by Caroline Leach | Jan 30, 2022 | Work/Life
It’s Sunday night. I’m still trying to complete items on my list from last Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. It would probably take a week, with no new inputs, to work through the backlog and feel “caught up.”
Has this ever happened to you?
And what’s wrong with this picture?
What’s wrong is there’s always more that could be done than there is time available.
That’s why it’s so important to do the highest priority work first. Not getting pulled off track with the the reminder emails pinging endlessly in a variety of inboxes. But focusing instead on the activities that will move your life forward. The actions that over time can make your dreams come true.
This gives a whole new perspective on today. I did the most important and highest priority work. And even if I stayed up all night, I wouldn’t complete everything I wanted to do today.
So it’s time to tidy up my desk, start to wind down, and enjoy the rest of the weekend with a good book.
Tomorrow is a new day.
by Caroline Leach | Dec 30, 2021 | Change
The “new year, new you” hype feels a bit overwhelming at the moment, doesn’t it?
As if we’re supposed to flip a switch on New Year’s Day and completely make over our lives in an instant.
It occurred to me today, grateful to be driving around in Southern California rain, that life is pretty good. Despite Omicron. Despite the state of the world.
If we want to make changes in our lives, the best way to make lasting change is to take small steps toward it, every day.
And it’s also important to see each day as a fresh start, and a new year’s day all of its own.
Here’s to making the most of every day. And enjoying every day. Happy New Year!
by Caroline Leach | Nov 27, 2021 | Change, Leadership
Reflection ramps up toward the end of a year. Here we are, almost at the end of a second year of living with the Covid-19 virus. How are you navigating through it all?
Thanksgiving this year felt like a welcome pause, to connect with family and friends and be mindful of the blessings in our lives.
Life threw us another curve that day, with news of a new Covid variant. Called Omicron, the new variant is still elusive enough we don’t know exactly how to proceed. As if we ever did.
Reflecting on Thanksgiving 2020 gave me much-needed perspective. The LA County Health Department was just shutting down outdoor dining for restaurants, as Covid spiked in Los Angeles. It felt like a near-death knell for our family’s fledgling restaurant that opened in the summer of 2020.
A year later, though, much has changed. Vaccines became available soon after last Thanksgiving. Business restrictions eased, and the restaurant is generating momentum. Life returned mostly to normal, albeit wearing masks in public places and managing through supply chain disruptions.
Remembering how quickly a year passes and how much changes resulted in two observations. First, a lot can change in a year. Second, viewed in that context, the present truly is a present. And third, what is possible during the next year?
As the poet Mary Oliver penned: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and previous life?”
Our lives take shape in the minutes, hours, days and years.
What is possible for YOU in the year ahead?
by Caroline Leach | Oct 30, 2021 | Leadership
Momentum counts for a lot. It’s easier to take small steps toward a goal on a consistent basis, rather than starting and stopping. Jerry Seinfeld is an inspiration here. He put a big X on his calendar every day he wrote jokes. As time went on, and the X’s stacked up, there was a greater reason not to break the chain. In other words, there was self-imposed pressure to keep writing jokes day after day.
The same could be said of this blog. I’m coming up on the seven-year anniversary of this blog. (Where did the time go?!?) I launched it on New Year’s Day 2015. It began as an exploration of the future of corporate communications. As my professional life evolved into marketing and then into entrepreneurship, my blog evolved too.
What’s kept me going is not wanted to break the chain. Not wanting a month to go by where I didn’t post. By keeping this blog on the back burner but posting something short every month, I’ve kept going. And I’m ready to ramp it up in 2022. Watch for more on content on leadership, executive communication, and personal branding. Within those topics, what are your most pressing problems? What do you want to know more about?
by Caroline Leach | Sep 30, 2021 | Leadership, Work/Life
“To innovate, you need to lighten your load. Constantly.”
Thanks for that, Danielle LaPorte. Her quote appeared this week in my 2021 planner from the same inspirational luminary.
It felt like it appeared for a reason. As an important reminder. It matches a sticky note I put on my desk lamp a few weeks ago. It says, “NO is the answer.”
As I’ve been running around in an ever-escalating frenzy of deadlines and to-do’s, I stopped for a moment and reflected on my calendar.
After all, our calendars reflect our priorities.
And mine reflected some “scope creep.” By that I mean, commitments had made their way onto my calendar that didn’t match my highest priorities. I’ve been striving to be helpful, and to give back, where I felt I could. But in the process, I was – and am – depleting myself.
That’s no way to live a vibrant life.
So my default response is now “no.” Is this difficult? Yes? But it’s far preferable to have so little time that I can’t meaningfully connect with the important people in my life, or do the work I enjoy, or even get a full night of sleep.
On the other end of the spectrum, I also loved Shonda Rhimes’ book, The Year of Yes. She spent a year saying yes to things that would have otherwise scared her. There’s an important distinction, though, between activities that lead to growth, as in Shonda’s case, and activities that lead to burnout.
So for now, no is the answer. In my next post, I’ll share some ideas for how to say no in a way that honors you and your recipient.
What do you need to say no to?
by Caroline Leach | Aug 31, 2021 | Leadership, Work/Life
A question from a 2011 diversity conference I attended is especially haunting now, 10 years later. Fareed Zakaria, speaking at the PwC event in Washinton, D.C., asked, “do you ever feel like you’re living in a Third World country?”
