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My Favorites – Hygge Edition
This has been the weirdest week and a half I can remember. It feels sort of like we are prepping for an epic blizzard. One that could last for a few weeks, maybe even months. As we cozied in this weekend at home, I started thinking about the things I love to have/use on cozy weekends at home. These things help me recharge and make me happy.
- A really good notebook and a great pen (I know that’s two – but they go together so deal!)
- My favorites notebooks are the Leuthtturm 1917 Medium A5 Dotted Hardcover notebook
- I always order the matching pen loop
- Sharpie fine point pens are my go to
- A cozy soft blanket -the softer the better (when I’m home, if I’m sitting, even if it’s 100 outside I will likely have a blanket – either the super soft Artisan de Luxe one I found at TJ Maxx or a quilt my mom or grandma or Mike’s mom made).
- Really good coffee – at home I make french press coffee from Dunn Bro’s beans every morning.
- Goat Milk Soap – I LOVE goat milk soap. I used to buy all my goat milk soap from my friend Heather, but then she got sort of busy with the amazing baby clothes company she owns and runs and as far as I know no longer makes soap. Now I buy from Glimpse of the Prairie – a ND company that sells locally in a few of the stores in my town.
- Chap stick – it’s an addiction. Want to see me panic? Happens when I realize I have no chap-stick on me. At all. Anywhere. I will even turn around for it.
- An oversized comfy sweatshirt from Loft’s Lou & Grey line, or Aerie’s.
- A good book – currently reading The Power of Consistency and It’s the Manager. Next up is The War of Art and Everyone Deserves a Great Manager. I almost always am reading at least 2 books. Some of these are for fun and some are for a course I’m taking personally and some are for projects/programs that I work on in my career as an HR professional. I find most have dual applications.
- Fantastic smelling lotion – when we were in Ireland we visited The Burren Perfumery. It was one of the highlights of the trip for me. Their lotion and soap was one of the only souvenirs I had sent home. Every time I put it on, I’m taken right back to Ireland, The Burren, Doolin and The Cliffs of Moher.
- Music – depending on the day, my music may be a soundtrack (typically from A Star is Born or The Greatest Showman), a playlist on Pandora (Ed Sheeran, , John Mayer, Irish Pop, Meditation Music, The Lumineers, Mumford and Sons, Lady Gaga, Pink, Michael Buble, Christmas Music -all year) it greatly depends on my mood!
- My iPhone or iPad (i was trying to leave it off, but let’s be real, it’s always near me, and sometimes helps me with #7 and #9!)
- I was going to stop at 10, but give the times we are in, I have to add yoga. It grounds me, recharges me, helps me control anxiety, and generally leaves me in a better mood. The awesome yoga studio I go to, Transitions Yoga, has made the best of the situation we are living in and has taken their classes to an online format while the studio is closed. And we are all thankful.
As we work our way through the next few weeks, don’t forget to take some time to recharge. Turn off the news, turn on some good music, grab a good book, take a yoga class, take the dog for a walk, paint or draw or sew or build. May we find some beauty in the slowing down.
Stay home friends – lets all do our part to help the healing.
- A really good notebook and a great pen (I know that’s two – but they go together so deal!)
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Recharging – The Introvert Edition
Hello friends. Happy Sunday evening. Did you have a good weekend? I’m recovering from having what I’m pretty sure was the flu this past week, so our weekend was pretty low key – which is my favorite kind of weekend!
After a few weeks of almost solid, day long meetings at work, work travel, and illness, I’ve been thinking about how I recharge. What fills my bucket back up. What keeps me from getting super overwhelmed and crabby. I fall firmly into the introvert camp, and the older I get, I think the scales tip more heavily towards introversion. I think there is a misconception that being an introvert means you are shy, or don’t like being around people, and maybe for some people who are introverts that’s true. But really, the difference between someone who is extroverted and someone who is introverted is where they draw their energy from. An introvert draws energy, or recharges by being either in a small group of close friends, or through alone time, while an extrovert is energized by people, and often large groups of people.
Personally, I draw my energy from being at home, typically in my studio, and working on something creative. Sometimes the creative activity can be writing, or painting, or journaling, or learning something new. But I always feel better once I create something. Even if it’s just throwing paint on paper with no intended outcome. Often when I’m in a crazy season at work, my husband will strongly encourage me to make time to spend in the studio. Even if it means he has to take on the bulk of the weekend household tasks himself. I realize how lucky that makes me, and I appreciate him even more because of it. He also feels like it is self preservation on his part because I get real cranky when I haven’t created for a while.
