Liisa Kyle's Blog

Sitting Too Much? Here’s a Healthier Way to Get Things Done

CCO creative commons image via pixabay

Many of us live sedentary lives, tethered to our computers or work benches.  Sitting hurts our health.  Besides making us fat, it increases our likelihood of  getting cancer — and doubles our risk of cardiovascular disease.  The more we sit, the less long we live.  (If you want the gory details, here’s a vivid infographic with some relevant research.)

Standing desks are an option but may be impractical or uncomfortable.

Thankfully, recent research has revealed a simple, easy, effective way to overcome the problems caused by excessive sitting.   The solution is to take five-minute movement breaks throughout the day.

In this study, researchers compared what happened when office workers spent the day sitting versus those who walked on a treadmill for 30 minutes a day.  It didn’t matter if they walked for thirty minutes straight or if they walked for five minutes, six times during the day.  Those who spent time moving during the day had more energy, less fatigue, an improved mood, and reduced food cravings than those who just sat.

Think about it:  assuming you are able-bodied and uninjured, walking for five minutes is easy to do.  If you work in an office you can walk to the rest room, the break room, the mail room, the photocopier, a co-worker’s desk.  If stairs are available, you can walk up and down a flight or two.  If you work at home you can walk around your home inside or out.  You can scamper about with your pets or put on a song and dance, if you feel so inclined.  Poof!  Five minutes go quickly.  And the benefits are many:  When you return to your desk, you’ve given your back, neck and shoulders a break from the hunched over computer position we all sink into.  You’ve got your blood pumping a wee bit, which gives you energy and lifts your mood.  You’ve given your brain a break.  Taking a few minutes away from the task at hand allows your creativity to burble on the back burner, inviting spontaneous ideas and solutions to erupt.

A five-minute movement break is easy to do and can yield many benefits — so why not try it?  If you take a mini movement break a few times a day, you’re counteracting the damage of sitting and you’re probably giving your spirits a lift as well. [Note:  If you are disabled or injured, a five-minute break of any kind has benefits.  To the extent you can stretch or shift your body, do so.  To the extent you can alter your physical location briefly, do so.  Look for creative ways to insert variety into what would otherwise be long stretches of sameness.]

Remember in high school?  At the conclusion of one class, a bell would ring denoting a few minutes to walk to your next class.  It probably felt good to stand up and move your body after sitting for an hour.  It was a visual break.  Possibly a social one in which you could greet friends in the hall or chat with a pal en route.  This walking break functioned like a mini reset button:  no matter what happened in the class before, there was a built in “refresh” process between classes.  It may have even kept you thinner.

When I began testing these mini movement breaks, I noticed a couple of unexpected benefits.  For one thing, my dogs love it.  They get extra attention and activity every hour on the hour.  For another, I saw a marked uptick in my productivity.  That’s because I melded the mini movement breaks with my Magic Hour Method to make progress on multiple priorities in a given day.  What emerged was a flexible strategy by which one can toggle among projects, alternating 55 minute focused work sessions with five-minute movement breaks in between.

Somehow, the five-minute movement breaks supercharged my work sessions.  Walking around for just five minutes between work sessions gave me fresh energy and a mental “reset” such that I found myself getting more done, more efficiently, with more ease.  I’m calling it Magic Hour Method 2.0

***The Magic Hour Method 2.0***

What follows is a technique to make progress on multiple projects while taking better care of your body.  It is designed to be flexible so you can adapt it to suit your own unique circumstances and preferences.

Step One:  Identify your priorities

What are your top priorities for the week?  Let’s say you want to spend time on work project #1, work project #2, marketing, and research.  (If you work at home, you may wish to add some personal projects or domestic responsibilities to the mix.)  Do what makes sense for you.

Step Two:  Choose an easy way to track your progress

The easier the better.  A low-tech approach is to assign a color to each priority.  (For example project #1 is blue, project #2 is pink, marketing is green, and research is orange).  Going forward, every time you spend 55 minutes of quality time on that activity, give yourself a colored star on your calendar.

If you prefer, use your phone, tablet, or computer to track what you do.

Step Three:  Apply the Magic Hour Method and Mini Movement Breaks to the mix.

When you sit down to work:

Remove or reduce likely distractions.Identify your top priority at that moment.Set a timer for 55 minutes.Spend this time engaged in quality, focused progress on your chosen priority.When the timer goes off, put a star on your calendar to record your progress.Set the timer for five minutes.  During this time, move your body.  Walk.  Stroll around.  If there are stairs handy, walk up and down them once or twice. When the timer goes off, identify your top priority at that moment.  This might be to continue what you did in step one, or it might be something else.Repeat steps 2 – 7.  Do this as much as many times as make sense, given your particular circumstances.

Adapt this formula to suit your needs and to accommodate rest breaks, meals, interruptions, and “things that arise that require your attention”.  You may wish to insert a shorter period to attend to smaller tasks (e.g. phone calls, answering your email) — or to time box things that tend to swell (like internet surfing and social media).  If you have the flexibility to do so, you might insert two minute meditation or stretch breaks as needed, for example.

What’s with the colored stars?

There’s something about chronicling your progress that is intrisically rewarding.  At the end of the day, you can see what you’ve accomplished.  It’s also a visual way to monitor balance.  By looking at the ratio of colors, you can assess, at a glance, what adjustments are needed going forward.  Maybe,  when you look at the stars at the end of the week, you see that “marketing” got short shrift.  You can give it more attention next week.

If you expand this approach to include personal priorities, you can easily detect your work-life ratio and make adjustments, accordingly.

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However you choose to adapt and apply this technique, it’s possible to make real, discernible progress on your top priorities, while taking better care of your health.  Try it and see for yourself.

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Want more tips and techniques on getting things done?  Check out my book  YOU CAN GET IT DONE:  Choose What to do, Plan, Start, Stay on Track, Overcome Obstacles, and Finish

Available here in hardcover, paperback, and eBook formats: http://bit.ly/YouCanGetItDone

***

Want to re-publish this article? Go for it – just include the author’s name, a link to this original post and the following text blurb:

Are you struggling with too many talents, skills, ideas? You may have The Da Vinci Dilemma! Find tools, fun quizzes, coaching, inspiration and solutions for multi-talented people at http://www.davincidilemma.com/.

