leadingbyadventure Archives

Use small pauses between things to best ready yourself for each challenge and opportunity. Divest yourself of the debris of what’s past and put on your best for what’s to come.

Why take this challenge?

Be at your best for each challenge and situation throughout your day.

Better work-life balance through intentional transitions between the ideal work you, and the ideal home you.

Improved mental health for you and those around you

Graphic image reflecting different pathways to take the adventure

In our second adventure – Fixing ‘ … that’s not me’ – we explored how ‘who you are’ is something you can choose. You can put on the ‘you’ you want. You can choose the ‘you’ that will be best for each situation. Even each moment.

Out of his research into top performing athletes, Adam Fraser has discovered that in many cases our success is determined by something most people take for granted – the transition between one thing and the next. Too often we bring who we were in the last battle into the beginning of the next one. And the fact is, that may not be the best option for us.

Around this idea, Adam has prepared some excellent (brief) resources that I heartily recommend you take a look at. This week’s adventure is about better understanding what happens to YOU in those transitions, and then trying out his simple three step approach.

+ Green track - taking it in your stride

A bit like the Third Space

Our adventure this week involves watching a short video (6 mins) and then trying it out (4 mins). You will find the video here. But before you watch it, please try out the following:

Reflect (30 seconds) … on your last activity. Identify what positives you achieved within it, and any learning you put into place (NOTE: this is not a critique – you did some good. Look at it!)
Rest (30 seconds) … sit square in your chair, arms and legs uncrossed, feet on the floor. Close your eyes to cut out distractions and breathe slowly. And bring your attention to each of your senses – in yourself, in this moment. Re-centre them on yourself. And pause for a minute.
Reset (30 seconds) … think about the video you are about to watch. Think about what version of yourself is likely to get the best from the next 6 minutes. And determine to bring that version of yourself to watching the video.

Then watch the video. And make whatever notes or intentions you want to make. And then, before you move on to the next task you have set:

Reflect (30 seconds) … on how you watched the video. Identify what positives you drew for yourself from within it (Remember it is not a critique)
Rest (30 seconds) … sit square in your chair, arms and legs uncrossed, feet on the floor. Close your eyes to cut out distractions and breathe slowly. And bring your attention to each of your senses – in yourself, in this moment. Re-centre them on yourself. And pause for a minute.
Reset (30 seconds) … think about the next situation you are about to step into. Think about what version of yourself is likely to most helpful to those around you and achieving the best outcomes. And determine to step into your next situation as that version of yourself.

That’s it. One short video, and two (very brief, and unrefined) applications of Adam Fraser’s insight. But hopefully enough for you to begin to get a glimpse of its potential. And, of course, to have taken another adventure in your mind.

+ Blue track - a bit of a workout (click to open)

Trying the Third Space for Real

The Blue Track is about trying out the Third Space on some things that are real and meaningful for you. This could be all of the transitions in one day, or it could be a number of what you believe will be important transitions over the next week. Whichever you choose, do the following:

Consider how much time you have for each of those transitions to use the Third Space properly, and how you can find somewhere uninterrupted to have your Third Space.
Set your alarms (calendar, phone, whatever) to give you time for your Third Space before each of the upcoming activities. Remember that if you (rightly) want to review and critique the preceding activity, this needs to take place outside of your Third Space. Keep your intention for the Third Space very simple and straightforward – it is about the best possible transition, nothing more.
When your alarm goes, make sure you cannot be interrupted, and work through Adam’s Reflect-Rest-Reset process. Don’t worry if you struggle a bit, there is plenty of opportunity to perfect it for yourself.
Bear in mind that Rest does not have to be the process described in the Green Track. Depending on the time that you have available, there are many mindfulness exercises available through YouTube (although, personally, I find prayer works for me), but it could be a walk, or other exercise, or something else you find restful.

+ Red track - stepping up to bat (click to open)

Over to Adam Fraser …

For many of us, the restrictions of the Pandemic have meant that we no longer have the travel time that enabled us to make the most important transition in our lives – that from work to spouse, parent and/or friend. Work live balance is not about the hours, it is about who you are in those hours.

If as a result of trying out the Green and Blue Tracks, you can see the potential in the Third Space (particularly in respect of moving between work and home) and want to take it further. Then I need to hand you back to Adam Fraser so that you can use his resources (most of which he seems to have made generously available for free) to further think through and refine your approach. I have included his website and some of his words of wisdom in the Pack section below.

The Third Space has huge potential for our own mental health, and for the mental health of those around us who benefit from us (and others) turning up in our most helpful form. So the pack area also contains other resources you might want to reflect upon.

