Arminda Lindsay

Being On Purpose

001: Creative Idleness

By

Creative Idleness

The All Arminda Virtual Show, episode 1

Welcome to the All Arminda Virtual Show, first episode EVER!

During this episode, Arminda shares a passage from Brenda Ueland’s notable book, If You Want to Write, in which Brenda Ueland and Leo Tolstoy have a few things to say about how drinking, smoking, coffee and drugs dull creativity!

Listen to hear what Leo Tolstoy had to say about his own use of alcohol and cigarettes in his writing process and how that changed over time for him in his own evolution as an author.

What does any of this have to do with you and YOUR creativity? Maybe a lot.

loving you,
arminda

Managing Up

By

Managing Up

You’re given a project and assigned a deadline for its completion. You’re really excited about the assignment and already have a clear vision of the steps you’re going to take to its execution. However, you also experience an immediate sense of overwhelm because in order to really do it the right way, this assignment will take you days longer than you’ve been given.

Many of us experience fear and high stress around these (or similar) situations.

We are fearful of saying anything to our boss because they might think:

  • I’m incompetent
  • I lack initiative
  • I can’t handle the work load in this position

And we experience high volumes of stress in an effort to hide all of the above fears and push ourselves beyond our own capacity to deliver the quality we want to give and the quality expected of us.

Oftentimes, this results in poor quality output and/or other projects not being managed effectively.

What do you do?

Manage up.

This is a perfect opportunity to have a conversation with your supervisor to renegotiate the assignment and to take full ownership of its outcome and in so doing, you also drop the fear and the stress.

The objective of this conversation is not to come from a defensive, angry or frightened position. When you communicate your genuine interest in delivering exactly what’s been tasked, you can suggest you have two choices:

1. On-time delivery OR
2. Quality delivery

Which is preferred?

From that place of honest and sincere desire to serve, you can engage, connect, and create solutions that involve you in the equation.

It’s easy to slip into an internal dialogue that suggests you’re always on the losing side of projects, assignments and workload. And when that voice in your head gets louder, the more unhappy you become with your work environment.

Shift the balance and quiet the voice by speaking up and speaking out. Chances are, whoever’s handing out assignments isn’t doing so with intent to stress or incite fear in you. They want you to succeed, and you communicating the best way for you to achieve success is information they will welcome.

The alternative is to say nothing at all, continue being fearful of upper management, allow stress to wreak its havoc on you and harbor resentment about how unfair your job is.

Your call.

*Note that this method of renegotiation is just as applicable and effective in our personal relationships as it is in our professional ones.

Be sure and watch this video for some additional insight on the topic!

Course Corrections

By

When you’ve set your goal and you think you’re on target to achieve it and something disrupts you along your path — what do you do? Many of us get upset, frustrated and angry at ourselves, we question our ability to get anything done the “right” way and oftentimes use the disruption as the sign for us to quit altogether.

Before you do any of those things, watch this video.

Headlights 101

By

Headlights 101

My daughter recently got her own car and just before sending her off on her inaugural drive, we quickly ran through the obvious how-to checklist:

  • windshield wipers
  • defrost front AND back windows
  • headlights

Several weeks and many nights later, she mentioned to me that the headlights were so dim she couldn’t see the road without using her bright lights. She was scared to drive in the dark until the lights were fixed.

Together one night we sat in her car and she turned on the ignition, turned to me and gesturing through the front windshield said, “See?!”

“I see you haven’t turned on the headlights yet,” I replied.

“They’re on right now!” she insisted.

“Turn the dial again and see what happens,” I suggested.

Sure enough, with one additional turn of the dial the headlights flared and she exclaimed, “But those are the bright lights!”

“No, those are your regular lights. The high beams require a little extra effort to activate,” I laughed, thinking about her sneaking around with only her parking lights for guidance while there were other cars on the road, and as soon as she was alone, she would turn on her regular lights.

How many of us metaphorically drive around with our dim parking lights, unsure of how to turn on our regular lights or nervous to use our light in front of others?

You don’t have to drastically change your life, quit what you’re doing, leave your relationship, start your own business or relocate your family. You don’t even need to dust off your list of long-ago abandoned resolutions.

