This That Whatever

This That Whatever - Lifestyle

Can you tell there is a change coming. Sometimes it takes little steps. In the meantime, this is what I am gravitating towards.

Physically -

Forgot it is winter, check out Tracy Anderson's new dance cardio routine from her upcoming DVD Unleash Your Inner Pop Star. I hope she has some good 80s hits in there. More details here

Tips for what to think about when exercising. These are useful, no?

Discipline is an illusion.  If you think you don’t have discipline, you don’t need it. What you need is to commit to your goal or habit and fully motivate yourself. Some helpful ways are:

1. Pick one habit, and fully commit to it. Don’t try to be “disciplined” for a whole lot of things at once. I’ve tried this (many times) and it always fails. I’m re-evaluating my goals for this year for that reason alone. Try one habit at a time, and really focus on it.

2. Come up with a plan for that habit. See how many of the Top 20 Motivation Hacks you can apply to this habit. Write down your goal, and set a measurable and achievable goal, with a deadline. Write down mini-goals along the way, with rewards for each. Write down a plan for monitoring your urges to quit the habit, and for how you will overcome those urges (write it down beforehand!).

3. Maintain your focus on that habit for as long as possible. Try not to get distracted from it by other things. Post up pictures, motivational quotes, your plan, a list of rewards, your list of reasons, etc. Send yourself email reminders. Get others to remind you of your focus. Blog about it. Whatever it takes.

4. Set up your environment so that you maintain your motivation for your habit over time. Look at the example of Sgt. Lamar above. His life is set up so that he can’t fail. Set you life up like that too, with motivation all around you, in many forms. Set it up so that that motivation continues for as long as possible, not just for a couple weeks or a month. Maintain that environment of motivation.

5. Celebrate your success!!! Woo hoo!!!!

Beauty -

Check out this site - Violet Grey. The Violet Files, offers a glimpse into the transformative world of beauty  through the discerning point of view of storytellers in fashion and film. Don't buy any more beauty products till you have had a good read here.

Some research on spf beauty products - Get your sunscreen on. Oh, and a little bit of fashion advice here.

Work -

Know What Kind of Careerist You Are

What brings satisfaction in work? It’s different for different people — even at the same workplace, even in the same role. If you’re trying to answer that question about yourself or your employees, here’s a helpful framework from Managing the New Careerists, by former BYU management professor C. Brooklyn Derr

Getting ahead. People who are motivated by upward mobility focus on promotions, raises, making partner, and increasing their authority. They’re competitive and willing to put in long hours and negotiate office politics to win those rewards. This is the default career model in the U.S., which means that it’s easy for those who want to get ahead to explain themselves to bosses, colleagues, and family. Also, almost everyone who is just starting out in a career has this priority. It’s usually around age 30, give or take a few years, that people begin to explore other orientations.

Getting secure.  Those who seek regularity and predictability in their work environment are motivated to fit in with others and uphold group norms. They avoid risk and are less concerned with advancement than with career control. If this description has you rolling your eyes, you’re not alone. It’s difficult for people to admit they want this kind of security, because it sounds like the life of a corporate drone, which no one wants to be. That’s especially true today, given the rise of the free agent in all industries. But people motivated by security are loyal and willing to put in extra effort when the situation requires it — not just when it will bring them glory.

Getting free. Derr describes people with this orientation as “hard to work with, impossible to work for, slippery as eels to supervise and manage, and infinitely resourceful in getting their own way.” People who value getting free want autonomy and self-direction. They have less tolerance for regulations, status reports, and other forms of bureaucracy than those in the “getting secure” camp. Like getting ahead, the desire to get free is widely understood and even admired, at least in the U.S. However, people who are motivated by freedom must pay their dues before they can have autonomy. Even if getting ahead isn’t your primary orientation early on, when you’re still building your reputation, some argue that it makes sense to act as if it is. Once you’re established, you can shift gears and strive for deeper rewards.

Getting high. These are people who care deeply about deploying their expertise, solving problems, creating new things, and feeling engaged. They are ambitious and sometimes idiosyncratic. Unlike professionals intent on getting ahead (who might take on boring but important assignments in order to win favor with clients or managers), those motivated mainly by getting high will gravitate toward work that provides greater stimulation, even if it’s low-profile or high-risk. They’ll also trade a certain amount of autonomy for an exciting or meaningful job — they might join the military, for instance—which a person with a “getting free” orientation probably wouldn’t do.

