Accountability Partners

Last week, as part of a professional group I belong to, I started having weekly conversations with an accountability partner.  The format is that we talk once a week for 30 minutes with each person having 15 minutes to share, ask for feedback or support, celebrate accomplishments, and be witnessed  in the inspired actions steps or goals we want to pursue for the week.

For me, the greatest value is just in making the time to pause and think intentionallyabout where I’ve been, what I want, and how best to support myself in getting there.   On some level, I do this off and on all the time.  But having a partner with which I state these things out loud creates a differently type of energy.   I already knew that I didn’t necessarily need help staying on task since I am a supreme “doer”.  Instead, what I ask for was the reminder to let go, to be, to play.

This past week I celebrated how much I had accomplished for my business development over the past year…and clearly stated that for the summer I wanted to do less and be more with my family and a slower pace.  To that end I set out three main goals for the month and put the other tasks off to the side as best I could.  And to remind myself of this goal and keep me focused, I committed to making a sign for my office door that says, “That’s ENOUGH…go play!”. 

I have yet to actually make the sign, but just the idea of it helped me several times this past week to step back and know that what I’d done that day was enough for the moment and it was time to move on…to reading, to playing with my kids, to taking a bike ride, to letting go.   And it’s been wonderful!  I’m still getting my priority projects done but I’m doing a better job of holding my life in balance.  The two energies of doing and being not only balance each other, they help the opposite energy become even more effective.

This balance and effective idea brings me to a quote a friend sent last week from Abraham /The Hicks.

Reduce your workload by 30% and increase your fun load by 30% and you will increase your revenues by 100%. And you will increase your productivity by 10,000%. (If there could be such a percentage.) More fun, less struggle — more results on all fronts.  — Abraham

Do You Need An Excuse To Really Relax?

The question of whether I need an excuse to completely relax showed up for me this week.  Logically I don’t need an excuse…like being sick, being on a cleanse, having a child sick, being away on vacation…to take a break.   Yet when I looked at my actions, the reality is that I often don’t take a deep break unless there is something big going on. 

Sure, I take little breaks all the time.  I do regular yoga and meditation for relaxation and renewal, I read regularly as my night time form of letting go, I take hot baths, I watch movies about once a week.  But take a whole day or even half a day to really set it all aside and let go?  Not very often.  Why?  The answer, I’m sure to all of you as well, is obvious.  As a working mother, there always just seems like too much to do.  House work, yard work, business development, errands, cooking, kid activities.  Yet, like my continually rotating “to-do list”, these things will never fully be done.  I might finish the task of the moment, but it is a repetitive cycle.  Which means, if I wait for the cycle to end before taking a break, it sure isn’t going to happen!

So this weekend I did as little as possible.  Yes, I’m on a cleanse and was feeling tired so had a good point of motivation (notice the change in words for “excuse”) and yes, it was a bit of a tug-of-war to ignore the yard, sticky wood floors, business issues…but I did it!  I read an entire book, watched a movie, laid in the hammock, watched a record 4 episodes of the “Gilmore Girls” which my daughter got me hooked on, slept in and really relaxed.  And…I feel fabulous.  Not only am I ready to open the new gifts of today but I’m doing it with a sense of calm rather than pent up frenetic energy.

And, I’m going to do my best to do this more often…even without any external point of motivation.  How about you?