Move Your Desk

At age 16 Sacagawea helped the Lewis & Clark Expedition at a pivotal point on their journey. And, she carried her baby most of the way.

Ann Frank got a journal around 14 years old and wrote in it for two years. It just happened to be the two years that her family was in hiding from the Nazis.

Mother Theresa and Martin Luther King Jr. knew as young children that they had a purpose to pursue in life and that purpose involved helping people.

Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein (and his first wife) were full of ideas, theories, and experimenting.

Abraham Lincoln was a voracious reader, despite his lack of schooling, and was able to increase his influence from small town debate stages in Illinois to the Office of the President at a crucial time in the history of the United States.

Harriet Tubman never read, but her ability to strategize, lead, and live a life filled with faith in possibilities gave others courage and strength to fight in another way for the same freedoms Lincoln was seeking.

These are only a few of the people I've been reading about this week from a series of children's books sharing about the lives of influential people.

Most of these people weren't educated by the "you should go to school and get a college degree" standard. Most never retired. They gave their entire lives to a purpose. Some died young (Anne Frank, Sacagawea) and others lived into their 80s.

Each purpose helped people, but in unique and different ways.

They offered up their best work in the way that only they could.

Are you finding and offering up yours?

Journals, trinkets, notes, wedding announcements, graduation programs, and photos. All the memorabilia that you and I keep in boxes, on the wall, or crammed in bookshelves and drawers.

I've chosen to go through it all and finally decide what to do with it - keep, take a picture and save digitally, pass on to someone else, or just spend a moment honoring it and what I've learned and ditching it.

This process is important to me - to physically free myself from carting it around. And, pull the lessons of the past that are holding me back in the here and now.

I gained a new awareness as I continued the process this week. Thanks to a coaching session with my friend and coach MJ Walsh.

And, it came through taking a look at what I was making a small pile of storage bins mean in my life.

I hope you tune in and think about the trade-offs you are making in your life as well.

Are you memorable?

I've had a few experiences lately where people I remember well, don't remember me.

And, I've learned that it is ok.

But, I've also learned that there is much to be learned if you take a trip down memory lane. It's not an easy journey, though the outcomes of the pursuit may be worth your while.

Tune into this episode to hear a little about mental and physical de-junking, Swedish death cleaning, writing your life story, and working through the pain that springs up in this process.

Remembering the influence and experiences can be valuable. How you choose to use those memories can also springboard you into offering up your full capabilities in your work.

#moveyourdesk #personaldevelopment #startwithachart #frameworks #emotions #pain

Someone leaves a comment on a blogpost you spent a significant amount of thinking time on.

How does that make you feel?

On the other hand, you hear nothing from the presentation you forwarded to your boss. You thought it was filled with some innovative approaches to move your division forward. But, you hear...crickets.

How does that make you feel?

You get to choose how you feel. And, so does everyone else.

But, there are some trends in human behavior. One of them seems to be that getting some kind of acknowledgement does generate some kind of emotion that seems to serve us.

I talked about this in my weekly Facebook live recently. The importance of acknowledging the humans in our lives - for the gifts received, for the good they are doing, for the work they contribute.

Somehow in the process of acknowledging, we change too.

Tune in to hear some stories, insights, and thoughts to ponder on the topic of acknowledgement.

Feel free to share with me your stories, push back, and insights too!

Note: This is an edited version of that live Facebook session.

No one showed up to your last presentation, your new product release, or to participate in your free coaching session.

Our mind can start to churn when we put a lot of time, energy, and care into creating something and putting it out into the world.

Did they know about it and decide against it? Do they think you don't offer up great work? Or, were they just not aware?

Regardless of the reason, you owe it to yourself to keep showing up for the one... even when that is just you!

When we choose to continue bringing our best work into the world, we have a chance to improve it and at some point it may help someone else.

Go ahead and treat that one participant like they are your highest paying client. Bring all of your energy, stories, and insights to that interaction. Trust that it is part of your journey to offering up your best work.

