Kim Grabovsky

Lessons in Persistence from a Second Grader

This morning while eating a mango, I came across a story on The Today Show about a seconder grader, Dylan Hoffman, who won Google's:  "Doodle 4 Google" national contest.  Through his doodle he won a $30,000 college scholarship, $50,000 in technology for his school, his drawing above on the box of Crayola, and along with a whole host of other privledges.  

What surprised me the most about this win was his persistence in drawing.  His mom said he made well over 1,000 drafts before creating this piece.  He didn't draw just a few drafts that he wasn't satisfied with.  He didn't stop at 10, 50, 100, 500, 999 but well over 1,000 before he found one worth submitting.  I don't know what this means to you but to me this is a lesson in persistence and going after you want.  

I have so many clients who come to me in hopes of figuring out their dream job or to help them reach some big goals.  It's so amazing to me how easily discouraged they get after a few failed attempts at something they want.  If you're going to let a few tries get you down, you may want to ask yourself if you really want it.  If you really want to go after something, you'd make it happen.  

Success normally doesn't just happen after a few tries.  It takes a lot of work and effort.  The most successful people in the world have become successful from failing fast and holding fast to their dreams.  Thomas Edison had 1,093 patents in lifetime for different inventions with over 10,000 attempted inventions. He had a few successful inventions we know of including the light bulb, phonograph, and motion picture camera but most of his inventions didn't take flight.  When asked in an interview, "Mr. Edison, how do you feel about the fact that you've made over 10,000 failed inventions?" Edison replied, "I have not failed, I've just found 10,000 ways that don't work."  

In Malcolm Gladwell's book, Outliers, he says it takes 10 years or 10,000 hours to gain mastery in a certain field.  "The people at the very top don't just work harder or even much harder than everyone else," Gladwell writes.  "They work much, much harder."  Achievement comes from persistent effort.  

Michelangelo is quoted as saying, "If people knew how hard I had to work to gain mastery, it wouldn't seem wonderful at all."  

What few failed attempts have you let hold you back in life?  Have you REALLY given it your best shot? 

For the elevator to success, fail fast and fail often.  Are you willing to sketch over 1,000 rough drafts to get the winning picture?   What is your winning picture?  Are you willing to do what it takes now that you know what it REALLY takes?  Will you let go of perfection for progress?  We can learn a lot from a Second Grader.  

Thank you Dylan for today's inspiration!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Defying Gravity

 

This was morning as I was listening to Pandora while organizing files when this song, Defying Gravity, from the Wicked musical, came on.  It was as if I was hearing the words for the first time even though I've been to the musical and heard this song countless times. What powerful lyrics! This is exactly where I am right now. How about you?  

Won't you try defying gravity and stop accepting limits~

Listen here:  Defying Gravity

Something has changed within me
Something is not the same
I'm through with playing by the rules
Of someone else's game
Too late for second-guessing
Too late to go back to sleep
It's time to trust my instincts
Close my eyes: and leap!

It's time to try
Defying gravity
I think I'll try
Defying gravity
Kiss me goodbye
I am defying gravity
And you wont bring me down!

I'm through accepting limits
''cause someone says they're so
Some things I cannot change
But till I try, I'll never know!
Too long I've been afraid of
Losing love I guess I've lost
Well, if that's love
It comes at much too high a cost!

I'd sooner buy
Defying gravity
Kiss me goodbye
I'm defying gravity
I think I'll try
Defying gravity
And you wont bring me down!

I'd sooner buy
Defying gravity
Kiss me goodbye
I'm defying gravity
I think I'll try
Defying gravity and you bring me down
bring me down!
ohh ohhh ohhhh!

Additional lyrics from original broadway show:

Unlimited (Unlimited)
My future is unlimited (unlimited)
And I've just had a vision
Almost like a prophecy
I know - it sounds truly crazy
And true, the vision's hazy
But I swear, someday I'll be...

Flying so high! (Defying gravity)
Kiss me goodbye! (Defying gravity)

So if you care to find me
Look to the western sky!
As someone told me lately:
"Everyone deserves the chance to fly!"

