A: Four Thousand Weeks
Somehow our brains are wired to think we have unlimited time. Or at least, the end of our lives is far away - "out there" somewhere in the distant future. If you're looking for a good book this holiday, try Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman.
The fragility of our lives feels more pronounced than ever these past few years.
Oliver Burkeman's book is a lovely reflection on how we see our lives, how we manage our time and how we can use poorly constructed strategies to make life decisions. As I read the book, I recognized my own struggle as well as so many of the stories I hear from clients. It helped me realize I wasn't alone in some of the faulty views I've adopted about allocating time and planning my future.
From the book:
"As the world gets faster and faster, we come to believe that our happiness or our financial survival depends on our being able to work and move and make things happen at super-human speed. We grow anxious about not keeping up--so to quell the anxiety, we try to achieve the feeling that our lives are under control, we move faster. But this only generates an addictive spiral. We push ourselves harder to get rid of anxiety, but the result is actually more anxiety because the faster we go, the clearer it becomes that we’ll never succeed in getting ourselves or the rest of the world to move as fast as we feel is necessary. (Meanwhile, we suffer the other effects of moving too fast: poor work output, a worse diet, and damaged relationships) …. You must stop accelerating, yet it also feels as though you can’t.
This way of life isn’t wholly unpleasant: just as alcohol gives the alcoholic a buzz, there’s an intoxicating thrill to living at warp speed…”
If you're looking for a good book to help frame the coming year, this one is recommended.
Check it out here.
Leading with Heart is back - January 2022.
Leading with heart is the ability to bring authenticity and care to your work, producing resilient, inclusive and committed teams — teams capable of creatively navigating dynamic and even unstable internal and external environments.
Frank Marquardt and I will be co-facilitating this group. I'm personally very excited not only because the group achieved the goals we had set out but that the biggest improvement requested was "more". So, we've extended the program another week and have made a few other tweaks to create a great experience for participants.
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