I am stuck. I am resisting writing new articles for my blog. In an interesting twist of synchronicity, I found myself reading The Little Rules of Action from Zen Habits. The opening quote is “The shortest answer is doing.”
In the interest of doing, I am presenting Zen Habits, rules to get unstuck:
1. Don’t overthink. Too much thinking often results in getting stuck, in going in circles. Some thinking is good — it’s good to have a clear picture of 
where you’re going or why you’re doing this — but don’t get stuck thinking. Just do.
2. Just start. All the planning in the world will get you nowhere. You need to take that first step, no matter how small or how shaky. My rule for motivating myself to run is: Just lace up your shoes and get out the door. The rest takes care of itself.
3. Forget perfection. Perfectionism is the enemy of action. Kill it, immediately. You can’t let perfect stop you from doing. You can turn a bad draft into a good one, but you can’t turn no draft into a good draft. So get going.
4. Don’t mistake motion for action. A common mistake. A fury of activity doesn’t mean you’re doing anything. When you find yourself moving too quickly, doing too many things at once, this is a good reminder to stop. Slow down. Focus.
5. Focus on the important actions. Clear the distractions. Pick the one most important thing you must do today, and focus on that. Exclusively. When you’re done with that, repeat the process.
6. Move slowly, consciously. Be deliberate. Action doesn’t need to be done fast. In fact, that often leads to mistakes, and while perfection isn’t at all necessary, neither is making a ridiculous amount of mistakes that could be avoided with a bit of consciousness.
7. Take small steps. Biting off more than you can chew will kill the action. Maybe because of choking, I dunno. But small steps always works. Little tiny blows that will eventually break down that mountain. And each step is a victory, that will compel you to further victories.
8. Negative thinking gets you nowhere. Seriously, stop doing that. Self doubt? The urge to quit? Telling yourself that it’s OK to be distracted and that you can always get to it later? Squash those thoughts. Well, OK, you can be distracted for a little bit, but you get the idea. Positive thinking, as corny as it sounds, really works. It’s self-talk, and what we tell ourselves has a funny habit of turning into reality.
9. Meetings aren’t action. This is a common mistake in management. They hold meetings to get things done. Meetings, unfortunately, almost always get in the way of actual doing. Stop holding those meetings!
10. Talking (usually) isn’t action. Well, unless the action you need to take is a presentation or speech or something. Or you’re a television broadcaster. But usually, talking is just talking. Communication is necessary, but don’t mistake it for actual action.
11. Planning isn’t action. Sure, you need to plan. Do it, so you’re clear about what you’re doing. Just do it quickly, and get to the actual action as quickly as you can.
12. Reading about it isn’t action. You’re reading an article about action. Ironic, I know. But let this be the last one. Now get to work!
13. Sometimes, inaction is better. This might be the most ironic thing on the list, but really, if you find yourself spinning your wheels, or you find you’re doing more harm than good, rethink whether the action is even necessary. Or better yet, do this from the beginning — is it necessary? Only do the action if it is.
I will let you know if I can abide by these rules and put myself into action.
Tags: procrastination, time
Andy Dooley sends out some great art/messages that are meant to inspire you, or at least get you thinking. Last week, I got this message in my inbox, from his blog:
Then I forgot about it for 2 days, and realized I needed a daily
I put it on my bathroom mirror, every time I saw that piece of
Then I forgot about it completely.
SIDE NOTE: Years ago, Shannon and her best friend tore apart
Okay, occasionally I’ll have my Mom’s pumpkin pie. Oh wait, I do
I tell Shannon my story and she can’t believe it, because
I want you to manifest a BLUEBERRY MUFFIN! Now if a blueberry
Write down on a piece of paper I want a Blueberry muffin or
aka Mr. Blueberry Fancy Pants
PS – WHY YOU WANT TO DO THIS!!!
- Builds your confidence up for your bigger desires.
- Because manifesting is supposed to be FUN!!!
- It will make you gorgeous and sexy. (Forgot you already are.)
