3 resources to amp up your success on your own terms
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Change management & wellness
In this month’s Rock.Paper.Scissors’ newsletter I review Danielle LaPorte’s hot new book, The Fire Starter Sessions. Stay tuned for the next blog post about funny resources related to success, read the last post with the entire review & keep reading for some resources that will help you amp up success on your own terms.
Read the entire newsletter here or download a hard copy of the article. Not already receiving our free monthly newsletters? Whatsamatter you? Sign up here.
- If you’re thinking this is too good to be true, or it’s simply self-serving & new agey, you’ve got to check out Shawn Achor’s TED talk – The happy secret to better work. We are better people, employees, entrepreneurs, mamas/papas, friends & community folk when we’re happy (which leads to success). For real.
- I recommend you read Danielle’s whole book but if you’re pressed for time, check out her take on tyrant time & power time. This illuminating chart is directly from her book.
- Shine bright, be authentic & speak with conviction. Taylor Mali thinks we’ve lost the ability to speak with conviction, a key to success. Check out his powerful video below.
Tags: danielle laporte, fire starter, shawn achor, taylor mali, TED, time management
The Fire Starter Sessions – a soulful practical guide to creating success on your own terms
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Change management & wellness
In this month’s Rock.Paper.Scissors’ newsletter I review Danielle LaPorte’s hot new book. Stay tuned for the next two blog posts where I’ll share some resources related to the book’s theme of success.
Read the entire newsletter here or download a hard copy of the article. Not already receiving our free monthly newsletters? Whatsamatter you? Sign up here.
Danielle LaPorte, author of Fire Starter Sessions – a soulful practical guide to creating success on your own terms, is a change cheerleader[1]. She’s not about standing still or the status quo. She is sassy with an uncommon wisdom & depth. She’s taken a lifetime of incredibly diverse experiences (D.C. Think Tank leader, & personal audience with the Dali Lama) & distilled them with a razor’s edge & a poet’s flare.
Like the marrow that runs through all our bones, she cuts to the core & gets to the essence of what it means to be successful. What it means for you to be successful.
How good can you stand it? That’s a question a good friend asked me a few years ago and it’s rattled around in my brain ever since. The pradical (practical + radical) advice in Fire Starter Sessions gives you the tools to stand it something wonderful.
Like the turn of a kaleidoscope, Danielle’s words move the big picture of our lives and give us a whole new view. Ready? Here’s what she has to say about Mojo, Ease, Desire, Failure, How You Show Up in the World, Time, Money & more.
Mojo
Danielle says we need to tend to our desires with the same vigilance that we would give to the fire that cooks our food, warms our bones in the night & keeps the wolves away. She says our most valuable currency is what comes to us naturally and, dammit, we should cash in. What makes you feel useful, alive & strong?
Ease
Go for the metrics of ease. But be honest & make sure it’s quality easy versus cheap easy. Enthusiasm comes from the Greek word entheos, which means having the god within. Ease can be liberating. Suffering is optional. Have you been denying yourself ease?
Desire
Knowing how you want to feel is the most potent form of clarity that you can have. Generating those feelings is the most creative thing you can do with your life. When you’re clear on how you want to feel, your decision making gets to the heart of the matter. When you feel good you act smarter. So how about it, how do you want to feel?
Burning Questions
Danielle’s focus on concisely & precisely describing what we do is telling. Me, I love telling people I’m a tenacious transformer of learning. What do you say when someone asks what do you do? How do you feel when you say it?
No, thank-you, yes, please
The moment you say yes to acting on your desire is when things really start. If something feels right I’ll drive all night in a push-up bra to get there. And here’s the kicker – when something doesn’t feel right that’s reason enough. For those not in tune with their intuition, this may be hard to swallow. What do you need to listen up, listen hard? You know.
Make Stuff That Feels Good to Make
When we’re giving our best we’re artistic. Muses simply must be adored. They like to be respected. If you meet them halfway they’ll give you the moon. What do you love knowing about?
How you show up in the world
Danielle’s all about big real reframes; hauling your ass out of bed for a run becomes ‘connecting with the power of your body and tapping into your creative spirit.’ Cutting peoples hair in a salon becomes ‘a place where people heal and have bother inner and outer beauty witnessed.’ Waiting on tables transforms into ‘learning and teaching loving-kindness.’