I also draw energy from super deep conversations with close friends or my husband. A few weeks ago I had a three hour phone conversation with one of my friends that I hadn’t talked to for YEARS. We talked about so.many.things. I left that conversation feeling recharged, energized and honestly a bit raw. I’ve kept thinking about it for the past few weeks. There were so many good nuggets in there. We also made no small talk, which for a lot of people would be awkward. I don’t think we touched on the weather, or on what we do for a living – two of the most common topics of conversation in the US (at least where we grew up). But here’s the thing, that type of conversation doesn’t work for everyone, which both of us acknowledged as we were chatting. For some people, that type of deep conversation would be draining. For both of us, it was so energizing.
A few weeks ago I posted about my top five CliftonStrengths and talked extensively about Futuristic and Ideation. One of my other top five is Relator. Gallup describes Relator’s power and edge as ‘People especially strong in Relator talents form solid, genuine and mutually rewarding relationships. Their relationships are close, caring and trusting. They may know many people, and they can relate to all kinds of people. But they also have a very small group of friends with whom they have incredibly deep relationships.’ This, for me, aligns closely with how introversion shows up in my life. It has also helped me understand my recharging needs better.I think the biggest key to recharging is just knowing how you recharge, and not feeling bad about it. For years, I felt like there was something wrong with me because I need so much alone time, and I felt weird for wanting to have those deep meaningful conversations. Now I’ve come to realize I’m in a much better frame of mind and show up so much better when I do have that time to recharge. If I could combine a painting retreat with my favorite friends – even better 😉
How do you recharge? Do you need quiet? Or are you energized by people and lots of activities? Or maybe you’ve never thought about how you recharge? If so – let me challenge you to think about it, and then take some time to do something that refills your bucket! -
The Emerald Isle – Arriving in Cobh.
On Wednesday May 29th, we took the tube to Heathrow hours before we needed to be on our flight to Ireland in case of anything unexpected. If you ever travel with me, that’s how I roll. I like to be at the airport early, especially the first time I fly from that airport. Plus I’m one of those weirdos who actually likes airports. We left from Terminal 2 – the Queens terminal and it was WAY nicer than the terminal we landed in. We wandered around the terminal shops after clearing security and had breakfast while we waited for our flight.
On the plane ready to head to Ireland!
We flew Aer Lingus from London to Cork which was super cheap, roughly $100 per person. There were limits to the size of luggage you could carry on, and those limits varied from the limits in the US. I had researched that ahead of time (shocking I know) and knew our backpacks would meet those requirements. If you wanted a snack or beverage on the flight, you did have to purchase it, and I think I had to pay a small fee to select our seats.
We landed in Cork mid-afternoon, cleared customs and went in search of an ATM to get Euros, (the UK and northern Ireland use the pound, while The Republic of Ireland is part of the European Union and uses the Euro) and find the rental car desk. We had to wait for over an hour to get our car as they were waiting for a car to be returned – the one we were supposed to have had not been returned on time. So, they upgraded us and gave us the next car that was returned, which just happened to be an Audi.
Our transportation for one week of our Ireland tour Then, it was time to leave the airport…gulp…at what ended up being right around rush hour…driving on the wrong side of the road and the wrong side of the car (wrong for a US driver anyway – quite right in other parts of the world!). We were headed to Cobh (pronounced Cove) for the next three nights. Cobh is only 17 miles from Cork, but those 17 miles were HARROWING for me. We had planned for me to drive and Mike to navigate. That is typically how we work best (see previous post about my map reading abilities). I had completely wigged myself out about driving in Ireland. The roads are narrow, so many of the articles I had read said whatever you do, don’t drive. And then the whole roundabout thing…for a girl that grew up in the middle of the prairie where you might have to go round a cow on your way to town, roundabouts don’t make much sense to me. Cattle guards? Those I get. Roundabouts – foreign concept. So we left the airport, went through several roundabouts before exciting the airport, and then were trying to get onto one of the national primary roads in Ireland (meaning it is a bit larger than other roads, but not quite like our interstates). We were in 2 lanes of traffic going into the roundabout. I was in the inside lane, gripping the wheel so hard my fingers were going numb, and maps was telling us we needed the 2nd or 3rd exit (can’t remember which). For those of you as unfamiliar as I was with roundabouts, exits are each point in the round about that traffic can exit. If you are in the inside lane, you can’t take the first exit – that is only for those in the left lane. If you are in the left lane, you can either exit, or continue around the roundabout. Facts I didn’t at that time know. We were confused and for some reason thought we needed to exit there in the first exit (even though maps was saying 2nd or 3rd), so I did that. From the inside lane. Next to me, in the left lane, trying to go straight was a garbage truck. With a very unhappy driver who thankfully was paying attention to the tourists in the car next to him and honked but let me go. Without running right into the side of my car. So within 10 minutes of leaving the airport, I almost got us into an accident and an accident that would have had the garbage truck run right into Trey…
A somewhat wide road in Ireland. There is actually a little shoulder on this one.
