Arminda Lindsay

Being On Purpose

Props & Costumes

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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

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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

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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!!!

Failure

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What if there was a different option to pass/fail? Let’s EXPERIMENT with what we do every day instead of succumbing to the personal low of failing if something doesn’t turn out the way we want or expect.

I reference the Ladder of Consciousness during this video, so be sure and watch that other Ask Arminda if you’re unfamiliar with it!

Experiments 101

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Experiments 101

Who else remembers grade school science class worksheets?

HYPOTHESIS: _______________________________________

TEST 1: _____________________________________________

TEST 2: _____________________________________________

TEST 3: _____________________________________________

CONCLUSION: ______________________________________

Those test lines were always a minimum; you could keep adding as many additional lines as you needed. And the whole thing was fun and a game and exciting because you didn’t know what would happen (like that time I grabbed the iron stand after the open flame had just been diminished)! As long as you made a prediction and then ran your tests and learned something and reported it, your grade was inconsequential.

What if we turn today or the presentation or the project or the conversation or the training program or the new job into a great big experiment instead of a pass/fail option?

Because experiments never fail; they’re just opportunities for learning and data collection.

Crazy Good

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crazy good

I can’t get enough of Steve Chandler. I read all of his books. I listen to all of his audio programs. I participate in his live events. I pay him to coach me.

Steve just published a new book: Crazy Good.

This book is — as its title suggests — crazy good!

Chandler is a master of simplification. His is a gift for seeing patterns that most of us use as crutches and excuses for the why we behave the way we do (and oftentimes why we don’t actively participate in our lives at all) and then he shows us that another — better — option exists.

But only every time.

Seeing these distinctions leads us to choice. When we choose something different we place ourselves on the path to a crazy good life, not just a life lived to get through it all.

Be a joy-giver in your own life and read this book; you’ll be crazy glad you did!

Choose Fun

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Choose Fun

It’s always a choice.

Nothing is serious and boring unless and until we choose to make it serious.

Everyone around you notices how serious you are and they don’t prefer it.

Laugh.

Enjoy your world.

Insert fun back into your experiences.

Yes, even (and especially) your work experiences.

Choose now.

Choose fun.

Pizza Power

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Pizza Power

I’m writing to you from Chicago, Illinois, where pizza is a pretty big deal.

I love pizza.

Dairy, however, does not love me, and this teeny little barrier often prevents me from eating a traditional pizza with cheese on top.

On rare occasions I find a pizza place with vegan cheese as an option and on those occasions I am always in the mood for a slice.

Blaze Fast Fire’d Pizza on E Ontario Street in Chicago is just such an establishment, where building custom pizzas is what they do best.

Their process is simple: pick your sauce, cheese, and toppings and watch it bake.

My turn: I asked my server if she would please put on a pair of clean gloves before handling my pizza dough. With a genuine smile she happily obliged.

Regarding the sauce, everything I saw had cheese floating on top and when I told her I cannot have any dairy she immediately whisked my round of dough to the opposite end of the line where a separate cheese-free container of sauce was waiting.

After the vegan cheese was applied I selected several additional toppings to complete my custom pie.

While my pizza baked in the flames, the cashier was nothing but kindness and complimented me on my eyes and thanked me for coming in tonight.

The young man in charge of removing my pizza from the oven and slicing it before putting it in the box called me over to his workstation to show me the pizza cutter he used was one they reserve for pizzas with the vegan cheese so as not to contaminate with cheese and/or meat from the other pizzas.

As I left with my pizza box in-hand, all three of those young people thanked me again for coming.

The system those employees used demonstrates exactly the way for any business, regardless of industry, to increase sales: don’t sell, serve.

  • They served me by honoring my request for clean gloves.
  • They heard my dairy issue and provided a custom sauce option for me.
  • They recognized my dietary difference & offered toppings that might be useful for my needs.
  • They saw me as a person and complimented something unique in me.
  • They included me in their process to show me they respect what differentiates me.

Don’t focus on a number. Don’t see potential dollar signs above your clients’ heads. Don’t rush to convince them what they need, according to you. Don’t focus on your budget. And don’t wait for the phone to ring.

  • Serve your clients.
  • Give knowledge, time, a call, recommendations, observations, something extra, with no expectation of a sale.
  • Hear their stories.
  • Ask what would be useful for THEM and not for you.
  • See them as unique and with unique qualities, strengths, and needs.
  • Include them in your conversations and respect them as a valuable part of your organization.

Do not try to sell them a pizza.
Just love them for being in front of you and notice how pretty their eyes look to you.

Your tip jar will always overflow.

Snail Mail

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snailmail

Let’s imagine for a moment that you’ve just collected your mail for the day.

As you pull the assorted envelopes and papers out of your box, you pause briefly to flip through the stack. Your eyes light on a colorful envelope with a handwritten address and your heart rate slightly increases with anticipation because you recognize that writing; it’s from someone you love. Memories of shared experiences with that person flood your brain and everything else in your world now ceases to exist until you’ve opened that envelope and read its contents word for word.

We tend to approach our work in the same way we get the mail: haphazardly and rushed. Somedays we barely have time to collect the post at all. When we do, we cram our arms full of the papers, fliers and envelopes spilling out of the box, casually flipping through them to see if anything stands out.

What if every project is a handwritten letter from someone you love and not a stuffed box of junk mail?

Slow down.

When we slow down we see the details that being in a hurry overlooks. Seeing details enables us to create solutions, to simplify processes, and to be an owner of that process, rather than a victim of a system.

There is plenty of time to accomplish all you wish to accomplish.

When was the last time you received a hand-written note or letter from someone? When did you last write and mail one to someone else?

Write a love note and snail mail it.

See the details in your projects and simplify your systems.

Give yourself and someone you love the gift of slowing down.

allarminda.com | 2024