If there have to be holes in the cookies…



If there have to be holes in the cookies…
Originally uploaded by jcgr

I couldn’t have baked this heart shape into the cookie if I’d tried.

But there it was, a heart-shaped error in the middle of a home baked biscotti, cooling and nearly ready to be packed into a gift basket.

It made me pause, and then made me smile.

Perfection or imperfection? I’ll let you decide.

And as you do, consider mistakes of various types from times past in your life.

Perhaps they weren’t really errors or imperfections, at all, so much as your own special touch.

Or perhaps it was the serendipitous move that led you to much bigger discoveries that you might have missed if everything had gone “perfectly right.”

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Thinking spot

Thinking spot
Originally uploaded by jcgr

You’ve probably heard the brainstorming exercise where you imagine being in one of your favorite places in the world to get great new ideas.

Well, whether it’s real or virtual, the beach in Carmel is one of the places I go for good thinking time.

A little beautiful blue scenery, the sounds and fragrance of the ocean, a little sand between my toes, finding a pretty shell or two…for me, it’s a spot of heaven on earth.

On this day, I’d taken a sandwich, coffee, and a book I’m in the final stages of writing so I could do a little work oceanside.

Somehow, it always works.

Where’s your favorite, accessible, it-always-works-somehow thinking spot?

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The power of a fresh perspective

Bokeh Bokeh
Originally uploaded by Matt-Richards

Sometimes all it takes is a slight shift in perspective to see the beauty of the moment, a new idea, or have a fresh appreciation of what you have before it goes away.

Here the lights of the gathering night reflect off a windshield and sparkle in the distance of the waning day.

What fresh perspective could help you see something in a new and, perhaps, better way?

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Checking with customers? Don’t forget the most important ones

Checking in with your customers is always a good idea when you’re trying to improve productivity and effectiveness in your work life.

Don’t forget to check in with some of your other important customers, too, the most important ones.

Check in with the people in your personal life.

They want and deserve your time, more, in fact, than anyone.

And you may think you know, but you may have no idea what impact your job is actually having on the people you care most about, and who care the most about you.

Don’t take them, or their good will for granted.

Similarly, make sure they know your needs, and how things are going, too.

You deserve their full attention some of the time, too.

And if there’s some problem you didn’t know about, there’s always something you can do to improve this most important part of your life, too.

Relationships of all types take good intentions, attention, caring, sharing, creativity and time.

If you’re a parent, for example, an extra hour spent perfecting a PowerPoint presentation probably won’t make nearly as much difference in the long run as will that same hour and attention spent at your child’s soccer game, attending their science fair, sharing a laugh, a long walk, or making time for a good talk.

If you’re always focusing on efficiency, and carving up the to-do list to make sure it all gets done on time, by someone, share errands.

Go grocery shopping and cook together, take a long walk or drive.

Sometimes, be inefficient, by design.

Sometimes the highest priority is creating a way to share and catch up. And by definition, that sometimes means you don’t divide up all the tasks.

Change the roles, even for a bit.

If you normally lead (or drive), volunteer to navigate, or take the back seat.

Let someone else decide what or where you’ll eat.

Let someone else decide how to get the work done, and choose the standards you’ll work to.

Or if you’re the one always taking the back seat, take the lead, with all the pluses and minuses it brings. (Sometimes taking the lead isn’t much fun).

In some ways, at some times, seeming inefficiency is perfect for both the short- and long-run.

Check in with the most important people in your life. Ask them, at a minimum, such customer-focusing questions as these:

- How are we doing?

- Where can I, and we, improve?

- What am I, and are we, doing well?

Listen with an open heart, an open mind. Leave space and time for whatever you’re hearing to be there, to be heard, to sink in.

Don’t rush to fill the silence with, “Yes, but…” responses, or “At least I try!” defenses.

Just listen.

And share.


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Stay and enjoy the good work nature has done

Waterfront way station
Originally uploaded by jcgr

I smiled when I saw this well-designed spot, perfect for pausing, seeing, thinking, reflecting.

