The thermostat sets the temperature. The thermometer reacts to the environment, fluctuating up and down.
I use this simple analogy when working with my clients.
If you’re struggling with your team, perhaps it’s conflicting communication styles that impact collaboration, productivity, or culture. Be the thermostat, set the temperature, mode, energy, and conversation instead of being a thermometer fluctuating with whatever the environment offers.
When you’re being the thermostat and influencing the environment rather than reacting, your team will be more likely to rise if you’re the one setting and emulating.
Use curiosity when you’re struggling. Are you a thermometer reacting to your environment and the people around you? Or are you setting the tone, energy, and expectations?
Be the person you want to be in creating a business and a life you want to live. Be the thermostat.
Not doing something requires constant self-control.
When you want to change a behavior or habit, set and focus on a positively framed intention, NOT a negatively framed intention.
Often, when we’re working on changing behavior we want to stop, our attention is focused on what we don’t want – “I need to stop procrastinating” or “I have got to stop overeating.” This requires a significant amount of willpower and self-control.
When I’m working with clients, they can often rattle off a dozen things they don’t want yet struggle with naming precisely what they do want.
Has that ever happened to you? Here’s what I suggest:
Write your list of what you don’t want, and for each one, flip it.
Framing it positively draws you forward towards the change you want.
Your vision is where you’re headed, but your values are what help get you there.
When you’re at a crossroads, if there’s a hard decision that you need to make, leaning into your values, knowing what is most important to you will help you decide. Whether you have an opportunity to take your business in a wonderful direction or if this opportunity is more of a distraction and taking you down a road where you don’t particularly want to wind up, your values will help guide you.
I recommend gaining clarity on three to five values, no more than five. There’s often a lot that might appeal to you, but they can usually go under three to five headers.
And once you have those, really look at how do you emulate those values in your life?
Where are they showing up?
Where were you stepping over them?
And where can you utilize them in creating the life that you want to live and the business that’s going to sustain that life?
I wrote a blog several months ago on values, and I’ll post it below. It has a whole list of values that you can choose from in different ways to gain clarity on them and to be able to implement them into your life.
So, I ask you, do you know your values?
And if you do, I’d love to know what they are if you’re willing to post below.
Your life is being shaped by what you’re saying “YES” to and what you are saying “NO” to.
With each “YES” and “NO,” you are ‘setting in’ the invisible line of boundaries that shape your choices, opportunities, relationships, and, especially, your life.
When you are saying “YES” to one thing, you’re saying “NO” to something else (and vice versa).
There are always tradeoffs when you choose to invest your time and energy in something or someone.
Tradeoffs are an inherent part of life and can be considered positive or negative, depending on your view.
If you choose to get up early in the morning to go for a walk before work, the tradeoff is getting out of your comfy bed before you’re ready so that you can have a healthy body and improved energy.
When you decide to no longer tolerate a lack of respect or attention in your relationship, the tradeoff is having the uncomfortable conversation about where your boundaries lie and what your expectations are so that you can let go of resentment.
If you decide to no longer answer every text or email the moment your phone dings, beeps, or buzzes, you may ruffle a few feathers, but you will be mastering your time and achieving your goals like never before…through establishing your boundaries. And your self-confidence will improve too.
So often, we want to say “YES” to more in our lives without making room for it by saying “NO” to something else. Unfortunately, this leaves us feeling overwhelmed, distracted, and living a life that is out of alignment.
Without boundaries, how do you set in that invisible line that clarifies your expectations, establishes what you will agree to and won’t agree to, and contributes to living a life that YOU want, not what someone else wants, needs, or demands?
Your boundaries will help you shut down your over commitments so you can open up some breathing room.
Sounds good, right?
Here are five tips for establishing Boundaries so that you can lean into the gifts that come from sharing your Invisible Line:
1. Boundaries are About YOU, Not Other People
Boundaries are about what you will do and what you will not do. They are not about telling other people what to do or not do. Boundaries help create the space in your day for the renewal time you need to stay healthy, energetic, and positive (something we ALL need right now). They provide you with time to think, add structure to your day, and the ability to pause and focus on what’s important now.
Boundary Exercise: Identify one limit or boundary you’ve been reluctant to set. Get clear on what you are willing to do and not willing to do in this situation, then schedule a time to share this with the other person.
2. Boundaries are Essential For…
Healthy relationships AND our mental health.
