806 words filled with holiday gifts, including a Powerful Self-Awareness tool, a leadership podcast, my top book pick of 2018, and your Annual Planning Kit. Approximate reading time: 3.22 minutes.  And isn't your Happiness worth it?

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

P.S. I’ve been missing in action for half of 2018, and will tell you more about that (including lessons learned) next year. I am happy to report that my lovely new website went online recently. I’d love it if you want to poke around and offer your reactions. 

I. Life Hack: Why You Should Breathe On Purpose

Recently I was guest on the Leadership Hacks Podcast with my esteemed colleague, Jill Windelspecht, a fellow executive coach and organization consultant.  Jill invited me to bring my best hack (shortcut/workaround) to the conversation, so I showed up with the most basic tool in my box: Breathing.

You’ve heard me say it before: if you want to be a better anything – leader, parent, friend, partner, job seeker, or coach -- start with being more self-aware. Use your body to better manage your intellectual and emotional brain.

Your breath is a powerful tool.

To have a more confident leadership presence, improve your ability to handle conflict, make better decisions, manage your emotions, feel happier (or at least less stressed), be a more confident speaker, or become a better listener – start with how you breathe. 

Breathing on Purpose is a simple hack to center yourself.  It takes practice yet, unlike other new habits, you need not “find time” to do it, because you’re already breathing!  You might focus on taking a deep centering breath whenever you answer the phone or walk through a door, while brushing your teeth or washing the dishes.  Through repetition you will create new response patterns in your brain.  Soon, you will be able to quickly shift into a grounded state to handle whatever situation presents itself.  (Yes, even family holidays!)

And the more you practice purposeful breathing, the stronger your emotional resonance, which means you’ll have more power to influence those around you to also shift to a calmer, more open emotional place. Which is a very handy skill for when those around you feel stressed or overwhelmed!

You are breathing all the time anyway; you might as well Breathe on Purpose.

I invite you to hear the entire podcast (23 mins) here.  The page includes a transcript (unedited) if you want to skim quickly.

Remember: Leadership is not about a title.  Anyone can be a Leader who nurtures self-awareness and the capacity to calm down themselves and those around them. 

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My top book pick of 2018: When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi 

In my life I’ve read thousands of books. I am typically reading two books in hardcopy, another on my Kindle, and one via Audible in my car. I am generally a one-and-done reader, though I do have handful of books I’ve read over and again in the course of 50 years.

But never have I read a book and so wanted to read it again IMMEDIATELY.

From the book jacket:

What do you when life is catastrophically interrupted? What does it mean to have a child as your own life fades away? What makes life worth living in the face of death? At the age of 36, and on the verge of completing a decade of trainings as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, the next he was a patient struggling to live.

This book is beautifully written: moving and raw and authentic and brutally honest.  It’s about death and dying AND about living and driving impossibly difficult decisions AND it’s about mastery and endurance and humanity and vulnerability and philosophy applied to real life, woven around one man’s search for meaning through the intersection of mind/awareness (what makes us human?) & the brain (the science-how it works) & what happens when an entire life comes crashing down in the moments following a diagnosis of cancer.

It is one of the best books I’ve ever read. Ever. I read it in a day and a half and experienced a million emotions, from out-loud laughter to sobbing tears, and it left me crying at the end. Yet it challenged me to look at life a different way.  Bonus: since Kalanithi was studying neuroscience, there’s actually some cool learning in the book!

Powerful. I’m reading it again.

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A few months ago I met a couple long-time readers of this newsletter who have been using my annual planning kit for many years to frame their “annual retreat.” I picked up the practice from a friend many years ago, and my wife and I are planning for our own retreat before the tax season takes her away from me at the end of January!

The 39-page document includes many reflection activities (past year/next year) as well as a Core Values review, my Happiness Audit, and checklists for financial, self-care, vacation, and project planning.

It’s free, there’s no signup required – just a direct link to download. If this helps you plan a more joyful or grounded 2019, please enjoy!

Jim’s Annual Planning Kit for Individuals

Jim’s Annual Planning Kit for Couples