Karl Edwards presents Working Matters

Category: Loving Monday

  • Loving Monday: Renewable Energy Source… a Vacation

    loving_mondayIt doesn’t seem fair to write about loving Mondays while on vacation.

    On the other hand, it is because of these occasional breaks that I come back to Monday refreshed and renewed enough to keep making a contribution.

    Vacation is not merely is not merely an act of getting away. It is a movement toward.

    Yes, it can seem enough to get away from work. Away from the pressure, the complaining co-workers, the blaming boss, the tight schedules, the scarce resources, etc. Our step feels lighter and unconsciously we’re doing a fist pump on the way out of the building.

    But an additional and important gift we can give ourselves on vacation is to take a step toward something that renews us.

    The key is intention. Being intentional about knowing what refreshes us and taking action to get ourselves into that place.

    Some vacations are more work than rest. Our bodies may cry out for quiet, rest, or no agenda; and instead we might choose to race between tourist attractions. We got away from work, but we didn’t go toward what would renew.

    Task one is to take a regular vacation and get away from work. Task two is to make that vacation something that will replenish and renew our energies.

    Toward what renewable energy source will you be heading on this year’s vacation?

  • Loving Monday: A Gift To Myself

    loving_mondayToday is full of people.

    I like it that way.

    I could have spread out the appointments more evenly throughout the week. But I didn’t.

    On purpose.

    I‘m giving myself a gift. The gift of a delightful day full of people. Renewing an old connection, exploring a new connection, and enjoying a deepening connection are all part of the mix.

    In the midst of the challenges, the craziness, the musts and the shoulds that I face on an ordinary basis, I arranged things so that I could enjoy a full day of people.

    What sort of work-based gift could you give to yourself?

    For some it might be a day to set aside all distractions, send the phone to voice mail, close the door and focus on a single project. Maybe dedicating an afternoon to getting organized and clearing away clutter would infuse new life into your work-weary soul.

    We don’t have to do things the same way every day. We don’t have to make room for everything all of the time.

    What if we structured our work in such a way that we gave ourselves an occasional day where our only responsibility was to enjoy our favorite part of our job? We might find that we have more energy to face the less enjoyable parts of our job.

    Today is a people day for me. I organized it that way. What might it be for you?

  • Loving Monday: Typical Monday Morning?

    loving_mondayTypical Monday morning.

    Feels like a fresh start, though nothing has changed.

    I‘ve changed.

    I’m rested. (This week.)

    I’m hopeful. (I’m more aware of my opportunities than my hurdles.)

    I’m in motion. (Out of bed, sitting at my computer.)

    Typical Monday morning. Or is it?

    Which is more significant? That the challenges around me remain or that I have changed?

    I suspect it is the change I observe in myself.

    Problems we will always have. Always. Some things never change.

    How we choose to engage them, though, holds no limit. Ever. Infinite variety of possibilities.

    So do you put your efforts into changing the circumstances of the day or the person experiencing those circumstances?

    Typical Monday morning?

    I think not.

  • Loving Monday: Go With It

    loving_mondayI woke up before my alarm went off this morning. Must have been one of those sleep cycle things. I was wide awake and ready to go.

    I decided to go with it. (As much as part of me was grieving that lost half an hour.) I knew that to resist would make pushing myself out of bed nearly impossible later.

    I must say that I’m a bit pleased with myself. I’m enjoying the refreshed feeling that cooperating with my sleep cycle affords. Instead of battling with myself to get going, “we” are starting out on the same team and actually making some progress.

    I‘m wondering whether this experience applies to other venues. When the unexpected happens can I recognize whether any potential opportunity exists? If I identify potential for good, can I “go with it?”

    Or do instinctive resistances kick in? Do old battles resurface, and, in the name of avoiding a repeat of a previous danger, I, in fact, avoid the receiving the benefit of the current opportunity?

