Writing

How Do You Decide What Book to Read Next?

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

I’m the kind of person that always wants to add more books to the pile. More from Amazon, more from the library, more from the shared local bookshelf across the street in front of the coffee shop. How do I decide how many books to read this week? Which one? Help! I can’t decide! This is torture!

If I could read every (good) book ever made, I would.

In fact, I used to look forward to summer because the local library held a summer reading competition and I would try to read as many books as possible before the summer was out.

Gosh, I love books!

But, time has a way of limiting us, and I want quality over quantity.

Recently I stumbled on a great way of choosing which book to read next.

In 2017, I decided to keep a public list of every book I read and share my top 2-3 recommendations in my newsletter each month. I committed to reading more books by women, so at least half of all the books I’ll read this year will be by women. (I’m also tracking the number of books I read by people of color.)

I know that I want to read good books to recommend, and that I’ll probably have time for 2-4 books each month.

Simply by knowing that I’m writing down a list of all the books I’ve read has made me more discerning in which ones I pick up.

If this year’s reading list only has 24 books on it, which books will make the cut?

By limiting myself to two books, I’ve become more savoring of which ones to read. Sometimes having an edge increases the quality. When you choose what your boundaries are before you begin, sometimes the results are better.

And when you force yourself to decide—even if the constraints are arbitrary—deciding has power to it.

What books have you read this summer?

PS: here are my summer reading list recommendations.

A 4-Step Guided Framework for Journaling and Gaining Immediate Clarity

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

How I used Think Clearly’s Clarity Cards to inspire wisdom and peace at the end of my pregnancy. I wrote this out when I was eight months pregnant, and it helped tremendously.

Writing things down helps me understand things better.

As a nine-month pregnant lady living on stitched-together patches of sleep, planning for new motherhood, and wrapping up my many projects in startup land, finding time to write (and write coherently) is becoming an increasing struggle.

Suffice it to say, my book writing has gone a little bit haywire.

Instead, I journal as often as I could, whenever I can.

Sometimes it’s at 3 AM in the morning if the baby kicks me awake (or gives me one of those yelp-inducing punches to the bladder), sometimes it’s late at night to get me to go to sleep, and more often than not, it comes out in scribble notes in my iPhone while on the way in and out of the city on Manhattan’s clunky old C-train.

Pregnancy is both never-ending, and over so suddenly, so I want to write about it and capture it while I can.

(And if you’re only having one or two kids, you’re only pregnant for so long: and then you’re not. Maybe ever again.)

I want to understand it. I want to catalog it. I want to explain it, tell the stories of pregnancy.

Yet understanding pregnancy and being pregnant are so monumental. What does it mean? How does it feel? Who am I, and how is that changing?

So I used the Clarity Cards to spend 12 minutes journaling about pregnancy, and surprised myself with how quickly I charted out thoughtful ideas, insights, and clear perspectives on being pregnant.

A guided framework for journaling and gaining clarity

The deck of cards was surprisingly simple to use.

It walks you through four steps.

For each step, you take 2–3 minutes to write down as much as you can. You can go longer if you’d like, or keep it short and simple. The first step is the simplest, and by getting your pen onto paper quickly, it makes the process easier. Much like Julia Cameron writes about in The Artist’s Way, just getting pen on paper and making a list can be an extraordinary way to dive into your mind.

Here’s how I did it:

Prep: Grab some pages to write on.

I have a Moleskine I love using, and so I cleared fresh sheets and got out a teal blue pen to write with, because that sounded like fun. Make sure you’re not distracted (I prefer a Moleskine or loose paper on a desk without any other items on it — no computer, phone, or other distractions. Yes, take off your Apple Watch!). Have a timer ready.

Next: Choose a topic or area of focus.

Choose a topic or a subject. I suppose you could just let something tumble out, or try to define a problem. For my sake, and as the example in this essay, I chose “Pregnancy” as the topic, because I was struggling to understand it, and these prompts helped me unpack it.

I then stacked the four sets of cards out face-down in front of me in four piles, and started a timer.

Step 1: The Facts

The first set of prompts is related to “the facts.” I pulled my first card, and it simply said, “What are the facts?”

I began by making a simple list.

I am pregnant. I have swollen and sore feet. I am doing Mathias’ Clarity Cards. I’m in the 9th month. I weight X pounds… (and more, but I won’t tell you all the details right now).

I pulled another card and continued listing. The prompts said things like “What is going on?” and “What is happening?”

My observations: It was easy to begin with a simple list of what the facts are. Even just the act of writing “I am pregnant” somehow makes it seem more real. I know, of course, that I’ve got a watermelon belly and I’m waddling around the city peeing at every coffee shop I can find, but still — it helps to list out all of the pieces of this puzzle, no matter how obvious.

The act of list-making can be profoundly useful as an instrument for getting inside of your own mind and beginning the process of journaling. Never underestimate the power of making lists.

Step 2: Feelings

The second set of prompts asks you to write down how you feel about the situation. Prompts included questions like “What gives you energy?” and “What are you sad about?” and other guided questions to help you understand how you feel about the situation.

Again, I spent a quick 2–3 minutes on the next clean page in my Moleskine journal to jot down as much as I could. I spent about a minute per card and wrote whatever came to mind first.

Observations: It was wonderful to parse out facts versus feelings. It’s one thing to be pregnant (fact), and it’s a completely separate thing to have a set of feelings about it (excited! happy! scared! kind of in shock!). My list included things like “I feel like a beached whale,” and “My stomach is really tender in the center,” and “I feel much more vulnerable and in need of protection than my normal, ambitious, athletic self.” It went from physical feelings to deeper emotional layers, like “I feel like my identity is transforming,” and “there are parts of me that are changing so quickly, it’s hard to get used to.”

