Slow Down and Enjoy the Ride

Do you ever feel like you're rushing around so fast or trying so hard to get to some destination in the future that you're missing out on some really important things in the process? I know I do. In our pursuit of "success," we often forget to stop, notice, and appreciate what's happening right NOW.

An interview with Carol Dweck, Ph.D., author of the book "Mindsets: The New Psychology of Success," punctuated with a Gargantuan Glob-Beelzebub and visits with Donkey O'Tee (of Shoot the Donkey fame) and Cal 9000. Steve Kayser's articles are always multi faceted and extremely entertaining! (ed.)

I don't know about you but I get frustrated with baby boomers who simply bad-mouth Gen Y employees and don't think more about why they behave the way they do. The next time a Gen Y'er frustrates you at work or at home - take a deep breath and think about the context that they are coming from - their brain physiology, their database of experiences and the matters they are fearful and worried about. It won't make them change their behaviours but it might enable you to engage your pre-frontal cortex, calm down, use your emotional intelligence, be a STAR and maximize all the great things that creative, energetic, demanding and wonderful young people offer.

A friend of mine shared with me that a coworker of his arrives at work by 8:00 a.m. each morning and never leaves before 8:00 p.m. each night; additionally, he has a one hour commute each way. Does this person have the proper work/life balance?

To be effective in today's work world, you must have high performing systems that serve your needs and aid in helping you live an integrated life. Like any well run business, the systems should be built deliberately with a close connection to your overall mission and tightly integrated to help you achieve optimum performance. Do your systems do that for you?

This is the time of year that many of us will take vacation, and one of the dreaded aspects of vacation is the return to an overflowing email box. This phenomenon can also happen when we are in day-long meetings or traveling for business. Here is my recommended approach to manage the volume and get focused on what is truly most important to you.

The first step in thriving at any given time is to make the choice and set the intention: "Regardless of what's going on around me, regardless of the temporary circumstances at any given time, I choose to thrive."  Once you've decided to thrive rather than simply survive or eke out a life, there are many practices and resources available for you to play with. Here are a few; you'll find more ideas and practices at Ivy Sea Online and in my blogs.

Is your in-box overflowing? Is paper crowding your space? In today's society of abundance, one thing is certain: we do not lack stuff. Economists have concluded that we have used our soaring productivity over the last 50 years to purchase more items, rather than to gain more free time. Here is the challenge: If all of that stuff gets in the way of productivity, what do we do with it?

The year is just beginning... This is a perfect time to stop, take assessment of last year's accomplishments, and revisit your goals. There is still time to make a material impact toward your goals. In this article, I will show you how to make your abstract goals more tangible, how to avoid goal stoppers, and how to encourage goal enablers, in your life.