’s all too easy to miss the beauty of today.
Goals can be so compelling. So encompassing. So engaging. So much so that it’s all too easy to get lured into some future state that doesn’t yet exist.
Don’t get me wrong. Visualizing the future is a powerful way to make it happen.
But too much visualization and too little living in the moment can lead to wishing your life away.
It always makes me a bit sad the way people react to Mondays. As if it’s a day to simply be endured. On the way to more enjoyable days of the week.
But you can have as much fun on a Monday . . . as on a Wednesday . . . as on a Saturday. It’s all about your mindset. And embracing every day as potentially the best one of your life.
Sometimes I get so focused on a goal that I neglect to savor the moment. To enjoy the process as it’s unfolding. To make the journey sweeter than the destination.
That’s when my husband reminds me of the sage philosopher, Dr. Seuss. He wisely said, “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.”
The key is to enjoy each moment as it unfolds. How do you do that? By being here now.
by Caroline Leach | Oct 25, 2015 | Careers, Change, Learning, Social Media
The world’s information doubles every 12 months. Americans change careers 7 times over a lifetime. And your toddler or teen still doesn’t come with instructions.
With ever-present change, how can you learn what you need to know in a new situation?
1. Set goals. Decide what you need to learn. Determine what problem you are solving for.
2. Make a plan. Think about how you could best go about learning what you need to know. Identify a few learning sources and draft a brief plan.
3. Talk to people. Ask questions. How did they learn what they know? Would they be willing to sit down with you and walk you through a new task or explain a process?
4. Read. Check out blog posts, articles and books.
On my Kindle reader is What To Do When You’re New. We’re “new” more of then than we think we are. It could be a new job or a new class we’re taking.
If you’re starting a new job, The First 90 Days gives an invaluable road map. It’s worthwhile to do the exercises and answer the question prompts.
5. Stretch. See if there’s a new project you could take on at work that will give you an opportunity to accelerate your learning objectives.
6. Take a class. Go back to school, with MOOCs, your company, local adult education, community college or university extension.
7. Watch a video. Check out TED talks and YouTube videos. Download the apps so you can watch a short video whenever you have a few extra minutes.
8. Make connections. Think about how what you already know relates to what you’re learning. See if there are enough similarities to accelerate your learning.
9. Learn by doing. Put your learning into practice. Adopt the Cal Poly San Luis Obsipo mantra of “learning by doing.”
That’s why I’m on Instagram. I wanted to experiment with communicating through images rather than words.
10. Make your own internship. Take inspiration from Robert De Niro’s character in The Intern. Figure out what needs to be done and go do it.
At my new company, there’s even an app for that. Leaders with projects needing extra help load them into the app. Team members pick a project, learning new skills and getting to know colleagues in the process.
11. Ask for feedback. Ask people what they see that’s going well with your learning plan and where you could do better. Make course corrections based on what they say.
12. Be fearless. A few years ago we introduced social collaboration into our workplace. It represented a new way to work, and it wasn’t one I was familiar – or comfortable – with.
However, I pushed through uncomfortable feelings. I asked questions, even if I thought they might be viewed as stupid. And I was willing to make mistakes.
That’s why I started my first blog, internally, a few years before this one. I needed to “learn by doing” so I could help other leaders do the same.
And a few years later, nearly 90% of employees had adopted a new way to work with social business. That was worth all the awkwardness and the errors along the way.
How are you becoming a lifelong learner?
by Caroline Leach | Sep 20, 2015 | Change, Leadership, Learning, Work/Life
When the world seems full of rejection, look for bright spots. And make the most of the them.
I choose to see rejections simply as milestones along my journey. They aren’t major rejections. A community involvement role here. A professional association board membership there. And some others along the way.
One bright spot is I got the volunteer job I wanted this year in National Charity League. I’m the inspiration chair for the Palos Verdes chapter. I give a short talk each month to inspire my fellow members.
We’re parents serving communities along with our daughters in middle and high school. We’re part of a national organization fostering mother-daughter relationships in a philanthropic organization committed to community service and giving 1 million hands-on volunteer hours annually.
And we’re busy – juggling children, careers and community.
So my inspiration this month began with a collective exhale. We were gathered on a scenic September evening at the seaside cliffs of the Point Vicente Interpretive Center.
And here’s what I said.
By a show of hands, how many of you –
- Have more texts, emails, pings and dings than you can answer?
- Have more calendar commitments than you can ever do?
- Feel like everyone but you leads a charmed life on Facebook and Instagram?
Well, welcome to a new school year!
One mom with two school-aged kids is also the junior senator from New York. Her name is Kirsten Gillibrand. In her book, Off the Sidelines, she says if you ask a mother how it’s going, the universal answer is “Um, barely holding it together.”
So you’re in good company with parents everywhere.
But my job is not to depress you. It’s to inspire you.
Since we often meet at the Palos Verdes Library, my theme this year is good books. And it’s a complement to the theme of this year’s president, Francine Mathieson – Be the Good.
And while you don’t need yet another thing to do, how many of you would like to:
- Increase your concentration and improve your memory?
- Connect better with people on an emotional level?
- Feel happier, calmer and less stressed?
Then reading, as little as six minutes a day, can help you do that.
A study on stress was done at the University of Sussex – yes, it’s in England, so it may or may not be on your daughter’s college list.
It showed reading was better at lowering stress than a number of other activities, such as listening to music, taking a walk, drinking tea or playing a video game.
Reading focuses your mind and crowds out worries – with no hangover, extra calories or other bad side effects. What could be better?
Thanks to Debra Young-Stearns and her team, you have a reminder bookmark on your chair about keeping calm and reading a good book.
The next time we meet at the library, visit the new releases section. It’s like being in a bookstore and walking out with every new book you want – for free!
(And post-inspiration talk, I took my own advice and found Frank Bruni‘s terrific book, Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be, pictured above).
There’s also a great new book out by Brené Brown called Rising Strong. You may have watched her popular TED talks or read her books. Her new book is about resilience and bouncing back from adversity.
I first heard Brené when I was driving to Lake Arrowhead a year ago to meet our very own Beth Graziano and other friends for a family weekend. And I have a feeling Brené and Beth would be the best of friends.
My life was busy, so I drove up by myself after the rest of the group. And I found the TED talk playlists to keep me company – pick a topic and you’ll be entertained by 18-minute talk after talk for several hours.
The last one as I wound my way up the mountain was called The Power of Vulnerability. With more than 21 million views, it has struck a universal chord.
I closed with a few words from Brené’s talk. About our children being wired and ready for struggle and being worthy of love and belonging. And about believing that “we are enough.”
Because, as Brown says, “when we work from a place that says, ‘I am enough,’ we’re kinder and gentler to the people around us, and we’re kinder and gentler to ourselves.”
I am enough. You are enough. Enjoy this beautiful season.
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