Living purposefully is what I think of when I think of our next feature, David McNalley. He encourages leaders and individuals in his business and books to discover their brands and live purposefully. TransForm, a company founded by David McNalley, knows only purposeful individual and leaders build inspired organizations and iconic brands. He has many books and products that support the message of encouragement.
One book in which I was blessed to have a story published in, Even Eagle’s Need a Push, is full of encouraging stories to help all of us live aligned lives reaching our highest potential. At times we all need a push in our lives to help either get us on track, get us moving, get us soaring or even get us going in the right direction. Click on the banner below to see a short inspirational movie called The Push based on the book.
This message in his blog a few weeks back on living boldly speaks highly to his passion to help all of us soar in our lives.
It is now nearly fourteen weeks since I finished radiation and chemotherapy treatment for head and neck cancer. The prognosis for a complete cure is good. Week to week I get stronger and there is every reason to be optimistic that I shall live for many more years. But, I am not going to take any chances.
After nearly 65 years on this planet, there’s something about which I’m certain: You and I are not here to mark time. There is a force, a spirit, within each of us bursting to accomplish amazing things. For me, it is more than completing a “bucket list.” It is about the desire to be immersed in the life-giving process of creation, to be energized about future possibilities, to experience daily the joy of living life boldly.
My book, The Eagle’s Secret, poses several relevant questions to help in this quest:
What inspires me?
Who inspires me?
What do I value?
What fulfills me?
What do I feel called to do?
Join me in resolving not to take our lives for granted. We may have 24 years to live, 24 months, 24 days, 24 hours, 24 minutes or 24 seconds. We truly don’t know. Let us resolve that the headlines and purveyors of doom will not take away our imagination and dreams.
Let’s be generous in expressing our love and appreciation to those who are very important to our lives. Let’s make plans for experiencing or achieving that something we said we always wanted to do. Let’s everyday find a way to go above and beyond the call of duty, to provide exceptional value and service to those we work with and for.
George Bernard Shaw said: “I want to be thoroughly used up when I die.” Let us embrace those words so that every night we can go to bed affirming: This day I did not hold back – I lived boldly!
Janae Bower is an inspirational speaker, award-winning author and training consultant. She founded Finding IT, a company that specializes in personal and professional development getting to the heart of what matters most. She started Project GratOtude, a movement to increase gratitude in people’s lives.
It’s easy to think of the trainer as the leader–at least in the moment, but he or she is a leader in other ways, too–keyed to the human factor that makes the company work and its people resource rewarded and fulfilled. The trainer/leader listens to his audience and works with them. He or she teaches and guides them.
Sensei — It means “teacher or master” but it has an elevated status, something more akin to a leader–certainly a most experienced and learned one.
But who’s guiding and teaching the trainer/leader? Hopefully there is a mentor or supervisor who is aware of the work the trainer does in his department. Just as the leader has certain responsibilities to his people, the trainer also has a responsibility to check the work he or she is doing, and look for ways to improve it. He or she represents the operational side and the human side of the company at the same time–just as a leader, but it’s not as obvious.
The trainer is actually in a better position than the leader to influence workers because he or she is working at establishing a rapport and conveying information that will help them succeed. Spending time getting to know your people (your audience) as a leader is no different. With that comes, getting them to know you as leader. Doesn’t it make sense, the trainer is perceived the same way? Think, “sensei,” in Japanese. It means “teacher or master” but it has an elevated status, something more akin to a leader–certainly a most experienced and learned one.
Today, American business and industry have adapted the Japanese term. Sensei is often used to refer to an outside, third-party expert who coaches or advises on operational and organizational excellence.
Besides taking the glowing evaluations all to heart and blowing up one’s head, there is another simple solution. Leaders who do it constantly put themselves in a state of check–not checkmate, by reflection on how what they do affects others, both good and bad decisions. Just as the training evaluations don’t tell the whole story, neither do company numbers.
According the the Human Services Leadership Institute in its Effective Human Services Leader newsletter, “self-reflection enables you to evaluate your approach on a daily basis and look for opportunities to maximize employee, and department performance.” Why is it important? “Self-reflection is a critical skill used within the helping relationship.”
Self-reflection is one way that leaders can monitor and assess their own performance, and look for ways to improve. For the trainer, the process becomes a self-assessment tool that in one way can keep them from being too impressed with their own “press” and be constantly thinking about what works and what doesn’t with their trainees or charges.
