Lunching al fresco in Lisbon.
Newstand just opening up for the day in Largo Do Carmo.
Serenaded by one of the happiest roving minstrels I’ve ever met.
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Wandering Lisbon
May 5, 2010
Rock On
April 26, 2010
The Rockies: a consolation prize or a cancellation prize? When Volcano Iceland swiped London & Paris from the calendar, we stole a few days in the Rockies instead. Here’s what I saw – or at least what the end of my brush saw!
Sketched from Lakeview Lounge at Fairmont Chateau overlooking Lake Louise, while savoring a bowl of hot corn and crab chowder and a Grasshopper ale. Definitely warmer inside than out. (more…)
Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiago?
April 21, 2010
Well, I don’t know about Carmen, but Dave and I are still here in Saskatoon. Tuesday evening’s Calgary-London flight was cancelled, and although skies now appear to be opening over Europe, it would be another 4-5 days before we could get rebooked seats out.
Dave and I have decided to step off the volcanic roller coaster. We have cancelled our London/Paris vacation plans in favor of future more settled timing.
I have rebooked my flight for May 3 to arrive in Lisbon just in time to join the Portugal/ Spain/ Morocco painting tour group for what was to be the last part of the adventure. Hopefully that will still go forward. We’re in the process of dismantling all other reservations – and then we’re going to take the rest of the week off.
While we’ve been twiddling our thumbs and watching the skies, I’ve also been painting. Why not? Here’s a wee bit from the brushes.
Our Trip So Far
April 18, 2010
Here’s the only photo I’ve taken on our trip so far. Suitcases packed and on standby at our front door.
Our departure was aborted Thursday with the flare up of the Icelandic volcano. We and the suitcases made it as far as the Saskatoon airport where we were turned back to cool our hoofies until the skies clear.
Rebooked for departure on Tuesday, but no guarantees. Not a disaster, but certainly a disappointment!
PAUSE – 10.13 – A Different Kind of R&R
April 14, 2010
REFLECTION:
I recently hosted a play day for two nieces and my grandson. The weather was great, so much of the day was spent exploring the springtime treasures of the backyard. There were twigs to gather, ladybugs to catch, and birds’ nests to investigate. I hung the hammock, and they took turns giving each other rides and picking each other up off the ground.
Eventually attention turned to the fish pond. The threesome was delighted to discover twigs and leaves afloat – and mortified to discover 3 dead goldfish amongst the debris. Fish of a significant size, I might add. One 5 inches long and the others each 3 inches in length.
Reactions were varied. The three year old wanted to know how to make them swim again. (Ignorance is bliss, and hope springs eternal in the mind of an innocent.) The seven year old was highly engaged by the mechanics of the recovery operation (twigs, nets, airlifts, plastic bags). The ten year old fired accusing glances and words my way, “How could you leave them to freeze, Aunt Pat? You have to tell them how sorry you are!”
I was, I admit, filled with R & R – remorse and regret. I’d spent several hours one cold day last October scooping fish out of the pond and moving them into the basement tubs for the winter. I thought we had 15 fish, and I harvested that number. Apparently, they’d multiplied.
In my defense, the three spring floaters were all grey and silver in color – tough to sight in the murky waters – unlike their bright orange and white kin that are much easier to find. And, in October I had gone back out to the pond several times after the water had stilled again, to see if there were any fish that had been left behind. But in the end, I was responsible for their demise. It was a sad moment all round.
ACTION:
I’m assuming that you, too, have perhaps experienced an ‘oops’ moment or two in your own life. Many, of course, will be far more significant than the loss of the lives of three small fish.
One of the challenges to avoid in moments of error is that of getting bogged down in remorse and recriminations. Should have. Could have. If only.
In the end, the best lesson in how to handle these experiences came from the three year old. He paid attention to what was happening. He expressed concern about the situation. He wondered how or whether it might be fixed. And, then, assured that nothing could be done except try to do better next time, he picked up a fresh stick and ambled off in new directions. I’m following his lead.
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
“Draw a line. Step over it. Move on.” – Rambling Dave Scharf
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RESOURCE OF THE WEEK:
Check out this article on Dealing With Your Biggest Regret at: http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Dealing-With-Your-Biggest-Regret–/1055503
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READERS WRITE:
In response to last week’s message, ‘Making Your Mark’, Pause reader KE writes: “This is a great newsletter today, Pat. And the thing that struck me the most about it is your ability to notice – really notice – what is happening in an everyday moment, and ponder the wider message / broader learning / or life lesson. You have a real gift for seeing things in a different way.”
REFLECTION: I recently hosted a play day for two nieces and my grandson. The weather was great, so much of the day was spent exploring the springtime treasures of the backyard. There were twigs to gather, ladybugs to catch, and birds’ nests to investigate. I hung the hammock, and they took turns giving each other rides and picking each other up off the ground.
