“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” Plato

When was the last time that you spent an hour playing. Truly playing with no outcome in mind?

If you are anything like most adults, it’s probably been awhile.

We are so task-focused, our busy lives filled up to the rim with to do’s, it leaves very little time for play. But play is essential to our health and well-being. It is through play that we learn how to work with others, how to tap into our imagination and creativity, how to solve problems, and how to connect to that inner part of ourselves that is our Truth.

How do you play

Do you remember playing as a young child? What were your favourite activities?

I loved playing hide and seek, creating and building things, swinging high, and most other things that take some imagination like reading a good book. I grew up during a time when we spent hours and hours outside, but always loved to read. Perhaps the influence of having a mother who managed a bookstore.

Create your playground

If you could create a playground for your adult self, what would it be like? What things would be included? What would you spend your time doing?

My playground is a big empty room. It has lots of windows to allow the natural light to pour in. It’s painted a soft green. I add some sheer flowing fabric on the wall hanging down from the centre of the ceiling to give it a cocooning feel much like the fort in the picture above, complete with chandelier. It is the place where I can dance and move, where I can daydream and create, and where I can bring in items that peek my curiosity.

Learning about yourself

With spring upon us (at least in the northern hemisphere) and the Aries fire energy urging us to get outside and to play, be sure to find time during this week and month to play. The creative time is essential to mental health.  Block off a certain time each week and allow yourself to simply play, indulge in it. Allow it to fill you up.

Now consider, what does your choice of playtime activity say about you? What would someone learn about you in an hour of play?

Music, dance, art, yoga, laughter…

These are some of my favourite activities. What are your favourite activities?

My plan for April is all about my favourite activities and to take time out for play. And to kick things off I am going on vacation for a week. I won’t be very accessible but will be reading, writing, and playing (hopefully) in the sunshine.

What’s your intention for April?

Image - Flickr Vizzzual

One of the items in Jennifer Lee’s Right Brain Business Plan that I love is Start, Stop, Continue. I actually do this exercise with my team and myself regularly.

What are the three things right now that you would like to start, three things you would like to stop, and three things you would like to continue?

In late January, Chris Brogan wrote about “quitting” in his newsletter. It was around that time that I started to think about the things that I needed to quit. So over the course of the last couple of months here are the three things I have been stopping/quitting:

1. communities that no longer serve me

I belonged to two communities that although I fully support their vision and mandate, were no longer serving me. By letting it go, I freed up my time and mental space to focus on other things including other communities that are serving me right now.

2. fear

I think many of us, maybe even most of us, are run by fear. We make choices out of fear. We limit our Selves, our dreams, our lives because of fear. Fear is the egos way of keeping control over us.

3. compartmentalization

I tend to keep my life very compartmentalized. I have work, I have my spiritual practice, I have my interests and hobbies, and I keep them all very separate. I think I believe that it isn’t possible for these things to exist happily outside of me. That they don’t mix. I am learning to embrace all parts of me as a whole. Bringing a little of each into the other. It is still an experiment in practice.

What do you need to quit or stop doing to give you the room to do something else?

“When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” Henry Ford

I’m used to physical discomfort. After a car accident, my physical body was broken, bruised and traumatized. It has taken years to get it back into reasonable shape. I have given up on the idea that I will be the person that I was before the accident. It’s often like that in life changing events. There is your life before the event and your life after the event.

But that kind of discomfort is not the focus on my post today. Recently, my discomfort surrounds change and transformation. I am trying to change my life; to release my fears and thoughts of inadequacies that are holding me back, keeping me from living my best life. These are not external factors. It is all within my own mind. I am the only thing holding me back. Sometimes it takes external forces to force us to acknowledge it.

I have been feeling very uncomfortable these past few months, so much so that at times I wiggle in my seat. I can feel myself getting “antsy”.  What’s going on that’s making me so uncomfortable? I’m scared. I worry. “What people will think. I’m going to fall flat on my face. Fail. People will think I am a fraud, that I’m not good enough.” I let that inner voice go through its spiel. Then I sit quietly. I connect with my own Truth. I take a deep breath. And I remember. I have nothing to fear.  have been doing this work for a long time and I am very good at it. This I know. Everything is going to change, it always does. That’ s life. Change is inevitable. So, isn’t it better to control the direction of the change? To make it a change that brings into reality a life that you love to live?

We are all on our hero’s journey, whether we want to be or not. Some of us are just more aware than others.  Two movies come to mind (both of which I recommend), Finding Joe and May I Be Frank. Finding Joe is about the Hero’s Journey and how all great stories regardless of culture or language are about this journey. It talks about the great work of Joseph Campbell and how we all can live our bliss. And May I Be Frank is a documentary of one man’s hero journey to transform his life not only on the physical plane but the emotional and spiritual planes as well. It centers on Frank Ferrante, a man that is transformed on many levels. It is a powerful story of hope and love.

