Last week, I presented at the Twin Cities e-Women network luncheon. I facilitated a tailored version of our Envision Your Ideal Future, titled "Success in 2006!" Through guided imagery, creative journaling and conversation, participants were able to see more clearly what success would look and feel like for them in the coming year. The energy of the 40 women in the room was powerful and moving. As they shared the highlights of what they discovered (and some of their surprises) they were truly connecting with each other. These types of experiences always remind me of why I do what I do. Yes, the mission is for participants to pursue their ideal lives but underlying that, my passion is to help people authentically connect to each other and what is important for them. The very next day, I received feedback from a few of the women about how clear they got about what they want their work schedules to be like in the coming year. Since that seems to be a common theme, take a moment to think about your own schedule.
Read through this and then try it with your eyes closed:
-Take several deep breaths and get comfortable
-Imagine looking at your calendar and being delighted by what you see
-Notice if your calendar is full, highly scheduled or structured or open for spontaneity
-What activities on your calendar are you most looking forward to?
-Take more deep breaths and slowly open your eyes
-Reflect upon this over the course of the day and see what comes up for you.
I wish you success, however that looks and feels like for you, in 2006!
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
3 tips for when business feels slow
When work for an entrepreneur slows down, it often seems like forever. One of my colleagues was feeling down that she didn't have much work coming in. I reminded her just a month prior, she had a wealth of jobs coming in. I go through these same feelings myself and hear the same thing from the other entrepreneurs I know.
It's much like being in a valley. When we are in the valley the mountains seem so distant and unattainable (even if we've just come down from one). We have to be deliberate to not keep our line of vision only on the valley floor.
Alternatively, when we are at the peak of the mountain, we either 1) feel exhilarated, 2) feel exhausted from the climb or 3) worry that we might not have it in us to climb another mountain or 4) an combination of these feelings.
What helps:
1) Affirmation by remembering the mountains you've scaled. Look back through your calendar (or journal) and see how much you've accomplished. It's easy to forget!
2) Stay fit and ready for the climb ahead. Work on your marketing plan. Connect with former clients. Work on those projects you'd been wishing you'd have the time for. Focus on what is working and what is already waiting for you on the horizon.
3) Don't pitch a permanent campsite in the valley. Do realize that it's necessary and valuable to be in the valley. It's all part of the cycle of life and work. This is where you have a chance to reflect and regain your energy. Do your best to breathe inand enjoy the fresh valley air while you scope out the next mountains you want to climb. It's closer than you think.
It's much like being in a valley. When we are in the valley the mountains seem so distant and unattainable (even if we've just come down from one). We have to be deliberate to not keep our line of vision only on the valley floor.
Alternatively, when we are at the peak of the mountain, we either 1) feel exhilarated, 2) feel exhausted from the climb or 3) worry that we might not have it in us to climb another mountain or 4) an combination of these feelings.
What helps:
1) Affirmation by remembering the mountains you've scaled. Look back through your calendar (or journal) and see how much you've accomplished. It's easy to forget!
2) Stay fit and ready for the climb ahead. Work on your marketing plan. Connect with former clients. Work on those projects you'd been wishing you'd have the time for. Focus on what is working and what is already waiting for you on the horizon.
3) Don't pitch a permanent campsite in the valley. Do realize that it's necessary and valuable to be in the valley. It's all part of the cycle of life and work. This is where you have a chance to reflect and regain your energy. Do your best to breathe inand enjoy the fresh valley air while you scope out the next mountains you want to climb. It's closer than you think.
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Getting Organized - tips from Mary'n Hallock
Last week, I went to another of Mary'n's workshops titled "Get Organized!" It was the perfect follow up to her "Putting Off Procrastination" session. This is what I learned and will be applying:
1) The value of tickler files to keep projects on track (I have one but fell out of practice using it. I'm getting back into the groove. Basically it's having monthly files and dated 1-31 files so that it's easy to plug in project notes, invitations, etc. by month. And when you move into a new month, you sort the inserts from the month file into the appropriate date files. It sounds more complicated than it is. For someone visually oriented like me, I need to have these files right in sight. They don't take up much room so they are in a vertical holder on my desk.)
