Don’t Be Jealous, Ladies

I’m traveling through the Singapore airport today and noticed in the men’s restroom that the urinals (manufactured by Laufen) all have pictures of a fly painted in them to give the men something to aim at.

After some research, I learned that this seems to have originated in Amsterdam and that the fly in the urinal reduces “spillage” somewhere between 80%-85%.

Don’t know about you, but I’m getting out the paint and putting one in the boys’ bathrooms as soon as I get home.

Taking a Stand

I’m an expat living in Thailand, and I believe that this requires me to change certain behaviors that are normal and comfortable to me in order to be culturally sensitive.  When the Thai national anthem or the king’s song plays, everyone is supposed to stand (including foreigners) out of respect.  If I hear either song, I stand.  It’s a sign of respect to the country that is allowing my family to live on its soil.

In the mornings when I’m in town, I walk the kids to school, and my habit has become that I sit for half an hour or so doing my quiet time in the school’s courtyard.  At 8:00a, the large Thai school across the street from our school plays the national anthem.  I always stand, but many times, I’m the only one.  The other foreigners typically continue their conversations, and even the Thais working at our school only stop what they are doing occasionally.

Standing is a simple gesture, but when you are the only one doing it, it’s easy to feel foolish.  I look around at everyone doing their own thing, and I wonder, “Am I over-doing this respect thing?”  “If no one else is doing it, maybe it’s not really expected.”  “I wonder if they are laughing at me.”  “Maybe they are thinking that I’m being pretentious.” “Does it really even matter if I stand or not?”

After all, there are plenty of excuses for not standing.  The music is a little hard to hear.  It’s not  playing at our school.  We aren’t Thai.  The Thais don’t even stand sometimes.  No one seems to care.  I’m having a conversation.  I’m tired.  My leg hurts…

I had an experience like this today, and I spent some time thinking afterward.  Being a Christian is a little like standing for the Thai national anthem.  When you take a stand for God, you will often look foolish to the world around you.  You are standing for music they may not even be able to hear and for reasons that they don’t particularly understand.  Even some of the Christians around you aren’t taking a stand for God.

It’s easy to second-guess yourself. “Am I being too strict about the movies my kids watch and the music they listen to?”  “Am I naive to think my kids could possibly make it to marriage without having sex?”  “Am I throwing my money away when I tithe to the church?”  “Am I being pretentious by claiming that there is only one Way into heaven, and His name is Jesus Christ?”

These doubts and questions are part of the cost of taking a stand for God.  If it were easy, everyone would do it, right?  Of course, God could strike down anyone who didn’t take a stand, but He doesn’t.  He doesn’t, because then EVERYONE would stand.  They wouldn’t be standing because they loved the Lord; they would be standing out of fear and compliance.  Those aren’t the types of followers God is looking for.  He loves us too much to force us to “love” Him back.

When you take a stand for something, you have to be willing to pay the price.  Without cost, there is no sacrifice.  As King David said when Araunah offered him his threshing floor, oxen, wood and wheat for free in order to make an offering, “No, I insist on paying the full price. I will not take for the LORD what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing.” (1 Chronicles 21:24)  The value of the sacrifice is tied to how much it costs you.

The foolishness you sometimes feel when taking a stand for God is part of your sacrifice.  But you can take comfort in this Scripture:

For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.

(1 Corinthians 1:25)

One day, every stand you took for the Lord will be seen for what it was -  wisdom, love, honor, respect, readiness, strength, adoration, devotion, courage, faith…  Insist on paying the full price.

Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. Do everything in love.

(1 Corinthians 16:13-14)

 

All Experts Were Once Beginners

When you recognize this simple fact (that all experts were once beginners), you begin to have a little more patience dealing with those around you.  I’ve shared the following “Competence Cycle” with you once before, but it’s so important, it’s worth revisiting.  As people learn how to do new tasks, they will go through four predictable stages related to their confidence and competence.  The leader’s role is to help them progress through the four stages without damaging their self-confidence or causing too much risk to the those around them.

Stage 1 – Unconscious Incompetence
At this stage, the performer has little concept of what the task is actually going to entail. He is incredibly excited about it and feels enormous confidence that he is up to the task.  The problem is that this confidence is rarely based on reality.  The confidence comes from ignorance of the skills, knowledge and hard work necessary to complete the task.  Often, performers feel that success in previous endeavors will guarantee success in this one.  Sometimes they are right, but most often they are not.

