Intentional Growth

Hi meaningful leader,

Continuing with the topic of achieving from last week’s post and as life keeps getting busier by the minute, I wanted us talk about focused, intentional growth. We are all pulled into different directions and different tasks require our constant attention, yet how many times, at the end of a busy day, do we end up feeling exhausted and unfulfilled?

It is so easy to fully occupy our time with senseless tasks, yet to be completely unproductive, is it not?

The buzz word “hustler” is perceived as the way to pursue success and worn as a badge of honor by many, along with a constant state of busyness, which is the mantra of the ones that “get it”. However, in order to be effective and to move forward in our growth journey, prioritization and actions must be intentional.

This quote from Hemingway reminds me of this principle. Our fast paced environment can easily throw us off track and leave us believing we are moving forward to accomplish whichever goals we have set to reach. But sometimes what we are focusing on is purely motion while no actual “building” is happening.

The Pareto principle or the 80/20 rule, states that roughly 80% of outcomes come from 20% of causes. Applying that to our discussion, only 20% of the activities we perform, will get us to the result we’ve set up to achieve. Imagine then removing all the unnecessary tasks (the pesky unproductive 80%) and setting up a system to help us streamline our processes, in order to focus our full attention into prioritizing and increasing that 20% effectiveness. How much faster would we be able to reach our goals?

As I decided some 4 years ago that my next goal was putting my experience, knowledge and passion for leadership “on paper” in order to add value to others, the “how to” drove me down the road of procrastination for a very long time. I knew I needed to share my knowledge and perspective, yet I allowed myself to get caught up in the details instead of on the value of the final product.

I love aesthetically pleasing things, it’s in my DNA, I love beautiful things and I love creating harmonious spaces in which inspiration can flow, that’s who I am. So naturally, when I decided that my words will be first shared through a blog, the branding and set up of this website took priority in my mind over content and once more, procrastination kicked in.

What I’ve learned so far though is that the secret to getting anything accomplished is to get started. Creating is hard and putting our thoughts and experiences out there for the world to see and read and most probably criticize, makes us extremely vulnerable, but without vulnerability and the courage to face criticism, nothing authentic can ever be created.

Like in adolescence, growing pains are a necessary part of our personal and professional growth. Learning who we are and introspectively identifying the weak spots in which we need to work on, while embracing the strengths and wins that makes us unique is the only way to develop the muscles needed to trailblaze our own path, instead of following someone else’s.

If your goals don’t scare the crap out of you, you’re just settling for smallness. And yes, in the pursuit of excellence, challenges, obstacles and critics will pop up continuously, trying to play with your inner doubter and derailing your path. Brave up and keep going, the results will be so worthy.

For her senior yearbook picture, my daughter chose to include one of my favorite quotes from Henry Ford and I knew she was equipped to step into her next season after graduation:

Thanks for reading and God bless,

Maria