This is the Too Many Trees newsletter, where I share what I’ve been writing and reading in the realm of leadership and personal development. My coaching practice is centered around the idea that we are more effective in moving towards our goals when we become more conscious and intentional in focusing our time and attention, and learn how our unconscious patterns are holding us back. If you know somebody that could benefit from my perspective, please forward this to them or let them know they can set up a free intro chat with me.
In my LinkedIn signoff for 2021, I asked the questions:
What did you learn in 2021 that you want to remember? What can you take forward to do better next year?
What is your intention for 2022? What would you have to do differently to be the person who would fulfill that intention?
I spent several hours over the Christmas break reflecting on those questions, and produced my usual year-in-review post with my reflections and answers:
My intention is that I will invest in myself as much as I do in my family and my clients. The person I would have to be to fulfill that intention is somebody that believes deeply in my own intrinsic value, such that investing in myself has great ROI, and I will start acting as if that belief were true to bring it into existence.
This first week of 2022 has gone well in that I made the time for my self-care habits (meditation, walking, strength exercises, reading) each day this week, while staying productive and not feeling as stressed. Admittedly, it helped that my kids were sleeping better this week - uninterrupted sleep changes everything. We will see if I can maintain this dedication as things get busier or if the kids start waking up again, but it’s a promising start.
Who do you want to be this year? And what actions will you take this week to start becoming that person?
And now for the normal personal development content:
LinkedIn: These are ideas or questions that have helped my clients (or myself), and that I share via LinkedIn to help a wider audience.
What do you want to accomplish in 2022? Who would you have to be to accomplish that goal? And how will you spend 5 minutes today being that person to find your first step towards that goal?
How can you make it an “us” problem? The default in many discussions is to play the blame game, so that it’s your problem or my problem. I find it more productive to shift the perspective so that both of you are working on the problem together.
Set an intention to get moving. When I feel low energy, it feels difficult to motivate and do anything. But when I instead push through the low energy to get moving, I find myself gaining energy from being more active. So bias towards activity and movement.
How do you identify when you need a break to recharge? I share the story of learning how I really need a long break every couple years to stay sane.
Articles and resources I’ve found interesting:
Inspection and the Limits of Trust, by Will Larson, where he identifies that trust isn’t a management technique because it doesn’t help people course correct. “Your goal in working together is to help each other succeed, and that includes catching each others’ mistakes. Inspection is a gift: it’s taking the problem seriously enough to ensure we’re getting to the bottom of the actual problem at hand.”
To pair with that article on managers inspecting their team’s work, here are a couple resources to help invite more feedback and inspection:
How to Become a Feedback Magnet by Shivani Berry in the First Round Review, particularly the tips on how to empower your colleagues to share more by narrowing the question and getting people invested.
Alisa Cohn, a startup coach, shared her perspective on the Tim Ferriss podcast - search for “feedback scripts” in that transcript to read her excellent scripts for both giving and receiving feedback.
Keanu Reeves Knows the Secrets of the Universe, an Esquire profile as part of the Matrix Resurrections release. No great insights here, but I enjoyed reading about a movie star who doesn’t take himself too seriously and seems like a genuinely kind and caring guy. Matrix Resurrections wasn’t a great movie, but I enjoyed the fan service callbacks because I still love the original Matrix movie.
Thanks for reading! See you in a couple weeks.