Learning to pace ourselves
E7: Rest & Recap 1 - An invitation to pause, ponder and reflect
I have found it really beneficial to have a breather week on some of the courses I have taken this year. It is an invitation to pause, ponder and reflect.
📖 This week’s longer read: Consolidation Week
🎈 The Karena Arena: jokes, resources and ideas. It’s Halloween!
Please share these ideas freely.
If someone sent you this message and you aren’t yet subscribed, the link below will help you solve that problem. 👇
I look forward to your thoughts and comments. See you again next week.
Karena
📖 You can read today’s essay with links, references, credits on the website. If you prefer to read it on this email, here is the full read:
📖 Rest learning 1: LEARNING TO PACE OURSELVES
Consolidation and Recovery
Have you come across the concept of an integration week? I was introduced to the idea in a "Year of Living Brilliantly" with Michael Bungay Stanier. Every 6-7 weeks he breaks away from the rhythm of the 5-minute nuggets of video wisdom from his diverse portfolio of 30+ amazing presenters. He asks us to step back and evaluate:
What have you learned?
How do the topics of the past few weeks connect to each other?
How do you move from a year of "learning" brilliantly to a year of "living" brilliantly? (Answer: by actually practising the information that resonated most deeply)
I like this thoughtful approach. And it occurs to me that this invitation to pause, ponder and reflect is a very necessary future skill as the world around us speeds up. And why, like good sleep habits, good hygiene and good eating, we should pass along the message to our youth.
Integration Week
With that in mind, I thought now would be a good moment to pause and invite you to do the same as you evaluate the messages from the past weeks:
What was most insightful? Do you see a connection between the essays?
Have you found yourself putting some of the concepts or ideas into action?
What do you like? And not like?
Here is a digest of the past few essays:
Mother of Dragons - We grow them to fly. Why, then, should we be stuck in an "empty nest"? Time to rebrand!
What's for dinner? - How to lower the barrier of entry for tasks that take a while to get started
We borrow this earth from our children - Trying to make sense of climate and its impact on the Future of Work
#MakeTakeTalk - We can feel powerless in the face of big issues. To which my inside voice responds “You always have a choice. Do nothing. Or do something, however small. So, Karena, what is your smallest viable action?" This is a discussion on selecting my choice of a call to action.
From sous chef to plating - How three courses are helping me improve my writing
From boring to riveting with Michael Lewis - An analysis of the unique way Michael Lewis is able to make very dry topics more engaging.
What spoke to you the loudest? What did you do with that reaction?
Pause. Ponder. Reflect.
Make. Take. Talk.
Please share your thoughts in the comments.
First time here?
🎈 The Karena Arena:
Our community is growing. Welcome to Najla, our 50th subscriber!
The Karena Arena is our shared meeting space to trade any of the following. Do you have some interesting material to share with our community?
Something fun: A Dad joke / family-friendly humour
Something interesting: Share articles, books, apps, self-development tools in the spirit of Always Be Learning
😅 Something fun:
Very “Future of Work meets Halloween”! Thank you for this gem, Laura Tyson.
🧠 Something interesting:
A different take on “What’s for dinner?” shared by Katharine Hayhoe, Climate Scientist and founder of Science Moms
📸 Something beautiful:
We recently had beautiful blue skies allowing the late afternoon light to ignite the fall colours.
I tried to capture the way the red kisses the tips of the trees, and the long shadows give these young trees a sense of stature. We probably have another week before all the leaves turn.
It is a celebration of colours, a firework finale. Soon the winter will set in, nature will take a pause, and the colours will be no more.
