The Frog Formerly Known as Prince: Achieving your Personal Goals in Spite of Time Constraints
I made a new friend in the garden this week, the Frog Formerly Known as Prince. So, what does that have to do with leadership coaching?
As a leadership coach, I help clients identify and achieve personal goals. Time is always the constraint. I first like to seek some ways to combine. For example, if you’d like to read more, could you start with an audiobook during the commute to work or while you’re doing chores? If you’d like more exercise, is there an errand you could do walking rather than driving?
The right combination for me is Gardening. It’s March and time to prep my garden beds for spring, and I am killing 8 birds with 1 stone. (These are figurative birds, so don’t send me Audubon hate mail.)
Gardening allows me to:
Exercise (you’d be amazed how high you can jump when you shovel up a snake in the compost)
Get some vitamin D (we all need about 10-15 minutes a day of sunshine for physical and mental health)
Connect with fun family memories as I plant Dad’s heirloom seeds (he’d be proud of my green beans)
Practice mindfulness and patience--plants grow if and when they want to grow--weeding is meditative
Smile when my husband, the chef, says he’s going to the farmer’s market but he means he’s going to my garden
Spend time with friends and their kids picking vegetables (note to self, no one likes cabbage)
Belly-laugh about my garden flops (the rank cantaloupe that splattered all over the kitchen--I’m still cleaning that up, the world’s smallest carrots--invisible to the naked eye, and the popular would-you-like some-cucumber-with-those worms?)
Demonstrate gratitude-- taking something from a seed to the dinner table is awesome
Share if you’ve found an activity that helps pull it all together for you in your Me-Suite.
