Latest news with #TheRestRevolution
Forbes
29-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
7 Spring Journaling Prompts For Career Clarity And Life Alignment
Happy young black woman in a sunflower field Spring is nature's way of reminding us that it's never too late to begin again. According to the Purposescaping executive coaching philosophy, what you metaphorically plant in spring could potentially take root and grow strong and healthy in future seasons. So now is the perfect time to reassess your goals and realign your strategy before you seed something new in your life. But for high-achievers who've spent years building successful careers, clarity isn't always easy. In fact, the more accomplished you are, the more complex your decisions can become. As you progress in your career, the work is no longer about finding yourself. Instead the task becomes reconnecting to the authentic parts of yourself that may have gotten quiet. During a recent workshop I helped a room full of leaders and creatives uncover their next best step. I guided them through a series of exercises to dial back the noise of hustle so they could tune in to themselves, their energy, and what's been calling them for years. If you're ready to step into alignment this season, here are 7 journaling prompts to help you clear mental clutter and reclaim your direction. Notice what lights you up. As I write in The Rest Revolution, now is the time to prioritize energy-generating activities and energy-generating relationships. Energy is data. If you've been ignoring your energy, you've been ignoring the most honest part of you. A woman smiles warmly with her hand on her chest, expressing gratitude and happiness during a ... More heartfelt conversation. Often, your zone of genius is hiding in plain sight. When others see your gifts before you do, it's a sign to take a closer look. Are there meetings, clients, habits, or roles that drain you? Getting clear on what needs to go is just as important as knowing what to pursue. The word of Important on adhesive note paper When it comes to your career, fulfillment is elusive when you're out of alignment with your income, influence, impact, or inner joy. Your clarity deepens when you pick a lens. Every choice doesn't have to serve every goal, but it should serve your current priority. You have built brand equity in your network, in your results, in your reputation. What doors do you have available to you that you've yet to walk through? Sometimes the dream that got you here isn't the one that will take you forward. Letting go doesn't mean failure. Sometimes letting go is a way to make room for a more current and authentic aspiration. Creating a vision for the future will help you guide your actions in the present moment. Think about the most aligned version of you. How do they speak, move, lead, and show up? How can you embody more of that vision? Spring is an invitation to realign, and you already have more access to clear strategy than you think. Use these journaling prompts to set yourself up powerfully for the remainder of the year.
Forbes
26-04-2025
- General
- Forbes
How To Conduct A Purpose-Driven Midlife Life Review In 5 Steps
Silhouette of man climbing up a mountain Many of the high achievers I've encountered are living shadow lives as they approach midlife. They're earning great money and are well respected, but at a certain point, money and respect are not enough for them. Since their earliest years they've been on a path they didn't intentionally carve out. It's as if they've been following a map drawn by someone else. I've been imploring my clients and communities to tap into their inner map instead. That process, which I've named Purposescaping, starts with a pretty intensive life review. When you're finally ready to tap into your inner map, you may not realize how much your past programming and defaults are guiding your present day actions and decisions. Most people are not only overworking on autopilot as I write about in The Rest Revolution, they're also just living on autopilot by doing things because that's how they've always been done. Rarely do they stop to ask themselves 'does it really have to be this way?' Figuring out your existing path will show you where you are, how you got here, and how you can more clearly see the root of the discontent that may be driving so much of your present-day angst. These are the 5 steps of the deep clarity I ask my coaching clients to explore. According to my executive coaching philosophy Purposescaping, first you have to reflect on what you were drawn to in youth, at what point you began 'broadening out' and where you first began to 'spiral up'. The visual representation of Purposescaping is a spiral that starts broad and narrows with each revolution up and around the spiral. The top tip of the spiral is the snuggest fit purpose path: the path that is revealed after you've edited out all the machinations of the world. It's what's left once you've gotten back to the truest version of you. Understanding the rhyme and reason behind your early life seasons will help you put everything else into context. Next you must reflect on the trends of your past spring planting seasons. When it was time to start a new life chapter and go for something new, when did you flop? When did you soar? There's information in the patterns and themes of both the successes and failures. Question to consider: What are your ideal growing conditions when starting something new? Man working at home Then it's time you look back over your life about the times you were clearly and abundantly thriving and building forward momentum. You planted something and behold, it took root! You had a new idea, executed it, and it worked. That's your summer growth season. Think about the environment that allowed you to grow. Think about the people who supported you and helped you thrive. Think about what eventually caused your growth to slow down. Remember that when you're in growth mode, you'll attract good