Adventures, Misadventures & Executive Decisions
June 7, 2010 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
So maybe you’ve made some decisions that didn’t turn out like you had anticipated. Maybe you’ve gained your life experience from some ‘bad’ or ‘wrong’ decisions. Make an executive decision to use the lesson, not lose the lesson of your experiences.
As a speaker and author, I tend to chalk it up to another adventure… or misadventure which gives me lots of material for my programs and articles. Re-framing any incident, whether it be a moment or monumental, can make the situation a little easier to endure. We have the power to make that executive decision on our perceptions. I tend to think of life as a grand adventure made up of many smaller adventures and new experiences.
Just like a pearl necklace; your life is a strand of many moments strung together. It’s our decision to create those moments that make up the grand strand. Who wants a boring life anyway? Why not take some risks – no risk, no reward.
Because adventures make good stories, and good stories are made up of overcoming conflict or adversity, then coming out victorious; I’ve made an executive decision to view my experiences as fodder for my work.
It seems to me that the measurement of a good story stemming from a misadventure is directly proportional to the length of time that has passed since that episode. 🙂 It takes more time to pass for some adventures before they can become ‘a good story’ without the sting pf their rawness.
Yes, even being stranded in the Sea of Cortez for a couple hours alone with my SCUBA guide, running out of air, abandoned by our dive boat (with all my belongings – ID, money, clothing), being swept out to open ocean by the current, verging on the realm of hypothermia, the sun setting, nobody to be seen for miles around, and my ship departing in the very near future.
That little misadventure not only took several of my 9 lives, it took several years before I could re-frame it without a visceral reaction to the memory. How are you seeing your challenges? I contend we can choose how long it takes before we re-frame something. You know they say we will look back and laugh about some of our bad decisions and misadventures. We can also choose to laugh sooner rather than later. It’s all about what we DECIDE to do. There’s no magic formula.
How do you see your life? Are you living your own adventure? What types of life experiences are you creating? How are you re-framing your misadventures so you can make better decisions next time. As one of my mentors says, “You can’t hit a home run if you don’t swing”. I choose to take a swing at life and chalk it up to an adventure.
As entrepreneurs, execs and enlightened employees, we make umpteen decisions daily. Isn’t running your own business a grand adventure? We may never know how just one tiny decision can change the course of our life. It’s up to us to course-correct if needed, or remain on that path. I’m making an executive decision to live an adventure. I’m choosing to see my life experiences and ‘bad decisions’ as stepping stones on my way to success, how about you? If you need a guide to lead you through some of your executive decisions and plot your entrepreneurial adventure, give me a call.
Energized Entrepreneurs & Execs Trust the Way & Know as They Go
April 14, 2010 | Posted in Leading Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
It may seem like a huge leap to jump from a W-2 to the life of an entrepreneur. One of the biggest leaps of faith is to have faith in yourself. There won’t be anybody giving your evaluations like you may be used to. Oh, there will be evaluations, just not coming in the form you expected.
And there won’t be a tidy game plan, organizational chart or operations manual or supervisor to show you the way. You make your own way. You trust your own self and your own way. You just know as you go, and you build it as you go.
Coming from corporate or moving from a j-o-b that demanded you have everything figured out before you started a project is a far cry from how many entrepreneurs operate in a more fluid way. If an emerging entrepreneur waited to have everything figured out before they started, they would never get going.
It’s a complete mind-shift to just knowing the right people, tools and resources will show up when you need them. It’s faith in yourself and the Universe that you (or somebody or something) will figure it out when it is most needed. Trusting yourself that you will get the help you need when you need it may relieve some of the anxiety to be all-knowing before you go. If you don’t go first, you will never know.
So start going right now in the direction your heart is taking you. Get ready, get good and get going. Just know that the bridge will be built as you walk. Your way will be shown as you move forward. Like a shark, just keep moving forward to stay alive. You will know if you just go.
Now go claim your FREE 50-page Special Report on Energizing Your Work, Wealth, Workplace & Well-being and let me know how I can help you get going.