Project 52: Week 19 (4/1/24)
"I'm supposed to be a really polite revolutionary? It's impossible." Phoebe Waller-Bridge

Project 52: Week 19 (4/1/24)

Our reflection and invitation ...

"If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito." ~ The Dalai Lama


"Go a little bit out of your depth. And when you don't feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you're just about in the right place to do something exciting." ~ David Bowie


“PRAYER IN ACTION IS LOVE, LOVE IN ACTION IS SERVICE.” — MOTHER TERESA
"How do we help our young people not to see a university degree as synonymous with higher status, with more money or social prestige? It is not synonymous with that. How can we help make their education a mark of greater responsibility in the face of today's problems, the needs of the poor, and concern for the environment?" — Pope Francis

We are delighted to continue with a year-long offering and to dedicate this week's Project 52 to your exploration of "Journaling ... and Sketching." ~ Gerald Doyle .


Burnett & Evans: The Good Time Journal

~ (dedicated moments of writing and reflection for your discernment and to accompany you across the months ahead)

As you may have read in other articles in this series, we like to invite our Tri Cosain career explorers to work with Dave Evans and Bill Burnett’s book, Designing Your Life . Their work resonates strongly with our commitment to weave inspiration, learning, career, and ministry, including your spiritual reflections.

One exercise Burnett and Evans (B&E for short) recommend as a way to explore the kind of work that will be rewarding and fulfilling for a person is to keep a reflective Good Time journal.

In the journal, they invite readers to list the major activities of their days for three weeks.? They ask them to assess those activities on two dimensions:

  • Engagement
  • Energy

Engagement means how connected and absorbed we are with the work or activity we are doing. Does time seem to fly by? Are we impervious to interruptions?? Do we feel totally “into” what we are creating?? B&E invoke here the concept of Flow popularised by the psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi . In this state, we are deeply absorbed in an activity because it seems highly worthwhile according to our values and because it challenges us to just the right degree: not too easy and not overwhelming.

The energy here means whether the activity charges us up or depletes us: whether or not we love it, does it leave us more energized to move on to other things or so exhausted that we need to rest before doing other things?

B&E suggest collecting these observations on significant activities throughout the day for three weeks, and reflecting at the end of each week on the learnings of the process.

They make their template for tracking the Good Time Journal available to interested participants here .

If this speaks to you, we encourage you to try this exercise, capture the learnings, and keep the records and insights where you can retrieve them to shape your further explorations as they emerge.

B&E invite their readers and students, as do we, to use this data to shape an understanding of a career vision: what working activities do you love to do; which ones engage you and lead you to Flow; which ones build and which ones drain your energy? How can you use this information to shape your career exploration, including experiments, prototypes, and Conversations of Inquiry with potential mentors, coaches, advisers, and collaborators?

For people of faith, working with the Good Time Journal may be informed by spirit-filled discernment. Where do we sense the presence of the grace, the encouragement, the joy, and the enlivening energy of the Holy Spirit?

As ever with Tri Cosain career and spiritual journeying, I am delighted to accompany you in creating, maintaining, reflecting on, and learning from a Good Time Journal.

Monday, 1 April 2024

Gerald Doyle,

P.S. Click here to read Project 52: Week 18 (The Five-Pointed Star)


From Phoebe Waller-Bridge to Clara Aeder

Bonus Material …Why and how we write:

“We write to taste life twice.”
“Write as if you aren’t afraid… act as if someone just said there’s no reason to be afraid”.

Tri Cosain materials are developed with my colleague and friend of 40+ years, Scott Downs.

Copyright Scott Downs and Gerald Doyle, 2023/24

Residing in Chicago, Gerald Doyle provides ministry placement research and consulting for Career Services at the Catholic Theological Union ( Herbert Quinde and Christina Zaker ), as well as career services and coaching to students, families, and community members at Wolcott College Preparatory High School ( Kelly Ramos ).

He advises several tech companies, including Upkey ( Amir Badr ) and GetSet Learning ( Eva Prokop ); he has also joined TSI - Transforming Solutions, Inc. ( Dan Feely )in their Higher Education and Career Services practice.


Scott? Downs, a former investment banker, management consultant, and entrepreneur, now works as an Agile coach, seeking to call forward great leaders and great organizations based on great cultures. He is a consultant with Expleo Group and is an associate of the TrustTemenos Leadership Academy.

Scott and Gerald are co-founders of Tri Cosain, a practice that weaves inspiration, learning, and career for leadership in life and work. Gerald and Scott co-authored 9 Questions for Leadership in Life and Work, Conversations of Inquiry, and several other volumes in the Tri Cosain series. Their work embraces equity, inclusion, diversity, and well-being as foundations for personal leadership.

Alex Armasu

Founder & CEO, Group 8 Security Solutions Inc. DBA Machine Learning Intelligence

7 个月

I'm thankful for your post!

Gerald Doyle

Human Centered Design and Innovation: "You know, I believe it's sometimes even good to be ridiculous. Yes, much better. People forgive each other more readily and become more humble, ..." Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot

7 个月

Matteo Bixio Greetings; I appreciate your support. A few questions ... ~ What kinds of work are you looking for? ~ What strengths and capacities do you bring to a team? If you were to launch a micro-business (drawing up your resources and capabilities), what business would that be, and what kinds of problems would you be solving -- and in service to whom?

Gerald Doyle

Human Centered Design and Innovation: "You know, I believe it's sometimes even good to be ridiculous. Yes, much better. People forgive each other more readily and become more humble, ..." Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot

7 个月

Al Nunez Good to catch up with you this afternoon. As you think about Journaling and Sketching notes, what advice might you recommend for those moments when we seem stuck and unable to write and reflect? What has worked for you to reset your energy and engagement with the tools and practices of reflection? I'm holding on to these two quotes for inspiration- to persist. “The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.” – Samuel Johnson? “If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception; it is a prevailing attitude.” – Colin Powell?

Gerald Doyle

Human Centered Design and Innovation: "You know, I believe it's sometimes even good to be ridiculous. Yes, much better. People forgive each other more readily and become more humble, ..." Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot

7 个月

Abhi Rauniyar Appreciative of your support. I have been — at times — reluctant and inconsistent in the practice of journaling and sketching to record my thoughts and reflect upon the day, and the future … but when I do, I am more at peace and clearer in my goals and steps each day. And you?

Gerald Doyle

Human Centered Design and Innovation: "You know, I believe it's sometimes even good to be ridiculous. Yes, much better. People forgive each other more readily and become more humble, ..." Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot

7 个月

Let me shout out to a former colleague, Chris James, M.Ed., who now serves as the Senior Strategic Advisor for Homeless & Vulnerable Youth at the Oregon Department of Education. Here's a brief overview of his work. "I lead, oversee, or am sought for input on all efforts that impact state policy and direction for the State's Homeless and Vulnerable Youth under the McKinney-Vento Act. Leading such efforts includes the administration, implementing the McKinney-Vento grant, and supporting and directing Title I, Part A, which is set aside and dedicated to identifying and serving youth experiencing homelessness/houselessness. Grounding this work is monitoring, providing technical assistance, monthly office hours, district/school visits, reviewing legislative bills for potential impact to support youth experiencing houselessness, and other required state support. I am the point of contact with the U.S. Department of Education and attend various school, district, and Continuums of Care (CoC) meetings across the state collaborating and advocating for youth and unaccompanied youth experiencing houselessness." If you have ideas for supporting and collaborating with Chris James, M.Ed., please get in touch with him.

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