Change

In previous Tuesday Readings we have focused on the importance of planning,¹ on being intentional about how we use our time,² and on the importance of regularly moving items from our one To Do list to our calendar.³ Returning to this topic as the school year begins, seems particularly important. Each year our pace seems to be more hurried and our time more precious. It becomes increasingly easy to rationalize that you can “just wing it,” that you don’t need to plan. Nothing could be further from the truth. You do need to plan.

… How many have you asked today?

The importance of being able to ask and actually asking questions is verbalized in these four quotes:

… Sometimes it is actually better to stop, and not finish. Really?

…Helpful thoughts for the next steps in your life’s journey

…and Don’t Do

… Let it go.

Several years ago, Mary Jordan posted an essay, Be Still, and Be a Better Leader,¹ on the Linkage Leadership Blog and it caught my attention. At that time, she was a Principle Consultant and Co-Leader of the Linkage Change and Transition Leadership Practice.
 

… “A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” 
     –  Lao Tzu, Chinese philosopher from the 6^th century B.C.E.

All journeys, whether they are physical journeys by foot, by car, train, or plane, or journeys of the mind where you work small step by small step to solve a problem, resolve an issue, or explore some new idea, begin from where you are, from the current step you are taking.
 

For the past two weeks, I’ve been writing about pro-crastination,^1,2 “willingly deferring something though you expect the delay to make you worse off.”³ Pre-crastination is intentionally completing tasks quickly just to get them done sooner, or to get them done so that you no longer have to remember to get them done. Edward Wasserman calls this the “fierce urgency of now.”⁴
 

As I wrote in last week’s Tuesday Reading, “Procrastinators Anonymous: Yes, both I and you are most likely members of this club,”¹ procrastination is “willingly deferring something though you expect the delay to make you worse off.”² I like this definition as it explicitly calls to our minds the fact that procrastination requires a decision to procrastinate and that a cost is always incurred.