You may find the following resources helpful in tackling your challenge or in gaining further benefits from the skills and insights you develop

Three simple steps to not take a bad day home – Adam Fraser TEDx Talk
What is the Third Space – Adam Fraser providing examples of people using it
Adam Fraser’s website

Other resources to help you create healthier environments

You are Not a Frog – Rachel Morris’s podcast for busy people in stressful work
Information on looking after your mental health
Articles on creating creating flow in your organisation (as the alternative to stress)

To catch up on past adventures you may have missed, feel free to browse our Adventures Library

Let us know how you get on.

Share your experience, your insights and your observation using the comments section at the bottom of the Linkedin post.

Please help us to extend and develop our community by sharing what you are doing. Click on the links below where you are most active, and then like or share the article to your network. Thank you for helping.

And share your progress and insights with the Twitter LbA community using #leadingbyadventure

Useful links:

Introduction to Leading by Adventure  |  What we mean by spirituality?  |  Why Adventure
Adventures to date   |  I did it, but it didn’t work very well   |  How do I know if it is working
Bringing this thinking into your meetings   |  Adventure & Mental Health
Leading by Adventure community   |  Explore Strategic Support options

This week’s adventure: Choosing a side. Then choosing to step into it. If there was one piece of ‘goodness’ you wish you could pass on – how might you do it? An old battered box of small treasure - metaphor for doing small good things

Why take this challenge?

The sense of beginning to re-empower ourselves as a small but distinct ‘force for good’

Developing the skill of passing on wisdom in practical meaningful ways that you know will add to the positive things in the world.

A sense of fulfilment in counterbalancing some of the bad things that are going on all around us.

For evil to triumph, all that is required is that good people do (or say) nothing.

Every day sees someone making the world a bit worse to gain some political or financial benefit. The stories we hear are usually putting someone down somewhere.

If that is all there was, if nobody was doing small things to counterbalance this, everything would get steadily worse. But there is a shared spirituality, a cascade of wisdom and hope, that sort of ‘keeps a light on in the window’.

What might it feel like to actively and deliberately contribute to that?

The old battered box is a metaphor for us. But what is the treasure we hold inside?

+ Green track - taking it in your stride

What’s in the box?

What is it that you think helps keep the World as a place you can see hope in?

Make a list of some of the things that give you hope and contribute to a more optimistic outlook on what might be.

If you struggle to make a good list, then accept that this may be a spiritual skill that it would be worthwhile you continuing to develop – keep the list open until you are happy it represents a worthy argument for hope.

Once you have the list, try and keep it in mind. Put it somewhere safe and revisit it every so often. If you keep it in mind, it will find its own way of leaking into others.

+ Blue track - a bit of a workout (click to open)

What is the box?

Once you have a list of the things that make life worthwhile, and it is hopefully leaking out a bit from you, think about how you might package one item from it in something interesting for others to benefit from.

Possibly the most spiritual packaging could be a poem or a painting.

If that thought puts you off, then we will put it in the red track, and consider some other options: a blog item, a YouTube video, a Linked in article or update, a contribution on our Linkedin group, a frame on your wall, a strapline on your signature.

Think about what you might do to package this thing you believe in to bless, encourage, or equip those around you.

+ Red track - stepping up to bat (click to open)

Being the Box

For many of us, poetry, art and music seem to have some sort of hotline into our spirit. They can do things to our emotions and how we feel without hardly touching the sides of our rational thought.

But equally, for many of us, the last time we tried it was at school. We are embarrassed by our efforts, and the intervening time has done little to make us believe that our skill set has done anything other than atrophy.

But you don’t have to share the result. This red-track is for you and you alone. It isn’t about the result, it is about the process, and the influence that has on us.

So, give it ago. Pick up a pencil, or a brush, or an instrument, and have ago – just start, string things together, give your subconscious free rein enjoy itself. And enjoy yourself in throwing off whatever it is that is holding you back.

After you have finished, feel free to rip up, burn or delete whatever emerges physically. The real product is within you, not outside.

You may find the following resources helpful in tackling your challenge or in gaining further benefits from the skills and insights you develop

Random Acts of Kindness: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/good-news/seven-seas/random-acts-of-kindness

Pay if forward: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay_it_forward

Guidance on sketching: https://www.wikihow.com/Sketch

St Paul writing to the people of Philippi – Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.

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#007 – Using the Third Space

Why take this challenge?

+ Green track - taking it in your stride

A bit like the Third Space

+ Blue track - a bit of a workout (click to open)

Trying the Third Space for Real

+ Red track - stepping up to bat (click to open)

Over to Adam Fraser …

Useful links:

#004 – An old battered box

Why take this challenge?

+ Green track - taking it in your stride

What’s in the box?

+ Blue track - a bit of a workout (click to open)

What is the box?

+ Red track - stepping up to bat (click to open)

Being the Box

Useful links: