Masterful Mindsets

“Busyness is an illness of the spirit.” ~ Eugene Peterson

Over the last few weeks, we’ve explored several practical ways to become more intentional with our time. From organizing our days and creating better routines to focusing our attention, letting go of multitasking, and giving ourselves permission to take breaks.

But before we wrap up this series next week, I want to go a little deeper and ask an important question:

Why do so many of us feel the need to be doing something all the time?

Because all that multitasking, skipping breaks, overbooking, rushing, and constantly trying to squeeze more into our days might just be signs of a larger pattern.

We have become really good at being busy.

Sometimes so good that when we finally get caught up, instead of enjoying the breathing room we’ve created, we immediately find something else to fill it. We add another project, make another commitment, check another thing off the list, or simply find another way to stay in motion.

I’ve...

“Focus. Otherwise, you will find life becomes a blur.” ~ Anonymous

If you wear glasses, you know how much easier life feels when you actually put them on. Suddenly, everything comes into focus, crisp, clear, effortless.

Life works the same way. When you have clarity and focus, everything becomes easier. You make better decisions, take more intentional actions, and start seeing progress that actually feels good.

But let’s be honest, it’s easy for life to get blurry. You’re busy. There’s a constant pull for your attention.

And before you know it, you’re looking back wondering where the last year (or ten) went.
So if your vision for your future feels foggy, it’s time to do what I finally had to do: put the glasses on.

The Clarity Confession
I’ll admit it — I fought the whole “needing glasses” thing longer than I care to admit. I’d squint, stretch my arm, adjust the lighting, blame the font size… you name it. Anything to avoid admitting that I couldn’t see clearly on my own. And every t...

When you choose joy, you feel good and
When you feel good, you do good and
When you do good it reminds others of
what joy feels like, and it just might inspire
them to do the same.

We are all in full holiday mode – no matter what holiday it is that you celebrate - so today I want to share with you how to have a happy holiday. And how to survive the holidays in a positive way using five high performance (holiday) tips to help you bring the joy into your own life and to others.

Clarity - Be clear about what is most important to you this holiday season. And set your intention for how you want to show up. (i.e. bringing happiness and joy to others, being charitable, kind, etc.) It’s easy to be stressed out, overwhelmed, grumpy or angry during the holidays. But make a choice to get clear about how you want your holidays to be and how you want to show up this holiday season and then remind yourself of the words/intentions you choose throughout the holiday season so that you are showing...

"Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort." ~Paul J. Meyer

Over the last several weeks I’ve shared with you that productivity is a key component to success so today, let’s review and get you ready to win!

Your level of productivity and success can be directly affected by your level of clarity, your level of energy and your level of courage.

Clarity - Setting yourself up for success when it comes to productivity starts with making sure you have a clear vision for what your goals and dreams are. Knowing what you want and why you want it. The deeper connection you have to why you want it, the more it will help you stay motivated.

Then preparing and creating a clear plan is extremely helpful for keeping yourself on track. Make sure you have a timeline for completion of the project as well as the tasks/actions necessary to move you in the direction you want to go to get you to the goal. (Note: ...

“Without gas in your car, it doesn’t matter if you know where you’re going. You won’t reach your destination. Likewise, without mental and physical energy, you probably won’t reach your goals either.” ~MW

Let’s face it, we all have the same 24 hours in a day. But some people manage to get so much more done than others. You look at them and wonder how they do it. Or more specifically, you may wonder how they have the energy to do it all!

See the reality is, often it’s not that we need more time to get things done but rather, more energy.

Do you have enough energy to get everything you want accomplished each day or do you find that you are so tired by mid-day that it’s hard to focus and finish the day strong?  

The best laid plans will not come to fruition if you don’t have the mental and physical energy needed to take action toward achieving them. That’s why high levels of energy are a key element to high levels of productivity and success.

So if you find that you often lose st...

