Tag Archives: Barry Demp Coaching

You have plenty of free time

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You have plenty of free time. You just need to find where it is hiding.

—Calm App Reflection

Image from Unsplash by Annie Spratt

What if time were like an Easter egg hunt? What if you could find an extra thirty minutes — or even an hour — with each extra egg you found? Consider going on an imaginary hunt in your mind and add the extra time to your base of 24 hours. With four extra eggs you could suddenly have 26 to 28 hours to work with and navigate your days with greater wiggle room. How would you spend it?

Of course, the rotation of the earth is not going to slow down any time soon. It’s clearly up to us to become better hunters to discover where pockets of time are hiding — often in plain sight.

EXERCISE:

To determine where your actual time is being spent, consider using a time log for the next few days. You can find a copy of this exercise in my Time Management Strategies and Tactics workbook, along with other tools to help you manage your time and energy.

As you apply these tools, please also consider the filtering words More, Less, Start, and Stop as guides to reallocate this hidden resource.

“I wish getting along with people was as simple as enjoying their food.”

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“I wish getting along with people was as simple as enjoying their food.”

—Valerie Bertinelli, Award-winning American actress

Image from Unsplash by Mae Mu

Consider the importance of food in your life. Chow down on this topic to examine how much it influences us beyond providing the nutrients to keep us alive.

How does food compare to the other essentials of water and air? What are the sensory experiences of each and how much pleasure and enjoyment do they offer? Food — and our rituals around it — provide us so much more than fulfilling a biologic need.

Although we sometimes find ourselves standing at the fridge eating alone, we most often seek out the company of others to deepen our bonds and create community. It is these bonds that we all need desperately to truly thrive.

EXERCISE:

When was the last time you attended a pot luck dinner where everyone brought a favorite dish to share? Consider hosting such a gathering in the coming weeks. I hope you enjoy many delicious dishes and the people that brought them!

 

“Your thoughts are bubbles waiting to be popped.”

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“Your thoughts are bubbles waiting to be popped.”

—Jon Kabat-Zinn, American professor emeritus of medicine

Image from Unsplash by Alex Alvarez

The other day I was refilling a soap dispenser at the kitchen sink. While pouring the liquid soap carefully into the opening a bubble formed, creating a dome-shaped barrier which caused the soap to spill over the counter. Until this bubble popped my efforts to continue filling the dispenser were thwarted. This happened a few times and given my level of impatience, I used my finger to pop these bubbles to get on with my task.

This routine chore got me thinking about how I used to read the comic strips in the Sunday paper, or eat a piece of Bubble Yum gum in my youth. How are your thoughts like bubbles of awareness? How long do these bubbles last and guide you successfully through your days?

EXERCISE:

How aware are you of your inner voice?  How many of your thoughts bubble up without your awareness? Where would greater mindfulness help you sustain the bubbles you want and pop the ones that don’t serve your best intentions?

“Look to greater minds than our own.”

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“Look to greater minds than our own.”

—Arthur C. Brooks, faculty member of the Harvard Business School

Image from Unsplash by jeshoots.com

What were your favorite subjects in school? In what areas did you excel and demonstrate significant mastery as you grew up? Who were the teachers, mentors, coaches, and family members who guided and supported your development? What resources guided them before they were there for you?

How fortunate we are these days that so much knowledge is available at the touch of a few buttons or keystrokes. How exciting it is that we are only moments away from tapping into the greatest minds of all time whenever we wish, and can stand on their shoulders if we choose.

EXERCISE:

To what extent have you taken full advantage of great minds to support your personal and professional efforts? Where and how can you, too, be a great mind to support future generations in the years ahead?

 We can be telescopes or microscopes

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We can be telescopes or microscopes. We sharpen the mind through focused attention.

—Calm App Reflection

Image from Unsplash by Jeff Nissen

Compared to other creatures in the animal kingdom our natural abilities to perceive our world can appear less than remarkable.

  • Dogs have 300 million scent-seeking receptors compared to six million for humans.
  • Bats navigate in the absence of light by sending out ultrasounds and can analyze the signals that bounce back.
  • Spiders construct sensory nets where their webs can capture the slightest vibrations.
  • Snakes and other reptiles are sensitive to infrared.
  • Bees and many birds are sensitive to ultraviolet.

Fortunately, we humans have a solid mix of sensory abilities and the wonderful capacity to expand them through the development of amazing technological innovations.

EXERCISE:

How and in what ways can you use your mind and focused attention to expand your perceptional abilities and interact more successfully with the world around you?

“The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.”

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“The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.”

—William Blake, 19th Century English poet

Image from Unsplash by Kim Turk

How thankful have your felt lately? What are the things you appreciate the most? Try rattling off a list or 10 or even 20 items that come to mind.

Did you have clean water and clean air on your list? How about nutritious food in adequate amounts?  What about having shelter and people who care about you?

Dig a little deeper into your list-making effort to determine your essentials. Notice your level of gratitude for the things many people don’t have or live in fear of going without.

It is puzzling to note many of us focus on what’s missing and our wants for more instead of being truly thankful for what we already have in great abundance.

EXERCISE:

Where and how can you be a far more thankful receiver?

Where and with whom could you be a more generous giver to support others in having a more plentiful harvest?

“Language exerts hidden power, like the moon on the tides.”

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“Language exerts hidden power, like the moon on the tides.”

—Rita Mae Brown, American feminist writer

Image from Unsplash by Kelly Sikkema

I have just finished reading the book Fundamentals — Ten Keys to Reality by Frank Wilczek.  Frank is a former winner of the Nobel Prize for physics and more recently was awarded the Templeton Prize.

As a former science teacher, I was drawn to this book to better help me understand how our universe works and how we as human beings fit into the big picture.

Examining the universe within each of us and our relationships to one another is at least as intriguing as the world of particles and forces that shape our world.

In many ways, it is even more challenging because there is no mathematical wizardry to describe them.

EXERCISE:

Where is the force of language exerting a pull on your personal tides?  How can you use it as a renewable energy source to power your life?

“The first thing to do is quit the belief that our lives go straight.”

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“The first thing to do is quit the belief that our lives go straight.”

—Bruce Feiler, American writer and television personality

Image from Unsplash by Martin Sanchez

Over the past weekend, I took several hours to watch a variety of documentaries. Each film included fascinating people who vividly demonstrated their assent to various remarkable achievements. None of their paths were even close to a straight line.

For me, it was actually the ups and down, zigs and zags, twists and turns that made their stories so engaging.

Where are things in your life not going exactly according to plan? Where are you facing detours and road blocks to your intended goals?

EXERCISE:

Consider watching the Netflix 2020 film The Alpinist to examine the path taken by Marc-Andre Leclerc.

How can you embrace and take your own unique routes to the top of your own personal and professional summits?

Mindfulness and concentration are interdependent

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Mindfulness and concentration are interdependent. Concentration is the magnifying glass and mindfulness is the light.

—Calm App Reflection

Image from Unsplash by Stephen Kraakmo

How fired up have you been feeling lately? Who are the people and what are the things that spark your interest and grab your attention? To what degree are you fully engaged and focused on aspects of your life that light up your heart and soul?

Think back to a time when you first used a magnifying glass. How long did it take you to learn that they could not only enlarge the objects you were viewing, but also focus the sun’s light to make fire?

How mindful are you as you go about your typical day?

What is the wattage of your awareness lighting your path?

How often do you take the time to truly concentrate on your relationships and daily activities to set your life ablaze?

EXERCISE:

Where and how could greater mindfulness and concentration fire up and brighten up your life?