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Tag: decisions

Straight ahead or turn

The end of the year brings fantastic opportunities to evaluate and assess your life and professional goals. As the month comes to a close, take stock over your personal and business milestones.
Are you heading in the right direction or is it time to choose a new path?
Your personal fulfillment and sense of progression are excellent benchmarks to consider as you’re charting your journey for the new year. Remember, it’s never too late to make a change.
And it’s certainly never too late to start.

Close but not too close

Intimacy isn’t only found in relationships. The energy you put into work and into yourself also requires closeness, attention, warmth, and care.

How much effort are you putting forth? What are you holding back? Are you “all in” or hesitantly waiting to see how things pan out?

It is natural to build mechanisms to protect yourself from pain and disappointment and failure. But if the defenses you’ve built are stopping you from establishing meaningful relationships and putting your best work into projects that are important to you, it is worth evaluating whether such precautions are necessary.

Which boundaries are essential and which are limiting your growth as an individual, a partner, a colleague, and as a friend?

Communication breakdowns

Lines have been crossed. There is an argument, a heated misunderstanding. A partner feels neglected, a potential client goes elsewhere for work. Feelings are hurt.

What do you do?

You have choices.

A. Walk away.

Ignore it. Move on to other tasks and focus your attention elsewhere.

B. Work it out.

Pause to listen and understand the problem. Identify and evaluate the root of the disagreement. Establish a platform for all parties to express ideas, input, grievances, or dissent.

C. Find the lesson.

Look for ways to improve communication so similar misunderstandings can be avoided.

Clear, open communication creates pathways for work to be accomplished, for goals to be reached, and for relationships to be strengthened. With communication breakdowns, issues quickly exacerbate.

Communication is a skill that can be practiced and developed over time. Moments of conflict provide opportunities for teaching, learning, and growth.

“What took you the longest to learn?”

Oprah asks her guests this question on her Super Soul podcasts. A thoughtful pause follows, and the answer is often a mix of wistfulness, courage, sometimes even regret.

How would you answer the same question?
What lesson has taken you the longest to learn?

Recognizing distance

We often consider how far we have to left to go.
Three more days until holiday.
$10,000 to hit our fundraiser.
Two terms left in the fiscal year.
Four more miles in this run.
Six credits to meet requirements.
Yet how often do we measure and appreciate the distance we’ve traveled?
Let the ground you’ve already covered fuel you.