- Creates a stronger overall vibration of attraction within you.
- Powerful reminder of how easy it is to manifest.
- Children in 3rd world countries are counting on you.
- Larry King and Oprah will want to interview you and hear your Blueberry Muffin Story!
So I’m thinking, I don’t need a blueberry muffin. If I want one, I will just go buy one. And poof, a manifesting miracle. So, I decide to go for the cactus. I wrote out “I want a cactus! Thank you.” and put it on my computer. And I am waiting.
On Sunday, my son’s hockey game was delayed an hour and we were missing dinner. So, my husband wouldn’t get grumpy, I told him I would get him a snack. Hockey rink snack bars are not known for their nutritious fare, so I scanned the Doritos, hot dogs, french fries, and decided on a muffin. I asked if I could buy a banana muffin (might as well try for a fruit serving). Guess what the only kind of muffin they had left. A blueberry muffin.
I actually didn’t think anything of it until I came into my office this morning and saw my cactus note. Maybe I really did want a blueberry muffin. I am still waiting for the cactus.
Tags: manifesting
This melody lives on for those whose sacrifice to their country took the ultimate toll. Thank you for your courage!
You need to watch this brilliant video from TED.com by Itay Talgam on creating harmony from within and leading without saying a word.
Tags: Leadership, TED
From Productive Flourishing, I was led to Seth Godin’s Blog: Chai Wallah, which says
It’s so tempting to do a little bit of everything. All the tools are there, a click away. You can be the designer, the copywriter, the head of customer service. Hey, you can even do the manufacturing or easily outsource it to a commodity producer. One benefit of diversification is that you can average out your risk.
Or you can be a wallah. Someone who does only that one thing.
And that led me to Chris Guillebeau‘s blog, The Art of Non-Conformity, which writes
I think that the “say no to almost everything” advice is good for masters. If you’re at the height of your career or skill, it makes sense to be highly selective. If Tiger Woods says no to everything but practicing his swing every day, I get it. If Serena Williams never wants to leave the court, I understand.
But most of us are not Tigers or Serenas yet. Not all of us know what we want to do; not everyone is single-minded towards the pursuit of only one goal. Some of us have more than one passion.
So who is right? What should we do? Focus or diversify?
Both gentlemen talk about passion. The Chai Wallah’s are passionate about their drink and, if you have that much passion, go for it. Many of us have many passions, some you can make a living at, and some you can’t.
As a serial wallah, I find that I can be passionate and focused on one path, and that path can lead to another cool path. Being masterful of one thing does not limit you, if perfects you.
It is possible to experiment with your passions: is it better to add a dash of instant coffee or cardamon on your chai? Once you decide, master it. Marcus Buckingham, of The One Thing You Need To Know, states that you should stop doing the things that you don’t like doing, so that you can focus more of your time on the activities you are passionate about. Find out what gets your juice running and focus.
Small inspirational stories help you to build a dream (I cleaned it out of my drawer from AdvantEdge, Nightingale-Conant, 2004):
When I was researching the history of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge as a major illustration for the ideas of success and motivation, I became engrossed with the story of how the first bridge was built over Niagara Falls. You see, to build a bridge over a giant gorge, first you have to get a line over the canyon, from one side to the other. Easier said than done at Niagara Falls.
The engineers couldn’t cross the falls in a boat to take the line from one side to the other because the boat would go over the falls. And the airplane hadn’t been invented yet. The distance was also way beyond the bow-and-arrow range, which had been a common method at the time of getting the first line across to build a bridge.
The designing engineer, Charles Ellet, pondered the question until he came up with a revolutionary idea. He decided that, while solving the problem, he would also have some fun and generate some publicity for the project. Ellet sponsored a kite flying contest and offered five dollars to the first person who could fly a kite across the gorge and let it go low enough to the ground for someone to be able to grab the string. In 1849, five dollars was a prize similar to a small lottery today. The boy who won the price relished his accomplishment until his death, nearly 80 years later.
