Are You Hijacked By BS?

Time to read: 1.5 minutes. 2.5 minutes if you read all the way to the signature.

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Hey Rebels!

It’s Anne!

I'm doing a dance of joy to be here with you today. Hooray!

When Christina and I held our Quiet the Noise Challenge this summer, YOU gave us feedback and WE listened.

You said, gee, I want to work on this Fact vs. Fiction thing. To help you with that, we're hosting another 60-minute webinar! The Corporate Rebel Truthfully U: Fact vs Fiction. If you already know you want to join us, sign up here.

If you want to dig deeper into what we mean by Fact vs Fiction, step into my life for a moment. You'll quickly see how the fiction hoodwinks your mind and sucks your energy.

On a quiet Saturday, I sat at my desk preparing for the Rethinking U Webinar. Computer straightened. Papers arranged logically. Pens, pencils perfectly lined up. Then the phone rang.

We have a landline (yes, an antique contraption with wires connected to other wires) and no caller ID so every call is a mystery guessing game. I can generally fake it, “Oh hey! How’s it going?” until I have enough voice recognition data to figure out the caller.

As I said, the phone rang...

Me: “Hello?”

Friend (let’s call her Gina): “Why are you still at home?”

Me: “Uh…” (brain churning…It’s Gina. Why am I not supposed to be at home? I like being at home.)

Gina: “You were supposed to pick me up ten minutes ago!”

Me: “Oh horsefeathers!” (She was right.)

Me again: “I can be there in twelve minutes.”

Gina: “No, I’ll just go.”

Me: “Oh. Okay.”

Gina: “Bye.”

I flew into action, changed into public-appropriate attire, and shot out of the garage. My brain went crazy. Gina will never forgive me. She’ll think I’m not reliable. I made us late. I let her down. She’ll hold a grudge and tell our friends that you cannot count on Anne for anything. Nope. Unreliable Anne.

I then devised an elaborate, heartfelt apology that basically held me personally responsible for all badness everywhere.

I arrived (late) to the gathering and, lo and behold, there was no steam coming out of Gina’s ears. When a side moment presented itself, I delivered my (truncated) apology and Gina said, “That’s okay. It happens to all of us.” Or something like that. The end. Do you do this to yourself?

Get out your dissecting tools. Dig around in the first couple paragraphs and look for the FACTS of what happened.

FACT #1: I forgot I had planned to pick up Gina.

FACT #2: I didn’t pick up Gina because of Fact #1.

FACT #3: Gina forgave me and still trusts me.

After that, it's all FICTION. Gina will never trust me again. She’ll turn all our mutual friends against me. Blah. Blah. Blah. You get the point. I created a friendship catastrophe that was all in my head and a waste of time.

Notice the energy I squandered. Do you do make stuff up and create catastrophe's in your head? Are you tired of wasting energy generating all kinds of negative gobbledeemuck? And for nothing?

Join us! (Small trumpet fanfare.) We’re doing another webinar: The Corporate Rebel Truthfully U on Monday October 7 at noon Central Time. Join us here.

It's worth the 60 minutes if you...

  • Can’t keep negative thoughts out of your brain, even when you want to think positively.
  • Compare yourself with others and come up short.
  • Search for hidden meaning behind interactions.
  • Spin and lie awake at night analyzing situations leaving you muddled and tired. Your friends are seriously tired of talking about it.

In 60 minutes you will...

  • Distinguish the Facts of a situation from the Fiction
  • Clear the clutter in your brain so you feel calm, energetic, and confident
  • Dive under the emotion and confusion so you can make clearer and faster decisions
  • Take action based on what’s actually true, rather than what you think is true, which will lead to better results

Join us. We can't wait to see you there!

Christina and Anne

P.S. Invite your friends! Their minds are full of fictions, too, and some of them may be about you. :-) They can join here.

 

The Secret to Destressing

Time to Read: Less than one minute. If you read all the way to the bottom, it will take you two minutes.

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Greetings Rebels!

When I go to North Carolina to work at my children's summer camp, I have no car. We fly and it doesn't make sense to rent a car for three weeks for a few days off and a trip to the airport.

