LLG: Spent last night/morning talking to a friend in need and then continued to talk to another friend and ended up sleeping at around 2:30 am. I woke up around 7 am, but then ended up sleeping 4 hours more as I tried to focus on reading a book.  What did I learn? I’ll always help people in need, but, I need to recharge as well.  Learned about Carla Hall.  I always thought she was a news anchor, but she’s a Top Chef contestant, possibly a winner? I hope to check out the episodes she was in, 5th and 8th season.  Her NSLS broadcast was fun and I hope to catch the replay.  I only got to see half of Carla’s talk, but I caught the part where she says there’s only two sides to life: love or fear and everything else is the derivative of those two options.  I can see how that works since fear of others can result to hate, fear of success can result in inaction, etc. She says to lead with love and use fear as a vehicle to move you forward.  I think her talk came at a good timing, especially as I closed a chapter of the coaching program.  

Gratitude goes to being able to serve others, active listening, connecting people with others, together is always better, and commercial free TV shows. 

LLG: Learned today that I can indeed make a difference in someone’s life, even if we don’t know each other at a deep level.  Learned that I am me no matter where I go, and have nothing to hide.  I’ve never been a fan of Halloween because I hate pretending to be something I’m not, even for fun.  The biggest takeaway today is that those who see you for the true you will either get you or they won’t.  For those that do, you will know too because you’ll click.  Don’t beat yourself up for those that don’t.  We’re not here to please everyone.  Be you and you’ll attract the right people that need you at this time.  

Gratitude goes to The Procrastination to Purpose cohort, path of clarity, feeling less shittier, getting to the action, and feeling unstuck. 

LLG: Learned that bad management is similar regardless of the field; which makes me think whether it’s higher ed I should reconsider or simply keep grilling hiring committees with management questions before I make my decision. Resume writing is not easy and it takes attention to detail and design skills. I dislike doing it but I don’t like others doing it for me since this one pager is supposed to represent who I am. Learned that there’s several professional networking groups around the area. We’ll see where it gets me connected.

Gratitude goes to catching up with friends, learning and teaching about lesson worthy life moments, information overload, ice cream selections, and pumpkin spice latte season.

LLG: What a day to be a WSU Coug.  Starting with a 6AM live show of #collegegameday in Pullman, WA and then a victory game at the end of the day beating the Ducks.  To see so many flags, the history of ol’ crimson, and supporting what it’s like to be a Coug from so many places near and far– that’s the beauty of culture and wanting to be a part of something bigger than yourself.  Re-learned the strength of WSU culture, how college football is indeed a sport to follow, and how united all cougs really are.  Amazing. 

Gratitude goes to good sportsmanship, Touch Down Washington State, Minshew II, WSU Football, and Andy Grammer’s “Back Home” song. 

LLG: Had my 1:1 with my P2P coach, Esther, and learned that I’m feeling stuck because I’m not physically moving. Well no duh, huh? I admit I have put job search to the side. It’s been on my mind sure, but I haven’t acted on it.  Shifting my mind to seeing that there’s also a price to time wasted– it got me to want to act.  If not a job, then at least volunteer to get out of the house more often.  Being able to find something nearby so that I can get my daily walk would be ideal, but I’m considering volunteering in Seattle if need be.  Once I had my 2 hour talk, and promised to start my job search, a recruiter contacted me through LinkedIn and I’m currently trying to re edit my resume.  I kept saying it’s timing, but I suppose we create the timing ourselves.  I realized I’ve been using finding my why as an excuse or rationale behind not acting on the job search.  Esther asked me a couple questions that I couldn’t answer.  I’ll have to go through the recording and jot those down.  I’ve realized I put way too much pressure on myself trying to be perfect in this process and trying to find the perfect job.  There’s no such thing.  I find the perfect in the imperfect.  I thrive in the discomfort.  I’m done feeling stuck.  I challenge myself to fail.  Challenge accepted. [oh, small note to myself, I’ll start a Lessons Learned from Movies (LLM) starting with Kung Fu Panda 3. P.S. Learned I can stylize my posts. Awesome possum.] 

Gratitude goes to self-awareness, 1:1 coaching, digging deeper, unleashing the vulnerability, and jumping into discomfort.  

