Is This You?

Many people have approached me for organizational tips and techniques recently. They all say that they need to get more done with less resources. Here are some of the reasons they cited:

• To juggle family and work better.
• All the kid’s activities are exhausting me – Help!
• Layoffs at work means more work to do for me.
• Since I lost my administrative assistant, I need help learning to file.
• My style is to stack stuff on my desk and cabinets, now I don’t have the time to search for what I need.
• I have to be more productive so I won’t lose my job.
• I am drowning in email.
• And on, and on.

Although there is a different reason for each person, I see three broad categories emerge.

• The life – work juggling act we all do.
• Productivity improvement.
• The new workplace.

LIFE AND WORK Today, let's talk about the successful juggling of work and life. I am not sure I believe in work — life balance. Balance implies one hour here for one hour over there. If you put in eight hours at work per day, it will be impossible to balance the rest of your life in eight hour increments. To juggle all of the aspects of your life successfully you have to decide what the important parts are and what is less important. The important parts are the things you commit to putting into the juggling rotation. I also like the juggling analogy, because expert jugglers usually juggle three items regularly. For short periods, to dazzle the audience, they will incorporate more items or more dangerous items (like knives or swords). In your typical day, you have work. What two or three other items will you choose to juggle? When holidays or special occasions come up, what will you add to your juggling act? What will you have to set aside for this period? LIFE IS A BUFFET LINE. Yes, you will have to choose. We get to the table and see all the choices and they all look so yummy. Therefore, we load up our plates: a lamb chop, some roast beef, oh, that chicken breast looks good! Don’t forget to have some vegetables. Oohhh, dessert! Chocolate cake, apple pie, banana cream pie, crème bruleé, marble cheesecake. We can’t eat it all, but we had to have it. Or we eat it and regret it. This is not sustainable or manageable as an eating style or a lifestyle. If life were a restaurant, life would be easier. We get the menu and choose one of each. That is healthier for us on many levels. In a restaurant, we expect to say no to the lamb chop and roast beef, so we can eat the chicken breast. We might talk our dining partner into ordering the cheesecake and we order the chocolate cake. Then, we just get a taste of the other, not the whole thing! We can manage that. We can sustain that. NEW TERRITORY Why don’t we expect life to set those kinds of limits on us? Because we have never been here before. At no other time in the history of our planet, have we had so many choices available to us. It all looks so tempting and good. We are overwhelmed with possibility. We don’t know how to choose. If we say no to that, what opportunity will be lost? So we say yes and then can’t figure out why we’re exhausted, overwhelmed and disappointed. Our great American work ethic is an enabler of this expectation. If you work hard enough, you too can be … Michael Phelps! Donald Trump! Carly Fiorina! Barack Obama! Oprah Winfrey! The list can go on forever to what or whom you aspire. In Michael Phelps's own words, he is “a freak of nature.” His body was created for fast, efficient swimming. Serendipitously, he loves to swim. Nature and nurture came together to create a sleek, swimming masterwork able to acquire gold medals in competition. In trying to emulate Michael Phelps, you disregard your unique talents and contribution to the planet. Be you. DISTRACTED IS THE NEW NORMAL We are so busy multi-tasking, trying to get it all done, trying to do it all; that we are living busy, rushed and distracted lives. We don’t even have the time or focus to enjoy what we are doing right now, because we have to prepare for the next thing on our To Do list. I am convinced we are so busy living 10 – 30 minutes ahead of where we are in time; it is jeopardizing our driving, our health, our lives. The driver, who just cut you off in traffic, isn’t with you on the road. They are already at the meeting and didn’t see you trying to merge onto the freeway. I was at my nephew’s all-star little league game. A parent was on the cell phone talking to a client. The son came over after rounding the bases and was waved away. I heard the parent say a couple of times, “it’s my son’s game you hear.” So, the son didn’t have the parent’s attention because of the client. The client didn’t have the parent’s attention because of the son’s game. The parent gave a poor to mediocre performance to both the client (that can’t be good for business) and the son (how much support did the son get?). At the end of the day, this person doesn’t understand why they are so tired and other people are crabby. And then, they think it’s a productivity problem. A favorite quote of mine by Robert Heinlein is, “In the absence of clearly defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it.” What are your goals? Are your actions supporting your goals? JUST SAY NO I can hear some of you now. “You don’t know my life.” “You don’t understand.” “It isn’t me, it is other people who make me do all these things.” “It’s just the way it is nowadays.” That reminds of me of the universal Mom question, “You are telling me that if everyone else jumped off a cliff, you’d jump off too?” Don’t become enslaved by daily trivia that doesn’t support your goals. Repeat after me: no. No. Now – Say it out loud (I’m serious): no. Now say it with feeling: No! Really mean it: NO! I can’t hear you: NO! NO! NO! NO! NNNNOOOOOO! What were you saying “no” to? I’m sure something popped into your mind. Pay attention to that. It means something. Act on it. Do it now. If you need help determining what to keep and what to toss in your life, give me a call at 916.803.1494 or send me an email to eal@EALCoaching.com. We’ll figure it out together. A dream with a plan is a goal. A goal without a plan is just a dream. Warmly, Elisabeth Elisabeth Adler-Lund Executive And Life Coaching Telephone: 916 • 803•1494 E-mail: eal@EALCoaching.com