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The Secret Power of White Space

by Walt | Aug 6, 2015 | Success | 0 Comments

He was overwhelmed. Stressed out. “Slammed,” he said.

Of course, my client, a young lawyer, is not alone. The Economist reports that, in a recent study, 45% of executives cite lack of time as their biggest challenge in achieving their career goals.

I looked at a screenshot of his Google Calendar: A sea of colors; back-to-back appointments all week long.

No breaks; no respite.

No white space.

White space is the key to creating a saner life.

In my weekly planning, I deliberately create lots of white space on my calendar.

I create white space because sometimes things take longer than I think they will.

I create white space because unexpected interruptions crop up.

I always leave a big block of white space on either side of a coaching appointment. Beforehand, I want to have time to review my notes and think about my client; what we worked on in the last call; and where we want to go. Afterwards, I want time to finish up my notes, reflect on the work we’ve done, and consider where we need to go next.

White space allows us the time to:

Think

Reflect

Create

Read

Listen to music

Hydrate

Enjoy some quiet

Breathe

White space is a powerful time management secret.

With white space, we’re not as frenetic. We slow down. We’re more mindful. We’re more aware of the beauty and the majesty that surrounds us. We’re able to connect more deeply with others. We’re able to recognize what’s merely urgent; and what’s truly important. We’re more resilient and resourceful. And happier too.

If you really want a life that is rich and full and deeply satisfying; if you really want to serve the people you’re meant to serve; if you really want to make an impact in the world, then create more white space!

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AND if you’d like help with this, I have a powerful system. Email me today! [email protected]

Why You Need To Do Less to Succeed

by Walt | Jul 30, 2015 | Success | 0 Comments

I didn’t run at all last week. Well, that’s not exactly true: I ran an ultra-marathon; 36 miles along the magnificent coast of Ireland.

But the week leading up to the race: I didn’t run. (It’s what runners call the taper.)

It made me pretty crazy.

Not running screws with my mind: Who am I if I am not running? Will I get fat, weak, out of shape? Will I fall down the slippery slope into some roiling vat of Crisco or Krispy Kreme?

Runners run.

Doers do.

But maybe that’s not exactly true either.

Because success – real success, sustainable success – requires both doing and not doing.

And often, it’s the not doing that actually empowers us to do.

It’s incontrovertible that rest and recovery are essential components of peak performance in athletics… Not doing is critically important in the repair of muscle; in the recovery of tendons, ligaments and bones; in the re-balancing of hormones and body chemistry; in the recovery of our nervous system and mental state.

But rarely do we apply these principles to our businesses and our careers. (Or our lives for that matter!) We like to think (pretend) that they don’t apply to us; that we’re different; that we’re macho; that we can muscle through.

We keep going like hamsters on a wheel; 24/7/365. Always on; always connected.

We don’t stop; we don’t rest and recover. We never taper.

And then, of course,

Productivity drops

Stress soars

Decision fatigue creeps in

Mistakes multiply

Morale plummets

(Oh, and relationships get damaged and marriages unravel and our children grow distant and our health deteriorates and we forget why we were on the wheel to start with.)

But just a few tweaks can change up the entire game for you:

Sleep more. There is no more powerful tool for rest, recovery and peak performance than sleep; and most of us aren’t getting nearly enough.

Create some white space in your calendar; time between obligations and commitments that you can use to get a breath of fresh air, take a short walk, drink some water, listen to a bit of relaxing music, read a chapter in a book.

Hydrate. Drink water. Often. Throughout the day.

Take a mental health day (or half) day on a regular basis; step away from the work; and get off the grid.

Take your vacations. All of them. And make them real vacations. (A working vacation is not a vacation.)

When you embrace the science; when you take the time to nurture yourself; when you allow yourself to rest and recover; when you give yourself permission not to do; when you can see – and believe – that not doing is doing; then… then you re-create yourself; you come back stronger; you get to perform and serve at an even higher level; and make an even greater impact in the world.

I showed up at the staring line of my race (battling my demons of depravity); and ran the 36 miles; and crushed my previous times.

Sure, I trained. But training (and living) means doing… and not doing.

The Power of the Pause

by Walt | Jul 23, 2015 | Success | 0 Comments

We get to stop from time to time. In fact, we need to stop.

Our technology, meant to free us, actually enslaves us. We’re ‘on’ 24/7/365.

There’s no space; no respite.

We’re expected to be at the net ready to volley. We’re expected to react: Immediately.

Forget about consideration; forget about reflection.

Everything is urgent. Everything is now.

Except that it’s not.

We’re not trauma surgeons. And even if we were, we wouldn’t make ourselves quite as crazy as we do.

Many of the lawyers I work with exist in a near-constant state of anxiety and stress. Everything appears to be an emergency; everything seems dire. Every day, they feel as if they are fighting a forest fire with a squirt gun.

