Last week, I was setting up my Facebook Live and the tech wouldn’t work. I kept trying to click through the options and it kept stalling and I was stuck. I skipped one week and in that time Facebook changed the interface. I didn’t know if I was doing something wrong, or if the issues were on their end, but I just felt the anxiety and stress creep up as 8:30 am came and then passed

Do you remember a time when you smiled at someone, and they smiled back? When someone gave you a compliment? When someone paid for your coffee in a drive through lane?

Fail better? I’d never heard that phrase before I first read about it in Michael Bungay Stanier’s book: The Coaching Habit. But as I read it, I put stars beside it and made a note to reflect on it, and it’s been swirling around my brain for the past few months.

I was reading a book the other night: The 4% Fix and came across this passage:

“Have you ever had a brilliant idea or solved what felt like an unsolvable problem in the shower, or just before falling asleep, or maybe when you’re sitting alone in nature? The quietness and stillness of your mind during these types of activities allow for thought processes that couldn’t get through the noise before.” (Karma Brown pp. 195-6)

Last weekend I was feeling extremely overwhelmed. I had a to do list which seemed insurmountable, and no motivation to climb that mountain. I was coming off a busy week and had some looming deadlines which were creeping up faster than I would have liked.

I have always thought I was a fairly positive person, but about 13 years ago, someone challenged me on that belief. I asked around and a couple people reinforced that despite how I saw myself, they saw me as leaning towards the negative. It shocked me and made me really think and reflect.

It’s nearing the end of the first week of my Academic Writing and Critical Thinking course and I am starting to feel better about it.

The course started Monday and looking back at my text messages from that day, I can pull out a common theme that could best be summarized as “Crap. What did I sign up for?

An important part of leadership is to pause and take breaks (as I mentioned in THIS Pause blog post). Sometimes those breaks are mental breaks to recoup and recover. Other times, they should be clarity breaks where you take a step back and focus on your business or your life. It’s a chance to clear your mind of the thousand questions and thoughts flying around and get them down on paper.