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Henry Kissinger once said, "There cannot be a crisis next
week. My schedule is already full." If you can relate to
his comment, this newsletter is for you…
Look at your appointment book. See any "white space" there?
If you're like most busy executives and professionals, you are booked
solid. In between appointments, you struggle to catch up with
projects, reports, reading, phone calls, correspondence, e-mail, etc.
With the pace you keep, you probably feel fatigued…like you're running
on empty.
This can wreak havoc on your business or career, as well as your personal
life. Consider these common symptoms of fatigue:
 Lack
of motivation and energy
Irritability
Reduced
productivity
Reduced
efficiency and effectiveness
Reduced
quality / increased mistakes
Stressed
relationships
You may be unaware
of how run down you are becoming. Perhaps you have bought into
the old adage that "time equals money." If spending
more time at the office equated to making more money, we could all
retire early!
By now you've figured out that more time at the office does not necessarily
equate to more or better results. In fact, it often means fewer
results and more mistakes.
The vast majority of my coaching clients complain of having too little
time, leaving them feeling depleted, stressed, frustrated, and pulled
in every direction. Often, the first thing we work on together
is creating something called margin.
What is margin? It's the "white space" in your
appointment book.
Dr. Richard Swenson, author of Margin:
Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded
Lives, defines margin as "the space that exists between ourselves
and our limits. It is the amount allowed beyond that which is
needed. It is something held in reserve for contingencies or
unanticipated situations. Margin is the gap between rest and
exhaustion, the space between breathing freely and suffocating."
So, how do you create margin? Swenson tells us that we create
margin by building these four things into our lives:
Simplicity
Contentment
Balance
Rest
Seek Simplicity
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"It is my observation
that too many of us are spending money we haven't earned
to buy things we don't need to impress people we don't like."
--Ken Blanchard
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Seeking simplicity requires that we reduce
the clutter in our lives--including possessions, activities, and people.
To simplify your life, become crystal clear about your goals, and
then do the following:
- Identify what you are willing to take on
in order to reach your goals.
- Identify what you are willing to let go of.
- Identify activities that are all-consuming
but not necessarily important to you. This is
a case of "less is more" -- doing less of
what is not important enables you to do more of what matters
most.
- Let go of relationships that do not enhance
your life. That's right - people can be clutter, too!
- Let go of possessions that do not enhance
your life on a regular basis - things that take up space,
require maintenance, and make decision-making more complicated.
- Let go of important tasks that someone else
can do - delegate!
- Let go of petty annoyances. Make a
list of 10 things in your life that bother you. Then give
yourself a month to fix it, clean it, toss it, etc… or let
go of it!
- Let go of the past. Imagine where you want
to be in the future and move toward it.
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Cultivate Contentment
"There
are two ways to get enough. One is to continue to accumulate
more and more. The other is to desire less."
--G.K. Chesterton |
Contentment
is something we learn. It is a relative state. Comparing is the enemy
of contentment. "Having it all" may not be in your
best interest! Consider these questions when making decisions
about activities, purchases, or relationships:
- Will this activity enhance my life?
- Will this purchase add meaning and
fulfillment to my life one month from now? How about
one year from now? If I don't purchase this, will I
regret it later? If I decide to purchase this later,
will it still be available?
- Will this relationship move me toward
or away from what I want to be and do in my life?
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Bring Balance
"Much
of our pain in life comes from the sense that we're succeeding
in one role at the expense of other, possibly even more important,
roles. Success in one role can't justify failure in another.
Business success can't justify failure in a marriage; success
in the community can't justify failure as a parent. Success
or failure in any role contributes to the quality of every other
role and life as a whole."
--Stephen Covey, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People |
Your calendar reflects your values.
The way you use your time reflects the way you live your life.
Life is like a buffet line -- our plates fill up sooner than we realize.
We need to say NO. NO is a complete sentence.
Finding balance is not a state we can get to or arrive at because
it is always in motion. Balance is dynamic. It only exists
in the midst of action. We are moving toward balance or away
from it. Balance requires consistent, conscious, and controlled
motion. Try balancing on one foot. Notice the fine
adjustments you need to make in the foot and body in order to maintain
equilibrium.
Being out of balance is the condition of being driven by circumstances
without a sense of any choice. Language often spoken in these
situations include I can't…, I have to…, or I gotta…
When choice is gone, balance is gone-and with it goes the possibility
of personal fulfillment.
To create balance in your life, consider the following:
- Do you feel at choice in your life,
or do you choose to live by I can't…, I gotta.., I have
to…, and I should…?
- Schedule a weekly time by yourself to plan
the coming week based on what you choose.
- Identify the key relationships (roles) in
your life. What activities do you choose for the coming
week to nurture each of these relationships?
- Begin your weekly planning by considering
the activities you choose to care for your physical, spiritual,
mental, and social well-being. Caring first for yourself
helps you to be more available to serve in each of your chosen
roles without anger and resentment.
- Remember that every time you say "yes"
to someone or something, you are saying "no" to
someone or something else.
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Restore Rest
"If you're burning
the candle at both ends, you're not as bright as you think
you are."
--Anonymous |
Can you imagine
what music would be like with no rests? Try humming a familiar tune
without honoring the rests, and you'll soon recognize their value.
Wayne Muller, author of Sabbath:
Restoring the Sacred Rhythm of Rest, has the following to say
about rest: "In the relentless busyness of modern life, we
have lost the rhythm between action and rest. The busier we
are, the more important we seem to ourselves and, we imagine, to
others. To be unavailable to our friends and family, to be
unable to find time for the sunset (or even to know the sun has
set), to whiz through our obligations without time for a single
mindful breath-this has become the model of a successful life.
Because we do not rest, we lose our way. We miss the compass
points that show us where to go, the nourishment that gives us succor,
the quiet that gives us wisdom."
Cheryl Richardson, author of Take
Time for Your Life, has identified the enemy of rest--adrenaline:
"The increased speed by which we live has contributed to a
society suffering from adrenaline overload more than information
overload. When we use adrenaline as our main source of fuel,
our body's adrenal system--the fight or flight response that is
supposed to alert us to and prepare us for danger--never has a chance
to rest. This hyper-vigilant state of fight or flight eventually
makes it physiologically difficult to slow down."
If you are one who has difficulty relaxing when you have free time,
your body is probably so accustomed to running on adrenaline that
it does not know how to derive its fuel from healthier sources.
It's time to start practicing new behaviors that reduce your reliance
on adrenaline.
Restore rest in your life by trying some of these ideas:
-
Identify
one day a week on which you choose not to conduct any business
- no professional meetings or calls, correspondence, checking
for messages or e-mail, etc. Many people choose Sunday
for their "day of rest."
-
Plan something
to rejuvenate yourself - perhaps a massage, bubble bath, listening
to relaxing music, or losing yourself in a good book.
-
Determine
the number of hours of sleep you need for optimal functioning.
Create a plan to help you get the rest you need.
-
Breathe
deeply. When running on adrenaline, we have a tendency towards
shallow breathing. When we deprive our bodies of oxygen,
we experience such things as cold hands, high blood pressure,
and feeling anxious.
-
A brisk
walk is one of the best things you can do to reduce stress and
restore health to your adrenal system.
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ACTION
IDEAS
Review all of the
ideas in this article. Then answer these questions:
 What
is one action that would add to my professional success
if I did it on a daily basis?
What
is one action that would add to my personal success
if I did it on a daily basis?
Create personal and professional Success Habits for yourself.
It may be taking time for weekly planning, giving yourself
15 minutes at the end of each day to clear the piles of paper
on your desk, getting to bed by a certain time each night,
or breathing deeply.
Whatever Success Habits you choose to create, build in some
support for yourself:
- Track your
Success Habit on a daily basis (click here
for a tracking tool)
- Ask someone
to be your partner in holding you accountable.
Tell your partner that you will let them know at the
end of each week how many times you followed through
with your Success Habit. Use the power of partnership
and public declaration about your intent to help you
be accountable.
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May is Business Improvement Month. What better way to improve
your business than by starting with yourself. Paauwerfully
Organized provides the following services to assist you:
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Consulting
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I help individuals committed to moving their lives forward in powerful ways
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This
article is by Kathy Paauw of Paauwerfully Organized.
Kathy's web site is a comprehensive resource devoted
to helping busy professionals and small business
owners de-clutter their schedules, spaces, and minds
so they can focus on what's most important. Kathy
is an organizing & productivity consultant, certified
business & personal coach, and speaker. Contact
her at kathy@orgcoach.net.
For free resources and valuable productivity
tools visit http://www.orgcoach.net.
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E-mail your comments, questions,
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Warm regards,
Kathy Paauw, Paauwerfully Organized
425-881-6627
kathy@orgcoach.net |
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