No doubt, they have some pretty important deadlines to keep in mind. We all do. But for the most part, no one dies if we slow down the pace for ourselves. No one dies if we take the time to give a considered response.

No one dies if we take the time to pause.

But endeavoring to slow down in our culture of overwhelm can be one of our most daunting challenges.

It’s not really in vogue.

In fact, if you’re not ‘busy,’ if you’re not ‘flat out,’ if you don’t have your calendar jammed, if you don’t have stuff scheduled back to back for yourself (and your kids), something’s wrong with you!

But that’s not sustainable. (Would you run your high performance car that way?)

You cannot thrive without a pause. So pause you must.

Create time and space for yourself to think, reflect, create; take the time to decide how you want to impact, who you want to serve, and what you want your legacy to be!

Take the time to consider the beauty and the grandeur of the here and now.

Take the time to nurture and care for yourself.

Take the time to me mindful.

Take the time to be; to just be.

You will enjoy the rewards of a peaceful, grounded, joy-filled life that is productive, resourceful and resilient.

Your life is your masterpiece.

Artur Rubenstein once said, “The notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the pauses between the notes—ah, that is where the art resides.”

That’s the power of the pause.

Why You Need To Stop Thinking

by Walt | Jul 16, 2015 | Success | 0 Comments

I’m a big fan of thinking and reflection. In fact, carving out dedicated blocks of time for thinking and reflection is a practice essential for creativity, innovation, and long-term success. And sadly, it ‘s become a lost art; a casualty of our culture of overwhelm.

But ‘thinking’ can become a roadblock; and excuse for not taking deliberate action.

Perseveration the poor cousin of resistance.

(After all, who can really fault you if you’re ‘thinking’ about a challenge, ‘working’ on it, ‘trying’ to figure it out? Read this: sitting around, wringing your hands.)

At some point in time, you need to take action.

Races get run, mountains get climbed, art gets made, books get written, businesses are built, masterpieces are created… only when you act.

I have one client who tells me that he has been spending a lot of time thinking about how to discover his passion. Another has been thinking (a long time!) about how to position herself in the market for her job search.

It sounds rational to be doing this thinking. But it’s so easy to get stuck in a place of uncertainty; fearful that we will err; afraid that we might get it wrong.

My advice: Act.

“Feel the fear,” as Susan Jeffers says, “and do it anyway.”

Action is the antidote for uncertainty; action is the antidote for lack of clarity; and action is the antidote for fear.

It is in taking action that we put our thoughts and ideas to the test. We see what works; and what doesn’t. We revise, adjust, modify, pivot; and act again.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Martin Luther King said, “Take the first step in faith. You don’t need to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step.”

The next step will appear. It most certainly will.

Action creates momentum; action eviscerates resistance; action precipitates ideas.

Small steps over time lead to magnificent outcomes.

So just do it, as the Nike ad once said.

Get going. Take action. Today.

Cruel To Be Kind

by Walt | Jul 9, 2015 | Success | 0 Comments

It was a pretty hefty litany of challenges.

“If one of your team came to you with this long, sad story,” I asked, “what would you say?”

“I’d say to her… take the rest of the day off. In fact, take a long weekend. Do what you need to do to take care of you; and feel better.”

I paused to let it seep in. “So can you do that for yourself?” I asked.

My colleague, a c-level exec, had come to me for some coaching. She was struggling with illnesses in her family, and challenges in her business. She had been “on” for a long time. She hadn’t been getting enough sleep. She had been doing little to nurture herself. She was worn down, stressed out and spread thin. There was nothing left.

“Yes,” she said. “I can do that. I don’t know why I couldn’t see that that’s exactly what I need to do.”

It’s because, as entrepreneurs and professionals, we are often harder on ourselves than we are on anyone else. We hold ourselves to incredibly high standards; even higher than those we hold for our people. We demand of ourselves sustained, uninterrupted peak performance. We are highly intolerant of our own weaknesses; and unforgiving of our shortcomings. We drive ourselves longer, harder and faster than we would ever reasonably expect of others.

And then we wonder why we’re flagging; why we’re flailing; why we’re not making progress; why we can’t get traction; why we’re stuck; why we’re not meeting our goals.

We can’t seem figure out what’s gone wrong.

Because we’re in our own way.

Taking care of ourselves, nurturing ourselves, being kind to ourselves… these are core success principles! The basic fuel.

For me this means adhering to my basic daily practices: my running, my journaling, my sitting meditation. It means eating well; and getting lots of sleep. It means going off the grid on a regular basis because, as an introvert, that’s how I recharge. And it means taking lots of time off to re-ground and re-create.

You already know what you need to do for you. The trick is to acknowledge that doing so is not wasteful but, rather essential to the work you do in the world.

Of course, like everyone, I drive too hard, and fall off the cart from time to time. (We teach what we most need to know!).

But I’ve learned that we can be cruel to ourselves… or be kind.

And kind works out so much better. For everyone.