Just turn up your light where you are right now and see if things appear brighter because you are now shining one dial brighter than before.

Voting Rights

By

What does it mean to cast a vote for yourself? Watch this video to find out and to determine whether you’ll vote for you!

Arminda references Jason Goldberg of meometry.com and highly encourages you to check out the amazing work he’s doing.

Also mentioned are stickers and Arminda previously recorded an Ask Arminda episode all about sticker charts!

Props & Costumes

By

Props & Costumes

I well remember our childhood toy chest, hand-crafted by my Uncle Tom, large enough to hold three to four small children, along with (but not comfortably) some metal Tonka trucks and the Fisher Price Little People, their house and their barn.

Buried inside that big box (in addition to a generation of toys) were an assortment of hats, dresses, shoes, jewelry, purses, briefcases, and general bedlam: the perfect combination for any child’s imagination to soar.

We never needed to wait for Halloween to reinvent ourselves; we only needed a few props from the toy box plus our very active minds to create and recreate and create again who we would become on any given day.

And wow — the feeling of being someone else is magical — I can still easily connect with that emotion from my younger years!

While Halloween may be the perfect excuse to play dress up and to “make believe” and to transform ourselves into whoever and whatever we want, it’s not necessary.

Today, right now, just do it.

With a few props you already have at home and the raging imagination that’s lain dormant for too long inside of you, you have everything you need to become whatever you want! Try someone else on for a day or for an hour or for an afternoon.

Your big proposal to that potential new client who doesn’t know you? Wear a power suit or a brightly-colored tie you borrow from a friend whose presentation skills you admire.

Need to conduct a performance review and you’re nervous about saying the right thing? Practice using some words and phrases you wouldn’t “normally” say but your favorite tv personality would.

Not the type to rush in and “save the moment”? What if you were wearing a cape? Imagine you are and step into your greatness. Better yet — buy yourself some adult superhero underwear and WEAR THEM. No one but you will know and just like Clark Kent you’re suddenly walking around with superpowers.

Who’s your hero? Your better version of yourself? The person you wish you could be?

What props are buried at the bottom of your toy chest? Dig them out, shake them off and try them on for a little while.

When you believe you can’t, simply pretend to be the person who would and then do.

Easy.

Abundance vs Lack

By

When a situation arises we tend to immediately see the negative and the LACK: what we don’t have because of what’s happened TO us.

Author Lynne Twist provides some invaluable insight around this tendency when she suggests,

“True abundance flows from enough; never from more.”

Join me as I break this concept down into four real-life scenarios and how we might apply the wisdom of “enough.”

Loving you,
arminda

Mistakes Matter

By

Mistakes Matter

Whether you see your work as a game or as a serious business will determine whether you are a winner or a sore loser. And how you perceive yourself (winner or loser) will determine your relationship to mistakes (your own and/or your employees’).

Let’s break that down.

Playing for a Living

When we approach our work with a gaming mentality, we are open to the possibility of fun and adventure and of not knowing. We are open to different strategies and to feedback. And we are in it to win.

In this playful mindset, mistakes are a welcome learning opportunity for growth and they are shared openly with our teammates so everyone benefits and we are that much closer to our next victory.

Let’s Get Serious

When we believe that everything is serious, we lose sight of what’s happening right in front of us for the larger looming goal of not losing. We have tunnel vision and seriousness and resentment toward the slightest perceived diversion of co-workers’ attitudes.

In this serious mindset, mistakes are not tolerated — at all — and are punishable by shame and guilt and ridicule and public display for the lesson they provide everyone else to buckle down and get serious. This is serious business: making money and getting clients and beating the competition.

Playing to Win? or Not to Lose?

Winners play to win and celebrate the mistakes made along the way as a place from which to build up the entire team (internal customers) and serve the external customers even more profoundly.

Sore losers play to not lose and punish the mistakes made along the way, creating a culture of shame, which drastically minimizes production of the entire team, which then negatively impacts the external customer and diminishes your ability to serve.

If your team is playing not to lose it’s because you created a culture that does not celebrate mistakes and that’s no way to lead a team to victory.

There’s plenty of time left to play!

Huddle Up!!!

allarminda.com | 2024