Where My Ideas and Words Are

Where oh where are my posts you ask? Oh, I've got them, jotted down, framed up, and bound so nice and safe . . . in my Moleskine. 

See?

Let me orient you - to me.

Each folded 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper is a gem just waiting to be freed. The pink Post It note is my immediate do-not-forgets since I am an out-of-sight-out-of-mind-kind of a girl, the lady bug is what is left of a bookmark my daughter made for me (dog was hungry) and the sticker to the right is from the MN Bloggers Conference.

I've got to get the ideas from there to here and I will - just as soon as I finish wrapping presents for the kiddo, cleaning the basement for the visiting in-laws and just plain old being busy.

No wait, I am not busy, I am done being busy.

I am developing our facility's first ever workforce succession plan, creating a technical manual for the national Business Plan for HR Staffing, employee/labor relationing, pondering words of wisdom to share with fellow Central MN SHRM colleagues about social media, Women of HR-ing, reading lost but re-found letters from my cadets to me *sigh* as I was leaving my ROTC leadership assignment, removing the spider webs from my snow shoes, and looking forward to a week leading up to a wonderful holiday weekend.

I am also wondering (but not worrying) why I am making the choices I am. I know, you've told me, I may be making choices that move me further away from the core of my profession.

Not likely, but I hear you. Now, hear me. I may be making choices that move me closer to the core of what it means to be me.

Time to grab some Baileys, pop Alice in Wonderland in and be inspired or, at the very least, be entertained. The ideas are here now and the words will come - later. Whenever I have something to say, this is where I come to say it. Promise.

Quests, Calm and a Bowl of Cherries

Life is like . . . . (fill in the blanks). Throw in the words "around the holidays" and the analogy of choice moves a few decibels up the stress scale.

Wouldn't it be grand if we could attain a certain level of fitness and never fall below the baseline. And what if we could apply that to performance, creativity and relationships?  Someone somewhere probably said the beauty and the value is in the trying (and succeeding). 

Pshaw, I'll trade a little value and a little less learning for a little bit of inner calm.

I am so not cut out to meditate. I'm fidgety, a compulsive list-maker, and so fearful of finding myself unoccupied that I shove a book in my bag even on ATM runs.

This is me, but I didn't write it. It was written by Alexandra Postman, Editor in Chief, Whole Living in her Openings column this month. I say "this month" like this is a magazine I read every month but I picked it up for the first time when this month's cover story, "Find Instant Calm," caught my attention.

So much of my day, I face more competition for my attention than I have time to give. There are things that are going well, there are things that are not and then there are just things. There is not a lot of calm.

I am on a quest for calm.

I am not the first person to be facing too much of this and too little of that - especially around the holidays - and this isn't the first time I've been here myself. I've exited funks, nipped and tucked my social media efforts and then I nipped some more. My life's been out of control and I've brought in back under control. 

I am sharing company with some of the finest. Just over the past few days, Chris Brogan shared what works for him on how to say no  and a guest writer on MichaelHyatt.com offered advice on how to clear your desk, clear your mind. Leanne Chase is "on a quest for flexibility in a rigid world" at Connecting Career and Life and I wouldn't have to look far to find more of the same.

We are one bunch of silly (rockin') people, aren't we?

So, what is life like? Some days it's a bowl of cherries, some days it's the pits and always, it's about the relationships between the cherries. And, I've been letting my relationships with the most important cherries in my life slide.

Some things are going to stay on my priority list moving into the holidays and the new year - and some things are not. Here's what's staying: my husband, my daughter, my family and friends, my health, my fitness, and my writing.

Everything else is up for grabs.

Will this be my answer to instant calm? I don't know (hence, the quest) but I am going to give it a try. If it is, I'll market it, sell it, make a million and retire to a villa in Southern Italy . . . ah, now there's the instant calm!

So, tell me, what are you doing to minimize the noise and find your focus?