Sustainable Ambition Forum - 04.12.21

 
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Hi everyone!

So I wanted to ask... How well do you think you know yourself? Imagine you played the Newlywed Game (do you know what that is??) with yourself. Could you answer questions about who you are, what motivates you, what your strengths are, your values, and so on?  

This theme of “knowing oneself” has been coming up of late in my coaching practice and speaking with other coaches on my podcast. And, it’s not uncommon to find that we may not know ourselves as deeply as we might think. It's almost as if getting to know ourselves is an indulgence or that it’s too woo-woo, you know that self-helpy stuff.

But the reality is to guide your life and your career you need to know yourself. As Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi states in his book Flow: “These seemingly easy questions are almost impossible to answer for someone who has lost touch with his own experience. If a (person) has not bothered to find out what he wants, if his attention is so wrapped up in external goals that he fails to notice his own feelings, then he cannot plan action meaningfully.” 

So, I encourage you to get to know yourself—understand what makes you tick. 

A good place to start is to know your strengths and how to leverage them. That’s why I was excited to speak with Maghan Haggerty, founder of Connecting Dots Coaching & Consulting and a Gallup Certified Strengths Coach, in Episode 8 of The Sustainable Ambition Podcast. I hope you’ll give it a listen.

Now off we go to the second quarter of the year. And in the spirit of April Fool’s Day, our Monthly Progress Practice encourages us all to remember to lighten things up a bit. I hope you’ll find ways to have good hearty laughs in the coming weeks.

You’ll also find below:

  • Our typical round up keeping the theme

  • Episode #8 of The Sustainable Ambition Podcast with Maghan Haggerty, founder of Connecting Dots Coaching & Consulting and a Gallup Certified Strengths Coach, shares her wisdom on the importance of tapping into your strengths to help you find more work fulfillment.

  • And, introducing our new Youtube channel! Check it out and subscribe. We plan to offer content there in another format in case you prefer to learn via video.

Welcome to spring, all!
Kathy


The Round-Up


Right Success: Research has shown that people generally are more positively motivated by intrinsic motivators, which are considered internally derived benefits, positive outcomes, or experience from an activity itself (e.g., learning new topics, building skills, mastering a competency). This article references other research that shows linking goals to such intrinsic motivators can also lead to improved satisfaction and happiness. The lesson: intrinsic motivators win over extrinsic motivators like money, title, or popularity.

Right Aspiration: This article presents an interesting angle of ambition during the pandemic, one that turns us more inward towards thinking and reflection. It’s interesting to consider before we all get swept up into getting going again—have you taken the advantage of this forced stillness for personal thinking and reflection? Don’t squander the stillness that is left if you are able to carve some time out for yourself!

Right Effort: Friends are important at work! Get inspired by this story of women who created their own “communitas” (a community going through the same thing together) to navigate full professional and personal lives and be their full selves.

Reading: “Meet Your Inside Team: How to Turn Internal Conflict into Clarity and Move Forward with Life” by Cynthia Loy Darst. Ever wonder about all those voices in your head? Have you recognized that they are coming from different internal perspectives? Cynthia Loy Darst’s book on your inside team helps you understand and work with all those different sides of yourself to make choices more powerfully.

Listening: Loved this conversation with Christine Arylo on Jenny Blake ’s new podcast, “Free Time.” Arylo is the author of “Overwhelmed and Over It: Embrace Your Power to Stay Centered and Sustained in a Chaotic World.” Sounds like the book of our times, and one of her pieces of wisdom, “I never serve from my reserves,” which to me is a great reminder to build your work-life resilience.

Smiling: The Metropolitan Diary is a weekly read for me and has been for over 20 years (showing my age!). Ever since I lived in NYC after undergrad and started reading the NY Times, I search out this delightful section of short stories and poems that demonstrate funny scenes of city life, often featuring examples of people being good to each other. I read them to give me something delightful to enjoy every week. Sharing if you’d like to do the same.


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The Sustainable Ambition Podcast - Episode 8

Join me for conversations with experts, authors, and friends on
what it means to live with Sustainable Ambition.

I wanted to have Maghan Haggerty, founder of Connecting Dots Coaching & Consulting and a Gallup Certified Strengths Coach, on the podcast to share her wisdom on the importance of tapping into your strengths to help you find more work fulfillment. One of Sustainable Ambition’s pillars is Right Success, which is about defining success on your terms and defining your own personal reward. I believe a key component of that is leaning into your strengths, especially those that put you into flow.

I hope in listening to Maghan you get convinced of the importance of investing in identifying your strengths, and even more importantly working to determine how to bring them into your everyday life experiences.

Find it on Apple Podcast here
Or, listen on our website here

You can also find the podcast, subscribe, and listen on Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Overcast.

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The Sustainable Ambition YouTube Channel

JUST LAUNCHED!

Want to learn more about Sustainable Ambition in a different format? Find me now on YouTube! I’d love it if you’d join me and subscribe. Thanks!


The Monthly Progress Practice: April

At the beginning of the year, we shared our Monthly Progress Practice. Progress happens through small actions, so we offer a monthly practice of small actions or micro-habits to inspire positive change this year.

Our guidance for April: Laugh! Carry the spirit of April Fool’s Day throughout the month and shift your mood. Watch comedies or listen to comedians. Have a good heartfelt laugh to lighten things up!



“What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

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SUSTAINABLE AMBITION™ IS ABOUT CRAFTING A FULFILLING CAREER TO SUPPORT YOUR LIFE FROM DECADE TO DECADE.

It is centered around articulating your personal definition of success and achieving that without burnout while honoring your personal aspirations and ambitions as they ebb and flow over time. The end game—more fulfillment and ease in your professional and personal life, while still being ambitious.

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