My mom and I were supposed to be in DC by last Wednesday evening for a Jack Canfield event on Thursday. We were heading up to Philly to see more family for the rest of the weekend. On Tuesday, we looked at the weather forecasts and decided on caution over rigidity and cancelled our trip.
I have to confess that though I was disappointed to miss the program and postpone the family visits, having a stretch of completely wide open time ahead of me made me a little giddy.
Back in February, Seth Godin wrote in one of his haiku-esque blog posts that most of the work we do is either fun, urgent, or fear-based.
“Not on this list: important.”
Seth, you got me on that one, with one caveat: My work with those I’m lucky enough to coach is important and to that, I bring time and presence every single week.
Still, I dig what he’s saying. The important work of expanding what I’m offering so I can provide a greater variety of resources to those I most want to serve often gets pushed to my backburner in the midst of my everyday hustle.
So when Thursday rolled around, I gave myself a leisurely start to the day, oh yeah, and I still got in eight solid hours (and I’m only talking working time – not including bio-breaks of any type) of work on a couple of projects I consider important.
On Friday, I spent over five hours reaching out to friends, family, and professional contacts about the Big Brothers Big Sisters fundraiser I’ve joined – and ran some needed errands, took myself out to lunch, and treated myself to a yoga class with the fabulous Bonny Branch.
Forgive me a quick rabbit path while I share why I think volunteerism is important to my business and dreams?
- For starters, do-gooding in as many ways as possible is a part of my core mission in life – my biggest, baddest purpose – and BBBS is a rad organization I’m glad to support.
- It was yet another way for me to let people know who I am, which is more info they can use to gauge if I’m a person they want to know better or not.
- Reaching out and asking for exactly what I wanted – a donation to a great organization – was exercise for my courage muscle, especially when reaching out to those folks I don’t know as well and those I haven’t been in touch with for a while. Truthfully, that was some heavy lifting and when I hit send on my last email of the day, I felt the satisfaction of a workout well done.
Okay, thanks. I feel better sharing that with you.
After these two deeply satisfying days, I’m reminded of one other caveat to Seth Godin’s theory: My important work is fun to me. My coaching clients are some of my favorite people on earth, to be sure, and creating programs and offerings for them and others is a virtuous cycle of inspiration and enthusiasm for me.
Next week, I have a packed schedule, in part due to stacking appointments to make up for the days I expected to be traveling. And you know what? One of the challenges and opportunities in creating my most fulfilling life is that I have all the responsibility for creating a hefty schedule and all the power to make different decisions in the future.
Oh, and I can also choose how deeply I buy into the belief that I have to do everything myself, and when I’ll lean into this web of interconnection in which we all live and ask for a hand. (Interested in a for-now-very part-time gig helping me put good stuff into the world? Send me an email and I’ll send you the job description!)
What about you, *|FNAME|*? Which parts of your work are fun? Urgent? Fear-based? Important?
And more to the point: What are the powerful steps toward your best life that you’re allowing to rest on your back burner? What can you do to get a little fire going under them?
Or a lot?