Thursday, July 23, 2009
Got there!
Patience pays off if we use the time to persist in our pursuit of what we truly want to do...and achieve. It's mid-summer and I am looking ahead to a fall of work that includes teaching at the local college. Only by saying "No thank you" to offers that popped up along the way have I been able to say "Yes thank you" to the one offer I've been waiting for. It takes real guts to turn down work, but the payoff is real joy - and it's worth waiting for. The biggest challenge is maintaining confidence in yourself and staying focused on your long-term goal. Now THAT'S a full-time job!
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Open space with NO
I've been reminded recently of the power of saying NO, even when the offer seems positive. Sometimes we have to say NO to firmly close one door in order to keep another wide open. In these days of seemingly limitless options (even despite the recession), saying NO is a vital skill. Only when we can say NO with intention can we say YES with equal intention. If we only ever say yes...to work, to contracts, to new experiences...we deprive ourselves of experiencing the difference between duty and desire, between reaction and action, between living our life and creating our life.
Give it a try. Say NO to something today and see what happens in your head and your heart. It may surprise you!
Thursday, February 19, 2009
4-legged family members
Ah the joy of having cats. Let me count the ways:
1. purrs of contentment when held in one's arms
2. food dishes licked clean
3. bright little eyes watching the BarnYarn toy about to be tossed
4. body curled tight against my leg
Oh the frustration of having cats. Let me count the ways:
1. waking schedules that precede dawn
2. fussiness with food flavours
3. desire to be outside when inside is the rule
1. purrs of contentment when held in one's arms
2. food dishes licked clean
3. bright little eyes watching the BarnYarn toy about to be tossed
4. body curled tight against my leg
Oh the frustration of having cats. Let me count the ways:
1. waking schedules that precede dawn
2. fussiness with food flavours
3. desire to be outside when inside is the rule
4. limbs flailing at nail clipping time
And yet, our 4-legged ones make me laugh and make me love.
So it goes with cats. As with humans.
Joys. Frustrations.
Life in all its richness.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
social media
You might call me a reluctant adopter...I was dragged screaming away from my electric typewriter to the new computer back in the mid-80s. Why did I need all that fancy stuff? Wasn't the two-line erase function on my typewriter as sophisticated as it needed to get? Of course, once I started using the computer for my writing work, I never looked back. Today, it's social media tools I'm being pulled towards - and the more I explore them, the more I "get" the power and purpose. I'm still just dabbling in the mainstream of Facebook and this blog, but I GET how online communication tools change how we connect, relate and communicate. Who knows? Maybe I'll soon be twittering with the best of them!
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Time without shape
Having time is not the same as having balance. I had all the time in the world in December but spent most of that time gnashing my teeth about the lack of work on my desk. In the end, the month passed and the time was used, but I felt frustrated more than fulfilled.
As a business owner, it's essential be fully in charge not only of my time, but also of the shape I give that time. Hours and minutes are just that - hours and minutes. Time becomes meaningful only when I shape those hours and minutes into productive endeavour. Doing so with conscious effort, with intention - that's the way to 'have a good day'.
I've come to realize that lists are my friend. Make a list. Follow the list. Check off the items. Move through the day by following the shape of it the list supplies.
Lesson learned. Lists on every surface. Discipline exerted. Time has shape. Shape gives meaning.
Have a well-shaped day, my friends!
As a business owner, it's essential be fully in charge not only of my time, but also of the shape I give that time. Hours and minutes are just that - hours and minutes. Time becomes meaningful only when I shape those hours and minutes into productive endeavour. Doing so with conscious effort, with intention - that's the way to 'have a good day'.
I've come to realize that lists are my friend. Make a list. Follow the list. Check off the items. Move through the day by following the shape of it the list supplies.
Lesson learned. Lists on every surface. Discipline exerted. Time has shape. Shape gives meaning.
Have a well-shaped day, my friends!
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Lessons from a Thriver
The anniversary has passed and I am somewhat amazed to realize that I have survived it. Indeed I am beyond that. I am thriving. It’s been more than 365 days now since I have received a salaried pay cheque. And still there is (good) food in the fridge, gas in the car’s tank, and the newspaper on my doorstep every morning. It’s a wonder.
Or is it?
The news that my employment was terminated was shocking, but not entirely unexpected. I had felt that change was in the air at my workplace and I had no reason to believe that I would be immune from the impact of that change. So, the meeting with HR happened, the severance package was explained, and I was out the door – all within less than an hour of arriving at the office that morning.
In reviewing how I got here from that Friday one year ago, I see that I’ve learned some valuable survival lessons that are worth sharing.
1. Be sensible. Give yourself time to grieve the loss of your job and your professional identity. Then get over it and get on with creating your future. Your severance won’t last forever!
2. Be active in your body and your mind will follow. Get your blood moving and your synapses firing. Now is the time for action not lassitude. Join that fitness club like you’ve always intended. I did and now go swimming (almost regularly) in the early afternoon. (It’s lovely imagining ex-colleagues stuck at their desks while I’m doing laps!)
3. Be visible; be heard. Don’t hide out at home. Talk to your friends, your family, your professional advisors about the change in your life, and ask them to help you in your quest for a new future.
4. Create a new professional identity for yourself. You are no longer a title in a box on a company’s org chart. You are your own person forging a new path.