You are the sum of all the decisions you've made in life to this point.

Some decisions are easy. You make them in an instant because it's necessary.

Other decisions take longer because there are more factors to consider that can have long term impact.

Or, you are merely dealing the decision because it's too hard to deal with, you are afraid of the outcomes, or you may feel amateur at making certain decisions.

Regardless, I'd like to start talking about this topic more as I see myself falling into dealing decision-making behaviors in some areas of life while also being willing to take the next step in other situations.

Recently flies reminded me of what happens when we finally make a decision.

Tune into this episode to hear the story!

Periodically, I like to talk about the nudgers.

In past episodes, I've mentioned nudging, pivotal nudgers, sequences of nudges, and accepting nudges.

It was time this week to again point out some nudgers that impact my work and don't even know it.

It's worth pausing periodically to ask ourselves questions - who introduced me to this book? to this tech tool? to the process I use in my negotiations?

Often, with a moment of thought, we can pull the mental string back and recognize that there was a person that suggested an idea and...we decided to follow it.

This is a moment for me to be grateful for a few of them that I recognized in my life this week.

If you are upleveling your work in some way, chances are your brain will go to work to keep you safe from the danger, the fears, and the...opportunity for growth.

It gets busy serving up the excuses, the likely and unlikely scenarios that will take place on the journey, and even question why you desire what you desire.

This weeks episode is from a Facebook live session that I conducted a few weeks ago. I explore the self-sabotage that takes place in this process of upleveling through the eyes of a client that got a job offer that she thought she really wanted.

Do you see yourself in this example?

All of us go through these beliefs and emotions when we try something new. And, none of us really gets to know what the right answer for anyone else.

You don't have to change anything right now. Just notice and take note whether or not you are making decisions from a place of fear, a place of excitement, or a place of getting a spiritual nudge. It takes some practice to know the difference.

Join our weekly live sessions on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/movey...

#moveyourdesk

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#uplevelingwork

#careertransitions

Are you willing to increase your capacity to receive?

And, what does it mean anyway?

I started viewing it from the perspective of receiving money for value creation. And, it quickly multiplied into a concept that I was noticing in other areas - capacity to receive feedback, capacity to receive opportunities more aligned with personal desires in work, capacity to accept compliments, and capacity to take on more challenges and growth in life.

See, the expansion of the conversation is a capacity increase all by itself.

I do want to talk about this topic more. I have a feeling it plays into other topics like abundant thinking, gratitude, boundaries, expanding capabilities, and a whole lot more.

Hopeful that you will reach out and share what you think about it.

Some of my initial thoughts are in this episode through all major podcast services and https://pod.co/move-your-desk

This past week my grandfather reached "centenarian" status.

He's not the first to achieve this milestone, and won't be the last.

On his birthday, a funeral was held across town for his sister-in-law who lived 102 years and 10 months.

These individuals have seen a lot of history, and made their own along the way.

For this 100th episode of the Move Your Desk show, I share a few tidbits from his personal life, work, travel adventures, family, and service. The home he built continues to be a gathering place for our family to enter at our own risk - to experience the stories of the past, the lessons learned, the regrets, the hopes, the dreams, the sorrows, and the expectations of life.

I laugh and cry a little in this episode. It really doesn't do my thoughts, feelings or my grandfather justice. But, it's what came out of me at this time.

I'm glad that I got to see him, in person, on his 100th birthday. Though his body has declined in the last 5-6 years, his mind is still sharp. And, he still lit up when he saw us despite immobility and isolation due to age and virus restrictions. His sense of adventure (and love of flying) is thwarted right now, but he's contributing to the world in ways he doesn't realize at this time.

Happy Birthday Grandpa Clark! I love you.

A nod to all the flights (those that were successful and those that were a bit of a crash)

"If you can walk away from a landing, it's a good landing. If you use the airplane the next day, it's an outstanding landing." - Chuck Yeager