I'm defying gravity!
And you won't bring me down!
Bring me down!
Bring me down!

 

 

Taking Your Life to the Next Level

 

This weekend I heard an incredibly inspiring and riviting message from Rickey Bolden about taking your life your life to the next level.  Enjoy it here:  nextlevel

The 4 key points are:

1.  Assess and evaluate-  Reflect on how you're doing.  What's working, what's not working, what could better in your career, your marriage, your daily life, etc.  

2.  Let go of the past-  Watch your language.  Are you still complaining or talking negatively about what happened yesterday or are you talking about the present moment and where you are headed?  

3.  Change your thinking-  Einstein said, "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."  For example, most people know when they are angry but the don't change their thinking to shift their emotions.  

4.  Let go of the results and leave it to God-  Let go of your stuff.  You are not in control.  Do you want you can do and leave outcomes to God.    

 

 

Value Based Metrics for Improving Results- E.G. My Office Space

This past Thursday night, I attended an highly educational ASTD (American Society for Training and Development) meeting.  The presenter was Mel Schnapper who is an organizational development expert.  With his Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior, Mel wrote the textbook, Value Based Metrics for Improving Results. 

In his generocity, he shared his model for measuring success with anything.  I will attempt to explain part of his process here.  There are 3Ms of Performance.

1.  Measure- Define in qualitative and quantitative terms what success will look like.  How will measure success at the completion of a goal?  What will it look like, sound like, feel like, etc?  What will you experience?  What will others notice?

2.  Manage- Survey all the variables that will help or hinder your progress.  

3.  Magnify- Evaluate and improve your systems to support standards of "Very Good" and "Excellent."

This model can be used for anything and everything that you want to improve your results on and I've just taken one small part of this model to demonstrate it.

I'd like to use it as a model for goal setting.  Let's say you set a goal.  You will have 3 ways to measure the standard of hitting that goal.  You will have a "Satisfactory", "Very Good", and "Excellent" levels.

I'm going to use a real life example of something I've personally been struggling with and would like to set a goal around.  

My goal is to consistently have a beautiful and organized office.  Mel says that every adjective and adverb means nothing so let me start defining it.  What do I mean by consistently? On a daily basis.   What do I mean by beautiful?  An inspiring place that I enjoy looking at.  What does inspiring mean?  A place where I am drawn to creating and doing great work.  What is great work? Work that is fun and expresses my highest values of connection, impact, beauty, and learning.  What does organized mean?  It means I can work efficiently because I know where everything is and everything is in it's place.  It also means I don't have any distractions with objects out of place such as piles of unsorted paper. It means that everything in the office has a home, has purpose, and is where it belongs. To bottom-line it, I have made decisions for each object in my office and it serves a purpose.  I have no loose ends.  

There are 3 levels of goal attainment:

1.  Satisfactory.  What will this look like?  How will I measure satisfactory?  At the beginning of every day, I will start my day by making sure my work space is clean.  My work space is comprised of  my computer desk and my writing desk.  They are free from papers and things that I don't immediately need.  The immediate working space is clear.  Papers to sort and file away are set aside in piles on the floor.  I can get my work done without too much interference.   

2.  Very good.  What will this look like?  The piles of paper on the floor are sorted, tossed, or filed away.  I don't have piles of paper on the floor anymore.  I have one pile that is sorted through on a daily basis.  I don't keep anything that I don't need.  I have cleaned out my bookshelves and gotten rid of paper, notebooks, and books I no longer use.   

3.  Excellent.  I have gone through all the papers in my filing cabinets and drawers.  Everything I have has a purpose and place and what I don't use I get rid of.  My space is clean, simple, spacious, and organized.  It is a place of inspiration where I can create and enjoy.  I have a system for everything coming in so that it immediately has a place to go.  I have it professional decorated and I love the details in the design. 

I could go in much more detail and depth in measuring but to demonstrate, will keep it simple for now.