Eventually attention turned to the fish pond. The threesome was delighted to discover twigs and leaves afloat – and mortified to discover 3 dead goldfish amongst the debris. Fish of a significant size, I might add. One 5 inches long and the others each 3 inches in length.
Reactions were varied. (more…)
PAUSE – 10.12 – Making Your Mark
April 7, 2010
REFLECTION:
I paused on this morning’s riverbank walk for a moment to perch on a frost covered bench and soak up a bit of sunshine. When I arose I (or at least my jacket) had soaked up more than the sunshine. Frost be gone! That spot on the bench was white no more.
I found myself wondering, “Could making your mark on the world really be that easy?”
So often we look at impacting the world around us as tricky, time consuming, and complicated. Having an impact is seen as something to be planned, pursued and executed with ferocity and intensity.
Well, maybe there are more ease-filled options in front of us or around us all the time. In our haste to push through and carry on, we may miss the opportunity completely.
ACTION:
What frosty situations are you facing? Strained relationships? Tangled problems? Off-track projects? Commitment overload?
What might actually be resolved, if you simply paused for a moment? Sat down solo to rest your burden and consider your options – or sat informally with someone else for a relaxed conversation about the issue at hand?
Sometimes the natural warmth of connection and the relaxed energy of presence thaws the iciest situations. You may discover inherent bench strength you haven’t even begun to tap.
Give yourself the gift of a moment. Sit. Relax. Pause. Ponder. Thaw out a problem or two. Carry on your way.
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QUOTES OF THE WEEK:
“People become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them.” – George Bernard Shaw
“If things go wrong, don’t go with them.” – Roger Babson
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RESOURCE OF THE WEEK:
I learned many important lessons about the impact of pause by participating in regular Balance Days with two of my friends and colleagues. For ten years, the three of us met at the turn of the seasons and invested a few hours or a full day in reflection and renewal. The experience taught us a lot about presence and ease and their positive impact on our lives.
You’ll find the story of our experience and a process for creating your own Balance Day triad experience in the Balance Day Guide & Journal, now available for purchase from the Pause Shop in electronic pdf download format. Check it out at: http://www.pauseworks.com/shop/publications.php#balance
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READERS WRITE:
In response to last week’s message, The Acceleration Trap, Pause reader JK writes: Your message today was very timely. Here are a couple of side effects of overload on an organization that were not mentioned in your article. I have experienced these first-hand.
Rapid change means insufficient time to communicate changes to employees. Lack of communication creates an atmosphere where rumors become the source of (mis)information. This leads to a drop in morale.
How can employees be expected to maintain high levels of performance when change is happening so fast they don’t have time to adapt? This is happening more and more in all industries. Maybe, everyone – including the organization- needs to slow down.
REFLECTION: I paused on this morning’s riverbank walk for a moment to perch on a frost covered bench and soak up a bit of sunshine. When I arose I (or at least my jacket) had soaked up more than the sunshine. Frost be gone! That spot on the bench was white no more.
I found myself wondering, “Could making your mark on the world really be that easy?”
So often we look at impacting the world around us as tricky, time consuming, and complicated. Having an impact is seen as something to be planned, pursued and executed with ferocity and intensity.
Well, maybe there are more ease-filled options in front of us or around us all the time. In our haste to push through and carry on, we may miss the opportunity completely. (more…)
PAUSE – 10.11 – Acceleration Trap
March 31, 2010
REFLECTION:
Researchers in Switzerland and the UK have confirmed what I have long observed – that overload has just as serious an impact on organizations as it does on individuals. Bruch and Menges studied 600 companies over the last decade and identified what they refer to as the Acceleration Trap.
The trap is the result of corporations taking on more than they can handle, increasing the number and speed of activities, spiking performance goals, slashing innovation cycles and continuously introducing new technologies and systems. In short, taking a fast and furious approach to multiple issues on multiple fronts.
What’s the impact on individuals? Employees don’t have enough resources to meet expectations. They work under endlessly elevated time pressures, in situations where priorities are constantly changing. There’s no light at the end of the tunnel and little or no investment in rejuvenation.
Organizationally, relentless acceleration breeds a lack of focus, misalignment of activities, conflicting messaging, confused customers, and exhausted employees.
B&M have identified three core destructive patterns of behavior. Overloading the organization with too many projects and activities. Multi-loading employees by asking them to do too many different kinds of activities. Perpetual loading in which there is no opportunity to regroup or catch your breath before the next burst of frenzy.
ACTION:
So, how might companies sustain high performance over time without overtaxing their employees, confusing their customers, and losing their edge?
B&M offer several suggestions.