My first year, I worried about how I would get anywhere on those days off and how my children and I would get to the airport from a little town with no Uber. Somehow everything worked out. People let me join their plans. The camp directors loaned me cars. I got everywhere I needed to go with ease. The worry was a waste of energy.

This summer was my third year at camp, and I no longer worry about the car. At all. Another parent asked me how I possibly manage with no car. I told her, with no sense of irony at all...

The universe always provides a car.

It's true, both literally and metaphorically. The worry is unnecessary. You will always have a car. It may not look the way you expect, and you'll always get where you need to go.

The trick is to do these three things:

  1. Trust.
  2. Trust.
  3. Trust.

As someone who needs constant reminders to trust, I know what a challenge this is.

  • Trust requires you to believe that everything will turn out, even when you're stressed.
  • Trust requires you to know that you're on the right path even when that path has headed in unexpected directions.
  • Trust means you can't tell the good news from the bad news.
  • Trust is relishing the journey of the unknown and mysterious.

If you feel like a dose of trust in your journey would help make your day-to-day calmer and more joyful, let's talk!

You can schedule a 30-minute spot here. We'll have a casual chat about what's going on, develop a strategy or two to help, and talk about if support (1:1 or The Corporate Rebel Clarity U coaching group) is a good next step for you.

Why does this matter to you?

  • You react instead of actively making decisions which leaves you feeling depleted and second-guessing your choices.
  • Life and work feel chaotic and disjointed. You find yourself running from place to place, slamming out emails, and feeling like you're not actually accomplishing anything.
  • You fall into the same ineffective patterns that have held you back for years.
  • Every year you think, "This is the year things are going to be different." Then they are not different and you keep going with the same old, same old.

What's in it for you? Starting in mid- October, you'll learn how to...

  • Shake off negative patterns of thinking and behaving so you can stop holding yourself back. Your life will be calmer and work more fulfilling.
  • Gracefully navigate transitions so you feel confident in the unknown and able to handle the changes that work and life throw at you.
  • Ground yourself physically and spiritually to allow radical transformation. You will look back and wonder why you didn't address this stuff sooner.
  • Wield your new, portable Toolbox of Skills so you're ready to take action, make choices, and be in control of your career and life.
  • Get clear about what you want and bravely take action toward making your goals real.

The Corporate Rebel Clarity U coaching group will help you put work and life on your terms. This link will take you to Christina's personal calendar to schedule a casual 30-minute chat.

We start in mid-October. There's no time like now!

You can also hit reply to this email to set up a time in the next few weeks or reach out to me privately with questions or inquiries.

Life is too short for work to suck.

With Rebel Hugs,

Christina

P.S. Are you ready to take action in your life? Let's talk! Click this link to choose a 30-minute spot on Christina's calendar. We'll talk about what's going on and whether Corporate Rebel Clarity U is a good fit.

P.P.S. Wouldn't it be awesome to do this work with your friends? Invite them to explore the possibilities by forwarding this email to them. They can sign up to chat about the group here.

 

Feel Pressured By Ever-Increasing Demands?

Time to Read: 51 seconds to the middle. 1.5 minuets all the way down.

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Hey Rebels,

A new client told me that she almost never leaves the office before 9:00 at night because it's the only time the fire drills and constant interruptions quiet down enough for her to work on strategic initiatives. One day she left at 6:00 and noticed with horror that it had been weeks since she had left the office in daylight.

Standing in the sunshine, she realized her strategies were not sustainable physically or mentally and that working "harder, faster and longer" is not yielding the results she wants for her work and life. She decided then and there to make a change.

You may not stay late at the office, but do you check your email as soon as your children are in bed? When was the last time you went to the gym? Or hung out with your friends? Are the hobbies that bring you joy a distant memory? Is Netflix all the energy you can manage in the evening? (Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Game of Thrones. And for all you stickler's out there, I know it's on HBO.)

If you've been reading my emails lately, you know where I'm headed.

Life is too short to allow your job to burn through decades of your life.

I told my client that the secret to a calmer, saner, happier work life isn't in finding better strategies to organize your day. You'll find calm and fulfillment by shifting the foundation on which you work - your beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, and structures that inform your day and your relationship to your job (and so much more).

