The Thoughtful Leader's Blog

A colleague caught my ear the other day and recanted his horror story of a mishap at work.  Everything had gone wrong; tempers had flared; fingers were pointed…at him.  I listened attentively as he clearly needed to share what happened and to be heard.  As he finished his account of what occurred, I then did my best to ask questions to pull him in a different direction.

“Five years from now will you even remember this?” I offered.  He paused.  “What’s really of importance here, of worth to you as a learning for moving forward?” I posed.   He hesitated further. “How might you feel about this tomorrow, or even next week?”  I suggested.  He stopped, finally exhaled, and released the tension that had been coursing through his body.

So often we get stuck in the immediateness and intensity of a challenge or an issue that seems about to blow that we lose perspective. Everything begins to feel like a life or death matter and our emotions kick in, with that wonderful fight or flight response. What we need is the ability to pause, to reflect, and to wait for time to offer us another point of view – this brings clarity and a new outlook on the situation, and often on ourselves. To quote one of my favorite lyricists, “Someday we’ll look back on this and it will all seem funny”. Time truly has a way of putting things in perspective and weeding out the trivial so that we can focus on what really matters, what’s important in the long run, and what we’ll remember five years from now and learn from.

Stop.  Pause.  Give yourself some time so that the trivial can become obvious and you can pay attention to the important things.  And see what’s funny, if you can.

Time seems to be an ongoing challenge for so many people.  We hear it all the time – “I don’t have time for this.”  “There’s just not enough time in the day.”

As the number of hours in the day simply does not increase (in fact, sometimes it feels like there are fewer and fewer), we thought we’d share with you a brief article that offers tips and suggestions for getting more out of the time you actually do have, “Ten Steps to Doing More with the Time You Have.”

This article may be new to you, or you may have already downloaded it from our website.  Either way, it is a quick read that can help you become more focused and productive, while actually feeling better about what you are doing and what you’re not.  We invite you to visit this link and take a few moments to read (or reread) the article and see how you can change your approach to time management.

As always, please feel free to forward this on to others who may benefit from it, and if you have any questions about this or any other services we provide, please either visit our website, www.chatsworthconsulting.com, or let us know.

All the best,

Lisa & Robyn

Hello!

If you’ve worked with us before or received our writings, you know that our passions at Chatsworth Consulting Group revolve around leadership and thoughtfulness.  Around being aware of the shadow you cast by what you say and what you do; around being intentional and purposeful  in your daily life and work; and around reflecting on your actions and behaviors in order to be the person and leader you want to be.

In order to share more of these ideas, best practices, and resources, we’ve decided to join the world of blogging.  Our hopes and intentions are to increase the number and impact of Thoughtful Leaders in the world, as well as to start great dialogues about how to up the ante on Thoughtful Leadership in each of our lives.

Please join us on this journey – share what you know, ask for what you need, and be curious with us as we explore!

Welcome!!

Lisa & Robyn