2) The biggest time waster in organizations is...meetings. (Most meetings don't NEED to happen and there are other ways to share the information. Many happen out of habit, include more people than is necessary for the relevance of what is being discussed or are poorly run. I thought about this as I was planning our facilitators meeting for later in the week. The goal of our quarterly meetings has been to get everyone on the same page with updates and announcements, gather input for future direction, answer questions and help the facilitators get to know each other so they can provide cross-support. Upon reflection, not all of the meetings accomplish this. If someone misses the meeting, the information still needs to be shared so it's not necessarily a timesaver. We noticed that our best meetings have been when there was work that we were doing together or strategizing. In other words, a sense of urgency and a clear idea of "what's in it for them." So I'll keep this in mind as to whether/how we continue our quarterly meetings.)
3) E-mail keeps you from getting organized. If you check e-mail first thing in the morning and then throughout the day, it keeps you from getting a handle of what needs to get done and the priority of each of your tasks. E-mails feel urgent even when they are not. They can wait an hour or two while you organize your day and set upon the most important tasks. (This is a hard habit for me to break but having this awareness has gotten me to check it less.)
I hope Mary'n's tips are helpful for you. For more of her tips, check out her website at Painless Paper Cut.
1) The value of tickler files to keep projects on track (I have one but fell out of practice using it. I'm getting back into the groove. Basically it's having monthly files and dated 1-31 files so that it's easy to plug in project notes, invitations, etc. by month. And when you move into a new month, you sort the inserts from the month file into the appropriate date files. It sounds more complicated than it is. For someone visually oriented like me, I need to have these files right in sight. They don't take up much room so they are in a vertical holder on my desk.)
2) The biggest time waster in organizations is...meetings. (Most meetings don't NEED to happen and there are other ways to share the information. Many happen out of habit, include more people than is necessary for the relevance of what is being discussed or are poorly run. I thought about this as I was planning our facilitators meeting for later in the week. The goal of our quarterly meetings has been to get everyone on the same page with updates and announcements, gather input for future direction, answer questions and help the facilitators get to know each other so they can provide cross-support. Upon reflection, not all of the meetings accomplish this. If someone misses the meeting, the information still needs to be shared so it's not necessarily a timesaver. We noticed that our best meetings have been when there was work that we were doing together or strategizing. In other words, a sense of urgency and a clear idea of "what's in it for them." So I'll keep this in mind as to whether/how we continue our quarterly meetings.)
3) E-mail keeps you from getting organized. If you check e-mail first thing in the morning and then throughout the day, it keeps you from getting a handle of what needs to get done and the priority of each of your tasks. E-mails feel urgent even when they are not. They can wait an hour or two while you organize your day and set upon the most important tasks. (This is a hard habit for me to break but having this awareness has gotten me to check it less.)
I hope Mary'n's tips are helpful for you. For more of her tips, check out her website at Painless Paper Cut.
Thursday, December 08, 2005
From Ashley:
Hello Everyone!
I would just like to take this time to introduce myself, as the new short-term intern for Purple Crayon Factory. My name is Ashley Brabec, a native Minnesotan who loves to be outdoors. I have just recently graduated fom Gustavus Adolphus College this past May, with degrees in Sociology and Anthropology...and my lovely little English minor.
Throughout my life I have learned and been shaped by the very work you all do at Purple Crayon Facatory, only in my experience I was given this things through a summer camp. Camp Eagle Ridge is a boys and girls summer leadership camp. The camp's emphasis is based around training young people to become leaders. For an hour each morning the campers have one of 40 orignal workshops (newly designed each year by the camp staff). All the workshops are focused on the characteristics that are found in a leader (for example: listening, problem-solving, teambuilding). The experience as a child was so life-changing that when I was old enough I began to work there every summer, in order to further instill the gift that I received to other children. This summer will be my sixth year on staff. I first began as the oldest girls' counselor, working with girls aged 15-16. As of last year I was promoted to a more administrative position, Counselor In Training (C.I.T) Director. My responsibilities now include training 16 and 17 year olds to become counselors, designing cirriculum and teaching them everyday. I have much experience in designing and teaching leadership workshops for 8 to 17 years old.