Stage 2 – Conscious Incompetence
This stage is typically a huge letdown for the performer.  The high expectations he/she had have not materialized. The task is harder, bigger, less glamorous, more work…you name it.  They’ve made a big step, though.  Just recognizing that you don’t have the skill set or knowledge for the task is the first step toward getting them.  Now they know what they don’t know.  As long as the performer doesn’t regress to Stage 1 (i.e., go into denial about the skills and knowledge he needs), you’ve got him right where you want him.  Now that he knows he won’t be the next prodigy, he will typically be much more teachable.  What he needs from you is encouragement.  His confidence has been dealt a blow, and he needs to know that this is a normal stage…that all experts were once beginners. Keep the end result in front of him to motivate him through this stage.

Stage 3 – Conscious Competence
Progress has been made.  The performer has developed the competence to be able to perform the task.  The problem here is that the performer has to really concentrate on the steps to get it done.  She will typically be hesitant and afraid of making mistakes.  She might over-think the process, leading to avoidable errors and frustration.  Your role as the leader will be to be patient and allow her plenty of practice.  She may need a pep talk from time to time to remind her of how far she has come.  This is a necessary stage.  If she starts making too many mistakes in a row, her confidence could be seriously damaged. Give her a break so that she can get her mind off all the steps.  When she relaxes, she will perform better.

Stage 4 – Unconscious Competence
Eureka! You’ll rarely recognize the transition from Stage 3 to Stage 4 when it happens, but you’ll be able to see it in retrospect.  One day, you’ll observe the performer, and she will be performing the task without even thinking about it.  Be sure to point it out to her, because she probably won’t have realized it yet.  The beauty of this stage is that the new skills and knowledge have been integrated into the performer’s skill set.  She is now the expert that she originally set out to be!
Let’s see if this applies to even the incomparable Michael Jordan, leader of the six-time national champion Chicago Bulls team of the 90s.   Most would agree that, at the top of his game, Michael Jordan was Unconsciously Competent at basketball.  He could do just about anything he pleased on the court.  He didn’t have to count the number of steps before he made a lay-up (everyone knows he flew from half-court).  He didn’t have to think through his set-up before making the game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer.  He just did it – Unconscious Competence.

But remember, all experts were once beginners.  There was a time that MJ thought he was better than he really was.  He had the natural talent, but it wasn’t disciplined.  Going into high school, MJ was Unconsciously Incompetent about playing basketball.  Want proof?  Did you know that his game was so undisciplined that he was cut from his sophomore team?

It was a real wake-up call for him, and he moved immediately to Stage 2 – Conscious Incompetence.  But instead of letting that setback defeat him, he used it to motivate and challenge him to move through Stages 3 and 4 until he became the face of basketball (and Fruit of the Loom, and Gatorade, and Nike, and MCI, and …).  He lit up college basketball, was drafted as the #3 pick to the pros after his junior year and reached the pinnacle of his career by winning three, back-to-back national championships with the Bulls.

Then, full of the confidence that comes with incredible success, he decided that the skills that made him the best in professional basketball would also make him the best in professional baseball.  But being an expert in one field doesn’t make a person an expert in all fields.  The expert turned beginner, and MJ had to start the cycle all over again.  First, there was excitement and over-confidence.  Then, a major letdown as he got stuck in the minors with the Birmingham Barons.

Sometimes Stage 2 is enough to convince a performer he is better suited for something else.  MJ decided the following year that basketball was what he was really suited for, and he returned to help the Chicago Bulls win another three back-to-back championships.

Pick any expert in any field, and you’ll find that none of them were born that way.  Even the prodigies had to hone and shape their talent.  If it’s true for the most talented, it’s true for the average performer.  The best leaders know this and meet their performers where they are at.

The Performance Pill

Got a team member who’s a pain in the neck?  Struggling with an employee who gives you headaches?  Suffering some heartburn after hiring someone to fill a position on your team?  You’re in luck!  The clinic is open, and the doctor is in!

Much of the time, we address the symptoms of our problems (the pain in our neck, the headache, the heartburn) rather than their sources.  That approach gives temporary relief, but it usually creates more problems than it solves in the long run.  For example, taking an aspirin deals with the headache, but it does nothing to deal with what caused it.  The headache may have been the warning sign of a more serious problem.  A band-aid may cover up the bruise, but if we keep banging our knee, the bruises will keep popping up.  Dealing with sources rather than symptoms will lead you to better solutions.

