See a moment. Take a moment. Give a moment.
Roses are just starting to bloom in our part of the country.
This often-bountiful bush is just starting to bloom not far away from our home.
Flowers are probably popping up in your world, too.
Where are the places near you that you can count on for freshly blooming beauty now…or soon?
I was amused at this quick moment on a trip last fall to New York City.
A couple of policewomen couldn’t help but to glance for a moment at shoes on their rounds of the city.
After all, beautiful shoes are beautiful shoes, no matter who you are, or what job you walk.
It was a rare Monday in my world.
I felt like I was flying through the day, in the good way.
And I was almost afraid to look too closely at how quickly the “to-do” list was turning rapidly into the “it’s done!” list.
You know how it goes. There’s that quiet little fear that if you look too closely, good luck, under close inspection, will fly away.
Yes, it was one of those kinds of days.
Not until about 3:10 pm did I hit the first pothole in the day’s progress and plans.
And then that pothole was a bit of a doozy, but I got back on track again.
At some point before Monday ends, I’ll take a moment or two to try to figure out if there’s something specific I did to make (or let?) this day work out as well as it did.
Maybe it was that moment or two last night when I couldn’t get to sleep. I purposely shifted from worrying about a few things to thinking about things that make me smile.
Yes, that may have been it.
All I know is that I’m going to do my best to make it a flying-through-life-in-the-good-way Tuesday next.
Here’s to a great Tuesday in your world, too!
A spot of color.
A break in the drab.
A sign of hope that winter is, indeed, about to end.
Each path to a destination gets you there, sometimes in its own way and time.
And most journeys provide a few twists and turns along the way, of some kind.
As you think back over your life, which journeys have been your most interesting ones: the straight paths or the slightly less predictable kind?
And which journeys have been most valuable in your life: the straight-ahead-paths or the slightly meandering kind?
One year wraps.
A new one unfolds.
How has 2010 shaped up for you?
How are you different, and wiser than you were a year ago?
Best wishes for 2011.
Hopefully it becomes a year that you look back on with a big smile, a happy sigh, as you recall the great experiences you had and the great memories you made, day by day.
Holiday greetings are arriving.
They’re usually full of stories of achievement and change.
One family who usually sends a chatty end-of-year newsletter sent a page with just a few pictures this year.
They needed no explanation.
This from two writers, people who love words and use them well.
One picture showed a son’s wedding, unexpected after it seemed he was content and committed to the single life.
Three more photos showed a new relationship that appeared to provide stability for another son and his children who’d had little in the past few years.
There was also a picture of a grandmother (and great grandmother) who had passed away after many years of illness.
This beautiful stark page from a couple of writers…just labels under photos that showed evidence of great 2010 change.
It made me stop and think. If I were sharing photos of the 3-5 most important moments of the year what those photos be?
They would include a graduation, two moves and a milestone trip.
And also the gathering of long-time friends, the publishing of a first book, and a kitchen that is normally a busy place at the holidays but now it’s busy over a longer time and in different ways.
What would the 3-5 photos that tell the story of your year include?
And looking ahead, what 3-5 photos would you like to have in a year to tell the story of 2011 for you?
Have your camera ready!
Frosting for a tree.
Mementoes of memories made with loved ones.
Children’s handmade ornaments, gifts from the heart.
Snapshots of moments gone by.
Precious people.
Precious things.
What fills your tree this season, along with dreams?
Outsourcing can help you get more done than you can do alone.
To outsource well requires many things, including:
- A specific objective and success criteria
- Clarity about each others’ roles
- Simple, effective communication processes
- Clear decision-making processes
- Ways to measure if progress is happening and goals are being achieved
- Having a good process for working through misunderstandings, if they occur.
Outsourcing can also be used to get your room cleaned after you leave home.
I know. It’s been going on for a few weeks here.
My husband is on the phone now with our daughter who lives in Eugene, OR.
Having graduated from college a few years ago and changed locations a few times since then, she’s pretty well decided what things would move with her into the life she has now.
The rest of the stuff she’s left at home.
It’s been a room in limbo…no longer what it was, but not yet what it can become.
We all agree that it’s high time to turn the room into an office/study and guest room which will be her room the few nights a year when she’s home.
Gary created a room-clearing process that has worked beautifully over the miles. Here are the basic steps.
1. He knew what his goal was.
2. He knew the job was not getting done in the expected way, and had to figure out a way to do it in spite of the distance between where we live and where she does.
3. He envisioned a process that might work and wanted to try it out.
4. He proposed it to Anne in a way that it wouldn’t feel insurmountable, as clearing the room had felt up to now. She agreed to try the process.
5. He sorted through the many things that had gathered here, grouping like objects, making judgments about what he thought should be kept and what could be tossed.
6. He scheduled ten-minute calls with Anne each weekend for about a month, going over just the things they could review and she could decide on in that time.
7. In the call each week, he described each item that was up for a stay/go decision as well as he could.
8. She made a decision about each one, or asked me to supplement her instincts about it with what I knew about the item and its probable place in her life, before making the final call.
9. I’m the final arbiter on this end of the outsourcing process because I know, and will adhere to her decision criteria more consistently than he will.
Her decision criteria are:
- Do I love it?
- Will I use it again?
- Did it come from a person I love?
Gary’s decision criterion is simple:
- Is there any way I can get rid of this?
10. We’re making regular stops at Goodwill and the Salvation Army and someone who loves each item now will take it home. There may even be some people who will get a Christmas present of an item that Anne was long ready to let go, but just didn’t know it yet. For them, it’s a new item to love.
And to share just a small sample of this process (which has worked beautifully, by the way), here’s just part of my husband’s side of today’s call:
“It’s a red heart pillow, kind of like a Valentine. It has a big stain on it.”
I laughed to myself when I heard his description.
It was clear to me he thought the heart-shaped pillow should move out. He was focusing on the stain, not the heart, describing it in a way that would lead to the decision for which he’d hoped.
In this case, he got what he wanted. The stained heart-shaped pillow is moving on.
Are there lessons for you in this outsourced process?
1. Is there a large task you’ve been avoiding but need to do? How can you create break that big task into a smaller series of decisions and actions that allow you to make progress on getting that intimidating task done?
2. Is there a process you’ve outsourced that isn’t working well? Of the key steps in good outsourcing, is there a step you skipped or need to improve? Clarifying goals, roles and communication processes and mechanisms can do a lot to improve teamwork and effectiveness in any process or group.
So true, isn’t it?
“Life is a combination of magic and pasta.”
Frederico Fellini
Life is a combination of magic and the day to day.
Every day moments can be magic, too, in their own way.
Make…allow…see moments of magic daily.