The trainer is actually in a better position that the leader to influence workers because he or she is working at establishing a rapport and conveying information that will help them succeed.
The process for leaders is simple:
Be Aware of Your Behaviors
Always Assess Performance
Be Receptive
Trainers, keep in mind this is your behavior, your performance and your attention.
Be aware of your behaviors lest you forget you have some characteristics you’d like to change that you can change that will make you a more effective trainer. Be aware your behavior is constantly under scrutiny by those in your charge. You are the model right in front of them. They think company; they see you. They think boss or executives, they think you. If you are cold, inflexible, gruff, unpleasant, that is the example you are setting for trainee behavior upon his or her return to work. Does your manner affect your presentation style? Or is it somehow tied to what engages your audience?
You are the model right in front of them. They think company; they see you. They think boss or executives, they think you.
Always assess your performance, regardless of the evaluations. When you look at the evaluations, don’t mistake congeniality for efficiency; you learn nothing by looking too good to be true. Ask for honest appraisals in training. Read between the lines and look for items not addressed. The lack of a response, when there could be one, means maybe they did not want to give a negative response. However, don’t agonize over it all; self-reflection is merely a tool to ensure you are aware of each day’s performance and look for ways to improve.
Being receptive to criticism is key to improvement. Being receptive to praise doesn’t hurt either; it means you’re doing something right. Listening is important. Noting that maybe that’s a skill you could improve on (most of us need to) will gain you many points in the rapport department. Is your style bordering on pedagogy rather than andragogy when you really want the opposite? Are you facilitating learning or teaching subjects?
In the adult learning debate of andragogy versus pedagogy, the role of the trainer as leader is most obvious in the adult learning style, as opposed to the teacher who is viewed in a more authoritative mold. A trainer who works with adults is acting in a leadership role, facilitating self-learning, encouraging self analysis, and setting a standard for self evaluation.
Using self-reflection as a tool to assess the human factor, either for trainee, trainer or leader is beneficial to all.
If your interested, you can find other articles I have written on subjects other than training and development subjects on my website. Leave any comments here or there. Hey, why not follow me on Twitter? For a look at the human side of training from my Cave Man perspective, please check out my book, The Cave Man Guide to Training and Development. Happy training.
Citibank, like many others, was a victim of the recent flurry of computer hacking attacks that left customers confused and worried that their personal information and bank accounts were at risk. While several affected companies chose to focus on sending traditional paper mail statements regarding the attacks, Citibank went social, as described in this quote from a Walker Sands blog post by Meghan Reilly:
Like many other Citibank victims, I turned to Twitter to relieve some frustration. I composed a tweet about the fraudulent purchases on my credit card, and also mentioned my disappointment with Citibank’s fraud prevention efforts. Ten minutes later, I received a mention from @AskCiti, the official Twitter ID for Citi Customer Service:
“@MeghanReilly314, Saw ur tweet re: fraud & I’d like to ensure everything is being handled. Pls DM ur ph# & best time to talk.”
I was pleasantly surprised that Citibank was managing Twitter as a customer service and crisis management tool. This tweet immediately changed my perception of Citibank, as well as how I felt about the identity theft I experienced from their data breach. I was confident that everything would work out and Citibank had the attack under control.
Most people just want to know they’ve been heard. Taking to Twitter not only allows you to acknowledge this, but to move the conversation from public to private with ease, where you can then direct each issue individually, making for better service and more satisfied customers.
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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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After all they are supposed to be listening. For the trainees, it wouldn’t “look”good to their employers if they weren’t.
As a speech coach and trainer, I talk about knowing your audience, knowing your subject and knowing yourself. Audience feedback is very important, but I think my colleague, Vasco Gaspar, who writes on Communicating Effectively in My Bright Child, is right in that not everyone listens as well as they should; and that includes the trainer or speaker who should be well aware his trainees or audience could be faking it. After all they are supposed to be listening. For the trainees, it wouldn’t “look” good to their employers if they weren’t. So, maybe we, trainers and public speakers should pay particular attention?
We should also pay attention to our own listening abilities. So, it seems that this is a very good training topic. Often our trainees or our audiences look as though they are listening intently, but their minds are elsewhere. We do it, too. We put on the sincere face and nod appreciatively for a comment or a question, then go off on our own. Did we really listen? And I don’t mean just with our ears…or Gaspar thinks, and I agree.