    So what if I don’t normally wake up this early. So what if I go about my day, my work, my conversations differently today or tomorrow or forever more.

    The key is whether I’m alert enough to sense the potential for something good to emerge. The key is whether I am free and flexible enough inside to “go with it.”

    What came up for you this morning that might be worth going with?

  • Loving Monday: When the Dirty Dishes Stack Up

    loving_mondayI hate washing the dishes. The task. The chore. The never-ending reality that stares me in the face every evening.

    Of course letting dishes stack up doesn’t work very well either. Mounting clutter, odors, and ants… not to mention excavating for the occasional utensil missing in action.

    Some less-than-pleasant realities are better faced than avoided.

    I can’t believe I just said that. The man to whom Denial has been such a good friend all these years.

    Here it is Monday morning. The start of a new week. Is there one annoying, unpleasant but necessary task, chore or duty of yours that has the potential of haunting you all week if you don’t simply deal with it now?

    What neglected item on your to-do list could stack up slowly until, like a mountain of dirty dishes, it feels like an insurmountable obstacle that is impossible to face?

    What’s worse… facing the nasty task now or dealing with the repercussions of not having faced it later?

    There’s a certain freedom and lightness that comes from being freed of lingering duties. The haunting, taunting voices that cloud our focus, interrupt our concentration, and ultimately hold us back.

    So after considerable self-torment I get up and wash the dishes. While not overflowing with the joy of achievement, I must say it was nice not to spend the morning chasing ants!

  • Loving Monday: Adjust or Die

    loving_mondayMelodramatic? Maybe.

    What do you do when you aren’t getting the results you want?

    The results of your leadership style. The results from your sales strategy. The results from your planning efforts. The results of your tireless efforts.

    Some goals are so important that you can’t, won’t and shouldn’t give up on them. But to continue proceeding toward those goals in a way that is not working is as counter-productive as giving up altogether.

    The space in between giving up altogether and doggedly pushing ahead is where there is room for adjusting.

    We have to try new things. Do things differently. Redescribe the outcomes. Reframe the issues. Rethink our approach.

    We have to be willing to adjust.

    Adjusting is a project-saving, if not a life-saving, form of flexibility. The ability to adjust injects learning right into the bloodstream of our organizations. Learning on the job, on the fly, in the moment, when it counts, when learning can make a difference.

    The alternative is analogous to Sisyphus pushing the boulder up the hill only to have it roll back down every time. Frustrating, exhausting, futile.

    If you’re not seeing any alternative to either giving up or pushing the next boulder up the hill, give a call. Let’s take a look at what you’re doing and unearth the possibilities that you’re not seeing from your current vantage point.

    It’s probably time to make an adjustment.

    On your side,

    – Karl

  • Loving Monday: Stretching… Just a Tiny Little Bit

    loving_mondayI do a chin-up every Friday.

    Okay, maybe not a championship exercise routine, but, in an unexpected way, I actually am getting a tiny bit more exercise than I was previously.

    My daughter and I go out for breakfast just the two of us once a week. After eating we take a walk and pass a set of chin-up bars at the local park. Hence my unplanned but now regular pause for a chin-up.

    What’s interesting is not that I’ve arrived at any great discipline here, but that I’ve chanced upon a small but real change to which I now look forward. While running the entire exercise course at the park feels out of reach, painful, and would necessitate what seems like a gargantuan adjustment in my schedule to incorporate, I’m actually doing my small, playful weekly chin-up.

    What if we started each week at work by trying one small change? One tiny little stretch outside our comfort zone.

    Remove the pressure of having to take on wholesale, gigantic, systematic change. Go for something attractive, fun, simple, at hand.

    One small adjustment. One tiny experiment.

    Offer a compliment to the first person you see. Before taking your seat, throw one item away. Call one contact you haven’t spoken to in over a year just to say hi.

    Only on Mondays. Only once. Don’t push to expand. Just enjoy watching what happens when you stretch a tiny little bit.

