Enjoy The Silence

Simple. Life threw us all into a pool of vulnerability and forced us to experience things like never before. Our responses and reactions to global events of the past 18 months have varied but there's no doubt that it has given us a chance to see ourselves in a new light.   “Who you are is how you lead.” Brené Brown I remind people of this fact every time I facilitate a Dare to Lead™ program. We might have fooled ourselves into thinking we had separate work and home personas before but the pandemic proved it was a fallacy. It only made sense for me to take a deeper look and reflect on who I am and the summer felt like a perfect time. I invite you to join me in this personal learning experience and explore the 10 Guideposts from The Gifts of Imperfection. Start by taking Brene Brown's wholehearted inventory Then listen to the Unlocking Us Summer Series Podcast, (This article is about Episode 3). Share a response to this article or write your own! https://open.spotify.com/episode/6WwScZEpyU3YrsLFI9cq7m Key insight #1 Key insight #1 from this episode. A joyful life is attainable when we can appreciate simple moments and practice gratitude. Were you able to connect to the simple things during the pandemic - having dinner together, cooking new dishes, having more game nights? All of it happening because we couldn't be anywhere else but in our house with each other. There's joy to be found in these simple moments. And the power of practicing gratitude in those moments…

It's the end of another strawberry season in Ontario. I've purchased this fresh, delicious fruit at our local market for the past four weeks. When you buy fresh produce in bulk amounts like this, you're inevitably going to see a variety of odd shapes. I’m washing a pint of these yummy red delights and I look down to see the strangest formation. I smiled at its uniqueness and thought this one is going to taste great as I popped it in my mouth. Meanwhile, the kitchen speakers start a new podcast from my playlist and next thing you know it's Brené Brown and her sisters talking about the gifts of imperfection. Hmmm. Was the universe sending me a message or what??!! I took that strawberry as a sign. How well do I embrace my imperfections? I think pretty well but now feels like a better time than any to explore it further. So, I dusted off the book The Gifts of Imperfection, head to Brene's website to complete the wholehearted inventory and commit to following the Gifts of Imperfection summer series on the Unlocking Us podcast.   https://open.spotify.com/episode/2cZSnElaA0B8K2lV5RS47b I’m inviting to you join me on this endeavour. Wherever you are on your journey in life there is much that can be learned exploring the 10 Guideposts from The Gifts of Imperfection. Each week I'm going to share my own personal reflections on the guideposts discussed in the summer series podcast with the hopes that we elevate connection and relish in our common humanity. Guidepost #1 I started off with a…

In my previous corporate life, one of the roles I had was a sales manager. I would regularly spend a day with each of my sales reps in turn. At the end of that day, I would always follow up by sending them a coaching letter which would usually only take me ten minutes to write. One day, as I sat behind the desk in my home office, I laboured for two long hours to produce that letter. Not because there was anything contentious or sensitive about what I had to say, but simply because I was struggling with cognitive overload: my brain was being forced to make a decision and use more energy than it was physically capable of in that moment. Friends and family had been telling me that I wasn’t ‘fine’ for a long while, but I was convinced otherwise. I just figured that how I was feeling was all part of the unending work cycle of decision making and action taking just to meet targets in the face of information overload and ever shorter deadlines. Which productivity are you focused on? We are used to a particular way of measuring productivity; it’s part of what I call industrialized thinking. In that view of the world, productivity is simply about how much work you can do in a certain amount of time. It’s a logic that also says that if a job takes one person 90 days to complete, you could give it to 2 people and have it done in 45 days, or – as is more often the…