He’s well qualified to talk about listening, having graduated with a degree in Psychology from the University of Coimbra (in Portugal) and has experience in Organizational Consulting, Training, Wellness and Innovation. He also studied more than a 100 authors of different fields and came up with ZorBuddha, a tool that is helping people in more than 45 countries to become more aware and positive. For more information about the author and his work, visit: http://zorbuddha.org/
As trainers, speakers and presenters, we should know better than anyone that we do not communicate with words only. That includes our audiences, too. Are we really listening to them as we present our material?
“We communicate in many different shapes and sizes – through gestures, glances, symbols, words, etc… Our society evolved because we were able to impart knowledge and create new one based on the existing one. Our education system is based on the assumption that information is being transmitted and, therefore, we learn to speak and to use language.”
Gaspar says there plenty of courses out there that “offer to train people to communicate in a better way but are generally focused only on the emitter of information and little or no responsibilities are assigned to the receiver.” Few, he says, focus on teaching us how to listen.
Would you believe we talk twice as much as we listen?
“Even in biological terms we have two ears and one mouth, but there are only few people who use these devices in that proportion.”Blank stares and distant looks give away that someone is not really listening to us but off in another world. Ever have someone in the audience say something totally off-the-wall and unrelated to what you were talking about. Not listening.
Gaspar says that’s because it “is related to the discrepancy between the verbal (or digital), dominated by the left side of our brain, and non-verbal language (or analog) decoded predominantly on the right side. Traditionally, women have a greater ability to repair these discrepancies, and are often said to be holding a 6th sense.”
Does that mean women listen better, or can fix it easier?
We have ways, my friends, of holding their attention hostage–or do we? Perhaps, first, we have to listen better ourselves.
Of course the real question that comes to mind–is what to do about it? We need to recognize that there are those trainees who will be somewhere in outer space instead of with us. Naturally, we want to bring them home. We have ways, my friends, of holding their attention hostage–or do we? Perhaps, first, we have to listen better ourselves.
The first step, Gaspar says, “is to be aware of our need to talk. Before doing so, ask yourself if what you are about to say:
Is really bringing value to the person or to the talk in general
Or is it just your need for attention, to want to “show up”
Or is it to cover the silence and the fear that it causes.”
He says that this is the time to listen. I never thought about it this way, but you have to “dominate” the will to speak. That’s a hard one isn’t it? But then, everyone wants to talk–even to “cover the silence.” Ever talk to someone who says, “I know what you mean,” and he or she does before you have finished. That person has been aware of the other signals you are sending and deduces where you are going. Or, the person who you are speaking with just looks blankly waiting or asking for verbal clarification when you think it should be obvious. Patiently you explain, while wondering why you have to.
It seems not all of us are wired to do more than just hear the words–that is to also listen recognizing tone, gestures and posture as communication devices; however for us trainers, speakers, and even actors, it is critical to reading our audience. Think about it. If you find you are not a good listener, and I don’t mean getting every detail or word that is spoken but the meaning–maybe there is room for improvement.
“…It would be wise then…’to listen’ to the advice of your body as it may be giving you some kind of clue about the precious message from the other person.”
Gaspar also says it’s important to hear our own bodies. It’s all about neurons sending information to the brain.
“Did you know that we have in our intestines the equivalent amount of neurons that exist in the brain of a cat? And that our heart also has an independent network of neurons, sending information to the brain even more than they receive from it? It would be wise then, the next time when you feel some tightness in the stomach or a stab in the heart when you talk to someone, to ‘listen’ to the advice of your body as it may be giving you some kind of clue about the precious message from the other person.”
He says other indicators are related to the movement of blood. It’s that brain of ours telling us something is happening, sending the blood rushing and preparing our body for action. This should be a clue.
Know your audience, know your subject and know yourself. My mantra. Listening affects all three. We need to be aware of our audience and their ability or inability to listen to us and look for the signs. We won’t know our subject very well if we didn’t listen in preparing our presentation. And, if we know ourselves, we will feel, sense, see the signals and listen beyond the words.
“If you…really want to hear each other, then stop talking for a moment (even inside your brain), listen to his/her words, his/her tone of voice and to his/her body language and, above all, listen to YOURSELF. Be fully present to the other, giving him/her one of the most precious things that you have: your attention. Do not expect or look out for anything. Just listen, be totally present. This is how you will actually hear something new.”
I remind you that the comments (with the inspiration of Vasco Gaspar) are my own and not necessarily the opinion of The Free Management Library. Please take time to comment and let us know what you think. Don’t want to do it here, comment on my website, where I talk about topics other than training and development like communication and theatre. If you are in need of a training developer, designer or manager or just a trainer or a speaker, let me know. Be sure to check out my book, The Cave Man’s Guide to Training And Development now available. Happy training. And, please take my ideas with you.
