There is a set of activities that I’m flat out brilliant at. I enjoy doing them

There is another set of activities I love doing. Truly love doing.

Both these sets involve being creative. Painting, writing, or creative problem solving. Working with someone else to find a crazy solution to something that has been driving them crazy is almost as much fun for me as playing with paints.

There’s an entirely different set of activities that I’m good at… but don’t make my heart sing in the slightest. However, many of those activities have been a stable source of income for me for years.

Sarah Goshman wrote recently about finding a new path for herself, and reading the book The Big Leap, by Gay Hendricks. Something she said jumped off the screen and just shook me.

 ”The concept that each of us has 3 zones: a zone of competence, a zone of excellence, and a zone of genius.

And the only way to step into your zone of genius is to stop doing the things that fall in the other two zones.”

And I keep thinking… what would happen if I only did the things that I love doing? Not just the things that I’m good at, that I do just because they pay the bills… but only what I love doing?

The thought is pretty terrifying, actually.

Right now, I don’t trust that I’ll be able to support myself doing what I love.

Hate to say it, but it’s true.

However, I’m going to bring out the creative problem solving hat.

How could I get from where I am today, right now, to a place that I would trust that I could support myself?

I’m not entirely sure, but the first step should be more data.  I don’t have to change anything this month. But just take field notes throughout the day.

How much of my day do I spend working on my dream – either making it real, or doing my dream activities?

How much of my day do I spend on other activities, and how does that make me feel? What’s one tiny step I could take that would move me out of “just-good” projects?

I don’t have to take that step – not right now, not until I feel more secure about it. Right now, I just want to notice what some steps might be.

I have a tiny voice in my head whispering that it’s possible, just possible, that there’s more time for my dream life than I think. And maybe there’s more ways to detangle from non-dream activities than I’ve realized.

And I guess I’ll find out by the end of the month!

What’s your zone of genius?  Come join us on the Facebook page and share!

(I’ve moved comments over to the facebook page so that we’ve got a unified discussion going on, and more people to play with!)

What do I mean by purposeful productivity?

We spend a whole lot of our lives getting things done, kicking it out, working the list.

But never checking in to make sure it’s the right list.

There’s an old, old story that illustrates the point. (How do I know it’s old? I’m pretty sure I heard it from my father… and that makes it ancient.)

The story goes on about a man who worked hard through all sorts of obstacles to climb a ladder, only to get to the top and realize he’d leaned the ladder against the wrong wall.

 Sound familiar? 

If we don’t take the time to check where the ladder is, we’re working hard, doing all the right things, but we’re not going to get the results we want.

 Purposeful. There’s not much point in getting things done, unless we’re getting the right things done.

How do we figure out what the right things are?

It takes time.

Last thing you wanted to hear, right?

I’d bet that your first thought is something along the lines of “Crazy lady. There’s no way to fit one more thing into the schedule.” Possibly with a little tight laugh thrown in, and a gulp of coffee.

If you’re like me, you’ve just glanced over to your list for the day, for the week, and flinched a little at the very idea of adding one more thing to it.

Hear me out.

What do you want to do? Do you even know?  When was the last time you gave yourself the gift of quiet time to think, to make sure that your goals are still congruent?

When was the last time you had a chance to just sit and be still with yourself?

It’s a hard thing to do, to realize that we need time, quiet time. Not to review the list, or notes for the next meeting, but five minutes without a screen or our phones. A blank piece of paper, and just time to think.

Not for long, just long enough to answer three questions. Probably five minutes, maybe less.

And I promise, if you can give yourself those five minutes every day, you’ll be much more certain the ladder is up on the right wall.

•  What are my goals?
•  Are those goals still resonant with my heart, or has anything shifted?
•  What am I doing today that brings me closer to my goals?

Just one thing, even one tiny thing to bring you closer to your goals every day can make all the difference in the world.

Even if you were going to do it anyway, being mindful of what you’re doing and why can bring a huge shift to how you relate to your task list. You’ll know that you’re not just getting things done, but you’re taking steps towards your dreams!

 So – what are your goals? And what are you doing today that brings you closer to them?

