I was a judge at a regional contest for high school students for digital video production. Given the look of my own videos, I obviously don’t know much about video production….yet!
2 lessons learned:
1) I thought about withdrawing because I don’t know if I am qualified to judge something I don’t know much about. Then I “woke up” and realized that I have unique experiences and those can give me a different perspective than the other judges. I needed to remind myself that my input is valuable regardless of my level of expertise. Having diversity of thought is what makes things better. How I can apply this lesson to life: When I feel unqualified to speak on a topic, don’t just withdraw. Make a contribution anyway. It may be valuable for others to hear another perspective.

2) When I realized that the videos were not up to my expectations, my energy started to drop and I felt more stressed out. It didn’t feel fun anymore. I eventually came to realize that I was making a comparison to an unrealistic standard (what a multi-billion dollar company could produce for video). When I re-framed it to consider what is reasonable given the experience and resources the students had, I could easily see which videos were the best and my energy increased.  How I can apply this lesson to life: When I measure myself against an ideal or perfectionist standard, my energy might drop if I feel there is too big of a gap. When that happens, instead of giving up, I could re-frame it to look at what I did achieve and what progress I did make given my experience and resources. That can help me regain my energy to continue to press on.

2. I’ve had skis on my feet a few times in my life (I had been downhill skiing and did some cross country skiing in a flat open field) but I am a bit embarrassed to admit that I had no idea what it meant for a cross country ski trail to be groomed. That explains why I didn’t recognize that I was supposed to be skiing in those grooves and glide along.  Instead, I was watching and trying to imitate the other skiers. They were creating a cool herringbone pattern in the snow with their skis and I couldn’t figure out how in the world I was supposed to do that. Finally, someone pointed out that they had skater skis, and I had classic skis, and I was supposed to be in the grooves because my skis weren’t designed the same way. Who knew there are different kinds of cross country skis?! Our skis looked the same to my untrained eye.

Well, putting my skis into the grooves and gliding was a whole lot easier, and it started to be fun… until I came to the first hill. I mistakenly assumed that because the trail was marked “easiest” it meant “beginner.” Bad assumption. It just happens to be the easiest trail they have and it was certainly more of an intermediate level because of the numerous hills. Going downhill in downhill skis is fine because I can zig zag across the hill. But here, I needed to keep my skis in the grooves and go straight down, and curve to the left at the bottom! What were they thinking! What position I should be in? Where I should center my weight? Help! How can I slow down? (The grooves were too deep to turn my skis into a snowplow formation). Tense with terror, fighting off images of crashes and broken bones, I tore down the hill. “Just keep the skis parallel” was my mantra.  It actually felt good to fall because it ended the terror.  In the end, I survived and was thrilled with my victory. I faced a fear and got better with each hill. This was a good reminder that things do get easier with practice.

3. To celebrate, we went out to eat at a buffet and I ate crawfish for the first time. I’m sure they weren’t as big or tasty as they can be, but it was new for me. I didn’t really know how to eat it and I’m sure I wasn’t elegant doing so. The point was to try something new – and it was delicious! Can’t wait to continue to try new foods and keep broadening my horizons!

Now, as a Quality Improvement Coordinator for Felician Village, a senior living community, she encourages others to “take what you know and apply it in a new way.” By doing so, she states that a new world of opportunities will open up and your experience in life will expand.

For Brenda, there was a time she felt she was not considered for promotions because she lacked a college degree.  With her drive, she proved her abilities and was recognized as not only capable of doing the work, but was told by a mentor that she excelled in this area.  

So when the day came that she read a job ad requiring applicants to have a nursing degree and experience in quality systems, she didn’t hesitate to challenge it. With no healthcare experience or degree, she landed the job based on her proven results, vision of what was possible, and confidence.

She knew she had a gift for creating quality management systems and could transfer her knowledge from a product-driven manufacturing facility to a service-driven senior community. There were no ISO standards for such healthcare facilities, so she started from nothing and is in the process of creating something significant.

Now she delights in overhearing conversations where employees are talking about quality systems and referring to preventative actions and customer satisfaction.

The transition has indeed opened up new insights. “I’m more patient,” she says, and she treasures the trying times, stating, “the most challenging customers taught me the most.” Having daily contact with seniors, Brenda now states she appreciates the different stages in life and sees how precious everything is.

As she reflects on her journey, including being a grandmother and caring for her own mother, she offers these words of advice, “Make the most of what you’ve got with the time you have,” and suggests that we all believe in ourselves, challenge ourselves and do our part to make something successful.

Your challenge for the week:
1. Think of how you can take what you know and apply it in a new way to do your part to make something successful.
2. Be grateful for the trying times in your life and reflect on what you are learning as a result of the opportunity.

Pixel Yourself by the River – Kaleidoscope Fish was a performance art event designed to create an opportunity for people of all ages and abilities to join together as a community, be part of something bigger than themselves, and create something fun and original. It was also meant to stretch people by encouraging them to step into their “Yellow Zone” (i.e. out of their comfort zone) and do something they have never done before.

The activity sought to leave the participants inspired to boldly express their own colors by sharing their unique gifts to create positive energy in the world and contribute to the beautiful, ever changing kaleidoscope of life. It reminded us that we indeed are all work of art ourselves, as well as a part of a larger picture that is beautiful and unique.