Managers often ask, usually with exasperation, “How can I keep my employees motivated, and why do I have to worry about it? I pay them decently.”
Offering competitive salaries is certainly important, but that’s what gets them in the door. What keeps them engaged and committed to your team or organization is more than money – it’s the day-to-day ‘stuff’ like respect, trust, fairness and good feelings about themselves and their work. Here are 7 ways to keep them motivated and energized.
1. Don’t play favorites. People make judgments about what they see in the workplace. Are promotions fair? Is low performance dealt with quickly? Is their equal treatment for the top floor as well as the shop floor? If the answer is no in their eyes (regardless of the ‘truth’ of the matter – it’s their perspective) then this perceived unfairness will stand in the way of their giving of themselves fully to the job or project.
2. Share the limelight. When credit and compliments come your way, spread them around to all who helped. Let Sally or Joe or the team accept the award rather than just you. And, if you think you’re solely responsible for that honored achievement, think again.
3. Meet them on their turf. While you may be more comfortable meeting with staff in your office, it’s more valuable to meet occasionally where they are located. Leadership is not about your comfort, but that of your people. The symbolic value of seeing you mingling with the troops improves trust. General Patton used this effectively and won many a battle by the loyalty his troops had for him.
4. Break bread together. Have an informal breakfast or lunch once a month with a group of workers to find out what’s on their mind. Or grab something at the cafeteria, plop yourself down at a table and say: “So, how’s things going in your area?” While you may hear some groaning, you will also hear about frustrations that are hindering performance. Listen, acknowledge and then do something about these glitches. Acting on problems goes a long way.
5. Follow-through. DWYSYGD Effective managers remember the promises they make, take the appropriate course of action, and let their staff know what’s been done. If you tell Mary that you are going to check on something for her, do it. And if you don’t intend to do something, never say you will. Your credibility will go down each time people’s expectations are unmet.
6. Truly encourage and ask for their ideas. Ask everyone to come to the next staff meeting with two questions or two improvement ideas. This opens up two-way communication real quickly. Listen intently, clarify and then follow-up each question or idea. If you maximize employee input, you will get a more productive and committed workforce.
7. Communicate the good, the bad, and even the ugly. When you’re on an airplane and it encounters turbulence or the flight is delayed, you want to know what’s going on. Not knowing makes you nervous. Employees also want to know what’s going – what’s causing the bumpy ride. If people don’t understand, anxiety mounts, trust declines, rumors fly and motivation is shot to heck. The next thing you see is morale plummeting and work not getting done.
Management Success Tip
Catch people doing something right. Sincere appreciation is powerful stuff — it’s feedback, recognition, and respect all wrapped in one. Saying thanks has become a lost art in the frenetic world of ‘24/7.’ It’s a morale booster that costs nothing but goes a long way in helping people put forth more effort. If the little things are done right, then big results will follow.
Do YOU know how to lead right – motivate right – hire right – get the right results?
I just finished blogging at MarionConway.com about giving your website a facelift this summer. That article included some basic design advice and some quick and easy ideas that you don’t have to wait to implement. As I sometimes do, this is a companion article and if you like this one I suggest you read It’s Summer – Give Your Website a Quick Facelift at my other blog.
This article is about the importance of knowing as much about your website as possible from an user perspective and putting that information to work. There are lots of SEO (that’s search engine optimization) experts and articles. I am not an expert and this article isn’t about SEO – well not really. I promise not to use any jargon without explaining what I am talking about.
When I lead social media for nonprofit workshops I always start by talking about how your website is your base and you have to start there and get your website in order before you develop a strong social media presence. The reason for this is that much of what you want to do with social media is drive people to your website where they can learn more about you and upcoming events, sign up for your newsletter and, of course, donate.
But how do people find you on the web? Do you know? You should know. It is easy enough to find out. Check the analytics for your website. The what? Yes, your website almost certainly has analytics but if your webmaster is the only one who knows about it it doesn’t do any good. Most platforms that websites are built on have statistics reporting built in. These statistics about your users are called analytics. You can also use my favorite, Google Analytics. Google analytics can very easily be added to your website by adding a simple script – and it is free. Your webmaster can do this in less than five minutes. Analytics programs tell you all sorts of useful information such as:
-How many visitors you have each day, week, month and year
-Cities, states and countries your visitors come from
-Referring sites – Other websites that have a link to your website and someone clicked on that link
-Search words/phrases that people typed in and your website came up in search and they visited the site
-What was the landing page – not just the home page – that the visitor reached when they first came to your site
-Who was the service provider – Frequently this may just be something like Verizon. But it can also be the name of a foundation or company if they host their own website.
