Melissa Walker of Heyday Coaching pens a monthly blog with tips for helping you achieve your own peak success, happiness, and vigor.
Too often, when we are feeling frustrated, stuck, burned out, or unhappy, it grows out of a fundamental misalignment between our values and the way we spend our days. That’s why I spend a lot of time helping clients identify their values and then better align the ways they live and work with those values. It sounds simple, but it actually requires a lot of thought and mindfulness.
Right now, I’m working with two clients who are on the verge of launching their own businesses. Both of them have carefully crafted business plans. Each is highly trained in her field and has spent years building a solid base of experience. Both have taken wise steps to lay the groundwork to enable them to hit the ground running. They’ve done their research, consulted trusted advisors, and organized their finances. They are eager and committed. They are ready. Yet both have recently said to me, “I’m afraid I’m making the wrong decision.”
A few months ago, I listened to one of my favorite podcasts, “Women at Work” which is produced by the Harvard Business Review. In this particular episode, the hosts were interviewing Therese Huston, the author of How Women Decide, a book I reviewed on my blog a couple of years back.
Huston discussed the challenges women face in making decisions—particularly the various double binds we face--and she offered some strategies to help women make challenging decisions. One of those strategies was the 10-10-10 method.
Happiness books and books on de-cluttering are all the rage right now. The latest book from Gretchen Rubin (The Happiness Project) combines the two. In spite of the trendiness of her topics, there are some useful bits of advice in Outer Order, Inner Calm: Declutter and Organize to Make More Room for Happiness. Rubin offers a lot of suggestions for little actions that can make a big difference in our daily lives. The book offers the added bonus of being a quick read.
