I've recently been offering fireside chats focused on setting priorities and managing to boundaries as a way to achieve your goals.  In this discussion, I ask people to choose between two visuals on how they manage their boundaries - an open gate or a fence with spikes on the top.  More often than not, their answer is that they don't manage their boundaries so it looks a lot like the open gate.

Earlier this week, I presented on the topic of "Why you need to think about leadership as an art, not just a science" for the Central Delaware Chamber of Commerce Coffee Caching session.  During the introductory discussion, we talked about some of the challenges those leaders face that make leadership feel hard. One of the topics that came up was when people perceive the message we communicated differently than we intended.  I believe this is a common challenge that we all face in our personal and professional lives.

For my Friday social media post, I talked about attending a professional event where Annie Duke was sharing many of the insights from her most recent book, Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away. It was interesting to read the comments and talk to yesterday's participants who were in the midst of deciding or who had made decisions to make a change.

Four years ago tomorrow (October 1st), I officially launched Crim Dell Consulting, LLC (now Canopy Strategies) and many of you have been loyal subscribers, clients, and referral partners since the start of this journey.  For those of you who were not part of the early days, I started this journey so that I could focus on the parts of my corporate experiences that I loved the most and where I thought I had the most to offer:  advising, creating, and implementing people strategies and coaching leaders on how they could best lead themselves and others.

I mentioned last week that I had the opportunity to participate in a great conference in New York City.  I heard insightful speakers and met many new interesting people.  It was so energizing to shift my energy into a few days of in-person time.

The downside was that last weekend I tested positive for Covid (for the first time).  Thankfully, I've had a light set of symptoms that have not prevented me from doing virtual meetings, but I have had to lighten the expectations I had for myself this week since I've been dealing with a headache off and on and being more tired than normal.

As a thank you for a fireside chat I did earlier this year, I was gifted a wonderful mug with an inspiring statement on it, "Melissa, No one is you and that is your superpower."  Guess which mug is my favorite right now!  I write a variation of this statement in my journal each day to remind myself that I just need to be the best me.

Failure is top of mind for me this week for two reasons. 

The first one is that Amy Edmondson's new book, Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well came out this week, and I've had the chance to listen to her on a podcast and see her speak on a webinar with Josh Bersin.  I'm looking forward to reading through her insights over the coming weeks.

As I mentioned last week, my daughter moved into her new freshman dorm last week and is getting acclimated to this new chapter in her life journey. As I've been following Facebook posts in a parents group for students, I've seen a lot of messaging about children who are struggling with making the adjustment to a new environment. I had a sense my daughter was doing ok from the quick texts she had sent, but I finally got a chance for a live conversation on Thursday.

I mentioned what I was seeing, and she was pretty blunt as she often is with her perspective.

This week brings another change in our household. Both of our kids have finished their summer jobs at the beach and have transitioned into their new "homes" for the year. The good news for me is that they'll actually be closer while in school than they've been this summer which means I may get some ad hoc meals with them throughout the semester.

Who do you want to be when you grow up?

If you’re not sure, that’s ok.  No matter what age you are.  I know I still ask myself this question on a regular basis.

I want to know the mark I’m going to make on the world around me.  I want my life to have made an impact.