Take an Information Vacation

By photo taken by flickr user *Micky* (flickr) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...)], via Wikimedia Commons

Are you an information addict?  A news junkie?  A social media maven?  A slave to your PDA or fancy phone?  The costs of this information addiction are well documented.  No wonder it’s becoming chic these days to ‘go off the grid’ for a period of time.  There are many good reasons to take breaks from the electronic aspects of our lives.  This is especially true for creative and multi-talented people (a.k.a. DaVincis).

Tim Ferriss, author of The Four Hour Work Week, advocates minimizing electronic assaults by taking an Information Vacation. No checking email.  No web surfing.  No Twittering or Facebooking or watching the news.  No laptop activities of any kind.  No PDA.  No TV either.  Worried about missing some important new story?  You won’t.  Hey, you even have an automatic conversation aid when talking with people:  “I’ve been away from the internet — what’s going on in the world?”

Some groups have been practicing a regular, weekly ‘down time’ for millennia.  An Orthodox friend told me how grateful she is for her religion’s practice of taking 24 hour ‘time outs’ once a week.  It’s how she copes with this mad, electronic age.  She doubts she could manage her work, parenting, community service and everything else she juggles without stopping each and every week to unplug and re-energize.

You don’t need to join a religious group to reap the same benefits.

Why Take an Information Vacation?

1.  To relax.

If you’re a multi-talented person, you’ve got an awful lot going on.  If you’re also battling information addiction, you’re putting yourself under even more stress.  Your mind and body need some high quality relaxation.  Once refreshed, you’ll be better able to tackle the many things on your creative plate.

2.  To take a break from negativity.

A lot of news and current events are horrible and depressing.  (If it bleeds — or grosses out — or titillates — or infuriates — it leads).  You owe it to your many talents to take a break from all that.  Particularly if you’re feeling blue or blah or otherwise out of sorts.  An Information Vacation is an effective Rx for many mood ailments.

3.  To refill your creative well.

Sure, you can get some ideas from the internet and television and your Facebook news feed.  But once your creative cup is full, all the extra data is just sloshing over the rim, making a mess.  By taking an Information Vacation, you can push aside all those outside voices and let your own creative ideas burble back up.  When you’re unplugged, you can simply daydream and let your creative spirit play.  Ah…isn’t that better?

4.  To re-energize.

At the risk of repeating the point, creative people are susceptible to the nefarious forces of many electronic media.  Information addiction saps our strength and drains us of creative energy.  When we silence the media cacophony, we allow our minds, bodies and spirits to re-energize.  If you’ve been feeling fatigued or exhausted with no real reason, try taking an Information Vacation.  Odds are high, you’ll regain your former verve.

5.  To reward yourself.

Many DaVincis are far too hard on themselves.  They rarely reward themselves and they don’t indulge in nearly enough fun. Ideally, an Information Vacation can be a guilt-free treat for all the good works you’re doing.  It’s a well-earned treat to do the unplugged things you love.

6.  To reconnect with people (and pets).

Information addiction can isolate you from the world. The more time you spend online the less you’re spending interacting with your friends, family and community members.  Socializing is a basic human need.  An Information Vacation allows us to reconnect with the people (and animals) who give our life meaning.

7.   To improve your health.

Reducing stress improves every bodily function.  An easy, effective way to enhance your well-being is to remove yourself for the stream of stressors known as the information highway.  Give your body a treat by unplugging, at least temporarily, from the electronic world.

How to Take an Information Vacation

Ideally for a whole day (or even for the whole weekend!) but if that’s out of the question, then at least pick one evening to unplug.  No checking email.  No web surfing.  No Twittering or Facebooking or watching the news.  No laptop activities of any kind.  No PDA.  No TV either.  Take some time to do ANYTHING else.  Read a book, have a nap, play a board game, listen to some music, make something, take a walk, meditate, try a yoga pose or two, make a nice meal & eat mindfully, catch up with your household members, go to a concert or play — the sky’s the limit.

Activity: List ten unplugged activities you enjoy

Activity: Select an evening or a full day (or two!) to unplug.  Schedule it. Prevent/avoid anything that would break or disrupt your appointment.  During your scheduled time, avoid your computer, TV, PDA — anything electronic. Instead, do any of the unplugged activities you enjoy.

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Check out my book  YOU CAN GET IT DONE:  Choose What to do, Plan, Start, Stay on Track, Overcome Obstacles, and Finish

Available here in hardcover, paperback and eBook format: http://bit.ly/YouCanGetItDone

***

Want to re-publish this article? Go for it – just include the author’s name, a link to this original

If you’d like to share or publish this article, you may, if you include the author’s name, a link to this original post and the following text blurb:

Are you struggling with too many talents, skills, ideas? You may have The DaVinci Dilemma! Find tools, fun quizzes, coaching, inspiration and solutions for multi-talented people at http://www.davincidilemma.com/.

Coulda Woulda Shoulda – PART TWO: How to Overcome Coulda Woulda Shoulda Thinking

By User:Vassil (File:Sépulcre_Arc-en-Barrois_111008_12.jpg) [CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...)], via Wikimedia Commons

Regrets often take the form of Coulda Woulda Shoulda thinking.  Part One of this article described the costs of Coulda Woulda Shoulda. Today, we’ll continue by discussing proven ways to overcome this pattern.

1. Recognize that everyone has some regrets in life – and see how they handle them.

You are not alone.  Look at how the people you know handle their regrets.  Of those, who would you like to emulate?  Uncle Biff who’s never ever gotten over that missed baseball in Little League – or Aunt Buffy who made and lost a million bucks and laughed her way through the process of making her subsequent million?

Look for inspiration in celebrities, too.  Growing up, Mel Brooks studied drums with the drumming legend Buddy Rich. Rich thought young Mel was a prodigy and was grooming him to follow in his footsteps. When Mel heard the siren song of comedy writing, Rich warned him he was making the mistake of his life giving up a promising career in music to mess around telling a bunch of stupid jokes. Brooks says that although Rich never forgave him, he never regretted the path he took.

2. Apply a statute of limitations.

What is it that’s got you stuck in Coulda Woulda Shoulda thinking? Write it down.  When did this event occur?  (Wait, how many years ago?!)  How much longer do you intend to brood over it?  Do yourself a favor by placing a limit on how long you let yourself dwell on what happened (or what didn’t happen).    (“Okay, I’ve felt badly about this for four years now.  That’s plenty.  Time to move on.”)

