by Caroline Leach | Jul 30, 2023 | Leadership, Work/Life
As a leader, how do you savor your Sunday?
What are the ways you can be completely in the moment? And why is this important for how you live your life and lead in the coming week?
Savoring is a concept I learned about in the most popular course at Yale University. It’s about happiness, and it’s called “The Science of Well-Being.” Taught by psychologist Dr. Laurie Santos, the free course is available on Coursera.
When you savor something, you are in the moment, fully enjoying the experience.
You are not thinking about last week’s problems, or the coming week’s stuffed calendar, or all the tasks on your to-do list.
Instead, you are fully present. You are stepping outside an experience to fully appreciate it. You are noticing the sights, sounds, and smells of your surroundings. You are completely enjoying what you are doing or how you are simply being.
We live in a world that values doing, doing, doing. All the time.
How about simply BEING for a few minutes or hours? Not DOING anything.
How could simply “being” help you savor today? How could it help you find pleasure in the moment?
And when you return to a “doing” state, here are the savoring tips I learned:
1. Sharing the experience with another person
2. Thinking about how lucky you are to enjoy such an amazing moment
3. Keeping a souvenir or a photo of that activity
4. Making sure you stay in the present moment the entire time
5. Journaling about the experience and your reflections on it
When you feel fulfilled and savor Sunday as time off, a few things happen.
First, you truly enjoy life as it unfolds, which is the best gift of all. Life is a series of moments, and you’re there for all of them.
Second, you start your work week in a calmer and more grounded place, ready to lead people in a more inspirational way.
What experience will YOU savor today?
by Caroline Leach | Jul 21, 2023 | Careers, Leadership, Work/Life
How do you use a time windfall? ⌚
Today my client appointments all rescheduled for future dates. I find myself with a day free of calendar commitments. There’s a lot on my to-do list.
What’s the best use of the time?
The temptation is to focus on what I call “administrivia.” These are tasks that sorta, kinda, haveta (?) get done. Respond to routine emails, reconcile QuickBooks, enter coaching hours into the log, and so on.
It feels good to check them off the list. Like I’m making progress.
Yes, they may need to get done. But they are not the tasks that are going to move me forward in a big way.
What are better uses of time?
👉 Thinking about business strategy
👉 Connecting with people in a meaningful way
👉 Choosing one of the most important tasks to complete
How do you know if a task is important?
Ask: what’s the ONE thing, if you focused on it today, that would make the biggest difference in your career or business?
Not something that’s urgent or that represents other people’s priorities.
What’s YOUR priority?
Singular, as in ONE priority.
(Fun fact: the word “priority” began only in the singular form. Meaning that only one priority could exist at a time. Not the multiple priorities we now attempt to juggle daily and hourly. As if we ever could.)
My priority for today is creating a new program for our most loyal guests at our family restaurant Pacific Standard Prime. This is a team-focused effort, involving collaboration and iteration. The administrivia will wait until that’s done.
What’s YOUR priority today?
by Caroline Leach | Jul 9, 2023 | Leadership, Work/Life
How can your Sunday routine help you enjoy today and make the most of the week ahead? 🌻
Being intentional. Being present. Being curious.
These mindsets are especially important on Sunday, so the day isn’t frittered away.
And if you can practice them on Sunday, you can bring them to every other day of the week.
Sunday is traditionally a day of rest. This is ever important in our faster and faster world, where so much is coming at us. (Looking at you, ChatGPT, Threads, and the never-ending news cycle.)
It’s also a day to get centered and focused. To enjoy life, and to lay the foundation for the work week ahead.
Here are concepts to consider …
🌻 SLOWING DOWN. Under schedule, do less, and create space. Yes, this can be hard for the hyper achievers here on LinkedIn. But what if you listened to what your body, mind, and soul are telling you? This morning I work up, without an alarm, at the usual 4:30-ish a.m. (Annoying, I know.) But I was still tired. So I let myself sleep a little more.
🌻 SAVORING. Intentionally noticing what you are doing and enjoying it in the moment heightens the experience. What are the sights, sounds, and smells around you? What are the feelings you are having? What else and who else are there? Observing, pondering, and being curious in the moment will also help savor, and remember, the time.
🌻 SPIRITUALITY. This can have many interpretations. Here it’s about seeing yourself in life as part of something much bigger than yourself. You get to define what that means to you. What are your values? What and who are important to you? How can you be a force for good in this vast, interdependent, and complex world?
It seems like work has taken on spiritual proportions. In the United States, we often “live to work” rather than “work to live.” But work doesn’t love us back, no matter how many hours we put in. And there is always more, more, more work to do. At the end of our lives, and every day until then, it’s the relationships and the experiences that we will remember and cherish.
Being a more whole and balanced person also makes us better leaders, employees, and parents. We’re better rested and fulfilled, with more wisdom and perspective to navigate through problems, reach our goals, and contribute to a better world.
What are your Sunday routines? And how much more satisfying could life be with a little Sunday energy, every day of the week?
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