I’m going to make a bold claim.  Any performance problem you are struggling with on your team can be traced to one of five sources.  Knowing these sources helps you to quickly diagnose your problems and prescribe treatment.  Together, these sources make up the Performance Pill, a tool for curing what ails your team.  Let’s look at each source individually.  (You’ll notice I’ve taken some rhyming license to make these fit together.  Please don’t accuse me of malpractice.)

INSTILL
“Instill” problems occur when we fail to instill our performers with expectations, knowledge and feedback related to their work.  Many times, our expectations are silent.  We forget to make them clear at the beginning of a task, or we assume that the performer should know them.  Sometimes the performers don’t have enough information to do what we ask them to do.  And sometimes, we neglect to give them feedback about a task to let the performer know if they are on the right track or not.  The solution rests solely on our shoulders for this type of problem.  If we haven’t equipped our performers with expectations, knowledge and feedback, we’ve set them up to fail.

SKILL
“Skill” problems occur when performers have not yet developed the talent to do the task.  The solution is simple.  The performer either needs training or practice (with lots of feedback).  But be careful…this is the most common misdiagnosis for performance problems.  Managers love to send their performers to training to “fix them.”  Why?  Because it’s easy, and someone else will do it for me.  It may be easy, but it’s also expensive – in money, in time and sometimes in your relationship (not everyone wants to be sent to training).

HILL
“Hill” problems occur when an obstacle (something they can’t get over) blocks good performance.  The obstacle could be a system problem, a lack of authority, a policy or procedure, a lack of resources…  Even other people can become obstacles to good performance.  Whatever the “hill” is, it’s out of the performer’s control.  Either you or someone else with the authority to deal with it must move it out of the way.

WILL
“Will” problems occur when a performer doesn’t want to do what you want them to do.  People are not motivated to perform in a certain way for a variety of reasons, but they almost always have to do with consequences.  Sometimes people are rewarded for doing the wrong things.  Sometimes they are punished for doing the right things.  Sometimes, it doesn’t matter one way or the other what they do, because no one notices.  And sometimes it may matter, but it doesn’t matter enough to the performer.  The solution for “will” problems is to make it matter.  Find consequences (both positive and corrective) that the performer cares about, and implement them.  If appropriate consequences are already in place, intensify them.

REFILL
“Refill” problems occur when a performer does not have the ability to do the job or does not respond to increased consequences intended to improve “will” problems.  The solution is to “refill” the position with a candidate who does have the ability and the motivation to do the job.  However, avoid jumping to an early diagnosis in this area.  All other sources should be explored and addressed before coming to the conclusion that a performer is in the wrong job.

Feel better yet?  If not, take two and call me in the morning.

It Was the Shoes!

It was 2006, and Kevin Mench was inching up on the competition.  The Texas Rangers right-fielder found out mid-April that he had been wearing the wrong size shoes for years.  “Shrek” (as he was known by his teammates at the time because of his size 8 head) wears a size 12 1/2” shoe, but he had been cramming into size 12” sneakers since he was fifteen.

The revelation came after a recurring sprained toe forced him to miss five games early in the year.  The ball club sent him to a foot specialist, who quickly diagnosed what was cramping Mench’s style.  After the minor correction to his footwear, Mench began to pick up his pace.  Having failed to drive in a single run during the first ten games of the season, Mench drove in 27 immediately following the half-inch upgrade.  Even better, during the same timeframe, he dinged ten home runs (seven of them in a row and two for grand slams).

People change.  Circumstances change.  Maybe yesterday’s “perfect fit” for your team is now confining to them.  Some team members may have outgrown their jobs and need new challenges.  We know from data gathered by the Hay Group (from 500,000 exit interviews) that the most common reason your top hitters will go into free agency (how much mileage can I get from this metaphor?) is because they don’t have enough learning opportunities to develop their skills.  But give them some growing room, and watch them start to hit for the stadium lights.

Take new measurements on each of your team members on a regular basis.  You may be surprised at how much they’ve grown!