It can be difficult to separate out feelings and facts, and this was an easy way to do it. In addition, the act of taking time to focus just on feelings let a lot of them tumble out. If you’re not used to talking about your feelings, having a guided set of cards prompt you through it can help you find awareness.

Step 3: Insights

The third set of questions asks you to probe a bit further. What are you learning, deducing, and understanding? How are you interpreting these facts and feelings? What insights have you gained? This step takes you from observation to analysis.

I stumbled a bit here, because the first question was “What insights have you gained?” and I felt myself think dismissively, “Um, none.”

So I began this third step the way the whole process began, which was: simply.

My first insight? “Drinking a lot of water helps the headaches go away.”

From there, it became easier to write out insights, and because I was writing quickly, it was almost startling how fast I dug into deeper insights. Once I started, it was like they were ready to come tumbling out of me. “Rest yourself as often as you recharge your iPhone, if not more,” and “It’s your own learning process and your own journey, unique to you,” and “Take time to reconcile external readings and advice with your own internal wisdom,” all made it onto my list of insights about the experience of pregnancy.

Yes, this.

Gosh I felt smarter just writing it down. Nodding my head. It was like the wisdom was there all along, but I hadn’t had a clear way of seeing it.

Intuitively, I know that each of these things are true, but the act of writing them down made them stronger, more powerful. They reminded me how important they are. They clarified, for me, what insights I have at my fingertips, if I’m willing to sit for a few minutes and record, reflect, and listen.

Step 4: Actions

The fourth and final section is about creating a set of actions that you’re going to take. What can you do with what you’ve observed, noticed, and felt? What steps can you take next?

At first, I was confounded. What “actions” do I take with “pregnancy”? There was a list I could draw up quickly, like “pack your hospital bag, set up an email auto-reply, stock your freezer with food,” but those seemed like just another list of tasks and errands. I could make a to-do list in my sleep; how could I apply this more broadly to a reflective session focused on the holistic concept of “pregnancy” and everything that it entailed?

Then the ideas that came forward seemed both obvious and silly. I wrote them down:

Decisions to be made:
— It’s okay for the baby to come.
— We are ready.
— This will be great.
— We can handle this.

What am I going to do?
— Give birth.
— Become a mom.
— Work hard during labor and delivery!
— Rest fully and recover well.

What is the next step?
— Rest. Allow. Enjoy. Be.

And Exhale.

The power of putting words to paper continues to astound me. Twelve minutes of writing and journaling later, and there’s a renewed sense of calm about the transition that’s coming up ahead of us.

Recognizing that then, at the end of my pregnancy, I was getting ready to meet my little boy and bring him into the world — this makes me tear up. And it’s okay. The next things to do are to be here, in the moment. And to decide: decide that it’s okay, that we’re ready, and that it’s time. And to rest, allowing the process to unfold. I have a bit of work ahead of me as I achieve the physical feat of pushing a new human out into the big world ahead, and I think it’s going to be great. I can’t wait.

My Fall Mastermind is Open for Applications

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

My Mastermind & Mentoring program will return this Fall. You must apply by August 18th to be considered for the early decision deadline. The latest possible day to apply is September 5th if you’d like to be in the Fall cohort.

Apply by August 18th for the early decision deadline.

We’ll work together from Sept 18th —January 12th, 2018.  The program is a little more than 3 months long and requires a dedication to expanding yourself, your business, and your mind. It costs $3500.00

The pilot program of the virtual mastermind launched in the Fall of 2016, with a group of incredible people, including a social impact CEO, a PhD poet, an independent architect, a global nomad, a google software engineer, and more. To date, I’ve hosted five different groups of ambitious, extraordinary people: authors, technologists, startup co-founders, and young entrepreneurs in the process of personal transformation.

If you’re at a time in your life when dedicated focus and an outside advisory board will help you level up to the next level in your personal and professional life, I strongly encourage you to apply.

Fill our your application for the Mastermind here.

Early decision applications are due by August 18th, and I’ll be begin interviewing candidates August 22nd. The very last deadline to apply is September 5th. 

Here’s what a few people have written and said about the program:

“My biggest “A-ha” moment was that we need others. None of us can do it alone. It made me realize how much of a bubble I’ve been living in. I knew the Mastermind was what I needed, but I had no idea how fulfilling it would be.” — Shannon Callarman, Content Director at Red Caffeine Marketing & Technology

“This mastermind is a group of people with diverse, dynamic skills and experiences who come together with a shared investment in digging in deep to goals, ideas and ways to be even better at what we do. It is a structured with workshops, one-on-ones, journaling, calls, meet-ups, rituals and exercises that will help you think bigger, inspire you to reach out for help and consider new ways of being and doing that are YOU x 1000.”— Jessica Ashley, Content Strategist and Creator, Founder of Single Mom Nation

“If you can come to the group with even a vague description of what you’re struggling with or where you want to get to, the group will help you get to the root of your goals and break down that problem into tangible pieces. Once made conscious, you can then work systematically to tackle these various pieces and make serious progress towards achieving your goals.”— Patrick, Robotics and Engineering Consultant

Who is it for?

