Life Engagement & Change in Perspective

"Just living is not enough. One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower." ~Hans Christian Anderson

Life Engagement
I work in the corporate world where one of the biggest topics is Employee Engagement. This got me to thinking about whether or not we are engaged in our personal lives. To be fully engaged, you are physically energized, emotionally connected, mentally focused and spiritually aligned.

The book, "First Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently" by Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman, identified 12 questions to determine employee engagement so I decided to make a few for us to use to consider if we are truly engaged in our lives. How would you answer these:

• Do I know what is expected of me at home, school, work, as a spouse, as a friend, and as a parent?
• Do I have what I need (skills, education) to do things I need to do?
• Do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?
• In the last seven days, have I received and given recognition or praise?
• Does my spouse, family or friends truly seem to care about me as a person?
• Is there someone who encourages my self growth?
• Do my opinions get recognized and seem to count? Do I recognized others opinions?
• Does my personal mission statement/purpose make me feel important and contributing to the world, my family and friends?
• Are my family and friends also committed to contributing to the quality of our lives?
• Do I have a someone I can lean on - a best friend or confidant?
• In the last six months, has someone talked to me about the progress I've made towards changing my life for the better? Have I talked about my progress? Have I recognized the improvements others are making in their lives?
• This last year, have I had the opportunity to learn and grow? Did I take advantage of that opportunity?

Did you answer "No" to any of those? If so, how can you make small changes to become more engaged in your life? It's yours so you should make the best of it! A more fulfilled person is a happier person.

Change in Perspective
Sometimes we get so wrapped up in the mundane routine of our lives that we become creatures of habit. We go through our days on auto-pilot and end them feeling drained, unfulfilled and emotionally depleated. For example, I bet most of you take the exact same route to work/school every day. Do you always have the same thing for breakfast? Do you spend your weekends getting caught up on chores, laundry, etc. to the point where you have very little time for just you?

Stepping outside your comfort zone might help you gain some new perspective! Try some of these suggestions:

• The Path Less Traveled: Take the scenic route instead of the same old way.
• Mental Health: Take a guilty free "mental health day" where you focus just on things to feed your soul. I used to give 3 of these a school year to my kids when they were younger. Sure they had vacation time but haven't you ever had a day where you woke up feeling like you just couldn't deal with the things life was going to throw at you? A day where you feel like you just need to pamper yourself? Sometimes you have to hit the snooze button on life for a day and just take care of your mental health.
• Fall is in the Air: Take a drive out to the country and watch the leaves change! Nature is painting a masterpiece for your enjoyment - you just have to pause long enough to see it.
• Meditate: Get up 30 mins earlier every day and meditate. Take the time to clear your mind so that you can focus on what you need to do.
• Walk/Explore: Don't skip lunch but perhaps pack a lunch so you can go for a walk - explore your surroundings. You never know what you can find. I once found a mesa out behind the many office buildings where I worked. It became a goal to find a way to get up to it.
• Color Your World: Buy a bright new scarf, jacket or shirt in a color that you love to add some color to an otherwise drab day. Something that makes you smile when you see it.
• Plants & Animals, Oh My!: Have an office? Get a plant or a small fish bowl to place on your desk so that you have to pause during the course of the day to tend to something beside your day to day job. The mental break this provides will do you wonders.
• Breakfast: Get up early one morning and go for breakfast before work. Sit and sip your coffee slowly without all the harried frantic pace of your normal morning.
• Interests You Love: Think of something you love or would love to do then make some plans to do it. For example, I want to go horseback riding. It is something that makes me smile on the inside just thinking about. I looked up places where I can go do that.

If you find small ways to feed and nourish the true you, you will become a more fulfilled and engaged person in your personal life. This will also reflect positively on your professional one.

Day 100 - Inventory

Today's the day!! Are you excited? There are exactly 100 days left in 2018. What are you going to do with them? What if you took these last 100 days and focused with great intention to improve your life and achieve the goals you most likely established at the first of the year?