and bad things. Weeds are attracted to the same nutrients that help healthy plants grow strong. Question to consider: What should you be looking out for? What are your typical threats to growth? Next look back over when you've been in fall harvest season, i.e. when you were landing promotions, surpassing revenue targets, and winning awards. Or on the personal front, think back to those big moments that made you feel fulfilled and happy. Perhaps you've had some big milestone events, like the 40th birthday party when everyone gathered and made you feel so loved. Try to remember the big moments of 'payoff' when the seeding and growth you put in during the previous seasons finally started to generate an outcome that felt tangible and real. Lastly, you need to look back on your past seasons of winter, unless you've been repeatedly skipping winter and failing to rest and reflect as so many high achievers are prone to do. It's understandable as the work of winter is quiet and private unlike the public parade of fall harvest. Don't beat yourself up. This exercise is a great way to reflect on your past cycles so you can make decisions about what you want to take with you into your next season. If you've been habitually denying yourself time to rest and reflect, now's the time to create intentional space to do that. Once you've reflected on the seasons of your life, you'll begin to see patterns and themes. No longer flying blind, you can make decisions rooted in your strengths instead of the approval or guidance of others. Upon reflection, you can decide what parts of your current life you want to take with you into your next season.
Forbes
28-03-2025
- Business
- Forbes
3 AI Prompts To Lighten Your Workload When You're Exhausted
Young African American woman feeling exhausted and depressed sitting in front of laptop. Work ... More burnout syndrome. Mental Health concept. Since January of this year, tens of thousands of American employees have been laid off. In 2025, major federal agencies including the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Department of Veteran Affairs are undergoing sweeping layoffs, with tens of thousands of government jobs being cut to reduce workforce size and restructure operations. The tech industry has also seen over 22,000 layoffs this year, with companies like Meta, Microsoft, and Wayfair leading the downsizing. Additionally, corporations across various sectors—including Morgan Stanley, Starbucks, and Boeing—have also announced workforce reductions, reflecting widespread economic shifts. Those who still have jobs are often under pressure to do more in the same amount of time. For workers juggling the demands of work with caretaking, caregiving, health challenges or burnout, the challenge becomes finding ways to streamline tasks and conserve energy. Luckily, you can use AI to identify places to find new efficiencies so you can do your work with less energy and effort. No matter your situation, these targeted AI prompts can help you pinpoint inefficiencies, simplify your workflow, and reclaim valuable time for yourself. When you first begin to think about all the different tasks you perform in a week, it can be daunting to figure out where you can trim the fat. Luckily, you can use your favorite AI tool to get you started. Ask it to give you ideas about what you can streamline in your work based on your job title. The more specific you are about your role, the more ideas it will generate for you. Use this prompt to get started. 'What are three ways I can streamline my workflow as a [job title] Once you understand areas where you can streamline your work, take it a step further by understanding how you can begin to batch your time around the newly identified streamlined tasks. As I write in The Rest Revolution, addressing our time is one of the five critical ways we can realign our lives to exit burnout. One great way to start realigning is through time batching. Time batching refers to the act of grouping similar tasks together and dedicating blocks of time to those tasks. This helps improve your focus by reducing the context switching you'd experience when multitasking or performing different types of tasks in the same time period. For example, instead of responding to customer emails, meeting with your direct reports. and working on a business development proposal all in the same morning, you may decide to spend a focused two hours on business development tasks like writing new proposals for all new business leads. This way you can speed through the proposals before moving on to your other work. Try this prompt: 'You offered me 3 ways to streamline my workflow earlier. Which tasks should I batch together so I can be most productive?' Once you have a new set of streamlined tasks, categories for task batching to reduce context switching, let AI develop a schedule for you to put all of this into practice. Start with this prompt: 'Build me a sample weekly schedule I can use to bake in these new efficiencies.' Depending on the response you receive, you can follow up with your LLM tool to get an even more specific response based on your unique situation. If you are exhausted or have reduced performance capacity due to a health challenge, caregiving responsibility or personal experience of burnout, you can plug in the following prompt to get an even more tailored schedule. Follow-up prompt: 'You offered me a great schedule earlier. While I appreciate it, it feels ambitious as I'm on the brink of burnout. Can you build me a new schedule that accounts for my reduced energy levels?' In a time when burnout, exhaustion, and reduced capacity are all too common, working smarter—not harder—is no longer optional. We simply can't afford to waste our limited energy on tasks that technology can help us simplify or streamline. By using AI intentionally, we can offload some of the mental weight, protect our capacity, and save our energy for what truly matters—our health, our wellbeing, and the people we care about.
