How You Can Make a Positive Mid-Year Shift

And just like that, it's almost August! Chances are some aspect of your 2024 plan is off track and you've thought, "How can I get back on track when I have 242 things clamoring for my attention?" If that's you, here are three suggestions to help.

First, thanks for reading my newsletter. It means you've made a commitment to the first step in making a positive shift: pause and pull up for perspective.

Second, identify one action you can take to help you get back on track. Fortunately I have six recommendations, courtesy of a letter from my great-grandmother Nanie. Nanie wrote lots of letters, and one I’ve kept close for nearly 40 years was her reply to the invitation to attend my high school graduation.

Nanie wrote to apologize that she would not be able to attend, adding “We wish we were not so old and could be there. But, in spirit, we are holding your hand.” The other thing she included in her letter was a series of reminders—six of them, to be exact.

1. Use your talents.
2. Rid yourself of non-productive surroundings.
3. Cherish your health.
4. Don’t regret the past.
5. Keep your faith in God.
6. Take time to be alone to intensify your awareness and recharge your batteries.

Isn't that list amazing? I can map how each of one of these is helping clients I'm currently working with.

Third, share the action you select with someone else. Two of Nanie's reminders are front and center for me:

  • After experiencing unexpected losses this year, I find myself drawn to Nanie's third reminder: cherish your health. Our time here on Earth School is truly precious and fragile.

  • I'm also focused on taking more time to be alone to intensify my awareness and recharge my batteries. Nanie was the first to model the importance of STFD (Slowing The F* Down) for me. I can still picture her sitting in the sun room of her home, reading, studying, and writing surrounded by rocks and other historical artifacts—each one containing a story that intensified her awareness and, in part, mine.

Finally, if the off track part of your plan is capital H Hard — and I have definitely experienced those moments — a reminder from Jensen Huang, the founder and CEO of Nvidia:

"I don't know how to do it (but) for all of you Stanford students, I wish upon you ample doses of pain and suffering. Greatness comes from character and character isn't formed out of smart people -- it's formed out of people who suffered."

PS:  Nanie was kind of a badass; you can learn more about her from this newsletter I published several years ago.

Ben Kiker