Category: time

action, community, time, work

Beautiful: The One Reason Why You Need to Quit a Job You Hate

Christa Avampato

“Put your good where it will do the most.” ~ Wavy Gravy

There are all kinds of reasons we stay at a job we hate – benefits, paycheck, commitment, loyalty, guilt, fear. Every job has its ups and downs. But there is one big, fat reason why you just can’t maintain staying at a job that isn’t going to get better – you are wasting your time. You have to put your goodness in the place where it will do the most good for the world. When you look at it this way, staying at a job you hate is not only damaging to you, but to everyone.

We’ve got piles of problems in this world that need fixing and we are the only ones who can do that fixing. A magical fairy is not going to descend from the Heavens, wave her magic wand, and make it all better. It’s up to us.

A lot of people tell me they’re staying at jobs they hate until they come up with a good business idea. That should take them all of 5 minutes. If you want a good business idea, take yourself for a walk around your neighborhood, and find a pain point that people are experiencing. Fix that. That’s the only inspiration you need – put your goodness to good use and do work that rids the world of some amount of pain.

change, time

Beautiful: There is No Great Rush to Change so Take Your Time

Christa Avampato

In yoga, we hold postures for a very specific reason – when we ask our bodies to assume a posture, our muscles have an initial reaction. As we hold the posture, it develops. Our muscles give a bit more ground. Our minds settle down. We give ourselves time to adjust, and with that time we find that we can go further. In waiting and holding, we have time to reflect. Reflection helps us find our edge and our potential.

There is certainly a time for action, for embracing change even when it seems like it’s coming at us fast and furious. But there is also a lot of value in giving ourselves time to adjust. Just because change has arrived does not mean that we have to take all of it at once. In truth, we don’t have to take any of it. The only thing we have to do is consider it and let the answer rise up organically. In other words, we hold and wait for more information.

Often holding and waiting is equated with stagnation, and sometimes that association is valid. But it’s not the only association that can be made. Even in the midst of swirling, whirling change, it’s okay to slow down. It’s okay to take it easy and give ourselves time to decide which parts of the change we really want. Change is not an all or nothing game. It’s a menu. We choose which parts of that menu work best for us.

Rarely is change precipitated by some magical force from beyond that forces us down one path or the other. Most of the time, our lives change through our own deliberate actions. Yes, there will be things that happen that are beyond our control. But we always govern our actions in response to what happens in the world around us. We build our own road, and we’d be wise to put some speed bumps in there. Take all the time you need.

community, karma, kindness, time

Beautiful: It’s Time to Do Your Bit of Goodness

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

“Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” ~ Desmond Tutu

You’re a kind and generous person. You have empathy and compassion and you want to make it all better for everyone everywhere. It’s noble, but also a path to paralysis.

We can be overwhelmed by all of the people in the world who need what we have to offer and what we’re willing to give. We often feel like the problems we face as a society are so large that we can’t fix them. And so we wait. We stall. We hope that one day we’ll wake up with that one brilliant idea that will let us have the degree of impact we want to have.

Whenever I feel like this, and it’s more often than I’d like it to be, I remind myself of this quote by Mr. Tutu.

Today we will not fix the whole world. Tomorrow we probably won’t do that either. But today, right now, there is something we can do. Something small, right where we are. We have to remind ourselves of the ripple effect – that beautiful phenomenon that causes the kindness of one person to become contagious and inspire kind acts of others.

We also have to remember that one small good act is not any better than any other. What you do for one person right now is as valuable as what you do for 100, 1,000, or 1,000,000 people because to that one person it might just mean everything. It might just turn their day around, their life around, and there are so many people who will benefit from that, most of whom we will never know and never meet.