Having boundaries and sticking to them prevents resentment, frustration, and anger. Without boundaries, it’s easy to feel scattered, and it can eat away at healthy relationships with family, friends, co-workers, employees, or even (perhaps especially) with ourselves and our business.
Boundary Insight: Researcher Brene Brown discovered through years of interviews that “the most compassionate people were also the absolutely the most boundaried.”
Think about that the next time you struggle with setting a boundary and feel too harsh.
**Brene’s definition of boundaries is simply, “what’s ok and what’s not ok.”
3. Boundaries Provide
The space to pause and prioritize what YOU want so you can live in your purpose and start saying “NO” without apology.
Boundary Tip: If you’re someone who has difficulty saying “NO,” try saying, “Will you check back with me in a week so I can make sure I have the time on my calendar to do this?” This will give you the space to take a meta-view and see if it’s adding to your life or draining your energy, focus, and joy. If they push you for an answer at that moment, say, “If you need an answer right now, it will have to be no.” That way they are choosing the no and it can feel easier on you.
4. Boundaries and Time & Priority Management
When you’re always accessible to others, you lose valuable time and the ability to live the life YOU want. Again, there’s a tradeoff when making a choice. If you are always giving your time to others, there’s less of your one non-renewable resource, time, for you to focus on the life YOU want.
Boundary Motivation: According to researchers at the University of California, Irvine, “workers are interrupted every 11 minutes–and only resume their interrupted tasks after 25 minutes. By this math, even our interruptions are interrupted, amounting to more than 2.5 hours per day lost to interruptions.”
Improved boundaries will increase productivity and provide more time for what you want in this one big beautiful life. Like weekends off and more time with family…or time for yourself!
5. Knowing Your Boundaries Give You Flexibility
When in a situation where flexibility works best for you, your boundaries can be less defined and more fluid. Yet in circumstances where more discipline and structure are necessary, you might choose to firm up those boundaries.
Boundary Tip: There is no right or wrong way; notice what works for you as well as what doesn’t. If you’ve been easy going and find someone is taking advantage of your flexibility, step back, and ask yourself where you need to step it up on your boundary.
Increasing your boundaries will decrease your stress.
The thing about boundaries, though, is it can be quite stressful to set them. But it’s short-term stress that provides long-term benefits.
While your boundaries are not visible, it is your responsibility to vocalize them. They are what determine your opportunities and trajectory of your life, your relationships, and your success (whatever success is to YOU).
What will you say yes to, and what will you say no to so that you can achieve your goals, dreams, and desires… whatever they may be?
You have the ability so choose. You have the ability to shape your life.
What one boundary, if you implemented it today, would make the most significant impact in your life, love, and legacy?
Today we’re continuing on the conversation of habits. The habit I’m highlighting today is the habit of communication, the way we listen.
How we participate and listen in a conversation impacts how the other person shows up, the information they share with us, as well as the information that we take in.
So often we listen with the intent to be understood rather than listening with
the intent to understand. When we do this, it negatively impacts the conversation as well as our relationships.
The next time you’re in a conversation with someone, perhaps they’re sharing a struggle they’re having, or it could be a celebration, start with the habit of listening to understand what the other person is sharing and why they’re sharing it.
Be intentional about how you want the other person to feel, what you want the outcome of the conversation to be, as well as how you want to feel.
This goes for high-stakes business conversations, communicating with your kids, or participating in a conversation online.
If you find your mind wandering during your next conversation, pause, pivot, and intentionally pull your attention back to the conversation you’re participating in. No need to judge yourself, that just keeps you distracted.
When you listen with the intent to understand, the level of trust and collaboration will naturally increase in your relationships (personal and professional), a win-win for sure.
We’ve all been guilty of listening with the intent to be understood at times. It’s far too easy to hear a comment then let your mind run down a trail of thought, developing the “perfect” rebuttal you’re going to give. From that point on, you miss everything the person is saying.
Hard to build trust and connection, requirements for any healthy relationship, when you don’t hear fully what is being said.
Listening to be understood is a communication habit that’s easy to start, but not always so easy to stop. Being more intentional when connecting with others will help you catch when your mind wanders. The more aware and intentional, the faster the habit change, the better the conversation, the deeper the relationship.
As you lean into this new habit of listening, have some compassionate curiosity for yourself. Let go of judgment so you can approach your new habit with fresh eyes and a new perspective.
Was this helpful for you? I’d love to hear:
What did you try?
What worked for you?
What didn’t work?
What is your biggest takeaway?
Please share in a comment below so everyone can learn from it as well.