She’s clear that we all have a brand. But before you cut loose & run in fear from that overused word, brands are soul packaging. Your brand is your driving force, your sense of purpose. It’s not about contributing an image that you hope will sell or be accepted. That’s what the managers of boy bands do. Your character, your brand, informs your image, not the other way around.
Afraid of turning someone off? Good! You will always be too much of something for someone; too big, too loud, too soft, too edgy. If you round out your edges you loose your edge. Your brand is your character in action. Danielle implores us to be opportunity magnets. How can you switch on yours?
Time
The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen all at once (Albert Eisenstein). Danielle hits the mark with her take on time management systems, which she says can suppress our own innate wisdom & cravings for vitality, especially when your to-do lists become more important than your fatigue. What’s a person to do? Assess tasks for their nutritional value. Think about your day so far. Which tasks have you done today that sustain you? Which ones exhaust you?
Money
I tend to think of money in the same way I regard time. It’s a form of energy. It comes & goes according to my intentions. The clearer my intentions, the more the money flows. Let the money follow the meaning. Part of determining your value is how determined you are to give value. Because conscious wealth has more value, what is your purpose for money?
Be the Giver
I am earnestly, unreservedly issuing this plea. Just be the Giver. Please. Be the generous one, the mentor, the adviser, the motivator, the donor, the donator, the one who cards. Find a way to make what you do matter for more people, or matter more for one person. Give someone a break. Give someone hope. Make a promise. Keep it. Over deliver. Open the door of opportunity; open your wallet. Open your heart, take out the love and hand it to someone.
‘nuf said. Start Now. I’ll figure it out is the mantra of choice. I just don’t know what to do is a buzz kill. Keep it pointed to where you want it to go. Do a little more of what you really want to be doing every day and a little less of what you don’t want to do until eventually your reality is brimming with the real ideal.
Lead your Life. Balance doesn’t exist but proportion & harmony do. When passion is a priority – passion for family, for vocation, for meaning – your energy intensifies.
So. Start Now. Success on your terms.
[1] In the spirit of true transparency, know that Danielle is a friend of mine & I was given an advance copy of the book to review.
Tags: danielle laporte, fire starter, success
The Journey Life Lens™ of Loie Fuller’s Danse Serpentine (1896)
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Change management & wellness
Personality traits are telling. So are assessments.
Compared to my last post, where a quote from Picasso encapsulated Destination Life Lenses™, this Danse Serpentine video, recorded by modern dancer Loie Fuller in 1896, symbolizes the view from a Journey Life Lenses™.
There are no straight lines with Journey Life Lenses™. Their process or journey changes as the need arises. Hence the flowing lines of the video (and the picture above).
Destination Life Lenses™ and Journey Life Lenses™ are opposites. Destinations want to get to the point while Journeys are concerned about the process.
Personality traits of a Journey Life Lenses™ on a good day:
- looks around
- eye on how things get done
- includes people in the process
Personality raits of a Journey Life Lenses™ on a bad day:
- unfocused
- doesn’t get anything tangible accomplished
- no direction
What’s your view?
~~TGIF- each Friday I rejig & re-post a blog entry from my www.life-lenses.com blog, which is about enhancing our perspective & worldview.~~
Tags: destination lens, journey life lens, loie fuller, perspective
3 ways to keep your composure when things go sideways … go with the ring .. er..flow
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Humor & comedy, Training & development
I’ve been doing training & development workshops, as well as training trainers, for a loooong, loveable time. And in that time, when I’m training trainers, I often get asked about all things related to keeping your cool & composure when things go sideways. In other words, how to feel like you’re in control when you’re not.
Because they will. Go sideways that is.
Despite your best efforts:
- one day you’ll get lost on your way to the workshop
- critical workshop supplies will somehow disappear
- microphones that you just did a sound check with will stop working. Or your client won’t let you do a sound check (which is an absolute guarantee that the sound won’t work).