1. Halt less important work. Solicit ideas for what could be terminated.
2. Get clear about strategy. It’s tougher to prioritize or jettison projects, if you don’t know what matters most and how activities connect to those end goals.
3. Adopt a systematic approach to sifting and sorting projects. Place a cap on the number of annual goals. Filter ideas for new projects through a reality check.
4. Build corporate time-outs into the cycle of performance. Declare an endpoint to focused initiatives – rather than having them drag on forever. Mandate periods of regrouping after major projects.
What do all these suggestions have in common? A degree of thoughtfulness that somehow seems absent in a climate of fast furious infinite frenzy.
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
“If the leader gets greedy, demanding the same level of urgency every day, the energy will fizzle and performance will sink, despite employees’ heroics.” – Bruch & Menges
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RESOURCE OF THE WEEK:
Read the complete article, The Acceleration Trap, by Bruch & Menges, in the April, 2010 edition of Harvard Business Review. You will find the opening paragraphs of the article on-line at: http://hbr.org/2010/04/the-acceleration-trap/ar/1 Full article can be purchased on-line from HBR or check for a copy of HBR in the business section of your library.
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‘TAKE A BREAK REPRINT’ OPPORTUNITY:
In case you missed last week’s notice, I’ll repeat it one more time. I’m reprinting the booklet, ‘Take A Break – 67 Ways To Pause When You Absolutely Positively Do Not Have The Time’. These booklets are great for conference and event give-aways, corporate wellness initiatives, orientation packages for new employees, EFAP libraries, coffee room reading, and as gifts for clients, staff and volunteers.
At this time of reprinting, you can take advantage of specially reduced pricing for quantity orders with your corporate message imprinted on the front cover. See this two page pdf ( http://www.pauseworks.com/take_a_break.pdf ) for a look at the cover with sample imprint, and for custom pricing info on orders. Call me (877-728-5289) or email (info@patkatz.com) if you are interested in putting these great ideas in the hands of people who matter most in your world.
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READERS WRITE:
In response to last week’s message, Calm & Curious, Pause reader CD writes: Loved this message! I find that writing is a great way to make myself slow down as it automatically makes me do steps #1, 4 and 5 (pause and shift gears before reacting). Going back and editing my words results in a much more measured, and usually appropriate, response. Thanks for this!
REFLECTION: Researchers in Switzerland and the UK have confirmed what I have long observed – that overload has as serious an impact on organizations as it does on individuals. Bruch and Menges studied 600 companies over the last decade and identified what they refer to as the Acceleration Trap.
The trap is the result of corporations taking on more than they can handle, increasing the number and speed of activities, spiking performance goals, slashing innovation cycles and continuously introducing new technologies and systems. In short, taking a fast and furious approach to multiple issues on multiple fronts.
What’s the impact on individuals? Employees don’t have enough resources to meet expectations. They work under endlessly elevated time pressures, in situations where priorities are constantly changing. There’s no light at the end of the tunnel and little or no investment in rejuvenation.
Organizationally, relentless acceleration breeds a lack of focus, misalignment of activities, conflicting messaging, confused customers, and exhausted employees.
B&M have identified three core destructive patterns of behavior. (more…)
PAUSE -10.10- Calm & Curious
March 24, 2010
REFLECTION: Skip the details. Jump to conclusions. Fly off the handle. Shoot from the hip.
Our language frames our lives. Fiery, fast paced phrases and mindsets drive hurried, harried responses. I often wonder – in the midst of the snapping, jumping, and flying – whether we abandon wisdom in the breach.
What might life be like if we substituted calm and curious for fast and furious? A touch wiser, perhaps? (more…)
PAUSE – 10.09 – Invisible? Unreachable?
March 17, 2010
REFLECTION:
When we visited Paris in 2004, we tried to see the exhibit featuring Monet’s waterlily paintings. When I inquired about their location and visiting hours at a Paris Museums Info Center, I was told most apologetically, “Ah, Madame, je suis desole que Nympheas de Monet sont invisibles.”
The translation was a bit skewed; but through subsequent exchanges we learned that the paintings themselves were not really invisible (at least in the English sense of the word). They’d not evaporated into thin air, but they had, in a manner of speaking, gone into hiding. L’Orangerie, the building that houses the Monet paintings was under renovation, and the paintings indeed could not be seen.
For some reason – who knows how the mind works – I was reminded of this exchange and the idea of being invisible or unreachable as I listened this morning to a radio report of a new techno gadget set to go to market. For an investment of a mere $150, the InPulse wristwatch grabs information arriving on your smart phone – caller ID, text messages, email titles, calendar alerts – and displays it on your wrist, while vibrating to catch your attention.