Getting balanced. Have you been nodding along, thinking that there’s a bit of truth and desirability in each orientation? That means you’re motivated by balance. People with this orientation want to enjoy objective career success, personal development, and close relationships, and they’ll strive to achieve all these goals over time. They are unwilling to sacrifice a personal life to career demands, but they’re also unlikely to coast in a job for which they are overqualified to free up their time at home. They want challenge, and fulfillment, both on and off the job.

Found here

Some other pieces to read about when thinking about your career ... why you need to be interesting or hear from 5 women on smashing the ceiling.

Spiritual Needs -

I thought this was an interesting article - Emotional Erosion.

Aesthetics -

Always thinking about it, just see how many Home blogs I do! Here is another view and look at this example.

Action -

So does it take little steps for you? Have a read of this..

Do me a favor: right now, quickly, tell me what you did for your last 30 days at work? Last week? Yesterday?

When the to-do’s come fast and furious, it’s easy to rush and finish things so you can push them from your brain to focus on the next task. The downside here is that it’s easy to lose track of what you’ve done, and use that knowledge to make yourself better.

There was once a time, especially if you worked for a sizable company, when you could expect a healthy helping of company-sponsored training and regular feedback sessions with your boss – who was very likely to be located in the same office. A generation’s worth of downsizing, rightsizing, and outsourcing has laid that foundation to waste. Now we employees are on our own to assess our performance, decide what new skills we need to develop and track our progress toward goals.

Which is great news (really!). The good old days weren’t all that good. Company training was limited to what the company thought you needed to know(“Excellent! Another class on security and confidentiality!”). Your boss’s feedback focused on what would make him look good to his own boss. Your career plan tracked along prescribed company lines.

Your boss’s feedback focused on what would make him look good to his own boss.

You are now free (in fact, expected) to manage your own career, your own skills development, your own progress. To do this, use Little Data.

Talk about Big Data is everywhere these days. But for managing your development, Little Data is much more useful. Little Data is data about you. Using a Fitbit or Nike Fuel Band, for example, lets you measure your exercise performance, sleep patterns, even vital signs, and track these over time. People have reported significant benefits from this sort of tracking.

Your emotional life can be similarly quantified. Have you made progress this week, this month, or this year? How many days have you felt encouraged as opposed to frustrated? What mistakes have you made and do they fall into a pattern? Harvard Business School Professor and 99u speaker Teresa Amabile calls this “inner work life.” While it can’t be measured by a bracelet around your wrist (at least, not yet) it is easy to track.

Once you’ve tracked it, all the benefits of self-awareness, mindfulness and personal insight can be unleashed. And this insight forms the raw data needed in order to make your own judgments about your performance and development needs. Most importantly, when someone asks you about your accomplishments, say, at an annual performance review with a raise on the line, you’ll be able to easily answer.

Accomplish this in three steps:

    Log daily: Write down the most memorable event that happened today, and answer a few questions about it: was it an accomplishment, a setback, or a mistake? Did it make you feel happy, encouraged, frustrated, or angry? You can use a simple Excel spreadsheet or an app specifically for this purpose (full disclosure: I created this one). This exercise will take less than five minutes out of your day.

    Reflect quarterly: At the end of each quarter, pull out your spreadsheet, or consult your app. Spend an hour looking through it for patterns. Sort it by category and emotion. Count how many times you were delighted about the day’s events, and how many times you were disappointed. What things counted as progress? Which as setbacks? The data will tell you a lot about yourself and how you relate to your workplace.

    Plan yearly: Take some time at the end of the year and look over your quarterly reflections and the year’s worth of statistics. Then try the next step.

    Identify patterns of mistakes that seem to recur: Those are your development areas. Make a plan to work on one or two of these next year:

    Look at accomplishments and setbacks. You should have 2-3 accomplishments for each setback, on average. If you have fewer, you need to look at your work environment. Either you are not set up for success, or your manager is not creating the proper environment – or you need to redefine what an accomplishment is.

    Look at the counts of emotions. What is the balance of positive entries vs. negative? Is that ratio OK? Are your positive entries fairly well correlated with accomplishments?

    Look at your setbacks. Were they “good” setbacks mostly the result of stretching your comfort zone? Or “bad” setbacks that are the result of bureaucracy or lack of internal support?

    Roll this data into a plan for 2014. Document specific actions you are going to take to address the patterns you found.

Your yearly reflection will provide you the insight needed to make clear, data-driven decisions on your career. What skills do you need to build? How do you need to alter your work environment to increase your satisfaction? What types of accomplishments are most gratifying to you, and which setbacks suck out a little of your soul?

Log daily. Reflect quarterly. Plan yearly. This simple model can provide the data and structure you need to take control of your career and personal development. It takes very little time, and will pay dividends to you for the rest of your career. What are you waiting for?