At the time, it seemed so preposterous. But even then, he gave examples that resonated. More than occasional power failures. Less than optimally maintained roads. Shortages of key supplies.
A decade later, unfortunately, his question seems more on point than ever.
It took three months this summer to get a new washer and dryer at home. The power goes off frequently enough at our house that I open the garage door well in advance if I have an especially important event to drive to. Our rescue dog needs an ongoing medication, which can take anywhere from two days to two weeks to get a refill. There’s more, but I’ll stop here.
And that’s just the personal side. The professional side often feels equally chaotic. And let’s not get started on the many distressing news headlines, such as military actions, climate change, and the pandemic.
Short of stomping around the world angry all the time, what can be done at the individual level?
Here are three strategies for navigating through chaos …
- Be kind to yourself and others. Essentially, most people are struggling right now, for a variety of reasons. Asking people how they’re doing, genuinely listening to their response, and offering support go a long way. Extending the same grace to yourself helps too.
- Build in extra time. Don’t wait until an appliance or a prescription or a relationship is on its last legs. Put in for the renewal well ahead of time. That way, there’s plenty of extra time for the inevitable bumps in the road. There’s time for recovery.
- Balance standards and completion. Not every task has to be done to 100% perfection. Identify what needs to be completed at a certain standard, and what is good enough. Subscribe to the mantra that “done is better than perfect.”
How about you? What are ways that you navigate chaos?
by Caroline Leach | Jul 30, 2021 | Careers, Leadership
How can you solve a difficult problem?
Counterintuitively, almost by deliberately not thinking about it.
First, you can go for a walk. Get out doors, pick up your stride, and enjoy being in nature. (That’s what I did today, and I took a picture of Crystal Crag in Mammoth Lakes.) A little forest bathing and forest therapy are good things.
Second, you can go to sleep, whether it’s for a nap or simply time to turn in for the evening. It can help to give yourself an assignment to come up with solutions to the problem you’re facing. Then switch your focus to something else, perhaps some reading before bed.
In both cases, you might be surprised that ideas to solve your problem seem to magically crop up from seemingly nowhere.
If you’ve tried to solve a problem by walking or sleeping, and not actively thinking about it, what happened?
by Caroline Leach | Jun 29, 2021 | Change, Learning
A colleague tipped me off to this week’s Aspen Ideas Festival. What an inspirational collection of people and ideas. It’s juxtaposed onto this strange transitional time we’re all living through as we emerge from 16 months of a global pandemic in the U.S.
A favorite talk came from Arthur Brooks. He’s a professor, an author, a podcaster, a thinker and so much more. What he got me thinking about is not simply recovering from post-pandemic trauma, but how to turn the experience into one of growth.
Reframing the months-long experience of intense uncertainty, day after day, into one of growing from it is incredibly powerful. Like a weight being lifted off one’s shoulders.
As you reflect on your life over the last year during Covid-19, what did you learn? What did you accomplish that you didn’t think you could? (And yes, sheer survival counts as a major accomplishment.) How did you grow and change?
by Caroline Leach | May 31, 2021 | Change, Work/Life
What’s on your mind as the unofficial start of summer arrives this Memorial Day weekend? As we emerge from 15 months of pandemic-induced staying at home?
As a coach, I’m often collecting interesting questions to ask people. One of my favorites came from someone in a coaching class through the Co-Active Training Institute. The question is: what’s an area where you consistently let yourself down?
On long weekends, we often have time and space to pause and reflect on our lives. What’s going well? What could be improved? And even more importantly, what’s an area where you consistently let yourself down?
The answer to this last question might hold the key to what you really, really want from your life. Your thoughts might surface wishes and dreams that often get forgotten and overlooked in the rush of our busy lives.
For me, where I let myself down is living too much in the future and not enjoying the present, in my rush and zeal to get stuff done. What’ I’d like to do is enjoy the present moment (now that I’ve finished a morning’s worth of work on this holiday … ha!). What is means is I’m going to go read a chapter or two in a new book I got from the library (which after a year of drive-through book pickups is now open to go inside!). Then a bike ride around the neighborhood. And some time with family tonight, reconnecting and and enjoying each other’s company.
What’s missing in your life? Where are you letting yourself down?
Right now is the perfect moment to put yourself first. Do what your heart is calling you to do.
by Caroline Leach | Apr 30, 2021 | Work/Life
As the pandemic wore on, I found myself working all the time. How about you?
It’s not a recipe for peak creativity. But I’m fortunate to have clients to coach, academic curriculum to develop, video scripts to write, marketing strategies to launch, and so on. The cognitive load kept growing.
What has helped? I’ve been taking purposeful breaks with completely different tasks. The restaurant my husband Kevin opened mid-pandemic needs fresh flowers every week (or maybe it doesn’t, but I’ve convinced myself they’re a necessity).
Every Tuesday, I absolutely love picking out freshly cut flowers and creating a new arrangement. I have little formal floral training, and that’s okay. The act of looking at beautiful colors, taking in the fragrant scents of fresh flowers, and trying different texture combinations is wonderfully relaxing.
What’s a creative pursuit for you?
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