3. Do a reality check.

Most Coulda Woulda Shoulda thinking involves the implicit assumption that IF I would’ve done X (or not done Y), my life would now be much better, if not perfect.  The fact is, however, that’s not necessarily so.  If you would’ve done X (or not done Y), it’s not clear that you would have been successful.  Odds are slim that every single thing would have unfolded perfectly.  You don’t know what challenges or calamities may have befallen you along that untaken path.

Consider the notion that you made the very best decision and took the very best course of action available to you at the time, under those circumstances.

4. Appreciate your present circumstances.

Whatever’s going well for you now might not have been possible, had you taken that other path way back when.  List five things that are in your life now — or experiences you’ve had that you value – that you would NOT have if your Coulda Woulda Shoulda situation had turned out differently.  For example, a colleague was talking to me about a ‘golden opportunity’ she had — but didn’t take — to become a TV writer when she was 24.  She had been thinking of it as a regret…until she realized that had she taken that path, she wouldn’t have had her ten year corporate career, the experience of living in Europe for a decade, her current wonderful marriage and a host of other elements that make her a better writer and a better person today.

5. What lesson(s) can be learned?

Think about your Coulda Woulda Shoulda experience.  What happened?  What might you do differently in the same circumstances?  If you could go back in time and coach yourself through whatever happened, what advice would you give yourself? In what ways have you repeated your Coulda Woulda Shoulda experience?  For example, did fear stop you?  In what way are you still doing this today?  Does your Coulda Woulda Shoulda represent an obstacle with which you’re still grappling? What alternative solutions are there?

6. Revisit your dreams.

If you’re still brooding over something, odds are it involved an important dream – one that probably got deferred.  Ask yourself: is this still a dream or goal to which you aspire?  If so, how can you take steps towards achieving that dream, starting now?   If the dream is less attractive to you now, then give yourself permission to stop mourning what didn’t happen.  It could well be that you didn’t REALLY want what you thought you did.  For example, it could be that your earlier goal was something you (or someone close to you) believed you ‘Should’ do, rather than a true passion.  For example, maybe you didn’t get into Medical School…and maybe that’s a good thing.  The blood and gore and educational costs and long hours and lawsuits just aren’t that appealing.  Perhaps you didn’t get that movie role and now you’re grateful you have the privacy that you would have lost and that you now cherish, working behind the scenes.

Or it could be that you weren’t (and aren’t) willing to put in the effort required to make your dream come true.  Maybe it’s more of a it’s more of a fantasy than a life goal.  (Sure, I’d love to be a size zero…but I’m not prepared to undertake the chronic starvation, oppressive exercise schedule and probably surgery required to achieve that particular physique.)

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Activity:

Write down your Coulda Woulda Shoulda experience.How long ago did it occur?Have you brooded over it long enough?What lessons can you learn from what happened then? If you could got back in time and coach yourself through what happened, what advice would you give yourself?Ask others for advice.  Present the situation as an anonymous hypothetical.  Ask what they would do under those circumstances. Odds are, they may come up with new ideas, suggestions or perspectives.List five things that are in your life now — or experiences you’ve had that you value – that you would NOT have if your Coulda Woulda Shoulda situation had turned out differently.Is this still a dream or goal to which you aspire?  If so, how can you take steps towards achieving that dream, starting now?   If the dream is less attractive to you now, then give yourself permission to stop mourning what didn’t happen.

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For more, check out my book “GET OVER It:   Overcome Regret, Disappointment and Past Mistakes”. 

Available here in hardcover, paperback, and eBook formats:  http://bit.ly/GetOverItNow

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If you’d like to share or publish this article, you may, if you include the author’s name, a link to this original post and the following text blurb:

Are you struggling with too many talents, skills, ideas? You may have The Da Vinci Dilemma! Find tools, fun quizzes, coaching, inspiration and solutions for multi-talented people at http://www.davincidilemma.com/

Coulda Woulda Shoulda – PART ONE: Costs & Benefits

By User:Vassil (File:Sépulcre_Arc-en-Barrois_111008_12.jpg) [CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...)], via Wikimedia Commons

Everyone has some regrets in life.  What differs is how people deal with them.  When you regret something you did – or didn’t do – in the past, do you engage in wistful Coulda Woulda Shoulda thinking?  Do you fret about how things might have turned out differently “if only” you would have taken a different course of action?  If so, you’re hurting yourself.

I’m not talking about things you’ve done for which you need to apologize and make amends.  If there’s something you can do to address what happened in the past, by all means do so.  Instead, today’s topic refers to those decisions or actions you’ve made in the past about which you can do nothing to ‘fix’ the situation.

There are two main types of Coulda Woulda Shoulda situations – those involving things you did (decisions you made, actions you took, opportunities you attempted, your perceived ‘mistakes’, etc. – “if only I wouldn’t have done X…”) and those you didn’t do (missed opportunities, paths you didn’t follow, things you didn’t say when you had the chance, and so forth – “if only I would have done Y…”).  No matter what has occurred in the past, any Coulda Woulda Shoulda thinking about it takes a hefty toll on you and those around you.

 

Costs of Coulda Woulda Shoulda

1. Wasted time, energy, emotion & attention.

You can’t change the past so anything you spend dwelling on it is squandered.  Period.

2. Creates a “victim” or “blame” mentality.

Whether you are blaming yourself or others, you’re fostering a ‘victim’ mentality that is unpleasant and often painful.

3. Devalues all that you have now.

The more you’re focused on the past, the more you’re missing the present…and the opportunities to improve things now.

4. Makes you more negative.

The more you beat yourself up for what you did or didn’t do in the past, the more you kvetch about what might have been, the more negative you’re being in the here and now.

5. Hurts your relationships.

Do you enjoy listening to others bemoan the past?   No one else does either.  The more you express ‘Coulda Woulda Shoulda’ to others, the less delighted they are.  It’s especially frustrating for people who care about you – they are helpless to make you feel better. The more you dwell on things no one can change, the worse they feel.

