29.03.2023

Personal Best |Art | You’ve Got This

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 (good or bad) - a word
Action: something to do
Processing: a question to consider
Shout out: something or someone that I want to celebrate or acknowledge

HOW BALANCED IS YOUR SH*T?
Take the free GLAS Understanding Assessment
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LEARN
Something Worth Sharing

Personal Best

It’s easy to measure ourselves against others - in fact it’s never been easier than it is now to compare ourself, our fitness, our diet, our dog, our career, our business, our life and our relationships to others - through social media. But here’s the thing - no one gives two hoots about what it’s like to live your life. Everyone is far too concerned with their own sh*t to worry about yours. So what can we take-away from this? We need to stop it, and make a decision to live our own life, and measure it up not against external factors (especially social media-based ones), but through our ‘personal best’ - whatever we decide this to be.

What’s our personal best? You tell me! It’s exactly that, what you decide you need to measure and how. It can just be a feeling, it can be how many steps you walk in day, it can be a skill you want to develop - anything! The only addition to this is the need for perspective and gratitude.

At a very simple and human level, you can measure your personal best by this list of 5 qualities:

1. Growth: the ability to progress, even just a little - learning, strength etc

2. Give: to give time, patience, support, service, compassion and kindness

3. Grace: to behave with consideration, courtesy, gentleness and dignity

4. Gratitude: to be thankful and appreciative of what there is and what we have

5. Wisdom: the ability to take experience, knowledge and growth and apply it

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

Art

It doesn’t sounds like an ‘energetic’ word - however, when you look at the real meaning of art you realise it’s not about paintings or masterpieces.

The word ART is from Latin ARTEM meaning "work of art; practical skill; a business, craft". It originates from Sanskrit RTIH meaning "manner, mode" and Greek ARTIZEIN meaning "to prepare". Art is the ability to do something with skill - whether than is a business, a sport, a craft, parenting and pretty much anything!

Seth Godin - in his book Linchpin - describes an art as:

“Art isn't only a painting. Art is anything that's creative, passionate, and personal. And great art resonates with the viewer, not only with the creator.

What makes someone an artist? I don't think is has anything to do with a paintbrush. …

…Charlie Chaplin was an artist, beyond a doubt. So is Jonathan Ive, who designed the iPod. You can be an artist who works with oil paints or marble, sure. But there are artists who work with numbers, business models, and customer conversations. Art is about intent and communication, not substances.

An artist is someone who uses bravery, insight, creativity, and boldness to challenge the status quo. And an artist takes it personally.”

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

Make One Thing Better

Following the LEARN above, think about one small thing that you could improve or make better for yourself. This doesn’t need to be a big thing - far from it. It could be as small as getting up 10 minutes earlier - or going to bed a little earlier.

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

“What didn’t you do?”

I’m interested to hear about something - one big thing perhaps - that you didn’t do, but perhaps you wished you had done. This could be: a missed opportunity, a place you wanted to visit, a task you didn’t complete, a subject you wished you’d studied etc. What comes to mind when you think about something you didn’t do - may be it worked out for the best?

I’d love for you to think about something you didn’t do and what happened - send me your thoughts.

Drop me a line with your answer / thoughts in the question

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

You’ve Got This

I noticed recently how brilliantly my personal trainer, Tyler, uses this phrase. As with most things, we can’t over-use it because it would just lose its positive impact and importance, but when used sparingly and at just the right point, someone telling you “you’ve got this” can make all the difference. That optimal moment is when you lose a little self-belief, but with a suitable amount of encouragement and often a touch of pain (!) and effort, you can achieve more than you realised. I remember saying “you’ve got this” to a friend going through radiotherapy for breast cancer a few years ago. The timing and point at which I said it was critical - she absolutely had got it and beat her cancer brilliantly.

My shout out is for the optimal use of ‘You’ve Got This!’

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

This week I wanted to gift you the GLAS poster for ‘purpose’. If this is a subject that interests you, feel free to grab a free place on our Sort Your PURPOSE Sh*t session on 18th April

The visual below is available to you for free (for 7 days) using code: MEANING when you check out. Access is via the link below.

I’m also providing a link and code for you to download my visual synopsis of Seth Godin’s book Linchpin - as mentioned earlier. This visual is available to you for free (for 7 days) using code: ARTIST when you check out. Access is via the link below.

The artwork featured in this section is all copyrighted and for private use only. If you wish to use these online, in blogs / features or in presentations etc - we are happy to discuss licences. Please get in touch. The downloads do not have watermarks.

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

FREE SORT YOUR SH*T TASTER SESSIONS

SELF & CONFIDENCE, RELATIONSHIPS, FAMILY BUSINESS, PURPOSE, CAREER, BUSINESS COACHES…

Don’t forget to book your place on one or more of the sessions…

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?