Do you dread vacation?
If you happily go on vacation every year and it causes you no anxiety, this post is not for you. Feel free to read this anyway and add your tips. No, this post is for those of us who are much more drawn to personal accomplishments than to play. It can keep us from scheduling a vacation. It can keep us from planning things to work smoothly while we’re away…. Read the Rest
read more →Are you biologically hardwired for leadership? 56% of us are.
“In the future there will not be women leaders. There will just be leaders.” – Gloria Steinem Just when you might have been feeling a little bummed out by Lean In’s research that women are at a disadvantage at work because of cultural bias, here’s an uplifting and unconventional take on why women are actually biologically better suited for modern leadership. This isn’t just good news for women, it’s good… Read the Rest
read more →How to Decide How to Sleep
Feeling energized encompasses a lot of different things for me, but right off the bat, I knew getting more sleep would give me the biggest energy boost. When I’m tired, I start to slip on details and I get cranky. Not pretty, for somebody who prides herself on her cheery attitude and attention to detail. My personal accomplishments depend on getting enough sleep. So I know that getting an adequate… Read the Rest
read more →How to Balance Your Life: Do I need a hobby?
Hobbies are so old school. Now we have lifestyle businesses and non-profits and becoming an elite guru. Hobbies can feel unnecessary when we’re excited about our work. And frankly, we just don’t have the time. But are we missing out? SHOULD we have a hobby? Well forget SHOULD, here are three reasons why you might actually NEED one. Keeping a hobby a hobby is more rewarding Accomplishers who feel more… Read the Rest
read more →Strategy Will Set You Free
One of the things that Elissa says in the Trueprint is that “strategy will set you free”. I love this quote, and this entire section. Breaking down my to-feel list into strategies felt natural – I realized that I’d already been mentally doing this. Of course, it might not feel this way for everybody, but it just made sense to break up my to-feel list into separate strategies. Here are… Read the Rest
read more →Why frogs hate measurement and feedback
Doing the most important thing in the morning, especially if it’s hard, is great advice. Productivity people call it “eating the frog”, after a Mark Twain quote. But, let’s say you’re a little too good at justifying why your case is the exception. We tell ourselves: – This other thing is fast, I’ll get it done first – I need more time to do this so I’ll do it later -… Read the Rest
read more →Wrestling With Feelings
What is a to-feel list? It’s how you figure out what you actually want with the Trueprint, and it forms the basis for your performance measurement metrics. Elissa explains that your feelings are like targets. She says: “When we don’t know what we want, those targets are invisible.” Coming up with these targets was kind of a challenge for me personally, but a fun one. I actually had to ask… Read the Rest
read more →How to Buy Happiness
Walking through the airport I see a fantastic quote. You can take that as mercenarily or as existentially as you want, it’s totally true. Shopping in the wrong places is a waste of your hard earned resources. Don’t buy things that other people love but don’t turn you on. Buy things that others may not care about but make you feel fulfilled. You know this is true if you’ve ever… Read the Rest
read more →The Courage to Change
My name is Jasmine Davis, and I’m a 24-year-old communications professional. When I’m not working at my day job, I’m shuttling back and forth between the theater where I perform and house manage, my freelance writing job and my work as a fiber artist. If you’re looking for a symbol of the overworked twentysomething, I’m it. Elissa Ashwood asked me to write about the Trueprint in order to give people… Read the Rest
read more →You’ve got to take the good with the bad, but what if you’re afraid of the bad?
You’ve got to take the good with the bad when you’re doing something challenging, right? As social philosopher Seth Godin, describes, “You don’t get to just do the good parts. Of course. In fact, you probably wouldn’t have chosen this path if it was guaranteed to work every time.” His advice is to welcome the bad parts because they are proof that you’re doing something real. Let me add a… Read the Rest
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