the Blog
How to Get Back Up Again
"Uh oh, Elizabeth, be careful. You're sloshing it out."
My four year old stops her stirring for a second, processing my words. She sees where a small puddle of batter is now splatted on the counter top. She adjusts her grip, and then begins to mix again, slower this time.
"It's okay, Mom." She says in a confident tone. Then under her breath, more to herself than to me, "It's all a part of learning."
I'm pretty sure she got that phrase from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, and I'm completely in love with it.
Understanding Social Energy & Communication Styles
Last week, we wrote about productivity personalities, how to feed strengths and compensate for weaknesses, and how these ideas have played out in our Evergreen Team dynamics. In this post, we're going to look at social energy and communication styles, and the ways doing all this work around who you are and who you're working with can help you work more compassionately and productively as an individual and on a team.
Social Energy
Way more popular than productivity personalities, is diving into the concept of being "introverted" vs "extroverted."
Where do you even start when you've found yourself in a 'survival mode' season?
You start right where you are.
- You embrace the realities of your context.
- You set (and KEEP!) a daily strategy and reflection meeting with yourself.
- You purge unrealistic expectations.
- You get serious about facing the deeper problems.
- You carve out time for adequate sleep and rest (you can’t solve problems or show up well for your relationships if you don’t get enough sleep!)
- You develop rhythms for your basic responsibilities.
- You clear focus time for the important things that keep being pushed to the back burner.
- You adopt a growth mindset.
You’ve Got Wildly Important Things to Do
Pretend we’re at a coffee shop together.
I’m your best friend, and you’re pouring out your heart.
You’re telling me you don’t have enough time to do the things that are really important.
You feel stuck.
So I do what any good best friend would do. I lean in real close and I say, “You know what? You’re in control of how you spend your time because you’re an adult.”
(Just a little tough love—and then I buy you another coffee with extra whipped cream on top because I’m a 2 and you’re my person.)
Intentional Pivoting: the Superpower of the Growth Mindset
Last week, we talked about how to set solid quarterly goals, and then use them to get back on track.
But, if you're like most people, the one question that tends to trip you up in your intentional living aspirations is this:
What if I set epic goals, but then things change?
We can totally relate to this.
In fact, just yesterday, Shelby realized that TWO of the THREE goals she set for the quarter no longer fully made sense to pursue.
How to Get Back on Track with Quarterly Goals
No matter how skilled we may be at developing solid rhythms, we all know what it's like for life to get a little bit "off track."
Whatever has thrown us off, we could all benefit from one key tip: set three focus goals for the rest of the quarter.
How exactly do quarterly goals help to get us back on track?
Imagine writing down your three main goals first thing in the morning, and then connecting with your motivating "why" for each one. You've just set up an accountability mechanism for yourself. You'll start to become acutely aware of when you're spending your time on non-essential things.
Reversing Limiting Beliefs
Last week, we saw how the Gospel has dealt a fatal blow to the legitimacy of the limiting beliefs holding you back from serious personal growth. Then, you were prompted to pull out your planner and make a bullet-point list in response to this question:
What are the limiting beliefs holding you back from getting serious about your core calling?
Today, we wanted to share with you the EXACT limiting beliefs journaling exercise that changed the Shelby and Kyle’s lives forever.
Confronting Limiting Beliefs
Have you ever heard of the phrase, "limiting beliefs?"
The first time Shelby heard that phrase, she thought it was a little bit woo-woo. But then her husband did a limiting beliefs exercise back in November 2015, and—get this—it literally changed their lives.
Here's why: Limiting beliefs are, well, limiting. They hedge in the brain from considering certain possibilities altogether.
Freeing Up Mental Bandwidth for Growth
A few weeks ago I (Shelby) wrote about how while there are no silver bullets in life, for my family, margin was the closest thing that we found to one.
This next tip is definitely a close second.
Having margin in your schedule to think, dream, rest, adjust, and plan is an incredible gift. But if your only productivity super power is designing ways to pad your schedule with margin, you might find yourself with lots of time to strategize, but not a lot of fruit to show for it.
Life may still feel like it's "getting in the way."
How ROOTED Goals Can Help You Thrive in 2021
I (Shelby) recently asked a very creative, capable, hard-working woman how traditional goal-setting methods had failed her in the past.
She answered and said that traditional goal setting methods failed to help her make a bridge between the accomplishment of her most important goals and the life she was actually living in the present.
I could completely relate to those feelings.
The Heart Behind #makespacetothrive & How It Can Change Your Life
If you've been following us on Instagram long, you are familiar with our favorite hashtag: #makespacetothrive. In a world full of hashtags, this may seem like nothing more than a snippet of motivation, a pithy phrase, or something fun to add on on top of photos. But for us, #makespacetothrive is a reminder of a key practice that moves us from overwhelm, to intentional living.
The story behind the hashtag...
She Couldn't Outwork the Overwhelm
Back in 2016, Shelby was living in a non-stop, head-down, shoulder-to-the-grindstone hustle. She and her husband supported their tiny family with a home business and were always behind on deadlines. Every moment taken to just sit down and breathe—even just to eat dinner together without multitasking work—invited a crushing air of guilt into the...