The Weekly Simplifier #17 - The Dance Between Perfection and Life
Welcome to The Weekly Simplifier, brought to you by…
Contents:
1. A Note From Shawn
2. Quote of the Week
3. Article: The Dance Between Perfection and Life
4. This Week’s Simplification Tip
5. In the News & On the Web
6. Featured at ProjectSimplify.com
7. Keep Smiling
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1. A Note From Shawn
Did you know that you are not meant to be overwhelmed? It’s kind of a funny question, but stop for a second and ask, “Who authorized all the stress that people feel in their daily lives?” What if that same entity challenged you to have a peaceful, simple life? Or else? Again, kind of a funny question…but why not ask yourself?
I had a special treat this evening of dinner with a new housemate and some of his friends this evening. I haven’t eaten that well or laughed that hard (in the same night!) for a while. I had been concerned that this newsletter wasn’t complete. Now that I have an end-of-the-evening perspective I see that this was just what I needed. A good dose of quality company and nourishment—on many levels.
Whenever I get right down to it, I conclude that a simple life is a priorities-based life. Quality, not quantity. And since I’m not meant to be overwhelmed, I find that when I stay true to my priorities, it’s all good. Somehow everything works out beautifully and the unexpected usually have a positive twist. Yeah… just the way I like it!
In the midst of the tips and ideas presented below for increased efficiency and productivity, I urge you to find the gems that will assist you in your goal for a simpler life.
Enjoy.
Shawn Tuttle
Head Simplifier, Project Simplify
2. Quote of the Week
“Le mieux est l’ennemi du bien.”
(”The perfect is the enemy of the good.”)
- Voltaire
3. Article: The Dance Between Perfection and Life
By Shawn Tuttle
Do you want to help your clients and customers? Silly question (I hope!) Do you do your best for each job? Do you put your heart and integrity on the line for every single client? Do you ever find that your best intentions are sidetracked by unexpected events? The question I’m getting at is really:
Have you mastered the dance between perfection and life?
In the “perfect” (read: unrealistic) world free of interruptions, computer glitches, and just plain bad days, deadlines are easily met and deliverables are of the highest quality. You get to share your gifts and talents with the world through your work, which is hopefully, your passion.
In the real world, life happens—a fantastic dance—all of your trial and errors, birthday celebrations, burnt lattes, stubbed toes, employee difficulties, invoicing, beach playing, mini-dramas, meetings, congested traffic, dry cleaning, misplaced paperwork—and oh, did I mention client work?
The dance between perfection and life is a gentle tension between remaining true to your heart in producing your “art” and achieving completion in your interactions with others.
Perfection
I believe everyone has a unique contribution to make to the world. Whether you call yourself an “artist” or not, the creations that come straight from your heart are your art.
The French artist Paul Cezanne took this extremely seriously: “With each touch I risk my life,” he said. It reveals the intensity with which he produced his art. An extreme for sure, but when I first heard this I was inspired. He shared his passion with as much integrity as he was able. He mastered the delivery of his art and he made a huge impact on the western world.
The question then becomes, for whom is the end result? In other words, who is your audience? As soon as an audience is in
place, conveying your idea to them becomes potentially hazardous to your art. Connection with your client or potential client takes great import. In the business world, your work’s impact increases as your audience grows.
Art and Perfection in the context of Life
Completed projects are good in that they allow for a sense of accomplishment and new beginnings. Fine and dandy…and easier to say when not feeling stressed by an incomplete project. Many people say they work well and even thrive under pressure. Most, however, don’t relish the stress felt when an impending deadline looms large and ugly on the horizon. The experience and fallout of stress is harmful to you and those around you.
And that’s just your part of the equation. What about interacting with clients?
Understanding and anticipating your client’s wishes are a part of the business production. Success is measured by the level of your client’s engagement in, or acceptance of, your work. Managing the “mis-” problems—misjudging, misunderstanding, mistakes, and miscommunication—can transform your attitude from “fresh start” to survival mode overnight. Not the best environment for producing your art; rather it is quite the environment for work to become work.
With all of the time pressures, re-do’s, and trial and error encountered traveling the road of clients & customers, why do we persist? Really now! We need more than $ to make it worth our while!
The answer goes straight to the heart of Service:
You receive the gift of creating your art in the context of assisting another.
I recently heard a professional author at a writers’ conference share some of his tips and experiences. He emphasized the point of being aware of who his audience will be for any given piece. Writing for different magazines, his treatment of the same subject can result in very different articles.
He also repeated a strong conviction that led me to believe that part of his art actually has nothing to do with writing. He encouraged his non-fiction writing listeners to always approach their interview subjects with humility and diplomacy. He took pride and delight in the fact that he had positive relations with all of his own former interview subjects. In the process of writing about them, he honored them. Now that is a beautiful dance of art and life!
