59 - It's Hard to Move a Boulder Alone
My heart goes out to all of those who suffered loss in the devastating storms that passed through the country this week - and hit Indiana especially hard. To all of my friends and family, I’m here if you need anything.
Photo of the Week
I only took one photo this week - which is decidedly odd for me. Part of that has been the busy-ness of this week. Part of that has been the weather this week. But this one photo just happens to go nicely with this week’s article.
It’s Hard to Move a Boulder Alone
This week, among other things, I worked with several coaching clients. One of the things that comes back to me over and over again is that the foundation of coaching is being willing and able to ask someone else to support you and perhaps even help you.
I tend to work with individuals who have sought out coaching on their own. I am quite clear with potential corporate clients that I am not the best choice for those who want to force coaching on to someone as a means of development. I am much better suited to someone who has expressed an interest in coaching and personal development. Why? Because to be a good coaching client you have to want to do the work.1 Coaching is not in any way about me doing the work for the client. I may provide supportive resources to the client but the client has to do the work.
I’ve thought about that a lot this week - how we have to do the work all on our own. And then, I came upon this rock. My neighborhood has these rocks all through it. Round ones, ones with flat surfaces, irregularly shaped craggy ones. They are at nearly ever corner and along some of the straight away areas that lack sidewalks. I’ve seen more than one of them do battle with a car - typically with the car losing the battle. Therefore, it’s rare in perfectly nice weather like we had at the beginning of the week - to come upon one of them lying askew like this.
I couldn’t do much - at least not at the time - other than take a photo and send it to the crew of men2 who do the “handy” work for our home owners’ association. And, as usual, about four hours later when I was out for another walk, I found the rock back in its place.
It made me think about all the things I need to ask for help with that I’m hesitant to do. And, all of the things I’m stalled on because I know I have to have help in order to finish them (putting things away in my attic being top of this list). So that’s my question for you this week. What do you need to ask for help with? What’s one thing you can do to move that project or activity forward this week? Look up a phone number, send an email, make a call, ask a friend while you’re on a walk? Will you take that action this week?
Where’s Kara?
IN THE REAL WORLD
A quick summary of where I’m going to be hanging out online and IRL over the next few weeks. Join me, and if I’m visiting near you, hit reply and let’s meet up!
April - A quick trip to Florida is on the horizon at the end of the month. Yes, we’re staying at Disney but it’s at a place we’ve never stayed before - the Fort Wilderness campground in one of the cabins.
June or July - I am (still) waiting on all the signatures but I may get to North Carolina later in the summer
July/August - A Northern European Cruise!
AROUND THE VIRTUAL WORLD
LAST CHANCE TO JOIN AT THE LOWEST PRICE EVER FOR A LIVE COHORT - The Facts of Life LIVE Cohort - You will often find me hanging out in the course and community for my course “Facts of Life Book” that launched on January 1! I know some of you were waiting for the first ever live cohort - and that is now available. From April 7 - June 23 I’ll be running a live cohort including virtual sessions every Friday afternoon during that time period. (Can’t make the virtual sessions - no worries - they will be recorded). What is the Facts of Life Book? Do you need to organize your most important stuff for life’s most important moments? If so, then the Facts of Life Book course is just for you. With loads of templates, tools, and guides I’ll help you get your most important information organized. Join now and you’ll get access to all future updates as well as any additional future live cohorts I run. Use coupon code FRIEND1 to get 50% off of the cost of the course. This is the LOWEST price I’ll ever offer this live course for and it’s the last week to sign up!
Quarterly Retreat - I released the Quarter 2 workbook last week so this is the PERFECT time to sign up for the Quarterly Retreat All Access Pass or the Quarterly Retreat Workshop. Visit https://karamonroe.podia.com and check out all of the offerings. The new workbook is also available to download there for free if you don’t want any of the coworking sessions!
R.J. Nestor’s Action Powered Productivity Community - My friend R.J. has moved his community to a subscription model and you get access to all of the workshops for just $9 a month. This is an awesome community and I’m giving my first workshop on Mac and iOS automation the first week of May. Come and join us!
Creative Work Hour - Every single day of the week, at 10 a.m. eastern, a group gathers online in Zoom to do a quick check in, a brief meditation, work for about 50 minutes on whatever they want to do, and then check out with one another for 5 minutes. Creative Work Hour is one of my favorite places to hang out online and I’ve been there every single day that I could be there since about March of 2022. Come as often or as little as you need to get projects done. To register for the sessions (they are free but you have to sign up to get the zoom link) and to learn more, visit https://lu.ma/CreativeWork.
Tools, Tips, & Tricks
What’s all this stuff about Artificial Intelligence (aka AI)?
If you’re not hearing the terms AI and Artificial Intelligence with a handy dose of ChatGPT thrown in the mix you might be living a little bit under a rock right now. These terms come up almost daily in the spaces where I hang out.
One of my personal guiding principles is it’s better to learn a little bit about new things rather than to just ignore them and assume they will go away. That’s been my stance thus far on all the AI development. This week, I came across this really accessible guide to AI technology so I thought I’d share it to help others who may be trying to learn just a little bit to stay in the know about AI.
What I Published This Week
Still looking for my groove in publishing. I may still get another article out this week - if so, I’ll include it in next week’s round up. For this week, I only published one article - Want to send the right impression to new hires? Assess your onboarding process. Here’s how. It’s on my business blog as well as Medium and Hive.
My Digital “Garden”
As a part of the Obsidian Vault Rebuild Series that I wrote on Medium and YouTube, I began using Obsidian Publish. This add on tool for Obsidian allows you to easily publish your “in progress” notes to the web. If you want to see what I’m thinking about, this is a great place to see inside my head. It’s always available at https://publish.obsidian.md/iwannabeme
Diversion
I’m not sure if it was the opening of A Few Good Men or if I was intrigued by the Marine Corp Silent Drill Team before that. Regardless, I went down a YouTube rabbit hole part of this week watching a few of their recent public performances. Here is one of my favorites from last year’s Fleet Week in NYC.
Ways You Can Support Me
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I offer courses and digital products focused on organization, planning, productivity, technology, and personal development. Check out all of the offerings currently available at https://karamonroe.podia.com.
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I’ve actually been writing a piece for a while on why I disagree with “progressive discipline” programs that include coaching. Coaching is not a way out of trouble and anyone who finds themselves on a progressive discipline program would have to demonstrate serious commitment to do the work for me to even consider taking an organization’s money for coaching.
I adore this crew of guys but they are all guys and no matter how many times I’ve sent a note saying I’m good with a drill and a hammer I never get asked to help with the work - to the point that when one of them saw me out changing my own exterior light bulb one week I got reprimanded and told that women didn’t need to do such things. 🤦🏽♀️