Yet a lot of creative people engage in Coulda Woulda Shoulda thinking…so they must be getting some apparent benefits from it…

Apparent Benefits of Coulda Woulda Shoulda

1. It’s easy.

Coulda Woulda Shoulda means you are reliving the past, over and over – which is much easier than (a) trying to learn from what happened or (b) trying new approaches to those situations.

2. Saves you from taking risks (or any actions) today.

“Oh sure I *could* submit that article/reel/painting/proposal to X…but it didn’t work out last time I tried, so what’s the point of trying again?” Coulda Woulda Shoulda thinking is a false justification for succumbing to fear or pessimism or laziness.  It can paralyze your actions, squash your creativity and stifle your progress.

3. Protects you from further harm or disappointments.

The helpful part of your psyche uses Coulda Woulda Shoulda thinking to spare you repeating past painful experiences…yet by interfering with your current activities it is disrupting your present success and happiness.

4. Self-punishment

Do you believe that if you make yourself feel bad enough about what happened for long enough, that you will be absolved somehow?  It’s true that only you can forgive yourself.  And that you need to forgive yourself to move on.  You can do so now…or you can do so after twenty years of Coulda Would Shoulda self-flagellation.  The only difference will be twenty years of feeling miserable…unnecessarily.

5. Backhanded way of bragging about your abilities, while never (again) putting them to test.

“I coulda been a contendah!”  “I was rejected by Spielberg!” “The Random House editor loved my book but the bean-counters on the editorial committee nixed the offer.” This lets you and others see that you have been very, very close to greatness…once upon a time.

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Coulda Woulda Shoulda thinking can be very damaging to creative people.  We’ll discuss ways to overcome it in tomorrow’s post.

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Activity:

What causes you Coulda Woulda Shoulda thinking?  What regrets have you been holding onto for a long time?What does Coulda Woulda Shoulda cost you?What apparent benefits do you get from Coulda Woulda Shoulda thinking?  What are their hidden costs?Check out my book “GET OVER It:   Overcome Regret, Disappointment and Past Mistakes”.  Available here in hardcover, paperback, and eBook formats:  http://bit.ly/GetOverItNow

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What about you?  What costs and apparent benefits have you experienced in Coulda Woulda Shoulda thinking? Please tell us about your experiences in the comment box below.

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If you’d like to share or publish this article, you may, if you include the author’s name, a link to this original post and the following text blurb:

Are you struggling with too many talents, skills, ideas? You may have The Da Vinci Dilemma! Find tools, fun quizzes, coaching, inspiration and solutions for multi-talented people at http://www.davincidilemma.com/.

Growing your Talents

By Brideway Foundation [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...)], via Wikimedia Commons

Growth is good.  It doesn’t matter if you are a novice or a wizened expert, you have the opportunity to deepen and broaden your talents.  You can refine and hone your skills.  You can broaden your knowledge and your perspective.  You can collect new experiences in new situations.  You can blossom through new opportunities.

To the extent that you focus your attention on growing your talents:

you will inject new energy into your enterprisesyou are likely to improve or ease your effortsyou may have funyou might find new approaches, solutions, or connectionsyou could proceed in new, unforeseen directionsyou may cross-pollinate different projects, talents, and ideas

How to Grow Your Talents

This depends on your unique preferences and circumstances. How do you like to learn? What has worked well for you in the past?

If you enjoy more structured learning, the easiest, funnest way to grow is to sign up for a class or workshop.  Committing to a class means that you have a pre-determined time at during which you are devoted to learning. Whether in person or online, classes and workshops also provide the opportunity to interact with other people drawn to the same experience.

A similar approach might be to gather with people to share what you know and teach each other.  This might be once in a while or fairly regularly.  For example, I was part of an Artful Women’s Group that grew out of a metalsmithing class. We all loved working with metal…and, being DaVincis, we all enjoyed other creative endeavors as well — origami, textiles, painting, sculpture, you name it. We gathered once a month as an erstwhile Creativity Club.  Sometimes, we each worked on our own projects.  More often, we took turns teaching each other different skills and techniques. Occasionally, we’d make a day of visiting galleries together. No matter what we did, we had fun and our talents grew.

It worked well for us but would not for someone who prefers to learn solo.  If you prefer to teach yourself, or to learn from books, or to spend time researching things online, watching YouTube videos and/or otherwise figuring out things for yourself, then clearly these would be more pleasant and successful ways for you to grow your talents.

Whatever your interests, whatever your talents, there is a wealth of information and examples online — and countless opportunities to learn and grow.

My husband pursues photography buy finding ways online to keep growing, learning, and engaged. For example, he’s part of an online community that has weekly photography contests using specific assignments. Those who wish to post entries receive votes and feedback from others. It’s a fun, way to learn from others and provides regular challenges to grow in new directions.

You owe it to yourself to hone your talents. What would be the easiest, funnest most appealing ways to do so?

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Activity:  Take a few moments to consider the easiest, more appealing ways you can grow your talents.

Activity: Take a further few moments to make commitments to develop and grow your talents, going forward:  Sign up for a class or workshop.  Find an online or local group of people who share your interests.  See if there are books in the library or videos on YouTube or local events or exhibitions.  Make a regular appointment with yourself for the purpose of honing your talents.

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For more tips and techniques, check out my workbook  BE MORE CREATIVE:  101 Activities to Unleash and Grow Your Creativity

Available here:  http://bit.ly/BeMoreCreativeBook 

 

 

 

 

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Want to re-publish this article? Go for it – just include the author’s name, a link to this original post and the following text blurb:

Are you struggling with too many talents, skills, ideas? You may have The DaVinci Dilemma! Find tools, fun quizzes, coaching, inspiration and solutions for multi-talented people at http://www.davincidilemma.com/ .

 

Handling the Enemy Within

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By Image:Villianc.jpg, by J.J., released under GFDL.Vectorized by Gustavb using InkscapeBackground removed by User:Zzyzx11 [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...)], via Wikimedia Commons

Warning!  There may be an enemy lurking deep inside your brain. Do you have a little voice inside that is causing you damage? Do you have an inner saboteur that makes you doubt yourself, derail your progress, and/or otherwise create havoc in your life?  If so, join the club. As a coach, I work with smart, successful people, almost all of whom have one (or more) little tyrants inside of them that cause them to do things against their best interests.

You know yourself best.  Which of the following sound familiar?