What you can do is enough. The important thing is that you do it. Let the Universe worry about how your goodness ripples through the world. You just make sure that the goodness exists.

career, dreams, time

Beautiful: My Summer by the Sea in Santa Monica, California

Christa Avampato

I found a way to get my summer by the sea. In January, I wrote a blog post about my wish to spend the summer in California. Less than a month later, I received a comment on that post asking me if I’d be interested in a free place to stay in Santa Monica. I thought a friend of mine must have written it and was pulling my leg. It was no joke. It’s a done deal – I’ll be spending 8 weeks in Santa Monica, California this summer. The moral of the story – if you have a wish, shout about it. Someone will hear you and help you.

“What are you going to do out there?” many people have asked. My number one priority will be to take a break and re-calibrate my life and career goals. I started my own consulting practice almost a year ago and I didn’t take any time off between leaving my corporate job and starting my business. I’m now that kind of tired that sleep can’t fix. I need to get away, clear my head, and rest. I also need to go hiking in the canyons, do a lot of yoga and meditation, walk barefoot on the beach with Phin bounding in and out of the surf, and cook ridiculously delicious fresh food thanks to Santa Monica’s gorgeous farmers market. I’ve also got some side trips planned as well – Hawaii, I’m on my way!

And then….I’ve got a lot of plans that are still in their infancy. I’m sorting through all of the options, but here’s what is on the table:

1.) Continue my work learning how to code via a number of free online options like Codecademy so that I can better appreciate the role of programmers in technology-driven businesses. Having worked on the business side of tech for a number of years, I believe that every business person has to have a deep understanding of technology if she wants to be competitive in the marketplace. Eventually, knowing how to code will be as common place as knowing word processing. I want to be well-prepared when that day arrives, and it’s not too far off.

2.) Connect with the startup and design communities in LA via the General Assembly office that is conveniently located down the street from the condo where I’ll be staying. They also offer great classes and events where I hope to meet a lot of good people.

3.) Work on writing projects that have been on the back burner for too long.

4.) Cultivate partnerships, products, and programs for Compass Yoga.

5.) Work on some new business ideas that focus on products I’ll produce rather than services like consulting.

6.) Decide if I will continue down the consulting path in the second year of my business, pivot and move to a product model, or return to working full-time or part-time in a leadership role at a small company with a solid mission to make the world a better place.

In the next 7 and a half weeks, I’ve got some decisions to make and plans to put in place. One thing’s for certain – this is going to be a summer to remember!

choices, decision-making, time

Beautiful: The Time It Takes to Make a Decision

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

“A peacefulness follows any decision, even the wrong one.” ~ Rita Mae Brown, American writer

Decision-making can be an agonizing process. We flip-flop between choices, write pro-con lists until our hands cramp, lose sleep, and wrestle with opportunity costs of going one way or the other. However, whenever I actually make a choice, I find that a peace settles over me, regardless of the choice I make.

When I began to consider leaving my corporate job to go out on my own as a freelancer, my mind began an endless debate of “should I or shouldn’t I?” When I first started Compass Yoga and was trying to settle on the appropriate business model, I would make a choice, try it out, assess its value, and then change it until I found that a nonprofit model worked best. These were two very different processes because the stakes for each were very different. Despite the difference in the stakes, I learned so much about the process of decision-making and its effect on my psyche.

Even though I tried many different ideas with Compass, I never experienced the angst I had with making the decision to leave my corporate job. I made a number of choices early on with Compass that weren’t quite right but I never regretted any of those decisions. When it was clear that my choice wasn’t the right one, I just let it go and quickly made a different choice. With my corporate job, I took a long time to make one choice. The feeling of angst had nothing to do with the stakes; it had everything to do with the time it took me to make a choice.

We often delay decisions because we are afraid of making the wrong choice. The truth is that we can’t think our way through this process. We have to make a choice, sit with it, and see how it feels. If I can make a decision quickly and confidently, I do it. (Hint: meditation helps!) I know that no matter what the outcome, I am strong enough to change course if need be. If a quick decision isn’t possible and I really can’t see a clear path, I try this trick: I make a choice in my mind and walk around with it for a few days. That simple act lets me see how the decision sits with me, in my body and my mind. If it feels right, then I go with it. If it doesn’t, then I make another choice and start the process again.

