Note: The following is a guest post from the fabulous Jamie Ridler…

• • • • •

Out of all the challenges I’ve faced as an entrepreneur the one that has caused me the most suffering is the belief that there is “a way things should be done.” I’m a voracious learner and when I started Jamie Ridler Studios, I immersed myself in enough business books and trainings to strain both my brain and my budget and almost always I would hit a point where I thought – I just can’t go there!

Each time that happened, I would take a good long look at myself and ask, “Am I resisting something I need to grow into? Do I have to change? Are my artsy ways holding me back? Am I unwilling to do what needs to be done? Am I just not cut out for this?”

See, that’s the thing with us entrepreneurs. We’re fiercely independent. We love the thought of running our own thing so that we can be the boss of ourselves, define our own schedule, choose our own clients, follow our true passions and bring a dream to life. When we realize we need some business basics, we start creating a business plan and a marketing strategy, defining our niche and our ideal client. This is all new to us, so we turn to recommended sources for guidance. Unfortunately, before we know it, we’re trying to squish ourselves into a pre-existing framework of “how it is done.” We start believing we have to give up parts of who we are in order to fit into “the way it is” so that we can make this business fly. In no time at all we are doubting ourselves and this whole idea of running a business! Ouch!

It doesn’t have to be that way.

There is a whole movement of heart-centered entrepreneurs out there who are changing things, who are opening up the possibilities and finding new approaches to creating sustainable businesses based on our vision and our true selves. As creative independent spirits we know that when we create something that is rooted in our souls, our authenticity, it is always stronger, truer, richer and more beautiful. That’s true of our art, that’s true of our lives and that’s true of our businesses as well.

A part of being an entrepreneur is learning to trust your own instincts and wisdom. When you read business books and take classes, take what works for you and kick the rest to the curb. Yes, sometimes it’s scarier to take the risk of going your own way but it’s a free and open road to explore rather than a box you squish yourself into. Over time, you will start to develop your own ways for sustaining your unique enterprise. And along the way, you’ll find more and more creative entrepreneurs on the road with you, sharing their wisdom as you share yours, lighting the way for one another.

• • • • •

Jamie Ridler MA CPCC is a creative living coach and founder of Jamie Ridler Studios. Through coaching, workshops and events, Jamie helps people bring their creativity to all aspects of their lives. She is leading a workshop in Authentic Professionalism™ at Third Hand Works on Thursday, September 9. Registration is now open.

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One of the best scenes in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is the one in which his sister, Jeanie, gets a bit of counseling from a boy in a police station.

Boy: What do you care if your brother ditches school?

Jeanie: Why should he get to ditch when every body else has to go?

Boy: You could ditch.

Jeanie: Yeah. I’d get caught.

Boy: So you’re pissed off because he ditches and doesn’t get caught, is that it?

Jeanie: Basically.

Boy: Basically. Then your problem is you.

Jeanie: Excuse me?

Boy: Excuse you. You ought to spend a little more time dealing with yourself, a little less time worrying about what your brother does.

We have all sorts of reasons why we can’t do the things we want to do.

We don’t have enough time.
We don’t have enough money.
We have to do this before we can do that.

We can’t do what we want until we get organized or clean the house or lose ten pounds or take a class or add another 500 people to our mailing list or find a partner or the kids are in school or … whatever. I expect Jeanie was waiting until she graduated from high school to do what she wanted.

We’ve become convinced the only way we can live the way we’d like is to follow the rules. Eventually, we will be rewarded.

Oh sure, other people are doing the kinds of things we’d love to be doing right now, without all our patient obedience – but they are special.

We envy them like crazy and follow their every move with whiny jealousy, just like Jeanie.

We resent having to wait, but we have to. Otherwise, we might get caught.

If you recognize yourself in this dialogue, allow me to be that boy counselor in the jailhouse of your own making and remind you to spend more time on living your own life than envying what other people are doing.

Because they are no more special than you are. The only difference between you is their willingness to drop the excuses and get on with it.

If you’ve seen the film, you know Ferris is not only tenacious, but organized about crafting the kind of day he wants to experience.

