The Thoughtful Leaders Blog
Posted by Chatsworth Consulting Group on December 26, 2011
“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” Theodore Roosevelt
A colleague recently cornered me in the hallway to complain. “Everything is going wrong on this new project,” she moaned. “We simply don’t have the resources to make this happen by the deadline. It simply can’t be done.”
How often have we realized we don’t have the necessary resources to accomplish something, and so we get frustrated and angry, or we simply give up and stop trying? We feel so overwhelmed that we can only see what can’t be done instead of what can. We take stock and realize that we simply don’t have what it takes to achieve what we’re aiming for…so we walk away.
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Posted by Chatsworth Consulting Group on November 14, 2011
“There is no try, only do.” Yoda
Many of us probably remember Yoda from our childhood – that small creature from Star Wars who taught Luke Skywalker to trust in himself and in the Force. Many of us probably never thought twice about Yoda’s guidance, although we remember it well. I think Yoda actually had great advice for us all.
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Posted by Chatsworth Consulting Group on October 31, 2011
“Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.” Japanese proverb
When we guide our clients through personal and professional future planning, we share this quote over and over again. As many of us contemplate the future, we often either dream of our castles in the sky and yet do nothing to get there, or we keep moving and doing what’s in front of us without a thought about where we really want to go and what/who we really want to be. We forget to act in ways that will lead us to our ultimate goal or to even allow ourselves the time and space to figure out what our ultimate goal is.
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Posted by Chatsworth Consulting Group on October 24, 2011
“All glory comes from daring to begin.” Eugene F. Ware
Sometimes starting is simply the hardest part. There’s a project you need to tackle, an article (or book) you want to write, a number of phone calls you need to make, a relationship you want to build…but all you can do is sit at your desk, not starting. The task seems too daunting and a million other urgent issues or immediate tasks at hand seem to appear, as if out of nowhere. So you never begin, and you therefore never finish.
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Posted by Chatsworth Consulting Group on September 26, 2011
“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.” Martin Luther
The other day a client shared with me her frustration with a project at work. She was convinced that the project was going to blow up, that there was no way she could meet the deliverables and the deadlines, and that her world would, in fact, go to pieces.
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Posted by Chatsworth Consulting Group on September 5, 2011
“If we do not change our direction, we are likely to end up where we are headed.” Ancient Chinese proverb
We do it all the time. I hear it from my colleagues, clients, friends, and family members. I do it myself. We decide on a course of action – a way to handle the co-worker who is driving us crazy, to motivate the employee who simply isn’t working hard enough, to get our children to listen – and keep pushing at it, whether it seems to be taking us in the direction we want to be going or not. Most often we come to this course of action quickly – we don’t “have time” to really think through what we’re doing and where we’re going, and so we simply start moving. And keep moving…and wonder why we’re not ending up where we want to be.
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Posted by Chatsworth Consulting Group on August 22, 2011
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Aristotle
We often have the best intentions yet fail to stick to our commitments. We decide to change our behavior – to act differently or treat someone with more care and concern – and we do… but only once or twice. Then we wonder why things aren’t different and nothing gets better.
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Posted by Chatsworth Consulting Group on August 8, 2011
“If you work on your mind with your mind, how can you avoid an immense confusion?” Seng-ts’an
We often get caught in our own minds trying to find a way out of a problem. Like an animal caught in a maze, or perhaps a gerbil going round and round in its little wheel, we circle through our repetitive thoughts trying to find a solution to what’s in front of us.
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Posted by Chatsworth Consulting Group on July 12, 2011
That glowing Check Engine light. The piles of junk mail on your dining room table. The friend who calls you weekly to complain about her life. The colleague who interrupts you, even when your door is closed. The manager who can’t seem to find anything good about what you do. The direct report who incessantly misses deadlines (but always with “good reason.”) What do these things have in common? If any or all of them are a part of your life, they are tolerations – those distracting, annoying occurrences that frustrate you and sap your energy.
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Posted by Robyn McLeod on June 16, 2011
As I drove my daughter to school recently I saw my jogging partner walking with her children to school. She mentioned several weeks ago that she wanted to take more opportunities to exercise and to encourage her children to be more active, so I was happy to see her putting her words into action by walking the mile and a half to school rather than driving. I shouted a few words of encouragement as we drove past and she smiled.
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