Effectiveness: The Bridge from Pressure to Pleasure
Today I’m on a plane again back to the UK. This time my husband is at my side, which is always a pleasure that I do not fail to appreciate. Soon we’ll be crossing this bridge back to the island we call home in England.
It’s been a super busy two weeks in France, as I continue the big push to launching my book in November. Juggling a never-ending workload with a rare opportunity to spend time with my husband in a beautiful place has been a big challenge. And I’m sure I’m not alone in juggling the demands of professional life and the nourishment of heart and home.
Efficient or Effective?
This month’s topic in my Creative Adventure Journal is effectiveness, which is a very different animal than efficiency. Efficiency is the product of the industrial age: more, better, bigger, faster. It has strong merit in a manufacturing, production-oriented environment and tools for getting things done. But, unless we humans are striving to become machines, it is not the best model for daily life.
Effectiveness is the reward of personal vision, balanced priorities, self-discipline and conscious choice. When I work with people using the Wheel of Creativity, it is their effectiveness that motivates me most. It is seeing them make the link between what they long for and how they spend their time. And it’s hearing them delight in the results they achieve with a small tweak here and there.
A Bridge To There
How do we get from here to there? Here are a few questions to ask yourself:
- What hurts you about your life today? What’s not working?
- What do you want more than anything? What do you long for?
- How can you make sure you have a little bit of that in each day?
- What small tweak would make you more effective in your life?
Maintaining balance between the pleasures and pressures of life is a challenge for us all. Living the creative life does not require that you give up your day job. It requires that you loosen your grip and allow life to flow again. The move from efficiency to effectiveness is a modern-day meditation. The result is a quantum leap in the quality of your life.
Now, for me it’s back to my book!
“What book?” you ask! To get the latest scoop on the when, where, what and how of The Wheel of Creativity: Taking Your Place in the Adventure of Life, sign up for my monthly Creative Adventure Journal in the bottom box over there to the right. And watch for the Pre-Pub Insiders’ Circle… coming soon!
In the meantime, live CREATIVE!
