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When Was the Last Time You Took a Break?

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Are you experiencing overwhelm, stress, even burnout in your professional or executive role? These are all the frequent unfortunate side effects of a world that seemingly can never be turned off along with a persistent drive for greater productivity. Harvard researcher and psychologist, Shelley Carson stated, “If you are stuck on a problem…a distraction may provide the break you need to disengage from a fixation on the ineffective solution.”  We’ve all heard that sometimes people find that they get their best ideas in the shower. Since we don’t have to give too much thought to how we go about our daily shower, it frees the mind up to work on other things. So, taking a break can actually improve your productivity. And, sometimes, we need more than just a 10-minute break when we’ve let the drive to get things done go on for too long.

As a case in point, I recently found myself feeling fatigued, foggy and a bit stressed after a non-stop month. How in the world did this happen?  I’m usually so conscious of giving myself a break. Yet, due to two weekend commitments to teach, a weekend with an out-of-town family event, along with working normal work weeks, nearly a month went by without a day off. No wonder that my energy level had plummeted and I couldn’t think straight!

Slipping away from our practices to give ourselves time off during hectic times can happen to all of us. Sometimes, it may be necessary to take a few days away to rest and recharge when we let ourselves get beyond a certain point. Recognizing that I’d passed that point, I took a Friday afternoon off, spent the weekend enjoying time with my significant other, and put my feet up and watched a movie. The focus of attention was on completely non-work-related things. By the end of the weekend, I felt like myself again – rested, focused and ready to be fully engaged. What I noticed the following week was a higher level of productivity, by far, than in previous weeks. Does this scenario sound familiar to you?

So, what to do? Ideally, we stay consistent with taking time off each week and doing those activities that replenish our energy, whatever they may be. Additionally, we look for those moments within each day to insert a brief break. Doing so also contributes to our productivity and creativity. Rachael O’Meara, the author of “Pause: Harnessing the Life-Changing Power of Giving Yourself a Break” suggests 4 practices to consider. They include 1) standing and taking 10 deep breaths 2) taking a digital break – no devices for a set period of time each day 3) taking a walk to change your environment, and 4) creating one-minute of mindfulness while eating or brushing your teeth. These are very simple strategies that, practiced daily, will support our ability to keep our energy up, and allow us to accomplish far more than if we keep trying to power through what’s on our plate.

If you recognize that you’re not feeling rested and renewed, please join me in recommitting to incorporating breaks into each day and week. Doing so will positively affect every aspect of your life.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development, Career and Retirement Coach and Facilitator who works with corporate leaders in small to mid-size businesses, across the span of their careers. She helps them to accelerate business growth and team performance, navigate their own career path, and transition to retirement with ease using proven methodologies and strategies that get results. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

Building A Truly Meaningful Retirement

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A retirement coach began her workshop by holding up a $20 bill and asking the group, “Who would like to have this money?”

As audience members raised their hands, the coach said, “I’m going to give this money to one of you,” but then began to crumple the bill up. “Who still wants it?” she asked. All the hands remained in the air.

“Well,” she continued, “what if I do this?” She dropped the bill on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with her shoe. She picked up the bill, now crumpled and dirty, and asked again, “Anyone still want it?” All the hands went back into the air.

“So, why do you still want it?” she asked the audience. One participant responded, “Because it’s still worth $20.”

The coach continued, “That’s exactly it! This simple activity offers new and future retirees a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was never worth less than $20.”

“In retirement, losing the career identity you spent a lifetime creating, and facing new and unknown circumstances, can at times make you feel crumpled up or ground into the dirt. But work is what you do, not who you are. Therefore, leaving it all behind doesn’t affect your true value.”

In order to avoid feeling lost or broken-hearted in retirement, ask yourself:
•Who am I when I’m not at work?
•What aspects of work are going to be the most difficult for me to replace?
•If I was suddenly faced with a financial hardship or troubling medical condition, who would I turn to? Who would get the first phone call? Who has been there in the past?

The worth of our lives comes not from what we do or what we have, but in who we are!

Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are always priceless … especially to those who love you for who you are and what you stand for.