He puts a lot of effort into a) enjoying himself to the max and b) not getting caught.

And you can do the same.

Instead of putting your energy into catching the people you envy (as Jeanie does), watch how they do what they want to do – so you can free yourself.

Instead of complaining in resentment, Where on earth do people get the money to do such things? – find out how they actually finance what they do.

Instead of sighing in frustration, If only I had that kind of time! – learn how the people you admire are leveraging certain activities so they can do others.

Instead of whining in discontent, I wish I could get away with that! – try it yourself and see what happens.

Because here’s the thing: chances are, something good will come of it – as it usually does when we act on the stuff that lights us up – and you’ll be the one envied. But even if you did get caught, like Ferris, you could handle it. You have the resources, I promise.

Get out there and break some rules. Ditch something.

Your rule breaking doesn’t have to be radical to bring you closer to the life you want (although I’ll admit small things can feel radical). Arrange your office in a way that makes you happy. Start your day doing something you love instead of what you think you have to do. Wear the favorite clothes that make you feel good. Go ahead and tell that story on your blog. Do that fun thing you’ve always wanted to try.

Do something you really want to do in these last few weeks of summer. And don’t worry about getting caught.

Because, as Ferris would remind us: Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

• • • • •

We’ll be ditching our limiting beliefs about what it is to be “professional” in a special workshop coming September 9: Authentic Professionalism with Jamie Ridler. I hope you’ll join us for some fun and engaging rule breaking.

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The longer I do what I do, the more people I work with, the more closely I look at how we get stuff done – the more I’m convinced of the importance of transitions.

Some transitions are more obvious: maybe half an hour ago you were replying to email and now you are reading this article. There was a space between those two activities that you navigated in some way.

But some transitions are more subtle. They are the moments when something about our energy or emotional state shifts.

Learning to recognize and navigate these subtle transitions is super-useful in managing our time and energy in ways that leave us feeling satisfied rather than demoralized.

Transitions like…

• That moment when [insert your social media of choice here] shifts from being a heap of fun to a horrible house of mirrors.

• That moment when editing your work shifts from polishing to fussing over details that don’t matter.

• That moment when planning shifts from organizing your thoughts so you can take action to avoiding taking that action.

In those moments, there is a point when it’s important to recognize that – at lease for now – this thing is as good as it’s going to get. That might change tomorrow or next week, but for today – this is it. In this moment, no amount of lingering or checking or pushing or self-coaching is going to change that. Doing so is just a waste of your time and energy.

Learn to recognize those moments when something is as good as it’s going to get.

Sometimes it’s when your flow just peters out. Sometimes it’s a rise in anxiety or frustration. If you pay attention, you’ll come to recognize however it manifests for you.

Learn to act on it.

The moment the thought this is done for now crosses your mind, stop. Just stop. In the beginning, it doesn’t matter so much what you do next as it does to simply move on.

That next thing doesn’t have to be something significant from your to-do list. In fact, it’s probably better if it’s not.

Since I work from home, I often turn to domestic chores in such moments. Loading the dishwasher or starting a load of laundry is a good way for me to shake off whatever I’ve just been doing. (Hint: transitions and maintenance are a match made in heaven.) Having caught my breath, I can then turn my attention back to the bigger tasks of the day.

If I don’t give myself such a bridge, I bring all the subtle ick of what I’ve just-been-doing-but-should-have-left-sooner into my next task. It’s important in the in-between to give yourself the chance to release and recharge – and you can do it in less than five minutes.

Prepare for it.

These sorts of transitional moments happen all the time – so be ready for them by giving yourself transitional activities to turn to.

Create a list* of quick, energizing activities that ground and cheer you.
Put it someplace where you will see it when you need it – like on the bulletin board above your desk. My list includes activities like: dance to theme song, hula hoop, apply spray and lotion, stretch, walk the dog, water the garden.

Create a list* of small, easy routine tasks that need doing, but don’t take a lot of mental and emotional energy.
Again, put it someplace where you will see it when you need it. In addition to dishwashing and laundry, my list includes admin activities like filing and entering receipts.