This information is crucial for nonprofits and small business to understand their website from a visitor’s point of view. Not everyone comes directly to your site. Its possible that a significant percentage of your visitors come via other routes and you should know about it.
Another question is your website coming up when people search on certain words and you hope the find you?
What You Might Find Out This is an exercise that I do live with workshop participants – when we are in a room with wifi. Type into Google search words that you would like your website to come up for. Examples might be “Shakespeare NJ” and indeed the Shakespeare Theater of NJ comes up first. But when I type in homeless shelters NJ, HUD articles, and newspaper articles come up before any actual homeless shelters. Then a few well known ones begin to appear. But some of the biggest ones do not appear. They needs to use the words that people search on more frequently on their websites – and especially in article headings.
Maybe people are landing on a page that should be getting more attention and updating.
Where is your traffic coming from anyway – Is it from facebook? LinkedIn? Is it from your partner websites? Did someone mention you on the web or highlight a link in a news article? These sources should be thanked and perhaps there is the opportunity to return the favor.
Understanding what makes you website visitors tick when it comes to your website can be very valuable information. Don’t leave this information behind.
All companies in an industry can use the same technologies, build the same buildings — so really the differentiating factor in business is the people in a company.
Hiring, training and motivating employees is key to making your company distinctively superior.
1. Hiring. Be patient and hire the employees that are the best fit for the position and your company. Ensure the skills and motivation to succeed are there. Require references from a former boss, peer and director report, if applicable. Very importantly, check the references yourself. This ensure continuity between the interview and the references.
2. Training.
Offer company orientation, with basic information on the company, as well as how business is done by the organization.
Train on required, special or specific technical knowledge. For more senior positions, provide an on-boarding sheet listing the basic knowledge needed, and ask employees to initial when they have found and understood the information.
3. Coaching. Pay attention to the strengths and weaknesses of employees. Be a cheerleader on their strengths and accomplishments. Help them figure out how to shift the paradign on the weaknesses so they become strengths. For example, being quiet is not a strength in sales – however, listening is key to selling effectively.
4. Set the tone for a fun, human work environment.
Have some fun on the job. Some moments of lightness
Keep the interactions human; have a heart. Take a genuine interest in your folks. Caring goes further than knowing in so many ways.
Help your employees succe. Let them do their job, and give them the support and resources they need. Be sure they are recognized when you reap the benefits.And do not throw them under the bus.
Arrange some informal, outside activities: bowling, lunch off-site. I even know an HR Manager who used to take employees to breakfast after an early meeting. These events allow us to get to know each other beyond work, as people, which helps to build trust.
5. Throw down a positive, achievable challenge.
Your competitors are the real challenge but some friendly internal competition can get the juices flowing. Try competitions with low stake awards, such as taking the winners or team to lunch.
Be sure that any compensation, evaluations are tied to achievable goals – or the goals will cease to motivate.
As the pace of change in the workplace continues to increase, managing the many disruptions in our lives is one of the most important tasks in managing our careers.
The Challenge of Change Although we don’t always like to admit it, we seek and want control. We use our past experiences to establish expectations about how things in our life are likely to happen. These expectations provide a sense of control, comfort and confidence.
Change is challenging precisely because it disrupts our expectations – it creates a new reality that doesn’t match the expectations we have created. This causes us to feel a loss of control – a loss of comfort – and a loss of confidence. Sometimes we adapt well and sometimes we don’t!
The Solution is Personal Resilience Of all the factors that contribute to adapting to change, the single most important factor is resilience- the capacity to absorb high levels of change and maintain high levels of performance. When resilient people face, rather than ignore, the ambiguity and the anxiety around change, they tend to grow stronger from their experiences rather than feel depleted by them. They use their “change muscles” to stay focused, flexible and proactive!
10 Tips to Build Your Change Muscles
Recognize that change is here to stay.
Understand that loss of control is at the heart of change.
Reach out to others for resources, perspective and support.
Know your orientation to change. Is it danger or opportunity?
Become more conscious of your own response to change. Is it a fight or flight?
Know your quota for change before it becomes overwhelming. How much and what kind?