It’s a simple reminder that a truly meaningful retirement is built by not only preparing financially, but also by planning for the mental and emotional aspects as well.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development, Career and Retirement Coach and Facilitator who believes we each have far more potential than we typically tap in to. She helps you learn how to step into your full potential so you can create consistent, optimal performance for yourself and your team with less stress and more enjoyment. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

Ready or Not, Here It Comes…Your Retirement

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Retirement, or what I prefer to call ReIgnitement™, requires planning.  And, while many have focused attention on financial planning for retirement, few have considered the non-financial aspects of this life transition.  Transitions of any type can create stress in your life, even if the change is something that you have been looking forward to. When that transition arrives, you can react to the changes that arise such as loss of identity, work relationships, or purpose.  Or, by taking a planful approach, you can prepare yourself to respond effectively to the transition and ease the way.

In this third of a series of three blogs focused on retirement, I want to provide you with a simple tool to help you gauge your readiness for this transition. If you’re roughly 5 – 7 years from retirement, or know someone who is, please use this tool or share it with another to get a quick read on your readiness. If you’re already retired, you can use this tool to pinpoint those areas that might need some attention.

Click here for the Retirement Readiness Wheel. The 8 sections you’ll address include the following:

  • Clarity of Identity, Purpose
  • Health
  • Leisure/Travel
  • Home/Residence, Location
  • Marriage/Significant Other
  • Work/Business, Volunteering
  • Financial Resources
  • Optimism About Aging

As you review and rate each section, take a moment to determine what that section means to you. Then, to determine your readiness, circle your level of satisfaction with each of the 8 sections on a scale of 1 – 7 (1 = least satisfied, 7 = most satisfied). Go with the first response that comes to mind as you review each part of the wheel. That tends to be the one that is most indicative of the way you truly feel.

Once you’ve rated each section, draw a line connecting each of the numbers around the circle.  What kind of wheel do you have?  How smooth and balanced does it feel?  How bumpy might a ride on that wheel be?

If you discover that one or more areas of your ReIgnitement™ could use some tweaking and you’re not sure where to begin, a coach can help.  I invite you to explore my profile as well as those of my colleagues on the Retirement Coaches Association website to find a coach who is right for you. We help our clients think about and prepare for retirement like never before.

If you haven’t already downloaded the Retirement Readiness Wheel, click on the link to do so.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development and Career Coach and Facilitator who believes we each have far more potential than we typically tap in to. She helps you learn how to step into your full potential so you can create consistent, optimal performance for yourself and your team with less stress and more enjoyment. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

Transformational Presence Series: Part Two – Becoming Mindful

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What does becoming mindful mean to you? We hear so much now about mindfulness and know that it is being practiced by an ever widening array of people including doctors, dancers, business executives, athletes, students, parents, professionals, etc. For good reason. Both science and experience have shown the positive impact of becoming more mindful on all aspects of our lives, both at work and at home.  Definitions of mindfulness vary but all seem to coalesce around similar themes. Mindful magazine defines mindfulness as “being fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us”.

This ability to be present with whatever is happening right now, rather than fretting about the past or worrying about the future is one key to navigating a complex world. To develop Transformational Presence, starting a practice of becoming mindful provides an excellent foundation. To get you started, I invite you to listen to my recording of the Becoming Mindful exercise. In less than 5 minutes, you’ll have an opportunity to be still, take a pause, and listen and notice in a new way.

Come back to this as often as you can.  The more that you practice, the easier it will become and the more benefit you will derive from it. It can be helpful, especially in the beginning, to do this exercise several times per day – perhaps in the morning, at mid-day, and again in the evening. Create consistency in your practice from day to day. Over time, you will begin to notice that your ability to stay present, to respond rather than react, and to sense into what wants to happen next will expand.

Consider experimenting with using this mindfulness practice in conjunction with The Three Questions from Part One of this series.  Notice how the quality of your responses starts to change as you become more present and centered.

Please click below to listen to the Becoming Mindful exercise and I invite you to share your progress in the Comments section.

If you missed the earlier parts of this series, please click here for Navigating a Complex World and here for Part One – The Three Questions.