Urgency Addiction

Remember the days before text messaging, cell phones, Palm Pilots and “Crack-berry’s?”  Me neither, but it did exist didn’t it?  I mean, we used to communicate face-to-face in entire sentences without someone reaching for their holster.  Ah…those were the days.  People actually listened to each other – really listened and focused their entire attention on the other person.

But those days are gone.  Now we just have the illusion of focused attention.  As soon as ring tones sound or the belt starts to vibrate, we’ve lost our audience.  Even if they continue to pretend to listen to us, it’s obvious that their mind is on the incredibly urgent message that is just arriving.  You can tell by the vacant stare, followed by the eye-twitch.  If they don’t check their message soon, their eyes roll back in their head and they eventually lose consciousness.

What happened to us?  It’s simple, but it’s serious.  We’ve developed an advanced case of urgency addiction.  It’s understandable.  If someone needs us urgently, it makes us feel important.  We love being the problem solver.  And our teams, our peers, our bosses…they all love having us around even when we’re not around.  We are the poster children for dedicated, selfless team players.

Unfortunately, we’ve overlooked an important principle, and many of us are paying the price for it.  The principle is:

Today’s extra effort is tomorrow’s expectation.

In the beginning, everyone thought it was kinda neat that they could reach us whenever they wanted.  They appreciated our dedication when we took their call on our way home from work.  They apologized for contacting us during our training workshop.  They thought twice before using our cell number while we were on vacation.

But over time, our willingness to be accessible whenever and wherever raised the bar.  It’s no longer okay for us to get back with them after the meeting.  Now, they expect an answer within ten minutes or less.  If they can’t reach us by Blackberry, they call us.  If we don’t answer, they e-mail the person sitting next to us in the meeting.  If that doesn’t work, they call 9-1-1 and file a missing persons report.  When they find out we haven’t been kidnapped, they are indignant: “Where were you?  We ran out of paper clips, and work had to come to a halt until we found your key to the cabinet.”

This cycle never slows down.  The more accessible we are, the more accessible they expect us to be.  And like any other addictive disease, urgency addiction is progressive.  Our expectations get higher and higher.  We’ve developed a tolerance, and yesterday’s response time no longer satisfies.

And while we are busy being the hero, the dedicated team player, the always-accessible one…we don’t realize some of the negative side effects of our good deeds:

• Our direct reports are developing a dependency on us and becoming incapable of independent thought.
• Our boss, peers and customers (both internal and external) are making more and more invasions into our private lives.
• We are growing increasingly resentful of the demands on our time.
• We are actually creating more work for ourselves as we send out our responses that generate their responses that require our responses…
• We are polluting our time – never being fully present for any event.

We’ve got to slow down!  The long-term prognosis for urgency addiction is not good.  Burnout, fatigue, increased errors, disillusionment, resentment, damaged relationships…  These are just a few of the ultimate consequences.  The longer you wait to break the habit, the more difficult your detox will be (for both you and your enabling codependents).  Good luck.  (I’ll say a “Blackberry Prayer” for you during my next conference call.)

Passion and the Process

When famed composer Johannes Brahms was in his latter years, he announced that he would no longer compose.  His friends and adoring public were shocked and saddened by the news.  ”Why?” they asked him.  ”Why, when you still have so much beautiful music left to write?”

He explained that he was old and wanted to spend some time enjoying his last years. Who could blame him?  He had already given many years to his craft, making music that blessed so many.

And so, Brahms laid down his pen and spent his time visiting friends and pursing hobbies.  Those who were close to him said that he definitely seemed to have more spark since stepping away from the demands of being in the public eye.

And so it was that everyone was totally surprised a few months later when Brahms announced that he had just completed a new work.  ”But we thought you were going to retire…” they declared.

“I was!  I was!” he said, “But after a few days’ leisure, I was so happy at the thought of not writing that the music just came to me without effort!”

Ever been weary of well-doing?  Sometimes the pressure to do the thing you love to do takes the passion out of the process.  Everyone’s expectations for faster, better, more have made you forget how much you enjoyed doing a task just for the sake of doing it.

Maybe all you need is a break.  Can you take a time-out for awhile, go on a vacation, delegate the day-to-day part of the task to someone else, get someone to take a piece of it that you don’t like?  Maybe you need to lower your customers’ (internal or external) expectations.  Tell them that you’ll no longer be completing the task each day (or week, or month).  Let them know that you are going to scale back on the quality, quantity or speed a little.   Often times, you’ll find that you only thought they needed it at the level that you were producing it.