Expect the unexpected so that you are rarely surprised that you are surprised.
Be ready for resistance, whether change is viewed as positive or negative.
Hold your focus on long-term goals and priorities not short term hiccups.
Be open to getting new things done and getting things done in new ways.
Career Success Tip:
The payoff for increased resilience is strong for both organizations and individuals. Organizations benefit from being able to implement changes more quickly and effectively, which gives them a competitive advantage. Individuals benefit from being able to achieve their own goals in the midst of uncertainty with less wasted energy, leading to greater productivity and greater satisfaction.
What can you do right now to build your change muscles? What can you do right now to build your organization’s change muscles?
A recent email asked:
“Do you have an article or statement on what is the standard “special event fundraising equation” used to determine financial success? Obviously, one would set a goal, and if that goal is set, you have been successful. Raising awareness and “making friends” is priceless. But, is there a basic non-profit formula goal such as ‘for every dollar spent to organize, coordinate, market, and produce the event, you would hope to raise two dollars?’”
=================== Sadly, there is no “Special Event Fundraising Equation.”
The cost per dollar raised, or return on investment, is dependent on a number of factors. Since those factors have been addressed in prior postings*, I’ll keep it simple. (See: Special Events)
The first time, or even the first couple of times an organization runs an event, they’d be lucky to break even. Only after an NPO’s community/constituency is familiar with the event can there be any assurance that there will be a sufficient number of people interested in the event and willing to attend.
Over the years, as the event becomes a “tradition.” and the organization knows what works and what doesn’t, do the costs and income become predictable.
As the event “matures,” the gap between costs and “profit” increases. A fully mature event can generate two, three, even four times its cost … but that does not happen overnight.
As to setting a goal for an event, you can only do that after you’ve had a number of years of experience with that event. Setting a goal in the first couple of years would be an exercise in wishful thinking or in self-delusion. And remember, you only set a goal when you KNOW you can reach it. Failure to attain a fundraising goal sends a wrong message to your current and future donors.
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Have a comment or a question about creating or expanding your special event? Ask Natalie Shear. With over 30 years in conference and event planning, she can help you turn your vision into reality.
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Have you seen Natalie’s ebook on Special Events ??
In various Celtic traditions Aug. 1st is celebrated as Lammas, a designation of the first harvest. This holiday marks the mid-point between the Summer Solstice and the Fall Equinox. Lammas is often symbolized by threshing wheat or baking loaves of bread.
This day is also the Gaelic festival of Lughnasadh and the medieval Anglo-Saxon Feast of the first fruit. This time was designated by Pope Gregory as the celebration of the Transfiguration of Christ on Aug. 6th (combining the pagan celebration of the wheat and making of bread to include the breaking of bread and communion in the Christian tradition).
For many of us in the northern hemisphere, this is the ‘heat of the summer’, a time for vacations and family gatherings. While many of us in industrial nations may not pay attention to harvest celebrations, it’s worth taking time to reflect on work and play.
Lammas rituals can take many forms, but the general theme is honoring what you have planted and now begin to harvest. Lammas represents a time for gathering up what you’ve planted in the spring or early summer that is now coming to fruition. This year Lammas has a keener significance for me as I just sold my house last week and have harvested the pay-off of my mortgage.
As I reflected on my home sale, I realized that it had been 9 months since I moved out of the house and stored most of my things, leaving only a few things over the winter for a house sitter to use. Of course the nine month period also had significance as it’s been a gestation period for me- to see what would be birthed in my new location. It’s felt like a long and challenging time to determine my next direction for work.
I’m keenly aware of the planting of seeds in my new location this spring (networking, sending out resumes, re-designing my website, joining various professional groups), the waiting (for emails and phone calls to be returned, for contracts to come together), the harvesting (of funds from my home sale, my website revision, and publishing my second book). I’m celebrating that harvest and long nine month gestation period by going to the beach.
What have you planted this year that you are seeing come to fruition?
What do you still want to plant so that you can harvest it later in the year?
How do you tend, water and nourish your work, your co-workers, your clients?
What have you harvested that you want to celebrate?
Now is a good time to take stock of how your year is unfolding, to examine what adjustments you need to make so that you can harvest and enjoy the fruits of your labor.
Do you want to work more on some things and less on others?
Have you spent the time on the things that are important to you?
How are you progressing on the goals you set at the beginning of the year?
May this season of mid-summer be a time for reflection, celebration, adjusting, and initial harvesting.
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