“I loved the diversity of people who shared the same values of motivation, growth and learning. It totally exceeded my expectations! This is a structured Mastermind with the opportunity to meet other high-quality, motivated people, dig deep into your questions via deep dives and make progress on your goals.” — Diana Jaunzeikare, Software Engineer, Google

“With two very young kids, I came into the Mastermind knowing that spending time with family was a top priority for me, but uncertain how to balance this desire with my love for tech startups and being part of big things. The biggest “aha” moment occurred when I took an objective look at my schedule and figured out how much I can work without sacrificing other aspects of my life. Given this framework of thoughts and constraints, I could then look to design a career that I’m passionate with inherent firewalls to protect against overwork.” — Patrick, Robotics and Engineering Consultant

“The experience of going through the mastermind with you and our crew was incredible. It left me feeling inspired, supported, poised, and empowered to take action to make my dream of running my own business a reality! I learned concrete tools and ideas from you and my peers in the group and felt truly held and heard in all of our interactions. Thank you for creating this space for our group to gather.” — Gretchen, Senior Planner, San Francisco

“The Mastermind is perfect for highly driven individuals looking to build a trustworthy and dependable tribe to help them move forward. It’s for the type of person who not only is willing to ask for help, but also willing to show up and be there for others 100%. The Mastermind is perfect for both introverts and extroverts — the only requirement is deep curiosity.”— Shannon Callarman, Content Director at Red Caffeine Marketing & Technology

“This mastermind is perfect for seekers, for people who work for themselves or have their own businesses, or who feel called to break away from the pack. It is perfect for those who have personal or professional ideas that feel exciting but overwhelming, or who crave community and accountability, who need some structure and support in making something amazing come to life.” — Jessica Ashley, Content Strategist and Creator, Founder of Single Mom Nation

Not sure yet but curious about what it is?

I have a series of emails explaining how it works. Get the free Mastermind email series here. But don’t forget to apply if you’re genuinely interested in the program.

Do You Have Your Own Personal Board of Advisors?

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

I didn’t realize I needed a personal board of advisors until things got pretty rough.

I was stuck, trying to do everything myself, trying to learn faster and stay up later to make it work.

Then, one summer when I was running too many programs all at once, I finally caved and hired teaching assistants for my writing workshops. I can’t believe I didn’t do that sooner.

One of my early students, Emma, reached out and said she wanted to help with a teaching assistant position I had. She was incredible. She, in fact, was the one that taught me about the need for a “personal advisory board.” It became a phrase that stuck with me.

(If you’ve been following my work since the beginning, you might remember when I taught my first 30-person digital writing workshops. I’m still following and in touch with so many of the writers from those groups!)

Now if you’re running a company or a startup, of course you’d invite the best of the best to be on your Advisory Board to help you think through sticky puzzles and challenge moments.

Why not have the same thing, but for your own life?

Hence, the personal advisory board: your crew of people that you call on for brainstorming, business advice, and sound listening.

In this post, I want to tell you about ways you can build your own circle of trusted friends and colleagues, why joining or starting a mastermind is so important, and why people are so foundational to both your personal and business health.

In your own life, what work are you doing to build your own personal board of advisors?

After working together with Emma for several cycles of the writer’s workshop, I remember the phone call where we giggled and said, “look, we work together, but we’re also clearly friends. This has become something even better.”

Fast forward several years, many trips, a retreat in Tahoe, randomly meeting in the same airport in small-town Kentucky, and hundreds of messages later.

One night, I’m sitting in the bath, taking a soak, trying to relax after a long day with the family and the business. It’s one way I try to get my head to turn off. I’m reading, of course, her recently published book. She’d sent me a bound copy of her poetry collection. At the end of the book is an inscription and a note:

“SKP — you chair my personal board of advisors.” 

It’s moments like these that make me cry.

We’d spent so much time in the ring, figuring out, discussing, learning, philosophizing. Wondering about what to do in the stuck moments, and how to untangle ourselves from the insatiable urge to try to do everything.

Having people to call on is one of the soundest investments you can make in your life.

Whose advisory board do you sit on? Whose life are you invested in? Who have you invited into your life to chair your own advisory board?

Building your own mentorship circle, or trusted peers, can be a challenge to do. Whose feedback do you trust? Who do you invite in? Not everyone’s feedback is equal. In fact, unsolicited feedback at the wrong time can really sink a project or make you question something when it’s not the right time to be questioning. Developing a circle you trust is an art form.

One of the things I teach in the Mastermind is how to build a circle you can trust. It’s not something that happens by accident.

Inviting people into your personal and professional life takes dedication and work. But you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. In the Mastermind, I teach:

  • How to create a container and set an intention for a group.
  • How to structure your time together with your group.
  • Key methods to listen effectively and listen well—asking deep questions that provide additional insight.
  • Why most “advice” is not only useful, but can be harmful to the process (and what to do instead).

By the end of the Mastermind, you can take everything you’ve learned and apply it across your life—I have had several people tell me afterwards that “they run Deep Dives for their lives,” using them in relationships, partnerships, and business to great success.

It is a lot of work to create a personal board of advisors, but, if you want to — you can build one on your own. You can also selectively join one that already exists, and adopt the structure for your own long after the program ends.

The Mastermind I run takes a ton of the organizational and logistical work out of it. I’m your facilitator, your guide, your organizer, your accountability buddy, your mentor. I make the structure so you can find resonance and meaning within it. The edges of this framework help to sharpen you and accelerate your work.

Now, I don’t have a patent on creating masterminds — so if this is something you need, you are more than capable of building it yourself and figuring out how to make it happen in your life.

Bring together a group of 4-6 dedicated people to meet monthly. Commit to journeying together and asking insightful questions. Put each other in the “hot seat,” and listen to someone explain a sticky challenge they have. Do it for at least six months.

Apply to join my Mastermind.

8 tips to building your own personal board of advisors:

  1. Take it seriously. Create a one-page manifesto or description of what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Invite people in and ask them if they want something like this in their life. (Heck, you can forward this email and say to your friends, “want to build something like this?”).
  2. Keep the group small enough to manage, but with enough voices to get multiple opinions when you need it. 4-5 is a great size, but it can range anywhere from 3 to 10.
  3. Decide how often you’ll show up for each other and what that will look like. Monthly? By email? By text?
  4. Decide who is doing the organizing. Planning, organizing, and logistics take a lot of work. Consider rotating the cap every quarter so that everyone contributes. In most of the Masterminds I’ve been in, usually it works best if one person is the facilitator.
  5. Set intentions and a time frame: for example, you might do 6 total meetings over the course of 6 months and evaluate what happens.
  6. “Try on” a structure for a few months, and then step back and evaluate what works.
  7. Give it time. Great things take time. Adjust what isn’t working and fix it to make it better.
  8. Call it if it’s not working. Sometimes it’s not the right group or the right mix of people. If you start one and it doesn’t work, mix it up a bit and try again. Be straightforward and let people know your intention to end the group or change it.

