September 24, 2008OTL – TBE: 5 Tasty Morsels About Great Work
From our newsletter Outside the Lines – The Business Edition
Last month I launched The Great Work Blog, and I’ve been writing short pieces on Great Work five days a week.
Think of this as a form of regular “drip irrigation” to help grow your own Great Work garden, rather than just an occasional newsletter deluge.
In this newsletter I’m featuring five of my favourite pieces so far:
- Five Things to say No to
- You can’t figure it out by figuring it out
- Underwork it for the breakthrough
- The feeling of Great Work
- D’uh! (this one will make you laugh)
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== Five Things to say No to ==
You can’t do Great Work without saying No to a few things.
Here are five places to start.
1. People who drain rather than nourish.
(There’s no room for those that drain your energy.)
2. The belief that everything has to be done excellently.
(”Adequate” is normally just fine. Needing to do everything excellently is not only impossible but overwhelming.)
3. The idea that doing email is doing work.
(It’s a means to an end, not an end in itself. Learn to tame the beast.)
4. The feeling that being busy …
== You can’t figure it out by figuring it out ==
The other day I was speaking with my friend, Jen Louden.
Jen’s been a big success is the world of self help, in particular for her work as The Comfort Queen and providing insight for women to build greater comfort into their lives.
For the last little while, she’s been looking at evolving, asking “what’s next?”
And she’s been stuck in every increasing, then decreasing, then increasing, then decreasing, circles in her head.
The problem is trying to figure out the future is nearly impossible. We try and extrapolate from the past and that leads either to improbable fantasy or reality +/- 5% which isn’t that exciting.
Jen’s solution?
== Underwork it for the breakthrough ==
Browsing in a magazine store the other day, I picked up one of those generic men’s magazines. You know the type: a guy with unnaturally white teeth and a six pack on the cover — together with promises of gadgets, sex tips, and a six-pack of your own — to lure you in.
I picked it up – hey, I have the occasional moments of weakness and wanting to be pumped and ripped and shredded – and flicking through it actually found an insight of some use.
An athletic trainer was talking about how to get unstuck, how to breakthrough when you’ve hit a certain point and can’t go beyond.
His insight was this…
== The feeling of Great Work ==
Just about 24 hours ago, I invited pretty much everyone I know to consider applying to be trainers of the Coaching for Great Work training program.
The truth is, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. I was hoping to find 10 great people. And to date I’ve had 60 or people from around the world – Canada, the United States, Australia, Costa Rica, Poland, Argentina, New Zealand, the Czech Republic, the UK – apply to be part of it, often sending me wonderful notes of enthusiasm and support.
I’ve spent much of the day dealing with the influx, answering emails, monitoring comments on the blogs, acknowledging the honour people do me in applying.
And, lying in bed tonight, I’ve finally caught up with how this feels. How this Great Work for me feels.
I can’t sleep.
I’m filled with doubts – did I launch this too early, can I really deliver this, what was I thinking?
I’m looking for other distractions. (No kidding, I’ve had this great idea for another cool website).
I’m feeling anxious.
== D’uh! ==
This one’s a picture and worth a thousand words.