- a bear will wander by your training room window
- a whale will jump next to your training room
- the heat won’t work (in the dead of winter & the controls will be in the hands of a bureaucrat … in another city)
- 50 people will be jammed into a room meant for 20
- a massive fireplace will be in the centre of the training room, necessitating you to hop back & forth so both sides of the room can see you during a 2 day training
- unbeknownst to you, 1/2 of your participants will be angrily waiting for you to start & wondering why you’re so late, while you’re working with the other 1/2 in another room (the workshop, in error, being publicized in two different rooms)
- your handouts will be forgotten to be brought to the workshop by the client
- you’ll be teaching a group where, for one person it’s their first day back on the job after brain surgery and for another it’s their first day back after recovering from being kidnapped
(These have all happened to me. Truly.)
So what’s a trainer to do?
- Don’t ignore the situation. Pretending it’s not happening won’t make it go away. Unless privacy issues are involved (see the last point above) talk to your participants about what’s going on.
- Don’t lose your sense of humour. It’s your best friend when everyone (you included) are shivering & hunkered down in a freezing room with hats, mitts & winter jackets on.
- Don’t try to change what can’t be changed. Or in other words, if you can’t fight & you can’t flee …. flow. Fireplace in the middle of your training room & you can’t change rooms? Go with it. Consider the exercise you’ll get hopping back & forth between both sides of the room while you’re training.
Want another example? One that incorporates all 3 suggestions above? Take a boo below. Pay attention to your reaction. By following the ‘3 don’t rules’ he comes off as very impressive.
Tags: composure, public speaking
The issue in a nutshell – moving is knowing in motion
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Change management & wellness, Training & development
Ouch!
From kids to grandmas,
From the boardroom to the classroom,
From the CEO to the front line worker,
We need to move.
We need to exercise our brains & our bodies.
Moving makes connections between our brains & our bodies,
Between our hearts & our heads,
Between our knowing & our doing,
Moving is knowing in motion.
Moving is learning by doing.
Movement is first hand learning.
Teaching is knowing movement Counts.
With a capital C.
Tags: experiential learning, learning by doing, movement
Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone ~ Picasso
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Communication
Personality traits are telling. So are assessments.
Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone, Pablo Picasso (1881-1973).
Could there be a more Destination Life Lens™ saying? I think not!
Personality traits of a Destination Life Lenses™ on a good day:
- focused
- eye on the goal
- get things done
Personality traits of a Destination Life Lenses™ on a bad day:
- intractable
- stubbornly focused on a goal when the goal is no longer relevant (or there’s a better one around the corner)
- bulldozer – ploughing ahead, ignoring process issues
What’s your view?
~~TGIF- each Friday I rejig & re-post a blog entry from my www.life-lenses.com blog, which is about enhancing our perspective & worldview.~~
Tags: destination lens, life lenses, pablo picasso
Crazy making bureaucratic, hair-tearing out form
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Communication, Training & development
Bureaucracy can move mountains. It can systematize what’s repetitive, streamlining processes & people with an elegance & ease that’s sorely needed.
Bureaucracy can be a pain in the arse. It can make the most simple things so complex that a triple PhD is required to navigate your way through it.
We all come into contact with bureaucracy.
Setting up shop in Kenya I’ve had more than my fair share of it. It took me 5 months to simply get my Smart Card at the local grocery store & don’t even get me started on how it’s been 7 months & counting since we’ve been waiting for our security reimbursement (realizing the both are firmly PPP problems, but that’s for another post).
We’ve had challenges getting credit cards issued here. They were ordered but never came.
Enter bureaucracy.
Note the above picture. See the bit where it says ‘you may not use this form to report that a card was lost, stolen or never received’?
Check out the bottom bit of the same form below.
Yep, the same form says ‘please replace my UNFCU card’ (see the picture below).
I felt like I was in one of those mazes where the exit sign was hidden. I checked with the banker guy, asking if we had the right form. When he said yes, I pointed out the discrepancy. He didn’t raise an eyebrow, merely assured me I had the right form.
Sigh.
Our cards finally arrived.
In the meantime it was a lesson in how to make something simple quite confusing…. something we can inadvertently do when we’re communicating (assuming our message is received loud & clear) &/or teaching (assuming participants know more than they do for example).
Figure out your equivalent of the crazy making bureaucratic, hair tearing out form & ditch it.