Create a list* of  your top three tasks for the day or week.
Once again, put it someplace where you will see it when you need it. It’s hard to move on to the next thing when you don’t know what the next thing is. Make it easy to refocus your attention by giving yourself easy to follow instructions.

[ *When I say list, you know I don't mean something boring - make it a gorgeous mind-map or collage if you like - you know, something that inspires you to use it. ]

As you become more skilled in recognizing and acting on these transitional moments, you’ll get better at knowing which activities will most help you depending on the shift that took place. Emotionally triggered? Ground and cheer. Flow petered out? Switch it up and recharge. Lost your focus? Revisit your priorities.

There’s nothing wrong with arriving at that point of good-as-it’s-gonna-get-for-now. It’s just part of the rhythm and cycle of things.

What is important is learning how to recognize those moments when something shifts and act on it so you can successfully navigate the transition (rather than deny the reality of the situation).

I promise doing so will leave you feeling much less depleted and far more productive at the end of the day.

• • • • •

I’ve been thinking a lot about perfectionism lately and how I know I’ve been engaging in that instead of what I call refinement.

Refinement serves the work.

Refinement is that process of adding only what’s needed and removing everything that’s not. It’s about a certain precision. It’s about making smart choices about what one’s creation needs to do its job in the world.

And, when I’m really in flow, I don’t feel like I’m the one making those decisions. I feel like I’m just obeying my muse’s – very clear and insistent – directions about what this thing needs to be.

While the process of refinement may be challenging and leave me tired, it’s a good sort of exhaustion – like after a good workout.

When I am engaged in refinement, I can sense when I’ve gotten it to good enough and the work is ready to be shared.

This is usually accompanied by a sense of pride and excitement (with maybe just a few nerves on the side).

Perfectionism serves fear.

Maybe it needs something else? There’s probably a better word. Maybe people will like it more if I made this part blue. What if I move this to the left half an inch?

Fuss, fuss, fuss. Endlessly. Over details that don’t matter.

I’m not in flow. And I’m making decisions based not on what would make the work better, but what I imagine would make the specter of my most critical audience happy. Which seems like it’s about serving them, but it’s really about me and what I need – not what my audience needs and certainly not what the work needs.

Perfectionism is draining – and it’s the bad sort of exhaustion that doesn’t help me sleep more soundly.

When I am engaged in perfectionism, the work never feels finished. And the idea of sharing it makes me feel nauseous.

False standards keep us stuck.

I’m guessing we all agree that perfectionism is not a good thing.

But I think one of the things that makes us reluctant to let it go is our fear that we will somehow throw the baby out with the bath water. That if we set more realistic conditions of satisfaction we will somehow end up producing complete crap.

It doesn’t work that way. In fact, that all-or-nothing attitude is just the perfectionism at work again.

It’s not so much a matter of lowering one’s standards, rather shifting one’s focus. Remember, our standards define how we choose to be in the world and interact with others. You can’t set a standard for how people interact with you. You can set some boundaries, but you can’t make people like you.

All you have control over is the quality of the work. Focusing on those standards will serve you.

Eliminating false standards that, in the end, just support how you hope people will interact with you eliminates the huge waste of energy that is perfectionism – and that will serve you too.

Start noticing.

What are your efforts serving? Your work or your fears?
Begin paying attention to how you know the difference.

And when you tip into fear, help yourself find your way back to that space where you are creating from love for your work and its purpose in the world.

• • • • •

Today is Solstice – a day in the northern hemisphere that marks the beginning of summer.

The word comes from the Latin sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still).

Usually, I’m happy to stand still during summer. To slow down enough to savor this season of warmth, bounty and play. To put my busyness on hold while nature busts out all around me.

But today, at least at the turn of Solstice, I am wanting to be a part of that fertile productivity. I’ll probably change my mind in the heat of August, but right now I am wanting to be fruitful.

Maybe it’s because of all the post-surgical resting I had to do during the spring.

Spring is not a restful time. Spring is about waking, sap flowing, budding, blooming, sprouting. Not napping between Perry Mason reruns.

I find myself entering summer already feeling out of sync. Feeling behind.

