Mini-Challenges (not resolutions - because resolutions are made to be broken)

This year, instead of setting a new year's resolution, I decided to try a 30-day challenge. Inspired by a TED talk suggesting that I "Try Something New for 30 Days," and an article about how writing 3 pages a day can change your life, I pulled out one of my old journals on January 1 and committed to writing a little each day for the whole month.

First, let's talk about the 3 pages (in case you didn't read the article). They have to be hand-written. So I did cheat a bit by using a smallish journal.  But the good news is the words you write DON'T MATTER. You can even write the same word over and over for 3 pages and still get the benefit.  The more I did it, the more it became a stream of consciousness - starting with a "dear diary" format, then ending up with grocery lists and reminders throughout.

It definitely made me realize how very little I sit still and think. I mean, I can sit for a LONG time and view Instagram stories or other social updates. But having to do something with my hands and brain that was not connected in any way to a screen was FOREIGN.  When is the last time you hand-wrote anything longer than a post-it?  I can tell you, before this month, for me, it had been a very long time.

In case you are wondering, it takes about 15 minutes to write 3 pages worth of words on average journal-size paper.  And also, in case you are wondering, I did not end up doing it every day.

What did happen: After writing, I had a clearer head and a sense of accomplishment. On the days when I wrote in the morning, it gave the day a good start, and on the days when I wrote in the afternoon, it seemed to give my afternoon a kick, so I could re-focus on the work at hand.  It became a little ritual, where I would leave my desk, pick up my journal, and find a quiet place where I knew I wouldn't be interrupted. I looked forward to escaping to this mini-retreat every day!

So, will I keep it up? Yes, I think so! First, I'm farther along in a journal than I ever have been in my life. Second, I'm not beating myself up about missing a few days.

And what's up for the next month? I'm planning to join See Jane Write for 28 Days of Grace. Basically, taking a little time for yourself each day. Check out the link for ideas of ways to "take a moment" if you need one!

What's your favorite go-to "me time" activity? And if you want to report in on your resolutions, feel free - but also feel free to turn them into mini-challenges that you only planned to test out for a month!  :-)

The Quest for Happiness - in life and at work

The Quest for Happiness - in life and at work. That's a pretty lofty title to an article, huh?

One of my favorite speakers/authors/people to follow on social media is Jane McGonigal. The first time I ever heard her speak was in 2011 at an ISTE conference in Austin, TX, where she talked about her latest book, Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World.  She then asked the entire audience (20,000+) to play a game of thumb wars. Side note, I think we set a Guinness World Record that day for largest number of people playing thumb wars at one time.

Since that conference, I have been an active follower of McGonigal on twitter (her handle is @avantgame if you want to check it out), and I keep an eye out for new material. Last year, I stumbled across her TED talk, The game that can give you 10 extra years of life. It's about 20 minutes long, and if you take time to watch it (and play along during the talk), you can add about 7 minutes to your life span!

Jane McGonigal - TED Talk 2012

I decided to take Jane's talk and turn it into an interactive workshop for managers and employees. The first step was to get people interested, so I had to come up with a catchy name, and "The Quest for Happiness - in Life and at Work" was created.  Within about 10 minutes of posting the session, the registration maxed out, and I started hearing from people asking how they could get on the waiting list.  "The Quest for Happiness" was a very popular theme!

Here's a breakdown of the workshop:
Introduction: Spoiler alert: there is no magic pill for happiness. We are not giving away the secrets of life in this session.
Warning: we are going to make references to science and math, so be prepared.
Let's Get Started:  We led our audience in the same activities Jane did during her TED talk. A roomful of about 60 people did exercises in Physical, Mental, Emotional, and Social Resilience, and we talked about how doing things from each of these categories each day help make for a happier and healthier life.
Let's Talk About It:  Finally, we broke into groups and got people talking with each other and thinking about ways to incorporate those things into their daily routine at work.

The ideas people came up with were simple - and most of them were inexpensive.  Walking meetings and regular recognition - these are ways you can get people out of their same old work routine and add a few brain cells and synapses while you are at it.

