The way things are. An excerpt from The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander & Ben Zander: The practice... is to be present to the way things are, including our feelings about the way things are. This practice can help us clarify the next step that will take us in the direction we
"It takes that long?" A baby takes 9 months to take birth. A book takes at least an year or two to come out. A movie might take longer. When we seek advice, validation, consolation from others, consider whether they have done something similar themselves. Anyone who doesn’t understand the process might question
Creating the conditions for lightness. Lightness allows us to play, to experiment, to test, to move forward. Lightness requires letting go of outcomes, expectations and shoulds. We can create the conditions for lightness with intent.
Driving in the wrong direction... ...is better than not even leaving the house because you are waiting for the right direction.
The comfort trap. The driving force for many profit seeking businesses is comfort. Not resting, which is satiable, but comfort, which is insatiable. It creeps up on us as we start making exceptions. One more episode, one more reel, one more drink. Sooner or later, we get stuck in the trap. We start
Beyond "not enough" "Not enough" is a story. Even though we may not see it that way. The story plays like this: if this happens, I will be enough. If I earn this much, if I weigh this much, if I start dating this person, if I get this job, and
You did well. Three words that can change everything. When the critical voice is taking over, someone you trust telling you, “you did well” is enough to help you start coming back to being your best self. And sometimes we can choose to tell this to our self too.
In the face of no. We can have the agency of reframing it as "not yet". We can learn and change and grow. We can earn enrollment by engaging with possibility. Or we can choose to move on. An excerpt from The Art of Possibility: A “no” can so often dampen our fire
Active letting go. Letting go is perceived to be a passive activity. It is not. It has to be done with intent and it’s an active process.
Past or future? Decisions can lead to forward motion, but only if, we gather the courage to focus on where we seek to go. We can choose to travel light and carry what we need to become what we seek to become. Is your decision making based on where you are coming from
Leaving stuff behind. While shifting homes, we can choose to leave behind the stuff we don't use. Not only would we avoid paying the carrying cost for moving, but also the cost (emotional, physical, mental) of keeping them in the new place. A similar decision is on offer for us every
It costs too much. Mostly we say these words in terms of money. Sometimes we say that for time. Rarely do we say them for energy and emotional labour. It's the last one that almost always ends up being the constraint.
I'll figure it out. Seth shared a profound four-word advice in his blog today. Four-word adviceWhen there’s a complex situation that feels foreboding, you might need a manual, a coach and even a system to move forward. Or, it’s possible you simply need someone to tell you, “…Seth's
The trap of "killing two birds with one stone" First, we might need a better, kinder idiom. But, more importantly, this rarely works. Trying to achieve two objectives at once means that we are going to compromise on both. When a project, activity or interaction has a clear "what's it for?", we can make it
A strategic reframe. The strategy we’ve defaulted into might not be the strategy that would take us where we seek to go. To find a better strategy, we need to be prepared to walk away from the one we’ve defaulted into. ~ Seth Godin, This Is Strategy
Low battery mode. When the body and mind are tired, we can't expect ourselves to do emotional heavy-lifting and make hard decisions. What we need instead is to be kind to ourselves and give ourselves the space to recover and recharge. This also requires us to do it with intent. Given
Choose your story. Excerpt From The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander & Ben Zander: It's all invented. A shoe factory sends two marketing scouts to a region of Africa to study the prospects for expanding business. One sends back a telegram saying, SITUATION HOPELESS STOP NO ONE WEARS SHOES
Becoming a professional project manager. Whether you are creative, artist, freelancer or entrepreneur, your work requires you to manage projects. Projects are not jobs. They don't work if you just keep showing up and doing the tasks and chores that are on your plate. Projects require you to define who's it
Better together. Emotional labour is challenging. It's challenging because it brings about self-doubt, imposter syndrome and perfectionism. Resistance does not like emotional labour. It knows quite well that this is how change happens with intent. What helps is to create the conditions where we feel safe enough to focus and
Good decision. Bad outcome. Can you think of a good decision you made that led to a bad outcome? What made the decision a good decision? What makes a decision a good decision? It can't be that a good decision is one that leads to a good outcome. You can never be
Fear by another name. I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the
Is the status quo good enough? If the answer is no, then what needs to change? Can we be specific? And how can we create the conditions for it to change? Are we willing to be on the hook? Are we willing to risk failing? Because as Seth says, if there's no chance for
The irony of letting go. Letting go of things that make us anxious requires emotional labour. That anxiety is most likely caused by things we have little agency over. When we choose to let go, it allows us to focus on the things where we have agency. Ironically, this leads us to have better chances