LLG: Today was all about Simon Sinek and The Why.  I had an epiphany today that ever since graduating with my Leadership degree, I’ve constantly fed my brain with different ways to get to the The Why but never sat down to write down my Why.  Personal Leadership, The Day One Leadership Program, The Freestyle Career program, and the Procrastination to Purpose Program– all of these are quite similar.  Their how’s are different, but in the end, the Why is all that matters.  I watched an hour of the live webinar for “Finding Your Why” and the way they propose is very similar to Drew Dudley’s exercises that I got to partake back in the day.  All of what Simon Sinek makes sense, and so does PL, Drew, Esther, and Becky.  It’s putting it into words that is making me feel stuck.  Our Why or rather my why should explain the contribution and impact that we can make in the world.  I still have yet to articulate it – I wrote my last statement back in February at Whidbey Institute, but I think a new one is overdue.  The biggest takeaway from the webinar was this “The Why comes from our limbic part of the brain responsible for all our behaviors, all decision-making.  It’s got no capacity for language so at the very best, our Why statement is the approximation and expression of the feeling that lies behind our Why.”  No wonder I’ve been feeling stuck.  I’ve always been a feeler– if I didn’t feel right, I won’t go with it.  By not being able to confidently express my Why, it’s been hard to understand where I want to go.  “Words are representations for a meaning.” –Touche. My Why should essentially explain what feels right to me.  In other words, it’s my ikigai.  I’m still marinating a couple words.  I’m hoping I can take my notebook and explore my Why by the water tomorrow. See what comes.  I’m so close to getting my ah-ha moment, I’m hoping tomorrow is the day.  

Gratitude goes to Simon Sinek’s NSLS broadcast, disconnection, unplugging, new perspectives, and questioning myself. 

LLG: Today I learned the importance of personal branding.  One thing I’ve been thinking about is the way I express myself professionally.  I think I’ve used my work position to define who I was and now that I don’t have an official position, I can’t seem to describe who I am in an elevator speech.  I seem to have lost key words I’ve used for myself and for what I can do for others.  I started back on the health goals again.  We’ll see how I can keep up with it.  Listened to Dr. Oz’s live broadcast through the National Society of Leadership & Success website yesterday and learned that he is one funny guy.  I enjoyed his presentation a lot.  He touched on mental and physical health, education, arts, science, and the importance of empathy.  He also mentioned that it’s not about time management but about energy management.  It reminded me of a quote that says “People make time for who they want to make time for.  People text and reply to people they want to talk to.  Never believe anyone who says they’ve been too busy, if they wanted to be around you, they would.” If you set a goal to accomplish something, it’s not really about managing your time but about managing your energy.  You know you’ll get everything on the list – at least I know, but depending on the task at hand, I’ll put less energy into one thing and more on another.  I also learned today that people do read these posts.  I’ve always thought my posts were never real until someone responds to them, but I’ve realized that’s not the case.  These posts are quite real, and even if no one comments or responds to them through verbal or written comments, it doesn’t make the posts less valid.  [For those reading and want to share your two cents, please do, because I love creating dialogue.] 

Gratitude goes to lifetime NSLS membership, solving problems, free webinars, live stream videos, and #collegegameday in Pullman, WA. #gocougs 

LLG: Learned that instagram video flips your camera when you’re talkin’ to people via chat.  Learned that I need to work on being my own natural self via video chat.  Also learned that it’s all about action action action.  

Grateful for accidental video chat, Sean being a goofball, 杏仁豆腐, instagram, and entertaining writers. 

LLG: Learned today that I suffer from ‘mental masturbation’ where I stimulate the brain too much with information, stopping myself from actual action.  This really explains my crazy necessity to read up on so many articles–some quite interesting to others that I already know the content on.  It’s like I read to self assure I’m thinking the right thing.  For the longest time, I had the urge to read Charlotte’s Web again, which I did today.  It’s a good book, but don’t know where I wanted to go with it.  Being of service to others without anything in return? Learned that I have the resources to be successful.  I know I’ve been successful. I simply need to figure out what’s stopping me from getting in on the action.  I feel like the ah-ha moment is coming.  I’m hoping sooner than later.  Another thing I learned today is that I have a lot to offer.  I need to acknowledge that and own it.  

Gratitude goes to P2P recordings, affirmations, power of words, encouragement from others, and positive energy. 

LLG: Learned today that I’m a learner. I have multiple files on my bookmark bar titled ‘read later’ or ‘check out’ but never get to it. I must have over 100 tabs saved on my One Tab app, and more saved to read on FB. It’s insane. It’s not like the reading and learning stops either. I’ve learned to let go. I’ve learned to skim through and figure out what’s a must read and what is not. There’s millions of things to read online. There’s so much that my mind can take and I need to be okay to not be able to read some of the things I saved.

Gratitude goes to sweet potatoes, helping out a child’s wish, buying things that will come later, words of encouragement from a past coach, and Chage & Aska music that I grew up with and can still sing to.