Note: PPP = privileged person’s problem
Tags: bureaucracy, communication
Four funny change management resources related to ‘Switch – how to change things when change is hard,’ by the Heath brothers
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Change management & wellness, Humor & comedy
In this month’s Rock.Paper.Scissors’ newsletter I review the Heath brothers book ‘Switch – how to change things when change is hard’. It’s a keeper. Check out the blog post where I review the book, see the blog post for resources related to the theme of change &/or keep reading for four funny resources related to the theme of change.
Regardless be introduced to the elephant that is living within you (& which plays a huge role in all your change efforts).
Read the entire newsletter here or download a hard copy of the article. Not already receiving our free monthly newsletters? Whatsamatter you? Sign up here.
The following resources, with tongue firmly planted in cheek, build on the themes in the book review.
- Because as the Heath brothers say ‘we’re all loophole-exploiting lawyers when it comes to our own self-control’ watch these kids in the famous (& hilarious) marshmallow experiment try to exert their self-control (watch for the kid at minute 2:48).
- Or see what adults look like when they try to do the same (watch the guy at 1:33 min).
- Speaking of elephants (our emotional side that needs to be motivated), watch this ‘who’s on first’ type video talking about the elephant in the room (2:06 min). Even robots have a hard time with them.
- People will do almost anything not to change. Even pay money (33 seconds).
Tags: change management, heath brothers, marshmallow experiment, switch
What is perspective? It’s like magic. When you live by yourself, all your annoying habits are gone! ~ Merrill Markoe
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Business & organizational development
It’s like magic. When you live by yourself, all your annoying habits are gone! ~ Merrill Markoe, U.S. television writer.
What we see as normal, natural and right can be annoying habits to others.
How quickly the view can change when the perspective changes.
What a Carrot Life Lens™ sees as beautifully organized can be a migraine inducing, impossible to understand nightmare to a Mountain Life Lens™. Conversely what is a grand vision to a Mountain Life Lens™ can be a vague, confusing mess to a Carrot Life Lens™.
What a Destination Life Lens™ sees as a clear, articulated goal to can be too narrow and constricting for a Journey Life Lens™. And what is a natural, unfolding process to a Journey Life Lens™ can be without direction and purpose to a Destination Life Lens™.
What a Go Life Lens™ sees as a fantastic, last minute opportunity can be foolhardy and impulsive to a Stop Life Lens™. What is beautifully reflective to a Stop Life Lens™ can be navel gazing to a Go Life Lens™.
Where a Head Life Lens™ sees facts and figures, a Heart Life Lens™ sees lack of soul. Yet what a Heart Life Lenses™ sees intuitively a Head Life Lens™ sees as lacking proof.
How do you see it? What’s your perspective?
~~TGIF- each Friday I rejig & re-post a blog entry from my www.life-lenses.com blog, which is about enhancing our perspective & worldview.~~
Tags: life lenses, merrill markoe, perspective
Change management resources related to ‘Switch – how to change things when change is hard,’ by the Heath brothers
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Change management & wellness, Conflict resolution
In this month’s Rock.Paper.Scissors’ newsletter I review the Heath brothers book ‘Switch – how to change things when change is hard’. It’s a keeper. Check out the blog post where I review the book, continue reading for resources related to the theme of change &/or keep an eye out for the next post which includes funny resources related to the theme of change.
Regardless be introduced to the elephant that is living within you (& which plays a huge role in all your change efforts).
Read the entire newsletter here or download a hard copy of the article. Not already receiving our free monthly newsletters? Whatsamatter you? Sign up here.
- Of course if you like the article then read the book. It’s one of my all time favourites.
- Check out former child soldier Emmanuel Jal’s ‘We want peace’ campaign. And do yourself a favour & watch the video below. While you’re at it, notice how your elephant reacts to the video (mine went nuts with glee.) I’m working with Emmanuel to do some educational activities for the concert & conferences. Exciting stuff to apply some of the concepts of ‘Switch’ to.
- Check out this post by Simon Sinek, author of ‘First Ask Why’ about another kind of elephant in the room – perspective.
- Watch this ‘Change is good – you go first’ video. Food for thought. The Heath brothers talk about how much we are influenced by our environment & by mere peer perception.
- Not convinced how susceptible we are to our environment? Check out this sobering video below that demos the bystander effect (3.36 min).
Tags: bystander effect, change, conflict, emmanuel jal, heath brothers, peace, simon sinek