Happy Friday, and a special welcome to all our new Joumor readers!
Lately Joumor students (thank you, Nathalie!) have been tagging me on Facebook and sending me pictures of matryoshka dolls, referring to the Joumor principle: Matryoshka the task. It is REALLY FUN to receive these pictures and know they are thinking of Joumor out in the world!
Do you know what a matryoshka doll is? Yes, those Russian nesting dolls that my grandma and maybe your grandma had when we were little. And do you remember what’s on the inside of the matryoshka doll? The tiniest nested doll is a little baby. When we unravel our tasks down to the smallest pieces, we often find one of two things:
1. We haven’t stood up for ourselves to ourselves or to someone else.
2. We need information.
These two options are the “baby” that we need to “nourish” by standing for ourselves and/or getting the information we need.
Try it. Take any task and go for the smaller thing you need to do before you do that thing:
1. Call John
a. Find John’s number
i. Ask Marie if she has John’s card
x. Find Marie’s number!
It’s not pretty, but c’mon, you know it can be like this! At the root of the procrastination or stuckness of any task, there is usually a malnourished matryoshka “baby.” The good news is we just have to take action to nourish it.
For example, I wanted to send this email out a long time ago and include the information about the newest upcoming Joumor Institute class, Productivity for YOUR Brain-Intensified. I made the changes on the website, set up the class in Infusionsoft, the marketing software I use, and when I made sure everything was set, it wasn’t! I tried to fix it a few times, couldn’t find the answer, and then I got really tired. Has that ever happened to you? You try and you try and next thing you know you are napping…and when you wake up the task still isn’t done.
Rubbing the sleep marks from my face, I realized it was time to Matryoshka the Task of finishing this newsletter. I unraveled the steps and realized I couldn’t solve it on my own and needed to ask for help from my tech guy. Now here’s the crazy and totally textbook part: When I realized I needed to ask for help, I hesitated, worried he wouldn’t be available to help me. Yes, it can be that twisted, ladies and gentlemen, sometimes we don’t even ask for what we need because we are scared we won’t get it. We give up before anyone has a chance to help us make our dreams come true. In this case, my matryoshka “babies” were “twins:” I needed tech information/support, and then I had to stand for myself to get the information even when I had doubt and didn’t want to ask.
I teach productivity and organization because I get it. It is my lifelong struggle and I find it fascinating. I teach it because it’s fun and funny and deep to get to the root of ourselves and make a different choice that feels good instead of scary. And it feels dang good to do what we need to do so we can move on and do what we want to do.
Want to join me to make some different choices and achieve a big or a small goal? Check out the upcoming Productivity for YOUR Brain Intesified, starting June 21st, available by video so no excuses to all my west coast and European readers! We’d love to have you. And you’ll nourish your babies to great success.