We somehow got on the right path, and white knuckled our way to Cobh. Friends, Irelands roads are NARROW. I know everything you read will tell you they are narrow, but they are NARROW. And driving on the left side of the road and the right side of the car was so disorienting for me. I felt like I was going to go off the very narrow road (there really are no shoulders), or into the other lane of the very narrow road the.entire.drive. I don’t remember much of that drive. I just remember thinking those were the longest 17 miles of my life and I have driven 17 miles in white out conditions on a sheet of ice. We finally made it too Cobh and found our Air B&B. Cobh’s streets are somewhat like Duluth Minnesota’s or Houghton Michagan’s streets. They are all on a pretty steep incline leading up from the water. Where they differ is in how wide they are. The street in front of our super cute row house would be considered a one way in the US. In Ireland it was a two way, and cars were allowed to park in front of the houses!
The steep streets of Cobh. I was thinking this one may have been a one way until I saw how the car in the foreground is parked… We got moved in to our home for the next three days, and then ventured out to find the grocery store with Mike driving this time. He did much better than me. I love to visit grocery stores in the different places we visit, and Ireland didn’t disappoint. It was fun to see what was the same, and what was different between there and the US. There food seemed to be much more locally produced than ours, and their eggs are not kept in the fridge. We loaded up on supplies for the next few days and headed back to our house to settle fully in.
This is on our walk back to our Airbnb from the water. Walking down to the waterfront was easy going – walking back, not so much!
After we were settled we took a walk down by the water to find supper. And we promptly fell in love with the town of Cobh. On this side of our trip looking back, I can say I’ve never been anywhere like it. It still has the small town feel while being somewhat touristy. I say that because it doesn’t seem to be the place tourists want to go to stay. They likely will stay in Cork and take the train to Cobh or come in on a cruise ship and wander around Cobh for an afternoon before taking the train into Cork. So of all the places we went, even though it’s a cruise ship port, it didn’t feel as touristy.
Cobh Waterfront 
Cobh Waterfront 
St Colman’s Cathedral 
View of Cork Harbour
After a full day of trains, airports, airplanes and driving on the narrowest roads I’ve seen (to this point), we were glad for our Airbnb, a space we could call ours, and returned there fairly early in the evening to play a couple games of cards before heading for bed. Trey was so excited to have his own room here cause someone in the family snores…we won’t publicly call that person out.
Next time, I’ll take you with us as we explored Cobh! -
Exploring London
Last week I talked about getting to London, our first experience with public transit there, and finding our way to our hotel in our sleep deprived state. After checking in to our hotel around 11am on May 25th, we each took a much needed shower before heading out to find some food.
Trey studying the menu for our first meal in London
We had heard that you should try to stay awake that first day and just go to bed early. So with that in mind, we ate our first obligatory London pub meal of Fish, chips and a Guinness (none of them were fantastic in my opinion). Then we headed out to explore the Canary Wharf area. About an hour into exploring, and after a very strong Starbucks espresso, it was clear that Mike was not going to make it much longer without a nap (he can’t sleep on planes). So we headed back to the hotel and napped for 3 glorious hours. We woke up feeling like we had worked an overnight shift but decided to hit the tube and explore instead of wasting the whole day.
Looking toward Westminster and Big Ben
While planning this trip, I was a bit terrified at the thought of the tube. Not that I would have admitted that to Mike or Trey. I had rode the subway in NYC when I was a teenager, but never anything like it since. I was worried about how we would figure out which lines and stops we would need. Turns out, I worried for nothing. The invention of the smart phone and maps makes that process super easy. Type in where you are going and your phone tells you exactly which lines you need, and, if you are changing lines, where you need to do that at. #mindblown. How did we travel before we had smartphones? Be aware that if you close your map when you are on the tube and need to change lines, you may not have service that far underground. Not that we experienced that first hand and panicked or anything…. Also be aware that there are very good maps all over the underground if you, unlike us, close your map while on the tube. No need to panic.