    (Check out this related post, Try Something New.)

  • Loving Monday: Comic Book Superhero?

    loving_mondayIt’s the last week of school for the kids. Nothing is normal.

    My high school senior needs to be at school at a different time for a different purpose every day this week. My middle school senior—yes two graduations this year—still needs to be dropped off at the crack of dawn.

    Am I supposed to be effective at work with all this stopping and starting, coming and going, switching between contexts and roles like a comic book super hero?

    We all wear a variety of hats and assume a range of identities for the many roles we play at work, home, in our faith communities, and in our various social networks. But the willingness, agility and poise to make these sudden shifts are not always as simple as they seem to be for the comic book superheroes.

    But is the real life superhero, the one for whom their instant, often sacrificial choices saved the day in the end? Or is the real life hero the person simply willing to make an instant, often sacrificial choice?

    What validates the decisions we make in the midst of our complicated schedules, competing priorities, and unexpected demands, is not that the complicated becomes straightforward or the competing become ordered or the unexpected becomes regular. What validates our decisions is that we step to the plate and make them.

    We don’t get to know ahead of time the outcome of all we choose. But such uncertainty doesn’t release us from still having to make the choice. Choose and choose again. And as soon as we see a choice not working out as we intended, adjust and choose again.

    And so my schedule is undergoing its biannual massive shift around the school schedule. Life might be easier and my work might be more effective if such were not my situation. But my reality involves change, so I must face the change and adjust accordingly. Maybe not with the agility of a comic book superhero, but to the extent that I face the facts and deal with them… a hero nonetheless.

  • Loving Monday: The Summer Season

    loving_mondayJust two more weeks of school for my kids. Some of your kids are finished already.

    The summer season requires a number of adjustments in our schedules, approaches and attitudes. The kids are off school. The vacations start picking up in earnest. The traffic patterns themselves change.

    Everyone is affected. Even if you don’t have kids or already went on vacation, the fact that so many others around you do and are will have its impact on you.

    If we have a seasonal approach to the working year, summer adjustments are experienced as an expected acquaintance rather than an abrupt intruder. It’s a matter of perspective. It’s a decision about attitude. Keeping the seasons in mind is a form of preparation.

    You know what to expect when summer arrives and are ready. You have methods for adjusting schedules to accommodate vacations. You know who is away dropping kids off at day camp. You are not thrown off guard by the afternoon telephone calls arbitrating sibling warfare or helping someone deal with their boredom.

    Seasons. Rhythms. They are our reality. The sooner we accept them and work alongside instead of against their flow, the sooner we can find our own productivity rhythm .

    Two more weeks and everything changes. I’m getting ready. Are you?

  • Loving Monday: Caring Enough to Reengage

    loving_mondayThree day weekends can bring us back to work refreshed or exhausted.

    The difference between the two, interestingly enough, does not have to do with how busy you were over the weekend. The difference between returning refreshed or exhausted has to do with how much you care about what you do.

    For those who care, some space from work functions like recharging the batteries. We return ready to reengage, refocus and dig in to the task at hand. For those who are indifferent about their jobs (or worse, hate their jobs), a long weekend is like a festering open wound. The pain accompanies you everywhere even as you do your best to escape it.

    What’s important here is realizing that a powerful distinguishing factor between these two is in your control.

    Choosing to care about your work.

    Even in a less than ideal job we can find creative ways to care about what we do to whatever extent we can.

    We can raise our quality game. We can choose to help a team member. We can improve a cumbersome procedure. We can go an extra mile for an unreasonable client. We can say, “Thank you” more often.

    The amazing thing about caring is that no one can do it for you. It is totally and completely a personal decision, choice, and act. Caring is you choosing to show up and make a difference. Even in the circumstances of organizational powerlessness, caring is a demonstration of power.

    Hence its energizing, restorative impact on our ability to reengage after being away from work. Try it.

    On your side,

    – Karl