When I read the article “21 Unvarnished Truths About Retirement” by Jonathan Look, I thought immediately of some of my coaching clients even though they aren’t anywhere near retirement. Two truths, in particular, triggered this reaction:
I was stumped. I was at a talk on resilience at Alan Weiss’ Million Dollar Consulting Convention and the speaker, Richard Citrin, asked us to map our careers. He demonstrated using himself, much like the diagram at right, describing each achievement and setback through his long career. Then he gave us some time to do the same.
I know the earth is round and the sun rises and sets with our rotation. I picture the difference between my high sun and a sinking sun farther east every time my daughter calls from London on her way home from work and I’ve barely finished lunch. I picture the pre-dawn glow in Oregon every time I refrain from calling my sister before noon on the weekend. Time zones are an intriguing, but familiar, concept. But that did not prevent me from being blown away last week.
Agreement, as well as progress, starts with objectives. We will never agree on alternatives if we can’t agree on objectives. In other words, we will never agree on a route if we can’t agree on a destination! Thus, objectives are what we should be debating, not alternatives. Case in point: Gun control. The gun control debate is impossible largely because everyone is arguing about alternatives before agreeing on objectives. Here are just some of those alternatives:
Last weekend, I joined the students in Boston to March For Our Lives and protest the complete inaction of Congress to do anything about school shootings and assault rifles. Let’s leave the obvious debate aside for a minute
Fourteen years ago, I left my corporate job and moved from Minneapolis to Massachusetts to create Uncommon Clarity®. As a newly minted entrepreneur, I began publishing and speaking immediately, the latter after a stint in Toastmasters to overcome no minor case of fear. From there, it was on to my first radio and TV interviews. Since then, I’ve published three booklets and, just this month, The Clarity Papers, my first full-length book. I’ve worked with clients representing over 40 industries, non-profits and for-profits. The focus of my practice has shifted from operational excellence to include strategic planning and then executive coaching and advisory services. That first year, I was out of my comfort zone 99% of the time. Maybe more! The second year it was maybe only 75%. By the third year, that number had dropped even further. And so had my income! That lesson was pretty obvious. Less obvious, and maybe only to my husband, was how much I had grown and changed.
When I told you about my newest book, The Clarity Papers, I forgot one important detail: the Special Offer!
If you saw my email or blog post yesterday, you know that my newest book, The Clarity Papers, is now on Amazon! And you also know that Amazon is offering the Kindle version for free today, January 24th, through Friday this week. Three days only. I promised to remind you. So, you might want to download it now before you forget: The Clarity Papers.
Remember when Bambi was born and Thumper was jumping around yelling, “It’s happened! It’s happened! The new prince is born!”? Well, that pretty much describes the way I’ve been feeling the last few days and I’m really excited to share my news. No fawn, unfortunately, more like a dawn! My newest book, The Clarity Papers, has arrived! Furthermore, the Kindle version will be available for free tomorrow, January 24th, through Friday this week. I’ll post a reminder tomorrow morning with the link so you don’t forget. What’s The Clarity Papers about?