Analysis Paralysis and What If.......

My full-time job, aka my “professional” job, in its most simple state requires that I use performance metrics to tell a story of what is going on in the business.  By analyzing and evaluating the numbers the story can be either positive, negative or somewhere in between.  When I present these numbers to a client, someone always wants to dig deeper.  It usually goes something like “This information is good, but what if you look at performance on every other Tuesday, between the hours of 9:30 and 11:15, only in months ending with a y.”  When you hear the dreaded words “what if”, you know the meeting has just derailed and may never get back on track.   

In what I call my all-the-time job, aka being a mom, I am also faced with situations where I have to analyze and evaluate situations and then provide recommendations for the next action.  Though they sound like the same task, they’re obviously very different.  As a mom you analyze, evaluate and respond in a matter of seconds.  No time for pretty charts and there aren’t weeks to prepare, you’re in the thick of it and you have to respond.  You have some “data” to refer to – usually a conversation you had with a friend or an article you read on line – but for the most part you go with your gut.  Often the analysis and evaluation happens after, when you are replaying it your head.  Suddenly I am on the other side of my previously dreaded “what if”.

Many of the great things that surround us every day are the positive result of someone saying “what if”.  However often what happens is that “what if” can lead you to asking more and more questions and reading more and more articles.  Then you hit a point that I call analysis paralysis.  You are surrounded by so much information that you are literally paralyzed and unable to move forward as no answer seems to be 100% right.  Analysis paralysis can also be where you just keep gathering data and never act on it.  You think that after you get the answer to x, then you’ll have enough to move forward.

But guess what, the good news and the bad news is that life moves to fast to get stuck in analysis paralysis.  It’s bad news because you’ve got to pick a road and go for it.  It’s good news because you’ll realize quickly if you have to adjust your course, so you tweak it and keep going.

What if you stop worrying and trust your gut?

What if you stop stressing out and slow down?

What if you stop beating yourself up and forgive yourself?

What if you take a deep breath and relax?

Heart-FULLy yours, 

Kacey

Be Here Now

I have to admit I’m suffering from a bit of writer’s block this week.  It’s not as if I’ve suddenly run out of material to draw upon, there are probably a half a dozen or so scenarios that I could examine and write about.  The problem is none of them are really jumping out at me, so here I sit.

This morning I read an article titled “Present Moment Awareness” - I’ll take that as a hint.  It seems like we spend most of our day preparing for what is about to happen or examining what just happened.  Why don’t we allow ourselves to just sit?  For most people this is very hard.  You end up feeling guilty like you should be doing something rather than "wasting" time doing nothing.

Life’s busy, we all agree on that.  Most of us would also agree that if we don’t spend time planning then there is no way that it will all get done.  But how can we keep up with such a frantic pace?  At some point if you don’t stop and look around at where you are, you’re not going to know where you are going or if you’re even on the right path. 

There’s a reason people tell you to stop.  Take a deep breath.  Be in the simple moment of inhaling.  Then exhaling.  It is refreshing.  It stops you in your tracks.  It’s both relaxing and energizing at the same time. 

One of my coworker’s used to remind us to “Be here now”.  So simple, yet so difficult.  Give the present moment your full attention without thinking three steps ahead.  It takes practice and discipline.  You can start small by choosing one moment in your day to pause, take a deep breath, then sit back and enjoy. 

These moments are priceless.  I appreciate that you took some of your time to read this.  I hope you find at least one opportunity today to take a deep breath and be fully in the moment.

Heart-FULLy yours, 

Kacey

Tales of 4th Grade Drama: The New Girl

This week, before I could even ask about The Drama Scale, my daughter announced “We got a new student today.”  A million thoughts rushed through my head: it must be so hard to be the new kid, I feel so bad for her, I wonder if SHE was nice, I wonder if MY daughter and her friends were nice, etc.  To start I kept it simple and asked how is she?  My daughter proceeded to fill me in on some of the details of the day including her name, where she sat in class (next to my daughter) and other miscellaneous events and happenings from the day.

At one point during the day, a classmate said to “The New Girl” (TNG) was “You don’t really smile a lot” to which she replied “Maybe you should get to know me before you judge me.”  (Touche’ TNG, good answer.)  My daughter and I talked about that a little bit and we agreed that it must be really hard for her to come to a new school.  She agreed that she would continue to be nice and friendly to TNG to get to know her better.

The next morning we talked about TNG briefly and off she went to school.  Before the car door was even closed I started hearing about her day.  TNG had accused my daughter of copying off her paper during a class project about future occupations.  (Both girls chose the same occupation, one that my daughter has talked about on numerous occasions.)  I assured her that her teacher knows her well enough to know that she would have chosen that occupation on her own and she shouldn’t worry about the teacher believing the accusations of TNG.

As those of you with girls know, the stories did not stop there. Throughout the week we talked about many different situations and I have to admit, I struggled to find the right words for each.  I expected that our talks would relate more to my daughter’s established group of friends isolating TNG.  However as the week went on, we talked more about the best way to react to her strong personality without resorting to being mean right back.  We also talked about how learning to get along with people is not just something that you do in school, but that you also have to do it at work.

I’m probably over thinking this just a little.  I know that my daughter is going to have to go through these experiences herself to fully understand.  I can’t do it for her, but hopefully some of the things that we’ve talked about will stick with her and help her through.

Heart-FULLy yours, 

Kacey

Instant Replay

My five year old is a sports nut, anything that has a ball he wants to play, watch and then play some more.  Anyone who has watched a sporting event on TV can attest to the fact that nearly every play is followed by an instant replay, often in slow motion.  In the event that a replay is not shown, our TV allows us to rewind the play ourselves so that we can watch and re-watch as many times as we would like.  Because of this, every game played in our house, including board games, involves at least one replay showing how the action unfolded.

On one hand, the replay can be a strong teaching tool.  By looking at how we did something, we can look at it again to find areas to improve so that we can do it better/different the next time.  We can also look at the replay of how someone else did something or handled a specific situation and we can learn from them as well. 

On the other hand, the replay can create a never-ending loop that leads to insanity.  Maybe I’m being a little dramatic, let me explain.  The replay also used in our house for each child to recount the grave injustice that their sibling has committed against them.  After the initial replay, I am provided with the camera angle from the other child’s perspective, which naturally tells a slightly different story.  Unlike the replay official, I don’t get to go hide under a hood to think about and decide which camera angle shows it best.  I have to make an immediate decision to diffuse the situation as quickly as possible.  Like any sporting replay, my rulings on the field are usually met with cheers from some fans and groans from others.  The most important part is that play resumes.

Play resumes.  They keep going and within minutes the incident is all but forgotten (or replaced by the next replay).  They learn from it, accept it and move on.  If only it were always that easy - but who’s to say it always has to be as complicated as we make it?

One last thing, don’t forget that when you pull together all the replays and keep the best ones, you get a highlight reel.    

Heart-FULLy yours, 

Kacey