As each of us faces more resistance, or dips in our motivation, there are some essential truths we must tap into.
First, no one is immune to getting stuck. Despite what our social feeds may convey, all of us are suffering on some level and that is perfectly OK. What we’re experiencing on an individual and collective level is completely unique and unprecedented.
But as we accept that fact, we still get to choose where we want to live each day, and where we want to end up on the other side of this.
These circumstances are no doubt stirring up countless awakenings and refinements, many of which we’ve needed to make for a while.
I have repeatedly witnessed two major antidotes to feelings of stuckness.
THESE ARE…
1 – Connection— making the concerted effort to connect deeply with others when our circumstances or fatigue may want us to isolate.
2 – Structure— having something consistent to show up for, which forces us to bring our best selves.
Yesterday was a day where everything felt foggy, and unusually hard to make any progress whatsoever. Once I surrendered to the truth of the matter, I could then apply some coaching best-practices to getting unstuck, and back into productive motion.
My clients who are moving through the current challenges are building tons of connection and structure into their days, and their weeks. These two forces act as scaffolding around us, whenever the ground may feel shaky.
To turn my own ship around yesterday, I reached out to some mentors and an excellent fellow coach, Mary McCarthy, PCC. I also amped up my spiritual practices and ran a couple safe errands as additional structure. This helped me shift from a place of stuck-helplessness into a lighter, more flowing vibe.
From there, it was back to work and new opportunities and ideas started flowing again.
Last week could have been the peak of intensity with our family under one roof during Spring Break. Here’s how connection + structure created magic where only boredom, or demotivation existed previously.
My 2 Powerful Reminders
From Last Week
The longer we shelter in place, naturally the more disconnected we can feel from everyone and everything outside our home.
I’ve watched each of our family members grapple with this troubling reality— and the uncertainty of not knowing when it will pass. Our teenage daughter’s band ‘Detention’ recently won a large regional competition and showcase (The High School Rock Off held at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame).
Shortly after, SXSW was cancelled along with their showcase. The band played on March 13, and the members hadn’t seen one another since.
Last week, the bassist’s Dad (Noel), pushed for a quarantine video shoot, in four separate locations to follow the rules of social distancing. He partnered with an incredible video editor to assemble the footage which was shot on his iPhone 11.
The results are pretty incredible. Detention’s song “In Reverse” now seems to capture much of the isolation and uncertainty so many of us are dealing with. Watch the video below, and please feel free to share it.
Takeaway: Noel not only gave the band members, but all of our families something to show up for. In doing so, it shook all of us out of the slog of the homeschooling routine, and re-injected plenty of rock energy and creativity back into the mix.
The shoot took about 4 hours total. From there, we decided to schedule a live-stream of the band for National Record Store Day on Saturday, with each of the kids sectioned off into quadrants.
The energy was off-the-charts, because you could feel how joyful everyone was to see one another again.
Maintaining connection with our closest allies, and creating any structure to do so is so crucial— especially when the days and weeks can feel they’re blurring together.
The feedback on our daughter’s podcast interview has been off the charts. If you haven’t yet, there are some great reminders of the power of family and creativity.
Elliott Carter: Our Teenage Daughter on
Unleashing The Music Inside You (#25)
From Spring Breakdown,
to Family Vision Boards
Our family was supposed to leave for our annual Encinitas trip a couple weeks ago. The kids started their Spring Break week, so our plan was to spend 10 days in our favorite surfer-yoga town. Alas, COVID!
Rather than being completely bummed with the postponement— OK, I was definitely a little bummed— we had to reinvent Spring Break on the fly. From the discomfort of our own home.
To kick off our week on a cold and rainy Ohio day, we decided to make vision boards. I’ve been wanting to do this for a while, since the last time Elliott and I did this she was 8, and her brother and sister were 1 and 4.
Our vision board project ended up being a ton of fun and really inspiring. We spent about an hour around the table on our laptops gathering images and talking through all the categories.
Then we moved to carpet— printing, and cutting everything out. I repurposed old frames and the girls used canvases and Mod-Podge.
It took about 5 Power Hours to complete these beasts. However, it was a high-vibe and creative way to spend a day with the kids.
The Takeaways: I am so freaking #GRATEFUL for all the things that manifested from my last vision board over the last 7 years. It’s truly astounding. The biggest piece of that magic are all the wonderful people I get to work with around the country. My board is split 70%-30% between Vision and Gratitude.
At one point I even google image searched “epic meditation retreats” and our Costa Rica group shot was first!
Sometimes we need to deeply reconnect with our closest people, while practicing defiant optimism about the future.
What Is This Crazy Virus
Teaching Us?
…Connection + Structure Are More
Important Than Ever Before
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You Rock!!!!