It all began with an idea and one thin kite string. The kite string was used to pull a cord across, then a line, then a rope. Next came a iron-wire cable and then steel cables, until a structure strong enough to build a suspension bridge was in place.
I’m stuck by how that string is like a single thought. the more vivid and clear the thought, and the more you come back to it, the stronger it becomes–like the string to the rope to a cable. Each time you rethink it, dwell on it, or layer it with other thoughts, you are strengthening the structure on which you build your idea, like building a bridge over Niagara Falls.
But unlike a kite, there is no string attached to how high and how far your goals may take you. They are limited only by yhe power of your imagination and the strength of your desire.
Source: The Psychology of Motivation by Denis Waitley.
I am still trying to get rid of the STUFF cluttering up my office and I was distracted by TED.com. I stumbled on a short talk by Richard St. John speaking on “Success is a continuous journey.”
How do they relate?
I think that if I continued on the path of success, I wouldn’t have so many unfinished projects on my list. I am looking forward to clearing out my success path and getting walking.
I was looking to write a post on clearing, since I was clearing my office, and I found an article about the Mobius strip by Parker J. Palmer, that I
thought enough about at the time to rip out of the magazine and hold on to the perspective.
The article asks questions related to what we are putting “out there” and what we are letting “in here.” When I was clearing all the extra paper out of my office, it was a metaphor, for me, to what I am allowing to enter my space–my head and my office.
Mr. Palmer has the reader cut a strip of paper from a piece of paper for a visual reference. One side of the paper represents your outer affect–your image, influence and impact. And the other side represents your inner life.
As we pass through to adulthood, we gradually bring the strip of paper to our eye level so that it becomes a wall. Our inner life–feelings and vulnerabilities–is protected by our outer self. We can feel that the world is a dangerous place and we hide the most fragile parts of us.
At some point, we can feel isolated from our true self–from our truth–and we integrate our outer facade with our inner yearnings.
With some soul searching, we can create a life on a Mobius strip. (Here’s where our visual aid comes in.) Holding the strip of paper with the ends in each hand, twist one end half a turn and join the two ends together.
Holding it in one hand, trace one side with your finger. What you will find that what is inside becomes what is outside. The two apparent sides keep creating each other.
The message becomes clear:
“Whatever is inside us continually flows outward to help form, or deform, the world–and whatever is outside us continually flows inward to help form, or deform, our lives. The Mobius strip is like life itself: here, ultimately, there is only one reality.”
There is no place to hide. “We are constantly engaged in a seamless exchange between whatever is “out there” and whatever is “in here,” participating in the creation of reality, for better or for worse.”
Understanding this has helped me to purge a lot more “out there” so that I can enrich and simplify what is going on “in here.”
As T.S. Eliot suggested:
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
From Your Soul’s Journey to Wholeness by Parker J. Palmer, Spirituality & Health , September/October 2004
Tags: inner work, mobius strip
In working with successful clients, I have been looking at the two definitions for fulfillment:
Webster’s has:
1 : the act or process of fulfilling, which leads to
Fulfilling- -
1 archaic : to make full : fill <her subtle, warm, and golden breath…fulfills him with beatitude — Alfred Tennyson>
2 a : to put into effect : execute b : to meet the requirements of (a business order) c : to bring to an end d : to measure up to : satisfy
3 a : to convert into reality b : to develop the full potentialities of
2 : the act or process of delivering a product (as a publication) to a customer
Whether you look at the self-fulfillment of your potentialities or the fulfillment of a customer order, they both seem to come at the end. They are not so different.
What if fulfillment were only the beginning?
In business, when we fulfil a customer order, we now have the opportunity to begin a relationship that can lead to more and more fulfillment, for both you and the customer.
In your self, developing your potentialities, you now begin to live your true and precious life.
What is your next step after fulfillment?
Tags: finding perfect, fulfillment
Today is e.e. cummings birthday. Expose yourself to some perfect lines:
follow no path
all paths lead where
truth is here
Tags: e e cummings, poem, poetry