P.S.    Next Saturday will be the last class on Supporting Your Goals for a while. Do you have a project that you’re stuck on, or a goal you’d like to achieve? Give yourself some support! http://www.themissingpiece.com/classes/

What messages are you putting out into the universe? What messages are you telling yourself?

I don’t really have many thoughts one way or the other on attraction, or manifestation – this isn’t about that.

This is about what messages we’re telling ourselves and other people by how we live our lives.

Right now, I’m going through years of tangled websites, files and emails to old projects, or old projects that have morphed into new ones.

It’s a terrible combination of registering a new domain name every time I have a new idea, and using the same domain for multiple projects over the years (themissingpiece.com was originally for selling handsewn accessories for historical reenactors, then a web site maintenance service) compounded by the fact that some sites are fifteen years old.

I’m sending so many mixed signals, it’s a wonder that the people who are looking for me now are finding me. I’m still getting contacts from people who are looking for the past-me who did that other sort of work.

Some of that I can’t do anything about. Things live forever on the internet.

But quite a lot of it I can do something about. I can trace down old projects, make sure that emails are ending up in the right places.

It’s not just the image I’m presenting to the world, but the story I’m telling myself. Who am I? What do I do? What are my passions?

If I’m giving myself mixed signals, no wonder I struggle sometimes for clarity.

If I’m working on one project, but surrounded by the ghosts of old projects, is it any wonder that sometimes I’m unsure about what the next step is?

Having the clarity to know, really deep in my bones know, what I’m doing (at least at this moment) makes everything easier.

It takes less energy if I’m clear what my current project is. Less energy to do it, less energy to make decisions.  I’m less likely to get sidetracked by something only to realize days or weeks later that I’m following an old dream.

What messages are you sending out? And are they the ones you mean to be sending?

There’s a project that I’ve been stuck on. Really stuck on.

I meant to have it done… six months ago. Even though the project itself isn’t particularly big or hard or complicated, it’s become a project-of-doom.

Yes, other things came up, and all the delays are very understandable, but it hasn’t gotten done, and the project just squats on my list.

Things on my list that don’t get done bother me. They’re broken promises, sometimes to other people, but always to myself.

If there’s something that’s been on my list forever, I’ve discovered that I often need to sit with it for a while. Find out what the issue is.

Today, with the project-of-doom once again staring me in the face, it seemed like a good idea to investigate.

And since chances are good you might have a project-of-doom on your own list, I thought I’d share my process.

Question 1: Is this my project?

Sometimes I realize that I haven’t worked on a project-of-doom because it’s not really mine to do. I might be waiting for information from someone in order to proceed or for someone else to do the next step. In that case, the project is mine, but the next step isn’t.

Sometimes it’s really not my project at all, but something I want to happen so much that I’ve gotten tangled up in another person’s process. Invested my energy into something I don’t have any control over.

Answer: This project doesn’t feel like it’s in either of those categories. It’s true, I had been waiting to hear back from other people about their participation, and although that waiting may have added a little drag to the momentum, I’m long past that point.

Question 2: Was this my project once, but it isn’t any more?

Maybe my heart isn’t in it anymore. Maybe it was part of a plan or a dream that was important, but my priorities have changed. Maybe it was a wild whim, and after a cooling-off period, I can see it’s not a plan I want to pursue.

That happens and it doesn’t mean I’m fickle, or a bad person. Priorities change all the time.

Answer: After a lot of journaling, I’ve decided this project is still mine, and still works with my general plan. I’m not super excited about it right now, but that seems to be due to the lack of movement on it. When I read the actual project notes, I’m reminded of how much fun it could be!

Question 3: Does something else need to happen before I can start?

Sometimes I realize I can’t do a project-of-doom because it’s actually phase three of something else, and once I get phase one and two done, phase three falls into place.

Answer: And here’s where the lights turn on today. I couldn’t do this project before because in the back of my mind I was still working on getting some clarity about the larger plan. I’ve been making great strides with understanding how all the pieces fit together and with that in place, this feels much more doable.

Now that I can identify where the stuckness is, I feel like I can make a plan to address those issues, and get this project off the doom list!

As always, what works for me may not work for you – if you have a different way of tackling stuck projects, I’d love to hear about it in the comments!