Forbes
26-03-2025
- General
- Forbes
How To Find And Value The Work That Comes Easiest To You
For many high achievers, the work that comes most naturally is often the work they undervalue. They discount the ease and this phenomenon, which I write about in The Rest Revolution as the paradox of ease, is a pattern in which individuals fail to recognize their innate gifts precisely because those gifts feel effortless. This dynamic is closely intertwined with imposter syndrome: a well-documented psychological pattern where successful individuals doubt their skills, minimize accomplishments, and fear being exposed as a fraud. When combined with deeply ingrained social messaging around hard work, imposter syndrome can push high achievers to dismiss ease and pursue paths of unnecessary struggle. Among women, people of color, immigrants, and members of historically excluded groups, the message that one must 'work twice as hard to get half as much' has often been internalized as survival strategy. Passed down generationally, this mindset equates worthiness with hard work and relentless labor. But when high achievers have been conditioned to view effort as the primary indicator of value, they may struggle to see the worth in what comes naturally. In coaching and consulting settings, many professionals recoil at accurately articulating their accomplishments, feeling that if something was easy, it couldn't possibly be worth much. This internalized belief can lead to overworking on autopilot—a form of professional muscle memory where pushing through exhaustion becomes default behavior, even in the face of trauma, loss, or health challenges. Imposter syndrome amplifies the paradox of ease. Even in the face of repeated success, high achievers may doubt their competence. Rather than embrace their strengths, they may overwork to compensate for internalized feelings of inadequacy. This often shows up in subtle ways: a reluctance to apply for promotions, a hesitance to speak up in high-stakes meetings, or discomfort in presenting a polished resume or LinkedIn profile. When one's core talents are so familiar they feel mundane, it becomes difficult to communicate them with confidence. In practice, this can lead professionals to over-deliver, overthink, and overprepare, and spend too much time and energy on tasks that should be straightforward. Not only does this limit upward mobility, it also contributes to chronic burnout and a disconnection from one's authentic professional identity. For high achievers who are ready to step out of overwork and into alignment, here are three practical steps to begin valuing what comes naturally—and to build a career that reflects that value: Start by asking yourself: What do people consistently thank me for? What do others struggle with that I find relatively easy? These questions can reveal your 'effortless excellence'—skills that are intuitive to you but transformative for others. Resist the urge to downplay them just because they don't feel hard. Ease is often a sign of mastery. Once you've named your natural strengths, practice articulating them in terms of the results they produce. For example, instead of saying, 'I'm good at organizing,' you might say, 'I help fast-moving teams streamline processes and increase efficiency.' Language matters. Frame your ease as a strength that creates measurable outcomes. This is the foundation of a magnetic personal brand. Use your professional platforms like your LinkedIn, bios, and speaking engagements, to reinforce your brand around what you do best. Showcase case studies, share insights, or highlight client wins that stem from your zone of genius. The more you speak from this place of alignment, the more you attract opportunities that don't require you to contort or overextend yourself. Careers built on the belief that only hard work counts often come at the price of burnout, under-compensation, and a persistent sense of never being enough. But when high achievers learn to value what comes easily, they unlock their next level. Success does not need to be synonymous with struggle. Professionals who make this shift not only reclaim their time and energy, they also position themselves for the opportunities and recognition their talents truly deserve.