The Fear Monger

Anything new is scary to our inner protector. Any change — even a good change — is regarded with anxiety and caution. On the plus side, The Fear Monger keeps us physically safe and prevent us from taking wild risks. On the down side, The Fear Monger keeps us riddled with doubts and insecurities. It keeps us questioning our talents, rather than enjoying them. The Fear Monger sucks all the joy out of the creative process. It keeps us paralyzed, fearing the future, rather than taking concrete actions today. The Fear Monger is particularly concerned about “them” and what “they” will say. (What will the critics say? I can’t write *that*! What will my mother say? What if my play bombs?  I’ll be a laughing stock. I’ll never work again.)  Also, the Fear Monger makes us demand constant reassurance from our friends, families, and colleagues:  this makes us draining and unpleasant to be around.

The Delayer

Perhaps the cleverest inner saboteur, the Delayer can find untold impediments to block our progress.  Symptoms may include a sudden urge to do chores. Or eat. Or nap. Or do more research. Or walk the dogs. Or surf the ‘net. Or consult with someone. Or check Facebook. The Delayer impedes our decision making:  we find ourselves hesitating to commit to a particular choice or option, let alone take action along a particular path. The less we do, sadly, the more frustrated and unhappy we become. We beat ourselves up, feel weak and ineffective and otherwise think poorly of ourselves.  This is heartbreaking for people who care about us.  For others in our lives — especially coworkers — The Delayer makes us undependable, annoying, and difficult to work with.

The Judge

The Judge is rarely satisfied. No matter what we do, our inner Judge knows we could have done it better. It’s the voice in our heads intoning, “This is not good enough.”  Ironically, we tend to do excellent work.  Because the Judge is picky with sky high standards, we tend to be conscientious, hard-working, and brilliant.  The downside is that we do so by putting tremendous stress on ourselves and those around us. We work frantically and joylessly, and seldom pause to acknowledge our accomplishments.  We assess every situation, every person, every thing we experience. The people around us find it uncomfortable to share with us, knowing that we are apt to assess and critique them.

The Distractor

This inner saboteur is adept at finding bright, shiny objects to dangle in front of us. We just get going on a project when suddenly, we are made aware something new that hooks our interest. The Distractor is a master at scattering our efforts in random directions so we don’t make sufficient progress in any one direction. The Distractor keeps us very, very busy — our lives are interesting and full — yet we don’t seem to be getting anything done and we always seem to be running late. Our friends, families, and colleagues get fatigued trying to keep abreast of whatever’s captured our fancy today.

The Quitter

You’re chipping away at something when you hit a roadblock. Before you can seek or implement solutions, The Quitter wails in despair, “We’re doomed! We’re done! We can’t go on!” We end up walking away from a perfectly viable project…or delaying it’s progress unduly. While the Quitter may make our lives easier in the short term, it dooms us to longer term dissatisfaction and unhappiness. The Quitter interferes with our efforts on things we actually yearn to do.  When we don’t do them, we can’t help but feel like failures.  We emit that ‘loser’ energy few people want to be around.

***

If one or more of these Inner Enemies is sabotaging your thoughts, work, or relationships, take heart:  You are not alone.  Many people face the same inner demons.  There are proven way to overcome each of them. Step One is to

 Recognize what’s happening.

Given the sneaky nature of these inner saboteurs, job one is to detect them. (Hmmm. Why haven’t I picked up my banjo in a month? Good grief! The Delayer strikes again).

Once you are aware that an Inner Enemy is operating, dig deeper. Be specific:  what messages is the saboteur broadcasting in your brain? What actions are you taking because of it? What actions are you avoiding? What impact are you having on the people around you, personally and professionally?

***

Activity:  Begin with the Inner Enemy that is causing you the most disruption right now. Clear 5 – 10 uninterrupted minutes to write out (or type out) answers to the following questions.

– Name your Inner Enemy.

– What messages is it broadcasting?  What thoughts is it generating? (If in doubt, scan your mind for any negative, painful statements about yourself that you can latch onto).

– What actions are you taking because of this Inner Enemy?

– What actions are you avoiding because of it?

– What impact is this Inner Enemy having on your personal relationships?

– What impact is this Inner Enemy having on your professional relationships?

***

2. Look for effective countermeasures.

To fight The Fear Monger, try these techniques.

To defeat The Delayer, try these approaches.

If you are in the clutches of The Judge, try this book.

To disrupt The Distractor, try these techniques.

The best way to conquer The Quitter is to take action. Pick something — anything — to do and move forward. Here’s how.

***

The goal is to get into the swing of recognizing and countering your saboteurs as they arise.  When you get adept at this, you may even laugh at them.  “Oh, there’s ol’ Distractor tempting me with another bright, shiny project.  Nice try, D, but I’m going to finish the thing I’m working on first.”

**

For more solutions, check out my workbook: YOU CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE:  A Workbook to Become the Person You Want to Be. Available here in hardcover, paperback, and eBook formats: http://bit.ly/ChangeYourLifeWorkbook 

*****

Want to re-publish this article? Go for it – just include the author’s name, a link to this original post and the following text blurb:

Are you struggling with too many talents, skills, ideas? You may have The DaVinci Dilemma! Find tools, fun quizzes, coaching, inspiration and solutions for multi-talented people at  http://www.davincidilemma.com/  .

Scattered?

By lylamerle (fridge magnets) [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...)], via Wikimedia Commons

Are you scattered? This is one of the biggest challenge for most DaVincis. The problem is twofold. First, there is a scattering of our cognitive activities.  Our thoughts ping around among many, random topics. We are interested in many things and easily distracted. Second, there is a scattering of our efforts.  Left to our natural tendencies, we end up doing random things, our efforts go in different directions, and we make minimal progress in any of these enterprises.

So what’s a DaVinci to do?

We can train ourselves to focus on one thing at a time.

It’s helpful to corral our ideas. Otherwise, we can be at the mercy of random, ever-changing thoughts. We can train ourselves to take charge of our minds in a couple of ways.

First, we can practice controlling our thoughts through meditation. This can be as simple as pausing a few times a day to close your eyes and ‘be’ for three minutes. Clear your mind. Breathe. As thoughts pop up, gently push them aside.  When you can reliably take control of your brain during these brief mini-meditations, you are taming your ‘monkey mind’. You are learning how to be the master of your thoughts, rather than at their mercy.