The London Eye
So we headed for all that is Westminster. We decided not to take in any of the attractions that evening, opting rather to just walk around and get acclimated. We took one of the foot bridges over the Thames and were lucky enough to find an outdoor festival of sorts. Later that evening I believe there was going to be live music, which we didn’t stay for, but we did get dinner there and then I found an ice cream cart (of course). We walked past the London Eye before making our way back across the Thames, to gaze up at Big Ben. Big Ben is currently under construction, but was still amazing to see. Then we rode the very full (and hot) tube back to Canary Wharf and walked around that area before heading to our hotel for the night.
After sleeping like rocks, we woke up Sunday and went to The Breakfast Club for breakfast. Our first traditional English Breakfast! I didn’t realize that tomatoes and beans were part of a traditional English breakfast until this trip (we did not try black or white pudding). Then we made our way to Greenwich port to ride the city tour boat to Westminster port. It was drizzly and windy so was a great way to see some of the city. Once we arrived at Westminster port we went to the Churchill War Rooms where we spent a couple hours. Was pretty interesting to walk through that time in history. We had purchased the 2 day London Pass. There are hundreds of attractions that are included with the pass, way more than you can see in 2 days, but if you are going to take in multiple attractions, it actually is more cost effective to use the pass (trust me, I calculated it out in a spreadsheet while planning…see previous note about engineers rubbing off on me). Both the tour boat and Churchill War Rooms were part of that pass. Having the pass didn’t mean that we never stood in lines, but typically meant we were in a different line than just general admission (if I remember correctly)
Churchill War Rooms – and the line to get in…
After our time in the War Rooms, we rode the tube back to Canary Wharf and found a little pizza place near our hotel called Franco Manca. Seriously some of THE best pizza I’ve ever had. And if you know me, you know I have an ongoing love affair with pizza. So good that I am still dreaming about it, and would consider a trip back mostly for the pizza.
THE best pizza – maybe even the best I’ve had
Monday morning we woke up after a not great night of sleep (Mike and I – Trey slept great). We hit the tube early and arrived at the London Bridge station shortly after 9am. We failed to realize when booking our trip that this Monday in late May was a holiday in the UK (was Memorial Day back home in the US). So London was busy! We had started our London Pass with the boat ride and Churchill War Rooms on Sunday, and since I had purchased the two day pass, we needed to get a few things in today. Once we arrived at the London Bridge station, we were met by a man selling hop on/hop off bus tickets. Since they were included in our London Pass, we decided to take a ride. We took the bus destined for Buckingham Palace, but ended up touring central London for about 3 hours. We saw Hyde park, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey (which had a ridiculous line to get in to it), Harrods and a bunch of other shops and museums. I’m pretty sure the tour guide said if you were getting off at the Harrods stop not to forget your earbuds or your credit cards! Mike made sure we stayed on. The tour ended back at London Bridge station.
A sunny day on the Hop-on Hop-off tour bus 
The line to get into Westminster Abbey. No, we did not stand in this line. This actually doesn’t even do the line justice. From there we went to The Shard and road to the top (72 floors). What a view of London! I was nearing hangry so they fed me pizza (it always works to cure hangriness) and then we toured the HMS Belfast. What a cool ship. I can’t imagine living on that for months or years at a time. We waited around that area for Bobs Lobster to open at 4:30 only to discover it was closed for the summer bank holiday (our friend Laura had been in London the year before and highly recommended Bob’s Lobster). So back to Canary Wharf we headed. We ate dinner at a BBQ place that was only ok.
View of the Shard from the street 
View of London and the HMS Belfast from the observation deck of the Shard
Tuesday was our last full day in London. We slept in a bit (we are on vacation after all). Then after another breakfast at The Breakfast Club, we headed for Camden Market on the underground. Actually we took the DLR which was right outside our hotel and the underground. Look at us figuring out how to switch transit types! When Trey was researching things to do in London, Camden Market showed up and was on his list of must sees. Camden market is in Camden town (odd) and was one of the busiest areas we were in. It has tent based shops like our US street fairs but also brick and mortar stores. The food portion of the market smelled amazing. Trey had some homemade noodles that spent some time getting happy in a cheese wheel. We also tried dutch pancake bites with milk chocolate, bananas and strawberries. Delish. All.of.it.
Camden Locks 
Enjoying the nice day at Camden Market 
Riding the Tube back into London
When we had seen all we cared to of Camden Market, we hit the tube and headed for St Paul’s Cathedral. The architecture in that cathedral is STUNNING! We climbed a gazillion steps to nearly the top of the dome for a great view. I almost died, but the view was worth it. Strangely enough it was my idea to put ourselves through torture. I forget that I have super short legs compared to the giants I live with. Giants that like to do insane things like run up stairs. Anywhoo. The view from the top was amazing. St Paul’s in general was amazing. Thinking about the building process when most of those buildings were constructed makes the architecture that much more interesting.
St Pauls Cathedral 
Proof I made it up all.those.stairs. 
View from the top of St. Pauls 
After finishing up at St Paul’s we headed back to Canary Wharf, and enjoyed our favorite pizza spot again. I know it’s likely against culinary rules to have pizza 3 times while in London, but I was guessing I wouldn’t find good pizza for the next week. And if you haven’t figured it out yet, I like pizza.
We absolutely loved our time in London. Way more than we thought we would. It was an easy city to navigate, there was so much to do, and overall we felt safe while we were there. I would guess this won’t be our last trip to that city.
Waiting at Heathrow for our plane to Cork!
Stay tuned for Ireland! -
Sunday Scaries and Morning Routines
Happy Sunday from the icy tundra. We had freezing rain overnight which has turned our roads and streets into the equivalent of a skating rink. Which has meant that I’m working hard to not leave my house today! Let’s talk about Mondays. Do you get the Sunday afternoon scaries? Are you one of the people that loves or loathes Mondays? I fall firmly into the second camp but am working on my attitude towards Monday. I’ll let you know how that goes.
I mentioned in a previous post, 2020 Goals and Dreams, that I’ve been focused on habits over the past year. Really over the past two years. As a part of that, I’ve focused on my morning routine. On what sets me up for a great day, or at least a great start to the day, and allows me to feel more in control of my day.
I’ll share below what my ideal morning routine is. I don’t always make this happen, because of well, life. Sometimes I hit the snooze button (although not as often as I did before hearing Rachel Hollis say that every time you hit snooze, you are breaking a promise to yourself before you are even out of bed) And sometimes I need to start my work day earlier but don’t want to get up that much earlier to ensure my morning routine happens. That’s why this is my ideal morning routine. Also, the wake up time is what works most consistently for me. I’m a morning person – love the quiet morning hours. And I need to wake up fairly early because I am a SLOW mover in the morning. I like to take my time, ease into the day. Moral of the story – craft a morning routine that works for YOU.
4:45- 5:00 – Wake up, let dogs out, make coffee ( I know I could program the coffee. Unfortunately I can’t program the dogs, and I like the flavor of my French press coffee, so I craft that while they do their business)
5:00 – 5:20 – Meditate (I use either the headspace or calm app), enjoy my coffee, write in my Start Today journal
5:20 – 6:00 – Read, create, write – something that pushes me closer to my goals.
6:00 – 6:45 – Shower and get ready
6:45 – 7:15 – Breakfast
7:15 – 7:45 – Head to work and get settled in.Again, this is my ideal routine. Quite often, I hit snooze and only get to making coffee, meditation and my Start Today Journal. Sometimes, I add movement into my morning routine, and it would consistently be in my ideal morning routine if I didn’t need to be to the office around 8. Instead, I have found that I prefer to fit in the things I listed above in the morning and then go to a yoga class or do a yoga video in the evening. One thing I used to do EVERY morning that I am trying to break the habit of is checking email or social media. I used to start every morning by checking my work email while I made coffee. Then on to Facebook and Instagram. I’d waste the best hours of my day with mindless scrolling.
When I get serious about my morning routine I’m able to handle the unknowns of each day better. I’m calmer, more centered and more focused because I’ve already taken time for myself before the day even started. Do you have a morning routine that you follow? -
Landing in London
Happy Friday! Way to make it through another work week…
When we started talking about where to go on Trey’s graduation trip, topping his list of places in Europe was London. He had wanted to go there for years, and had even occasionally pulled out a fairly on point British accent. Since Mike and I are not huge city people, we decided to start the trip with London and end with Ireland which we were guessing would be more relaxing.
In the Bismarck Airport, ready to board our flight to Minneapolis and then LONDON!
On May 24 2019, Trey’s actual last day of high school, with our bags packed (3 backpacks and a very small purse), we had Grandma’s Uber take us to the Bismarck airport. We had a 4ish hour layover in Minneapolis, and then boarded our first ever international flight early evening. Around 7am on May 25th we landed at London Heathrow, a bit tired as sleep was elusive on the plane, in desperate need of good coffee and smelling like an airplane (you know the smell, sort of stale, sort of sweaty – it’s a good combination, they should probably bottle the scent).
After getting off the plane (hallelujah), we followed the arrivals signs to Passport Control/Border Control. The lines (queues) are long leading to passport control, but they move quickly, and passport control is automated (you stand where the feet marks are and scan your passport, then the magic gates open), unless the picture on your passport looks WAY different than you (like mine), then the automated machine thingy makes you talk to a real live person.