I just recently returned from a seasonal position in Williams Bay, Wisconsin at Aurora University: George Williams Campus. I began to work with the OWLS (Outdoor Wisconsin Leadership Synergies) Program, that specializes teambuilding and further growth of leadership skills, by utilizing low and high ropes courses, climbing tower, and other teambuilding initiatives with 8th graders through adult and corporate levels. Needless to say it's quite a funny sight to watch a group from IBM up on the high ropes course! It was amazing to see the impact that took place when activities are linked to not only school or work, but also to general life lessons (compromise, working together, goal-setting, and planning).
Working with Teresa and Purple Crayon Factory will be an opporunity for me to learn more about the business side instead of just the play side. I am so excited to learn about what it's like to run a business in this particular field, promotion, marketing, and in general how the facilitators within the company create and deliver their powerful messages.
I look forward to meeting and working with you all. Also you should know that I am willing to do assistant work for $10 an hour, feel free to give me a call about that or anything (612) 558-9951. Thank you and have a great day!
~Ashley
I would just like to take this time to introduce myself, as the new short-term intern for Purple Crayon Factory. My name is Ashley Brabec, a native Minnesotan who loves to be outdoors. I have just recently graduated fom Gustavus Adolphus College this past May, with degrees in Sociology and Anthropology...and my lovely little English minor.
Throughout my life I have learned and been shaped by the very work you all do at Purple Crayon Facatory, only in my experience I was given this things through a summer camp. Camp Eagle Ridge is a boys and girls summer leadership camp. The camp's emphasis is based around training young people to become leaders. For an hour each morning the campers have one of 40 orignal workshops (newly designed each year by the camp staff). All the workshops are focused on the characteristics that are found in a leader (for example: listening, problem-solving, teambuilding). The experience as a child was so life-changing that when I was old enough I began to work there every summer, in order to further instill the gift that I received to other children. This summer will be my sixth year on staff. I first began as the oldest girls' counselor, working with girls aged 15-16. As of last year I was promoted to a more administrative position, Counselor In Training (C.I.T) Director. My responsibilities now include training 16 and 17 year olds to become counselors, designing cirriculum and teaching them everyday. I have much experience in designing and teaching leadership workshops for 8 to 17 years old.
I just recently returned from a seasonal position in Williams Bay, Wisconsin at Aurora University: George Williams Campus. I began to work with the OWLS (Outdoor Wisconsin Leadership Synergies) Program, that specializes teambuilding and further growth of leadership skills, by utilizing low and high ropes courses, climbing tower, and other teambuilding initiatives with 8th graders through adult and corporate levels. Needless to say it's quite a funny sight to watch a group from IBM up on the high ropes course! It was amazing to see the impact that took place when activities are linked to not only school or work, but also to general life lessons (compromise, working together, goal-setting, and planning).
Working with Teresa and Purple Crayon Factory will be an opporunity for me to learn more about the business side instead of just the play side. I am so excited to learn about what it's like to run a business in this particular field, promotion, marketing, and in general how the facilitators within the company create and deliver their powerful messages.
I look forward to meeting and working with you all. Also you should know that I am willing to do assistant work for $10 an hour, feel free to give me a call about that or anything (612) 558-9951. Thank you and have a great day!
~Ashley
Monday, December 05, 2005
Putting Off Procrastination
I've made leaps and bounds in the last few weeks of getting my office organized again. But I have to admit that I'm still way behind on my filing and record keeping. The piles just seem to grow and grow. I now have a large box of old papers to go through as well as full "to file" and "to enter" bins on my desk. Whenever I look at the piles or step around the box, I feel a twinge of incompetence because I can't muster the energy to figure out what to do with all the papers.