If you're curious about how to completely change the way you work in order to be calm, productive, and wildly successful, consider chatting with me about the Corporate Rebel Clarity U coaching group. You can schedule a 30-minute spot here.

Why does this matter to you?

  • You react instead of actively making decisions which leaves you feeling depleted and second-guessing your choices.
  • Life and work feel chaotic and disjointed. You find yourself running from place to place, slamming out emails, and feeling like you're not actually accomplishing anything.
  • You fall into the same ineffective patterns that have held you back for years.
  • Every year you think, "This is the year things are going to be different." Then they are not different and you keep going with the same old, same old.

What's in it for you? Starting in October you will learn to...

  • Shake off negative patterns of thinking and behaving so you can stop holding yourself back. Your life will be calmer and work more fulfilling.
  • Gracefully navigate transitions so you feel confident in the unknown and able to handle the changes that work and life throw at you.
  • Ground yourself physically and spiritually to allow radical transformation. You will look back and wonder why you didn't address this stuff sooner.
  • Wield your new, portable Toolbox of Skills so you're ready to take action, make choices, and be in control of your career and life.
  • Get clear about what you want and bravely take action toward making your goals real.

The Corporate Rebel Clarity U coaching group will help you put work and life on your terms. This link will take you to Christina's personal calendar to schedule a casual 30-minute chat. We'll talk about what's going on in your life, develop a solution or two, and determine whether our group program is the right next step.

You can also email me at christina@boydsmithcoaching.com to set up a time in the next few weeks or reach out to me privately with questions or inquiries.

Seriously, you spend more hours at work than anywhere else. Don't let those hours suck.

With Rebel Love,

Christina

P.S. Are you ready to change the way you work (and as an added bonus, thrive in all aspects of your life)? Let's talk! Click this link to choose a 30-minute spot on my calendar. We'll talk about what's going on and whether Corporate Rebel Clarity U is a good fit.

P.P.S. Wouldn't it be awesome to do this work with your friends? Invite them to explore the possibilities by forwarding this email to them. They can sign up to chat here.

 

From Discouraged to National Stage

Time to Read: 48.3 seconds

The National Stage Theater in Bergen, Norway

The National Stage Theater in Bergen, Norway

Hello Rebels!

One of my clients* came to me discouraged and ready to throw in the towel on her multi-year career. She had a strained relationship with her boss and felt like it was impossible to create forward movement on her projects. (*All client stories are told with permission.)

In coaching, sometimes things feel better and sometimes worse. We looked for the things that were most important to her and where her work stifled her gifts. We uncovered that she had collapsed her values of community and service with an imperative to sacrifice herself for the cause. We focused on the strategies and tactics that would change her situation and the beliefs and choices that held her back.

Fast forward in our coaching, and she started job hunting (tactics and strategies). We uncovered the thing that was most important to her in her career (choices). We focused on her drive to please others and put their needs ahead of her own (beliefs). We worked through a courageous decision to change jobs and take a pay cut (beliefs and tactics).

This multi-pronged approach resulted in a job where she led a massive public project around the topic she values most. The project received a lot of attention, not all of it pretty or easy. She is now being sought out by other organizations and cities to share her expertise. She is consulting. She is speaking nationally and contributing to the issue she cares most about. Her career has exploded. She's on the path of her purpose and leaving a lasting legacy.

What's the message here? Strategies and tactics are important and will only get you so far. You also have to look for the things you value most and replace the beliefs, choices and patterns that hold you back with expansive ones that propel you forward.

I hope this helps!

Christina

P.S. Would you like your career to become a path for your purpose? Let's talk! Click this link to choose a 30-minute spot on my calendar for a virtual coffee date. We'll talk about what's going on, create a solution or two and help you discern what will help you get where you want to go - whether that's working with me (1:1 or in The Corporate Rebel Clarity U coaching group) or doing something else.

P.P.S. Do you know someone who craves deeper purpose and meaning in their work life? Invite them to explore the possibilities by forwarding this email to them. They can sign up to chat about what's going on here.