Second, we can use structure to focus our ideas on specific tasks.

One way to apply structure is to prioritize.  Rather than doing random things in a random order, be deliberate. What is most important right now?  Choose something on which to focus right now.

The next step is to select a period of time for this priority.  You could choose to focus on it for fifteen minutes.  Or an hour.  Or all day. Or all week. The duration will depend on your unique circumstances — just how important is this priority? What else is competing for your attention? What would be a realistic, achievable commitment, given what’s going on in your life? A particular creative project may be our top priority but we can only give it an hour a day. So give it an hour a day. Actually spend an hour a day on it.

Now, consider your second highest priority. How much time can you spend on it?  Fifteen minutes a day, three times a week? Great. Do so.

If you are reacting to this approach with skepticism — perhaps you doubt the utility of fifteen minutes commitments, for example –I encourage you to try it. Odds are you can get more done in fifteen minutes than you expect. Certainly, you can get more done in fifteen minutes than if you spend zero time on something. Fifteen minutes, three times a week gives you 45 minutes of progress.

What works best among my coaching clients is to select minimum time commitments that they absolutely, positively know they can accomplish. It’s an achievable promise to themselves that is gratifying to accomplish. If they do more than the minimum, that’s a happy bonus.

As DaVinci’s we have more than one thing going on.  The challenge is to find the right combination of priorities and time commitments that work for our personal and professional lives.

Think of these time commitments a ‘time boxes’: precious gifts you give yourself (and your priorities) on a regular basis.  Once your top priority ‘time boxes’ are established, you’ll make steady progress on what’s important to you AND you’ll have the have freedom to juggle other projects, tasks, and activities as needed.

For example, my own top priorities these days are writing, making jewelry, working out, and walking my dogs.  I’ve worked out a pattern of time boxes so that these things happen regularly throughout the week. (I also commit to fifteen minutes a day of domestic duties because, alas, my household isn’t going to run itself).  Once all these time boxes are in place, my schedule still has lots of gaps for professional and personal activities — and the flexibility to do whatever needs doing at a particular time.

It’s the flexibility of this approach that makes it effective for DaVincis.  Once you establish your time boxes, you can adjust them to accommodate whatever else is going on in your life.

Let’s say you commit to thirty minutes of practicing guitar every day. Let’s say you have a day job with rigid hours. What will work best for you? Practicing before work, after work, at lunchtime or some combination of the three?  Likely you’ll figure out the pattern that works best for you by trial and error.

For example, I know I’m going to write for at least an hour today. I like to write in the morning but I don’t have to.  If, say, a client calls with an urgent issue, I can attend to that when it arises, then defer my writing hour to the afternoon.

The other essential step in this approach is to monitor your progress. There’s something intrinsically gratifying about crossing a commitment off your list as ‘done’ or giving your calendar color-coded star for different activities. It acknowledges your progress and motivates you to continue the practice. It reinforces that you are doing more of what you want (and, by extension, less of what you don’t).  Bonus points if you reward yourself for your accomplishments.

If you jot down some specifics about what you’ve done , you can save yourself time doing similar things in the future.  For example, I keep a log documenting things like the gauge of wire and the diameters of mandrels I use in making particular jewelry pieces. (I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to look up my notes to fabricate something I was SURE I would remember. Yes, I could figure it out again but it’s much faster and less irksome to simply flip back a few pages and read what I did before).

Perhaps more importantly, when you make a regular practice of monitoring your progress, it makes it clear when things are not getting done. An absence of colored stars on your calendar or a dearth of notes in your documentation logs makes it much harder for things to slide of the rails. Without monitoring, distractions have a way of kidnapping your attention and efforts such that a month later you find yourself asking, “Um, when was the last time I did X?” and/or “Why did I stop?”  Instead, ask yourself proactively: how can I easily keep track of my progress on my time boxes?  Start monitoring your activities and, should you notice any lapses, take action to correct your course.

If doesn’t matter how much you’ve got going on:  you CAN make focused progress on what’s important to you. If you find your thoughts or efforts are scattered, pause and regroup. Focus your thoughts.  Prioritize.  Figure a way to time box your efforts, given your circumstances. Monitor your progress. Acknowledge your accomplishments and make adjustments as you go.

***

For for tips and techniques to be more productive, check out my book  YOU CAN GET IT DONE:  Choose What to do, Plan, Start, Stay on Track, Overcome Obstacles, and Finish

Available here in hardcover, paperback, and eBook formats: http://bit.ly/YouCanGetItDone

***

Want to re-publish this article? Go for it – just include the author’s name, a link to this original post and the following text blurb:

Are you struggling with too many talents, skills, ideas? You may have The DaVinci Dilemma! Find tools, fun quizzes, coaching, inspiration and solutions for multi-talented people at http://www.davincidilemma.com/ .

Wanna Play?

By Peter Wadsworth (Flickr) [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...)], via Wikimedia Commons

Every morning, my Labrador prances into the kitchen with his favorite toy in his mouth. He pounces up and down, wiggles his butt and wags his tail. Without words, he is very clearly communicating, “Dude! It’s playtime!”

To what extent do YOU play? A surprising number of DaVincis don’t play very much at all. We are juggling so many projects, ideas, and life demands that we don’t allow ourselves much, if any, playtime. If that sounds like you, please read on.

Play is important. It’s fun. It gives us energy. It sparks ideas. It enhances creativity. It gives us joy.  Every young mammal plays. It’s part of being alive. Of interacting with others. Of learning new behaviors.

What happens among people, however, is that many of us are told, at some point to “grow up”. To “get serious”. To “stop playing around”.  Most of us bow to societal pressure. Some of us impose restrictions on ourselves — limiting our playtime or doling it out it a miserly fashion, perhaps as a reward for certain achievements.  At some point, many of us just don’t play any more.

How about you?

First, what do you consider “play”. What’s fun for you? What are your favorite ways to play?  My client Janet loves to dance.  Hank adores computer games. James likes flying kites. Kim enjoys surfing.  I get a kick out of playing hide and seek with my dogs.

Take a moment to create your personalized “Play List”:  What are your favorite ways to play? What’s fun for you? Make a list.

Now: go thought your list and, beside each item, write down the last time you did it.

Review your list. Consider the patterns you see. Would you benefit from more play in your life?

