Weaving calm into any situation.

I am in the middle of a great opportunity in my workplace.  I am part of a group learning the art of Integrity Coaching.  We have homework weekly and this week's homework is to focus on emotional responses.

I've jumped off my balance beam of life - and am weaving work and life together.  I've always compared and contrasted my learnings at home and work.

My husband is really good at keeping emotions in check.  When a teenager does what teenagers often do he will bring humor into the situation while I often bring emotional drama to the table.  Emotional drama doesn't help any situation.

 

He also brings a calm into the picture.  This is an art I am trying to learn. It's not easy.

How often have you been in a meeting where somone says or does something that is irritating. How do you respond?  Do you emotionally knee-jerk a response versus calmly thinking through prior to answering?  Do you let others bring their thoughts and ideas to the conversation?

There is a difference between passion and emotional outbursts.  Passion is a part of your fabric that you bring to projects and strategies you care deeply about.  Emotions are often misguided reactions that can destroy a project and strategy quickly.

Our family is very emotional.  We are very loud and fun and also quick to bring an emotional response to our friends and colleagues.  While that can be engaging and fun, it can also be stressful and detrimental.

Yet you can learn to bring calm into your life and work.  You can learn to pause in situations and look at the big picture before responding.  Here are three key calming rules I am focusing on:

 

1) Never respond to an email, voice mail, text, post or other communication when angry.

          No Regrets.

 

2) If you find your voice rising. Take 5 Deep Breaths. 

         This Really Works!

 

3)  Ask others their perspective on your emotional triggers.

       Your close colleagues and family know you better than you often do.

 

Weaving calm into your daily life needs to become a learned habit.  It takes practice and patience.  Have you ever communicated emotionally and regretted it later?  What did you do to improve your communcation style?

 

Today's Weave of the Day;   Practice calm.  Practice. Practice. Practice.  (It just may make Perfect)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted via email from MoJoCMO

Weaving Your Work Into The Balance Beam of Life

I love to work.  I love to relax.  I love my family. I love my work family.  I'm tired of people telling me to balance my work and family.  I don't want to balance my work and family because frankly I'm not good at balancing.   I'm clumsy.  I often spill on myself.  If I'm walking on a balancing beam I will fall off.  I don't like falling down or falling off anything.  So I'm done balancing work and life.  I'm going to weave it. Period. 

Everything I do in my family life invariably relates to my work life and vice versa.  When my kids learn a painful lesson in life I find myself relating that to something happening at work and I try to learn from it myself.  When an "Ah Ha" moment happens at work, I find myself wanting to mimic the positive reactions into my home life.  I'm going to start blogging more about this weaving of my two worlds - in a more structured fashion.  When I do I'll tag / keyword "Weave" so it's simple to find.  I also would love you to share the way you weave through your life.  

My first weave is a simple one - positive reinforcement.  My son came home from a Hockey Tournament and was thrilled with words he heard from coaches. He let us know at the dinner table that complete strangers said really nice things to him about his skating style. How often do we do that in our work - tell people that we don't work with side by side that they are good at what they do?  When someone tells you how does it make you feel? It makes you feel like you want to improve, be better and continue to impress.  Today's Weave of the Day is:  Surprise someone in your work and home life by letting them know you notice something they do very well. 

Posted via email from MoJoCMO

#GratefulFor - Celebrating Anniversaries and the Teams that Make Me Smile!

Today is my One Year Anniversary with Consumers Credit Union! Yesterday was Bosses Day. I spent the day yesterday in Strategy Sessions with my CEO and Exec Tam.

My Marketing team surprised me with flowers and a nice card --

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You Can Limit Ad Tracking On IOS 6 - Thank's @BusinessInsider!

Here is a great article about advertisers tracking you - and how you can limit this in IOS-6.  I've also created an easy screen shot.

http://www.businessinsider.com/ifa-apples-iphone-tracking-in-ios-6-2012-10

Posted via email from MoJoCMO

The Three Most Important Words For..... Well Everything.

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I stopped by the Pathway to Caregiving Conference.  It's an all day conference put on by a stellar group of dedicated organizations,  including Clark Retirement Community where I'm proud to serve on the Board of Directors.

The conference focused on support for anyone on the journey of memory loss.  One of the sessions I attended ws called The Meaning Behind Behaviors:  Actions and Reactions.   Karen Stobbe of In-TheMoment spoke about how caring for people with dementia is all about communication. 

When she asked the question, "what are the three most important words you can say to someone as they age?" my mind immediately went to "I Love You."  That's an easy one right?  I was wrong.

Karen explained that the most important words for anyone is "I Need You."  I paused and thought about that for a moment and brought it out of the conference and into everyday life.

You know the feeling you get if you feel your talents, skills, or face it just plain you in general are not needed.  You feel discarded and unworthy and your confidence slips.

In the workplace the three little words "I Need You" are just as important.If you are a manager do you keep your team focused? Do they understand their work is needed?

In the workplace feeling unneeded leads to productivity and trust issues.  How can we make sure that we help those we work with (or live with)  feel needed? 

Tell people how they are needed

Tell people why they are needed

Tell people out loud they are needed.

Learn what your non-verbal clues are saying to your colleagues and team members.

Listen without interruptions

Karen Scholton's three most important words are critical for those who work in dementia care.  The same holds true for anyone working ... well anywhere.

 

 

 

 

Posted via email from MoJoCMO

ArtPrize 2012 Quick Glance Guide Top Ten!

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A Day in the Life of My IPhone 5

One full day with my Iphone 5. My Iphone 4S met up with asphalt at a recent MSU game and I took advantage of my upgrade offer and ordered an Iphone5. The phone arrived in 2 days. Within an hour of opening the pretty white box I transferred my phone number, backed up from iCloud, and was in business. Today was my first full day with my Iphone5. Here's how we spent the day together: Checked the time in the morning when I woke up Sent a quick text to the family Saw a linked-In note and responded Sent a fun text to hubby Uploaded Chili-Cook off pictures to Facebook Album from evenings neighborhood challenge (Ours took 3rd!) Set up reminders for tasks for upcoming work week Read ZITE articles and tweeted interesting links Reviewed upcoming week on calendar "Watched" the Ryder Cup with the help of Twitter Did some banking online Researched oblong toilet seat lids Placed Amazon order of oblong toilet seat lid Played a few games of Words With Friends Placed address for Monday's off-site strategy session into Maps Downloaded Audible Book One Shot by Lee Child Sent photo of "found coat" in closet after cleaning to friends and family (no one has claimed it yet) Sent a few messages to Kids on Facebook Enjoyed the newsfeed on Facebook Reviewed news stories on Headlines App Wrote notes focusing an Escan Corporate Strategy Booklet Reviewed Pinterest and Instagram Shared a photo for work on FaceBook Plugged in for the night Set Alarm Am now unplugging myself My Iphone 4S is now happily hooked to our Bose system with Pandora rocking. My kids did have breakfast and dinner and we had 2 "breaks" for card games. I also helped my husband sort and organize the rooms of the house we are "blowing up and starting over" In other words - I had a very fun and productive day. Thanks Iphone5. I'm thinking of naming you. Any suggestions?

Posted via email from MoJoCMO