It’s important that you maintain your passion.  If you don’t, the quality, quantity or speed are going to suffer anyway.  You’ll find yourself resenting all the extra effort you put into it.  You’ll feel trapped by your own standard of excellence.  Before that happens, step back from the task and create some new boundaries for it or step away from the task so that you can get a clear perspective.

If it’s worth doing and it’s worth you doing it, we’ll wait for you to sort it out.

(S – Parts adapted from Braude’s Handbook of Stories for Toastmasters and Speakers, Jacot M. Braude, editor, Prentice Hall)

Starbuck-ese

Been to Starbucks lately?  Of course you have.  Have you noticed that you need to learn a new language just to order a cup of coffee?  They actually publish a guidebook for those of us who aren’t native speakers.  Here are some of the more colorful combinations you can put together.

• Triple venti skinny upside-down caramel macchiato (3 shots of espresso put in first instead of last in a large cup with nonfat milk, caramel sauce and vanilla syrup)
• Grande skim triple shot hazelnut latte, no whip (3 shots of espresso in a medium-sized cup with skim milk, hazelnut syrup and no whip cream)
• Half-Caf, Double Tall, Non-Fat, No Foam Latte (1 shot regular espresso and 1 shot decaffenated expresso in a small cup full to the top with steamed nonfat milk)
• Grande, quad, ristretto, nonfat dry cappuccino with legs (4 shots of espresso to go using only the sweetest part of the coffee in a medium-sized cup with more foamed nonfat milk than liquid milk)
• Doppio venti light ice unleaded Frappuccino con panna (2 shots of decaffeinated espresso on ice with whipped cream and only a little ice in a large cup)

Funnier than us trying to use this language is the look on the faces of the baristas when you actually get one of these out.  Ten to one they won’t have the foggiest idea what you are talking about.

Glossophobia

While speaking to students at Washington and Lee University, former Vice President of the United States Alben Barkley suddenly collapsed and died from a massive heart attack on April 30th, 1956.  As far as we know, he’s the only person to ever officially die from public speaking.  But considering the way people worry about and avoid it, you would think death was a much more common side effect.

The Book of Lists shows that the fear of public speaking ranks number one in the list of fears with most people.  Way above the fear of death, disease and showing up in public in your underwear is the fear of falling flat before an audience.  Unfortunately for those who suffer from glossophobia (fear of speaking in public), it’s a crucial skill to master for your career.  According to the Lamalie Report on Top Executives, 71% of top execs rank communication and presentation skills as the #1 ingredient in their effectiveness.

So, how do you feel about it?  Does the thought of standing in front of your peers make your hands sweat and the butterflies take flight?  It doesn’t have to be that way.  The following techniques will help you overcome the jitters.

Lower Your Expectations
Who said you have to be perfect?  Even expert presenters were beginners once.  They made mistakes and learned from them in order to get to the level of skill that you witness.  Aim for “adequate” or “average” the first few times, and you will relieve huge amounts of pressure.

Keep It Short and Simple
Audiences will always appreciate short presentations that get to the point.  Keeping your presentation short and simple makes it easier for you to remember and deliver, and it makes it easier for your audience to hear.

Visualize Success
Throw out all the mental images of failure.  Replace them with thoughts of succeeding wildly!  What you rehearse in your mind more often than not plays out in reality.

Change Your Self-Talk
If you hear yourself saying (or thinking), “I’m not good at public speaking,” or “I’m going to really mess this up,” it’s time to change your self-talk.  Give yourself messages about success, about your audience engaging with you, about everything going incredibly well…  Quit trying to be a self-fulfilling prophet just so you can tell us later that you told us so.  Above all, keep these two maxims in mind:

1. They genuinely want you to succeed. Really!  Audiences would rather see a good presentation than a bad one.
2. They don’t know what they don’t know. If you forget something, misquote a statistic, blow your closer…they probably have no idea…until, of course, you apologize for doing it – then everyone knows.

Know the Room
Before you speak, get into the room and check everything out.  Test the microphone, stand at the lectern, do a walk through of your presentation and see where you’ll stand…anything to help you get comfortable with your surroundings.

Memorize Your Opener
This will increase your likelihood of success at the beginning.  If you can develop momentum through a solid opening delivery, your fear will typically melt.