The first thing I recommend is that you review what's happened in 2018 so far. Look back at your New Year's resolutions you set at the start of the year. Which are still unfinished? What prevented you from accomplishing those? Write down the lessons you've learned - what worked, what didn't work and why. Also, look at what you did accomplish. What pushed you to accomplish those goals? What support did you have to make it happen? What lessons/behaviors can you apply to other goals to replicate that success?

For the remainder of the year, set one or two end-of-the-year goals and make them a priority - do all you can to accomplish them. Don’t let fear or procrastination hold you back. Find whatever it is that keeps you motivated, committed to moving in the direction of accomplishment.

Take out your planner, open your Outlook Calendar, your Google Calendar, your phone calendar or whatever it is that you use and set a reminder that your deadline of December 31st for achieving your goals. I took out my planner, flipped to December and marked off the last 100 days.  I wrote 1 on December 31st and worked my way back to September until I hit 100. By noting them on my calendar, it'll help me with a visual countdown until my deadline.

I'm going to focus on these 4 areas:
  💹FINANCIAL
  🔬HEALTH
  📚ORGANIZATION
  💝SPIRITUAL

When choosing your goals, make sure it's a goal or goals that are truly meaningful to you.

First things first though! Take an inventory of exactly where you are. You have to know exactly where you currently stand to make a plan for how to get to where you want to be.

For example, for my financial and health goals, I spent a few hours yesterday devising a financial budget. I noted due dates, interest rates, account balances, etc. I used a program called Everydollar.

Today I went through the pantry and wrote out an inventory of everything in it along with the expiration dates and cleared out anything expired.  Now I just need to do the Fridge and Freezers along with the spices, etc.

Both of these items will help with my financial, health and organizational goals!  A triple whammy! Yay, for forward progress.

I'll provide updates on other items and will share ideas of lessons learned along the way. What baby steps can you take today to move you towards a strong finish to the year?

View these last days of 2018 as a gift - a second chance to dust off some of your goals and really focus on them. Don’t allow yourself to go on autopilot. Instead, choose to be intentional about making these last days count. When you’re overwhelmed and there are a million things to do, remember to focus on what really matters. Where can your actions make the greatest impact to your life?

Here's to #FinishingStrong in #100DaysToGreat

I'm not concerned...

I'm not concerned with what you look like...I want to know how you look at life, and if you look for the good in people. How do you want other people to see you? What do you see that you can do so that others may see you as you wish they would? These are your "looks" that I care most about.

I'm not concerned with how much money you have...I want to know if you are rich in less material matters, for that speaks of your character. Do you see the beauty in each day? Do you treasure your friendships and family? Are you thankful for what you have? Or do you ignore the beauty around you and take life and people for granted because that requires less thought and effort?

I'm not concerned with your age...I want to know if you are growing and evolving. I want to know if you're mature enough to own your responsibilities, and young enough in thought to still have dreams and goals, no matter how big or small they may be.

I'm not concerned with what your career might be...I want to know what you dream about in your highest aspirations for yourself. I want to know if you are working to reach those heights, or if are you are just waiting for them to happen.

I'm not concerned with who your friends are...I want to know if you can give them their day in the sun and help them celebrate their triumphs, or if you must always one-up them or otherwise steal their thunder and grab the spotlight. I'm not concerned with who your friends are, I want to know what kind of friend you are to them.

I'm not concerned with your shortcomings.. I want to know if you try and fail, whether you know that failing at any THING doesn't make YOU a failure. I want to know if you fail time and time again, can you still look at a sunset and realize the beauty of it, or see the innocence and trust in the eyes of a child, or be grateful that each day is a new beginning? I want to know if you fail today, will begin anew tomorrow with as much faith, resolve, and passion as the day before?

I'm not concerned with your past.. All your yesterdays are lessons for today's living. I want to know if you can you let go of what isn't working for you in life and build on what is working. Each day is an opportunity to become who you truly are. Your greatest challenge, everyone's single greatest challenge in life, is to discover who you would be in your highest vision of yourself, and then to become that person. Do you dare, or don't you care?

I'm not concerned with who you romanticize yourself to be...I want to know of your true character. I want to know if, as a friend, would you have the courage to stand next to me in the eye of a storm in a sea of trouble, or would you jump ship and seek safe harbor, forsaking our friendship for your convenience and ease?