5. Make your new identity tangible. Print up business cards and forget the fancy title. Instead, describe the skill and service you’re offering. I chose “clear thinking / clear communication” to describe my writing and editing work.
6. Invest in yourself to advertise your new identity. Change your hairstyle, buy some new clothes, and sport a confident attitude (some days, of course, it's easier than others).
7. When you want things to be different, you have to do different things. I taught myself to play the harmonica. I swear it opened up new pathways in my brain that helped me see myself - and my options - differently.
8. Network like crazy. The theory of six degrees of separation is never more evident than when you’re looking for new opportunities. You will be surprised how one connection leads to a second and builds a bridge to a third…and so on.
9. Build a database of contacts. Mine it. Work it. Update it.
10. Don’t waste time or energy pursuing contacts who aren’t interested in what you’re offering. Move on.
11. Don’t take rejection personally. It’s a fact of life. Those of us actively engaged in changing our lives experience it more frequently than those who take an easier path.
12. Be strategic about whom you go to for what in your circle of support. Prepare yourself for disappointment from those of whom you expected the most. Not everyone will understand (or have the energy for) the ups and downs you’ll go through.
13. You are your own best champion. Learn how to pick yourself up and get on with your agenda under your own steam.
14. Believe in yourself. You can do it. Thousands before you have. Thousands after you will.
Since that Friday morning a lot has happened for me. I went back to school and am now entering my second year of a Master’s program in applied communication at Royal Roads University. My brain is on fire with new ideas, concepts and ways of approaching organizational, interpersonal and intercultural communication. I have a stable of clients for whom I provide a valuable service with my writing and editing, and I am embarking on a new partnership with a colleague I met at Royal Roads.
If you had told me a year ago that I would be flying high today and launching a new business opportunity, I would have been skeptical. But that's what I'm doing. And in that fact lies the proof that when we get presented with a pile of lemons, it really is most profitable to churn them into juice. The sourness is only in our minds. And that glass? It really is always half full.
----------------
written Oct. 1, 2005
Or is it?
The news that my employment was terminated was shocking, but not entirely unexpected. I had felt that change was in the air at my workplace and I had no reason to believe that I would be immune from the impact of that change. So, the meeting with HR happened, the severance package was explained, and I was out the door – all within less than an hour of arriving at the office that morning.
In reviewing how I got here from that Friday one year ago, I see that I’ve learned some valuable survival lessons that are worth sharing.
1. Be sensible. Give yourself time to grieve the loss of your job and your professional identity. Then get over it and get on with creating your future. Your severance won’t last forever!
2. Be active in your body and your mind will follow. Get your blood moving and your synapses firing. Now is the time for action not lassitude. Join that fitness club like you’ve always intended. I did and now go swimming (almost regularly) in the early afternoon. (It’s lovely imagining ex-colleagues stuck at their desks while I’m doing laps!)
3. Be visible; be heard. Don’t hide out at home. Talk to your friends, your family, your professional advisors about the change in your life, and ask them to help you in your quest for a new future.
4. Create a new professional identity for yourself. You are no longer a title in a box on a company’s org chart. You are your own person forging a new path.
5. Make your new identity tangible. Print up business cards and forget the fancy title. Instead, describe the skill and service you’re offering. I chose “clear thinking / clear communication” to describe my writing and editing work.
6. Invest in yourself to advertise your new identity. Change your hairstyle, buy some new clothes, and sport a confident attitude (some days, of course, it's easier than others).
7. When you want things to be different, you have to do different things. I taught myself to play the harmonica. I swear it opened up new pathways in my brain that helped me see myself - and my options - differently.
8. Network like crazy. The theory of six degrees of separation is never more evident than when you’re looking for new opportunities. You will be surprised how one connection leads to a second and builds a bridge to a third…and so on.
9. Build a database of contacts. Mine it. Work it. Update it.
10. Don’t waste time or energy pursuing contacts who aren’t interested in what you’re offering. Move on.
11. Don’t take rejection personally. It’s a fact of life. Those of us actively engaged in changing our lives experience it more frequently than those who take an easier path.
12. Be strategic about whom you go to for what in your circle of support. Prepare yourself for disappointment from those of whom you expected the most. Not everyone will understand (or have the energy for) the ups and downs you’ll go through.
13. You are your own best champion. Learn how to pick yourself up and get on with your agenda under your own steam.
14. Believe in yourself. You can do it. Thousands before you have. Thousands after you will.
Since that Friday morning a lot has happened for me. I went back to school and am now entering my second year of a Master’s program in applied communication at Royal Roads University. My brain is on fire with new ideas, concepts and ways of approaching organizational, interpersonal and intercultural communication. I have a stable of clients for whom I provide a valuable service with my writing and editing, and I am embarking on a new partnership with a colleague I met at Royal Roads.
If you had told me a year ago that I would be flying high today and launching a new business opportunity, I would have been skeptical. But that's what I'm doing. And in that fact lies the proof that when we get presented with a pile of lemons, it really is most profitable to churn them into juice. The sourness is only in our minds. And that glass? It really is always half full.
----------------
written Oct. 1, 2005
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Opening gambit
Deep plunge into cyberspace today. Why not? I write. I edit. I communicate for my clients. So, this site is where I'll communicate for my self! Stay tuned for thoughts from a clear thinker...
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