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 Year of Yes – 185
Made some fun art today. Happy 4th of July for those observing. I am grateful for this country where I’ve made my chosen home. I’m grateful for getting to see friends for the first time in a long time. I’m grateful for good books, art supplies, my backyard, quiet time and family time. Yes to art. #yearofyes #karenikayearofyes  Year of Yes – 184
I was chatting with a few friends the other day about how new things always seem hard until we unlock some initial progress. Running feels untenable until I have a baseline cardiovascular strength. Before that it’s just nonstop pain. But slowly if I don’t give up, I can build my capacity and I can start getting to a place where improvement becomes possible. The same applies to drawing, photography, learning languages, and many other skills. I remember before I left for Tokyo back in 1999, Jake and I had listened to how to pronounce Japanese numbers and I felt I could never ever possibly learn that language. And I did, of course. Hours and hours of studying is what it took. I’ve made a lot of improvements in my strength this year, I’ve gotten to a point where climbing harder, riding the bike harder, and doing core have all become feasible. I’m not where I want to be, yet but I can see the line of sight much more visibly than I ever have before. This makes me think about all the other areas of my life where I’d intended to lean in but I never got past that first stage. Maybe it’s time to pick one or two and see what I can do. Yes to progress. Yes to keeping at it. Yes I can. #yearofyes #karenikayearofyes  Year of Yes – 183
And the vacation officially begins. So grateful. I watch bouldering competitions when I ride the bike each morning and in today’s competition, one climber tried to top six times and with just 16 seconds to go he tried one more time and made it with one second left to go. Another climber was the last to go on the last boulder and went from being in sixth place to third place in the final minute. Astounding moments for sure. And also astounding moments happen every single day and every single moment. A reminded to never ever give up on what you want. Life is unpredictable. Yes to keeping at it. #yearofyes #karenikayearofyes  Year of Yes – 182 I am about to take vacation from work for the first time in a long, long time. We’re not even traveling anywhere all that exciting but just the thought of resting for a bunch of days in a row feels blissful right now. Bring it on. Yes to vacations and adventures and time off. #yearofyes #karenikayearofyes  Year of Yes – 181
All my pictures are either of flowers or of climbing. Once I start doing other things I might have more variety. And here we are, last day of June. Half of this year is over. The first half of this year was eventful for me. A lot happened at work, a lot happened at home, a lot happened around my personal goals. I feel good about the progress I made and feel grateful for the ways in which I was able to move through some of the tougher parts. Here’s what has helped me the most: For the second half of this year I wish for more adventures, more wilderness, and more connection. Despite the challenges I’ve loved spending all this time with my family and really desperately miss my extended family and my friends. Despite everything, I have grown and learned a lot this year so far. I am grateful for this moment and really hoping that the second half is full of adventures and joy and connection. Happy almost July. Yes to introspection and growth. #yearofyes #karenikayearofyes  Year of Yes – 180
I don’t have anything pithy to say today. Just trying to do the next right thing. Grateful today. Yes to showing up and doing what’s needed. #yearofyes #karenikayearofyes  Year of Yes – 179
As I am onboarding a new leader at work and mentoring two other new employees, I’ve been thinking a lot about beginner’s mind and the resistance to change. I’ve been thinking about where I’m doing things in my life “the way I’ve always done them” and where I’m open to new possibilities. What would happen if I put all of my assumptions away and looked at my life with fresh eyes? Is that even possible? What if I wrote down my goals and then had to think of 6 different ways to get there? Would that help me realize that there is no one right way? Would that help me be open to ways that I can’t brainstorm by myself? As we talk about going “back” to “normal” life the way things were, I’m wondering if this is the perfect time to revisit some assumptions and challenge myself to be more open minded. More creative and resourceful. Yes to shifting perspective and yes to questioning assumptions. #yearofyes #karenikayearofyes  Year of Yes – 178
I have had headaches and have been feeling lethargic for the last few days so today I decided it was watch tv and relax day. I exercised, got groceries, cooked and spent the rest of the day watching Netflix. Some days that’s what’s needed most. Yes to rest. #yearofyes #karenikayearofyes  Year of Yes – 177
We are one week away from being halfway through this year. I’ve been thinking a lot about how the first half of this year went and what I would like from the second half of this year. At work, we usually do second half planning. I was thinking today that this practice doesn’t have to be reserved for work only. It’s a perfect time to do my own personal H2 planning. What are my list of start-stop-continue items I would like do? Where are things working where I want to invest more and where are things working just right and what things are not working and I just don’t want to try to continue them and where do I want to pivot? What if anything do I want to add to my list for the next six months? And does that mean there are things I would need to stop to be able to make room for that? This is the perfect time to be intentional. Yes to welcoming the second half of 2021. #yearofyes #karenikayearofyes  Year of Yes – 176 Happy Friday. I woke up this morning intending to be very productive. But then the universe had other plans. I got a blinding headache that pretty much knocked me out. So I did half my list and then just gave myself grace. I am learning not to resist what is. Because what’s the point? Yes to accepting what is. #yearofyes #karenikayearofyes  Year of Yes – 175 Life is not a straight journey. It meanders all over the place and from a distance it can look like a linear path but day by day, it’s anything but. So is learning. A few months ago, I got a coach at work. She and I have been meeting weekly and the topics have been all over place (much like my life lately) and sometimes I’ll end a session anxious that I’m not covering what I should or that I meandered too much or that I am not “progressing” at the right pace. I’ve made a lot of progress in a lot of areas of my life this year. But in my mind I’d reached out for a career coach for a specific reason and I wasn’t actively working on that in our sessions and I felt guilty about that each time. And yet today as we started talking and I was sharing some of the updates from my week and some of my learnings and in seemingly unrelated areas I was able to take a step back and have a very clear point of view and direction about all the things I was intending to talk to her about. And I clearly articulated that I want to do this, this, and this over the next couple of weeks to help towards my goal. It was well thought out, precise, and intentional. Interestingly enough I had no idea that I was going to say any of that before the session started so it wasn’t planned. And yet it came together anyway. This, in my experience, is the gift of unstructured talking time or the meandering nature of life. It looks like it’s all over the place but it’s actually converging and you’re actually progressing. It’s just hard to see when you’re in the middle of it because the messy middle is messy by definition. It also reminded me that I have to give myself permission to wander. Permission to get messy. Permission to not know what’s coming next or where I want to get next. Permission and space. It was a good day. Yes to the messy middle. And on a side note today’s my dad’s 78th birthday. I love and adore you, daddy. I am grateful for you and your kindness every single day. #yearofyes #karenikayearofyes  Year of Yes – 174
We’ve been going climbing three times a week for the last six months. And even though they are finally fully open, the gyms are not back to their setting schedule. This means when we go to the gym, there are 5-8 new routes since last time. Generally at least half of those are outside my ability range. So not a lot of new routes for me to climb. But here’s the thing: because I’m climbing so frequently I am able to do harder things every couple of weeks. That means I can go back to the same gym and to the same routes but now new opportunities are available to me. A route that I had evaluated and wasn’t able to do Is it within the range of possibility now. This has made me think a lot about my life lately. What might be something that I maybe wrote off at one point in my life thinking I can’t do it but now if I were just to revisit it, it might actually be possible or might create a new opportunity for me. Unlike the gym the routes are not always there and visible in my life and I’m not regularly going back and revisiting them. I wonder if there’s a way to actually make them more visible. And this way I could rethink or retry them. Yes to expanding perspectives and possibilities. #yearofyes #karenikayearofyes |
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