After we made it through passport control, we followed more signs to where we would have picked up our checked luggage (if we’d had any), finally found a bathroom (US airport bathrooms should up their game), found an ATM to get pounds from and then followed the signs for the underground. Before we could board the underground we needed to purchase an Oyster Card which we would use to ride public transit through out London. The Oyster card is a small card, similar to a debit card that you load with money and use to pay for public transit around London. It’s simple to use, just needing to be tapped against the entry and exit points when you are entering and exiting stations, and is simple to ’top up’ when your balance gets low. You can also turn in your visitor Oyster card at the end of your stay in London and get any unused pounds returned to you. The process of getting the Oyster card at the terminal seemed a bit confusing, but likely was due to 1. no coffee and 2. no sleep. We also could have ordered it ahead of time to be delivered to our house and then would not have needed to stand in any queues prior to getting on the transit of our choice.
The best thing about using the underground? Your map app tells you exactly which lines you need to be on. The worst thing about arriving on a weekend? The line we needed to get us from Heathrow to central London was closed for repairs. Which meant we needed to either take the Heathrow Express which would have only taken about 15 mins but cost us over £300, or take the TfL rail which would take about an hour but cost much less. We took the longer (hour) ride at a much lower price and enjoyed our first glimpses of London.
We chose to stay in the Canary Wharf district of London which is east of Central London, mainly due to reviews of the area (see previous post about hours and hours of research), and finding a hotel that didn’t break the bank but had 2 beds and met my hotel review standards (yes, I am a bit of a hotel snob). I had looked at a budget friendly hotel near the Tower Bridge, but was not able to find a great room option for 3 people and really didn’t want to book 2 rooms. We also were arriving on a holiday weekend which made hotels a bit harder to find.
Riding the escalator out out of Canary Wharf station
The Canary Wharf tube station was only a short walk from our Hotel, so we strapped our backpacks on and took our first of many walks through London. At first with me leading with the help of maps. As would be evident throughout the trip, I should never be in charge of leading if we are using the walk feature in maps. I can’t be trusted with it… moving on. From the time we landed at Heathrow until we made it to our hotel room was about 3.5 hours. If I hadn’t tried to navigate us from the tube station to our hotel it may have shaved off 25 mins…kidding! But for sure 5. By the time we made it to our hotel, we had been up for well over 24 hours. Trey and I had slept some on the plane, but Mike had not. We decided to shower so we would feel human (and be less stinky), and set off in search of our first London meal.
The tall buildings in the distance are all in the Canary Wharf district
Stay tuned, in the next post I’ll take you with us as we travel through London. -
My Top 5 CliftonStrengths
Hey there! Get your cup of coffee, pull your chair up to the fire and join me as we chat about CliftonStrengths. If you’ve never heard of it before, I’ll give you the low down. CliftonStrengths is an assessment tool created by Don Clifton and Gallup. Don Clifton is known as the father of Strengths based psychology and asked the question ‘what will happen when we think about what is right with people rather than fixating on what is wrong with them.’ This philosophy ultimately led to his life’s research and the birth of the CliftonStrengths assessment.
When you sit down to take the assessment, you’ll be asked to chose your instinctive reaction (no overthinking) to 177 paired statements. Then after you submit your answers (or the time has ran out), you will receive your top 5 strengths. There are a total of 34 strengths which fall into 4 domains, Executing, Influencing, Relationship Building and Strategic Thinking.I was first introduced to CliftonStrengths 10 years ago. I vaguely remember taking the assessment, but vividly remember getting my results. When I read the standard description for my top 5, I wasn’t sold (I’m naturally a bit skeptical). Then, I read the description on my Strengths Insight Guide. And I wondered how they had gotten in my head. And this was before we knew Google was listening to us. #creepy. After reading those paragraphs, I was sold…except for, there were two of my strengths I wasn’t sure were truly me. I just didn’t see Futuristic or Ideation in myself. Then I had my husband read the descriptions and told him, I don’t think those ones fit me. He laughed and said something like, “sure they do, you’re always dreaming up a new plan, or thinking about the future. Every time you say, Honey, I was thinking… the rest of your sentence is likely a dream for our future, or a business you want to open.” Keep this in mind as we move forward as I’m guessing you may have one or two that show up that way for you too.
