Evergreen Leadership Blog

Performance

10 Reasons Slowing Down Can Serve You Well

Do you recall Aesop’s fable from your youth – the story of the race between the tortoise and the hare? Of course, any sane person would scoff at the idea of the turtle winning the race. But as the story unfolds, the overconfident hare takes a huge lead, and believing he can never be overtaken by the turtle, gets off the path and takes a nap. We all know how the story ends.

Today, I, like many others, feel the heat of the race. The pressure to do more, go faster, keep up. And we, in spite of exhaustion, sacrifices to our health, and dents to our most valued relationships, try very hard to run as fast as we can.

There are many reasons to slow down when your pace is consuming you or unsustainable, and here, I name ten.

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Goals

Simplifying Life and Work: 12 Things to Shed NOW

The idea of having less, doing less, and managing less, runs contrary to our consumer-based market economy. Yet as Henry David Thoreau discovered at Walden Pond, it can be a marvelous thing. It can free us up for more important things. To relax. To breathe. To do the things that really matter.

Yet many of us just don’t know what to shed or how to begin. We’ve fine-tuned and socially encouraged our “more” mentality – and spent scant energy on the reverse. So in today’s post I’m providing you some specific thought starters in four categories you might consider shedding. This is not an all-inclusive list, but merely a start. I’m only going to hint at the HOW to do this… but know that you’ll find ample on-line details about purging these items from your life.

I’ve listed four categories you might consider: things, tasks, thoughts, and toxic relationships. For each category, I’ve provided three suggestions. That gives you a starting point of 12 places you might begin to shed. …

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Performance

Fueling Your Fire

I believe each of us has something that sparks us. It may be our work, or our family, or social justice, or the environment, or any one of a thousand things. I also believe that it is far too easy in our hyper-paced world to let that spark turn into a raging fire that consumes us. Work demands are high, needs are everywhere, we are connected 24/7, and being busy and feeling overwhelmed is the predominant mode.

In grade school we learned the three elements needed for combustion: a fuel source, oxygen, and a spark of heat. I think the same conditions apply to our inner fires: we need something that we are passionate about to spark us. But we also need to be diligent to avoid being consumed by it.

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Goals

The Spirit of the Season – All Year Long

How would you be different if the spirit of this season lasted all year long? As you pause, cease your paid labor, gather with friends and family, take a moment to reflect on the messages that this time of year brings, and determine what parts of this holiday you’ll carry forward. You can be a light in the darkness, you can bring hope to those in despair, and by caring for others you’ll find you’ve cared for yourself.

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Challenges

Simplify and Focus

My Dad used to observe that I could squeeze more into one day that anyone he knew. And he was right. There was a plan, executable down to 15 minute increments. The pace was fast and unrelenting. Work – kids – exercise – community work – school – church – cooking – cleaning – errands. The day was a blur, but boy oh boy, could I get a lot of things done! At least on some days. However, on most days, the long task list overwhelmed me, and by Friday evening it was all I could do to order in pizza and collapse on the couch.

How I wish Greg McKeown’s book, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, was available 10 years ago. It provides a great guide on how to move from being buffeted from the trivial many to living in the essential few.

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Leadership

Tuning in to New Signals

Today’s post is from Marilyn J. Smith, the founder of Consensus Building Partners. She uses consensus-building, facilitation and project management skills to help clients take informed, integrated and creative action. And she describes here, how her professional choices have become more anchored, and her actions more effective, due to a decision to work differently.

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Change

How to Bring More Time and Energy into Your Life

I wish each of you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2014 – in all the unique ways that matter to you!

In our Evergreen Leadership Process we have a way to continually stay fresh and healthy. The new year is a great time to build this practice into your life – and will yield better results than the tradition of making resolutions. Take a look…

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Learning

Top Ten Books for Self Development

I often get asked what books I recommend for certain topics; so in this series, I’ll share my top 10 recommendations for books on: Organizational Change, Self Development, Leadership, and Entrepreneurship. I’ve culled through hundreds of books and selected those that I refer to over and over and over again. These are the ones that are dog-eared, stuffed with notes and Post-its.

My hope is that you’ll share the titles of the books that inspire and inform you… as it is not too late to put then on my wish list for Santa.

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Change

What I Take for Granted

Returning to the US after 2 weeks in Southern India gave me fresh eyes – both for what I take for granted and for what is missing from my life in the US. Read on for my list… including the one that made my “take for granted” list 4 times.

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Change

Back in the States… and on the Grid

I am back from my sojourn to India with Cultural Connections: Women Weaving Worlds. I made the decision to totally disconnect from electronic communication – but it was not the lack of connectivity that got in the way of blogging. Find out what DID get in the way.

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