The current installment (v14) of the “What’s Interesting?” feature is here with my latest discoveries that inform, educate, and relate to organizing and life balance. I’ve included unique and inspiring next step-related finds, which reflect this month’s blog theme. You are a wonderfully engaged group. I look forward to your participation and additions to the collection I’ve sourced for you. What do you find interesting?

What’s Interesting? . . .

1. Interesting Read – Curiosity Next

Curiosity is one of the traits that I value. When I discovered A Curious Mind – The Secret to a Bigger Life by producer and author Brian Grazer, I had to read it. Grazer suggests that the power of curiosity can change your life. He says, “For me, curiosity infuses everything with a sense of possibility.” Consider this in the context of taking next steps. Curiosity involves asking questions, lots and lots of questions, without having a preconceived notion of what the answer will be. It’s about keeping a certain amount of openness for the possibility of discovering what you don’t know. Grazer realized through thirty-five years of having “curiosity conversations” with all types of people, that “…curiosity was the way to uncover ideas, it was the way to spark them.” These conversations became the seed ideas for many of his films and TV shows including A Beautiful Mind, Parenthood, Friday Night Lights, and Splash. When you’re stuck, get curious and ask questions. The idea for next is waiting for you.

2. Interesting Gadget – Fidget Next

Do you find it challenging to focus sometimes at work, home or school? If so, you’ll love the Fidget Cube. This small six-sided toy offers different types of activities on each side to play with including flip, glide, click, spin, roll and breathe. It will keep your hands occupied, your mind focused, and your stress levels low. Fidgeting could just be the best possible next step.

3. Interesting Resource – End Procrastination Next

There are so many reasons why next can elude us. One of the most common is that we might know what to do next, but we procrastinate. Fortunately, there’s a new kind of help available exclusively for procrastinators. Dr. Christine Li, clinical psychologist and procrastination coach, is a recovering chronic procrastinator who can help you “understand your struggle with procrastination and share useful strategies to help you make the important changes you want to make in your life.“ End the procrastination loop with strategies and support so that you can get to next.

4. Interesting Product – Play Next

One of the cleverest products I’ve recently discovered is Nimuno Loops, a Lego-compatible tape. It’s currently being crowd funded through Indiegogo and is not yet available to purchase. The tape lets you turn any surface into a Lego-building base. This inspired product unleashes your ability to play anywhere at anytime. When you’re feeling stuck and are not sure what your next step will be, consider the power of play. Toss a ball, build with blocks, or swing on a swing. Embrace the play-mode to unclog the mind.

5. Interesting Thought – Be Next

Sometimes in thinking or ruminating about next, we can lose sight of the present moment. Now is what’s here. Notice where you are, what you’re experiencing, and what you’re feeling. Be mindful. Be in this moment. Next will arrive soon enough.

What are your interesting finds? Which of these resonate with you? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Come join the conversation!

As we shift solidly into the fall season, leaving summer memories behind, we open our minds to many choices and possibilities for next. In thinking about the future, we might be focused on something big or small.

How do we decide how to match our energy and situation with our focus? Have you noticed that there are times of inspired dreaming and other times of total overwhelm? Let’s explore how our our situations influence our choices.

Deciding When to Think Big

If you’re in a thinking-big-mode, you have large blocks of uninterrupted time. You have time to breathe and to take care of your basic needs like sleep, exercise, and nutrition. Your brain is in high gear and you aren’t feeling preoccupied by a million and one other things that need your attention. You either have the time or have carved out the time to focus on the bigger picture. Thinking big requires enough quiet to sift through and capture ideas. Thinking big demands enough mental energy and space to allow the seed ideas to surface.

Of course there are times when we’re super busy and stressed, and big ideas will surface. This is a normal occurrence. But to truly act on those ideas, we need that quiet space to sort, process, and marinate them.

When are good times for thinking big? Scheduling personal retreats, vacations, or days off are great ways to carve out some thinking big time. If you want to focus on BIG, make sure you create the environment to allow big to flourish.

Deciding When to Think Small

If you’re in a thinking-small-mode, you’re feeling overwhelmed and stressed. Your time doesn’t feel like your own. Your schedule doesn’t have much empty space. The number of to-dos and responsibilities you’ve committed might be keeping you up at night. You’re managing life, but feeling like you’re on that continually moving hamster wheel with no stopping in sight. Does this sound familiar? If so, thinking small will help.

It doesn’t mean that you won’t future think or allow a big idea to be captured. It does mean that in order to move on at this moment in time, using a different approach will help. Taking small, next steps will encourage forward movement while reducing overwhelm. It will help you move on so that you can eventually focus on thinking big when and if you’re ready. But it’s hard to get to that point when you’re in the high stress, high overwhelm mode.

These are fluid phases. Having an awareness of where you are, locating yourself on the energy and overwhelm scale will help you to better navigate. What have you noticed for yourself or others? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Come join the conversation!

There’s nothing like embarrassing yourself to crave a do-over or fresh start. It’s often a minor perspective shift that helps us to reflect and begin again. How timely that my year started with such an incident.

I was ready for that first Monday back from the more leisurely holiday schedule. I woke up knowing where I needed to be and when. My morning routine resumed with my wake-up alarm, exercises, shower, dressing, breakfast and deskwork. To gear up for the day and week, I double-checked my schedule and list of to dos. The New Year had arrived and I was looking forward to the first organizing session of the year.

