Design Yourself

Today Sharon explores the topic of asking for help. You will learn about why flexing this skill is a critical component of successful leadership and sane living, what holds us back from asking for help, and why we've got to push forth and ask anyway. Finally Sharon offers 5 Rules of the Road for how to get past your own discomfort or habit of not asking for help and move into the practice of doing it anyway. Learn more about the Camino de Santiago – a pilgrimage walk through Spain that profoundly changed my life. (Among other things it taught me that sometimes getting to the end goal just isn’t the point.) Psst. If you are curious about walking the Camino yourself, here is a must read book, A Pilgrim’s Guide to the Camino de Santiago. Why Don’t We Ask For Help: We don’t know what to ask for The “Busy-ness Cycle”  It makes us uncomfortable No one can do it as well as me I’m in control, thank you very much Why We Ought To Ask Anyway: Our own capabilities are finite  We can’t do everything  You can lev

This week Sharon discusses the importance of embracing failure. (Fail forward!) Gain distinctions about how to own your own story, what it means to be (and be a part of) a deliberately developmental organization, and our default reactions to failure. Sharon shares tips for how to get comfortable stepping into the Fail Forward! mindset and offers questions to prompt your own reflection on this topic. Plus she brings in perspectives from both the "Harvard Business Review" and the "Gilmore Girls." Enjoy! Ideas Shared: We are all writing the stories of our lives all the time, whether or not we are conscious of it. When we own our authorship, we step into our power not just to own what happens next, but to go back and revise how we tell the story of our past as well. As the authors of our own lives, we tend to either write from the perspective of a Hero In Victory or a Hero in Retreat. I like to think of this in plain terms as operating from a place of strength (read: victory) vs. operating from a place of re

Sharon reflects this week on work life balance - or really imbalance. She shares the marriage advice that has stuck with her as she nears her 9-year wedding anniversary: "Marriage takes 100% effort to be successful, but rarely is it split 50-50. Sometimes it's 60-40. Sometimes it's 90-10. But it always takes 100% effort to work." After a near-decade she sees how this framework applies not just to our relationship with a spouse but to anytime we work with others. The most inspirational advice I got leading up to my wedding: “Marriage requires 100% effort to work. But rarely is it split 50-50. Sometimes it’s 60-40. Sometimes it’s 90-10. But it ALWAYS takes 100% to work.” Mimi Barringer Taking the Lead is the series from podcast Note to Self that I’ve been listening to on the regular lately. Much of the podcast follows two Brooklyn moms with a tech idea that has the vision and ambition to change the what it looks like to be a working mom. But of course they are dealing with many of the same stresses that they

Naming what you want is an incredible first step to any kind of change. In today's podcast, Sharon shares the first step in her Go Beyond Vision Cycle process: Getting clear on what it is that you want. To help listener's see for themselves what it is that their hearts desire, she spends most of the podcast offering a vision meditation (questions, prompts, exercises) to help you focus in on all that is possible. Wishing you fun and a few surprises as you play and explore here! Bravely and boldly looking out to what you really want is an incredibly creative act. In a literal sense, you are the creator of your future. The intention I hold for anyone – and everyone! – embarking on this process is simple: There is nothing stopping you. May it support you in whatever vision unfolds for you. This meditation evolved organically from my Go Beyond visioning process. You can learn more about that process here and if you fancy a playful workbook to support you in this process, you can check out the accompanying colorin

In Episode 4 of Design Yourself, Sharon talks about why stepping away from your computer and taking a break is one of the best things we can do for ourselves - and our work too. Bonus: You can hear the birds chirping in the background of this episode recorded on Lake Champlain (NY) at sunrise. Enjoy! This picture pretty much sums up my trip to the Adirondacks this summer. Open, expansive, peaceful. IDEAS SHARED Where do you get your best ideas? The shower? Running? I bet you won’t say: Sitting at my desk. Those breakthrough moments are unlikely to show up while you are pounding away for your umpteenth hour at the computer either. Point is: We need breaks.     Remember the false peak I discussed in this episode? Here she is in all her glory. Not a bad sneak preview of what was to come!   Here are just a few of the benefits of taking breaks: Allows us to recharge; Creativity flourishes away from our desks; We get new perspectives on old problems; Clarity of focus when we return to our work. Our view of

In Episode 3, Sharon explores one of the fiercest barriers to going after what we really want: Fear. Ideas Shared: Here are the two types of Good Scary that I most commonly see happening to us: Scary New – How can I possibly? I never have before! Scary Change –  What? Me? Do something different? Never! Scary Good Challenge:  When it comes to leading a life that makes you wildly happy/fulfilled/delighted – what are you afraid of? Another way to think of this is: What is holding you back from going after what you really want? How to Embrace the Good Scary: Step 1: Name and acknowledge the Good Scary. Step 2: Lean into that fear in small ways. Stretch your comfort level. Step 3: Ask yourself what emotion might help serve as a counter balance to fear.  Step 4: Exercise courage. Resources and Links: So this Bad Scary stuff is real. Curious to learn more about how fear works when we are faced with Bad Scary? Geek out over here and learn a bit more about the neuroscience.

In Episode 2 of Design Yourself, Sharon discusses the importance of getting started. Career moves, life adventures, and creative projects can only begin from one place - the one you are in. The theme for today is: Stop waiting + start doing. Listen to hear some of Sharon's favorite tips for how to get over the delay game and start getting the job done. IDEAS SHARED Eric Smucker of Smucker Farms is the visionary urban farmer and CSA pioneer who said yes to my podcast interview back in 2013. Fingers crossed I can get him on the show now that it exists. Here are the Erin Condren planners that my sister and I were using to capture our 2016 goals and intentions. I’ve had fun using my planner this year, though ultimately think I prefer something a little slimmer and more likely to make it into my purse on a daily basis. (I hate to be weighed down!) I recently picked up one of Appointed’s planners for my husband that I’m loving – and not just because he’s suddenly using a planner. (Though I’m not complaining abo

Welcome to the inaugural episode of Design Yourself - a podcast to help you figure out what it is that you want and then make it happen. In this episode, Sharon shares her inspiration for launching the show, what you can expect from Design Yourself moving forward, and how this podcast fits into her own professional journey as a creative, coach, and entrepreneur. As I kicked off the podcast I shared both the story of how Design Yourself came to be and some of the headlines of my own professional trajectory. Below are some links to some resources I referenced related to my own career path. I love my alma mater Kenyon College. Check out what it’s like to study in the cornfields of Ohio. Or read about it in a book by a English professor whose speech to my freshman class circa 1999 still gives me goosebumps. He was that good. My Fulbright Fellowship in Mainz, Germany was a game changer. I worked at the Advisory Board for nearly a decade. Loved it then and the more organizations I work with the more I admire a