Transformation and living our bliss takes courage. It takes diligent and persistent attention to our thoughts, words and actions. It is about constant vigilance to ensure that we don’t allow our egos or inner critics to get the better of us. Sometimes we must close our eyes, take a deep breath, and connect with our inner Truth. Then we must move forward regardless of the fear that we may be feeling.

Take courage.

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Published at Creative Dream Journals

“Good thoughts are no better than good dreams, unless they be executed.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

I am in the process of writing an e-book on planning. It will be a project management 101 book for small business owners.

I’ve managed hundreds of projects over the years. Small, large, complex, simple. Projects of all shapes and sizes. Projects that succeeded, some that failed, many that fell in between. You learn from them all.

My day job is managing the marketing and communications for a national project management firm that manages large facility projects. So, you can imagine the firm is pretty good at planning. It has to be.

One of the quality control measures that are in place is lessons learned. The idea is simple. After a project is completed, you write down what you learned. Was there a specific challenge that you had to face – what did you do? In hindsight, what would you have done? This is then available for anyone else who might be working on a similar project or facing a similar challenge.

My Lessons Learned

• When you are running a business it is extremely important to plan effectively. Take the time out to plan your year, your month, your week, your day. Life is busy and it can quickly get away from you if you don’t.
• Plans don’t have to be fancy, long, beautiful, or anything else that you think it should  be. A plan could be: a well thought out mind map, a diagram,  or three key words or phrases.  Whatever it is, it should provide meaning, motivation, and sufficient direction to move forward.
• “Failing to plan, is planning to fail.” A great idea is great, but it is about execution. And if you don’t plan out how you will make it happen (execute) more often than not, it won’t result in success.

Too often I have seen people come up with great ideas and start to forge ahead, but the lack of upfront planning results in critical details being overlooked. And the devil is in the details. The smallest details are often what makes the difference between good and great.

Now sometimes it is part of the discovery process to take an idea and play with it. Start to work on it and see how it will play out. That’s okay. It’s an important part of the process, but at some point at a grand level or a tactical level you need to plan things out. Even planning to play with an idea is part of a plan.

So, before you close out the last project for good, take a few minutes and write down some notes. What are the key lessons that you learned on the project that can be applied to another future project? What have you learned personally or professionally? What would you do differently the next time around?

At the end of the day planning is meant to help you manage the risks and try to foresee the obstacles or challenges that you may face, it is also an opportunity to build in efficient ways to manage your resources. But all the planning in the world doesn’t take the place of actually doing something. Don’t let planning stall you in moving forward.

Plan and act.

“You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.” John C. Maxwell

It’s the beginning of March. Can you believe it! Time certainly does march on. Before you know it, we will all be reading posts about year in reviews, getting ready for the holidays, and questions being asked about our goals for 2013. It may seem far away but doesn’t New Year’s feel far away.

Maybe you will be one of those that will sit and wonder, what happened to 2012? I had all these amazing, beautiful dreams that I was going to focus on this year. But time marched on. I didn’t focus on the things I wanted to. I focused on the other day-to-day things that needed to get done. I went grocery shopping, did the laundry, cleaned the house, went to work, read a book or two, spent time with friends and family, volunteered, and so on. My days are always full. Does this sound familiar?

Of course, you then start to rationalize  your choices. My days are so full. I don’t have time to follow those crazy dreams. What was I thinking in the first place. It really isn’t about doing this or that. I have a good life. And quickly those dreams aren’t yours anymore. How quickly we can talk ourselves into and out of things.

Don’t be so quick to let go of your dreams. Hold on to them. It’s not about radical transformation. It’s about change: slow, steady change. It’s about daily actions – one day at a time. It’s about moving towards your dream step by step.

Quite often our New Year’s resolutions and plans fall by the wayside because our head and our heart are not in alignment. When we are in alignment and our decisions, choices, are made based on what is important to us. When it’s important, we make time.

Don’t have time? We all say that. You have the time, we all have the same number of hours in a week: 168 hours to be precise. How we choose to use those 168 hours is very different.

• How many hours a week do you spend watching TV? You could limit/cut back and find a few hours a week to work on your project.
• How do you commute to work? Did you consider public transit so you could spend the commute reading, listening, meditating, or planning?
• Do you do things you really don’t want to do because you feel you “have to”. Drop the shoulds. Do what you must for your family, but drop the sense of obligation where there is no real obligation. It’s sometimes is hard, but you will be relieved when you do it.
• Quit those things that don’t fill you up to give time for those things that do. Your family will appreciate it because you will be happier.

This week, consider monitoring how you spend your time.

Laura Vanderkam’s book 168 hours You Have More Time Than You Think has a spreadsheet you can download here. The excel document can help you really ascertain how you spend your time. You can listen to Kimberly Wilson interview Laura here on her book and about time management.

My suggestion is to set a timer for every 30-60 minutes. Then when the timer goes off take a few minutes to jot down what you have done over that time period. Do this every waking hour every day for a week. Be honest. It is what it is. And yes, it will take some time, but it will also shed some light on how you spend your time and how you don’t.  Once you know how you currently spend your time, you can make changes.

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I am hosting quarterly check-in teleclasses to get re-calibrated with your goals and dreams so you can be successful this year. Starting April 3, 2012, the one hour class with provide an opportunity to reconnect with your goals and vision for 2012, and change course if necessary. The cost for the class is kept low purposefully so that all can attend. Each class is $10 or $30 if you purchase all four. The classes will be recorded so you can listen to it later if you are unable to attend live.

Before the class you will be provided with the conference call line. Bring your journal and 2012 dreams with you. During the class we will be going through a series of questions to consider our choices thus far and the choices we want to make in the next quarter. We will take the big goals and chunk it down. We will break it down into manageable pieces to move you forward over the next few months.

Commit to yourself, your dreams, and your 2012 goals by joining us on these Quarterly Check-ins. I hope you will join us.

• Prayer/Spiritual Practice – success
• Learning – Reiki, entheos, and Goddess research – success
• Website updates – slowly but surely
• Movement – could have been better!
• Random Acts of Daily Rebellion – started off strong but when I got busy this didn’t happen.

March Goal: Health

• Spiritual Health: defining and committing to a spiritual practice and working with a spiritual coach
• Physical Health: getting my butt moving this month, running and preparing for a 5k race, regular weekly yoga class
• Mental Health: learning a new skill with my Reiki Level 2 training
• Financial Health: continuing to work on the new business while balancing my responsibilities at my job. Planning and writing the new e-book.
• Emotional Health:  have some fun with friends and family. Get out and socialize at least once a week.

Gwen Bell wrote about this in January and it really struck me. So much in fact that I emailed her about it.

Have you ever provided a compliment to someone that compared them to another – e.g. you are the best barista ever? Consider this as an alternative: I am appreciative of the care that you took in creating my beverage. Thank you.  It is specific to the person and their actions without comparing them to others.

I recall walking in the mall one day after an event. A woman was walking towards me. Without slowing down she looks at me and says “That jacket looks fabulous on you.” I smiled. It made me stand a little taller. It was considerate. I recall that comment and how it made me feel on occasion.

We should give compliments to anyone and everyone when we think of it. Don’t think a stranger will think you are odd – people like to feel good and a compliment makes you feel good.

This is especially true with your team members and staff. I have been considering how this impacts them since I read Gwen’s email. How should I be composing a compliment for full effect and impact?

How often do you give compliments, especially to those that you work with or that work for you? Today, I challenge you to give compliments out freely to all that you meet.

Let me know how it goes.

“Be careful what you water your dreams with.

Water them with worry and fear and you will produce weeds that choke the life from your dream.

Water them with optimism and solutions and you will cultivate success.

Always be on the lookout for ways to turn a problem into an opportunity for success.

Always be on the lookout for ways to nurture your dream.”

- Lao Tzu

~ Steve Jobs

Hmmm…

I’ve been going back to this quote often over the past month. If I were honest with myself, could I say that I would have answered No many times over the past month. Don’t I dream of doing something else all the time? What am I doing tangibly every day to move that closer to realization?

Hmmm…

These are tough questions. Sometimes you have to get tough with yourself. Change is hard. But the alternative is harder. Unacceptable really: a life not truly lived.

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What is your legacy?

What are you building today to make a difference so that when you are gone you won’t truly be gone.  That what you did was important to someone or something and lives on.

Saying I don’t have a legacy is hard. What is your dream for your legacy? You know the one in the back of your mind or heart that you have never uttered aloud to anyone. Say it out loud so you can make a change.

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It’s time to give yourself a good talking to

Go stand in front of a mirror. Make sure you are alone. Bathrooms are great for this.

Now look in the mirror. Really look at yourself. Take a minute here. It will be uncomfortable. Change often is. Get used to it.

It’s time to get serious with yourself.

Start by telling yourself all about your dreams. Say it. Dream it.

Tell yourself your dream of your legacy.

Now make a promise to yourself: what you are going to do today or tomorrow to make it a reality. One thing.

Look yourself in the eye. Don’t look away. Straight in the eye. Make the promise.

Now go and do it!

When you’ve done it. Go back to the mirror and thank yourself.

Then make a new promise for the next day.

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