I prefer life when I carry a little feeling inside every day as if there could be something new and curious around the next corner. I knew when I chose a more stable daily existence - not flying from country to country from one week to the next - that my personal challenge might become one of battling my restlessness. Of not adopting a "ho hum another day of work" attitude.
Zurich helps. Nearly every week in the summer, it hosts an event. Right now of course the European championship soccer tournament.
Yet the real contest for my heart and well-being takes place in my head. This month, I've tried some conscious adjustments and feel especially good that a few of them finally seem to work:
First adjustment
As I previously mentioned, for two weeks now I start most mornings with a coffee at a local cafe. I take either some reading or my calendar. Always something I find interesting to get my mind open and energized. I spend only 20 to 30 minutes at it. Not long. It has made a huge difference in my mindset as I arrive at work. In the office now, the minute we walk in the door, we work together in a true, fast-developing team environment that has become fun, productive, social and "full-in." I'm ready for it when I give myself the respect of preserving my own space first.
The success of my "jill cafe moments" remind me of something I've known for decades. My personality in general needs some space. I first noticed this inner need as a pre-teen when I loved to sit at my bedroom window, knit and listen to Cincinnati Reds baseball on the radio. Some of my friends in our tiny Ohio town between cornfields needed constant interaction at parties and cruising the local McDonalds; I needed peace first.
With that adjustment of having listened to my voice over a lovely Swiss Kaffe Creme (coffee with a cream) first, I walk out to the street and around the corner to the office eager to see where we go next.
Second adjustment
The other driver of my energy this week was setting aside time to develop a longer-term perspective through writing an article for my client's "thought leadership" newsletter (to be published later this month). We selected a topic and main point I wanted to get across about global communication, but needed a lot of new background information to write it well. That few hours of learning, organizing, and creating the words refreshed me. The team editing also stimulated good discussions. We can use it with other clients.
I believe these time investments make the difference between pulling of a business that is professionally well-done and carrying an edge that builds something unexpected and unusually excellent. Sometimes this point gets lost in too much busy-ness.
The adjustments come at some price -- I felt so tired by Friday afternoon I could hardly work. At 5:00 p.m. I slid out of the office to go see what was around the next corner for the weekend. In this moment as I write by the light of an unseasonably cool, grayish Sunday morning, sitting at my own desk, feeling what I want to say, I know it has been worth it.