On the one hand, I recognize this as a construct. I had this notion in my head about what I was going to do when – you know, a plan – and that notion was interrupted. It had to be temporarily but quite necessarily set aside. Feeling in sync again is simply a matter of drafting a new plan. Any difficulty in doing that is just my attachment to that original notion.

that one big thing

On the other hand, I do think there is a certain rightness to the timing of things. And, deep down, I think we know it.

That vague sense of anxiety in one’s gut might be a sign that things are moving a little too fast. That quiet dissatisfaction at the back of one’s mind might be a sign that things are developing a little too slowly.

I think a great deal of our well-being comes from feeling in sync with the passage of time – our sense that what’s happening in our lives is in that sweet spot between too much and too little, too fast and too slow.

And, more importantly, that the right things are happening at the right time. It’s often those right things going undone – regardless of what else is happening – that result in overwhelm and disappointment, our sense that things are not as they should be.

Mona Grayson recently defined overwhelm as a sign of serious neglect: “It’s not that you have too much to do. It’s that there’s one Big Thing you haven’t been doing.”

And I’m coming to think she’s right.

choosing and changing

Most of the time, I long to slow down. Most of the time, I have to remind the Worried Hamster in my head that we don’t need to rush and push quite so much. And, although I feel behind, I still have no wish to step on his Hamster Wheel to Nowhere.

Right now, what I most desire is to be bearing fruit along with everything around me.

Not because of some plan or should or supposed-to. But because it’s the right time to do certain right things. And doing them is what is necessary for me to feel in sync. (In a way, it’s an act of self-care.)

Realization of this desire has some implications.

Like a plant, I have to put most of my energy and resources toward development of those fruits and very few toward leaves, roots and branches. Especially suckers.

Which means being honest with myself about what I want.
Which means doing the work I’ve been avoiding.

It means choosing.
It means changing.

It is both thrilling and frightening to say: this and only this.
It is both thrilling and frightening to say: now is the moment.

But the harvest is going to be sweet.

ask yourself

• What do you need to do to feel in sync with the season and the passage of time in your life?
• Slow down in some ways? Speed up in others? Focus?

• What fruits do you most want to put your energy and resources toward right now?
• What would be the right thing – your Big Thing – in this moment?
• How might acting on it reduce any anxiety, dissatisfaction or disappointment you may be feeling?

• What choices would you have to make to ripen those fruits?
• What changes would those choices bring?
• Does that prospect of change excite or scare you more?
• How does anticipation or fear keep you feeling in or out of sync with time?

• • • • •

Inspired to take action on your Big Thing, but wanting some guidance and support in doing so? Join me for Project Front Burner. We’re turning up the heat starting July 7.

• • • • •

Recently, my resident computer technician (aka my Geeky Sweetheart – I am so lucky) attempted to install more RAM in my aging computer so it might operate a little more nimbly (you know, processing Geritol).

No go. Not sure why. Reasons are unimportant to the story.

What is important is what happened next: upon restart with old RAM, monitor displayed completely wacky colors. We couldn’t decide for sure if it was the R or the G or the B that was missing – but whatever the combination was, it was sickly.

And that sort of thing makes one wonder what else is going wrong inside the box that holds your online business (nail biting moment there).

Thankfully, I still had my data and by the time I had backed everything up again (just to be sure, even though I already do it every day), the problem resolved itself.

Huh, we both said, scratching our heads while feeling grateful. (Shopping for a new computer is not something I want to be doing right now. But, Geeky Sweetheart really wants me to buy a new computer, so this whole thing began with me saying, “Don’t you dare drop it on purpose!” When things did go wrong, he was one surprised but conflicted man.)

I don’t pretend to understand how that was possible anymore than I understand how jets are able to fly. Computers, planes – it’s all voodoo. Yeah, I know the air above the wings is moving at a different speed than the air below the wings blah blah blah. Just because Bill Nye the Science Guy says it’s so doesn’t mean I really believe it.

Working theory: we kinda froze something with the canned air in the process of removing the astonishingly huge dust bunnies (what Gary Larson once referred to as Dust Rhinos) from the underside of the machine. When it warmed up – all was good again.

