The Next 100 Days!

Today begins the 100-day countdown to the end of the year. When I found this out yesterday, I began taking this “doomsday” tone:

“Only 100 days left in the year!”
“What will you accomplish in the last 100 days of 2009?”
I might as well have been saying, “How will you live these last 100 days of your life?”

Thankfully, most projects are not nearly as dire as life-and-death (Or are they? Hmm….), but it does put that critical physical element into fierce perspective: Time.

Historically, I have done fairly well in higher-pressure business scenarios, mostly because I can focus on what’s important without losing my composure. But it does wear a person down, and it’s not an environment I can work in over long periods. So like many people, I steer clear of these kinds of situations by preparing appropriately, by project planning, and by taking proper rest.

Then I heard we had 100 days to go in the year. And I started telling myself there were only 100 days left – for everything.

And that was a total lie.

The truth became real when I printed out a calendar in which I had re-cast the next 100 days in a matrix. (Calendar inspired by @WritingSpirit.) There were no more weeks or months. Just a 10x10 rectangle of 100 littler boxes. The days, weeks, and years became irrelevant squares. I was magically freed of the impending doom of year-end, and a very special thought came to mind:

It’s not the last hundred days.
It’s the next hundred days.

And while there’ll be another hundred days after that (and another hundred and another hundred), if I want something to happen badly enough, I can make each day count in some way toward making it actually happen.

I suddenly saw 100 magic steps, 100 exact tasks, a giant piece of work divided into 100 little nuggets of time, each of which would bring me closer to a completed goal. I haven’t been inspired like this for a long time.

My 100-day goal is to write and publish a book. (And now that I’ve said it to the entire Internet, I’ve got popular pressure/support to do it!)

And that’s what a 100-day challenge is about. I’ve never done this before, but I’m excited about what will unfold by the year’s end. Whatever it is, on this schedule, the unfolding can't be stopped and the results will be apparent. (For me, that’s an especially tough opportunity to turn away from. Can I really say, "No, thanks. I'm don't want to see what could happen"???) Such a short amount of time for so much difference to occur in a person’s life!

The Invitation:
Do the challenge with me! You can download my own 100-Day Calendar template and play along at home, or add a comment here expressing your goal and how you want to be supported by others in the challenge. You can also check out inspiring video on Gary Ryan Blair, the Goals Guy’s website http://startfastfinishstrong.com/.

Big thanks to Julie Isaac (@WritingSpirit) and to Gary Ryan Blair (http://startfastfinishstrong.com/) for the inspiration.

Cha-LAWNGE, Baby!

"I didn't expect to be single at this age."

• Are you wondering what you did wrong to get here?
• Is a relationship the last elusive piece of your life puzzle?
• Had you hoped for more than this, by this time in your life?

There's no secret formula and there's no one-size-fits-all solution to these questions. In fact, the answers are already within you, and they're uniquely your own. It's a matter of asking for them in a way that you can hear and see the answers.

Here's the truth:

• You haven't done anything wrong.
• Relationships are not elusive - unless you think they're supposed to be.
• You can still have all that you hope for - if you know what it is.

And lastly, you probably haven't gotten quiet enough to hear this out of your own heart, let alone start believing it. Quiet just isn't part of our culture!

After all, it's not the theme from the majority of messaging around us.

Our lives today are so busy and noisy that it requires extraordinary effort to find any quiet in the day. But it takes a step outside of the hustle and bustle to start creating something else. We can get so unaccustomed to noise that stillness can become pretty jarring. Have you ever been home alone at night, and it be so quiet that you suddenly imagine that you are hearing things? That's what it's like to be "alarmed by silence."

You will get some of the most amazing answers when it's still enough and you're relaxed enough to allow yourself to listen. Can you carve out just 5 minutes of quiet today to try it out? Seriously, 5 minutes is all it takes! I wouldn't say so if I didn't do this myself!

(If 5 minutes is too grueling, start today with 1 minute on an egg timer and add a minute to your quiet time every day.)

In that Quiet Time, repeat to yourself one truth that you'd like to start believing. It doesn't matter if you think it's ridiculous today. It just needs to be a positive truth.

Some experts say it takes 21 days of this practice to actually see results, but don't be surprised (or afraid to share!) if "strange" things start happening in less time than that.

BPO: Solution-Storming

You've heard that "Two heads are better than one," and you've probably heard of "brainstorming." Here's the exercise I brought in to this morning's BPO breakfast (Business Professionals Organization) - a professional development exercise I call "Solution Storming," which is based in collaborative problem solving.

If you try this with your group, please share how it worked out for you!


Solution Storming
Minimum time: 10 mins. (Can be extended to 20-30 mins.)
Group size: 4 or more participants (Really good for larger groups)
Other notes:

• Pen and paper aren't necessary to do the exercise, but some participants find it useful to write down the results of this exercise and take it home with them.
• If you're meeting in a room that allows movement, I suggest getting the participants mobile. That is, encourage people to stand up and move around and partner up with people they haven't worked with closely before.

Steps:

1. Think of something in your professional and personal life that you would like to improve.
2. List some actions you've already taken to improve this issue.
3. Pair up with someone in the group and take turns (2 minutes each turn) quickly describing what you'd like to improve and what you've done. Then ask your partner for some other possible solutions for your problem, off the top of their head.
4. If there's more time, find a new partner and repeat Step 3. (Ideally, you'd each get a chance to talk with three different people, but even talking with one or two people usually conjures up some new solutions you may not have considered before.)

For more info on the Business Professionals Organization, you can contact them at UABPO@aol.com. Tell 'em Janice sent ya!

To Network, or Not to Network

I used to think that networking was for a certain kind of person. And that person was not me: I am not outgoing; I don't particularly enjoy large crowds; I don't need everyone in the room to like or even notice me.

This is what I thought good networkers did; therefore, I was not built to be a good networker. Then a mentor of mine in college put it a different way, assuring me that there was nothing wrong with me: "Janice, you just treasure your connection with a person more." Thanks, but what value did this have in business? I thought. Oh, well. On through college and on to working in one cubicle after another. I figured this was the path I was built for, being a non-networker and all.

Eighteen years later, I have my own business and I still don't enjoy networking events. The 30-second commercial, the schmoozing, the people not listening to you even though you paid dire attention to their lousy 30-second commercial. So I've had to re-write my scripts about networking, including the real objective around networking. For me, it's to connect with people who have mutual interest in sharing what we can to help each other and each other's businesses to grow and affect the world positively. Obviously, I'm not going to connect with everyone, because not everyone sees opportunity the same as I do. But the point is that you could write your own script around networking too - something that's more true to you and your goals than what you've traditionally thought or seen.

This opens the opportunity to network wherever you are, and it becomes remarkably easier if you are somewhere doing something that you want to be doing! In other words, networking is easier when you're happy, when you're excited. And that means enjoying grocery shopping, attending your kids' soccer games, hitting the free ArtWalk downtown, etc. Go places that you like, and you'll find people there that you'd like to meet.

At this point, I have to mention Keith Ferrazzi's blog article, which was the inspiration for me to write my own blog article on networking.