If you start to balk — if you’re reaction is along the line of, “I can’t possibly” or “I have too much to do” or “I’ll play when I’m retired” — consider the benefits of regular play.

1. Play gives you energy.

If you feel sluggish or stressed out or or otherwise “icky”, odds are you need more play in your life. Once you give yourself the gift of regular playtime, you will have more energy to tackle your personal and professional responsibilities.

2. Play gives you ideas.

If you are stuck or slogging through a project, some playtime can create a shift in perspective to get you moving or spark a fresh approach.

3. Play enhances your creativity.

The more you play, the more innovative you can be.

4. Play improves your relationships.

Play makes you happy. When you are happier, your personal and professional interactions are more positive. You are easier to be with.

5.  Play is an antidote for procrastination.

If you are avoiding doing something, it’s because you’ve made the task into something onerous or Very Important or otherwise terrifying. No wonder you are hesitating to being. To the extent you can shift your attitude to “Okay let me just play around with this a bit,” you can nudge yourself into moving forward. Play lets you take action from a more positive, less fearful place.

6.  Play is an antidote for perfectionism.

If you tend to be hard on yourself — if you tend to set high expectations of yourself and others — you know the pain of perfectionism. You sit down expecting to make “something excellent”. This sets up a dynamic so that whatever you are trying to create is being judged at its very genesis. This is crazy-making. It’s impossible to simultaneously generate new thoughts — and keep them coming — if you are jumping all over them, judging them as soon as they emerge.

A different approach is to compartmentalize. First, allow yourself some playtime to generate — without judgment. Go ahead and slap one some paint, jot down that first draft. Just get it out there. Play around with whatever tickles your fancy. Enjoy your creativity!  Have fun with it. Then, when the generation phases concludes, revisit your project to assess and hone as needed.

***

Whether or not you believe in the value and benefits of play, why not give it a try? Try to add some playtime to your week this week. See what happens.

***

Activity: This week, make a point of playing every day. If this is a challenge for you, commit to play at least five minutes every day.

Bonus Activity: If there is something on your ‘play list’ you haven’t done for a while, make a point of doing it this week.

***

Now let’s say, it’s a week from today and, somehow you didn’t play. At all.  For whatever reason, you didn’t give yourself even five minutes of playtime.

What interfered?  What stopped you?

Take a moment and answer honestly.

Maybe life intervened.  Perhaps you had way too much going on. Hmm. I’d like to challenge you on that. Surely there were ways to inject some play into the tasks at hand. Certainly you could give yourself five minutes to play a bit of Wii Golf or a round of backgammon or to try doing a cartwheel in the backyard.

Maybe it’s guilt?  Do you need permission to play?  Do you feel that you haven’t yet ‘earned’ your playtime? Allow me to help:  Because you’ve read this far, you have absolutely earned at least five minutes of play every day for the next week (and beyond).

Let’s try the activity again:

***

Activity: This week, make a point of playing every day. If this is a challenge for you, commit to play at least five minutes every day.

Bonus Activity: Play at least five minutes a day, every day, for the next year.  See what happens.

***

Check out my workbook: YOU CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE:  A Workbook to Become the Person You Want to Be. Available in hardcover, paperback, and eBook formats here: http://bit.ly/ChangeYourLifeWorkbook 

***

Want to re-publish this article? Go for it – just include the author’s name, a link to this original post and the following text blurb:

Are you struggling with too many talents, skills, ideas? You may have The DaVinci Dilemma! Find tools, fun quizzes, coaching, inspiration and solutions for multi-talented people at  http://www.davincidilemma.com/  .

Doing What Works

By Kaushik.chug [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...)], from Wikimedia Commons

What works well for you?  Over the years, what practices, habits or activities have you found that make you happy, healthy and/or more productive?  Just for giggles, make a list. Jot down at least five things that you know work for you.

Perhaps you’ve found that taking short breaks throughout the day improves your focus and reduces your stress.  Maybe you’ve discovered the mental and physical benefits of daily meditation. Perhaps you’ve found that, if you don’t get to the gym in the morning, you won’t exercise all day. Maybe you’ve found a way to motivate yourself using quotas or particular time management techniques.

Now ask yourself:  How many of these things have you done today?  This week?  This month?

One of the great ironies of being a human being is that we find things that work for us — practices or habits that make us happy or healthy or productive — and then we don’t do them.

We start off great guns, say, drinking an extra glass of water before each meal.  We find that we feel better.  We snack less.  Our skin looks better.  We commit to making this a regular daily practice.  And for a time we do.  Then, a couple of months later, we feel parched and cranky and we realize it’s been weeks since we’ve done this very simple thing that we know works for us.

It doesn’t really matter why we do this to ourselves, so long as we implement some tools to short-circuit this tendency.  It can be as quick and easy as making a list of what works well for us, keeping it handy and reviewing this list on a regular basis — daily, weekly and/or monthly — whatever schedule is effective for you.

Bonus points if you reward yourself for doing the things on your list.  Why not?  You’ve earned it.  Plus it’ll reinforce the likelihood you’ll keep doing what works well for you, going forward.

Similarly, it’s helpful to remind ourselves about what we know from experience does NOT work for us.  Perhaps you’ve noticed that  whenever you succumb to the siren calls of social media first thing in the morning, you tend to get hijacked by distractions . . . whereas if you defer email and social media until later in the day, you get a solid block of productive work done.  Maybe you know that you’re apt to snack excessively when under stress . . . which doesn’t do anything other than make you cross with yourself.

It’s not rocket science, but it works:  if you list those things you want to avoid doing, review these items regularly, and hold yourself accountable, you’ll be more effective, more productive and more content.

There’s also a benefit to reminding yourself of your own personal quirks and patterns — especially when it comes to creative projects.  For example, among us there are ‘plodders’ and there are ‘bursters’. Plodders chip away at projects methodically, at a reasonable pace, generating regular, steady output.  They work well with quotas — aiming to get so many things done per day or per week.  Bursters, on the other hand, tend to need a dormant ‘percolation period’ (which is really more of a teeth gnashing, popcorn munching, garment rending frenzy of seemingly non-relevant activities) before finally (usually at the last moment), generating an extraordinary amount of work, boom boom boom, in short order.   Bursters thrive on adrenaline and riding those creative roller coasters. A ‘plodder’ is might a blog post every day, five days a week.  A burster might also write five blog posts during the same week…but they’ll spend four days doing god knows what and then boom! create and publish all five on Friday.

