#12 — Simplify
Simplify
At the beginning of the year, I choose a word for the year. This year I couldn’t choose just one. Over the 10 years of doing this, I’ve learned to listen to my gut and just go with what feels best in these one word themes so I chose both persist and simplify.
While I’ve felt both words come up during the year, “simplify” has been the word I’ve sat with the most this year. I think it’s one of the reasons why the keynote presentation by Lisa Bodell at the American Association of Community College’s (AACC) conference I am attending in New York City resonated so much with me. Lisa is worth a Google if you’ve not heard of — or better yet — heard her before. She was an incredible keynote speaker.
Many points from her talk resonated with me. So much, that I turned my notes from her talk into a sketchnote.
Three of her nuggets from that talk that I wanted to share with all of you:
- We’re executing our calendars, not living our meaning
- Seek value over volume. To do so consider what you will stop doing.
- Stop asking people around you to run a marathon at the pace of a sprint.
There was so much more depth in her talk, but those three jumped out to me as worth further consideration.
Also, on the theme of simplify, since I’m traveling this week, today’s newsletter is simply going to conclude with a couple of “diversion” photos from my trip. I’ll be back next week with a “standard” newsletter.
Until then…I hope you’ll take a moment to try to simplify your life in order to live your life’s purpose and meaning.