Now that you have a little history and your coffee has gone cold, my top 5 CliftonStrengths are; Futuristic, Learner, Adaptability, Relator and Ideation. As I mentioned above, Futuristic and Ideation were the two that I didn’t think fit me when I first took the assessment. Anyone reading this that knows me well would likely laugh at that statement. What I didn’t realize then was, they are such a part of who I am that I had a hard time seeing them. Up until that point, I didn’t realize not every dreams. I just thought that was part of everyone’s reality. You mean you didn’t write complete stories in your head during Algebra in High School? Or while painting the trim on the garage while you were a teenager? Or while commuting long distance across the open prairie in your 30’s and 40’s? That’s so much a part of me that I didn’t realize it was a talent. Sure, my algebra grade reflected that dreaming, but then so did my creative writing and english grades. And don’t tell my teenager, but creative writing and english have been WAY more useful to me over my career than algebra. *winks*
This painting is evidence of my dreamer at a young age. I think this was taken at our county fair. I had found hay bales to sit on and dream. My mom’s cousin, who is extremely talented with the camera, captured this without me knowing. Then, my grandma Ellie painted it. It hangs in my studio today – a reminder to dream, and in honor of these creative women that helped shape me. I have always had a head full of ideas, mostly ideas of how my future could look. I pair that with a strong need to learn, especially about topics that may help me navigate to that future I can so clearly see in my head (see how three of my top five are working together here?)
Do I always use these as strengths? No, they have to be honed, just like any other talent. Just because someone is naturally gifted at basketball doesn’t mean they always play well. But if they practice, and practice and practice some more, their talent turns into a strength. Something they can do with nearly perfect consistency over and over. I think of it like muscle memory for any of you that have learned an instrument, or to paint or draw. It’s likely you weren’t born just innately knowing how to do those things. You found you liked to do them, or your parents made you take hours upon hours of lessons and you discovered you enjoyed it. Then you practiced until, through muscle memory, it was something you made look so easy people would say you were naturally gifted, or so very talented. But they didn’t see the hours upon hours you put in.
It’s really the same with strengths. I can be naturally talented in these areas, but what am I doing with them. How am I honing them? Or am I allowing them to trip me up? Talents are neutral, but strengths can either be operating from the basement or the balcony. When they are on the balcony, you are using them to their full potential, you are leaning fully into them and are putting in the time to truly develop them. For example, my futuristic can either help me live into my fullest potential, or it can be the thing that is holding me back, depending on how I use it. I can get really caught up in what the future version of my life looks like. So caught up that I forget to be present in my current life, or end up being super dissatisfied with where I am today. And to deal with that dissatisfaction, instead of putting on my imaginary work boots and figuring out how to get to that future version, I curl up on the couch with a blanket and wallow. Which of course is not futuristic at it’s best.
As you can tell, I’m pretty passionate about this topic. Strengths have helped me understand how I operate and have helped me better navigate certain conversations and relationships. If you are curious and want to learn about your Strengths, check out Gallup’s website.
This is not a sponsored post. I just believe in it so much I like to shout it from the rooftops, or from my computer…whichever is closer.
Let me know if you’ve taken CliftonStrengths and what your top five are! -
My Favorite Podcasts
Happy Monday! Do you listen to podcasts? I can’t remember how I learned about them, or when I started listening, but I love them. My current role as a HR manager requires me to travel quite a bit either by air to locations in other states, or by car to locations 3 hours from my home in the same state. If I don’t have a co-worker with me, I like to pass the time with a podcast. I also often listen to them while I’m getting ready in the morning, and traveling from my house to the office (about a 20 minute drive). Some I like because they inspire me, others for the detail they share and still others because of the skill of the narrator. Here are my current fav’s and a recent favorite episode.
- The Rise Podcast – by Rachel Hollis
- Episode 107 – Stop Procrastinating – I have listened to this one no less than 5 times…
- Ed Mylett Show with Ed Mylett
- Don’t Keep your Day Job with Cathy Heller
- Do it for the Process with Emily Jeffords
- The Good Life Project
- Lead to Win with Michael Hyatt and Megan Hyatt Miller
- Gallup Called to Coach
- All or any of them! I also love Gallup Called to Coach Theme Thursday.
Have a listen – you might find something that inspires you this week!
- The Rise Podcast – by Rachel Hollis
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A Trip of a Lifetime
Eons ago, when I was graduating from High School, my parents offered me a graduation trip to New York to see my aunt in upstate, and my cousin in NYC. Having been to New York five years before, I jumped at the chance to return and convinced my Mom to go with me. I’ve always loved the memory of that trip. Seeing the shore of Lake Ontario, enjoying a boat ride on one of the Finger Lakes, driving by all the vineyards of upstate New York, riding the train from Syracuse to Grand Central Station, seeing a Broadway Play, shopping on 5th Avenue. It was fantastic.
