Taking The Leap

As a child, Leap Day always made we think of two things, my dad's birthday and the Olympics.

Now that the Olympics are ever two years and my dad is perfectly happy to celebrate his birthday sometime in February or March Leap Day isn't really on my radar.

This week, however, I found myself thinking a lot about this one day, it's subtle and tremendously powerful role in our lives. Simply put Leap Day maintains the balance for the calendar year as we know it. Without Leap Day every four years our calendar would begin to slip out of balance and eventually we would find ourselves celebrating Christmas in July.

So once every four years we are given this gift of time to keep things in balance, we are offered the opportunity to take a leap -a careful, calculated leap. At the start of this week I spent my hour and half yoga practice thinking about the leaps in my life, focused on the qualities I had to summon to make them happen.

I landed on three: Courage, faith and the willingness to be uncomfortable.

At the close of practice on Monday our teacher retold the story of Hanuman's Leap, the Monkey God in Hindu mythology which reinforced the power of moving with intention, dedication and courage from where you are toward something you believe in.

Before the last hours of daylight tick away, before the clock ticks away the minutes of February 29th, 2012 and before you find yourself out of borrowed time - name your leap, summon the qualities you need support the action and start the journey.

A Little Over the Winter that Wasn't

I live in the Northeast and learned a long time ago that being grumpy about the weather is an absolute waste of time, wait 24 hours and it will change. Weather in northern New England is also great for many things.

1) Teaching preparedness.

2) Offering ample opportunities to reflect on your love for the first snowfall, a crisp bluebird fall day, a cozy rainy spring afternoon that smells of new growth or an endless summer day long enough to fit in everything you love and still leave time to watch the fireflies come out with a cold beer in hand.

3)Providing enough days perfect for play balanced with enough days to get your work done. Confession...If I lived in Boulder, Co I am not sure I go ever bring myself to go inside and work.

Now that I have affirmed all the great things about living a in northern climate with four distinct seasons - six if you count November Rain and Mud Season, I am giving myself a brief window to say...I am over the winter that wasn't.

Winter 2011 - 2012 will be remembered for unseasonably warm temperatures, almost no snowfall and plenty of wet, slushy matter to go around.

With some quality days of ice climbing behind me and a few less days then I'd like on my teles in the books, I am ready to think about trail running, road riding and rock climbing.

On Thursday (February 23rd just for the reminder) temperatures in North Conway hit the 40's and what's more impressive, that didn't really surprise anyone, including me. Embracing the warm temps, I grabbed my sneaks and microspikes and left the office at 3pm for a long run in the sun. It was glorious, I felt like I was floating along, great tunes in my headphones and spring was just around the corner.

Remember what I said about waiting 24 hours.

Friday afternoon the snowflakes began to fall, they continued through the night and six inches or so of Sierra Cement greeted me as I left for yoga on Saturday morning. I smiled through the day, appreciating winter's last hurra and then last night temperatures dipped and winds howled through till morning.

The sun is shining this morning and the winds have died down some but I can't shake the itch for spring. I looked around the house this morning and the feeling seemed mutual. This is the 11th March Guinness has patiently waited for the sun's strength to grow, the snow to melt and the fields to open up so he can once again play ball for hours without his jacket. As the sun came through our glass slider the wind gave one more howl through the trees, Guinness looked up, one eye open as if to acknowledge the longing for spring we both feel.

For now the porch is full of snow, my bike is still on a trainer in the basement and this morning rather then brave the cold I decided to bake a batch of cinnamon, almond, walnut muffins, pour myself another cup of lady gray and read the New Yorker cover to cover while Guinness follows the morning sun from spot to spot through the living room.

Cartesian Merger

This week I helped one of my clients hire their first employee. The women they hired is a perfect match for the organization and I look forward to working with her. During her interview the new hire asked several questions about the work culture within the organization, her questions came out as more of a cautious inquiry - What days and times she need to work? If there were weeks when she worked less then her contract 20 hours was that ok, could she work more hours if needed other weeks?

Much to her surprise and pleasure when she had asked her questions my face lit up, I might even have giggled. I immediately told her to relax. What is important to the culture of this organization and to me is the work gets done with excellence, in a timely manner and that the people doing it love what they do.

I have file folders full of templates for work plans, paper and digital systems for project and time management which provide the architecture for working in a more organic and individualized fashion.

This management style plays to individual strengths - some of us work better in the early morning, some of us (ME!) crash hard at 3pm and need to get out and get some exercise before returning to work, others like to work in the evening, standing up at their desk, working with music or without. Thinking about the merger of work and life rather then the separation of work and life provides flexibility, creates a more productive work environment, encourages creativity and in the end the product, whatever that may be, is better for it.

Dennis Crowley the CEO of Four-Square was interviewed on Marketplace a few days ago and I love what he had to say about going to work, it is a feeling a share and the type of work environment I help my clients create.

Crowley said, "I never think of it as going to work everyday. It's just, hey this is where I go to do the stuff I like to do."