reflection Archives

transcending

Back to a new everyday

November 14, 2012

I’m well and truly back now into my usual life, work role and home and it’s so busy, as usual!

When I was away, everything was new: new job role, new people in my life at work, new place to live, new places to enjoy, new restaurants, new wines, new towns. It was all new, new, new and there was so much to photograph, to write about, to reflect on plus time by myself to do it.

Now I am back to long work days, my familiar work-team, my home which I love and back to being closer to my family and my little old dog.

Like all experiences that take you away and bring you back, you do not return unchanged. I worked in a higher level position that gave me more experience and confidence in my ability; I often yearn for time alone and enjoyed it but I found that it is very much about what I choose to do with my time that makes the difference; I am loving where I live more for having been away; and I am valuing those around me more, having missed them and re-appreciated what they give me and what we share.

It’s also not without its challenges though coming back: it’s full on, long work hours, some challenging roles and tasks, more travel each day which now feels longer and not as much time as I would like to enjoy where I live.

A conversation last week with a family member last week was a little tense; it was about their new life choices and ended up also somehow being about ours. In the wash-up of the conversation, I found myself saying, ‘I love the work that I do, I love where I live’. And it is true, I do love my work and I love where I live and these two things make up a critical part of my life. In coming back, in all its busyness, it’s been a time of quietly reappraising both.

Especially in relation to my work role and the satisfaction that I gain from it, some thoughts from Susan Cain’s ‘Quiet: The power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking‘ has been of immense value in settling back meaningfully into all this busyness.

The first thought is about finding your “sweet spots”:

Once you understand introversion and extraversion as preferences for certain levels of stimulation, you can begin consciously trying to situate yourself in environments favourable to your own personality – neither overstimulating nor underestimating, neither boring nor anxiety-making. You can organise your life in terms of what personality psychologists call “optimal levels of arousal” and what I call “sweet spots,” and by doing so feel more energetic and alive than before. (p124-5)

It’s about being optimally stimulated, aware of this and setting up your work, interests and social aspects so that you are in the sweet spot. I love this thought of crafting your life with some awareness to make the most of moments and modulate the inputs. It also makes me appreciate the value of my working life as an integral part of what stimulates me: the strategy, the creativity, the innovation and the writing it entails every day; they are all activities I love and value highly.

Related to this and especially to the concept of introverts who love their work is the concept of flow:

…an optimal state in which you feel totally engaged in an activity….The key to flow is to pursue an activity for its own sake, not for the rewards it brings. (p172)

Introverts especially are encouraged to find their flow by using their gifts such as persistence, tenacity and clear-sightedness and to value their talents. It’s as if we are encouraged to lose ourselves in the flow of our own applied talents, rather than to be so busy in comparing ourselves to others or to see this as work per se. I am finding this a valuable thought as it is so easy to underplay one’s own style and strength in a busy environment:

So stay true to your own nature. (p173)

It’s a useful thought as I come back to craft a new everyday.

What are you doing to create a new everyday? I’d love to hear!

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creativity planning & productivity writing

Planning for the Future Starts with Celebrating the Past

January 16, 2011

A guest post from author Sage Cohen

A note from Terri:

I am thrilled to have Sage Cohen, pictured left, writing here for my first guest post. Sage’s background and the details of her latest work, including her new book, ‘The Productive Writer‘ are below. I am indebted to Sage and her work as a gifted writer and teacher who has enriched my writing life.

In this post, Sage encourages us to review our broader writing successes in 2010 in preparation for a productive 2011!

Happy New Year, writers! I believe that there is no better launching pad into the great, blank page of 2011 than a thorough inventory of all that went right in 2010. With this in mind, I’m going to ask a series of questions to guide you in recounting your many successes this past year! I encourage you to take your time and be as thorough as you can in listing every single thing you appreciate about yourself and what you’ve accomplished in each dimension of your writing life–even if the best you can do is admire that you stopped burning your rejection letters. Deal?

What was most fun, exhilarating or rewarding in your writing life this year?
What obstacles did you face and overcome?
What relationships did you build, repair or retire, and how has this contributed to your writing life?
What did you let go of (habits, relationships, attitudes, clutter) that was no longer serving you?
What did you read that taught you something about your craft, your platform or how to take your writing and publishing forward?
What did you earn or what opportunity did you land that felt prosperous?
How has your confidence and/or craft improved?
What have you learned about social media that is serving your writing life?
What strategies worked best for being effective with your time?
How did you nurture and sustain your well being–in mind, body, spirit?
Who has praised your writing or teaching or facilitating? What did they say and how did it give you a new sense of appreciation for yourself and your work?
What did you learn about your writing rhythms: time of day to write, managing procrastination, how and when to revise, making use of slim margins of time, etc.?
Who did you help, and who helped you?
What did you learn about yourself from rejection, and how has it helped your writing, your confidence or your submissions approach develop?
What did you do that terrified you–but you did it any way? And how did that benefit your life and your writing?
How were you patient?
When and how were you successful at juggling the competing demands of family, writing, work, and everything else in your full life?
Who did you forgive? Who forgave you?

Because it’s so easy to keep our minds trained to the loop of an unsolvable problem or two, you may be surprised at how many triumphs are revealed as you answer these questions. Every risk you took, skill you fortified and skin you shed in the service of your writing life is a foothold in the future you are aspiring to create. Nice work!

About Sage Cohen

Sage Cohen is the author of The Productive Writer (just released from Writer’s Digest Books);Writing the Life Poetic and the poetry collection Like the Heart, the World. She blogs about all that is possible in the writing life at pathofpossibility.com, where you can: Download a FREE “Productivity Power Tools” workbook companion to The Productive Writer. Get the FREE, 10-week email series, “10 Ways to Boost Writing Productivity” when you sign up to receive email updates. Sign up for the FREE, Writing the Life Poetic e-zine. Plus, check out the events page for the latest free teleclasses, scholarships and more.