At the Conversation Among Masters Conference in Branson Missouri (yes you read right…. Missouri) we talked and learned and percolated ideas, caught up, connected with old friends and colleagues and hooked up with new ones.  This conference is unlike any other as it’s high level conversations of Master Coaches from many parts of the globe.

Thing is, with coaches, the conversations never end.  We talk and discuss, create, tweak and then tweak again.  One of the usual topics of conversations in our conversations around conversations (i.e. conversations around, in-between and before and after the “conversations”) was about work / life balance.  Is there a balance?

Absolutely not.

However there are other perspectives we shared that just might make sense.

One of my colleagues and I were talking about that over breakfast very early one morning.  He shared with me a conversation he had with a performer from Cirque du Soleil.  He had asked this man how he could stay so balanced in his act.  He answered “It has nothing whatsoever to do with balancing.  It’s all about readjusting.”

Such is life. 

We adjust what isn’t working and then make small tweaks along the way until it feels right. Then as circumstances and life changes we adjust yet again.  It’s not about balance, although many people think it is or should be.

Another tidbit of wisdom we all agreed upon when talking about sustainable leadership was, “If you let the people who work for you have a life…they’ll stay” .  No matter what rewards are offered, bottom line is, if you make them give up their lives to work, they might be enticed with rewards for a bit but the ultimate reward of having a great life won’t happen.  So they’ll leave.

What adjustments are you in the middle of figuring out?  They’ll wait.  But will life?

With deepest respect
Donna Karlin
Founder and Principal
A Better Perspective
http://www.abetterperspective.com
ISSN 1913-6307

It’s spring.  Time for a change, for a reality check and for updating, rethinking and revisiting.  That goes for Perspectives in Brief as well.  I’m making it shorter, sweeter and more to the point ’cause I’d rather you read less and took time to figure it out more.    

So for today we’re going to think about how to get out of reacting mode.  People are scrambling as fast as they can do to twice as much work with half the resources.  Is it sustainable?  No.

It’s time to think.  It’s time to take time to think. 

Life happens whether or not we’re ready for it.  It just is.  We might live in a disposal world, with instant access and communication, but either the immediate world controls you or you control it. 
  
What’s it going to be?  How fast and for how long are you going to run before you crash and burn?  Rush rush rush.  Something’s gotta get done.  Why are you doing it?
  
The greatest single problem people have these days isn’t time management.  It’s not making the right choices or any choices at all and reacting to whatever’s thrown at them.
  
Stop reacting.  Slow down to go fast.  Think, respond, do it right and for the right reasons.
  
Two reality check questions…
What are the consequences if you do ‘it’?
What are the consequences if you don’t?
 
“…however fast they went, they never seemed to pass anything. ‘You’d generally get to somewhere else - if you ran very fast for a long time, as we’ve been doing,’ Alice said. ‘Here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!’ the Red Queen replied.”  - Lewis Carol, Through the Looking Glass
 
Time to stop running.  Start walking, paying attention to what’s around you and breathe.  Let space back into your life and become one with it.  Take those small quiet times for you to think, just be, and figure out your place in the scheme of things …and beyond.  For every choice you make there are ramifications upon ramifications upon ramifications.  So make those choices great.  
  
With deepest respect,
Donna Karlin
Founder and Principal
A Better Perspective
http://www.abetterperspective.com
ISSN 1913-6307