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making choices

The Simple Manifesto

September 29, 2014 By Michele Woodward Leave a Comment

Red-Tailed Hawk
Let’s make this simple.

And when I say that, I don’t mean just these words you’re reading right now.

I mean, let’s make everything simple.

Let’s stop making things hard just because we have an idea that anything worthwhile has to be a challenge.

Let’s stop complicating things in some misplaced effort to justify ourselves and affirm our right to be at the table.

Let’s be done with attempting to prove something by being difficult and inscrutable.

Because it really never works. That is, if you intend to get anything done.

Sometimes people complain to me that they send email and never get any responses. When I review what they’ve written, it’s easy to see why – they’ve very formally written right around whatever they have to say. And often they fail to clearly ask  for what they want the reader to do, so they never get what they need.

That right there is the definition of “doesn’t work”.

And we want it to work, don’t we?

Here’s something to consider if you’re struggling with the idea of “simple”:

Wordy, flowery, clever does not equal smart, insightful, helpful.

Formal, complicated and incomprehensible does not help clarity, understanding and action.

1 + 1 does not need sine, cosine or tangent to solve.

When you have a choice, and you always have a choice – pick simple.

Make your presentation less about bullet points and more about a story.

Make your meeting less about catching everyone up and more about making decisions.

Make your email less about sparkling, witty repartee and more about asking directly for what you want/need.

Take one clear step forward instead of three steps to the left if you want to move ahead.

Always, always, always look for the simplest solution. You don’t need stress and friction.

Own easy.

Be easy.

And you’ll win, easy.

Filed Under: Authenticity, Blog, Clarity, Getting Unstuck, Happier Living, Uncategorized, WiseWork Tagged With: choosing, easy, in the flow, making choices, simple, stress, stress management, success

The Simple Way To Get What You Want

September 29, 2013 By Michele Woodward Leave a Comment

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You can keep trying, but you are never going to get hot water out of a cold water tap.

Oh, you can turn the handle.

You can wait.

And wait.

And wait some more.

You can wait all you want, sugar, but face it – when you turn the faucet with the C on it what you’re going to get is cold water.

Of course, if you want hot water all you need to do is make sure you turn the handle with the H on it in the first place.

It’s just that simple, and just that vexing – all at the same time.

Do one thing, get one result.

Do another thing, get another result.

But when you do one thing expecting the result of doing another thing – you’re waiting forever for the impossible.

I only mention this because it’s happened to me. In my house, the hot water goes from the basement – which is underground – to the top of my house in possibly the most circuitous, time-consuming route in plumbing history. It would actually be a lot faster to tote a bucket of hot water up four flights of stairs than to wait on the pipes to do their job.

I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve opened up the tap expecting hot water to show up in due course, only to find that I turned on the cold rather than the hot.

And once I realize I’ve been waiting for five minutes with the cold water faucet running full bore, I feel like a total dope.

It occurs to me that there are plenty of places in our day where we turn the cold tap expecting hot water. Like those times when we’re waiting for something to be different than what it clearly is. Like waiting for the mean boss to become a nice boss. Waiting for the office gossip to stop gossiping. Waiting for the neglectful to start paying attention. Waiting for the moment for our significant other makes us feel significant, too. Waiting, waiting, waiting.

We expect that if we just hold on, just keep steady and… wait…. Things are bound to change.

They’ve got to change.

Don’t they? We’re waiting here.

But hot water doesn’t ever come out of a cold water tap.

Are you waiting on something in your life to be different? Think you might have turned the wrong handle? Check it and if you have – for the love of Pete – turn it off. Turn it off quick.

And give a twist to the faucet that’s going to give you what you want. It really is that simple.

You may have to wait a minute or two, and that’s fine. Because what you’re going to get – warm, clean, pure, refreshing – is going to be exactly what you needed in the first place.

 

Filed Under: Authenticity, Blog, Career Coaching, Clarity, Getting Unstuck, Managing Change, Uncategorized, WiseWork Tagged With: change, deciding, making choices, making good decisions

You Are What You Choose

July 22, 2012 By Michele Woodward 2 Comments

 

You have a lot of options.

You may not feel that way right at this very moment. You may feel rather claustrophobic and limited. Or stuck.

Or, you see endless possibilities and aren’t sure which one to pursue.

Either way, it’s all about your choices – cuz you’ve got ’em. You just have to make ’em.

So commit to good choosing:

Choose the things that feel right, in your bones. Regardless of the naysayers.

Even if you are that naysayer.

Choose to do something today that you’ll be proud of in twelve months.

Choose to be honorable.

Choose, in every situation with another person,  to look the other guy in the eye, ask good questions, and listen well.

And do the same thing when you’re with yourself.In all things, choose to be decent. To be kind. To be human.

And while it is entirely human to want to win, let go of the need to one-up everyone else. You will find that when you let go of the neurotic, anxiously striving need to beat others, you allow winning to naturally unfold. On your terms.

For you.

Because when you’re not anxiously striving, you’re free to push yourself to the place you need to be.

Choices, then, are ultimately about internal drive, not external forces compelling you.

Choosing is about your own performance, not other people’s competition.

It’s about wanting to, not having to.

It’s all about your path.

Yours.  Nobody else’s.

So, choose well.

Choose today.

 

Filed Under: Authenticity, Career Coaching, Clarity, Getting Unstuck, Uncategorized Tagged With: character, choosing, decency, deciding, integrity, making choices, stuck

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