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10 Aug 2018 – Nancy’s Notes & Anecdotes

Posted on by Nancy Allen

Quote I’m pondering:

“Want to be happy? Stop trying to be perfect.”
— Brene Brown

On my reading list:

The Growth Mindset: A Guide to Professional and Personal Growth, by Joshua Moore and Helen Glasgow. This is a short and powerful book. I’m not sure how I found out about it, but boy am I glad to have read it. Fourteen short chapters packed with info and ideas and work. Each chapter has a summary called the Big Takeaway with practical advice.

I especially appreciated the chapter called Happiness Retrospective: 3 questions that each have 3 questions about past, current and future happiness. This was a really simple but powerful exercise!

(1) When in the past were you at your happiest? Why was this? Who was involved? Why did it end?

(2) What currently makes you happy? Why is this? Who is involved? What could make it end?

(3) When you plan for the future, what do you think would make you happy? Why would this make you happy? Who would be involved? What would you do to ensure it wouldn’t end?

One of the things I learned is the same people are involved past, present and future. Try this exercise and let me know what you learn.

How I spent my time:

This week, for the Her Dreamers Membership Program, I had the pleasure to interview Terri Hall who is a friend, colleague and client. I’ve known Terri for 10+ years and her story still inspires me. She has grit, she has courage, she has charisma and she is one of the most creative people I know. If you’d like to watch the interview, here is the link.

Ideas I’m Noodling…

From the 52 Lists for Happiness book by Moorea Seal: “List the people you want to spend more time with before the end of the year… Plan one way you will spend time with a friend this week. Try to keep planning a friend hang-out time once a week for the rest of the year and think of it as your weekly happiness investment!” I absolutely love this idea! PS– you can plan virtual friend meetings too!

I’m following…

Have you heard of the artist Phil Hansen? I learned about him when I heard his TED Talk called Embrace the Shake. He did a project last year where he made portraits of poets using words from their poems and his medium was a Smith Corona Electra 110 typewriter(!). Remember those? I actually had one… Take a look at the portraits AND do yourself a favor and listen to his very inspiring TED Talk.


I’m Celebrating…

Sometimes I have to really dig deep to find something I deem worthy of celebrating. The good news is that the soul searching always pays off — being conscious of the fact that I’m looking for something to celebrate makes me more aware of my surroundings and reminds me that celebrations don’t have to be grandiose or mind blowing. A case in point: This morning I was interrupted as I was preparing this note and I saw this– I’ve had this bromeliad for many many years. You might not know that bromeliads are self perpetuating… the mother plant grows pups that eventually replace it and the cycle continues on and on. The bloom on this plant has probably been growing for weeks and today is the day I noticed it and now I’ll be on the lookout over the next few weeks as it continues to fill out and fill me with wonder and pride. What is right under nose that you can celebrate??

 

In case you missed them, you can catch up here. I hope you’ll find ideas that spur your imagination and creativity to help propel you forward on your adventure.
Nancy Allen

16 Nov 2018 – Nancy’s Notes & Anecdotes

Posted on by Nancy Allen

Quote I’m pondering:

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
— Rumi

On my reading list:

I’m a coach and trainer. And since I love to learn I’m always looking for resources to give my clients. (I’ve got books to recommend, videos, TED talks, magazines etc). One of my favorite resources is the Harvard Business Review because they always have great articles, topics that are relevant to my audience and they offer different points of view. I recently read an interesting article by Peter Bregman about our interest in and ability to change.

He posits that there are two basic questions you should ask:

(1) Do you want to do better?

(2) Are you willing to feel the discomfort of putting in more effort and trying new things that will feel weird and different and won’t work right away?

Change won’t happen unless you answer “yes” to both questions. I love the simplicity of the questions and the directness of the results. Yes or no, are YOU ready and are YOU willing??

Think back on a change you wanted to make that did not succeed– did you answer yes to both questions? How about a change that did succeed– did you answer yes? I’ll bet it was more of a he** yes for the change that did succeed!

Try this out and let me know what you think.

Meetings this week:

I was in Washington DC this past week for the WBENC (Women’s Business Enterprise National Council) quarterly meetings. Not only do I get to meet with my awesome colleagues from around the country, I also have the opportunity to meet with women business owners from around the country who are successful, passionate about what they do, and who love to come together to share ideas and opportunities.

Equally important and impressive are the corporate representatives who dedicate time, talent and treasure to organizations like WBENC and ours because they believe in our mission and vision. I’m on the Global Committee of the WBENC National Board of Directors — we are already planning our workshop for the WBENC Conference and Business Fair in June 2019. (Stay tuned for updates about an import survey we will be sending out).

WBENC’s global partner organization,WEConnect International gave us an update on all of their great events. Take a look at what’s coming up here. I’m working on a sponsorship for mission and discovery trips in conjunction to the WEConnect events. Are you interested? Contact me and maybe we will get to travel together!

AND the best part of this last week’s meetings was getting to introduce our 2019 WBE Business Star, Nathalie Doobin of Harvard Services Group. Get to know her here. https://www.harvardsg.com/

I know she will impress and inspire you as much as she has impressed and inspired us.

Ideas I’m Noodling…

How can I be stronger? How can I honor someone else’s strength?

I’m following…

Lara Casey, author, entrepreneur and founder of Cultivate What Matters

I heard her on the Don’t Keep Your Day Job podcast and was impressed by her sincerity and especially with her call to action: quiet the imposter syndrome voices in your head by focusing on the bigger picture. Look forward to your 80th birthday; will the small things that matter to you (read consume and worry you) right now, be important then?

I’m Celebrating…

I’m celebrating FB memories and divine timing. This photo popped up in my newsfeed this week. It was taken 6 years ago on the first day of my first trip to India. That’s my yoga teacher’s teacher who introduced me to dynamic meditation, art and sound therapy and whose very presence slowed everything down. Yes, I still meditate and still enjoy the benefits of nada yoga/sound therapy and I am happy to say that I have continued the journey that started on the first day of my first trip to India. It hasn’t always been a straight path but it’s been a well lit path that I have mostly remembered to follow. I’m glad this reminder popped up now…

 

 

Please don’t hesitate to let me know if you have any questions or concerns about that here.
Nancy Allen