Hey Reader,

If you’re like most humans, you’re probably down on yourself because 2023 so far isn’t at all what you planned.

Be easy on yourself. This is only Week 2 of 2023!

I hope you’ve already started practicing the 10/15 Split — the morning check-in and evening check-out technique from last week’s email.

As you continue this daily practice, you’ll start to see how your day-to-day reality matches up (or doesn’t) with your goals and plans.

If you find you’re checking items off your daily to-do list, but all that “accomplishing” isn’t moving your best work forward, read on for what might be getting in your way and how to address it.

🥪 Eliminate Air Sandwiches From Your Diet

Imagine your life as if it were two slices of bread. Your vision, mission, purpose, and big goals compose the top slice of bread; your day-to-day reality is the bottom slice of bread.

For many people, there’s a big gap between the two, leading to an air sandwich.

What I want to focus on here is what makes up that gap — the five challenges that keep us from spending our days working on what matters most.

Luckily there are five keys you can apply to address these challenges. Let’s take a look at each.

1. Competing Priorities

It’s difficult to make progress on any one goal when your attention is diverted to other things.

Competing priorities is often the result of not acknowledging our priorities and not seeing how our goals and plans end up at odds.

Keys to align competing priorities: Awareness, Discipline, Boundaries

​Your reach will always exceed your grasp — so you need to get clear on what matters and claim those priorities. Keep first things first, and then establish structures and expectations that limit the influence of other people’s priorities.

2. Head Trash

It’s the adult version of the monster under the bed; its power over us relies upon it remaining in the darkness. Head trash are the beliefs holding us back from making progress on our goals.

Keys to take out your head trash: Awareness, Courage, Discipline

Be aware of when self-defeating beliefs and patterns are present. Challenge and stick with problematic patterns when they arise. Then experiment and take responsibility in order to change — courage without discipline leads to fits and starts rather than deep change.

3. No Realist Plan

Some folks have a plan, but it’s not realistic. Others don’t have a plan at all. Others confuse an aspiration or idea for a plan, and aren’t getting anywhere.

Keys to remove the no from no realistic plan: Awareness, Discipline, Intention

Be aware of where you’ll fall down, when you’ll shine, and where you’re likely to bail. Stick with the plan when “bright, shiny objects” (BSOs) inevitably appear — and have a clear, unmixed, and as-specific-as-useful goal or destination. (We’ll talk more about this next week.)

4. Too Few Resources

We let what we don’t have keep us from creating what we can have, instead of considering how we can either use what we do have or obtain the resources we need.

Keys to overcome too few resources: Awareness, Discipline, Courage

Focus on who and what you do have more than what you don’t. Take disciplined action to use what you do have efficiently and be courageous enough to commit more fully to fewer projects so you can focus resources where they are most needed.

5. Poor Team Alignment

Many of us have poor team alignment not because the people on our team (coworkers, family, organizations, community) are in conflict, but because we’re not communicating to our team what we want, need, and dream to be.

Keys to get your team to work with and for you: Awareness, Boundaries, Courage

Be aware of what you really want, need, and dream to do and be and be able to communicate this clearly. Establish expectations, structures, and space to support your goals and be brave enough to take up space and ask for help.

📝 Your Assignment This Week

Identify the challenge most responsible for the gap between your day-to-day and your goals, and start using the related keys to address it.

You may find that more than one challenge is getting in your way — they often work in concert. Focus on one at a time, and if necessary one key at a time.

Next week we will conduct a mid-month review. Remember to focus on celebrating your progress while forgiving yourself for a possible slow start.

Stand Tall,

Charlie

👷‍♂️ Build Your Team Habits

The air sandwich shows up in teams too, except in the team setting it’s the day-to-day actions (or inactions) of the team overall that are not matching up with the vision and mission of the organization.

As I shared recently on LinkedIn, the same five challenges apply except we change head trash a little bit. Head trash is really about your personal internal narrative, but when it comes to teams, we're talking about belonging, psychological safety, and trust.

You’ll be hearing a lot more about belonging over the coming year. It's one of the eight team habits covered in my upcoming book, of the same name, out in print this August.

Other News & Features:

🚀 The Portland Business Journal featured Productive Flourishing as a “startup to watch” in 2023! Their tech writer, Malia Spencer, highlighted how many folks already turn to us to help get their most important projects done. Read the full write up here.

💬 Karen Wright, founder of Parachute Executive Coaching, mentioned Productive Flourishing and the Momentum Planning system in her LinkedIn newsletter Words about Work. In her latest newsletter, “It’s Not You, It’s Me,” she touches on the process of making sense of the post-new year (and new year’s resolution) chaos.

🎙️ It was my friend and PF Contributor, Tara McMullin who first introduced me to Nilofer Merchant’s use of “Air Sandwich” in a business context in 2016. Listening to Tara’s latest podcast episode, How To Feel Good About Going Slow, I couldn’t help but think of the five keys mentioned above: intention, awareness, boundaries, courage, and discipline. It’s a must listen for anyone looking to embrace this new year with patience.