Taking a shower. Driving a monotonous road, and the kids aren’t asking me questions. Working out. The last few moments before drifting off to sleep.

These are all moments when I feel like I have the best ideas. Near epiphanies, sometimes. They sneak up on me like my daughter with an ice cube for the back of my shirt. In fact, I found in doing research my book that there’s scientific evidence for our brains finding its best ideas at rest.

When I sit in front of the computer, deliberately trying to remember what I need to look up or who I need to write, I’m at a loss. But give me a moment of silence when I’m about to pass out, and suddenly, all these ideas and to-dos come flooding my brain.

This isn’t accidental, actually. There’s something about letting your body rest that allows your brain to move. When you purposely allow yourself the freedom to just space out, you explore new fields and remember how to move.

Do you allow yourself the freedom to run on autopilot a few minutes each day? If you’re like me, it’s not as often as I should. Parents have so many mental balls to juggle—school schedules, dental appointments, menu plans, financial goals, discipline issues for each kid at various stages for different actions, not to mention work obligations.

Running a household and bringing up the next generation takes creativity. It requires out-of-the-box thinking to nurture hearts and guide children on the path they were meant to take. So does being an innovative thinker in your field, loving your spouse the way he or she best hears love, and being a helpful member of your community, whatever that looks like.

If you don’t give yourself the gift of downshifting a few times per day, you’ll ultimately run on auto-pilot, and your spirit will putter out. Your drive will wane. You’ll enjoy parenting less. You’ll resent all your other obligations.

[Read more...]

Written by Lisa Byrne of Well Grounded Life.

“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” – Vincent Van Gogh

Have you ever rock climbed?  I can remember many summer days when I was going to college in California on heated rock faces in the foothills of the Sierra mountains.

While I was never a master climber, I enjoyed a good scale here and there.

What I learned climbing has helped me tremendously when I’ve tried to make big changes in my life.  See, rarely does a climber know every single movement they are going to make from when they leave the ground to when they are on the peak.
[Read more...]

I‘m on (in)courage today, talking about Story, how we’ve all got one, and how we’re all meant to live ours like it’s an epic adventure, even when we’re in those mundane parts of the plot. The parenting, the errand-running, the dinner-making… doesn’t always feel very epic. From the post:

“But if you’re like me, sometimes my Story isn’t that terribly exciting. It feels easier to live out a good story when there’s adventure, chaos, and danger, and I’ve been there before. But that doesn’t comprise most of my life. Really, my days are mostly spent changing diapers, getting dinner on the table, paying our mortgage, and going for runs. It’s hard to believe you’re in the thick of something exciting when your days are—well, less so.

What does it look like to live out a good, relevant, gets-me-up-in-the-morning Story when it still just feels like…. regular life?

Believe it or not, there is encouragement that the mundane is still part of a Good Story. Parenting and living the day-in, day-out of raising three kids is not exactly erupting volcanoes and chasing after the bad guy and falling in love Victorian-style. It’s a lot of daily grind.”

Click here to read the rest and talk to me about whether you’re in more of an art film or an epic adventure story.

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a Mentor Fairy? You leave your request under your pillow and then the next morning a Mary Poppins-ish mentor shows up at your front door, ready and willing to teach you everything you need to know.

If she could show up with a Dish Fairy, Bathroom Cleaning Fairy and Dinner Fairy, I think I’d be all set.

But, sadly, there is no Fairy Dream Team. The only way to get a Mentor is the good old fashioned way.

Ask.

A Simple Process For Finding A Mentor

We have talked about the importance of mentors, what to do if you don’t have one, keys to personal growth and more, but today we are going to talk about exactly how to find a mentor.

If you take an hour or two to walk through these six steps, you could have a mentor by the end of the day. Ready? Let’s go!
[Read more...]

Written by Jeannett Gibson of Life Rearranged.

Are you working through Tsh’s ebook One Bite at a Time yet? I’m tracking my progress through the very practical (and manageable!) tasks monthly through this series. The projects aren’t chronological and you can do them in any order, so feel free to start now! You can buy the book here for just $5!

A new year seems to always bring with it a renewed energy. A fresh start, a clean slate, a carpe diem scent wafts through the air on January 1 amid the leftover champagne and the roses in Pomona.

Resolutions are made. Everyone is geared up to go, with every intention of this being The Year. Cheeks flushed with vigor. No, really. We mean it this time. No kidding around.

The problem is that for the vast majority of us, those resolutions are broken almost immediately. And, like your favorite mug, is eventually tossed in the trash after being shattered so many times. It just gets too pathetic to even try to repair anymore.

Every year I swear I’m not going to make resolutions, as I don’t like to get in the habit of setting myself up for failure. But the truth is that the start of a new year brings a vitality and freshness that is contagious.

One of my favorite things about One Bite at a Time is that you can go in any order. You can skip around in a way that helps make the tasks more meaningful for where you are, right now. In this case, I’m taking my own advice and skipping ahead to Project 45: Make annual goals.

I like the idea of goals versus resolutions. It may seem like semantics, but goals bring with them the elastic sweatpants of life. There’s room to make mistakes. Resolutions are a bit more rigid. They split open easily. And when they do, you feel really, really bad about yourself.

Tsh’s ebook lays out four pages of very specific questions to help you figure out what your annual goals might be. A forewarning: to truly answer them, you have to give yourself some time. Maybe even a few days. They are nothing if not thorough. I set about scribbling in my notebook and chatting with my husband. From my copious notes, I culled down some of the biggies.