#52 Write from the Heart

It’s here, the final installment of #mondaymetaphorsfow. Writing this series of fifty-two articles has been a remarkable journey of learning, sharing, and experimenting. 

This last article summarizes this great adventure, its relation to the #futureofwork, and a chronicle of my learning. I chose this visual specifically because elephants symbolize good luck, prosperity, destroyer of evil, remover of obstacles, and strength, power, wisdom, memory, and vitality.  Once you read the article, you will understand why.

The first three months of writing articles for #mondaymetaphorsfow were a mixed bag of emotions.

I was excited by the discovery of new ideas, tools, and approaches to create metaphors for topics related to the #futureofwork. 

I was nervous because anything new tends to stirs self-doubt and my inner critic. My concern was I would look foolish, or worse yet, incompetent. And doing so publicly on social media seriously scared me. It was the most paralyzing emotion I faced.

My early attempts at writing were relatively well-received.  Initial successes laid a foundation for confidence.

Frustration surfaced when I could not find a metaphor that resonated with me or one that I thought my readers would understand. As an example, a Google search that generates 7,730,000 results for Leadership metaphors is overwhelming. 

I spent a ridiculous amount of time researching articles, reading current journals, and asking colleagues for input to the writing process. It often sounded like “does this make sense to you?” or “what has your experience been?” or “which topics appeal to you?” 

I seemed to hit my stride over the summer by leveraging my academic, coaching, and consulting work with my own experiences and thought leadership.

Notice the back-and-forth emotional swing of ups and downs. 

At one point, I hit the wall. I encountered writer’s block. Writer's block is a condition primarily associated with writing, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work or experiences a creative slowdown.

When writer’s block hit, and it did on numerous occasions, I wanted to quit. Nothing worked.

I tried all of the recommended strategies for overcoming writer’s block:

·      Take a walk

·      Put away the writing and come back to it later

·      Free write (a fun process when you’re not stressed!)

·      Work backward from the end to the beginning

I turned to reflection to unpack what was the root cause of my blockage. 

I asked myself these questions:

·      How am I getting in my way?

·      What assumptions am I making about how readers will respond?

·      What empathy can I give myself?

·      What would I write if I weren’t afraid?

The answer for me was to write from my heart. I needed to expose and better understand the inner critic and self-doubt that kept rearing its ugly head. 

Here are a few of the articles where writing flowed freely and easily:

#46 You are More Transparent Than you Realize

#33 New Chefs in the Leadership Kitchen

#24 Plug in Your CPO

What did they all have in common?

·      Topics I am passionate about

·      Conviction in my point-of-view

·      I wrote from the heart

My most significant learning, Dirty Dozen lesson #1, Write from the Heart.

One of the best habits I have developed over the last few years is meditation. Learning to take a pause, being fully present and detaching from my thinking brain helps me gain clarity and focus with many aspects of my life.  

I also discovered meditation helped overcome writer’s block. Leaning into personal practices such as mediation reminded me that work and life are more integrated than ever before.

Other personal practices I use crossed-over into my writing. Spiritual development became super important to me in 2020. My daily routine includes:

·      A morning mediation practice to set my intentions for the day

·      Drawing an Oracle card for spiritual guidance

·      Sitting in silence

·      Listen more than I speak

·      Writing in my gratitude journal

·      Pause to find the beauty in the moment

These practices helped me let go of control, be in service of others, and notice what or who shows up for me. When I stop trying to impose my will, everything I think is "supposed" to happen, everything seems to work out. I don’t believe in coincidences.  

2020 has been a year of imposed transformation for organizations and humans at an accelerated pace. 

My #mondaymetaphorsfow series encapsulated the hallmarks of this cataclysmic year and, in reflection, poses a collection of ideas, practices, and models to take us into 2021 and beyond.

Writing this series taught me three valuable lessons important for the #futureofwork:

1.      Push yourself to do things you didn’t think you could do

2.      Embrace uncertainty with curiosity       

3.      Step into your light; own your power. 

Whatever the new next normal will be, I hope that this series helped us look at it with a new lens.