The Coaching Toys Blog

Orbiting The Giant To Do List

Are you orbiting a giant to do list and having trouble getting anything done? This happens to me when I get too many projects going at once - I think it's the bane of a creative person.

When this happens I return to a simple bit of time management advice I got many years ago;  choose the ONE thing that will move your project or your business forward and make sure you do it. It's so much easier to actually accomplish the ONE thing as opposed to a whole list of action steps and when done on a daily basis your most important goals are reached.

Because I have multiple projects going at once, I've expanded this bit of advice to help me identify the ONE THING per project and I've turned it into a visual worksheet. The worksheet helps you list a few key action steps and then narrow in on the ONE thing. You can even color in the worksheet  - use colored markers and  basically bring a little fun to the process - and on top of that coloring is great for reducing stress.

You can download the worksheet here; It's the Chunk It Down Worksheet  ENJOY!

How many items on your to do list right now will actually move forward an important project or grow your business? What is the ONE thing you can to today?

Connecting with the ground of being – A personal retreat as a business strategy

 

A retreat is often thought of in the context of a spiritual journey but it can also be a powerful tool to rekindle passion, commitment and energy in your business. In a busy schedule it’s a guaranteed way to slow down and reflect. A client of mine made it a habit to schedule a three day retreat every quarter. What an inspired thing to do.

In thinking about a retreat for myself, I pulled out one of my favorite books; Synchronicity, The Inner Path of Leadership by Joseph Jaworski. He recounts his story of creating the American Leadership Forum. He describes the ease and synchronicity that happened when he was in the flow and connected to his passion, what happened when he fell out of sync and then his journey back. He describes two forms of commitment necessary for success; the ground of action – as entrepreneurs we are very good at this one, we know how to make things happen - and the ground of being. The ground of being is about being a part of an “unfolding, generative process” – deeply connected, aware on many levels and following your bliss as Joseph Campbell would say.

One of the traps that can get us disconnected from the ground of being is the trap of overdoing. Like many entrepreneurs, I’d been doing a lot of over-doing and my ground of being was getting ground down. I was over-ripe for some down time and decided to give myself four days to slow down, re-connect and renew.  I didn’t go to a fancy retreat center (although that’s a wonderful option) – I created the experience in my home and you can too.

In many ways my retreat experience surprised me.  Part of me wanted to “do” the retreat. I had a whole list of things that required re-evaluation, decisions and direction. I originally envisioned doing values work, brainstorming and mapping out the goals for the year ahead. It isn’t that those things aren’t perfect for a retreat but they wouldn’t give me what I was most hungry for. The simple guidelines that follow helped me get what I truly needed – a reconnection to the ground of being.

 

At the front of the room

I’ve got a speaking gig wednesday evening in Toronto (10/18). Even though I’ve done this presentation a few times now, I still get nervous at the thought of public speaking. I’m reviewing my notes for the presentation and I’m also reviewing notes from a course I took recently from Sage Presenting. It was all about how to bring a powerful presence to the stage. This class was more helpful and fun than I ever imagined it would be and I'm actually starting to like being in the front of the room. The instructors, Dean and Pete come from an acting and film directing background. There were plenty of video playbacks, feedback, “direction” and stretching.

I learned a lot about public speaking and here are three things I most want to remember.

1. This one is my favorite. Those of you who are great in one to one conversations but clutch in front of a group will relate. Even though you are in front of a group you can still speak to one individual at a time. Single out one person in the audience, connect with them and deliver a full thought to them before moving on to the next person.
2. Tell stories that have an emotional quality to them and speak from the heart. When a speaker connects to the emotion of the story and feels it in the retelling, the audience will feel it too.
3. Attention wanders when there is a lot of sameness – so create change. Change volume,     change speed, change emotion, change voice quality and move around the room.

If you plan to be at the talk you will have to tell me how well I implemented these. If you want to improve your speaking skills, check out Sage Presenting.

 

A Lesson on Niching from a Possibility Junkie

I’m convinced of the importance of having a niche and targeting marketing efforts. It makes perfect sense. That said, for a long time I experienced the resistance of not wanting to choose or narrow my options. Like most creative people, the more variety the better, ‘a don’t box me in’ rumbled from deep within. Now that I have chosen a niche, I feel another form of resistance popping up – the rebel, that wants to throw it overboard and start over every time a new seductive possibility appears on the horizon.

There is a little bit of a possibility junkie in me that craves the rush of always having something new to sink my creative teeth into. New things take a lot of energy and even though fun, when you keep saying yes to new things you can get pretty worn out. Too many new things lead to a drop in effectiveness and in the end you can have little to show for all that energy output.

So the new question I’ve been asking myself is how to embrace a narrow focus and experience creativity and freedom within it.

What I’m noticing (now that I’ve claimed a niche) is that having a problem to solve is just as invigorating a creative outlet as the brand new thing was. The niche provides a container for creative exploration. I’m creating with a purpose. The parameters enhance the creative process rather than detract from it – resulting in better work. The creative projects within a niche build on each other and you get to explore layers and go deep. The parallel from fine art is that I am now creating a body of work as opposed to experimenting in lots of different styles and mediums. 

Surprisingly I am finding that having a niche provides plenty of avenues for creativity so what about freedom?

The biggest aspect of freedom to me is variety and the option to follow urges.

I think I made up that a niche would limit variety and that everyone in a niche group would somehow be the same. Wrong! Here’s the secret, even though I work in a niche, I continue to attract the perfect clients for me and each one is unique and creative. The opportunity to be spontaneous and creative and intuitive and playful and challenging is available in every client interaction.

On the financial business side - having a focus for my marketing efforts is getting results with less effort. I have more time for other pursuits, and I’m less worn out.

And one last thing - just because you have a niche doesn’t mean you can’t work with someone outside your target area. It just means your marketing efforts are targeted.