Anyway, my point is this: you never know what might happen next. This is your livelihood, so…

Back. Up. Your. Data.

This is one of those crucial bits of maintenance you can’t afford not to give your attention to.

• • • • •

Okay – true confessions – this is actually a reprint of something that happened last year. (And I still use that aging computer.) But my point remains as true as ever. And if you were nodding your head reading this, saying to yourself, “Yeah, I should really work on that. I could have had the same close call.” – now’s your chance.

Join me and technology-to-english translator Wendy Cholbi for a special Bite the Candy event all about backups and upgrades. More than the know-how, you’ll get the focused time and support you need to get the job done. Finally. It all happens next Thursday. Check out the details here.

• • • • •

[ or perhaps: What I was really trying to say last week. ]

At heart, I’m in the business of helping people create the conditions in which they have the most fun doing their best work. All my talk about structures and systems isn’t about getting organized for its own sake. It’s really about building an environment in which you can thrive being yourself.

Creating that environment requires some sort of practice of self-awareness. It can take any number of forms, but it is an essential element.

One thing that comes out of a practice of self-awareness – and one reason it is necessary – is knowing your standards (how you choose to interact with the world) and boundaries (how others can interact with you).

And it’s through knowing your standards and boundaries that you know what sort of policies and procedures you need in your business. These are the small things that add up to something big – the beams and nails and sheetrock – that create the overall structure of the environment you work best in.

Yet it’s one thing to know what your standards and boundaries are and sometimes quite another to understand how to implement them as policies and procedures. (To continue with my analogy – knowing what materials you need isn’t the same as knowing how to build a house from them.)

That’s where an understanding of the role of law in your business comes in.

The beauty of getting a handle on legal stuff is it gives you useful tools and language to communicate your standards and boundaries. Even when you’re feeling a little wobbly inside about what you are asking, it provides the stable structures that help you stand up straight and confidently describe what you require.

And what you aren’t clear on, it will help you to get clear on. By engaging with legal matters you will be asked questions that need answering in your business. And that kind of clarity – within yourself, your business and the people you work with – is empowering.

Because, for starters, you’ll have important documents that protect what you’ve created or describe what you will and won’t do within a project or relationship. But in the process of filing those forms and composing those agreements, you will also have practiced being clear about what’s okay – of getting comfortable with saying it out loud – and that has benefits that extend well beyond the legal sphere.

Maybe it’s not legal stuff that seems sleazy or scary to you. Maybe it just seems kind of irrelevant.

But if what does feel slimy, awkward or downright frightening is standing up for your standards and boundaries – this is still the workshop for you.

Don’t think of it as a workshop about dispelling legal myths and fears. Think of it as an opportunity to learn how to better clarify and communicate the conditions you require to do your best work in ways that are effective and you can feel good about.

I hope you will join us this Thursday at noon Pacific. Click here to learn all the details and register.

P.S. Rebecca is offering an amazing bonus to workshop participants who want to explore this topic more deeply.

• • • • •

Last fall, I hired the splendid Allie Towers Rice of Allie Creative to redesign my website.

We had gone through the usual introductory conversations about the project – what I needed, how she would approach it, etc. – and were both enthusiastic to begin. But before we could start, there was the matter of … The Agreement.

I hesitated to ask about it. I mean, what if this service provider, who seemed to very professional in every other way and I was totally crushing on, didn’t use contracts? What would I do? Could I write one of my own? Would I walk away? (Because at least by that point I was smart enough to know that it’s really not smart to have your site redesigned without something in writing. I was not always this smart.)

So I screwed up my courage and asked. And of course Allie had a contract. One of the best I’ve ever read, in fact. Completely thorough, yet written in plain English with a human (and humorous) voice and entirely understandable. Phew.

Turns out she had hesitated to send it to me because so often new clients kinda freeze when they get the contract.

“They see the C-word and don’t even read the document, they just panic. And that’s a shame, because it’s not all legal jargon-ey.”

It becomes the elephant in the room that stifles all the enthusiastic energy that’s been flowing around the project up until that point. And what designer (or client) wants that?

