Last week was school vacation some.  As a result, many of us were away with our families.  The challenges of coming back to work and getting back into the swing of things has been a common theme among  the conversations I’ve had with people in the past few days.  It is not always easy to switch gears and get right back into our routines.  Maybe that’s a good thing.  Maybe re-entry is a good time to look at how we’ve been operating and to determine if it is serving us or merely habit.  It’s a good time to take stock and see if we could be doing things differently in order to be more effective.  It’s a new beginning, like spring, a time to change it up.   For example, maybe its a good idea to start the day with a short meditation rather than opening email before taking your first sip of coffee.  Maybe it is time to eat a healthy breakfast instead of running on empty all morning or.  While I like to find symbolic change moments (like coming back from a vacation), any day will do to begin to make changes.  If you think you’d like to shake it up, follow these steps:

Create your schedule based on your energy clock vs. your wall clock.

To increase your awareness of your energy clock, assign windows of time to the following questions:

1.  When do you have the most energy?

2.  When does your energy wane?

3.  What helps you regain and sustain energy?  Try to avoid high sugar and caffeine loaded items that give you a quick surge and then cause you to crash.

4.  When do you have the least energy?

Now, try to match up your energy with your tasks. 

1.  Keep a log of what you do and when you do it each day for a week or two

2.  On a scale of 1-5 where 1 is low and 5 is high, assess how much energy is required for each activity listed above (it’s tempting to say they all need high energy but that probably isn’t true so be rigorous about your assessment.)

3.  Make a list of the things you don’t do that you wish you did.

4.  Next to each item on your wish list above, indicate how much energy you need (1 -5)

5.  On a calendar, insert the activites that you do now and that you wish you did but don’t get around to doing, in the time slots in which you have the most appropriate energy level to serve you.

Example:  I have more mental energy to do solitary, thoughtful things in the morning than I do in the afternoon.  I gain energy by interacting with others and doing things that require physical movement.  So, it is best for me to do my writing in the morning, when my energy is high and my mind is clear and focused.  Since interacting with others gives me an energy boost, I try to schedule my phone calls and meetings in the afternoon.  In the mid afternoon, it helps if I get up and take a short walk and perhaps grab a cup of tea before getting back to work.  Although those activities take time, I more than make up for it in renewed energy when I get back. 

Of course this scheduling strategy isn’t always possible, but I set out to follow it as often as I can.  When I am able, I feel less drained and more satisfied at the end of the day.  Go ahead, change it up!

I sat down at my desk early yesterday morning to begin the chore of getting caught up after a week away.  I had every intention of being productive, reading and responding to emails, returning calls, talking with clients, writing articles and blog entries.   I had just sat down and turned on my computer when I heard a loud crash.  I looked out the window and watched one  car spin around and come to rest against the telephone pole at the corner of my yard, as the other veered up onto my neighbor’s lawn.  I instinctively called 911 and then rushed outside to see if everyone was alright.  Thankfully and miraculously, given the condition of the cars involved, no one was hurt.  I could have come right back inside and gone back to my desk, but instead, I invited the 8th grade boy, a passenger in one of the cars who was on his way to school, and his dog, to come and sit inside my warm house while his mom and the others dealt with the details of the accident.   A little voice in my head said to me, ‘shouldn’t I be working?   Am I using this as an excuse to procrastinate?’  And a louder voice said to me, ‘No.  Being here for this boy and his dog, both of whom were shook up from the crash, is exactly the right thing for you to do.  The work will wait.’  The boy was delightful.  Scout, his four legged companion, looked like my dog’s smaller identical twin.  It was fun to watch them play together and to see Jake begin to relax as he shared his experience of the accident with me.  I felt fortunate to have been able to be there for him.   Once the accident scene was cleared and my visitors were gone, I sat back down at my desk feeling happy to have been able to serve others.  As easy as it is for us to be distracted  and frustrated  by the unexpected events that life throws us, it is in those moments that we find meaningful experiences.   Life is not the merely the events we have planned and the items on our to do lists, doomed to be interrupted by the unexpected.  It is the intricate weaving of those unexpected happenings into our plans that brings richness and forms the magnificent tapestry of our lives.  When we resist them or ignore them, we miss out on opportunites to connect to  and be present with others.     The rewards of serving others in unexpected ways are a gift.   The work will be there when you’re done, the opportunities to give may not be.

My friend, Ariane de Bonvoisin has a wonderful website about all kinds of change.  Check it out at TheFirst30days.com.  She’s also written a great book by the same name, without the dot com, of course.  Ariane provides information and insight into change, both encountered (read:  not your choice) and self-initiated.  The site is a great source of information and wisdom.    I borrowed the following from one of her blog entries last week.  Sometimes, you have to dig deep to find what you need but it’s always in there.

Under the tropical, night sky, you find yourself face to face with the enemy. Raising your weapon, you experience a surge of inner strength. This is it, you think, as you aim with precision—the day you turn things around….

Thwack! Take that, you blood-sucking monster.

Wait for the guilt—nothing. It’s official. You no longer feel bad squashing mosquitoes.

Wow, this vacation is turning out to be more productive than you thought.

We all have a day where life changed, or we turned things around. What’s yours? The day you stood up to the neighborhood bully? Moved to Hollywood to seek your fame and fortune? Take a few minutes to recall this memorable day and write everything down. If more than one comes to mind, even better. Most importantly, reflect on the inner strength that helped you through these moments and know that whatever hard days lie ahead, that same strength will be there to help you through.

Next time, you might even kill two with one blow.

You can replace the word God in the following message with whatever suits you, call it Spirit, the Universe, Nature, Source or even your earthly friends.  But believe that you do not travel alone on your journey to change.

‘To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did.’
When God takes something from your grasp, He’s not punishing you, but merely
opening your hands to receive something better. Always remember:  ‘The will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you.’

If you’re still with me on the Valentine’s Resolution, your next step is to visualize yourself successfully using your new behavior.  So, sit quietly for a few moments.  Breathe deeply and relax.  Picture yourself having successfully achieved your resolution.  You’ve fully integrated it into your way of being.  Engage all of your senses as you imagine how it looks and feels to use your new behaviors. Studies have shown that when emotions are engaged, people remember events better.  The more intense the emotion, the stronger the memory.  So, invite all of your senses and your emotions in to this visualization experience.  Think of it as a dress rehearsal.  See and feel yourself being successful using the new behaviors.  Since your body can’t distinguish between you actually experiencing something and you having an intense mental thought about it, your energy will align with you mental image and experience and when you are in the real situation, you will more easily reproduce the desired behavior you visualized.