Working for impact, why one shouldn't wait until 50 to entertain leisure, and what's not on your resumé
Here's what's happening over at Hit Pause, Then Play (October 2022)
🤔 Pondering, researching, testing
Fall is upon us already. My goodness. Can you believe we have just 2 months left of 2022? Here are 3 things I’ve been thinking about, researching and testing this month and last, as we move into the end of the year:
1. Working for impact
It was the most challenging session I had ever run. Everything that could go wrong? Did.
Our contact in Cambodia (Sophean, the star of the show, surrounded by smiling, timid Khmer students) hadn’t been able to connect to the Internet for the last half hour (it had been raining in Siem Reap, you see, and rain can mess with Internet connections). Five minutes after the session was due to start, he succeeded. But then he couldn’t hear me. He and a teacher were trying like mad to figure out the sound. I double-checked my mic. I unplugged the external speaker. I logged out and into the session again. It still wasn’t working. (And yes, before you ask, we had tested this repeatedly before the actual session, and yes, I had a backup plan if he was unable to connect to the Internet, and no, it wasn’t ideal.) And now, I needed to run downstairs to introduce my breakout session to the 100 people standing in the nave of a deconsecrated church in Amsterdam - and guide my 16 participants back upstairs.
When I got back, the sound was working. Hallelujah! But the room was all wrong. Two tables surrounded by chairs had been set up, which enticed people to sit down and settle in. Oh no. That was the last thing I wanted. No settling. No sitting down. But there was no stopping them, so sat they did, having thrown the balls I had prepared for them up into the air.
My laptop was facing the wrong way - Sophean couldn’t see anyone but me, and the whole point was to build a bridge between worlds. The participants could see Sophean, but he couldn’t see them. It was too late, and the space too small, for me to change the room around.
But into the session, we dove and a bridge between two worlds was built. The participants gamely walked through the three empathy exercises I had designed around using their eyes, ears and mouths, one power at a time. Inspired by this video I’d read about in Susan Cain’s Bittersweet, they created speech bubbles around what they were watching and hearing live via a link with a rural school in Cambodia. They crafted questions that would help them deeply connect with Sophean, one of the the school’s teachers and the students. Sophean responded to one of the questions:
I am working to teach these children English so they can get out of poverty, so they can get jobs, so they can have better lives.
Moved by what we were seeing and hearing, I took a risk. I announced that this session was the launch of a year-long design-thinking project with this school in Cambodia to define, design and deliver solutions to the school’s biggest challenges. I invited anyone who wanted to join the work to raise their hand, to which I then threw a ball of yarn. Hands went up around the room, and together, we formed a web (see the photo above), symbolising our connection and commitment to working together for impact. We would dedicate our time and energy through a series of online workshops I would design and facilitate to work on a concrete, real-world need. We would open our world of European and Asian design thinkers to a poor community in Cambodia, and in so doing, learn.
I didn’t know if it would work. I thought maybe we’d have two or three people interested in joining in. When nearly the whole room, and participants outside the room who had heard about the project came to me afterwards, I was stunned. When I told Sophean that it was a go, that we were going to work together to help him create better lives for his students, he couldn’t believe it. “Wow - there are people spread out in countries across the world who want to help us? That is amazing. Julie, that is amazing.”
The marvels of technology, the marvels of travel (I first met Sophean while travelling in Cambodia on a worldschooling trip in 2019), the marvels of working with groups to solve big problems - all of my passions combined into one. How lucky I am to be able to create the links and do the work that matters so very much to me and to others I am yet to meet.
2. Taking a very long walk
In September, I did another experiment. August newsletter readers may remember my experimenting with a new morning routine that included cold showers (those work nicely in summer - ask me how I’m doing with those next month!) and holding off on coffee for 90-120 minutes after waking. In September, I learned about something called the 12-hour walk, and within a few weeks, I calendared it and off I went.