There's also the management piece of the puzzle.  What will help or hinder my progress?  This will have to be a post of another day.   What do you want to improve in your life and measure?  Until then, happy measuring~

 

 

 

The Journey

Do you remember a time if your life when you wanted something so badly for so long?  For years you dreamed of achieving something so grand that you didn't know if it would actually happen for you.   Maybe you wanted to someday run a marathon, have a certain job, or go to some exotic location in the world.  

For me, one of the dreams I've held on to for over a decade was to go to the Maldives.  Let me tell you about the Maldives.  The Maldives is an island nation located southwest off the coast of India.  I don't know where this idea first originated but it seems I accidentally came across it on the internet.  Maybe it was an advertisement for some hotel in the Maldives.  It was a picture so captivating that it enveloped my entire being upon seeing it.  All I could think about was that I had to go.  I absolutely had to go!  There's no question in my mind.  

It was a place so magical and breathtaking.  It had the most lucid blue green waters you ever did see. But what really got me was staying in a tiki hut over the ocean.  In this tiki hut were the most luxurious accomodations. Think modern amenities with every luxury possible.  I'm talking big spacious soaking tub surrounded by glass walls to enjoy the ocean view all around and a deck with it's own pool overlooking the ocean.  To be able to just stand on the deck and even jump right into the ocean without having to walk to a beach was huge to me!  I love snorkeling and looking at fish that this was the ultimate for me.  I mean this place has over 1100 species of fish!   They were everywhere.  And it was a place of absolute tranquility too. There was a peace and a reverance for this place.  It was far away from people but yet it wasn't. Breakfast could come in by boat to your hut if you wanted.  For years I would dream about and imagine my magical place.  

Well, 12 years after seeing the inital image, my big dream would come true.  For our honeymoon, my husband gave into my big dream.  I had to share it with his dream of going to Switzerland too but I was ok with that.  I was so exited to go!  24 hours after we left Atlanta, Georgia, 3 planes and 1 speed boat later, we arrived at Coco Palm Bodi Hithu.  I could hardly contain myself!  After arriving at our accomodations, I stood out on the deck overlooking the magnificant blue green waters and just took it in.  I couldn't believe that I was actually living the dream I had envisioned.  And then a sad thought crept it.  I thought to myself, that's it.  This was the big dream.  I've done it, now what?  I was so annoyed with myself.  It's kind of a let down.  You get to the destination and it's a dream killer.  Now what?  What's the next thing?  Well, don't worry.  I still very much enjoyed my honeymoon.  But it was a notable moment for me to remember that achieving the dream is just a very small part of the dream. The journey and who you become while dreaming about the dream is the meaty part of life.  Don't miss out on enjoying your journey because you're so focused on achieving the dream.  

So my question for you is, what is for you to stay in the journey?

 

The Power of Meditation

This past weekend I attended an event called "The Power of Meditation" with Ilchi Lee, the found of Dahn Yoga.  Below are notes I took that I believe will help you to improve your life.

Key points:

• Meditation and brain exercises are helpful for connecting the mind to the body.  Yoga means to remove the barrier between the mind and body so that they operate as one.  It's full consciousness so that we don't live life just in our heads most of the time. 

• The reason we under perform is because of anxieties and fears.  Meditation centers us and keeps us from getting anxious.

• It's important to guard our energy.  If we do things we don't like, we get tired.  For this reason, it's important to know what we like doing so we can more of those things that give us energy and less of the things that drain our energy.  

• Meditation and yoga help to cleanse the unconscious mind.  It helps you to stop being a slave to your emotions so that you will be master over your emotions.  

Things we can do:

• Pay compliments to people every day, especially to family members and yourself.  Even if it's hard to compliment someone, you can still find something to compliment.  

• Hold on to your hopes and dreams because without those, we become anxious.  

• Good and bad energy is produced through information.  Clear out the negative info. in your environment such as the negative people and watching the news. 

 

This One Thing

by Andy Stanley

You want powerful change to happen in your life....do this one thing.  

