Continue reading »]]> I recently heard about Heidi Klum and Seal’s divorce through the social media grapevine. I was surprised because they always seemed to have such a solid relationship. That was until I watched Seal’s interview with Ellen DeGeneres where he explained that they had grown apart and that above all else, they kept the respect for each other in tact. (Stay with me; this is going somewhere meaningful!)

I found the last piece insightful on his part given that so many divorces are unnecessarily messy and vengeful. The idea of choosing a different thing – no matter how the current thing was perceived – stood out to me.

How many times do we resist change because we’ve been repeatedly told how important virtues like persistence, perseverance, and endurance are for success? We start to believe that any decision that resembles not moving forward is therefore a bad one and would mean that we failed or gave up.

This is not true.

Maybe we just chose something different. A conscious, dignified decision to do something different is not the same as quitting.

You may have heard me say that life is both too long and too short to do work that doesn’t fulfill us. Well, work can be replaced with a whole host of other things. Attitudes about divorce aside, the idea of releasing things that aren’t working in order to welcome something better are rare yet essential to an inspired life.

I was recently skimming an article that defined despair this way:

Suffering – Meaning = Despair

In this equation, when meaning increases, suffering has context and despair is decreased. When we suffer without meaning, despair increases.

Get it?

What this means is that suffering with meaning is valuable but suffering for suffering’s sake is not.

Back to this concept of releasing things…
If something causes you suffering and has no meaning, there’s nothing wrong with letting it go. Our freedom is tied to our ability to choose – how we live, who we love, the attitudes we hold, the work we do. It’s not necessary to create our own prisons by choosing to do things solely out of guilt or obligation.

It’s when we’ve uncovered the thing we love and cherish so much that it adds meaning to our suffering that we should press forward through obstacles and discomforts. There are some discomforts that render us stronger, wiser, and more resilient while others simply sap our joy and poison our ability to live well.

This has inspired me to make some major changes of my own that you’ll see manifested soon. (I can’t wait to share!) And I encourage you to seriously consider eliminating the clutter and burdens from your life to make room for all of the wonderful things waiting to flow in!

Oh and that trash can from the subject line? Use it to start throwing away the stuff that’s not serving you and work your way up to the big stuff.

Continue reading »]]> Spring is almost upon us and soon, it’ll be time to clean. While you’re contemplating what you’ll clean from your life and business, I want to share something else you should do in the next few weeks: a time audit.

A time audit is a systematic, objective observation of every hour of your day. The purpose is to provide a clear, unbiased picture of where your time is going.

Anyone who’s worked with me as a private client knows that I strongly advocate intimate knowledge of your calendar. Time is the most valuable resource you will ever have. You can’t get more of it or get it back. It’s unforgiving, revealing, and elusive all at once.

So, this week I’m challenging you to a time audit. It’s easy to do (and easy not to do).

1. Grab a blank calendar, small notebook, or this template along with a pen.

2. Set an alert on your phone or computer for every 1-3 hours and document what you did during the previous block of time.

3. Repeat for 7 days.

4. Review the calendar without judgment. Next week, I’ll share a set of intelligent and revealing questions that will allow you to analyze your findings.

This exercise is very simple yet very powerful. I advise doing time audits at least twice each year to keep yourself accountable for how you use your most valuable asset.

I’d love to hear how it goes for you. Check back next Monday for Part 2!

Continue reading »]]> Dear Lisa,

I am essentially a quarter-lifer in crisis. I stumbled upon your video on careersoutthere.com addressing trying to find your calling in life. You mentioned finding the connection point between my passions and my skills. However, this is where I am stuck! My passions are traveling,customizing, and learning about different cultures. My skills are troubleshooting, social perceptiveness, and being artistic/creative. Where I am torn the most is how passionate I am of my passions over my skills especially when it comes to travel! Do you know of any extra resources I can use to help me draw my passions and skills together? I am really stuck! At this point, they are running parallel when I need them to be perpendicular. Thanks in advance!

-T.T.

Dear Tatiana,

Thanks for the letter!

Thanks for the email. As far as resources go, my advice would be to start trying things. It’s easy to slip into analysis paralysis and never actually try anything. Experimentation is the more meaningful and efficient way of sorting out what fits best. It’s important to design your life first and then design a business that fits into it. With that in mind, I would recommend starting with a values assessment to figure out what’s most important to you in the grander scheme of things. From there, create a short list of possible paths and start on one.

Continue reading »]]> This week, The Minimalists stopped by to share their new book, Minimalism, with me. Of course, I picked their brains about what minimalism is all about and sorted out the most practical aspects of minimalism.

We covered:
-How Josh and Ryan became minimalists and why
-The crazy hours Josh keeps (and why)
-3 ways to approach adopting a minimalist lifestyle (chunking all your stuff is NOT necessary!)
-How minimalist philosophy applies to various aspects of life (e.g. health, finances, relationships)
-How to overcome perfectionism
-Bonus: How the guys deal with writer’s block and crank out consistently awesome content

Listen to the interview here

Click to tweet the amazing quote from Josh during the interview:
“Perfectionism is the enemy of productivity.” #livewithlisa