Worth Doing Slowly
“Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly.”
— Mae West
The Taste of Flight
“Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.”
Leonardo Da Vinci
The Gap Between Thoughts
“When one thought ends, right before the next thought begins, there is a tiny gap called ‘now.’ Over time we learn to expand that gap.”
– Spring Washam
What Your Boss Is Really Looking For
Your boss wants you to be:
- Relentlessly focused on making your numbers and completing projects or initiatives in a timely, responsible fashion.
- Well aware of the particular numbers or initiatives that are of critical importance to him or her. Are you fluent in those numbers?
- On top of the pulse of your organization, and of your customer and client base. You should know where the stress points are and what’s being done about them.
- Clear on where the business is going in the broader sense and in the longer term & why.
- Knowledgeable about your people and their people — their strengths, weaknesses, and potential & how their jobs tied to your organization’s strategy.
- Building a following of competent people who trust you, trust each other, keep you in the loop, and feel as if you are there to help and guide without getting in the way.
- Capable of identifying problems on the horizon, analyzing them, and problem-solving effectively — either alone or in collaboration with colleagues — on a timely basis.
- Able to play well with others consistently. That is, confident enough to say what you think and also confident enough to hear, respect, and possibly integrate others’ views into your own perspective.
Before You Give Up, Read This First.
Remember that the acid in your stomach is strong enough to dissolve razor blades, including the kinds that come in the form of the words you swallow.
Remember that you shed your tired skin every twenty-seven days. You were not made to hold your past within you, you were not made to carry it all on your back. You physically let go of every bad thing that has ever touched you, of every pair of foreign hands that unbuttoned your shirt but never your demons; you let go of every regret, of every insecurity. You are always gifted a clean slate.
Remember that the carbon in your body is the same carbon that courses through this Earth, that makes up mountains. Let this remind you that you can stand alone, you can stand tall, for just like Everest, just like Fuji, you are a force to be reckoned with.
…Bianca Sparacino uses simple scientific facts to power magic
Pay Attention
“Pay attention to what you pay attention to”
Let There Be Spaces
Let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.Love one another but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together, yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.Khalil Gibran
Measure me
Measure me
by the color of my mind
See me
by the color of my heart,
And know me
by the strength of my character
If you’re lost, make an equation
To get yourself back out. To take the next step. Use words. Use numbers. Add, subtract, multiply, divide.
The 3:3 Method
The 3:3 Method
Make sure your laptop is fully charged going into your work day. Set three work goals every morning. Complete your #1 goal before your laptop runs out of battery. Take a break and recharge (your laptop and yourself). Repeat for the next two tasks. If you finish early, leave early.
It’s just something I do that’s extremely effective for me. Doesn’t require a fancy name, but it does help to remember it.
The hardest part of learning is the transition from “can do” to “cannot lose”
When you learn something (say a dance move), you’re often just mimicking a pattern. The true mastery is in knowing it so well that it takes your shape and becomes yours.