Simple Synergy

Synergy is all about teamwork, but I only have control over myself. This fall I'm approaching synergy like a dance, and I'm making up the steps as I go along. What do we need from our teams and how do I ask for the best kind of help? And what are the top priority projects I'm called to work on?

I continue to build my inner wisdom, and take persistent right action on the work I'm called to. For this, I need discernment (insight and clarity), equanimity, and centering in chaos.

 Agenda:

1. Read "The Power of Less"

2. Simple goals for earthcare

3. The Simple Project List

4. Fall cleaning and gardening

5. Inner synergy for birds and fish

1. Read "The Power of Less":

Continuing with this little book by Leo Babauta, who hosts the Zen Habits blog. I bought it because simplifying is a favorite topic of mine, one I long for and keep trying to perfect.

I'm reading to Chapter Nine: Simple Time Management. "Time management, especially for the more fluid work arrangements of many people these days, doesn't have to be a rigid or time-consuming process. ... Instead of allowing your life to be ruled by your calendar, let your life be ruled by the moment."

He calls it minimalist time management, and his description sounds awful to me: Use your calendar to see your options but don't let it rule your life. Don't commit to meetings; just show up if you feel like it - very flaky and egocentric

But in fact, this is exactly what I've been doing lately! - Because my priorities have shifted, most meetings have become optional, and I trust that my friends will understand.

His guidance: "...from moment to moment, decide what you should be doing based on your priorities, how much time you have available, and your energy level. Learn to be in the moment, focusing on one task at a time, and immersing yourself completely in the task." This is the state of flow.

Ways to practice:

1. List your 3 Most Important Tasks each morning. Let this list be the ruler of the day, and focus on one task at a time.
2. Simplify to fewer tasks by delegating, postponing, or setting aside lower value tasks.
3. Do smaller tasks in batches, later in the day, so they don't interrupt the MIT's. Set a time for answering emails, running errands, sorting papers, and maintenance tasks. 

2. Simple goals for earthcare:

New red-flowering currant

By simplifying my projects, and eliminating some meetings from my life, I have managed to complete the earthcare priorities I set for myself last week: Write a blog post, send updates and reports, connect with the Interfaith group, post artwork on my website, plant a new native shrub in my garden, and (close to) finish my appliqué project.

This week: Write a blog post, set some fall plastic-reducing goals for myself, finish my appliqué, make a plastic craftivism project, and volunteer at a plastics round-up event.

My daily goal is to stay in touch with my fall ecosystem with a moment to look around at my garden and notice the flora and wildlife, and continue to improve my soil and clean-up my wild garden in a way that honors and invites nature. - I've set a reminder on my phone so I don't forget this top priority. 

  

3. Simple Projects List:

I've been using Babauta's "Simple Projects List", with my top three projects only, which I need to finish before starting any others. (A "project" is something that has several steps, and takes only a week or two.)

"The top three projects on your Simple Projects List will be your entire focus until you finish all three ... This ensures that you aren't spreading your focus too thin, and that you are completing your projects." 

It's been great! I have actually been able to chip away at these three projects much more effectively than ever before.

Tips: You can't actually do projects - you can only do tasks. Make a list of tasks for each project, and focus on doing one at a time. Each day, choose three tasks to complete.

My simple projects list this week:

1. Art: Finish sewing the Small Forest appliqué and find a frame and backing.
2. House: Paint and re-glaze the living room windows. (First task: Clean the dirt, and wire brush the sills.)
3. Craftivism: Make a hanging plastic challenge prototype (First task: Brainstorm)
4. Kids: Prepare for Halloween! (First task: Get out the boxes) 

4. Fall cleaning and gardening:

Fall cleaning has an entirely different feel and focus than spring cleaning. In the fall we finish up, pack away, and "batten the hatches" -- we put away all the outdoor stuff, air out the sweaters, and prepare for winter.

This next week I will start my fall cleaning in the living room, shed and front of the house. I plan to:

• Clean and repaint the large window frame outside the living room.
• Clear surfaces for Halloween and Day of the Dead displays!
• Clean the front porch and door, and decorate for Halloween.

I'm doing the same kind of hatch-battening in the garden:

• Clean up beds, mulch with leaves and straw
• Plant winter rye and fava beans
• Hang ghosts in the trees
• Put out new solar lights along the front paths.

5. Create inner synergy for birds and fish:

I watched a video showing scientists opening the stomaches of birds that were filled entirely with plastic shards - parent birds feed their young plastic when they can't find caterpillars. Fish eat plastic too. It's so terrible - how can I help?

This week I want to focus on creating a craftivism project geared towards educating people about the terrible consequences of our love affair with plastic. And I want to create a fire inside myself for completing this project.

Stephen Covey says, "Fulfilling the four needs [spiritual, mental, physical, social] in an integrated way is like combining elements in chemistry. When we reach a "critical mass" of integration, we experience spontaneous combustion -- an explosion of inner synergy that ignites the fire within and gives vision, passion, and a spirit of adventure to life." 

Inner synergy is when your body, mind, spirit, and heart are all cooperating to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects. I love the image of "an explosion of inner synergy," and I've experienced that passion spontaneously, and I know it's possible to harness that energy when you want it and need it.

Step one is to choose any project or task that is a priority, that connects to your values and principles, something you want to do soon; something a little challenging but within your abilities, such as this craftivism project.

Each step below has multiple ways to engage, and you don't have to use them all. Take as much or as little time with the steps as you like - you might want to stretch the process out over a few days, repeating each step a few times in different ways, building a little more energy each time. Or you can speed shift through the steps, and explode into action today!

Engage my mind:

• Write about the project or task in your journal, and why it's important.
• Create a clear vision with a visualization.
• Gather all the information you need to do the project.
• Make a beautiful chart and color code it!

I decided to engage my mind by writing an intention - and posting it on my computer. Also, I made a list of the next steps and put them in my calendar. Took half an hour and my mind is (super) engaged!

My intention is to create an eye-catching image of a bird feeding plastic to it's baby, which will spark a visceral response that might sway people away from buying as much plastic, because our casual buying habits are killing birds and fish. 

Engage my heart: 

• Identify the love component. Write about and visualize who this project might benefit, and the people skills you might need to develop for this project.
• Focus a Love Meditation on the project: Send the "pink light of love" to yourself and the people who will be impacted by the project.

I'm clear that the heart component is: I want people to make a mental shift in priorities; to have an aha moment, and see from nature's eyes. I need to develop clarity of purpose and the verbal and artistic skills to communicate my intention. I plan to write talking points and memorize them.

Engage my spirit:

• Choose a mantra, word or phrase, or an image, that will remind you of the deepest reasons for the project.
• Light a candle, repeat your mantra, and carry the words with you all day.

Engage my body:

• Get prepared - schedule time to physically do the project or task.
• Gather all the supplies you need.
• Prepare a space for the project.

Time is tricky this week. I hope to work at this project every morning at 7a.m. and I've set a new timer.

Start a fire: 

My Save the Birds synergy plan is a sequence that begins when my timer goes off:

1. Mentally review my intention.
2. Engage my heart by practicing my talking points.
3. Engage my spirit by looking the photos.
4. Engage my body by diving in to the next step on my list.