3 Questions to Ask When Under Pressure…

(Under Pressure….Insert Queen instrumental here) This is what is on my mind today as I sit here feeling under pressure to finish my blog and newsletter, finish my book by the end of the quarter (which is exactly 3.5 weeks away, eek!*), upload the latest OWL podcast, and coach a full roster of clients on this unusually busy Wednesday. At least that was the plan last week, and yet here I sit with this same blog post waiting for me to write it a week later…

I confess, my strategic plan is hanging by a thread, I’ve missed several deadlines this month, and it’s fair to say the wheels are falling off…my book is behind schedule, and I haven’t even started on my OWLstanding project launch yet…I’m somewhere between staging an intervention for myself that involves Aderall and admitting defeat or just letting my ADHD superpower show up and SOAR like it did in college under intense deadlines and threats of failure. Naturally I went with option C, write a blog post about it. And also wait two days and allow a brilliant ‘shower thought solution’ to pop into my brilliant head. So basically the college sense of urgency, only I easily let go of the pressure I was feeling and started getting curious instead...

Shower Thought ‘Solutions’
Einstein once said (I’m paraphrasing here), If I had 60 minutes to solve a problem that my life depended on, I would spend the first 55 minutes coming up with the right questions to answer. So my shower thought solutions OWLways begin with asking my Defined Head (Human Design term) 3 important questions (technically I asked myself days worth of questions before landing on these 3 specific questions…I’m not exactly Einstein, although he had a defined head in his Human Design too. But I digress.

Check out my 3 questions to ask yourself to get back on track!

1) What is the purpose of your strategic plan?
As soon as this question popped into my head, I felt my gut instinctively make a loud mmmmm sound as I washed my hair. I’ve always used strategic goals as a way to make sure I shoot for the stars, so that if I miss, at least OWL land on the moon. My business development goals have always been aggressive, often times my self-appointed revenue goals were damn near impossible to reach…and yet I’ve never not landed on the moon and usually I reach the stars…which is why occasionally I can be upset while still standing on the moon.

Somewhere in the middle of washing my hair a memory of my last BIG failed goal popped up. The last team I lead thought we would be lucky to raise $10k at the first event we hosted together. Looking back I can see how much they craved certainty and wanted a challenge they felt certain they could win, as much as they didn’t trust me and my ability to deliver. My entreprenurial spirit set the goal at $50k, and before stepping foot into the the event we had already generated $27k in revenue, and ended the event just $10k short of that $50k goal. I missed the goal, and I didn’t care. The goal of the goal was to get a F.A.I.L. (First Attempt In Learning), create momentum, and fill a much needed gap in the budget. Ahh yes, the finances, logic says we need those to be in the black in order to trust more FAILS…

It was at this moment in the shower that I remember that although I hit tough goals all the time, I also miss goals OWL the time! The purpose of my strategic plan is to learn what: what worked, what didn’t work, and what changes I can make in the future. I’m trying new things and this year’s theme word is UNCAGED, which is what you need to feel when you are ready to get some ‘at bats’ for first attempts in learning—like a bird free to fly for the first time, you are going to have fun discovering what works and what does not work.

If I were to use Human Design language to describe this ability for OWLways landing on the moon, I would point to the powerful energetic channel 52-9 that gives me the “energy to concentrate on and challenge, correct, or perfect any pattern, form or activity that I am profoundly committed to” and provides the intuitive knowing of “what won’t get me anywhere—this is why this superpower is rooted in “my temporary, self-imposed inaction,” which is “beneficial for assessment and attention to detail.”

Ahhh yes, I thought to myself as I reflected on my temporary in-action, this inaction (in hindsight) has always bore fruit for me in the past. Listening to my intuition and holding myself accountable for daily, weekly, and monthly check-ins has always served me well. Profoundly committed was the key word I needed to reflect on my strategic plan…what exactly am I profoundly committed to, what am I not, and what do I want to do about it next? When my soul is stirred to action, the universe responds…and that is exactly how the rest of my day went. Which brings me to my next questions that I asked myself:

2) What DO you REALLY want to BE profoundly committed to doing?!

Spoiler alert, we don’t always really know what we want. We’ve been taught that our mind is here to use logical to make decisions for us, and yet that is not really how it works. Your mind is here to inspire you with ideas, thoughts, and solutions—your body is here to guide you on your decisions (or in my case, lack of decisions to support “beneficial assessment and attention to detail.” So what is it that I REALLY want (insert Spice Girls song here), I asked myself out loud…two weeks are left in Q2, do you want to move the needle forward on this or that?

This answer would arrive while getting dressed and figuring out which way my hair wanted to go that day, and the universe responded beautifully. It’s pretty magical when I reflect on it. What I wanted was to follow my personal inner authority that I call my Sacral Intuition (Human Design terms). This is, and has always served as my true strategic plan. Not because I found Human Design, but because it is just how I’ve OWLways lived my life. I have a strong Logic Channel energy (if you’ve met me, you know I always have great questions and insights), it’s also why I create strategic plans in the first place! I need a North Star, something to guide me when the pressures to perform get to be too much, something for me to respond to, which is how 70% of us humans are designed to be in this world—living in response to.

Over the course of the next several days everything fell into place. I let go of the expectation that I must force myself to write my book, finish this blog, or even worry about my newsletter. After all, it’s not like any of my readers messaged me wondering where their weekly dose of wit and wisdom was…although I did have a client, multiple clients actually, ask when my book would be finished. Ahhh, there it is, the pressure to prove—to myself and other—that I can hit a deadline.

3) What are your next steps? i.e., what does your authority say to do next?

I picked up my phone and fired off a few messages. The stars immediately aligned. I got clear on the questions I needed to know the answers to in order to hear my Sacral Intuition respond, and just like that (2 days later) adjustments were made to my strategy and I OWLficially felt profoundly committed to my Quarter 3 goals, more importantly, I really celebrated my in-action, the very thing I was displeased with myself about, as I embodied what I know to be true, timing really is everything.

My authority also told me to take my laptop to the kitchen and focus on writing my book in my 2nd favorite environment. My first favorite is a coffee shop down the street, but my kitchen is closer, more importantly, it worked like a charm! I am happy to report my book is well on its way to being published some time in Q3.

*It took my a week longer to write this blog than anticipated, and yet it is exactly what it needed to be in this moment in time. This is the intention I set for my podcast each week—it is the intention I invite you to set as you head into our last week of June.

This moment is exactly what it needs to be in this moment in time.

What are you learning this quarter? This season of your life? When you look back at your entire lifespan, lets say 100 years, whoo do you want to BE in this moment in time? More importantly, whoo will laugh at life alongside you? Is it me? Book a strategic call and lets find out!