Fool Your Physiology
While your brain is telling your body how to act, it is also taking cues from it.  By doing the opposite of what your body expects to do when you’re nervous, you send the message back that you are calm and in control.  Here are a few methods:

• Breath deeply and slowly – During stress, our bodies switch to rapid chest breathing to increase the supply of oxygen.  Slow, deep breaths are a sign of relaxation.
• Hold something warm in your hands (like a cup of coffee) – Blood flow is directed away from your hands during stress.  Warming them up helps you feel more confident.
• Exercise – Muscles tense up when we are nervous.  Exercise relaxes them.
• Stand up straight – Fear tends to make us draw inward physically.  Holding your head up with your shoulders back counteracts this.
• Wet your whistle – You produce less saliva when nervous.  Keep water (room temperature, not cold) handy so that you can take care of dry mouth.

Greet Your Audience
Say hello to them individually.  Shake their hands.  Smile at them.  You’ll build rapport with them, and you’ll reinforce your belief that they want you to succeed.

Pick Out Friendly Faces
Scan your audience for someone who is smiling, nodding in agreement or looking attentive.  Block out anyone who is sleeping, frowning or looking skeptical.

Prepare, Prepare, Prepare!
If you didn’t prepare, you have a legitimate reason to be nervous.  Spend the time needed to be familiar with your subject matter, but then back off.  Agonizing over your presentation right before you give it increases nervousness and mistakes.  You’re better off just reviewing a few key points right before you get up to speak.
Don’t let your fear of speaking in public derail your career.  Remember that “FEAR” stands for “False Expectations Appearing Real.”  Most of the tragic outcomes you imagine will never happen, so stop wasting brain cells worrying about them.  Instead, use that energy to make your point in a dynamic and compelling way!

Find Your Cadence

I once met a friend at a park for a lesson on how to get into cycling as a way of keeping healthy.  It was my one and only lesson (because exercise is a synonym for pain in my dictionary), but I learned something important that I have totally failed to apply during the many years since.  Seeing my lack of experience right off, he gave me a piece of advice:

“Find your cadence.”

He went on to explain that I was jerking the pedals in a very inconsistent pattern.  They key to burning calories efficiently and without injury is having a smooth, consistent motion at a relatively swift pace (more than 50-60 revolutions per minute).

Honestly, I haven’t thought about his advice much since then.  I rarely get on a bike.  (Who has the time?)  But I thought about it this morning as I was walking back from taking the kids to school.

My life is often an off-balance, inconsistent, jerking-the-pedals kind of mess.  I’ve always prided myself in being a spontaneous, hands-off-the-handlebars kind of person (INFP for those of you who are familiar with Myers-Briggs).  I hate to be scheduled; I hate routine; I like to stay up to all hours of the night…I just love the enormous possibility of a day free from obligations.

But as the years have gone by (I’m 39), living la vida loca is starting to take its toll in repetitive stress injuries.  My body now pays triple what it used to cost me to stay up past midnight.  I never feel like exercising.  I’m always tired.  I’m hopelessly behind on my to-do list, and my spiritual disciplines are somewhat undisciplined.

I find that I’m always trying to play catch-up….in my finances, in my relationships, in my work, in my spiritual life…so I take the turns of life at breakneck speeds and load my bicycle down with all kinds of good intentions.  Then every once in a while, I crash with an illness that lays me out until my body can repair the damage I’ve done.  This is no way for a mature, father of three and husband of one to live.

So, what occurred to me as I walked home this morning is that I need to find my cadence.  In other words, I need to find the rhythm and the pace that I can sustain long-term, and I need to stick to it.  I’ve been making half-hearted efforts at this for years, but I’ve lacked the discipline to keep it up and I’m pretty sure that Satan has been doing his best to interrupt my cadence whenever possible by throwing hazards on the road right before I get there.

The key to this working, I’ve realized, is that I need to select a lower gear.  I’m wearing myself out trying to pedal at top speed in a gear that’s too hard for me.  I need to stop trying to do so much that I’m always behind.  I need to forgive myself for what I didn’t accomplish yesterday.  I need to stop trying to catch up and just start fresh wherever I’m at.  Most of all, I need to listen to the messages my body is sending me and get more sleep so that I’ll have the energy to handle whatever challenges the day brings.  Rhythm and rest.

This is more journal than blog.  My apologies.  Hope that maybe it helps you find your own cadence.