Invest in meeting new people on a regular basis: 3 strategies

There are several ways to invest in meeting new people:

  • Reach out and write to people you admire. Follow their blogs, send them an encouraging note, or chime in on Twitter. I’ve met lots of people on Twitter, including one of my best friends (and business confidants)
  • Go to conferences or events where the people you want to hang out with spend time. One conference ticket might seem pricey, until you realize that you can meet a dozen people all at once and form new connections and ongoing conversations with other brilliant people.
  • Create meet-ups or projects where you can invite people to participate. Start your own group and invite people you admire to join you! It can be a small one-time meetup, a virtual hangout, or a more dedicated monthly circle that meets on a regular basis.

Will you spend all your time on work, or on building connections with people that matter?

The world of work is changing faster than ever.

Jobs that were stable for decades are disappearing, and skills we didn’t know about 20 years ago are the most important thing you need to know today. Skills we didn’t know about two years ago are needed today. There’s a lot of uncertainty about what’s going to change again in the next five, ten, and fifteen years.

One thing that will always matter is who you’re connected to. Our strong ties and our weak ties are some of the greatest predictors of our future success.

Yet time and time again I see people investing in courses or materials, but not in connections with other people.

What’s the value of a great connection in your life? Someone who connects you to new people, ideas, thoughts, and jobs? What small effort would it take to formalize the connections you have with other people, to meet regularly?

What could your life look like with your own Personal Board of Advisors?

A book or a course might run you a couple hundred dollars. A new set of friends… is there any way to put a price on that?

The Writer’s Workshop Live & Small-Group Writing Circle

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

September 13th, 2017 — November 15th, 2017

This Fall, for the first time in three years, I’m teaching a live (still digital, but live via the Internet) gathering of The Writer’s Workshop. We’ll come together for eight weeks to practice writing and work through four key modules. The power of a writing group and live calls are designed to help you become better at writing, storytelling, and crafting content. And as a bonus: you’ll be assigned working groups to meet other writing friends in small, peer-to-peer writing circles.

The LIVE course also includes a writing circles, live discussion calls, and if you choose (see options below), an opportunity for 1:1 feedback on your writing and essays.

**Early decision closes August 18th, 2017.**
**Regular registration closes September 8th, 2017.**
Class begins September 13th, 2017.

Four writing modules, eight writing assignments:

We’ll work together through eight weeks of writing exercises, two assignments per module. Every week, you’ll get a lesson to read, an assignment to practice, and a bundle of extra resources to dive deeper on the topic of the week. The goal is to write one new assignment each week.

These are the four core modules:

  • Imagination: Unlock your creative potential through key exercises in visualization, imagination, and association. Learn how to get un-stuck, how to start writing, and how to tap into your inner creative. (2 lessons, 2 writing exercises.)
  • Storytelling: Learn three frameworks for great storytelling from the experts–from Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey to Nancy Duartes’ structures on resonance. Learn how to use each of these frameworks to create messaging that’s relatable, sticky, and moving.(2 lessons, 2 writing exercises.)
  • Craft & Content: Learn how to create story frameworks for blogging, how to write a standout introduction (and thank-you note!), and the art of asking for what you want. Get four customizable templates for everyday communication–never have to build an email from scratch again. (2 lessons, 2 writing exercises.)
  • Language: Learn how to use language to persuade, influence, and inspire others. (2 lessons, 2 writing exercises.)

After each module, we’ll meet for a live call (4 total):

After each module, we’ll come together for a live Q/A discussion call to talk about our writing progress, reflect on the assignments, share our work, and answer any questions you might have. The calls will be recorded and available for the duration of the course.

  • Live Call #1: Friday, September 29th at 1PM Eastern
  • Live Call #1: Friday, October 13th at 1PM Eastern
  • Live Call #1: Friday, October 27th at 1PM Eastern
  • Live Call #1: Friday, November 10th at 1PM Eastern

Small group writing circles:

You will be placed in a small group writing circle during the course, to meet and go deeper with fellow writers. I’ll guide you in the best practices for how to engage with your small group, when to meet, and the format to follow in your small group.

Each module, for example, you’ll read an excerpt of your piece out loud to the group.

Suggested times for the small group writing circle: Every other Friday, at 1PM (so that you block off eight continuous Fridays at 1PM for your writing group, alternating live calls with small-group sessions). Of course, you can re-schedule these with your group as needed.

The Writer’s Workshop Live! — $599

This small-group virtual/digital writing group will be capped at 30 people. Regular registration closes September 8th, 2017. Limited spaces available.

Early Decision: Register by August 18th for $100 off the program price — $499. Click here to register.

The Writer’s Workshop Live PLUS 1:1 Coaching — $999

Want to go deeper with your writing practice? Register for the Live Writer’s Workshop with personalized writing coaching—and get additional coaching and feedback on your writing. In addition to the live course, live calls, and small-group writing circle, you’ll also get:

  • Two (2) 1:1 coaching calls with Sarah to chat about your writing practice, and
  • Personalized writing feedback on two (2) of your essays during the eight-week course.
  • Only 6 spaces available.

Early Decision: Register by August 18th for $100 off the program price — $899. Click here to register.

Suffering from Burnout? How to Know When to Rest or Push

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

Earlier, I wrote about the 20 Mile March. Today I want to expand on that idea. There is one small hiccup in that analogy that usually trips people up: how do you know when you should push, and when you’re in burnout and deeply in need of a break?