We both strongly believe in the necessity of having contracts. They clarify the important things that need to be clarified. They support and protect everyone involved, including the project. They ensure everyone comes away from the experience feeling good about it.

Done right, agreements help all that enthusiastic energy swirling around a project flow even more freely and purposefully.

Yet we hesitated when it came time to discuss our agreement because of our previous interactions with people who were very uncomfortable with the role of legal matters in business.

We had a laugh about our mutual hesitation. But it also left me a little sad.

If the role of legal matters in business was less feared and better understood in general, we both would have been spared some needless worry.

Our anxiety was very temporary, but what made me even more sad was knowing that fear and worry is a regular thing for many people – on both sides of the C-word.

Beyond the wasted energy, avoiding this stuff makes things very muddy. And leaves your work and your livelihood vulnerable.

I know it may seem kinda sleazy, but I can confidently say from experience: getting a handle on this legal stuff is very empowering. You get clear. You get stable. You get flow.

Once you’ve figured out how everything is going to go down, you can relax and get into the work knowing you, your business and the people you work with are being taken care of.

As with everything else I talk about, this is part of creating systems and structures that support you in doing your best work.

I think we are afraid bringing “law” into our businesses will ruin the good thing we’ve got going on. But just because it’s legal doesn’t mean it has to be incomprehensible, aggressive or assume the worst – and scare people away. In fact, legal systems and structures that reflect and embody our personality and values are an essential part of protecting and supporting the very things that are most important to us.

I know. It’s intimidating and overwhelming. Which is why I’ve invited creativity lawyer Rebecca Prien to help you take that first baby step of working through some of the yuck so you can actually consider the possibilities – and then build from there. Please join us Thursday, May 13 for a little taste of empowerment. Click here to learn all the details and register.

You know that classic I Love Lucy episode in which Lucy and Ethel try working in a chocolate factory and they end up with the job of wrapping the chocolates? All they have to do is pick up chocolates as they pass by on a conveyor belt, wrap them, then place them back on the conveyor belt where they are then taken to the packing room. It seems easy at first, but then the belt moves faster and faster with more and more chocolates. Slapstick comedy ensues. They eat the chocolates they can’t wrap, hide them in their hats, stuff them down the fronts of their blouses – anything to keep an unwrapped chocolate from passing through to the packing room and thus getting themselves fired.

I think we often find ourselves in the same situation. More and more to do coming at us on an ever-faster speeding conveyor belt. And ever-more desperate (and probably not so hilarious) attempts to handle it. Because something bad is going to happen if we don’t.

Except our lives aren’t an episode of I Love Lucy (and thank goodness for that). Because we have a lot more control of our situation than Lucy and Ethel did.

Which is not to say we have control over everything…

We don’t have control over the speed of the conveyor belt.

Though Time may feel as though it passes at different speeds, we are moving through it at a constant rate. An hour is an hour, as is a day, week, month or year. We can’t turn off the conveyor belt.

We don’t have control over everything that the conveyor belt brings to us.

Life is full of surprises. We might be expecting chocolates only to be faced with a Tickle-Me Elmo. Or the Greatest Hits of Hall & Oates. Or a lawnmower. Maybe some of those surprises are a lot better than chocolate. Some are bound to feel a whole lot worse. Just because you’ve built a chocolate factory does not mean you’re getting chocolate all the time. In fact, I can pretty much guarantee that once in a while something you totally did not plan on is going to show up.

We do, however, have control over everything else that is on the conveyor belt – both what it is and how much of it there is.

If you’re at the point of metaphorically stuffing chocolates down your shirt (or literally eating them) to cope, now would be a good time to remind yourself that you get to decide what kind and how many candies you need wrap.

This is important if you already tend to see your business or life as a factory and measure your success by how “productive” you are. More isn’t necessarily better. It’s just more. (And adding more and more is what makes the conveyor belt seem like it’s moving faster and faster, even thought it’s not.)

So what really needs doing? And what can you stop putting on your conveyor belt?

