Slow and Steady
Finding your work rhythm
Sitting outside, overlooking the bay and working may sound beautiful to some and unappealing to others. There are a lot of people who feel strongly about not working on vacation. I am sometimes in that camp, but usually I love waking up and working on my computer in a beautiful, distraction-free setting. I am a slow and steady wins the race kind of gal. I hate rushing, last minute, crises. I like to do things slowly, thoughtfully, without pressure. Of course life does not always allow for this. Crises come up inevitably, but I build my life in a way that limits this. I have created a life for myself that allows me to work at a slow and steady pace. One of my tricks is working on vacation. I am not advocating working on vacation, but I am also allowing for the option if it fits your life. All or nothing thinking is not always the best. For me, killing myself before and after vacation is not tenable. So I work a little bit each day on vacation to allow for a more gentle entry back into real life.
Personally, I cannot think well when I am rushed. This makes me a bad partner in an apocalypse, but a great one if there is time and space to figure things out. I like to go deep. Ponder. Research, poll and journal about things. I put this newsletter out every two weeks and I slowly fill in the parts of the newsletter. Sometimes I am the mood to think deeply and that is when I write my content, sometimes I want to relax, and that is when I find my photos to include, sometimes I want to work while watching TV, that is when I put in my links, sometimes I want to read and learn, that is when I find the links to include. I work within my rhythms and it makes putting my newsletter together feel graceful and smooth rather than panicked and forced.
One of the benefits of coaching is gaining self-awareness and figuring out how you work best and when you work best. I encourage my clients to create a schedule that leans into their natural rhythms. Of course some clients have more control over their time than others, but I find this exercise can help no mater your circumstances. What are some ways you currently do lean into your natural rhythms of work? What are some changes you could make? Please share below:
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Pep Talk: Reckless Abandon
Why Designing for Introverts is Better for Everyone
How Can I Improve My Grip Strength
Ask Amy: How Can I Handle Less Than Glowing Feedback?
Continue scrolling to find out What I Am Reading Now…
Pep Talk: Reckless Abandon
Not to confuse you after my writing above about preferring slow and steady rhythm, but I also have to share that sometimes I feel something in my kishkas (aka, my gut) and I just Go. For. It— with what only can be described as reckless abandon. I love this blog by the amazing writer Maggie Smith about her relationship with “reckless abandon”.
Why Designing for Introverts is Better for Everyone
I love when people create inviting and safe spaces for gathering events. The size, aesthetic or grandeur of a home is not what creates positive gathering experience for me. I like knowing the host is focused on my comfort and sense of belonging. This article from the amazing Priya Parker (who wrote The Art of Gathering) suggests that introverts are often artful gatherers because they are creating an environment where they would feel most comfortable. In this article Parker shares tips on how to to create a gathering that helps all of us feel included.
How Can I Improve My Grip Strength
I have been on a journey for sometime now to increase my physical strength. The more I work with my amazing trainer, Mike Romano, the more I see that strengthening the body is so much more nuanced than I ever imagined. And it is not about a “look”. I love this blog by Anna Maltby focusing on grip strength, because the mainstream wellness culture doesn’t talk about the importance of grip strength. These efforts to improve our grip are invisible to the outside world, but so important for our true wellness.
Question: How can I handle a less than glowing feedback?
Answer: This answer can really be used in any situation where you receive some critical feedback, most often I deal with this with clients who received a less than glowing feedback at work. While there are many, many articles about this, the angle I want to take here is that you are CEO of your career/life. What I mean by this is that we want as much data as possible to allow us to grow and improve. While you may not feel particularly aligned with the negative feedback you receive—maybe your boss is a jerk or out of sync with what is going on— it is your job to try to find something useful in the feedback. Is there something you can use to grow? Is there a nugget of wisdom there that you needed to hear even if it is hard. Not all feedback is helpful, but if you can find something worthwhile, you are doing your long term growth a favor. You may not excel in this moment in this particular job or within this particular relationship, but taking in feedback where you can will help you can grow over the long term and in the wider world.
I hope that was helpful! Do you have a question for me to answer in a future newsletter? Just reply to this email to ask it.
Interested in working with me? Schedule a free 20 minute consultation here.
How the Light Gets In by Joyce Maynard
From New York Times bestselling author Joyce Maynard comes the eagerly anticipated follow-up to her beloved novel Count the Ways--a complex story of three generations of a family and its remarkable, resilient, indomitable matriarch, Eleanor.
Following the death of her former husband, Cam, fifty-four-year-old Eleanor has moved back to the New Hampshire farm where they raised three children to care for their brain-injured son, Toby, now an adult. Toby's older brother, Al, is married and living in Seattle with his wife; their sister, Ursula, lives in Vermont with her husband and two children. Although all appears stable, old resentments, anger, and bitterness simmer just beneath the surface.
How the Light Gets In follows Eleanor and her family through fifteen years (2010 to 2024) as their story plays out against a uniquely American backdrop and the events that transform their world (climate change, the January 6th insurrection, school violence) and shape their lives (later-life love, parental alienation, steadfast friendship). With her trademark sensitivity and insight, Joyce Maynard paints an indelible portrait of characters both familiar and new making their way over rough, messy, and treacherous terrain to find their way to what is, for each, a place to call "home."