Does your life plan account for enough rest?

Rest is important. Rest is actually what we spend MOST of our time doing, believe it or not.

Even for endurance athletes and for extreme sports, they spend more of their time resting than pushing. Even if you’re an extreme athlete, working out and training for 6 to 10 hours a day, you’re not in training mode the remainder of the day, anywhere from 14 to 18 hours.

We think, at times, that a 20 Mile March means we have to be hustling and pushing and “always on.”

We don’t always spend as much time thinking about all that other time that is equally important. (Even if you’re walking 20 miles a day, at 3 miles per hour, you’re only walking 6.5 hours per day.)

The problem lies in how we think about rest and recovery.

Without adequate rest, we’re headed towards burnout.

Rest is not waste. Rest is actually quite active.

In the times we aren’t walking, marching, or making our work happen, what are we doing? Here’s some of what a well-rested life includes:

Sleep

Sleep is not a thing that you can successfully skip. You might be able to push through a certain number of years in your younger life, but most people pay the price for this decision.

Sleep is a time when we recover, when our cells map out what happened during the day. There are massive amounts of brain activity that happen when we close our eyes. We provide the foundation for insight and work when we get enough sleep — not the reverse.

Yet so often we think about sleep as something that will happen after we reach a certain point. What if it’s the reverse? What if enough sleep will lead to better breakthroughs?

(For more on this, read this extensive and useful article by Scientific American on why our brains need downtime.)

Active rest

In sports, there’s a concept called “active rest” and it’s the space between pushing on a repetition and completely collapsing on the couch underneath a pile of nachos. This is: Stepping away from your computer for a brain break during the day. Listening to music or closing your eyes for a 5-minute rest to recharge. Saying no and carving out space for recovery and rest. Taking a walking meeting.

(Hint: catching up on all the blogs and news or reading email might not be active rest.)

Active recovery

Recovery isn’t something that happens by chance. We are always preparing ourselves and our bodies for the next round of work, and recovering from the past round of work. How we sleep, how we eat, how we hydrate, how we limber up, and how we pay attention all matters for our next round of work. This means: choosing activities that refresh and refuel us. Noticing what drains us or what activities are correlated with “off” days.

Preparing ourselves and our bodies

We are constantly preparing and readying ourselves for the next moment. Elite athletes and star performers have strategies and plans that work for them, for a reason. This means: How much time do you spend linking what you do in your down time to how you perform during your on time?

Should you keep going? How to decide your next actions:

So what about today, right now? How do you know what to do next? How can you discern if you’ve put in your 20 miles, and you need to rest, or if you really need to put in more effort?

Let’s first assume that you’re not burned out, but you need a plan of action. Then, what you’ll do is take the next 20 Miles and break them into pieces.

1. Ask yourself: what’s the next step?

How can you build in a small amount of forward momentum without going too big?

On the days when you’re feeling foggy or slow, when you’re wondering if you should be pushing harder, or you’re not sure what to do—this is the time to steady the pace. Find a rhythm and a march that works. Plot out a course that is even. Line up activities that are small wins that don’t take a pile of energy.

2. Make the pieces smaller, but still take steps

For me, as one example, the idea of “writing a book” can be a terrifying construct. In order to keep putting a foot forward, I have to break things into microscopic bits. Then, when I’m having one of those days where the idea of writing a book is too overwhelming to think about, I’ll open up the queue and just do the next few tasks:

  • Research the next 5 people to interview
  • Edit and revise 3 pages
  • Read through the notes from my editor
  • Write a free-flow of a few paragraphs to get the ideas loose for the next chapter.

20 Miles doesn’t have to feel arduous and complicated. 20 Miles can be done by walking a leisurely pace in the morning for three hours, taking a significant portion of the day to rest, and doing an afternoon walk for 2 hours, followed by an evening walk for an hour.

Bonus tip: At the last startup where I worked, we used a tag called @easy and @10m in our project management software for any tasks that were easy to complete and quick. Then, on days when you need to slow down or stay steady, we’d just hit that pile of work.

3. Focus on Active Rest

Find the sweet spot where you don’t stop completely, but you ALSO don’t burn out by trying to caffeinate, push, and get into “beast mode” just to make it through the day. A clue is: if you’re going for an extra coffee, you might actually need to slow it down a bit and leave work early, instead.

But, there’s one other thing to consider. And this is when the above isn’t working, or a succession of days starts to feel sloggy with no end in sight. If that’s true, there are two possibilities:

4. You might need to adjust your goals.

If you’re feeling perpetually sloggy and burned, perhaps you’ve accidentally constructed a “60 Mile March” or a “100 Mile March” and the pace you’ve set doesn’t provide enough space for rest or recovery.

Personally, I’ve tried many times to set out on a 60-Mile March pace and realized that 14-hour days of writing is not sustainable.

The solution: adjust your plan to create a true 20-Mile March. One that doesn’t take more than 6 hours per day, maximum (and if you hustled on a great day, you could be done in 4 hours). A plan that allows for a very slow day that still accomplishes those 20 miles. Ask yourself:

On the worst day of the last few months, would I still be able to accomplish 20 miles?

That’s your pace.

But there’s one more thought to consider:

5. You might need more deep rest

Sometimes, especially in this culture, people are burned out.

You’ll know that you’re more than just sloggy if you’re feeling like you: (1) can’t hardly make it out of bed in the morning, (2) you’re getting sick, (3) you’re angry or mad or some other pent-up emotion, or (4) you can’t find a way to make yourself care anymore.

These are red-flag signals of burnout — and that you need a break, more than anything else.

There have been entire seasons in my life where the focus of the quarter is getting the minimum done, sleeping a ton, and saying no to things. Life is full of stretches when we need to rest and recover.

