Friday Review: Wonder
Is there space in your world for Wonder? Here are a few related posts you may have missed.
“You don’t have to lose something to be searching.”
Bask in the wonderment of being a conscious part of the universe.
Purpose is the reason you journey. Passion is the fire that lights your way.
“Purpose is the reason you journey. Passion is the fire that lights your way.”
—Anonymous
Image from Unsplash by Brett Jordan
Passion and purpose are definitely the one-two punch of success and achievement.
Having one without the other is often not enough for us to persist and stay the course.
Many of us feel the pull of purpose to begin our journeys only to be faced with dark times that slow us down or stop us completely.
To keep the lights on and the fires burning we need the inner flames of passion when we stumble.
Passion give us the strength and resilience to pick ourselves up and take the next step and the next.
EXERCISE:
How passionate and purposeful do you feel in your current personal and professional efforts?
How can you summon this powerful pair to punch through anything that may be standing in your way?
A vision is not just a picture of what could be
“A vision is not just a picture of what could be; it is an appeal to our better selves, a call to become something more.”
—Rosabeth Moss Kanter, professor of business at Harvard Business School
Image of the Methuselah Pine, from wikimedia.org
Did you know that many of the oldest and largest living things on the planet are trees?
The current record-holder for an individual, non-clonal tree is a great basin bristlecone pine from California, called Methuselah.
Through tree-ring cross referencing, it has been shown to be almost 5,000 years old.
Imagine yourself as this tree, living for five millennia.
Think of its skyward vision and continuous growth to become something more with each new branch and leaf.
EXERCISE:
What are some of your most powerful visions?
How do they appeal to your better self and call you to grow and become something more?
When angry, count to ten before you speak.
“When angry, count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.”
—Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States
Image from Unsplash by Piotr Miazga
Have you ever considered how similar anger is to a bowl of hot soup?
This past winter, we discovered that our grandkids love my homemade chicken soup. They love slurping up the noodles and then lifting the bowl to drink every last drop of goodness.
Teaching them to blow on their spoons and waiting until the soup cools on its own is a lesson they quickly learned!
How do you cool things off when tempers flare?
Counting to 10, 100, or more is a proven method to allow boiling emotions to subside and let a cooler head prevail.
EXERCISE:
What other chicken soup remedies do you use when faced with heated emotions?
Where and with whom would Jefferson’s counting technique prevent things from overheating in the first place?
Help others help you through courteous communication
Help others help you through courteous communication of your wants and needs. Don’t expect them to read your mind.
—Calm App Reflection
Image from Unsplash by Sander Sammy
The Amazing Kreskin — at the age of 89 — is still performing. His TV series in the 70’s was a big hit in both the U.S. and Canada. While conducting feats of mind reading, mind control, and clairvoyance, he never claimed to have any real psychic powers.
He is perhaps best known for allowing a member of his audience to secretly hide his paycheck for a performance somewhere in the theater. If he was unable to determine the location of the check through various mentalist techniques such as pulse reading, body language reading, and analyzing facial cues, he would not get paid for that performance.
EXERCISE:
Who in your life expects you to be the Amazing Kreskin?
With whom do you expect the same at home or at work?
Where would some simple, straightforward communication take away the mental mystery of what you want and need?
Friday Review: Winning
Friday Review: Winning
How do you define “winning”? Here are a few related posts you may have missed.
“There is nobility in the struggle; you don’t have to win.”
“You can’t win if you are not in the game.”
“Trust is earned when actions meet words.”
“Trust is earned when actions meet words.”
—attributed to a Chris Butler
Image from Unsplash by Ronda Dorsey
When I choose a quote for this blog I use a variety of criteria.
I always look for a message that strikes a chord with me, related to living a meaningful life.
A second thing I look for is a message that isn’t too wordy. Usually, a sentence or two is the goal.
A third factor is if the quote is catchy and has a rhyming component. If the message isn’t memorable, how can it provide the stickiness to have its wisdom stick beyond the initial reading?
EXERCISE:
How can and will you apply the rhyming words of today’s quote to build greater trust through your actions in your various communities?
If you have an extra minute, please reply to this post with one of your own favorite rhyming quotes.
“When faced with a problem, we can choose to wait on it or we can choose to work on it.”
“When faced with a problem, we can choose to wait on it or we can choose to work on it.”
—Stephen St. Amant, author of Savenwood
Image from Unsplash by Karla Hernandez
Taking the time to reflect and ponder on our problems can be a very useful exercise.
Turning our challenges over in our minds can offer us a wider range of perspectives, and ways forward.
At times when we are completely stumped it can be helpful to reach out to others for guidance and assistance.
Taking a wait and see period beyond a reasonable length of time creates a paralysis that can trickle into other areas of our lives.
This often leads to a genderized gridlock and significant loss of confidence and self-efficacy.
EXERCISE:
On what issue have you been waiting too long for your problem to somehow resolve on its own?
Where is it time to take greater initiative and get to work to break-through the obstacles facing you?
What’s the least I can teach that will be the most useful
“What’s the least I can teach that will be the most useful?”
—Michael Bungay Stainer, author of The Coaching Habit
Image from Unsplash by Kenny Eliason
My first career after graduating college was as a science teacher. My second career was as a pharmaceutical representative working with physicians and other medical professionals.
For the past thirty-two years, I’ve worked as a business and personal coach supporting individuals and organizations to reach higher and achieve more, personally and professionally. I suppose in many ways I’ve always been a teacher.
These days I am still a coach and teacher to my adult children and more recently as Pop-Pop to our two precocious and rambunctious grandchildren. Today’s quote is especially relevant for these little ones with their often limited attention spans.
EXERCISE:
Where in your life do you play the role of a teacher?
How would focusing on quality versus quantity in your wisdom sharing efforts make the biggest difference with the people you serve and support?
There are many paths to the same destination
There are many paths to the same destination. When one path is blocked, we simply choose another. How many WAZE are available to you at this moment?
—Calm App Reflection
Image from Unsplash by Brett Jordan
The other day I needed to drive from my home outside Philadelphia into the center city district during rush hour. Knowing this, I opened the WAZE app to determine when I needed to leave to provide me a safe margin of time to keep my white-knuckle stress to a minimum.
Although the bee-line distance was only around 25 miles, the time and turns it took was mind boggling.
In all my years, I had never seen the streets and neighborhoods that eventually took us to our destination.
EXERCISE:
How do you navigate your various paths through life when faced with roadblocks and detours?
What strategies do you use to reach your destinations when your usual routes are not available?