The next few weeks hold such promise for personal renewal and nurturing the most important relationships in our lives. Except for extended vacations, the days leading up to Christmas and New Year's Day have become the one time many of us in the United States will allow ourselves to take more than a day or two off from our work.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you have experienced or at least read about the many benefits of gratitude to you. They include:

• Improved mental health

• Better sleep

• Deeper connections with others

• Enhanced job performance

I’ve written in the past about my disdain for the term, “work life balance.” I think there are way better lenses to use to assess the overall health and success of our lives. They include asking questions like:

• What is my purpose and how are my daily choices aligning/not aligning with that purpose?

• What fulfills me? How can I be more intentional in including (or acknowledging) those kinds of activities in my day or week?

Being an effective leader in any season is tough, but in today's environment it can be downright stifling. According to Carey Nieuwhof, there are several reasons why leading today is so difficult. They include new challenges, The Great Resignation, and the unsustainable pace you have been working as a leader.

❔ Do any of these statements describe your typical workday?

• I don't plan breaks from work. I just take them when I can... or when I hit a wall.

• I usually skip lunch (or eat lunch in my workspace).

• Many of my days include back-to-back meetings.

• I stop work for the day but still monitor emails and messages throughout the evening.

Do you find it hard to make good choices with your time when you are busy? Were you hoping for a little rest in your day but instead it ended up more like this…

Does this sound familiar?

It’s the beginning of the week and you look at your calendar. You see all the meetings you have. You begin thinking of all the tasks you hope you remembered to put into your calendar so you’ll know when they’ll happen. You then start thinking about all the relationships in your life that you want to support. And finally you start questioning how you will ever find time for yourself in the mix?

See if any of these scenarios sound familiar:

❌ You open your laptop to start your workday and feel a sense of hesitation. You know that from now until the end of the day, the pace of work will be wide open.

❌ You stop work for the day and already dread the mountain of personal tasks awaiting you. And you've also got to answer that all important question, "What's for dinner?"

Spring has sprung in NC! Warmer weather. Sweet smells! And of course: Weeds!

With the many spring rains, weeds seem to sprout overnight and quickly spread everywhere: the garden, the lawn, in between rocks and so on. Some weeds shoot tiny seeds into the air, some have shallow far reaching roots, while others root deep and are almost impossible to pull out.

I recently spent a couple of hours working with a new coach on listening. They couldn’t believe how much they had been missing in conversations with others. They jokingly asked me if it was okay to use these new skills with their spouse. They felt like they now had an unfair advantage in understanding them!

If I were to hold up a box of tissues and ask, “What is this?”, how would you answer? If you’re like most, you’d probably answer Kleenex because you recognize the brand, when really, they are tissues. All the other tissue companies would be very happy if you would call tissues by their product name, and not by the brand name Kleenex.

Since 2021 began, I've seen a huge surge in optimism about the possibilities this year. Interestingly enough, however, I’ve not been hearing many people get specific about how they plan to make this year more successful or meaningful than last year. All the uncertainties of the past year continue to influence so many of our goals and plans, keeping many in the "status quo" mode.

Happy New Year!

With the beginning of the new year, you know that you’ve already started thinking about your GOALS, DREAMS, RESOLUTIONS and more; all those things that we get so excited about setting in the beginning of the year, and then we begin to lose that excitement by the time January’s over.

I once heard an executive from Cisco Systems make an interesting comment. He said that we are in the season of expressing gratitude that begins with Veterans Day. He's right. I find myself having a stronger focus on being thankful during this time of year than any other. It also caused me to wonder how well we do in saying "Thanks" to others in the workplace. I was disappointed by what I found. Consider the following statistics from a study at Berkeley:

Even before you achieve the big win, or have your team running like a fine tuned machine, I think there are some strong indicators that you’re growing as a leader that you need to stop and celebrate.

See if this sounds familiar. You sit (or stand) to begin a new workday. Fresh from a good night's rest and fueled up with the appropriate food and/or beverage, you are ready to change the world! As you prepare to take on your first task, you remember an email you didn't respond to yesterday so you start with it.

When I am working from home, one of my favorite places to go when I need a break is my daughter's apiary (bee yard). I am absolutely fascinated by these amazing creatures. Between their work ethic and how they function together as a colony, I think I could sit and watch them for hours (and I might have on a couple of occasions)!

Lately I have to admit I’ve been feeling a little overwhelmed with all the things I have going on. And when I get into that mode, I start looking at the things that aren’t happening, and all the things that are going wrong, and all the things that I wish were different. And what I really find myself doing is not having an attitude of gratitude about the present moment.

Open your calendar (app or otherwise) and look at last week. As you reflect on the meetings, activities, and reminders from the past seven days, would you say the focus of your time was on getting things done or becoming a better person than you are now. Sure several activities play a dual role, but what's the "feel" of where your time is being spent?

One of the things I’ve been focusing on a lot lately is resiliency, and how to build it in both myself and in others. It is such an essential tool in our toolbox in this season of uncertainty. "Resiliency is defined as the ability to effectively cope with, recover from, or adapt to, changing life situations." Those ‘changing life situations’ can affect our work-life balance, our productivity, our stress level and so much more. But how do we go about building resiliency?