Oof! What another upside-down, topsy turvy year. Congratulations! You’re still standing. Or maybe sitting. Or in need of a nap.
Wherever you’re at, I’ve got you covered with a turn of the calendar page and a continuation of the tradition of twelve wishes, one for each month of 2022.
If you haven’t reviewed my wishes for you from 2020 or 2021, you can do that here and here first if you wish (wink wink, nudge nudge, pun intended).
Here we go.
January – Motivation
- Motivation is like a muscle – it needs working out, and it also needs to rest to be most effective.
- The Heath Brothers, in their excellent book- ‘Switch – how to change things when change is hard’ -talk about motivation via the beasts that live inside us, namely our elephant and rider.
- Our elephant is our emotional side, and our rider is our rational holder of the reins side.
- If you pay attention to your habits, make it fun and ‘bundle,’ bookend your day, pay attention to your digital hygiene and discover your motivation style your motivation muscle will get a lovely workout
- Find out more here: Here’s how you can amp up your motivation, even and especially if it’s in the dump right now
February – Get yourself a ‘try stuff’ box
- We tend to play it safe.
- While we yearn for flow – where we lose ourselves in the joy of doing something that fits our gifts and talents, “we’d rather be stuck than screwed,” says Bill Burnett and Dave Evans in their fabulous book and one of my all-time favourite books, Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life.
- In other words, we’d rather be stuck playing it small and safe than stick our necks out, take a chance, and potentially be screwed.
- Flow is play for grown-ups.
- Find out more here, including easy ways to get your flow on without it feeling scary or too risky: Do you have a ‘Try Stuff’ box? Here’s how to get one
March – M.A.P. your way to well-being
- M.A.P. is an acronym based on Daniel Pink’s work. It looks at our three key psychological needs – the sign posts to follow on your and/or your team’s M.A.P. Hit these ones and your team will hit it out of the park.
- M stands for mastery
- A stands for autonomy
- P stands for purpose
- Find out more here: Three steps to M.A.P. your way to well-being including a mountain, medium and molehill goal worksheet.
- And here: Mountains, Mediums, and MoleHills – Your Recipe for Serious Success
April – Finding joy and surprises in waiting
- Jason Farman, in his excellent article How to wait well, where he advises, “instead of fuming in subjugated irritation, turn wait times into chances to connect, muse and think big about the future.”
- He says waiting is usually imposed. That is to say, someone or something is keeping us waiting. It’s not usually our choice. And things that we don’t feel we have control or agency over can be tougher to handle.
- Jason illuminates some surprising benefits to waiting, including questions to ask yourself when waiting.
- “Use wait times as an investment in the social fabric.”
- Discover more here: Begging to differ with Dr. Seuss; Finding joy and surprises in waiting
May – Massaging almonds and other critical skills
- Repeat after me … amygdala (uh·mig·duh·luh).
- You now know how to say the word ‘almond’ in Greek.
- Amygdala is the Greek word for almond. You have two almonds, or amygdalas, in your brain. And they are both your worst enemy and your best friend.
- Find out why and how to massage them here: How to massage almonds and other critical Covid skills
June – Building community online
- Lectures that drone on and on. Workshops that are drier than the Sahara desert and more boring than watching paint dry. We’ve all been there.
- Online meetings, courses, workshops, check-ins are never-ending. Some research shows we are spending up to 16 hours a day on digital media! Globally, we doubled our online content consumption in 2020.
- But hope is at hand. You CAN build community online. You CAN save your sanity with easy tech tools.
- Here are two of my monthly Learning and Development Roundtables I held last year. Check them out and if you wish, become a member (t’s free), and you can watch the workshop replays:
July – Dance with diversity
- The next time you’re stuck, banging your head against the wall with a persnickety problem, take advantage of a different way to see the world.
- Get some outta sight insight by adapting your view and actively seeking difference and diversity.
- Here’s how with one of the four pairs of Life Lenses®, my online assessment that helps illuminate how you see the world.
