830 words of content including an exercise to help you change how you see yourself. Approximate reading time: 3.53 minutes.  And isn't your Happiness worth it?

This newsletter speaks to Leadership, Happiness, and Coaching in your life and work. 

I recently attended a small, multi-day conference that provided us—speakers, participants, and organizers—opportunity to form a community beyond just the scheduled sessions. Our conversations over meals and breaks ranged across diverse topics, from applying our conference learning to work to travel adventures, raising kids, and sharing recipes.  Human conversations, you know?

At one point, reacting to something I'd just shared with our group, a colleague said to me, "Jim, you are a walking Wikipedia." While the comment was offered in lightness, something in those words caused me to sit back in reflection.  Over the course of the week, I'd had several of other people offer similar feedback, e.g. "you seem to know a lot, about a lot of things." 

My family often mocks me for knowing (sometimes absurdly) obscure or unrelated facts ("How did you know that?!"). But until this new acquaintance shared her assessment so directly, I can honestly say that I'd never thought much about it.  "That's just who I am," is what I say, or "That's how my brain works," and I laugh it off. 

But the gift of synchronicity is such that her comment landed on top of my recent learning on Contextual Intelligence (CI) – defined as: "proficiency at adapting knowledge and skills to different situations and environments," or "the skill of looking at the world through new/different lenses when selecting the best action."  (You'll be hearing more from me on CI and Leadership in the future).

One of the core questions of CI is, "what's another way to look at <this>?" That question, applied to the feedback I'd received, challenged me to question my own story.  What if it's not "That's the way I am," but rather, "Who I have practiced becoming?"  What if it's not inherent in me but is an outcome of my habits and behaviors?

Shifting My Perspective

What if it is a positive dimension of my Shiny Ball Syndrome (SBS) affliction?  I constantly move in multiple, simultaneous directions, following shiny balls like article links, new ideas, and random conversational threads. Those habits get in the way when what I want is linear forward progress, so I usually hold a negative judgment of myself as "unable to get stuff done." 

Yet SBS also feeds my soul, my curiosity and, in the end, my Way of Being. I am an Ideator. I read broadly and prolifically, and while following wildly divergent paths distracts me and slows me down, ultimately SBS feeds my main drive: coaching and teaching others, serving as a catalyst and connector, feeding ideas to my clients, showing up with whatever they need, because my toolkit is broad and deep and constantly evolving.  I drink in my experiences, readings, learnings, and conversations, and they become part of me, available to my work in the world.

My reflections shifted my perspective:

• First, I now better appreciate that Who I Am drives my behavior AND my Behavior drives who I am, in a self-fulfilling cycle, which means…
• I can shift my self-talk from "I can't change who I am" to "This is my choice," which feels way more empowering; and…
• I can view my reality through a Negative lens (I’m flawed, a procrastinator, unable to focus, the attention span of a squirrel...) or through an equally valid Positive lens (I’m a voracious learner, diverse interests, deeply curious, Ideator). 
• Most importantly, I can leverage that new awareness to choose different actions in the future, based on the context, based on what's needed.