Stress Relief

A friend recently passed along these thoughts on stress. Give my own writing on Vital Rhythms, they fit right in and easily generate smiles. Enjoy.

A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked, "How heavy is this glass of water?" Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g.

The lecturer replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it. If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance."

"In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes," he continued, "and that's the way it is with stress management. If we carry all of our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on."

"As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden. So, whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can. Don't pick them up again until after you've rested a while. They will then seem so much lighter."

Here are some great ways of dealing with the burdens of life:

• Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue.
• Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.
• Always wear stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
• Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be "recalled" by their maker.
• If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.
• It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to be kind to others.
• Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won't have a leg to stand on.
• Nobody cares if you can't dance well; just get up and dance.
• When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.
• Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.
• You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.
• A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.

Coching Inquiries: What burdens are you carrying right now? How could you set them down for a while? Who lightens your spirit and makes you laugh? What would it take to connect with that person right now? What might get you to smile?

We invite you to Contact Us using our Feedback Form if you are interested in learning more about LifeTrek Coaching or participating in our Evocative Coach Training Program.

Making Ideas Happen

There are many systems in the world for turning dreams into deeds. One of the better known is David Allen's, Getting Things Done. A more recent take on the subject is Scott Belsky's, Making Ideas Happen. Here is what Seth Godin, author of Linchpin, has to say about the book:

"Should you buy a book that will make you uncomfortable?

More questions: Why is it so difficult to ship good ideas out the door? Why do committees show up and wreck the purity of your idea? Why do people avoid doing the hard work of actually bringing their work to the market?

I'll tell you why: Because it's safe. Ideas that never ship are never criticized. Faceless committees accept the blame for tepid products that were probably better off in the warehouse. And managers in search of a place to hide can best hide behind the unshipped product, the unrealized idea and the system gone wrong.

Scott Belsky has your number. He's seen it all before. He knows your excuses, he's seen your shtick and he knows all the ways to avoid doing the work. In this book, Scott's not giving you any place to hide.

There. Do you still want to read his book?

If you care about your art, your job or your market, you really have no choice. This is strategy and tactics, concepts and how-to, all in one on a topic that's often overlooked."

Sound intriguing? I encourage you to give it a look.

Coaching Inquiries: How do you do when it comes to making ideas happen? Are you better at coming up with ideas in the first place (creativity) or following through on your ideas to make them happen (discipline and delivery)? Which muscle would you like to strengthen this week? Who could help you to make it so?

We invite you to Contact Us using our Feedback Form if you are interested in learning more about LifeTrek Coaching or participating in our Evocative Coach Training Program.

Mindful Eating

In many respects, great leadership is mindful leadership. We cultivate the ability to stay in the moment, without distraction or criticism, in order to bring out the best in ourselves and others. Great leaders therefore adopt mindfulness practices in all areas of life and work. To that end, I found the following tips on mindful eating by Dr. Jennifer Daly in the April issue of the Health Journal to be helpful:

• Always eat in a clean and quiet place either alone or with people you like.
• Look at your food and appreciate its appearance and smell before you eat.
• Chew your food slowly and attentively, concentrating on and appreciating its subtle qualities.
• Eat without distractions such as television, radio or other media.
• Only eat when you are truly hungry.
• Do not eat within 2 hours of bedtime.
• After exercise wait a while before eating to get an accurate gauge of
your hunger level.
• Walk about 100 steps after a meal to aid digestion.
• Do not eat when you are angry, depressed, bored or otherwise emotionally unstable. Instead, try to resolve these feelings first through stress management tools such as exercise (including yoga), meditation, or seeking the support of friends, family, a spiritual adviser or a mental health professional.

Now, have some fun with this list. Substitute the word "lead" for the word "eat," and the word "people" for "food." Read the list again. What new ideas do those substitutions bring to mind? Hopefully, the exercise will encourage you to become both a more mindful eater and a more mindful leader at the same time.

Coaching Inquiries: What does mindfulness mean to you? How can you become more mindful in how you relate to eating and leadership? What benefits might you experience? What benefits might others experience? Who can join you on the path to mindfulness? How could you make it so today?

We invite you to Contact Us using our Feedback Form if you are interested in learning more about LifeTrek Coaching or participating in our Evocative Coach Training Program.

Rituals Matter

Laser Provision: Our effectiveness at work declines if we are always on the go. That's why great leaders develop regular, reflective rituals. We find ways to step back and to connect with purpose, plans, and people. That's what makes great leaders so refreshing to be around. Instead of wearing people out with nonstop performance momentum, great leaders infuse people with energy by knowing just when to push and when to pull back. It's an intuitive dance but it doesn't materialize out of thin air. It's cultivated one day and one ritual at a time. If you don't have such rituals, then this Provision will give you at least 11 ideas. I encourage you to go out and make at least one of them your own. Read entire Provision...

Coaching Inquiries: Who do you think of as a great leader? What do you know about the things they do when you're not around? How could you find out more? What questions do you have? How could incorporate your discoveries into your everyday life? What rituals make the most sense for you?

To reply to this Provision, use our Feedback Form. To talk with us about coaching or consulting services for yourself or your organization, use our Contact for Coaching Form to arrange for a complimentary conversation.

We Are What We Celebrate

Great leaders understand not only the importance of developing our own reflective rituals, but also the importance developing collective rituals that help to bring out the best in the people and organizations we lead. A collection of essays that takes this to the level of religious, national, and cultural traditions is titled We Are What We Celebrate: Understanding Holidays and Rituals by Jared Bloom and Amitai Etzioni.

Here is the book description; I encourage you to look into it if you can.

How did Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday become a national holiday? Why do we exchange presents on Christmas and Chanukah? What do bunnies have to do with Easter? How did Earth Day become a global holiday? These questions and more are answered in this fascinating exploration into the history and meaning of holidays and rituals. Edited by Amitai Etzioni, one of the most influential social and political thinkers of our time, this collection provides a compelling overview of the impact that holidays and rituals have on our family and communal life.

From community solidarity to ethnic relations to religious traditions, We Are What We Celebrate argues that holidays such as Halloween, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, New Year's Eve, and Valentine's Day play an important role in reinforcing, and sometimes redefining, our values as a society. The collection brings together classic and original essays that, for the first time, offer a comprehensive overview and analysis of the important role such celebrations play in maintaining a moral order as well as in cementing family bonds, building community relations and creating national identity. The essays cover such topics as the creation of Thanksgiving as a national holiday; the importance of holidays for children; the mainstreaming of Kwanzaa; and the controversy over Columbus Day celebrations.

Compelling and often surprising, this look at holidays and rituals brings new meaning to not just the ways we celebrate but to what those celebrations tell us about ourselves and our communities.

Coaching Inquiries: What are the celebrations and rituals in your organization? How can you influence them or even set up new ones? How can you make them more celebratory and regular? Who could you involve in the process of stimulating a ritual makeover?

We invite you to Contact Us using our Feedback Form if you are interested in learning more about LifeTrek Coaching or participating in our Evocative Coach Training Program.