Have you ever been involved in an activity where you lose track of time? Maybe you were writing a great story or even playing a video game. Your mind was completely engaged in the task at hand. This kind of focused energy is often referred to as flow. It’s a term created by Hungarian psychology professor, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, which refers to “the mental state of operation in which a person in an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity.” To achieve flow requires complete engagement.
In singing the word flow is also referred to in terms of breath flow. The goal is to create a steady stream of air without tension or obstruction so the vocal chords can vibrate freely. In order to do so you must coordinate many different parts of the body. You must relax some muscles while fully engaging others. The result is the feeling of having an open, malleable instrument where the breath flows easily.
I have sworn off watching the news during my daily 6:00am treadmill run. It bums me out too much. I have switched to reading client attraction, self-improvement or branding materials instead. However, the other day I forgot my book and resorted to watching tv again. I landed on the highly cerebral show of “America’s Next Top Model.” Hey, not only did it get me through the burn, it also reminded me of an important branding lesson.
In my last blog post I mentioned the fact that nurses and teachers are my heroes, and it’s true. After giving birth three times, my appreciation of nurses has grown exponentially. Having a good nurse makes all the difference in the world when it comes to those times when you really need to rely on someone to help you push through. Most of my maternity nurses were very sweet, but there was one who was tough as nails. At one point I seriously wanted to slap her, but in all honesty she was probably the best nurse I ever had. This was my nurse for my first baby. I think her name was Joan.
We live in a world where everyday there are more and more options available to us, especially for women. It used to be that as a woman your two main career choices were either nurse or teacher. Nurses and teachers happen to be my personal heroes so I’m not knocking those professions. Now, however, a woman can choose to be just about anything her heart desires. This is a great improvement, but it comes with its own set of challenges. With so many options it can be hard to choose a direction. Wouldn’t it be great if there was some magic wand you could wave that would just point you in the right direction? Well, there is and it’s call personal branding.
Today is October 1st. As if on cue, the weather turned overnight from balmy to cool and rainy. It is a vivid reminder that things are shifting and that time is marching on. It’s been a great year so far for me with taking on new clients, learning new technologies, and creating new services. As you all know however, with any business there is always so much more to do. As October marks the beginning of the end of the year it is time to think about what still needs to get done. That list can get pretty daunting, so the question is how to prioritize?