If you have time, I recommend watching McGonigal's TED talk this week. And if you would like more information about the interactive workshop, send me a note or a comment, and I will be happy to share!

What I've Learned - Work and Grad-School

Earlier this year, I posted (on other social media) that I've started back to school! I'm taking classes online through Troy University (Go Trojans!), working on a Masters in Management, with concentration in leadership. 

The first course in the program was a doozy - A Survey of Business Concepts. Basically, this course was a review of everything you would study as a business undergrad crammed into 9 weeks! For me, as a former ENGLISH major, it was a big challenge. Most of the topics were new to me, but thankfully, after 20 years working in the business/corporate world, I had apparently soaked up some of the concepts via osmosis. I made it through the course, and decided, since I am still working full time, I'd be sticking to one course per term.

My second course was on Theories of Organizational Behavior. A fancy title, but the course focused on motivating and managing employees in an organization. We examined different types of behavior at work, and how to handle working with people with different attitudes and skills.

This term, I'm taking Leading and Developing High Performance Teams. So far, I'm really liking it. We're looking at how to structure your team, depending on the tasks and relationships involved. Looking at why it's important to have a mix of personalities and styles, instead of employee clones, so you can look at challenges from different perspectives.

NOTE: now that I'm taking classes that are more focused and related to topics that I'm comfortable with, I'm considering taking more than one class per term. But I'll keep you posted on that.

In general, I'm loving being back in school. Of course, the second-time around, I'm much more interested in the assignments -  AND it's forcing me to get back in the writing groove. I'm turning some of my discussion posts for class into blog posts, so you'll see these educational-themed posts sprinkled in among my usual topics. I want to share some of the videos and articles we're reading in class - I hope you'll find them interesting!

Question of the day: Have you taken any classes while working full time? What are some challenges you faced? Or if you have been putting it off, what's stopping you?

Sixth Sense Technology - and a good book!

A couple of weeks ago, I finished the book, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail (2012).  It follows the story of the author, Cheryl Strayed, as she, a novice hiker, sets off to hike a large portion of the Pacific Crest Trail.  Along the way, she goes through stretches where she is far removed from civilization – and food and water.  Cheryl has to rely solely on her guidebook (a printed-paper copy of an actual book) to provide information about available resources and things to watch out for along the trail.  She hiked the trail around 1995, so this was in the early ages of the internet and way before smartphones.

As part of my assignment for class this week, I watched this incredible TED talk about Sixth Sense technology. I could not stop thinking about what a difference SixthSense technology would make for campers and hikers.  Of course, it would have made a difference for Cheryl Strayed in 1995, but even today, with all our technological advancements, there is not a product that brings these tools of the trail into one seamless experience! 

The original TED talk was in 2009 - 7 years ago! Can you imagine the progress researchers have made? 

Speed Networking - A How-to Guide

You've probably heard of "Speed Dating," an activity designed for single people to get together and meet as many potential Mr. or Ms. Rights as possible.  A couple of months ago, I was at a party, and we did a different version of speed dating - more like an icebreaker to get to know everyone at the event.

I decided to take the idea a step further, so we could use it in a work setting.  We have people moving in and out of our departments all the time, and usually we only know them well enough to say "hello" at the coffee pot.  This is a fun (and fast) way to get to know people - at work, in a social club, or even at a party!  You can always adjust the questions to slant it more toward the social, or more toward the professional, depending on the group!  Here are the basics - but you can tweak any of the steps so it can work for you.

Click to Share - 3 reasons why you SHOULD be sharing

The idea of “sharing” is tossed around pretty often these days. The rise of social media and availability of the internet to virtually everyone makes it very easy to share (and sometimes over-share) everything from music to presentations to what you had for breakfast on a particular day. Here are a few reasons why sharing is a GOOD thing:

1. It's the Way we Learn

A couple of years ago, I had the pleasure of listening to George Couros, the self-described Principal of Change, spoke about “Leading Innovative Change.”  At one point, he stopped his presentation and asked the audience, “Who in this room has something they can teach me?”  At first no one moved – which is especially interesting since he was addressing a room full of educators and administrators. Eventually, most people in the room raised their hand, he said, “Great! So where’s your stuff?