Read This If You Have Trouble "Relaxing"
I was miserable.I just took a day off.I was "trying" to relax all day.All I could think about were all the things that needed my attention.I spend a lot of my time thinking about identifying important things and getting them done.Don't laugh but this is hard for me.Of course, most of the work will be there when I return to it--and without any real consequence.But sometimes, there are things that will break if you don't attend to them.Getting through the anxiety of not fixing them requires reminding yourself of the consequences and accepting them.Only then, will the voice in your head be quieted and you will be able to focus on being present.
It's a comparison.
Either you can let go of the work and focus on yourself, or you can let the work take your attention until you let it give you a break.It won't.Your call.
2 Minute Action
What's giving you the most anxiety today?What are the top items on your worry list?What will happen if you don't alleviate them today?Tomorrow?Take 2 minutes to meditate on the consequences.This part is up to you. If you can accept the consequences, it's easier to give yourself permission to rest.If not, you might just be anxious until you make the time to resolve them.
Being Assertive vs. Aggresive
Tell me if you’ve ever seen this . . .
There’s a weird line between aggression and assertiveness that some folks have difficulty negotiating.People who conflate the two tend to be either way less assertive or way more aggressive.Either end of the spectrum has this confusion or is conflating.
Let’s use an example.
When a client asks you to make more edits on your project:The Non-Assertive: “Yes.”The Assertive: “Yes, I can do that extra work for $xx.xx”The Aggressive: “No, and don’t reach out to me again.”The Passive-Aggressive: “I don’t have to do this on other projects.”
Where do you fall?
If you’re not sure, it may help yo use this reference guide from the Assertiveness Handbook.The Assertive style defends your rights without overstepping others’.This successfully helps you treat people with respect while also treating yourself with respect.
2 Minute Action
Here are 2 ways you can spend 2 minutes improving:Read the Handbook for 2 minutes.Reply or comment here to let me know where you think you are in the battle.
Why I Publish Bad Blog Posts
Yes, I’ve written bad blog posts and published them.
For any of you who follow me or read my blog, this shouldn’t be a surprise.They can’t all be “War and Peace.”
The thing that’s difficult isn’t writing good content and publishing it—it’s publishing work that’s not that amazing.
It hurts me sometimes if what I write doesn’t feel massively inspiring, insightful, unique, or actionable.
The goal is to get to a place of consistent, high-quality output.
That can’t happen without publishing the bad stuff along the way.This is not a cheap, disguised excuse to pump out crummy content—that would be deliberately cutting corners to reduce the effort required.That would be consistently low quality.Seneca said something like: “in order to know and understand good wine, one must drink a lot of bad, even terrible wine.”I think you get the point.If you want to be great, you have to forgive yourself for not being great right at this very second and understand that you’re going to have to be embarrassed for a little while as you figure it all out.
2 Minute Action
Publish something today.Perform the speech that’s not quite ready yet.Implement a new lesson plan that’s almost all the way there.Unless you’re a brain surgeon, the risk of failing isn’t that high.Go for the gusto, today.