(Note that you are not wed to either category exclusively.  You may be a plodder in some activities and a burster in others.)

The point of this is that once you are aware of how you tend to operate, you can schedule things accordingly.  You can do what works well for you without stress or guilt or shame.  “Yes, I’m a burster and that’s okay. It’s fine if ‘my process’ means I need to do random activities for a bit.  There’s no need to freak out about that.  I know whatever needs to get done will get done by deadline.”

Here’s an opportunity to play anthropologist with yourself as a subject:  Observe yourself over a week or a month and take notes on what you notice.  What are your unique behavioral patterns as you go through different activities in your life. Go beyond the plodder/burster tendency:  When do you have the most energy? Under what circumstances are you happiest and most productive?   What makes things easier for you?  What can you simply not avoid doing? What causes you undue stress?

Why bother?  The better you know yourself, the easier it is to be happy, healthy and productive. Know what works well for you and what doesn’t.  Remind yourself of these items regularly.  Hold yourself accountable. Find ways to do more of what you love, in ways that are gratifying — and to avoid those patterns that are unhealthy, unhelpful or unpleasant.

***

Activity:  Jot down your typical patterns of behavior when working on a creative project. What is your typical approach? What challenges do you have to overcome repeatedly?  Are you a plodder or a burster?

Activity:  Make a list of what works well for you.  What increases your contentment, productivity and well-being?

Activity:  Make a list of what you know does NOT work well for you.  What’s unhealthy or unhelpful?  What causes undue stress, distractions, squandered energy or opportunities?

Activity:  Make an appointment to review your lists regularly on a suitable schedule — daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly.

***

Want more tips and techniques on getting things done?  Check out my book  YOU CAN GET IT DONE:  Choose What to do, Plan, Start, Stay on Track, Overcome Obstacles, and Finish

Available here in hardcover, paperback, and eBook formats: http://bit.ly/YouCanGetItDone

***

Want to re-publish this article? Go for it – just include the author’s name, a link to this post and the following text blurb:

Are you struggling with too many talents, skills, ideas? You may have The DaVinci Dilemma! Find tools, fun quizzes, coaching, inspiration and solutions for multi-talented people at  http://www.davincidilemma.com/  .

Five Ways to Blast Creative Blocks

CCO creative commons image via pixabay

Sometimes we get stuck, creatively.  We reach an impasse or a seemingly impossible obstacle or challenge.   Here are some ways to blast through those creative blocks:

1.  Be a troubled teen. 

Consider a sulky, sullen, hormone-ravaged, limit-testing teenager.  How would they approach the project?

If you don’t have handy access to a teen, re-awaken your past:  Think about aspects of your teenage life.  What were your favorite foods?  Clothes?  Friends?  Activities?  What did you like best and least about school?  What were your favorite books, music, films and television programs? What did you wear?

Ideally, jot down everything you can remember about your teen years.  What gave you joy at that time?  What issues did you face?  What was your personality like? What was a typical school day like?  What was a typical summer day for you?  Describe your home. Your neighborhood. Your goals and ambitions.

To enrich your recollections, ask a friend or family member what kind of teen you were.  Inquire about things they recall from your adolescence.

Again, to the extent you can replicate experiences from your youth, the better.  Listen to some music you loved at that time. Don clothes reminiscent of what you wore in your teen years.

Once you’ve revived your inner teenager, take a fresh look at your project.  How would your adolescent self proceed?

2.  Travel

Travel provides new sights, hear new sounds, taste new tastes, smell new scents, feel new energy while meeting new people, locations and cultures.

It can take the form of an afternoon spent exploring a new neighborhood or a daytrip to a nearby forest or a vacation in a new country. The more different the destination is from your experience thus far, the greater the impact on your creativity. Yet even a walk around the block can disrupt a creative block.

Now it’s most effective to travel in person but sometimes that’s not practical or possible.  (It would amazing to witness the view from the top of Mount Everest but few of us have the physical stamina and the financial means to make that happen).

Thanks to technology, we can explore much of the world easily, efficiently and economically. We can watch foreign films, travel television shows and documentaries.  We can survey the world’s heritage sites and major art collections online.

3. Ask someone.

Tell a trusted friend or colleague about your creative project and your current block.  Ask how they would proceed.

Note the encouragement to be selective here.  Be prudent in your choice of confident.  Only consult with people who you completely trust — people who inspire you and make your heart sing.  People who truly love you unconditionally.

Avoid mentioning your block to anyone who might have any ulterior motive in advising you. A stranger on social media.  A possible competitor.  A family member who is trying to ‘protect’ you from ending up in the gutter, heartbroken and destitute so you might as well pack in this particular project and get a nice, safe office job, honey.  (To pick a random example.)

4.  Consult a hero.

Who are your creative heroes — living and not?  Whom do you most admire, personally and professionally?

If you could consult with *anyone*, whose brain would you most want to pick?  With whom would you love to discuss your project?

If the person is living, you do have the option of reaching out to them.  Thanks to today’s technology and social media, it’s possible to communicate with just about anyone.  It doesn’t hurt to ask.

If your creative hero is not reachable — or not inclined to answer — you can still ask for their advice in absentia.  Ask yourself:  How would my hero proceed with my project?  If so-and-so was in this situation, what would they do?

5.  Take a walk.

Research has proven that taking a brief walk boosts creativity.  It doesn’t matter if you walk inside or outside, oddly.  An eight minute walk anywhere is enough to significantly increase your creative juices and ideas.

***

Creative blocks can be annoying, frustrating and concerning — but they are also temporary and solvable.  Try any of the preceding techniques to see what works for you.

***

For more tips and techniques, check out my workbook  BE MORE CREATIVE:  101 Activities to Unleash and Grow Your Creativity

Available here:  http://bit.ly/BeMoreCreativeBook

***

Want to re-publish this article? Go for it – just include the author’s name, a link to this original post and the following text blurb:

Are you struggling with too many talents, skills, ideas? You may have The DaVinci Dilemma! Find tools, fun quizzes, coaching, inspiration and solutions for multi-talented people at http://www.davincidilemma.com/ .