I woke up one Saturday before sunrise, ate a hearty breakfast, packed a small bag with water, snacks, and first-aid supplies, turned off my phone and walked out my front door. I walked in silence and alone, hiking along the coast here in the south of France all day, returning 12 hours and 15 minutes later. Yes, it was a very long walk - and I loved it so much, I plan to do it each season. If you’d like to learn more about how it went for me, I wrote all about it here.
3. Creating a daily writing habit
Okay, folks. Any writers out there? I need your help. I’ve been working on developing a daily writing habit, and let me tell you, it’s a bear.
I’ve worked as a writing accountability coach - I’ve helped novelists and thesis writers. I’ve been there at their side, encouraging and helping them set and meet their daily goals. You would think I would know how to be my own best coach.
And I am … and then … there’s Life.
Life, running a business, taking care of sick pets and family members and even yourself. There are calls to make, meetings to attend, and financial aid forms to fill out for your soon-to-be-attending-college son. There is travel and caring for your grandson (best thing ever) and planning future travel and workshops and all the amazing stuff ahead, the very best parts of Life.
And … there’s writing.
I’m working to build a habit of writing two hours every weekday, and so far, well I failed the first part of October. And here I am this week, making it happen. But it means a few things:
I use Pacemaker to keep me on track. Big thanks to my friend, Lissa for suggesting this software to help me set and monitor word count goals and progress. So far, it’s a godsend.
When possible, I write first thing in the morning. So far, this has been hard (see “Life”, above).
I don’t go to sleep until I’ve written my word count. Now I am a big sleep zealot (see the wild things I’ll resort to to get better sleep here), so sleep deprivation is not something I’m willing to play with (willingly). So far, not being able to go to sleep until I finish writing is working. We’ll see how long this lasts. 😴
Writers out there with an established writing habit - tell me. What do you do? What works best for you?
📚 Inspiring
On The Shortness Of Life, by Seneca the Younger (0049) - At the recommendation of a good friend, I picked this up and read it during one of my tech shabbats last month.
This. Yes. This.
It is that people live as though they would live for ever: you never remember your human frailty; you never notice how much of your time has already gone by: you spend it as though you had an abundant and overflowing store of it, though all the while that day which you devote to some man or to some thing is perhaps your last. You fear everything, like mortals as you are, and yet you desire everything as if you were immortals. You will hear many men say, “After my 50th year I will give myself up to leisure: my 60th shall be my last year of public office”: and what guarantee have you that your life will last any longer? who will let all this go on just as you have arranged it? are you not ashamed to reserve only the leavings of your life for yourself, and appoint for the enjoyment of your own right mind only that time which you cannot devote to any business? How late it is to begin life just when we have to be leaving it! What a foolish forgetfulness of our mortality, to put off wholesome counsels until our 50th or 60th year, and to choose that our lives shall begin at a point which few of us ever reach.
Plays Well with Others, by Eric Barker (2022) - So much of what Mr. Barker reveals in this book rounds counter to everything we think we know about relationships. We think we can read our partners’ minds, we think we should use active listening with our loved ones (spoiler alert: that only works in hostage situations), we think we’re open to changing our minds about people. Think again. This book is a humorous, science-backed, quick read. I’m laughing out loud and saying, “Huh,” every other page.
🔥Sparking
Tell me, what should others know about you that doesn’t appear on your resumé?
Want more?
✍️You might like one of my recent posts on Medium
Designing for engagement and impact: Chart the emotional arc - How can we reshape the way we design and facilitate interaction for more engagement and impact? Focusing on an event’s emotional arc from the start will help.
15 life lessons from a 12-hour walk - So one Saturday, I walked outside my door just after sunrise and kept walking … for 12 hours. Here’s what I learned.
💡Join me in November and December
I’m building out new workshops for the International Energy Agency (November) and our Cambodia project (November and December). If you’d like engagement and impact to be a regular part of your gatherings, let’s work together. Connect with me on LinkedIn. Even better, let’s talk.
Productivity Coaching - How is this last quarter working out for you? As the days grow darker, does a day in bed with Netflix sound more and more enticing? Let's chat about how I can help. I have 1 coaching spot open; let’s talk before it’s gone.
🙏Thank you
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