True rest, however, lets our brains and our minds and bodies melt down and reboot. This might mean that you take a day to binge-watch television _OR_ it might mean that you need to make some more active steps in your rest and recover:

  • Journaling
  • Taking time away from your job or work
  • Booking a massage or bodywork
  • Taking a bath, going for a soak, trying a float
  • Going away for a weekend
  • Spending quality time with friends
  • Letting the calendar or the agenda go to the wayside
  • Saying no when we’d regularly say yes (or vice versa)

It feels uncomfortable to do things differently than we’ve done them before. Things might come up that chase us back to our bad habits. Things might come up.

Where are you in your journey?

As you contemplate your journey and your 20 Mile March that you’re on, remember that this is about the long game: you’re setting up systems for health, for purpose, for your life.

You’re designing a life that takes you where you want to go, that’s steady, that’s consistent, that has purpose, that has direction.

Along the way, you’re cutting back and trimming out anything that doesn’t work for you. You’re experimenting and iterating.

And, you’ll learn when to push and when to rest.

Use the metaphor of the 20-Mile March to find a way to move forward every day.

Some 20 mile days might be a lot of uphill hiking, and some days might be filled with glorious views and vistas. Others might feel easy and light. And some days might feel sloggy and slow. We don’t stop just because one day feels off.

And other days you might get up and do the walking you need to do, slow and steady, and when you’re done walking in the early afternoon, you’ll rest, sleep, recover, and enjoy the rest of the day, because you’re not pushing further or faster or harder—you’re making progress, bit by bit.

Summer Reading List

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

There’s not much I like more than curling up with a good book and being swept away into a story or deep into a new set of ideas. This year, I’m tracking everything I read on my reading list, and making sure that half the list is made up of books by women. Now, midway through the year, I thought I’d share some book highlights and recommendations from my reading list.

Memoir Recommendations

Between The World And Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates. A series of letters from a father to his young son. Simply outstanding.

Sex Object, by Jessica Valenti. Heartbreaking memoir. At times distinctly uncomfortable but important to read. I wish these stories women told weren’t true. I wish more of my men friends read these books and understood.

When Breath Becomes Air, by Paul Kalanithi. A talented neurosurgeon who studies language, mortality, and brain science is suddenly diagnosed with lung cancer. This is the book he writes in the final year of his life. I started sobbing at several points in the book—moving.

Poser: My Life in 23 Poses, by Clare Dederer. A memoir inspired by a woman who takes to yoga and documents how her journey into learning more about yoga (fastidiously and then, obsessively) transforms her own life. Now, my one major beef with this book is that it was actually 28 chapters long, not 23, as billed. Because she did Child’s Pose four different times. I suppose… that makes sense.

Hillbilly Elegy, by J.D. Vance. Another brilliant memoir of what it’s like to grow up in the poverty-stricken hills of Appalachia. Reminded me of the plight of so many in America, and how many perspectives there are throughout this country.

Roots: The Saga of An American Family, by Alex Haley. Incredible, long read about the ancestry and history of a family ripped from his homeland and brought into the markets of the new world slavery.

Fiction + Fun Recommendations

The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood. Now turned into a television series inspired by the book, I had to read the book first. A creepy, dystopian novel where birth rates plummet and women are forced out of work, and then into service in a strange, big-brother-is-watching-you world. It left a pit in my stomach, and I’m still thinking about it (as well as Station 11, another fiction book that won’t leave my mind).

Bleaker House, by Nell Stevens. Strangely slow, yet still a page-turner. Debut novel from an MFA graduate who wins a travel fellowship to go anywhere in the world and write. She chooses Bleaker Island, and holes herself away for several weeks to attempt to write her novel on the coldest, darkest, loneliest place on earth. Parts of the writing moved quickly (the “Twosies,” as it were), and the introspective bits were slower and less captivating. Overall, enjoyed the book as a pleasant fiction read.

Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling. Full disclosure: this book was hilarious, and I devoured it. Mindy’s sense of comedic timing and wit comes through in every page of her writing, and I love her ability to be real while also self-deprecating (in the best way). Fully enjoyed this one. Easy to read.

Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel. A graphic novel with twists and turns about dreams, psychoanalysis, therapy, and the relationship we have with our parents.

Connected Community + Living a Great Life Recommendations

The New Better Off, by Courtney Martin. What does it mean to live a good life? And why are we still all blindly chasing after “The American Dream”? In her examination of what really matters to most of us, she uncovers how ritual, community, and meaning can be formed in ways both unexpected and everyday. This book puts words to so much that I too have been thinking about.

Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights, by Katha Pollitt. This incredible book is about how the word “abortion” has been used to shame and silence women, and how the right to choose when (and if) to have children is one of the most important choices a woman can make in her decisions about her life. If the word makes you uncomfortable, it might be worth examining why—and where, exactly, that shame has come from. Abortions have been around for as long as 5,000 years, they’ve been legal in many countries for 40+ years, and they only recently have been given a stigma and shame—for what purpose? To what end? Fascinating read.

Playing Big, Leveling Up Recommendations

Playing Big, by Tara Sophia Mohr. This month is all about re-reading a few classics, for me. The books that you buy on kindle and on paperback, and sometimes buy an additional paper copy of because you highlight it and use it so frequently. Every time I level up in my business and my work, and expand into the edges of my comfort zones, I re-read Tara’s notes on the different ways we feel fear, and remind myself that “playing big” comes with it a special, delicious, different kind of fear. The good one.

Body of Work, by Pamela Slim. In a world of work that can feel disjointed and disconnected, how do you find the thread that connects your story together? Pam was one of my first business coaches and taught me to see my multiple threads of employment as “projects” within a larger portfolio of work.

