Tag Archive for: perspective

Looking forward and backward…

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As the day comes to a close, I realize that I have devoted my time to looking back and looking forward – it’s been a delight!!

Just now I printed out the welcome letters to the Living Fully, Dying Prepared Community Series I will be facilitating at two local libraries this month.

Earlier this afternoon I connected with a colleague in the Morning Altars Teacher Training Program. It was a distinct pleasure to have a rambling conversation about our experiences and to share insights gained from the completion of my final project.

Tomorrow, I will offer up ideas in a debrief about the Grief Gatherings event hosted by Grief Matters at the end of last month. (My final project for Morning Altars).

In a few minutes, I will pack up bikablo materials for a private client for the team’s training in early November.

Looking forward, then backward, backward again, and the forward…
What about you? What is the rhythm of your days right now?

We’re finally seeing the leaves turn here in New York—it’s fabulous! The cooler winds and the rustle of the dry leaves feel and sound like fall, with a nod to the coming cold weather.

I’m excited to begin this last quarter of the year. Planned, and yet big changes await me in 2026. I’m thinking carefully about how I will wrap up elements of my work and this year. There are adventures on the horizon—more learning, more sharing, and times of serving as I step into new roles and collaborations.

What are you planning for these last months of the year?
How are you feeling about it?

We could have a coffee and discuss…

How do you sharpen your skills?

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FROM LAST WEEK

A simple question from my daughter early one morning, “How are you?” turned into a distillation of what I’m working on…

I was feeling great, preparing for a multi-day graphic recording gig, with paper and markers, for the Organization Development Network. Truth be told, I do more digital GR at events now than my beloved analog work. So I was engaged in a week-long process of assessing my current skills, critiquing them, and stretching further—because I’ve grown and changed over time and have different expectations of myself. I was digging out old and new tools—it was so much fun! There are so many ways in which to play/work!

What about you? How often do you assess your current level of knowledge and skills—critique your results, seeing the big picture of what’s working and what needs work—and plan to do better in the next iteration?

I decided to keep a record of my work by taking photographs and making notes about each of the charts, using the standards/criteria that I offer my coaching clients. I felt good about my progress. Honestly, the fun of taking out all my goodies/tools that I don’t often use and experimenting with ones that are almost new to/rarely used by me (GIANT Montana markers) was so exciting!

The ”daily-ness” of it was also a delight. I didn’t think about it or have to make choices. I just put up fresh paper on the wall every day, listened, and visualized. (I’m taking a course in nature journaling {h/t to Margi Bush}, so there’s no need to think about the content I would graphically record.) There was a comfort in the routine. I will admit I am a lover of daily practices with an eye toward either keeping in touch with myself and seeing my work over time, with the peaks and valleys that are hallmarks of the process of learning. For me, it is all about conscious practice, whether it happens daily or less frequently.

What’s your ”recipe” for burnishing your knowledge and skills?

I’d like to know!

PS: I didn’t get a chance to post this before the conference… On-site, I realized that (in all my “plorking”/playing and working) I had focused on experimentation and progress. I had omitted an element of the process I needed for the six analog charts—consistency of styles and format. The morning of the event, I wondered about which lettering styles and colors I would choose, and how I would indicate the hierarchy of information to use across all the recordings. Happily, there were many choices from my experimentation, and the decisions were accomplished quickly and easily.

Playing, “What if…?”

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I sat down in Black Milk café’s delightful backyard space with a cuppa joe, drawing paper, and two black markers, surrounded by flowering plants, vintage mirrors, fun, mismatched tables, and (spray) paintings on the walls. I’m easing into the day after going to sleep way too late last night/early this morning, following a night at the U.S. Open Tennis Championships, which was worth the late hour that we got home. (But I digress… though setting is important to me, as I dive into my work? You too, or…?)

I started wondering, what can I do in this cozy place in the half hour that I have before the day gets rolling – there’s much on my plate, what can I choose that I can start and finish in that timeframe? How can I take advantage of this moment? So I thought of my current big project that I’ve been able to step away from for about a week. And, before diving back into the details and editing, I thought maybe I needed to re-imagine the actual design of the book/the nature of the drawings that I am creating. I’m not really sure I will move in a new (-ish) direction, but the whole idea of just sitting down with a blank piece of paper and playing, “What if… ?” felt wonderful (if not energizing… the coffee hadn’t quite worked magic yet).

Does this happen to you?
Do you get so caught up in something that you are in the weeds…
Finding it hard to get perspective or go back to that 30,000 foot view?

I know if I step away from something for at least a day, if not longer, I come back to it with a different perspective. It doesn’t mean that I embrace my new ideas, though I do feel refreshed, and that I’m doing my ‘due diligence,” giving it my best effort, to not rush, because it’s too important.