One could say that art is life and life is art, and I wouldn’t argue with them. A more curious inquisition reveals a fascinating dance of understanding yourself and your relationships with others.
I always found the science experiment conducted “in a vacuum” to be odd. Who lives in a vacuum? Every single action we make does, in fact, have impact on all other living beings—and the actions of others impact us. The byproduct blossoming from your journey of serving your clients and serving yourself is that you are serving your world.
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Shawn Tuttle is founder of Project Simplify
4. This Week’s Simplification Tip
Small Steps
How do you eat a watermelon? Stuff the whole thing in your mouth? (ouch!) No. You cut off a slice and enjoy it bite by bite. How do you tackle a large project? Break it up into small, easily doable steps.
Breaking a large project into small chunks allows you to see progress, and helps you stay clear from the dreaded territory of overwhelm. How small should each piece be? That’s where you know best. Consider your attention span, interest level in the project (the lower your interest, the smaller each piece should be), concurrent responsibilities, and deadline.
You can save yourself from unnecessary stress by outlining your projects before they feel unwieldy. If, however, you feel a sense of impending doom encroaching, be pro-active, and sit down with pen and paper (or however you track your project management). Outline what needs to be done. I like to use the visual of a ladder. Each rung represents another aspect of the project. Then go back and fill in the spaces between the rungs with step by step items that will help you get to the rung above it.
Or use the visual of a watermelon (why not?) Picture that big melon in front of you representing the project. Slice it up, then carve it into bite-sized pieces. Then enjoy!
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5. In the News & On the Web
If you know of something in the news or on the web that should be featured here, let us know!
In The News
A system to cope with (paper) clutter (The Post-Standard - Syracuse, NY)
URL: http://tinyurl.com/rwje7
This article offers a series of step-by-step processes to help get control of the constant flow of paper in your life.
NOTE: Syracuse.com requires some basic demographic info (but not registration) to read this article.
When life moves too fast (Arizona Republic)
URL: http://tinyurl.com/qjwuo
“7 ways to slow your pace, live in the moment and enjoy your family more”
NOTE: AZCentral.com requires some basic demographic info (but not registration) to read this article.
Entrepreneurs Take Time To Organize Their Time (New York Times)
URL: http://tinyurl.com/lnkx3
Here’s an excerpt from this excellent article: After working with Ms. Ricci, Jonas Berwick, a private detective in Lawrenceville, Ga., decided he should spend his time directing and expanding his seven-person business, not “the minutiae” like paperwork and routine administrative tasks. He reduced his workweek to 40 hours, from 70, and said that his stress level had dropped as well. Mr. Berwick later hired Ms. Ricci to conduct a seminar for his staff on overcoming procrastination. “Before, my life was one of worry and anxiety and stress,’’ he said. “I was a firefighter. All I did was put out fires. I never prevented fires from occurring, as I do now. I did not get any business growth or development accomplished.”
NOTE: registration required — or use the username “projectsimplify” and password “simplify”.
6. Featured at ProjectSimplify.com
New Blog Categories
Part of staying organized is re-evaluating every now and then to make sure your system supports your current state of affairs. It was that kind of re-appraisal that led us to add a few new categories to our blog, to help us with filing things properly, and to help visitors find things more easily.
Here are the recent batch of new categories. They are now included in the list under “Blog Categories” in the sidebar at ProjectSimplify.com. Click on a link to see what’s happening in any given category.
7. Keep Smiling
goComics
Comics (the ones drawn into boxes…not comedians) are nice because they offer both stability and surprise. You get to know and love the universe that the comic strip encompasses, or the viewpoint of the editorial cartoonist…and yet each day brings something new—some inspired twist or slant on the world around us. (Or the world that we’re around, depending on how you look at it.)
It’s amazing, really, that some classic comic strips can continue to come up with new combinations or revelations within their relatively limited universes, but most can. And the op-ed page cartoonists dream up some really remarkable ways to depict the absurdity of current events. Of course sometimes, events help the humorists, and some cartoons probably just about draw themselves. But they don’t draw themselves hundreds of times each year, year after year. It takes very talented (and funny) people to do that for us.
goComics is nice enough to gather all that funny together in one place—from classic comic strips like Garfield and Ziggy, to iconic editorial cartoonists like Tom Toles and Ann Telnaes. (And tons of others from both categories.) Plus, comics that may not have gained national attention yet, but which are no less funny for it, like Lio, which we recently discovered through this great site.
The goal of goComics is basically to offer you a smile (or even a laugh) on every page. That’s a pretty noble goal, we think!
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Thanks for reading - see you next week!
Publication Information
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The Weekly Simplifier is published by:
Project Simplify
P.O. Box 597
Nevada City, CA 95959
phone: 530.205.5775
web: www.projectsimplify.com
e-mail: (newsletter@projectsimplify.com) newsletter (at) projectsimplify (dot) com
