Recognizing Milestones

Sometimes, you can be pushing so hard towards a goal that it takes you a moment to realize when you’ve reached it.  My sense is that this is particularly true when the goal in question is more of a stop along the road, rather than the final destination.  I almost had such an experience just last week.

You see, I’m a coach with a vision, as most coaches are.  My vision, at it’s most fundamental level is about having women leaders step into their most powerful leadership selves, with a paradoxical sense of ease.  In other words, it’s about having women leaders engage with the challenging stuff that life throws at them, but with an energy of ease.

As I navigate towards this vision, there are a  myriad of tasks which I undertake on a daily basis.  There are numerous goals which I set for myself, all with a view to achieving the ultimate goal — having my message be heard and recognized as a valid one in a world that can sometimes feel overwhelming and anything but ease-filled.  Each of these goals feels worthy in and of itself, and yet, when they’re reached, it can be so easy to just sail on past it and keep moving towards “the big goal.”.  What I’m realizing is that by NOT acknowledging these supposed mini-accomplishments, there’s a way that I make the achievement of the big goal that much harder.  Why?  Because when you’re traveling a long road and you don’t stop to take a break or acknowledge your progress, you can actually feel like you’re getting nowhere.  Which is self-defeating.  So let me take a moment and acknowledge a milestone that I recently reached.  (|Note:  this is about me acknowledging my milestone; if you don’t care to acknowledge it, you can just move on to the last paragraph for the bottom-line )

For a long while now — probably a couple of years, actually — I’ve wanted to have an article of mine published in the coaching industry’s recognized publication, CHOICE magazine.  I’ve wanted to do this, but I’ve never actually submitted anything for consideration.  Don’t ask me why, I just didn’t.  Until this past spring.  That’s when I finally bit the bullet and decided to put one of my opinions regarding my profession in print and submit it with a view to having it published.  Well, it was accepted.  And the article is now in print for the world to see (you can check it out yourself at www.choice-online.com/current-toc.html — the title of the article is Meeting in the Middle).

Surprisingly, despite the fact that this is something I’ve been wanting for some time now, it took me a while to recognize this accomplishment as a milestone.  You see, my eyes are currently focused so far ahead.  And this particular accomplishment was a reminder to me that I must celebrate these smaller feats, even as I keep my eye on the bigger goal.  That’s the way for me to recognize the progress I’m making, and to feel like my work is bearing fruit.

Bottom-line: when you’re a leader with a vision that you’re working towards,  keeping your eye on the ultimate goal is important; it’s what keeps you focused and moving forward.  That being said, it’s imperative to recognize the smaller milestones that are reached on your way to that ultimate goal.  These moments of acknowledgment and celebration are what will have you realize that you’re making progress. And this progress is what will facilitate bringing your leadership vision to life.  Which is a good thing.

Working Through a Migraine

Okay, I’m not really sure if it’s a migraine or not.  What I do know is that it’s a wicked headache — settling just behind my right eye.  The intensity of it ebbs and flows, so that in some moments I feel able to plow ahead with what needs to be done, and in others I just want to crawl into bed.  Truthfully, my original thought this morning was that I would get the kids set for the day, send them off to school and then snuggle back up under the covers.  Instead, I actually ended up having quite a productive morning, all the while being absolutely aware of the throbbing, sharp sensation behind my eye.

Granted, I did cancel one meeting that would have required me to drive; getting behind the wheel seemed like an unsafe choice.  Typing with my eyes closed I can do; driving with my eyes closed, not so much.  But other than canceling that meeting, I got a lot accomplished.  I submitted a speaker application for an upcoming conference (which felt akin to expanding my comfort zone — the conference is outside my usual geographic locale); I signed another executive client; I forwarded foundation session packages to new clients; I completed required billing; I did some marketing email.  All in all, surprisingly productive.

So what’s my learning out of all this?  I guess it’s something along the lines of “I can only do what I can do in any given moment, and what I can do is actually more than I might think” — something like that.  Because when I awoke this morning, I didn’t anticipate getting anything done.  And now, half-way through my workday, I’ve actually accomplished a fair bit — things are actually crossed off my to-do list, and it’s only Monday, and I’ve had this headache.  I know what the learning is; it’s the Wayne Dyer quote from this morning — “Be in the now. See how doing the Tao at this moment brings  big results by paradoxically staying small and simple.”  That’s the learning; small, simple and now is the stuff that matters.  Especially when you’ve got a migraine.