I’m actually wrestling with the idea of whether to create a quasi-regular-looking book format that people will understand readily or to handcraft every page of the guide that I have developed. It’s a big question. Honestly, I want to get it done in the sense that I have been working on it lovingly for more than half a year (which may not seem like a long time, but it is based on an existing coaching program I have in place). I want to feel it in my hands. be able to show it to people, and share it. And yet is it the right move? Would it be more appealing to people if it were more different or would that be just too niche and so far from the traditional thinking about how you talk about the subject matter that people wouldn’t even pick it up? I don’t know. I think this might be a question for members of my intended audience and my graphic designer, (who is a well-known author and graphic novelist herself). I’m going to wrestle with it some more. I like, “What if…”

What about you?
Do you play such games/work in such ways with yourself in the process of doing your best work?

I am always curious about people’s approaches, processes, methods, and techniques. I am reading The Book of Alchemy, by Suleika Jaouad, which is chock full of people’s fabulous stories and ideas about how they work and prompts they create for readers. The brief chapters offer up even more treasures/books, which is a delight! I will begin by reading Frida Kahlo’s hybrid art journals, though I may also walk to the bookshelf and reacquaint myself with Austin Kleon’s books… perhaps I will then venture further afield… We’ll see!

I’d love to know your process. I hope you’ll tell me.

What will you experience here? 

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I’m listening to this amazing book, Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship by Father Gregory Boyle. I’ll be honest, I am as surprised as anyone that I am loving this book. (If you’re curious about that statement, let’s chat.)

I listen to it every day as I take my walk, often pausing to step off the path, to tap a quote into my phone so I don’t forget it. Just the other day I was listening to a piece about what volunteers often ask when they arrive at Homeboy Industries (the largest gang intervention, rehabilitation, and re-entry program in the world). Their question, is “What should I do here?” The response from Father Gregory is priceless, “The  question is what will you experience here?” I love that! 

Can you feel the difference? As I listen to Father Gregory‘s question I feel an expansiveness, an opportunity to open up to the possibility of what might occur. When I listen to the question about what to do, while it could lead to many possible answers, my sense of it is that one or two answers are being sought. It feels like possibilities are closed off, along with creativity, and imagining beyond what’s right in front of me. While there are times for needing a specific answer… what if we lived that question every day, throughout our days? 

What will you experience here?

What do you think? I have several thoughts about it:

  • It would be exciting and mind-expanding.
  • It might be exhausting and unsustainable. 

I think of the latter because having routines and habits can be very helpful. It certainly streamlines my day and reduces the number of decisions I make, whether I’m thinking of my breakfast routine or the route I will take to the train station. If I approached every task with the query, “What are all the possibilities?” I’m not sure I get enough done during the day.

Perhaps there’s a middle path—discerning the times to choose a routine and when to be open to something novel. I might have more varied and quite different experiences if I  consciously choose to embrace the question of how I will engage in them.

One of my students, years ago would ask me, when he received an assignment, “What to do?” Of course, the tasks varied, some were more close-ended/one right answer while others were more open-ended, with multiple perspectives or answers. 

The question, “What to do?” does not necessarily imply a way to do something or a way of looking at it. Yet, I wonder how frequently I/we step back from an immediate appraoch to tackling a task to wonder about the experience we will have. What do you think? I know that I am already wondering about how I will step into situations later today.

As you enter the weekend, perhaps you will play with these questions. If you do, or whenever you do, please let me know your experiences. 

Creating my universe

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Just the other day I was talking with my VEOLI buddies (Visualizing End-of-Life Issues) about where we are in our development as a collaborative/group/organization. We’ve been engaged in a low-key version of the 5D Appreciative Inquiry Design process…

  • Defining what are we seeking to achieve—our topic and scope
  • Discovering what we appreciate about our work to date—as individuals and as a group
  • Dreaming about what we want to become (knowing that we have different interests and perspectives)
  • Designing some experiments (social media, collaborations, offering workshops)
  • Delivering what will be

What about you? 

As the half-year mark approaches, what are you appreciating about what you are doing and where you are in your universe?

We began discussing how we fit into the existing professions, organizations, and niches that comprise end-of-life care and work. I volunteered to draft initial ideas and then ask VEOLI members to review, add, change, delete or re-imagine the draft. Initially, I thought I’d start with all the organizations and professions that we had been naming and see how we fit into what they do. When I put the pencil to iPad, I started instead with us, and all of our capabilities and interests. I have created the first draft, though I may completely re-envision it before sharing. We’ll see!

 

If you were going to create a visual about yourself in your universe, what would it look like?

What is your foundation? What do you appreciate about your work?

What ideas will you explore to determine in what ways you will move forward?

I decided to dig into the question of my current universe… as I’m feeling so many changes afoot in the work that I do. My first draft was completely literal, black and white (so I just had to add a yellow background!)—just get the ideas out of my head and onto the canvas. It is informative and rather uninspiring. Of course, as I was drawing it, I started to think of another way to represent my ideas that felt fun and exciting… so that’s next up for me. Here’s a sketch of the ideas I am going to draw out in the next few days… My path for moving forward—even if that path is in the stars!

All materials copyright ©2019 Jill Greenbaum, Ed.D. All rights reserved.