Lake Ontario – circa 1996
Fast forward twenty some years and my own son was nearing his senior year. We decided to offer him a trip as a graduation present. He could choose the destination. To our surprise, he picked Europe. None of us had ever travelled internationally, and since we decided this would likely be a once in a lifetime trip, we each wrote down our top 3 destinations. London was at the top of Trey’s list, and Ireland at the top of Mike’s and mine.
View of London from The SHARD
In the planning stages, we considered fitting in Scotland, Germany and/or Prague… #fomo. Ultimately we decided to focus on London and Ireland instead of squeezing so much in that we would need a vacation from vacation. As May got closer, I tried to find a travel agent that would be willing to help us plan our trip, knowing (and not caring) that it would cost a pretty penny for their help. I’d reach out, tell them what we wanted to do (which did not include cruises, tours, etc), and…crickets.
NYC 5th Avenue shopping – Mom, Sylvester and I – circa 1996 So I dove into researching, researching and more researching. Possibly one of the hazards of the career I have chosen is the close proximity I have to engineers every day. When planning this trip, I realized some of their tendencies have started to rub off on me (shhh don’t tell them…or my husband). I spent more time than I care to think about figuring out the best places to stay, planning our route, deciding if it would be better to fly into London first or Dublin first, should we take a train from London to northern England and then a ferry to Dublin, or fly from London to Dublin, hotels or B&B’s, drive in Ireland or do a tour. Hours upon hours I spent. I was terrified to make the wrong decision.
Exhibit A on why research is CRUCIAL before driving through Ireland. This is a 2 lane road!
Finally in February, on one particularly cold day, we booked our airfare, which at least locked us into dates, and where we were starting and ending. We’d fly from Bismarck to London on May 24th and fly from Dublin to Bismarck on June 9th. Phew – one step done.
A lighthouse – somewhere in NY – circa 1996
Then the rest of the research commenced. We decided on 5 days in London, then flying from London to Cork and spending the rest of the trip in Ireland. I learned so much in the planning stages of this trip that I would like to share. Over the next few Fridays I’ll walk you through our trip to the UK and Ireland, why we stayed where we did, what we would do over again and what we would change. I’ll also link to any resources I found helpful and share a bit on our packing/traveling philosophy. Buckle up – this is going to be fun! See you on the flip side. -
2020 Goals and Dreams
Do you start each year with resolutions? Goals? A word you are going to focus on? I don’t do New Years resolutions because I know myself well enough to know I will break them by January 5th. Not January 15th, January 5th. If I make it that long. And for some reason, I’m kind of an all or nothing girl. If I say I’m going to do something for a year, and then slip on January 3rd, it’s really hard for me to not throw my hands in the air and say efff it! Also, I have a bit of a problem with anyone, including myself, telling me what to do…so there’s that. If you’re familiar with Gretchen Ruben’s four tendencies, it may make sense that I keep getting Rebel as my result, but that’s a topic for another post.
I do however, have goals. But they aren’t new for 2020. I’ve been using Rachel Hollis’ Start Today journal since October. I fell off the rails a bit in late Nov/Dec due to the emotional mess those months were, but have jumped back in. And truthfully, those are goals I’ve been working towards for at least the last two years. I also pick a word that I want to be mindful about each year. A mantra of sorts. In 2018 my word was Intentional. I wanted to be more intentional with my choices, my time, etc. That word carried over into 2019 but I also added Habit with the goal to be intentional about my habits. Both the habits I wanted to create, and the ones I wanted to break. As with anything, I wasn’t perfect, but I made a ton of growth in the areas of yoga, meditation, showing up for myself, and decreasing social media.
When I was thinking about my word for 2020, I circled through several, while hearing Freedom as a quiet whisper in the back of my head. When I stopped ignoring it and embraced it, chills ran down my arms. There are a variety of areas that I want to intentionally incorporate freedom into my life, but the first area will be freedom from negative thinking. And freedom from mindless scrolling. And freedom to create with no expectations. And freedom to dream BIG audacious dreams. For months, every yoga class I’ve gone to, when asked to set your intention or mantra for the class, Freedom is always what pops into my head. So I guess this year instead of choosing a word, the word chose me!
I’m excited to see how Freedom plays out in my life in 2020. I have a feeling it will bring exciting, terrifying and challenging growth. I’d love to know if you set goals or resolutions!
If you, like me live in the frozen tundra, I hope you stay warm this week!