Check out our event photos and videos:

You Tube:
Kaleidoscope Fish – Pixel Yourself by the River.mov. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caZkBjFpuYo Produced by Tom Shimanek of Comcast.  Posted by YellowZoneIntl.

Facebook:
Photos, comments and videos: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pixel-Yourself-by-the-River-Kaleidoscope-Fish

Photos:
Event photos:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/7996842@N06/sets/72157624283109939/

Painting / Prep photos:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/7996842@N06/sets/72157624318653930/

Event details:
This was a first-time event and was done as part of the 2nd annual River Rendezvous Festival in Manitowoc WI at the point where the Manitowoc River flows into Lake Michigan on June 26, 2010. Approximately 115 people participated, from Girl Scouts to Red Hatters, families to individuals, and artists and  those who didn’t realize that they are artists. No one had ever participated in something like this before.

The week prior, local artists of all ages expressed their creativity by painting the cardboard fish during a music festival in a city park. It was great fun!

What happened:
As a narrator told an original story of “The Kaleidoscope Fish,” participants stepped onto the “canvas” and became a  “pixel” by holding up a brightly colored piece (fabric or a painted cardboard fish or smiley face). As the story unfolded, more and more pixels entered and mixed and mingled, creating a kaleidoscope-like image when viewed from above. Eventually, all of the pixels were in place and formed one huge image of a fish (approximately 3,000 square feet).

For more information: http://yellowzoneinternational.com/pixel-yourself-by-the-river-kaleidoscope-fish/

Yes, it was probably my inner critic getting the best of me. Telling me I wasn’t good enough or smart enough. And there was probably some fear of rejection. So what did this exercise prove to me? Making a commitment to do what I’m hesitant to do, and then taking consistent action, is the surest way to dissolve any fear. Now I have no excuses about writing. Yes, I am capable of it. Yes, I can call myself a writer. And when I do that, what new possibilities will open up to me? My green zone just got a little bit bigger.

Step 1. Think about something you would like to change, develop or improve. For this example, I’ll take my life.

Step 2. Think about something that has qualities you like. In this case, I was eating grapes and thinking, “Wow, these are really good.”

Step 3. Identify the best qualities of the item from step 2. Grapes are sweet, full of energy, beautiful, juicy, firm, and colorful. They thrive with sun, water and fresh air. They feed and nourish others, make me smile, have multiple parts that make up a whole, have a support system (the stems and roots), grow in bunches (not alone), and can be used in a variety of ways (raisins, wine). Each part, the seed to root to stem to fruit, has the essence of the whole and has great potential.

Step 4. Determine how you can incorporate the qualities from Step 3 into the item from Step 1.

To make others smile and nourish them, I would want to be full of energy myself. To keep myself full of energy, I need a good support system (my friends) and take care my mental, physical and spiritual needs (get enough sun, water, nourishment, exercise, positive visualizations).  I’ll want to stay connected to my passion and remember that I have great potential in all areas.

Step 5. Take action to begin living in a way that supports this new image. Today my focus will be on nourishing the spirit and mind of the individuals I interact with. I will do that through consciously telling them what I appreciate about them and help them see their greatness. And maybe I’ll do something strength training so I can feel firmness in my arms and abs and be like a juicy grape (and avoid becoming a raisin)!

The routines to discard are the ones that don’t add value, or worse, make you feel lousy mentally, spiritually or physically. A routine of eating fast food for lunch that results in you feeling guilty or bloated is probably one to discard. It doesn’t mean you have to give it up completely, just give it up as a regular routine.

Take a moment to reflect on the routines that make you feel great and vow to keep doing them or do them more often. For the ones that make you feel less than great, find a way to replace them or at least make them an every-once-in-a-while, special-occasion type of event.

One of my favorite routines is my nighttime routine. After I get into bed at night, I take a moment to list every positive about the day. My list could include things like, I exercised for an hour, ate healthy foods, had lunch with my mom, attended a new networking event and made some good contacts, got a great testimonial, spent time in the sun, laughed at my cat, chatted with my sister on the phone, etc. As I do this, I reflect on how grateful I am to have my health, my family and friends, etc. Then I open up my mind for the wonderful possibilities tomorrow will hold and I fall asleep with positive expectancy. I easily fall asleep with a sense of peace and I wake up with energy. Now that is a routine worth keeping!

The same is true with the mental work we do in coaching. Many people can readily accept the benefit of practicing a physical move, like a golf swing or a karate block, over and over and over. Yet they are reluctant to do the same with mental work, such as affirmations. Somehow, the idea of repeating positive statements about yourself to yourself seems awkward. People have a hard time believing that something so simple could possibly be effective.

Imagine that you keep hearing yourself or someone else say that you are incompetent, unreliable, and worthless. If you heard that multiple times a day, everyday, is it possible that you might start to doubt yourself and believe those statements? So wouldn’t it make sense that if you heard positive statements about yourself multiple times a day, everyday, that you might start to believe in yourself? Imagine that you keep hearing yourself or someone else say that you are extraordinary, unstoppable and energetic. How might you go about your day differently?  How might your life be different?

Similar to your muscles, your mind will get stronger with repetition. The more your mind hears positive statements, the more it will bring everything else into alignment to make it true. Eventually, like how the kicks, blocks and jabs will become second nature with my continued practice, it will be second nature for you to believe in yourself and what you are capable of doing. Make it a daily habit and remember, repetition, repetition, repetition.