Inviting the Interruptions Into Your Life

Blooming Tree in December, 2011, Cambridge, MA

Two things happened this weekend that gave me a new perspective, and it was totally unexpected.

On Saturday, I got up, went to yoga class at The Arlington Center (highly recommended), went and did some shopping, came home, cleaned up, and then about mid afternoon noticed that I hadn’t been on line all day. At that point, I just said to myself that I should continue this and see how it goes. I ended up relaxing and doing some drawing, and then went to the great Nowell Sing We Clear Christmas concert and saw a lot of friends.

On Sunday, I went to church and heard a great sermon by Ministerial Intern Elizabeth Nguyen on “May We Be Interrupted“. In the sermon, Elizabeth talked about this time of year is when we naturally stop, or interrupt our natural activities to slow down and reflect. Of course, our commercial world doesn’t want us to do that and hypes up the energy level to jolt us out of that. We can interrupt that if we choose.

Also, unexpected things can happen when we make ourselves available to that “eureka!” moment. How many things in life have been discovered because things didn’t go to plan? How many new, cool places have you found because you went off your normal route? I had that experience on Saturday as I didn’t check my email and messages all day. I interrupted my normal pattern and found something new. Granted, I still felt secure in what I was doing. I might not have felt the freedom to do new things had I not felt I had to take care of myself.

Many of the experiences I’ve been having in the past year seem to be reinforcing the same message: Take care to set up a safe, comfortable space for great things to happen, and get out of the way. In many ways this follows my career development philosophy, in that you need to take care of your own professional development with an eye to your goals and what’s needed to get there.

So, what interruptions have you been allowing in your life, and what discoveries have you made from them?

Your Passion This Week, Volume 5

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve shared my favorite posting from across the web on how you can integrate spirituality with your career, so here’s what I’ve found recently!

• The 9 Creative Uses for Google+ Hangouts You Didn’t Think Of: Google’s version of Skype it seems for groups. Looks interesting!
• Internships for Older Career Changers: Story from Marketplace Radio on mid-career professionals doing internships to get experience in new fields.
• Tackling it together: Great blog post by John Flurry about our need to be useful to each other and the need for connection in our actions.
• One in four young people is ‘bored’ with social media: Are the youngsters who have been doing social media all their lives now getting sick of it just as the rest of us catch up?
• Impressionist Jim Meskimen Does Shakespeare in Celebrity Voices: This man is demonstrating his skills set while advertising it. Show, don’t tell!
• Say Something Nice: A very positive project to get people to see the positive in their lives. More details on the project here.
• 10 Things Professionals Need to Build Their Personal Brand: Some things you can do to start getting the message you want about yourself out there.

 

So, What have you been noticing out there?

Your Passion This Week, Volume 4

Sorry gang about the AWOL-ness of the past week. I went away on vacation, and I took a breather from posting.  I was at the Country Dance Society – Boston Center July 4th Contra & English Dance weekend at Pinewoods Camp in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Lovely dancing, lovely place, lovely people, and lovely weather.

Here are the stories that have caught my eye in the mean time!

• Film School Graduates’ Job Prospects at U.S.C., N.Y.U., U.C.L.A.: What are your alternatives to working in the film industry when you have a film degree? Plenty.
• Help Create an Email Charter!: Ideas on some rules to make email communication more responsive to all.
• Social Media Revolution 3 (4:15 version via Erik Qualman): Another cool video about the current state of social media
• Facebook Offers Video Chat in Arrangement With Skype: New partnerships emerging in the social media world
• The magic button — Make Everything OK: Says it all

And in celebrations of the North American National Holidays:

• For Canada Day (July 1), the Arrogant Worms version of Canada’s Really Big
• For US Independence Day (July 4), a John Phillips Sousa Flash Mob on Cape Cod, Massachusetts

 

More will come next week! Keep checking!

New Feature: Your Passion This Week #1

As anyone who follows my Twitter and Facebook accounts knows, I like to pass along interesting stories that relate to how people’s passion, career, and spirit intermingle. I figured that I would start sharing a weekly post with my favorites.  If I remain true to my plans, you should find a new Your Passion This Week posted every Monday.  Let me know what you think!

• Looking for a Plan B? Make It Gluten-Free: This article is about people leaving their jobs in different fields and deciding to choose the new, hip practice of opening a gluten-free bakery.  As someone who’s just been diagnosed at celiac (gluten intolerant) I’m all for this, and it’s interesting that people are following their passions in their careers this way.
• Kid Gives Speech After Learning To Ride A Bike: This was just so positive in that this little boy saw what he accomplished and wanted to share that with others.
• 5 LinkedIn “Must Haves”: Some great ideas about how to utilize LinkedIn.  Many people think that you just put up a profile and something will happen.  You have to work it!
• 6 Social Media Mistakes….and How to Avoid Them: This is all about how to use social media in marketing your organization, but the parallels in marketing yourself are (or should be) obvious. These are things I tell people all the time.
• 10 Things You Never Knew You Could Do On LinkedIn: While I knew a number of these things, there were a few things that I picked up, and probably some things that you didn’t know.
• 22 Powerful ways to Overcome Discouragement: Some great, quick, tangible things to do when you might be a little down.
• It’s Not Nagging: Why Persistent, Redundant Communication Works: Wonder why your manager keeps telling you about things to do, when you know you need to do them? This might give you some insight.
• Perpetual e-Motion: A cool video story of how two musicians have merged their passions for tradition music with new sound technologies.
• Chris Bryan Films Phantom Reel: A reel is sort of like a portfolio for people in the video business.  This is a great example of this guys work.