• A good place to start is with the stuff that gives you that feeling of: oof – another one of those? I don’t wanna. For me, this recently manifested in yet another purge of the subscriptions that arrive in my inbox. Because -oof- I do not want to read all that stuff.
• Less obvious, but important: stuff you’re doing out of such longtime practice that it’s habit – even if you don’t need to do it (that way) anymore. Lately, I’ve been looking at my lengthening list of tasks for marketing a course – and crossing off the steps that don’t get results.
• Similarly: stuff you’re doing because you should – because it’s expected, because it’s what everyone else is doing, because you might disappoint. I don’t know… let’s say: Facebook. Or replying to every comment on your blog. Or checking email way too often.
• My favorite: stuff that isn’t chocolate.
  If you are in the business of making chocolate you can, of course, produce many variations on that theme: bars and truffles, milk and dark, crunchy bits and chewy centers. But start putting salsa on your conveyor belt and you’ll have problems. Figure out the combination of activities in your business and life that are related and contribute and support each other – eliminate the tangents.
• Also, during a period of Tickle-Me Elmos, Hall & Oates or Lawnmowers – something’s got to give. Good or bad, you have to set aside wrapping candies until the unexpected has passed through to the packing room. As with me and my recent surgery. Any attempt at being productive during my recovery would have been the equivalent of putting chocolates in my hat.

You are not a victim of what’s on your conveyor belt. Because almost everything that’s passing in front of you is stuff you put on it. And you can take it off.

That’s the key to feeling better about “time management.” Not by becoming more efficient and productive, but by becoming more aware and choosy about we let on our conveyor belts.

• • • • •

How to choose what ends up on your conveyor belt is the sort thing of we practice in the True Discipline of Time Management. Course begins one week from today! Learn all the details and register here.

• • • • •

I was driving to an appointment recently and had one of those moments – I’m sure you’ve had them too – when I couldn’t remember if the light at the intersection I had just passed through was actually green. Presumably it was. Presumably the part of my mind that was in charge of driving knew what it was doing and would have stopped it the light had been red. But the rest of my conscious mind that was preoccupied with the subject of that appointment had no awareness of which color it was.

It kind of weirded me out for a moment.

And then it struck me as an awesome metaphor.

At first because it seemed to be such a great illustration of the importance of staying awake to one’s experience, of maintaining a certain level of awareness.

But then it seemed such a great illustration of the importance of the signals and signposts in our lives.

In navigating the grid of our daily activities, having a clear, well-practiced system of signals and signposts allows us to give our awareness to the big stuff, while knowing we’re still traveling toward our intended destination in a safe way.

This is not the same thing as having maps or planning a trip according to a map – also important elements of your systems. This is about having a way of moving safely during that trip and knowing if you are still on your intended route.

This is about knowing how to navigate all the little things that might not be on your map. Intersections. Terrain. Weather. Construction. And, of course, other travelers.

Stop. Yield. Do not enter. No right turn. No left turn. No u-turn.
Red. Yellow. Green.
Speed limit. Do not pass. No turn on red. One way.
Crossroad. Side road. Winding road. Sharp turn. Merge. Deer.
Low clearance. Slippery when wet. Hill.
Railroad crossing. School zone. Work zone. Detour. Fines double.
Scenic overlook. Historical marker ahead. Rest stop.
Gas – Food – Lodging – next right.

All signals and signposts have a single corresponding action: red = stop, crossroad = look for traffic, sharp turn = slow down. We know what they mean – we’ve even been tested on what they mean.

Do you similarly recognize the signs and signals in your life? And do you know what their corresponding action is?

• When your body is sending you signals of being tired or hungry, do you recognize and obey them by exiting at a rest stop?
• When you are at the crossroads of making a decision, do you stop to look both ways?
• What are the signs of the twists and turns of stress and confusion that help you know when and how to slow down?
• In your relationships, do you know when to yield? when to merge?
• Do you have clear boundaries that guide your route?
• How do you recognize when you are distracted by a side road? How far do you have to travel before you turn around and go back?
• Do you establish conditions of satisfaction that let you know how many more miles there are to go or when you’ve arrived?

When you are on autopilot – and we all are at times – do you have systems that keep you safe and moving in the right direction? Or are you running red lights?

If you were to write your own Driver’s Manual with the rules of your personal road, what would it say?