What do you do when you have a decision to make and can’t clearly see which option is the best for you? 

learning, technology, time

Beautiful: Taking My Time – My (Slow) Adventures as a Novice Computer Programmer

Christa Avampato

I have re-started my adventures in computer programming. I’ve worked on the business and user experience side of tech projects for 5 years, though I’ve never learned to program. I’ve had a couple of stops and starts over the past year or so. I’ve been working on acquiring basic HTML and CSS skills, and that’s been fairly easy to pick up. Now with MOOCs (Massive Online Open Courses such as those on Coursera) and wonderful online services like Codecademy and Skillcrush, anyone can learn just about anything online and for free. This is particularly true for people like me who want to learn how to program.

After writing a review of a book about Python (a program language that is touted as bring especially friendly due to its plain-speaking syntax) by No Starch Press, I became interested in learning this powerful, yet approachable, programming language. I signed up for a Python program with Coursera. I really enjoyed the lectures, but when it came to completing the assignments, I couldn’t keep up. The lectures and resources from the course are fantastic but they move from one topic to the other much too quickly for me.

As any programmer will tell you, coding is a contact sport. You actually have to do it, not just read and hear about it, in order to really understand it. I needed to learn at a slower pace than what was possible with Coursera. I’m a beginner and this new learning adventure is tough for me. I need to take one step at a time at my own pace. The basics in any subject are important, and this is especially true for programming. If you don’t understand the basics, you literally can’t understand anything beyond the basics. It’s a brick-by-brick process. You need the foundation to be steady and stable before you can build your programming house. There’s no bs’ing it in programming. Either you can write code that returns the results you want, or you can’t. (There are certainly plenty of open source resources to copy from, but even with those you have to know what you’re looking for in order to find something that’s of value to you.) 

I went back to my old standby, Codecademy, where I started learning basic HTML and CSS, and to my delight they have added Python and Ruby (another language I would like to learn) to their offering. Codecademy is just what I need. Practical, straight-forward exercises that give bite-size pieces of new knowledge that I can acquire at my own pace. Additionally, they have added a groups functionality to the site so users can join different groups based upon their interests and levels of experience in different programming languages.

I feel good about the decision to leave Coursera for later work and focus on getting through the Codecademy curriculum. As I did 6 years ago when I decided I wanted to learn how to write well, I’m making a commitment to do at least one small Codecademy lesson every day and periodically I’ll share what I’m learning with all of you. (Maybe some of you fearless souls would lIke to join me? If so, ping me!) A daily commitment did wonders for my writing and I now make a portion of my living from it. Why not do the same thing for programming? Copy, paste, success.

business, entrepreneurship, time

Beautiful: Be Your Own Consultant

Christa Avampato

From PinterestAbout a year ago when I was preparing to leave my corporate job to start my own company, I went to see Brian, my incredibly wise and supportive therapist and coach. I was telling him about all of my concerns and questions as I began this new venture. His few words of advice: “be your own consultant.”

We (myself included) love to give advice to others, but we don’t always apply our advice to our own careers and lives. For example, I decided to mine the social media following of one of my clients as leads for new partnership development opportunities. Why haven’t I done the same, simple task with my own social media following? On Saturday, I sat down and did just that. I’ve had a number of product ideas kicking around in my head and had yet to spec them out. Yesterday, I put (actual) pen to paper, created the user interface design, and sketched a product development timeline and work plan, just as I’ve done for clients and employers many times before. This time, this work was all for me and it felt amazing!

It’s empowering to be my own consultant, to listen and take my own advice. There’s a lot of peace and confidence to be gained in action. Give it a try – it may just be the toughest job you’ll ever love.  

change, community service, creativity, time

Beautiful: Progress is a Daily Process. Take Your Time.