We all make resolutions. We all break resolutions. But if we're honest, there is something in each of our lives - a habit, a relationship, a debt - that deserves our attention this year. In this message, Andy recounts the Old Testament story of Nehemiah and draws out a lesson that can be the key to finally accomplishing the one thing we each need to put our minds to this year.

Listen to this message here:  http://www.buckheadchurch.org/messages/this-one-thing

 

 

Stop Throwing Kisses

Talk about small things that make a big difference.  

Over 20 million Hershey's Kisses are wrapped in 133 square miles of aluminum foil each day. That's a lot of landfill waste we can kiss goodbye by recycling.

Speaking of "deep in the ground..."

A used aluminum can is recycled and back on the grocery store shelf as a new can in as little as 60 days. If they were thrown in the garbage, they'd still be deep in the ground 500 years from now.  

Source:  Recycling-revolution.com

Back to Work...Meaningful Work!

Wow, it's been so long since I last blogged...how sad!  How I've missed connecting with you all!  I just noticed all of the comments coming in from the last few months and I appreciate them so much.

Here's an updated summary of what's been going on during my hiatus for the last few months.  

I've been traveling A LOT since October!  It first started with a visit to my cousin's in addition to attending a friend's beautiful and touching wedding in NYC.  Then, I took a trip to Utah for 10 days.  There I partook in a tennis camp  and went hiking through beautiful Arches and Zion National Parks.  These national treasures are a must see! Then, I moved to the Washington, D.C. area.  Next, I went to Puerto Rico and discovered the bioluminesence, single-celled organisms that glow a fluorescent blue when touched in the water.  It was so cool.  Then the holidays came and I visited my family and especially enjoyed my new baby girl niece.  For New Years, my husband and I spent the weekend with friends at a cabin in western Virginia.  That was great fun!  It has been such an adventure!  Through all that, we have recently unpacked and are getting settled in nicely here so now it's back to work...meaningful work.  

I've started coaching again and it's not a surprise that my clients are looking for new jobs.  They want jobs that are more reflective of who they are and are in line with their purpose.  

So, here are a few resources that may help you with your job hunt as you begin the new year with a bang!

www.ilostmyjob.com

www.flexjobs.com

www.glassdoor.com

www.moo.com

And here are a few random ideas to help you prime the pump as you come up with your own ways to get connected to find meaningful work.

1.  Join associations related to the job or industry where you're seeking employment.  People who join associations are typically in the know and enjoy community and helping others.   They would be a great resource for your job search.

2.  Make a Youtube video about something you love.  Show that you're an expert at something by creating a how-to video that can help someone else.  

3.  Think about your talents, hobbies, skills, passions, and areas of expertise.  Now, how can you get paid doing that? 

4.  What opportunity or need to see in the world?  If something about the world bothers you and you think, someone should do something about that, maybe that someone is you.  

Enjoy the process!

Gems Uncovered by Alison King

 

Thank you Alison for sharing the following "Hidden Gems" in your life! 

·         Photos – I have taken quite a lot lately, but haven’t put them into books or put recent ones up around the house.  I just bought a Groupon for a photobook that expires at the end of this month, which is helpfully giving me a deadline.

·         Pantry – quite a while ago we bought materials to create a pantry in the basement, and have the space.  I just need to put the shelves up to have a good storage space for extra food.

·         Cooking – I have a bunch of cookbooks, but tend to have similar meals most nights.  I’ve declared this “new food month” for myself and just this week have started to try new recipes.  So far, it has been mixed as far as how well the new recipes are turning out, but the successes count more than the failures since they will expand my rotation.  Tonight I try butternut squash soup.   **By the way, I still have your Joy of Cooking – I need to give it to you the next time we get together.  I really have enjoyed it.

·         Painting – There is a space in my bedroom that is screaming out for a painting, and I have all of the materials.  I just need to actually do something about it and paint.  That would make me happy to wake up to and I would enjoy the process.

·         Guitar – I haven’t been playing too much lately, but Elizabeth loves it when I play to her.  I am working on mastering “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”.  Hopefully I will get that one down this month.