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Tag: challenge

We’re so careful.

We carefully plan our days, scheduling meetings and appointments to maximize our energy and time. We plan our evenings, scheduling outings and time at home in an attempt to balance work and play. Yet what if this careful planning is actually getting in our way? What if we’re creating a series of insulated experiences and limiting ourselves from true magic?

It seems (too often!) that moments of inspiration—those flashes of brilliance when you just get it, “Aha! I need to write this down!”—happen when we least expect them. The memories we cherish and the stories our friends eagerly clasp are often the result of something unexpected, unplanned, maybe even a “mistake.”

What if we are limiting ourselves and our own potential by limiting our exposure to the unpredictable? When we travel, we easily relinquish control and let ourselves live, experience, explore, and get lost.

What would happen if we released control in our day-to-day?

Schedule vacation time

When you visit a foreign place, you are stripped of your template for daily living. Your routine is broken, and it’s up to you to make sense of it all. “Home” becomes a reference marker as you begin to assign meanings to new experiences.

Now that each day is fresh, you are free to discover new places and new things and new people. Amazing what you remember! Forgotten parts inside of you are triggered.

Creativity basks in freedom of acceptance and permission. Changing your environment provides different backdrops for ideas to form.

Maybe you can’t hop on a plane. Maybe you’ve used all of your vacation days. What new environment can you place yourself in? Get uncomfortable, create a canvas for your dreams, and allow the possibility of “what might be.” Reward yourself.

The quiet room

I like watching beginnings of events.
There’s expectation in the room, uncertainty, and a hint of nervousness as people arrive and take note of their new surroundings. For a moment, the room is quiet. The swell of anticipation gradually takes over, and the evening soon turns strangers into friends.
Opportunity is kind of like a Gathering. When it arrives, it can be difficult to know exactly what to do. What separates one person from the next is the line of action.
Knowing you need to take advantage of this moment—receiving and giving and exchanging all that you can—can make the difference between success tomorrow and frustration today. You can never be 100% certain whether that circumstance will be revisited.
Think about walking into a room. “There you are!” and “Here I am!” are both common responses. Each work in different ways.

You’re like no other.

Unique experiences make you you. Your resume may look similar to another applicant, but how you finished that degree, landed that job, scored that promotion, found new work is like no other.
You have to be able to show someone else the world through your eyes.
Show them why your world is special. (It is.)

Growing pains

When it feels uncomfortable, you’re growing.

Move. Work your muscles. Find new environments and new situations and new trails to blaze.

Contorting yourself into new positions doesn’t necessarily feel good.

Challenging yourself isn’t a challenge if it’s easy.

“What floor?”

There are countless tactics that can strengthen the genuine enthusiasm and personality of a brand. Companies shell out thousands of dollars to learn things like:

  • How to communicate, in an appropriate and relevant way
  • What to say so people will listen
  • How to best stimulate audience interest and involvement
  • Where to go to find the latest trends and news

Are you just as intentional with your personal brand? Do you look for situations that force you to flex?
Your “elevator speech” isn’t effective if you don’t ride elevators.