Spring & central park in full bloom
On seasonal planning, rehumanizing the workplace & a new offer!
Field Notes is a monthly-ish newsletter where I share my observations, impressions and insights from my work and life. Should you want to reflect on and better understand the opportunities, challenges, and life or work transitions you’re currently navigating, we can explore that in a personal coaching session.
It’s Wednesday afternoon and I’m sitting in my best friend’s apartment in NYC. I started my day in central park chatting with a fellow coach about a collaboration we’re dreaming up. The energy of spring is palpable with the park in full bloom. I can sense the shift in energy that’s occurred the last few weeks as I’m filled with a desire to channel the inward growth of winter into outward action and creativity.
There’s a lot bubbling up and I’m excited about all the possibilities I see for the year ahead. In the spirit of continuing to share my “field notes” with you, I’ve captured some observations, impressions, and insights from the last month below.
Seasonal planning practice: Last year, I stopped planning by the “normal” calendar year and started planning by the season. Like nature, I’ve learned that life and business are cyclical. For a while I tried to fight this and be “consistent” in how I showed up. I expected myself to have the same energy and motivation year-round. The result? Extreme frustration, exhaustion and ultimately burnout. Now instead of fighting my natural rhythm, I work with each season to plan my personal life and business (hint, hint: winter’s often much slower and less front-loaded than spring or summer). I’ve learned to be mindful of how I feel in each season 🌱🌞 🌾 ❄️ and use this ‘data’ to set realistic goals for each 3-month cycle. Winter is always the ‘hardest’ for me, as my energy is low and I want to hibernate and rest, yet I often feel guilty for slowing down. This year I felt more at ease stepping back and taking stock of my life and business, trusting that my motivation and drive to take action would return again come spring (and it has!). In this way, I’ve been able to have more grace with myself and my natural energy flow than ever before.
Reimagining the future of work: I have a vision for rehumanizing the workplace. I have a vision for a world where people, teams and organizations embrace emotions as ‘data’ to foster greater connection, innovation, creativity, and well-being. As a first step in helping make this vision a reality, I’m learning how to use The Emotional Culture Deck (yes, it’s an actual card game!) to flip the conversation leaders and staff have around culture and performance and reimagine the future of work! So far, I’ve had a blast learning how to facilitate and play the game and exploring how I want to feel (free, connected, open-minded, playful, daring) and not feel (impatient, confused, overwhelmed, embarrassed, doubtful) at work.
Navigating screen fatigue: Anyone else have Zoom/screen fatigue? 💻 After noticing how exhausted and drained I feel after a full-day of Zoom calls, I’ve been making an effort to ask more folks to have work-related audio calls to give myself a break from Zoom and get out of the house. This felt a little weird to ask for at first, but I’ve noticed a lot of people are just as exhausted by screen time and happy to take a screen/walk and talk break. A lesson here for me has been noticing and asking for what I need to feel my best at work.
Experimenting with a new offer (1-off sessions ⚡️): I had a wonderful 1-off coaching session with a new client on Monday to help her find clarity around a specific work-related issue she’s facing. Our session reminded me of the power of a single coaching conversation in navigating a pressing challenge, question or choice-point. It inspired me to share a new offer for 1-off clarity coaching sessions designed to provide you with quick, focused support on a specific challenge, question or decision. These 1-off sessions are $125 and will last 60-min via Zoom, and you can book your session here.
Okay dear friends, that’s all for now. Thanks for joining me once again. I sincerely enjoyed all of your replies to my last newsletter! If something resonated or sparked curiosity for you this month, hit ‘reply’ I’d love to hear and chat more!
Warmly,
Oriana