27.07.2022

Understand the System | Seize | Passengers

Hello there! Welcome to my weekly LEAPS. 

You’re receiving this email because you subscribed to my weekly Wednesday feature or our mailing list. Every Wednesday, I share 5 things using our LEAPS approach: 

Learn: something new or an idea
Energy: something that’s creating an energy and positive impact
Action: something to do
Processing: a question to consider
Shout out: something or someone that I want to celebrate or acknowledge

Have you taken the GLAS Understanding Assessment
and received your free report?

LEARN
Something Worth Sharing

Understand the System

Our middle son messaged me earlier this week to say that he’d been at a festival for a week, and when returning to the car it wouldn’t start. Bearing in mind he’s in Canada and we’re in the UK, I was limited in the assistance I could provide. I asked him some of the usual things: does the engine turn over, have you used jump leads etc, none of them helped. Needless to say, he and his friends somehow managed to get it started and return to their overseas home safely.

It reminded me of the importance of understanding the system you’re dealing with - in his case, the mechanics of the car. Very often we focus on the failure, fault or issue, but to resolve it you have to go “upstream” as Dan Heath puts it. You have to track back - through the system - to see where things are actually going awry. As someone with a background in engineering, this is something I’ve spent many years focused on.

This concept is vital to be a great leader, businessperson, sportsperson, parent, teacher, to get the most out of a project and so on. Really knowing and understanding the system you’re working on or within - when it works at its best, and how, is vital when things go off track to course correct. The ultimate system being how we live our life - and finding a way to help understand it and navigate it, to self-regulate and keep moving forwards.

ENERGY
Focusing on an emotion or positive energy; a stand-out word / s

Seize

This word, to me at least, has a real energy to it. The origin is a Late Latin word SACIRE which is believed to mean "lay claim to". When we are open to opportunities, to meet our potential we next have to be willing to ‘seize’ - to lay claim.

The GLAS Method is all about living, working and loving deliberately - and seizing is part of this. Decide what you want and work out how to best seize it.

ACTION
Something small that you can do that might make a big difference

Passengers

One of our many tools is called ‘Passengers’ - referring to the people we have with us on the journey of life. The action for this week is to look at the illustration below and work out who - in your life, business, team etc - would fit in each of the boxes. Who is the companion in your life? Who is the complainer in your life?

You can then start thinking about who you’d be for other people and how best to manage the challenging passengers!

PROCESSING
A question to think about and consider (you can discuss this with someone or write your thoughts down)

“What aren’t you happy about?”

Everyone craves happiness - and to focus on what they want to help them be happy (that’s an issue for another LEAPS!). However, have you thought about the things that make you unhappy and how to manage, remove or change them? What really gets under your skin? What upsets, angers or annoys you? What can be done about these?

SHOUT OUT
Who / what I think deserves recognition, my gratitude or to be celebrated.

Sense of Smell

I still love walking into factories that manufacture anything to do with metal - because the smell is reassuring, familiar and reminds me of my maternal grandad. I also love the smell of woodworking shops because that takes me instantly back to being at my beloved paternal grandpa’s side.

My acute sense of smell doesn’t just connect me to memories and familiarity, it has served me well in terms of danger, for example: I have smelt when an iron has mistakingly been left on - and we’ve all smelt food that has turned and gone off. I looked up some information about our sense of smell and found that:

1. People can detect at least one trillion distinct scents

2. We can smell feelings of fear and disgust through sweat, and then experience the same emotions

3. Smell is the oldest sense

4. Women have a better sense of smell than men

5. Loss of smell may signal future illnesses - such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease

6. Each human has their own distinct odour, like we each have unique fingerprints

For all these reasons, ‘sense of smell’ is this week’s shout out!

BONUS GIFT FOR YOU
This week’s little extra for you - from me

This week, I’m recommending a new release - this is Be Your Future Self Now by Dr Benjamin Hardy.

You can download this visual below - and without any charge by entering code PURPOSEDRIVEN27 at checkout.

We have added a small fee for many of the downloads, but I will be providing you with a week-long discount code for the recommended book as readers / supporters of LEAPS (use the code before next Wednesday 3rd August).

If you’d like to discuss having your ideas, business or culture captured visually - you can also let me know via email.

*** ORDER YOURS NOW ***

Order Your Deliberate Year Calendar & Logbook Set

LEAPS is a process used by our team and clients all the time - and even my own family on a daily basis. 

I’ll be sharing a set of LEAPS each week with you and encourage you to do your own version:

• L: what have you learned?

• E: what’s your energy / feeling word

• A: what’s one thing you need to do?

• P: what are you thinking / processing?

• S: who or what can you shout out?