Nature had really taken care of almost all of it: creating this beautiful blue place in the beautiful city of San Francisco, CA.

And a few wise people added tables, chairs and benches, making it possible for visitors to stop and fully enjoy the beautiful work nature has already done for them.

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Don’t blink

I watched a man glumly walking what must have been a very small baby in the covered stroller he pushed around a nearby park the other evening.

It appeared to me that the world seemed very heavy for him, as it seems to many people now.

I wondered just why he was so glum. It wasn’t my business, of course, but I was curious, wishing his worries could be eased, somehow.

Maybe the baby wasn’t sleeping through the night yet. Maybe he’d recently lost his job.

Or perhaps, I thought, in a ridiculous possibility (but who knows?) that this was his fifteenth child and he had only planned on a few.

Hopefully, his glumness was only temporary.

Maybe it was just the heat of the night that had fried his spirits and sent him fleeing an un-air-conditioned home for the relative coolness and hoped-for distractions at the park.

The child he was pushing in the stroller had entered life, and his own, about three months ago, I guessed.

And then I realized that this moment in his life, and this time in my own, were like the opposite bookends of parenting.

Our younger child is about three months away from walking out of our daily lives and into the next phase of his own.

Matt starts college in September, and oh, how rapidly our years as parents have gone.

Our daughter had her turn in college a few years ago. She’s starting to look ahead to graduate school after a few years of working, paying her own way and finding out what she really loves to do.

I wanted to say to the dad who looked so weary, “I know today is tiring. I know the road of parenting, at this moment, seems long. But as good friends once advised us, don’t blink. It’ll be over far sooner than you know. And you’ll wish to have them back when these days are done.”

My husband shared the “Don’t blink” advice when he was the speaker for a graduating class at our children’s elementary and middle school.

“Don’t blink,” he advised the students and their parents as this class headed off to high school. “The next four years will fly by far faster than you could ever guess now.”

Each precious day throughout life brings joys and challenges of its own.

The parade of parenting moments, hours, days, years doesn’t last forever, even though, as parents, we sometimes wish they would.

The time goes fast. Soon the all-important parenting role is largely over, captured in a series of photographs, a movie patched together from moments and years, now flown.

The same thing can be said about anything in our lives, I suppose.

Don’t blink.

It will be over far sooner than you know.

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Mud buddies

Muddy buddies
Originally uploaded by jcgr

Caught in the thick of things?

A buddy or two may help you through.

And if not, surviving the mud together may provide a bonding experience…and a story or two to tell, as in:

“Remember the time when…”

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Forget yourself

Among recent thought-provoking quotes I’ve found, I love this one most of all:

Develop interest in life as you see it; in people, things, literature, music – the world is so rich, simply throbbing with splendid treasures, beautiful souls, and interesting people. Forget yourself.
Henry Miller

What about you?

What interests help you most to forget about your troubles, your fears, and sometimes, your goals and aspirations, too?

How can you most naturally get immersed in the moment, free of the past, free of the future?

As hard as it may be to do, in ways that are satisfying to you, as often as you can, fill yourself with the present.

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Running on the same wavelength

In unison

Originally uploaded by jcgr

As athletes, members of a track team compete individually.

But they also work together as a team, competing effectively, collectively against other teams.

Sometimes teammates work in especially synchronous fashion in sports, work, and life.

Here, in one especially synchronous moment, members of a track team run in almost perfect unison in the inside lane, and in almost perfect mirror images of each other, between the inside and outside lanes.

As the photographer who caught this moment, it reminded me of times I’d experienced as part of an especially strong team.

What are the most synchronous and effective team experiences you recall from your work or life?

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Clipping along



Running along at a rapid clip

Originally uploaded by jcgr

Zipping along, clipping along.

Places to get to.

Things to get done.

No time to waste, you can bet.

But to make that clipping along, zipping along work as well as it must and it can, make sure that you take even a few minutes for yourself.

Take a deep breath.

Pause, and refresh in a way that works for you.

In the short- and long-run, as well, pause and refresh time is time that will serve you well.

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