For more information about Transformational Presence, please visit: www.transformationalpresence.org

Derived from: Seale, Alan. Transformational Presence: How To Make a Difference In a Rapidly Changing World and Transformational Presence: The Tools, Skills and Frameworks. Topsfield, MA: The Center for Transformational Presence, 2017. Used with permission.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development and Career Coach and Facilitator who believes we each have far more potential than we typically tap in to. She helps you learn how to step into your full potential so you can create consistent, optimal performance for yourself and your team with less stress and more enjoyment. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

7 Keys to Enhancing Entrepreneurial Resilience

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Entrepreneurship can be an exciting and rewarding experience. Yet, building any kind of business is not without its ups and downs.  There is no question that you will encounter situations where the outcome isn’t quite what you expected or you’ll experience what you might view as a “failure”.  To weather the inevitable challenges you’ll face, resilience will be a muscle you’ll want to enhance.  Resilience will allow you to ride the roller coaster of entrepreneurship and to continue to offer your gifts to the world when you might otherwise give up.

What is Resilience?

The dictionary.com definition of resilience is, in part, “the ability to recover readily from adversity or the like; buoyancy”.  The word buoyancy brought a childhood memory to mind.  I grew up near the ocean and used to play for hours in Cape Cod Bay.  I can remember tossing around a beach ball with my friends while we splashed in the water.  No matter what any of us did to push that ball under the water, it always popped right back up to the surface – ready for the next game.  Resilience is very much like that beach ball.  No matter what you face, if your resilience is strong, you can learn from your experience, reset your course, and be ready for what’s next.

7 Keys to Enhancing Resilience

Here are some practical keys that you can incorporate into your life that will support you in enhancing your resilience.  These keys will not only positively impact your entrepreneurial life but also your personal life. So what are you waiting for?  Let’s explore.

  1. Stay aligned with your purpose: I believe that we all have a purpose and that discovering yours will keep you on track no matter what circumstances arise. What are you uniquely equipped to offer to the world? What brings you the most joy and passion? The answers to these questions will give you some clues to your purpose. With a defined purpose, that you are aligned with, you naturally attract people, resources, ideas, and opportunities that support you.
  2. Practice gratitude: Take a few moments each day, throughout the day, to appreciate and express gratitude for the people and things in your life. Stopping to notice what you are grateful for on a regular basis develops a habit of looking for good things and releases dopamine that supports a positive outlook.
  3. Set clear goals: Research has shown that the brain loves a good goal. It will work tirelessly to give you what you focus on. The most successful and resilient people set specific, measurable and time based goals and consistently take action with the certainty that they will achieve them.
  4. Be present while working on those goals: A 2010 Harvard study found that people spend 47% of their waking time thinking about things other than what they are working on. When you are focused on the past or focused on the future, you are taking your energy away from what’s going on right in front of you. Mindfulness, or being focused on the moment, has been shown to modify brain processes that support resilience. And, experiencing and enjoying the moment is part of the journey.
  5. Act “as if”: Your brain doesn’t know the difference between a robust vision and reality. Don’t believe that? Then, take a moment and imagine that you have a beautiful, fragrant, juicy lemon in your hand. Cut off a slice of that lemon. Breathe in that lemony scent. Now, bring it to your mouth and take a great big bite.  Salivating yet? You didn’t really just take a bite out of a lemon, did you?  Yet, in creating that vision, your body reacted “as if” you had.  So, start to take action in accordance with who you want to be. Act “as if” you already are being, doing and having whatever it is you want to create in your business. Your attitude will be shifted to a more optimistic place and your resilience will build.
  6. Build a supportive team: Going it alone typically doesn’t work. Without the support of others, we tend to get stuck in doing things the way we’ve always done them. Create a community of supportive people from different backgrounds and professions who can help to keep your mind open to fresh perspectives and new ideas. Having others to lean on creates resilience-building social support.
  7. Look for the gift: What is the opportunity in the situation you’re facing? What might the situation be trying to show you?  By focusing on the opportunity rather than the challenge, you open the door to solution-finding rather than problem-solving. You choose how you want to “show up” in the situation and your positive focus enhances your resilience.

There is no one formula for enhancing resilience. Find what works for you and practice it on a regular basis. Over time, you are likely to find that how you respond to those entrepreneurial ups and downs is very much in your hands.

What has helped you to build your resilience?  If you’d like to share your strategies, please add a comment.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development and Career Coach and Facilitator who believes we each have far more potential than we typically tap in to. She helps you learn how to step into your full potential so you can create consistent, optimal performance for yourself and your team with less stress and more enjoyment. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.