“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule but to schedule your priorities.”  ~Steven Covey

Prioritizing clarity is a crucial first step if you want to increase your productivity and reach your goals! When you have clarity about what your goals are, you have a detailed plan for what needs to be done to complete them and in what timeframe, plus you know why these goals or dreams are truly important to you; you will have a laser focused vision for your journey to success.  

Ask Yourself:

• Do you have a clear vision of your goals and dreams?
• Do you have a plan and know what you need to do daily, weekly, monthly to keep yourself on track?
• Do you stay focused and in action on the priority tasks necessary to achieve success in your personal and professional life?
• Do you know exactly why reaching these goals are important to you?

Having clarity and focus helps you eliminate distractions. Think “bright shiny object syndrome” here. You no longer get distracted by every ...

“Each minute is a little thing, and yet, with respect to our personal productivity, to manage the minute is the secret of success.” ~ Joseph B. Wirthlin

How successful you are, can often be equated to how productive you are. It certainly isn’t the only factor to success. But let’s be real here… if you aren’t productive, you probably aren’t going to get far in your quest for success and you’re definitely not going to get there very fast. Of course, it’s important to remember that just being busy, marking things off a to-do list, isn’t enough.

The tasks and actions you choose to focus on need to be in alignment with your ultimate goals in order for that productivity to really be of value. Anything otherwise, is just a distraction or detour from your true path to your desired life.

Sadly though, most people struggle with consistent, high levels of productivity. (And remember if we are making the parallel here that means they are likely struggling to have consistent, high levels of ...

“As I unclutter my life, I free myself to answer the callings of my soul.” ~ Dr. Wayne Dyer

Spring is well in bloom here and before we know it, summer will be shining down on us. This past weekend, having been Mother’s Day, I was able to get my family to do something that probably wouldn’t have happened had they not been wanting to do something nice for me. 😉

See every year for Mother’s Day, they ask me what they can do for me. They know that my Love Language is “Acts of Service”. So this year, I told them I wanted the storage room clean. Oh, the groans! But they were accommodating nonetheless.

What I don’t think they realized was just how important that was to me… And why clearing the clutter is important for you too!

Here's the deal, clutter really bothers me because when you allow too much clutter to fill up a space it can actually cause you to become distracted, lose focus and become less productive. Not to mention the negative energy that piles of clutter can create. So, i...

“There is virtue in work and there is virtue in rest. Use both and overlook neither.” ~ Alan Cohen

We are coming to the end of the mini-series on how to organize your day for maximum efficiency. Today I’ll take on the last of the concepts that caused resistance from my original article. So, if you feel guilty for taking breaks or just believe you are too busy to pause during your work day, this post is for you. Because pushing yourself to keep working without taking breaks in hopes of getting more done, is actually causing you to get less done. The truth is, taking a break isn't a luxury, it's a necessity! Studies show time and time again that there are huge benefits to taking breaks - and increased productivity is just one of the many benefits.

I was talking with a colleague recently who was feeling extremely overwhelmed and overworked. She was under a deadline for a project she was working on and felt so much pressure to finish that she’d been skipping her workouts, spending l...

“To do two things at once, is to do neither.” Publilius Syrus

To continue responding to the messages from my recent blog about how to organize your day for maximum efficiency, this week I’ll be talking about a statement I made that caused a bit of a stir with some people. I said that, multi-tasking does not work. (“Multitasking is a Lie.")

Of course, I had a couple of people tell me that they are great at multitasking. Which, I’m sure they are. But being good at something that isn’t a good thing… still doesn’t make for an effective practice. (It’s kind of like saying you’re good at drinking. Doesn’t mean getting drunk is good for you.) 😉

There is a common misconception that multitasking is a great way to get more done in a shorter period of time. Quite the contrary actually. Multitasking is really not as time efficient as you’d think. As a matter of fact, studies show that the time it takes you to complete tasks can increase up to 25% for even the littlest, simplest tasks. And ...