We hope you are having fun with this Live-With and will post your experiences below. Please also share your thoughts about matching how you spend your time with your values and goals. Go for progress, not perfection...
Have a great week.
Hal
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What a FUN Live-With! I've checked off my "Love To Do" tasks this week and will add some more. Also, I choose to sandwich an unpleasant task (getting up at 4am) with two Love tasks. I'll get to moonbathe, get up at 4am so I can drop my best friend off at SFO (she's running the NYC Marathon!), and we can have a soul-to-soul talk on the way to the airport.
ReplyDeleteI love being curious. A conversation with a classmate and Hal on Monday about the MLA program at Stanford got me to its website. What I noticed there was a description for one of its core seminars in which students in the MLA program get to explore tools from 5 different disciplines. Well, that got me thinking about the use of various tools in our lives -- but the one overarching tool is that of being resourceful/creative from within... showing up as your REAL, authentic self (i.e. LEADING by BEING). What do other think?
ReplyDeletePlease take a look. Sounds somehow familiar? :)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0_AAvp0DK8&feature=SeriesPlayList&p=CDC355952AC0FA80&index=1
Just to add a few things to my previous post. The BlackBarry marketing camping may be around for some time, but I’ve noticed it today for the first time after trying to watch some random video on CNN.com. I have to say that seeing our weekly Live With as a commercial-tagline surprised me and created an avalanche of thoughts—from one that seeing this commercial at this time may be a strange accident, to the idea that may not be accident at all. (I log in into class blog using my Google email and as much as I know both our blogspot and DoubleClick are owned by Google, so match user with a potentially effective and memorable commercial may not be completely impossible.) Another thing that crossed my mind is a question if using this tagline in a commercial is doing good to the whole idea by presenting it to wider audience, or doing harm by blurring its meaning. It would be interesting to me to hear other opinions and reactions.
ReplyDeletestarted crossing the "Love TODO" list:
ReplyDelete- reading for more than 3h in a row: Done
- running before going to work (for the first time ever): Done
- doing something totally not related to work.. at work (Foosball in this case): done
... and I really enjoyed all 3!
I hope you guys had a chance to do it as well.
in my quest to get my team motivated as a team I found a piece of information in http://www.managementrewired.com/:
ReplyDeletegiven the natural inclination to identify with a group and the need to be accepted, all managers have to do is create the environment conditions where the frequent interaction will lead to group identify. this will require physical proximity, a common threat such as competition, and a work group that doesn't exceed the size of a prehistoric band. (I learned that in Agile development 7+/-2 is the optimal size).
if any of you has more experience to share on being a leader and foster creativity in such groups ... I'd love to hear.
Hi Oliver,
ReplyDeleteI'm so excited to hear about the 7+/- 2 as I will be leading 9 Research Assistants in our monthly meeting at work with some creativity exercises (that I'm sharing from this course -- thanks, Hal and Julie!).
Mai,
ReplyDeleteThat is fantastic. Good luck with the meeting and the exercises...be sure to share how it goes with us, and what YOU learn from the experience, too!
One thing we didn't touch on last night was the idea that what we really love comes directly from our Essence. Meaning, when we are doing what we love, there are qualities of the experience that reflect our true nature, that of the Authentic Self.
ReplyDeleteMore important than checking things off your to-do list, is to begin to notice who you are being when you are doing the things you love.
What have you discovered about your Self (Essence) from doing what you love? What are the qualities of your Self?
Someone said in class that they feel guilty for doing the thing that they love vs. the thing they're supposed to do. I feel the same way!
ReplyDeleteThe "real" me like being creative and you can tell from my list of things I love doing (photography, traveling, blogging, etc.). But between 2 classes during the weekdays, busy work schedule and spending time with family and friends, what I love doing gets lost in the shuffle. Otherwise, if I do the things I love, then I don't get to the things I need to do!
I tried to not pass judgment on myself while doing the things I love, but it was inevitable that my VOJ made me feel guilty for spending time doing things I enjoy!
I actually recently talked to my friend about this - she has this "zen, non-stressed out" aura around her even though she has just as busy schedule as me. She told me not to be afraid to say "no" to things so you can make time for yourself. Because, she said, if you're stressed, then you probably can't do a good job on what you need to accomplish.
I realized that this is so true! So after spending the weekend having some "me" time, it was a lot easier to focus on work and the drive into work wasn't so bad on Monday morning.
I know that this Live-With will always be the one that I struggle with, but also the one I love doing (no pun intended)! :)
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI was raised with a very high sense of obligations, so I always end up doing things because I have to and not necessarily because I want to. The upside is that I always find something intresting along the way. So “love what you do”was an easier task than “Do what you love”.
During my days off, I normally spent one of them at home catching up on work and boring activities (grocery shopping, cleaning), believing that otherwise it will never be done. So I never fully enjoyed my week ends. Last week, I tried to “Do what I love” during those 2 short days. It wasn’t’ a complete success, but I made me realized that those tasks could be done at a different time and that they will eventually be done.
I really have to improve the way I manage my time to fill it up with fun activities.
See you on Monday,
Eugenie
With this ‘live with’ I had a similar experience like Eugenie regarding time management. In my case, it is not only the weekends but the entire week is filled with those mundane activities, such as, cooking, cleaning, vacuuming etc. (stressors that require action). It became very frustrating as these activities, in spite of being important, do not add value to one’s life. I hardly get time to do anything I really love to do or activities that bring a sense of meaning and purpose to my life, e.g. singing, listening to music, reading, creative thinking, taking my son out more often, translating, going for a walk, sleeping, writing more on this blog…. So initially I tried to ‘love what I do’. I tried to look at those routine or humdrum activities from a larger purpose, i.e. I do this for my family to be healthy and so on. But still could not be motivated and ‘love’ cleaning, cooking… Since I do not love them I start them reluctantly and then waste a lot of time complaining and spending time with VOJ.
ReplyDeleteSo, I decided to be creative and thought of an action plan to solve this. I am sharing it, in case it helps others too. ‘Don’t worry, Just do it’ attitude helped a lot. In addition, I have made a list of all the activities and assigned time to each of them. and if I could not meet the deadline I penalize myself and if I could finish the task on time I get a valuable reward of some EXTRA TIME for myself. I will continue practicing this till I am able to accommodate all my ‘meaningful’ activities in my life.
following up -- so I presented some creativity exercises today and a couple of people found it intriguing (and said I was teasing them and wanted to hear more from others/do more of the same). Some others found the particular exercises less helpful for them. Good experience for me to take a risk and try something different than another "monthly meeting."
ReplyDeleteMai,
ReplyDeleteGreat. You took a risk and some people benefited from it. You might also inquire into how much VOJ was in the room. Sometimes it is important for people to learn about the VOJ, as well as their creativity, so they see what is stopping them from the benefits the work offers.
Just a thought...Congratulations for stepping off into the pit!
Julie
Thanks Julie! Since I had included my planned agenda for that small meeting with my direct reports in a larger email that went out to the entire lab... it got some other people curious about what the creativity stuff is. When I gave examples of what we had done in the small meeting, a senior staff member said that he'd like to have it done with senior staff (I might follow up if he's really serious)!
ReplyDeleteI happen to see Steve Job's video of Stanford Graduate speech. It is very inspirational and he emphasizes over and again that Doing what you love and loving what you do is a recipe for success
ReplyDeleteAlso in another joint interview with Bill Gates, both of them said that they realized early on in life what they love and they did what they loved to be where they are
Mai, definitely follow up with the senior staff member. Let him know YOU are serious. He may just find your passion for the work contagious!
ReplyDeleteIf you love doing this, just do it!
Julie