What’s an emotion that you’d like to feel more of? You can pick any emotion. It will go in the ____, where I say, “your emotion here”.
I have a really simple trick to share today, thanks to a couple of clients who suggested and built upon two of my favorite coaching principles.
Oh, you wanna know what they are? Okay.
The first one is – if doing something for yourself is important to you, put it in the calendar. Treat it like you would an appointment with someone else. That means you don’t just cancel because something else seems more urgent, because you honor the time. If you must make a change, you reschedule, you don’t just drop it.
The second principle is to pick a color that represents an emotion that you want to feel. Decide in advance. Use the language of color to help remind you to create situations that bring you that emotion.
Now here’s where the upgrade comes by combining them. Drumroll, please. Color code your calendar based on desired emotions! Brilliant!
For example, if you want more joy, add activities that bring you joy to your calendar, and then make sure they show up as yellow! Then when you look forward at your day, you’ll see the bright spots and start anticipating the joy! If you are booking creative times, you can make them turquoise. You can use color thinking, of course, to help pick the colors…or just go with whatever feels right!
This works for pretty much any kind of calendar – electronic or paper. You can Google “How to color code on Google calendar” or Outlook or whatever. Oddly, Apple’s iCalendar is a little more complicated. You’re probably going to have to create a “Joy” calendar and invite yourself. Or print it out and highlight. That’ll work, too.
This really is such a simple little trick; I’m astounded that I didn’t see the connection with Color Thinking sooner. Being able to look forward to the emotions and activities that you crave is such a great practice. And if you notice that the color is missing…it’s a reminder to add it! Sunday night check in – do I have enough yellow coming up in the week? Better add some in on Thursday!
And all you Color Thinking Leaders out there – you can support your own development by color coding those times, appointments, meetings or events where you will have an opportunity to showcase a strength, practice a skill, demonstrate a behavior or a leadership attribute, etc. Then you can be intentional about how you go into a situation! Voila!
In the meantime, remember these things: You are loved. We are all loved. Let’s all be kind. And in all things – progress, not perfection!
Love and light,
Maggie
*****
Are you interested in being the leader you are meant to be? Send me an email and we can set up a time to talk: maggie@maggiehuffman.com