Like I often do, I set a timer as my auditory cue, so that I wouldn't be late to my client's. The timer rang so I got ready and left. The day was going as planned. Even with some traffic, I arrived at my client’s on time…or so I thought.

As it turns out, I got there two hours early. My client wasn't home. After some confusion (it still hadn’t occurred to me that I was early), when I realized my mistake about the start time, I explained and apologized to her gracious husband and said I'd return at the correct time. So much for the organizer being organized, right? This was embarrassing to arrive at the wrong time...the really wrong (as in two hours early wrong) time.

Next steps…laugh at self and find the nearest Starbucks. Having this unexpected block of time, I enjoyed slowly sipping a latte and writing this post. I used to write at Starbucks, but hadn’t done that in a while. This was a welcome change of environment. And somewhere during the latte drinking and writing, I came up with a few reminders that helped me shift my perspective and embrace a fresh start. I hope that the lessons I found would be helpful for you the next time you have an incident.

Linda’s New Year's Lessons:

• Mistakes happen.
• Discover the gift in those mistakes.
• Be flexible.
• Don't assume.
• Improve looking and listening.
• Find the humor.
• You’re human.
• Add this one to my bloopers reel.

Are there any “situations” you’d like to share with us? What were your takeaways? What helped you to move forward after an embarrassing incident? What allowed you to embrace a fresh start? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Come join the conversation.

Our popular “Ask the Expert” interview series connects you with dynamic industry thought leaders. This year we’ve spoken with psychologist, Dr. Debbie Grove about change and author and minimalist, Joshua Becker about fresh starts. For March, I’m excited to have with us inspiring author, Todd Henry to share his insights about next steps.

I recently finished reading Todd’s latest book, Die Empty, and loved it. He encourages us to live each day purposefully and with more urgency. Die Empty is a must read.  I’m thrilled that Todd was available to join us. My gratitude goes to him for his thought-provoking responses. I know you’re going to enjoy his ideas about next steps. Before we begin, here’s more about him.

Todd Henry is the founder of Accidental Creative, a consultancy that helps people and teams to be prolific, brilliant, and healthy. He teaches companies how to be creative under pressure, collaborate more effectively, and align their activities around the work that matters most. He's also the author of two books, The Accidental Creative and Die Empty, which was named as one of Amazon’s "Best Books of 2013.” You can connect with Todd on Twitter, Facebook or website. 

Linda Samuels:  As an author, speaker, consultant and coach, you inspire individuals and teams to “generate brilliant ideas” and live fulfilled lives. How can we best prepare for “next?”

Todd Henry:  We all face uncertainty daily. It’s a fact of the new marketplace, where most of us are compensated for turning our thoughts into value each day. However, in the face of that uncertainty we are not helplessly at the whim of the workload. We can choose to build practices and structures to help position us to bring our best to what we do each day. Tomorrow’s brilliance is rooted in the soil of today’s activity.

Linda:  What if “next” isn’t obvious?

Todd:  It’s never obvious, or at least the best ideas typically aren’t. That’s why daily practice is so critical. It’s what allows you to problem find, not just problem solve. Those who see patterns, recognize opportunities, and are poised to take advantage of them when they arise are the people who win the future.

Linda:  In your book, Die Empty, you talk about the importance of “making steady, critical progress each day on the projects that matter, in all areas of life.” What is a favorite strategy for moving forward?

Todd:  The most important element of this is defining a through-line, or an outcome that you are committed to. It’s easy to get carried along by the work, or to allow the flow of life to cause you to drift from opportunity to opportunity or project to project, but when you have a specific through-line, or outcome that you are committed to it helps you contextualize all of your daily activities and measure whether they are advancing you toward your overall objectives. It’s amazing how defining what you are about suddenly brings clarity to your priorities.

Linda:  What is your most surprising discovery about figuring out “next?”

Todd:  The most surprising thing is that it’s rarely the “a-ha” that everyone seems to crave. Brilliant insights, innovations, and works of art rarely emerge in a flash of fire, but instead are a smolder over time that eventually grows into a blaze. The key is to be mindful, have practices that help you to ask better questions, and to pay attention for those little hunches, moments of insight, or seemingly irrelevant ideas that could be the foundation for something really big. In many ways, it’s learning how to listen to your inner voice even when it seems to be slightly off-topic.

Linda:  What has been your biggest personal challenge around taking next steps?

Todd:  I tend to have “shiny object syndrome,” meaning that I tend to bounce from exciting new project to exciting new project. As a result, I’ve had to have other people in my life to keep me focused on the results I’m seeking and follow-through on projects until they reach their intended end. Book projects are good for me, because they are a long-arc project with a dedicated end date, and they are easy to work on in “chunks” of thought, so I get to satisfy the wandering attention span while still making steady progress on a long-arc project.

Linda:  Is there anything you’d like to share that I haven’t asked?

Todd:  The most important thing to remember is that today matters. We have a tendency to believe the lie that tells us we’ll always have tomorrow to do today’s work. We don’t. It’s important to spend your finite resources (focus, assets, time, energy) each day in a way you’ll not regret later. Engage with urgency and diligence, because those are the foundation of hustle, and hustle is the best antidote to lifelong regret.

Todd, there are so many gems here. Some ideas that resonate with me include that next often isn’t obvious, ask better questions, listen to your inner voice, enlist the help of others so that you can do your best work, and that “today matters.” What wonderful ideas to contemplate and act on.

Please join Todd and me as we continue the conversation. We’d love to hear your ideas about next steps. What are you thinking about?