I'm not concerned with your religion...I want to know if you are awed when you look into the night sky and witness the vastness and majesty of the Universe. I want to know if you live by the Rule of Three. I want to know if you know that YOU ARE A MIRACLE, completely unique in all of Creation, and an equal with all others.

I'm not concerned with how comfortably you live...I want to know how comfortable you make others feel - with you, and about themselves. Do you know that those who like you are those who feel comfortable with themselves when they're with you? I want to know if you are giving and forgiving, or if you're always keeping score and pointing out faults. I want to know if you are comfortable with your own soul, even as you are still discovering the depth, wisdom, and glory of it.

Socrates was once asked why the brilliant Alcibiades was always so unhappy. Socrates answered, "Because wherever he goes, Alcibiades takes himself with him." Alcibiades was not comfortable with himself, so he was rarely happy. As brilliant as he may have been, he didn't understand that you create yourself each day. Life is constant change. Each day you can try to re-create who you were, or you can flow with the energy of life and willfully create an ever-expanding, ever-higher version of yourself.

Have a great weekend!

#100DaysToGreat #FinishingStrong

So I'm dusting off this old blog of mine to work on an idea I've been kicking around for awhile called #100DaysToGreat #FinishingStrong 

Often times during the last quarter of the year, we get super lax in how we do things. We get overwhelmed by the holidays, lose focus and totally stress. We lose all of our productivity and backslide on things. What would happen, if instead, we used these last days of 2018 to push ourselves to our strongest finish line? What if we all reset our focus for the last 100 days of the year?  What if we pushed to see what we could truly accomplish, so that when we start the New Year, our habits and lives are already in motion rather than waiting until January 1st to kick off goals? 

During these last days, let's approach the end of the year just like successful companies do. Think about it! At the first of the year, they established their goals/focus and plan for the expected results for their Board, Shareholders and Customers. We, as individuals, do this with our New Year Resolutions. During the year, most companies and people experience victories as well as setbacks. It's in how companies address those items that determine their success. They don't have one failure then simply throw in the towel and stop what they are doing. They don't get towards the end of the year and just say, "Eh, let's wait until Jan 1 to do anything." Instead, they remain agile and shift their focus. There may be a product or a line of business that isn’t growing as projected, so they look for alternative ways to push growth so that they end the year on an uptick. During these evaluations, they may discover things that are performing better than anticipated, so they evaluate those items to see how those successes can fuel success in other areas. For the last quarter or last 100 days, they will evaluate where they are, where they need to be and then make changes and push where necessary.

September 23 is the start of the last 100 days of 2018.  Are you ready?  Let's make sure we are #FinishingStrong in our #100DaysToGreat 

Topics we'll be focusing on:

💹FINANCIAL

• Budgeting - Finishing Financially Strong, Envelope methods

• Meal Planning - Inventory Pantry, Fridge,  Freezer

• Spending Freeze - Help get your budgeting back

• Couponing/Apps - How to get more for your $$s, Challenge what you can save during the holidays

• Gifts/Black Friday - What's Important, Small purchases now

• StOCkTOBER - Getting goods on sale during the holidays for your use later

• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) - Use it or Lose it

• Medical/Dental - Deductibles and Maximums reset

🔬HEALTH

• Exercise- Feeling better about yourself during the holidays

• Treating your body better and giving it what it needs

• Annual physicals and Dental Check-ups

📚ORGANIZATION

• Cleaning/Winterizing - Fall leaves/Letting Go/Fruit drops from the tree when it's ready

• Planners - Blocking out your Time

💝SPIRITUAL

• Meditation/Gratitude - Destress and appreciation

• Time with Family/Friends - What's important to you

• Unplugging and refocusing on things that bring you pleasure 

• Reading/Hobbies - Reading List, Crafts, etc

• Journaling - Documenting your progress
• Brain Dumping

• Giving/Charity - Get out of your head, out of your drama and give back

• Taking Time Off - Vacation time that can be subject to Use it or Lose it

• Dana-isms - Going to share some of my stories and experiences