- Advice from a Stop Life Lens®. If you’re a Stop Life Lens® and you’re stuck in indecision and having a tough time taking a decision, find a friend or colleague who is your opposite, a Go Life Lens® and seek their input
- Advice from a Go Life Lens®. If you’re a Go Life Lens® and you’ve been in a flurry of activity and are desperately trying to hit the pause button, find a friend or colleague who is your opposite, a Stop Life Lens®, and seek their advice.
- More info here: How to flip the stubborn stop and go switch and dance with diversity
August – Communicate with confidence and clarity
- I’ll let you in on a little secret. When our communication isn’t working, most people tend to do more of what isn’t working.
- That’s right. More of what’s NOT working.
- Be introduced to your F.A.V. C.O.M.I.C – a potent combination of eight simple communication skills
- Diagnose your communication skills so you know where you shine and where you need to shine some light on learning
- This is another example of one of my Learning and Development Roundtables from last year. Eight skills for communicating with confidence and clarity and without consternation
- Sign up to be a member and you can watch the replay (members get access to all 9+ years of resources).
September – “Date” your colleagues
- I was so angry I was afraid the client I was on a call with would see the steam pouring off of me. A new team member and I were pitching for a contract and said team member was nowhere to be found. Nada. Nowhere. No word. Not on the call.
- I gamely carried on with our meeting wondering when he would show up. Which is why I’ve come to strongly believe that you should always date your co-workers.
- And by dating, I mean test the waters with them before jumping into high-stakes situations.
- Which is why I designed these questions to help you get to know your teammates BEFORE something big is at stake. Find out more here: Why you should always date your co-workers
October – Tap into collective intelligence
- There is power, wisdom and intelligence found in a said crew, aka groups. There’s even a name for it – collective intelligence.
- Here are five benefits and five ways to tap into it: Five benefits of collective intelligence and five skills for how to tap into it
November – Resolve conflict using the colour gray
- When our brain starts screaming at us that we’re in conflict, we tend to do more of whatever isn’t working, like repeating ourselves for the fiftieth time, speaking louder, gesticulating wildly etc.
- While your brain is busy trying to sell you a false bill of goods, that your only options are to fight, flee or freeze, I’m here to tell you differently.
- When we’re in conflict, we get positional – a.k.a. “my way or the highway” kind of thinking. We think and act in dichotomies – right/wrong, black/white, yes/no etc.
- Enter the colour gray. As in gray thinking. Instead of black or white, yes or no, right or wrong, let’s think in shades of gray.
- Here’s how: Why the colour gray is critical for resolving conflict
December – Storytelling and your hero’s journey
- Storytellers are the meaning makers in a society, therefore they have a weighty influence and the ability to move humanity forward.” Elizabeth Lesser
- Think of the phrase “Remember the time when……” and see what storytelling portals it opens up.
- Use the Hero’s Journey as a way of mining for stories and supporting your team.
- Here’s how: Remember the time when…… Storytelling and the Hero’s Journey Part One, which includes a downloadable worksheet.
Whether you’re reading this at the start of 2022, somewhere in the middle, or as 2023 is about to start, know I’ve got your back with these twelve wishes. Go softly, yet with vim and vigour, as you tread towards next month and/or next year. I’m with you. All the way.
Now go on and learn, laugh and lead
Learn
- Click on the posts above that call to you and check out the linked resources.
Laugh
- I continue to have faith in you. I really do.
Lead
- Thank you for your commitment to learning, laughing and leading. Pass on your superpowers, share your strengths, maintain hope and curiosity, rest, relax and approach 2022 with vim, vigor and curiosity.
P.S.
Let’s stay connected. Free weekly coaching by email on how to use humanity and humour to problem solve, right here.
P.P.S.
Curious to know more about your worldview and perspective by finding out what your Life Lenses® are? You can take the assessment here.
The blog is absolutely fantastic. Lots of great information and inspiration, both of which we all need. Thanks for such a continuous great posting.