The Big Leap, by Gay Hendricks. If you’ve heard of the idea of “Upper Limit Problems,” or the concept of transcending from working in your Zone of Excellence to your Zone of Genius, this is the book those ideas are from. Reading this again opened my eyes to a lot of ways in which I’m staying stuck in my “good” areas of working and not shifting into the areas where I’m truly phenomenal.

The Subtle Art of Not Giving A Fuck, by Mark Manson. Filled with profanity in a somewhat delightful way, Mark Manson takes some of his best writing and puts it together in a book to talk about deeper philosophical and psychological necessities for building a great life. Ironically, it’s not the aspirations of greatness that make us the most satisfied, but the simpler elements: connecting to each other, showing up for the daily routine, and putting in the work. In a subtle paradox, he shows how letting go actually creates greater freedom and happiness.

Captivate. I found out about the nerd of nerds, Vanessa Van Edwards, by listening to Jenny Blake’s podcast, Pivot, and devoured the entire episode. It’s behavior science meets research meets interpersonal psychology, and I’m loving it.

 

The Coaching Habit, by Michael Bungay Stanier. The book outlines seven key questions we can use to insert coaching strategies into our work as managers and leaders, in less than ten minutes a day. The art of asking great questions is such a critical skill, and I’ve noticed that we don’t seem to take enough time to dive deeply into the asking of questions to find the shape of the puzzle. Often, we leap headfirst into advice mode and leave the listener feeling steamrolled, rather than helped. I’d buy a copy of this book for everyone.

A Look Inside My Writing Habits

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

Are you optimizing your writing habits?

We have a limited amount of attention, bandwidth, and energy. There are only so many “hacks” we can take before it’s going to become ever more important to cull the flow of information and set up systems that let us optimize for our strengths and internal design.

My writing and publishing is best done on a system that allows me to have some freedom, but within a structure. When I have a structure that I no longer have to think about when or why I’m writing, I’m then free to write without spending time wondering when I’ll actually do the writing.

What is a writing frame?

Frames are incredible important for both my own practice as well as for connecting to other people. A writing frame is a pattern or schedule that you stick to in your habit or practice. Some examples of writing frames are: publishing a new blog post every Monday at 10am, writing a monthly newsletter on the first of every month, or writing every weekday at 7am.

Podcasts, television shows, and great newsletters use these schedules to stay consistent. They also use them to communicate to the subscriber, reader, or viewer (you) when new content will arrive.

Think about the newsletters that you read. Do you appreciate ones that are regular and consistent? If it’s something you’re a fan of, you might be a regular reader: you know when your latest episodes of Silicon Valley go live, and when new episodes of your favorite podcast are released.

I’ve written previously about the 20 Mile March and why it’s so useful as a set-up for getting things done. Today I want to share how I’ve broken down my writing structure and why the frames are so helpful for me.

These are my personal writing frames:

A weekly blog, delivered every Monday at 10AM.

I publish a weekly blog at sarahkpeck.com/writing, every Monday at 10AM. (The newsletter ships at 10AM, but the post is scheduled to go live by 6AM Eastern time.)

I try to maintain a queue of posts that are ready to go for at least six weeks in advance, so I’m not operating at last minute. (This doesn’t always work out, but I do my best.) When I need a break, I follow the likes of Paul Jarvis and James Clear and announce that I’m taking a monthly break (this often happens in August for a summer sabbatical and in December/January, when most people are on winter holiday).

In the past, I committed to writing once per week, but I never committed to a specific date or time. This year, I’m increasing the rigidity of the structure by adding a day and a time to it.

Every Monday at 10AM, there’s a new post.

It’s my goal with this to get into a regular habit with my readers to deliver great essays right at the top of the week, when we’re primed to take action and set ourselves up for success.

A monthly newsletter, delivered on the 1st of every month.

On the first of every month, I write a popular newsletter that’s a round-up post linking back to all of the writing I’ve created, the best blog posts, and the newest offerings. I include a monthly writing practice, a review of best books I’d recommend, and links to the best articles I’ve read and think were worth sharing.

One of the things that’s important in my practice of writing a monthly newsletter is curating and culling. Finding ways to set up a structure and add limits allows me to reach for higher-quality work.

The structure of my newsletter is loosely based on the following:

  • A short opening essay (usually personal in nature)
  • A quiz or a question (”what should I teach or write next?”)
  • A round-up of top 4 posts, visually with links
  • Monthly journal practice
  • Book recommendations of the month
  • Quote of the month
  • Best of the web: top 10 links that are worth putting in your reading queue
  • Accountability: a tracker of my yearly goals and how I’m doing with them (books, meditation, exercise, and learning)

Here’s an example of a past newsletter that follows the structure above.

Daily, public journal.

Sometimes I just need a free place to write, free-form, to work through ideas. I’ve used this Tumblr at sarahkathleenpeck.tumblr.com for years as a place to house ideas, show my process, and write out new pieces.

Sometimes you’ll see an overlap as an idea develops here, and then moves to my more formal blog. Sometimes I take years off (see: having a baby in 2016), and then return to the writing practice time and time again. This frame is more of a house, or a home, and a place I know where I can always go to write. It’s not guided by a specific time but it’s a house all the same: it’s a place I can go write when I need to write in a flurry.

The components of a great frame:

Every time we reduce the amount of thinking we’re doing about the thing we want to actually be doing, we create more space to be doing what we wanted to do in the first place. Frames create a particular quality of freedom by removing the number of times you have to make a decision about how you’re going to behave in the future.

A work schedule is a frame, for example. When you’re committed to working between the hours of 10am and 5pm, that’s a specific pattern and your behaviors fall in line accordingly. (How you decide to spend the late evenings, when you get coffee, what you wear, etc, are all influenced by the work frame.)

