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?
by Caroline Leach | Mar 31, 2021 | Leadership, Work/Life
What do you really, really want?
Not what you think others want you to want. Not what you believe is socially acceptable to want. Not what you think you’re capable of achieving.
No, what do you really want?
This is one of the most important questions any of us can contemplate. It’s a question that’s often at the heart of a coaching journey.
You don’t have to know how to get what you want. Once you know what you want, you’ll figure out the how. Step by step and day by day.
You’ll become more attuned to opportunities that could help you move forward. You’ll become more discerning about what to decline, because it doesn’t serve your larger vision.
Now that we’re one quarter of the way through 2021, it’s a good time to pause and reflect. How is your year going so far? Is it what you intended? And what do you really want?
by Caroline Leach | Feb 28, 2021 | Social Media
We’re at about the one-year mark for our stay-at-home lives to stop Covid-19. There’s light of the end of the tunnel. People are wearing masks and socially distancing. Case positivity rates are dropping. More vaccine doses are becoming available.
And yet there’s also a sense of extreme fatigue. Time has taken on odd proportions. Days blend into nights. Days becomes weeks. Weeks become a year.
As I contemplated the month of March, a feeling of sameness crept in. All I saw on the calendar was work, work, and more work. Don’t get me wrong. I love the work. And I’m thankful to have it.
But life is not solely about work. It’s about people. It’s about enjoyment. It’s about the journey.
What was missing from my calendar were all of those times. Time with friends. Time for fun. Time to simply BE.
It’s time to take a break already. As humans we’re wired to work, play, and rest. When it gets out of balance, everything suffers.
What’s a fun break you will take today?
by Caroline Leach | Jan 31, 2021 | Leadership, Work/Life
Life can be endlessly complex, no? More technology, more commitments, and more goals and dreams. Layered over that is a global pandemic, climate change, social justice, and political polarization. It can make life feel especially heavy.
When overwhelm rears its head, as it often does, one question can help. It isn’t to imply that the challenges any of us faces are easy, or simple, or straightforward. But in any given moment, asking “what would made it simple?” can help you identify new ways to take action.
This blog is an example. I’ve posted to it each month for the last six years. There’s a phenomenon about “not breaking the chain.” Once you do something repeatedly, you accrue “check marks,” day after day, or month after month. As you rack up more check marks, it provides its own momentum to keep going. This is not my original idea, but it resonates with me.
So here it is, the last day of January. If I do not post to my blog by midnight, I will break the chain of 72 months of posting. Usually my posts are 500 or more words in length. But I don’t have 500 words to share right now. Life is busy and complex. So how can I make it easy? By sharing this question with you.
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