What Matters

Reminded today that it's not just what you know, its who you know.  It's who you associate with... Who you spend time with.  Its making time to connect with friends.  On good days and bad.  It can be easy in this hyper-connected world to feel like you know what's going on for them as you glimpse their feed... but we don't. 

Nothing can replace a conversation with a friend.  The power of connecting with someone who knows you and cares for you.  Who you know and care for.  The power of a friend.

Which friend can you connect with today?

You need to Name it to Tame it.  Whether you’re peeking under the corner of your mental rug where you’ve swept your stuff or you’re diving into the deep end to swim through your stuff... before you move forward, before you accept or embrace it, before you work through it... you need to label it. 

 Name it. By giving it a name, you can start to work on it.

Until then it’s just a mess. The name can be one you give or it can be one you recognise when you are learning from others, and then apply to yourself. The name may evolve over time as you...

Some days are tougher than others.  Some days are slower than others.

Take the win!  Every win.  Even the small ones.

Take the moment.  Breathe it in.  Look around.

Take the win.

Small wins don’t always announce themselves the way big wins do.

Small wins can be easy to ignore.  Don't waste them.  Savour them.

Small wins compound, one often leading to another.

Take the win.

Don't miss the small wins waiting for the big one.

Take the win.

We know HOW we respond is a choice.

HOW we think about things is also a choice, a decision.

Whether you call it mindset or attitude, or something else... Where we let our mind go to, how long we let it stay there.. our thoughts, our thinking is within our control.

We’ve known this since the ancient Greeks and Romans.

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts

~ Marcus Aurelius

I find solace and inspiration in these words from thousands of years ago. It reminds me to fill my mind with goodness, to read, to learn, to think.

Easy to forget or not make time...

Passion in your life brings a sense of purpose and meaning to your everyday.

Whatever you're passionate about helps you to understand your values in life, and that's a wonderful thing.  If you know what brings you excitement and meaning, you can choose to experience more of it. 

Understanding your passions and the things that give you a sense of purpose will help when setting goals, dreaming and more importantly, determining how to best spend your time and energy.

A week at the beach with the children at the end of a long project has been a good reminder of the importance of taking time to recharge.

In the first month of the project, our team discussed the recovery plans - what good looked like included a successful delivery, exceeding expectations and then some time off before returning to the day jobs. 

This became an asset to our team as we worked through a challenging project with extensive travel and time away from family. 

The week at the beach for me to recharge became an incentive for the children and a reward for putting up with...

Do you start your day by triaging your email? 

This may feel like work but delivers little value and ensures your day is shaped by other people's agendas. 

Watch out for busy work.

Start your day working out what you need to achieve and grow from there.

by Austin Distel on @Unsplash

As we slowly start to return to workplaces, like you, I’m thinking about how not to squander the reset of the last few months.

Once the intensity of crisis management transitioned into the new normal, I found moments of quiet that might otherwise have been spent previously in a car crossing a city for meetings, on a plane or at various events. While I’ve always made time to reflect, I relished this quiet, this downtime.

Are you getting enough Sleep? Are you waking feeling Recharged?