Conversations have been the heart of my work over the last 30 years. In fact, I’d say they are the heart of all of our work and lives. We are in conversations all day long, whether with family, friends, colleagues, clients, strangers, and even ourselves. Conversations are the source of connection, new understanding, change, and love.
Courage has been on my mind over the last week. In the past, I had courage associated with bold moves, truth-telling, adventure, feeling fear, and doing it anyway. While those are definitely examples where courage helps us out, over the last week, I’ve been considering all the other ways our lives present us with opportunities to be courageous.
2020 has been an invitation for me to embrace the experience of my own and others’ humanity. It has given me the opportunity, again and again, to experience the full range of the human experience. It seems to be teaching me and inviting me to embody the experience of being fully alive.
As I head home for the holidays, I’m conscious that this holiday will be different for so many of us. For the first time in over 60 years, my Mom will not be hosting Christmas, and for the first time in my life, I won’t be with all my brothers and sisters this holiday. I know many of you can relate. Some of you have had to make the tough choice not to be with family, travel, or to keep the usual gatherings small.
“Stop measuring days by degree of productivity and start experiencing them by degree of presence.” – Alan Watts
That quote gets me every time. In a way, this whole blog could be narrowed down to that one sentence. Where do we find satisfaction and meaning? It’s right here, in real-time, in the experience of the moments we have throughout our day.
One of the most common criticisms I have of myself, and I hear other entrepreneurs and leaders say about themselves, falls in the category of productivity. It shows up in comments like, “I did not get done what I wanted or needed to today.” or “I need to get more focused, organized, disciplined, etc.” Getting enough done, being more productive feels like a battle and something that needs to be fixed if we’re going to get ahead or be successful.
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