You can’t access the messages, but you can decide on the basis of the message, whether you will jump to your phone to respond. Apparently, a casual glance at your wristwatch is considered to be more discrete and polite – less distracting and dangerous – than a check of other ancillary devices. Forgive me for being naive (sarcasm alert), but if you are glancing at your watch every 15 or 20 seconds, it will soon become apparent that you are not simply checking the time.
For the life of me, I can’t see how this new gadget improves our world. It’s just one more tiny text device battling for our eyes and minds in an already overloaded environment.
ACTION:
So, back to Paris. In the case of the Monet waterlilies, their invisibility – time out of circulation invested in renewal and upgrade – resulted in a fresh presentation that will continue to bring pleasure year after year. It certainly brought us delight when we were able to see them on a subsequent visit in 2008.
I wonder how much delight, creativity and refreshment strapping on yet one more ‘mother of all input gadgets’ will bring to our world. Who will we really be fooling when we sneak surreptitious glances in the direction of our wrists, while pretending to be attending to the world in front of us? Will being constantly connected to another electronic tether cause us to become more focused, or ever more frayed and fractured?
Suddenly, the prospect of a few minutes or hours of being invisible, unreachable, or out of the loop starts to look very attractive indeed.
Be careful. Be VERY careful about the tools you choose, lest they lead you somewhere you don’t really want to go!
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
“The amount of genuine leisure available in a society is generally in inverse proportion to the amount of labor-saving machinery it employs.” – E.F. Schumacher
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RESOURCE OF THE WEEK:
Speaking of items strapped to the wrist, two California based entrepreneurs have created a Pause bracelet, designed to help individuals be more present and less caught up in the crazy, busy, frenzy of life.
The capsule on the bracelet vibrates every 90 minutes as a reminder to step back from the busyness and take a second to be more present to life’s moments. You can check out their bracelet at: http://www.meaningtopause.com
I purchased one a few months ago and tried it myself. It certainly does a good job of getting your attention. Although I found the vibration just a shade more alarming than alerting, and the design not quite to my own taste aesthetically, I am a sample of one. They’re getting a positive response from many; and it might be just the thing for you.
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READERS WRITE:
Last week’s Pause e-zine with a Pick/n/Go theme prompted a lot of reader comments. I’ve pulled them together and posted them to my blog at: http://www.pauseworks.com/wp/?p=889
Enjoy, and feel free to talk back, yourself. Just toss in your two cents worth in the Comments box at the end of the blog posting.
REFLECTION: When we visited Paris in 2004, we tried to see the exhibit featuring Monet’s waterlily paintings. When I inquired about their location and visiting hours at a Paris Museums Info Center, I was told most apologetically, “Ah, Madame, je suis desole que Nympheas de Monet sont invisibles.”
The translation was a bit skewed; but through subsequent exchanges we learned that the paintings themselves were not really invisible (at least in the English sense of the word). They’d not evaporated into thin air, but they had, in a manner of speaking, gone into hiding. L’Orangerie, the building that houses the Monet paintings was under renovation, and the paintings indeed could not be seen.
For some reason – who knows how the mind works – I was reminded of this exchange and the idea of being invisible or unreachable as I listened this morning to a radio report of a new techno gadget set to go to market. For an investment of a mere $150, the InPulse wristwatch grabs information arriving on your smart phone – caller ID, text messages, email titles, calendar alerts – and displays it on your wrist, while vibrating to catch your attention. (more…)
Pick ‘n’ Go Talk Back
March 15, 2010
Last week’s Pause e-zine with a Pick ‘n’ Go theme prompted a lot of reader comments. I’ve pulled them together and pasted them here. Enjoy, and feel free to talk back, yourself. Just toss in your two cents worth in the Comments box at the end of the posting.
YD writes: About “pick and go”… Another option could be to simply say “today is such a day”: accept / live / “experience” (as in “feel” / meditate on…) that today is not a day to cross items off the proverbial to do list but rather water the plants, drink coffees and read e-mails. Maybe tomorrow will be the day to cross off twice as many items…
CD writes: “Reminds me of going to the lake last weekend. I was out for a walk and was passed by a woman who was out jogging. We said hello in passing. How I wished she simply slowed down for five minutes and walked with me as I really enjoy her company and miss her.”
SM writes: “Often I find when I get into the puttering mode, feeling reluctant to get started on “the list”, I find it renewing … that indeed I do need a bit of a break from diligence, and the dreaminess of watering plants and browsing on email can be quite rejuvenating … then when I feel I really have given myself a break from the pressure of the ‘must get to’ on the ‘lists’, I feel renewed — I’ve larked about, and then I’m ready to attack #1 … and it usually feels easier than if I pushed myself to do it from some sense of ‘should’.” (more…)
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Patricia Katz
Optimus Consulting