đł #3 Just a Splash | The Shallow End | My Swimlane
A Book Club invite, how to take a âSneaky Sabbaticalâ, and Glen Powell, of course
My kids will tell you Iâve got a song for everything. An associative glitch in my brain forces me to burst into song when I hear a word or phrase that echoes a familiar song lyric. Eye rolls ensue. đ¤ˇđťââď¸
Lately, for obvious reasons, Iâm involuntarily singing Summertime by George Gershwin. (And itâs this particular version of Summertime, which I believe is one of the best American Idol performances of all time, courtesy of Fantasia Barrino. Go ahead, watch it, and tell me Iâm wrong.)
I hope all of you are having a beautiful summertime, and that the living is indeed easy, or at least not awful.
Housekeeping: Got a personal or professional conundrum that will allow me to play advice columnist? Submit your questions for the next edition of đšPoolside Chatđš. Donât need any advice right now? You can also ask me nosy questions about my life or solicit my perspective on something intriguing. Have fun with it!
Letâs get to todayâs edition of Just a Splash, etc. - a monthly helping of work-life doodads â links, recommendations, and other amusements. Enjoy perusing, and if you like what you read, share with a friend!
đâŁď¸ Some of you out there secretly dream of writing a book but think, âI couldnât possiblyâŚâ. Well, what if you could? My very own writing gurus, Liz Morrow and
, just released the book Hungry Authors: The Indispensable Guide to Planning, Writing, and Publishing a Nonfiction Book. In the video below, I unbox my long-awaited, pre-ordered copy and invite you to join me and other hungry authors for a Book Club conversation! Click here to express interest in participating!Suffice it to say, if I hadnât discovered the Hungry Authors podcast, courses, and community â I would not have started The Diving Board, I would not have finished a book proposal, and I would not be doing the hard (slow) work of becoming an author. You can do it, too!
đ Speaking of gatherings, thank you to all who attended my first-ever live event through The Diving Board: Can We Talk [about the Enneagram]? See our happy faces? And ten readers won a $50 off coupon for my signature Enneagram Typing & Growth Mapping offering â open to all, learn more and sign up here.
đ° My friends at Epic Rivers Leadership curated and shared 9 Free Leadership Courses in their latest newsletter, including offerings from Harvard and Yale (Ivy League for all!). The list is a gold mine for any leader, especially those working in smaller orgs without robust leadership development offerings. P.S. Sign up for Epic Riversâ newsletter â itâs short and sweet (unlike The Diving Board, ahem): â90 seconds of elegantly simple leadership wisdomâ a week. I learn something every time!
How I love The Shallow End. I look forward to it every month. Itâs like a giant permission slip to tell you all the unserious things taking up mindshare and making my life just a little bit lighter.
đââď¸ Suddenly, Glen Powell is everything, everywhere all at once, no? I thoroughly enjoyed this article from
at , demystifying the Glen Powell effect: A Unified Theory of Glen Powell.âŹď¸ I proudly grew up in the South. My dad speaks with a delightful cotton-pickinâ Tennessee drawl, as he literally grew up picking cotton. Unlike him, I was raised âin the cityâ, so my twang was always a bit more subtle. Itâs faded to nearly imperceptible levels since moving to Minnesota, which saddens me, yâall. For old timeâs sake, please enjoy these southern turns of phrases that I regularly employed without irony in my younger years:
âMight couldâ, as in, âI havenât practiced that song enough, but I might could be ready to sing it by Sunday serviceâ. (I had no clue this phrasing was grammatically curious until my college roomie, Jenny, who hailed from the far north territory of St. Louis, MO, giggled sweetly at me.)
You wonât even believe this one: âUsed to would haveâ (pronounced âused to woodahâ), as in âI used to woodah said no if you offered me a cocktail, but now Iâm liable to say yes.â (Bonus one for you: âliable toâ â meaning âprobably wouldâ.)
đşđ¸ Alas, Iâm a true Minnesotan nowadays, and our governor is now running for Vice President â what?!?! I donât plan to get overly political in this newsletter, so Iâll just say: to me, itâs pretty darn exciting for the action to hit so close to home. I even think Walz might could win, but I will refrain from telling you any more about my personal feelings on the matter. đ
đ¤Šđđť I am SO FRICKIN1 EXCITED to share that, after months of work, and lots of help from experts I worship, my brand new website is almost ready to launch! This website is the final piece of the platform puzzle that will position me to get that book proposal out there to agents and publishers. I canât wait to share it with you soon!
đ Last summer, I took a bonafide Sabbatical. I notified my clients, logged out of email for the whole month of July and focused on life, rest, and some writing. This year, I couldnât swing that financially.
However, I decided to take a âSneaky Semi-Sabbaticalâ: an alternating one-week-on, one-week-off rhythm in July, and fudging some afternoons here and there. I didnât announce it to anyone â I just set the intention that July would be a bit slower at work, planned accordingly, and prioritized leisure, family, and local travel over the daily grind.
I know this is much easier to do if youâre self-employed, but there are ways to slow your roll for a season without being ostentatious about it, even if you work in an organization. Some ideas:
Pick a month and say no to everything extraneous â at work and in your personal life. If itâs not urgent or unavoidable, postpone it a month. Feel the breathing room in your calendar. Just say, âIâm pretty tied up until Decembruary â letâs do it then.â
Choose a two-week period outside of peak season at work and give yourself permission to do âjust enoughâ for those weeks, particularly if youâve worked 45+ hour weeks on a regular basis (and I know lots of you do!). Youâve gone above and beyond plenty. Itâs ok to go light and easy for a bit. Go see a movie at 3pm, you rule-breaker, you.
I leave you with a highlight of the summer: My beloved Luceline Orchards â usually only open for fall festivities â held an open-air concert on their farm in July. My dear friend Nikki and I chatted and sipped apple cider sangria and said hello to the horses and took a stroll in the woods and got caught in a rainstorm. Here we are, soaked and enchanted. This is what summertime is made of, when the living is easy (at least compared to Minnesota winter).
A jolly rest of the summer to you all.
Next week: Itâs time for The Plunge, my deep dive essay of the month. Iâm still deciding what to write aboutâŚeither my/our need for more playâŚor a how-to for a spiritual practice I love⌠if you have a preference, do chime in via the comments!
See you next week on The Diving Board.
P.S. I canât believe I made zero references to Olympic diving in this issue. A missed opportunity? Or a fortunate evasion of painful puns? Youâll have to decide.
My son scolds me when I say âfrickinâ. Am I raising a prude?