Christa Avampato

“Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach.” ~ Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes

We want to make an impact in every moment. Everywhere. For everyone. We are a society of immediacy, a nation of broadcasters. We’re about scale, leverage, and reach. Bigger, faster, cheaper, now.

What I’ve found is that there is a lot of beauty and meaning in the small. Compass Yoga, my nonprofit, began with one small class for a handful of people in my sliver of a neighborhood over two years ago. Now we serve over 200 people per week in a dozen classes. We are a slow growth organization and that’s just fine by me because what we are building is deliberate and sustainable over time. We have phenomenal teachers, passionate students, and dedicated partners. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Do what you can do right now, right where you are. The future will find us. It always does. The opportunities will present themselves as long as we put real heart into our work. Help will arrive when we need it as long as we remain authentic and true to who we are.

Every journey of change is built one tiny purposeful step at a time.

celebration, change, time

Beautiful: We Can’t Wait to Be Ready

Christa Avampato

Many of my friends are now going through or considering big life changes. New jobs, new homes (temporary and permanent), new relationships, new babies. So few of them are actually ready for any of these changes. Hardly any of them could have predicted even a few months ago that the situation today would be what it is. Opportunity abounds and it doesn’t consult us. It just appears and we are left to decide whether to take advantage of it or pass it to someone else.

All of the big changes of my life came about when I wasn’t ready. I hadn’t been planning on their arrival or possibility. They just appeared. My recent move is one example. I didn’t realize that chapter was over until it was.

The Universe works in mysterious ways, and mostly out of our view. It is that (wo)man behind the curtain to whom we pay no attention until it’s ready for us. All change is hard, even joyful change. It brings about memories that are stored deep within us, in our minds and in our bodies. We toss and turn over our decisions. We find it difficult to let go of our ideas of how our life should unfold.

And yet, the actual act of letting go is not difficult at all. We simply do. Like clinging to the side of a pool, we often stay where we are out of fear. But to physically let go, all we have to do is uncurl our fingers, release our grip, and we find that we can float. We can only take one day at a time, one moment at a time, and this allows us to move with grace.

We can’t wait to be ready for change. All we can do is give ourselves over to it when it arrives, find the beauty, the joy, the light in it. Celebrate it and welcome it. Get swept off your feet by it, and have faith that eventually you will be able to root when the time is right.

time

Beautiful: The Patterns of Our Lives

Christa Avampato

“Pay attention to the intricate patterns of your existence that you take for granted.” ~ Doug Dillon

Good and not-so-good, patterns hold knowledge. We experience this during those wonderful times when we’re “on a roll”, when we’re tapped in and things seem to fall right into their own perfect places. We also become all too-aware of patterns when we find ourselves on a rough jag when nothing seems to go our way. In both types of circumstances, I’ve found that if I focus on finding the pattern then I feel much more empowered. It takes the emotion out of it. My confidence and outlook are buoyed. Then, I can put my energy toward healthy patterns and release those that don’t serve.

For a long time, I was stuck in a pattern of jobs that would begin well and then quickly unravel. As it turned out, I wasn’t meant to work for anyone else. I was meant to work for me. Once I made that switch, and clearly articulated that to myself and to others, a lot of opportunities revealed themselves. To bring those opportunities to light, I needed to be clear about what I wanted and why. And I’ve had to become very adept at walking away from what seem like good opportunities because they are not the right fit for me. (I recently learned this lesson again, and will recount that story in a later post.)

In my personal life, I used to date guys who “needed” me in the very broad sense of the world. And while that felt great at the start, all of those relationships eventually ended because I was exhausted by that dance. Now I realize what I need is someone who needs me but is also just fine on his own, too. “Better together” is the more compatible match for me. I have a busy life full of things I love and I need someone else who feels the same way about his own life and work.

These epiphanies were there all along. I just needed to take the time to look for the patterns of behavior and motivation that made them so. And these discoveries were well worth the time and effort it took to realize them; they’ve lead to more joy and less stress. What more could I ask for?