For a boost of motivation I participated in our facilitator, Mary'n Hallock's session, "Putting Off Procrastination" that she presented for Minnesota Women of Today on Saturday. Here is just a little of all that I learned (with my thoughts in italics):
1) Of everything we file, we only look at 20% (or less) of it again. So if I'm never going to look at the other 80%, should I be stressing out so much about filing things away perfectly or even keeping much of it?
2) When we feel overwhelmed with everything we need to do, we often set ourselves up with monumental expectations for what we can get done. With such high expectations, we usually can't achieve them and then end up feeling worse. Instead of thinking that I should devote several full days to the task, I'd be better off scheduling 15-30 minutes every week. Yes, scheduling it as sacred time on my calendar. And being the extrovert I am, I should consider having someone over to either help me or to just have tea with me while I do the work. It would certainly make it more enjoyable and make me more likely to follow through if someone else is planning on it. As soon as I'm done with today's blog, I'm getting this on my calendar!
3) Plan to give yourself an appropriate reward for completing the task. Meaning if it's a huge task, I should award myself with more than just a nice cup of coffee. And you reward yourself immediately to get accustomed to feeling the real benefits of accomplishment. Consider that you wouldn't make a child wait and wait to be rewarded for a great accomplishment. Hmm, what can I reward myself with for getting through enormous stacks of paper? A massage is sounding pretty good to me, to counter the stress of the filing.
Tomorrow, I'll be at Mary'n's "Get Organized" workshop. I'm looking forward to the added inspiration to get me going. If you are looking for some help in getting organized or putting off procrastination, Mary'n has useful articles on her resource page. Good luck to you (and to me) as we get our papers and offices back into shape!
For a boost of motivation I participated in our facilitator, Mary'n Hallock's session, "Putting Off Procrastination" that she presented for Minnesota Women of Today on Saturday. Here is just a little of all that I learned (with my thoughts in italics):
1) Of everything we file, we only look at 20% (or less) of it again. So if I'm never going to look at the other 80%, should I be stressing out so much about filing things away perfectly or even keeping much of it?
2) When we feel overwhelmed with everything we need to do, we often set ourselves up with monumental expectations for what we can get done. With such high expectations, we usually can't achieve them and then end up feeling worse. Instead of thinking that I should devote several full days to the task, I'd be better off scheduling 15-30 minutes every week. Yes, scheduling it as sacred time on my calendar. And being the extrovert I am, I should consider having someone over to either help me or to just have tea with me while I do the work. It would certainly make it more enjoyable and make me more likely to follow through if someone else is planning on it. As soon as I'm done with today's blog, I'm getting this on my calendar!
3) Plan to give yourself an appropriate reward for completing the task. Meaning if it's a huge task, I should award myself with more than just a nice cup of coffee. And you reward yourself immediately to get accustomed to feeling the real benefits of accomplishment. Consider that you wouldn't make a child wait and wait to be rewarded for a great accomplishment. Hmm, what can I reward myself with for getting through enormous stacks of paper? A massage is sounding pretty good to me, to counter the stress of the filing.
Tomorrow, I'll be at Mary'n's "Get Organized" workshop. I'm looking forward to the added inspiration to get me going. If you are looking for some help in getting organized or putting off procrastination, Mary'n has useful articles on her resource page. Good luck to you (and to me) as we get our papers and offices back into shape!
Friday, December 02, 2005
New energy with our new intern!
I'm excited that we've brought Ashley Brabec aboard as our new intern. She is delightful, insightful and helpful. Yesterday was her first day helping us with a networking event. She jumped right in with getting things ready, engaging the participants, closing up and debriefing. Ashley comes to us with lots of her own experience designing curriculum and facilitating leadership and teambuilding sessions for youth through adults in ropes and wilderness settings. We are sure to learn a lot from each other. Welcome Ashley!
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