A habit pattern or frame consists of the following:

  • A rhythm or a pattern tied to a specific recurring day or date.
  • A frequency (daily, weekly, etc) or total quantity (I will do this 100 times)
  • A specific time
  • A place where you do the work, and show up to do the work
  • A clear, actionable, specific (SMART) way to measure whether or not you’ve succeeded.

A writing frame that’s every Monday at a specific time (10AM), delivered via WordPress (my online home), publishing via blog and email, and looks like a published, live, blog post is a frame that works for me.

Past frames I’ve given up:

I’ve tried on other frames, like daily blogging, and that hasn’t worked for me successfully. I’ve tried publishing more frequently, and that erodes my available time for other things (like book writing, or running my Mastermind, for example).

What structures do you use to set yourself up for success? How do you plan out and map your own writing or creative practice?

One of my favorite things about the word “practice,” is that it reminds us that all we have to do is keep practicing. If we can optimize for making space to practice, with weekly rituals and reminders, then we’ll be doing the work.

Because doing the work is what matters more than almost anything else.

How will you set up your own frames for success?

The Marketing Seminar

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

I don’t often stop to exclaim loudly how much I like something – but I need to stop and share how much I love a course that I’m currently taking.

I’m in the middle of taking a 100-day marketing seminar taught by Seth Godin, one of the Direct Marketing Hall of Fame inductees and one of the world’s greatest marketers.

His course is a collection of videos — 50 in all — that range from a few minutes to 15 minutes long. Every other day, I watch a video, sometimes two or three times, and I write out an essay in response to the assignment.

The latest video, on storytelling, shifted how I think about stories and how we tell stories.

What does it take to become a great marketer in today’s world?

That’s the subject of the seminar, and the videos take you through world views, understanding the psychographics of your audience, defining the change you want to make in your work and in your audience, how to create trust, how to get people talking about you and your work, what it takes to truly make a difference, how to tell great stories, and why this matters more than what tactics or specific strategy you focus on in the end.

Honestly, I could go through the entire series every day for 365 days and watch each video dozens of time and still get new ideas from it.

And they’ve done a tremendous job on the community forum in Discourse: students write thousands of posts and engage with each other in discussing each of the ideas, applying them to their businesses, and connecting over a deeper understanding of what it means to truly be an empathetic marketer.

The summer session starts July 26th.

The 20 Mile March

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

What does it take to be great?

In the book Good to Great, Jim Collins and his team of researchers study how some companies rise to greatness and uncover a key strategy: the 20 Mile March. They asked the question, “Why do some companies thrive in uncertainty, even chaos, and others do not?”

They analyzed companies that were 10x better than the competition, and, across all the data, realized that they had something in common.

First, imagine, for a second, that you’ve got two teams walking across America.

The first team takes the strategy of walking 40-50 miles on the good days, and resting in between.

The second team decides to walk 20 miles every day, rain or shine, injuries or no injury.

Which team wins?

Consistent, methodical actions take you further.

The team — and the companies, and the individuals — that set up consistent, methodical, repeated actions go further. They go 10x further, in fact. The “20 Mile March” became a clear differentiator between those teams that flounder or stay where they are, and the ones that rise to greatness.

The person that crosses the finish line on a big goal or dream is the person that takes consistent action, with clear performance markers, on actions that are largely within your control.

In the book, there are seven elements of a good march, and those include:

  • Clear performance markers,
  • Self-imposed constraints,
  • Appropriateness to you (or the company),
  • largely within your control,
  • Proper timeframe,
  • Designed by the individual, and
  • Achieved with high consistency.

In my work with people in my private Mastermind, we do a three-month program where people put together a monthly goal, with self-imposed constraints, over a short enough time horizon to get feedback and learn.

Now is the time to learn.

In your own practice, what is your 20 Mile March?

For me, a weekly writing habit has been the cadre, or structure, or frame that has unlocked so much more. When I show up to write, it’s not a question of when I’ll write, or how much: it’s already pre-determined that I will write.

I’ll write {this much} at {this frequency} on {these specific days}.

What’s your recipe?

The trick to a 20-Mile March is to make it something you can do repeatedly, on a consistent pattern. Often, in my personal life, I’ll try to tackle a 60-mile march and then get frustrated when I’m tired a few weeks later and (sometimes literally) can’t get up out of bed because my muscles are too sore. A 20-Mile March is something you could do every day, easily, for a year.

Some ideas of 20-Mile Marches:

  • Writing a daily, short, free-form blog on Tumblr (here’s mine; I write a log whenever I need space to free-form think out loud)
  • Writing a weekly blog (this blog posts every Monday at 10am)
  • Writing a monthly newsletter on the 1st of every month (if you’re on my list, you’ll get the newsletter).
  • Doing a yoga practice 3 times per week
  • Simplifying to do a 5-minute yoga practice every morning
  • Emailing one new person every day for a year.
  • Weightlifting twice weekly for a year.

A 20-Mile March does not have to be a daily practice. But it does have to be a practice, and one that you dedicate to a specific time, place, and duration. The compound interest of showing up to practice with regularity is the work of mastery, and the work of moving mountains. Inch by inch, with steady practice, we become something new.

So, I’ll ask you all some of the questions I ask my Mastermind folks in our one-on-one session:

  • Are you taking clear and consistent action? Are you learning each month and building upon what you’ve learned?
  • What’s working?
  • What systems do you have in front of you?
  • What still needs to change?
  • How can you change strategies and tactics to keep showing up, piece by piece, to carve away at your dream?

PS: If you’re looking for an amazing seminar on marketing, persuasion, and creating change, I’m currently taking the inaugural session of The Marketing Seminar with Seth Godin. It’s beyond incredible; I’m likely going to take it again. The latest round of the seminar just opened for registration, July 10, 2017. Push the purple button and get a discount on the 30-day summer session.