I’ve noticed that most people are unwilling to believe that things can change quickly. During times of prosperity, we tend to assume that they will continue indefinitely. Conversely, when facing difficulties or obstacles, we tend to believe that they will persist indefinitely.

But change often happens quickly and when we least expect it.

What does that look like? 

About 6 months ago, my partner and I were looking for a new place to move into in Salt Lake. We had viewed a dozen places and what we found was depressing. 

Most of the places in our budget were just alright. They ran the gambit between too small and in a good part of town or bigger but in a part of town we didn’t like that much. 

Some of the places were scary and yet somehow still quite expensive. We were about to give up and renew our Airbnb for another month, when I found a newly listed place with amazing views of the Salt Lake Valley. The owner wanted responsible renters and was willing to make a decision quickly. 

Later that day we went and looked at the place, and within 24 hours had signed the lease. Just like that everything shifted. We went from hopeless and discouraged, to excited and happy.  

And that’s how quickly change can happen. 

• You’re alone and wish you had a partner, then you meet someone incredible at a party. 
• You hate the way your meetings are going then you change the format and it’s like everything is in flow. 
• You can’t think of anything to write about and then you respond to an email and you get a great idea for a post. (This one is autobiographical and happening right now 😉)

Things can change quickly. 

The question is, are you open to that? 

• Are you open to the possibility of things changing swiftly? 
• Are you willing to let things change fast? 
• Are you ready to be flexible when change presents itself? 

To be a successful leader, creator, or entrepreneur, it’s important to be open to sudden changes and actively seek ways to adapt. If you’re resistant to the possibility of sudden change, you may feel like your problems are insurmountable and your work is constantly challenging.

I once did a call with a client where he wanted to talk about signing a prenup. He was getting married again for the 2nd time and felt conflicted. Some people were telling him signing a prenup was a MUST-DO! and others said that signing one would doom his marriage to failure. 

As we explored the question a reframe came into view. 

What if a prenup was just a way to let his best self make choices for his worst self? 

Right now, he and his partner were deeply in love, generous, and open. Hopefully, it would stay that way, but what if one-day things shifted? 

What if the relationship struggled or changed and they fell out of love? 

If that happened they would both be full of grief and maybe even anger and frustration. Would they make the best choice on what was fair as they parted ways? Or would emotion and lawyers take over and turn a painful situation into something even worse? 

By choosing how to separate today from this loving place, they would be prepared should the worse arrive. 

From this perspective he began to see how signing a prenup could be a generous and loving act for both of them. 

Too often we think that planning is about defense or protection. But often knowing how things will fall apart and deciding how we want to handle that in advance can be a powerful practice. 

You can use this thinking to plan for 

• Business partnerships that go south
• Hires that don’t work out well
• Choosing what do to when you’re very tired or worn out
• Planning for moments of trigger or upset

It’s not that you can plan and sort out everything in advance. It’s simply that you can consider how to allow your best self to choose for a version of you that may not be fully ready for all the feelings and challenges that show up when life gets hard. 

Relationships make up a big part of our experiences in life, but we rarely really address if a relationship is serving us or not. 

If we hire someone to do a job, we often assess whether or not they are performing up to our expectations. If they don’t we intervene. We offer more training, we communicate our desires more clearly, and we start to track their progress, but we rarely bring this kind of intention and clarity to our relationships. 

Am I satisfied with the depth of this connection? 
Does this relationship feel how I want it to feel? 
What do I even want to get and create in relationship? 

As a result, we tend to hold onto old relationships out of convenience and comfort and fail to invest in new relationships out of a fear of being uncomfortable or an uncertainty about how to deepen our connections. 

So what if we began to look at relationships and consider how we could improve them, deepen them, and create connections that give us the kind of deep satisfaction, challenge, and enjoyment we most crave? 

Love,
Toku

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This morning I woke up and found myself lying in bed scrolling through Instagram. I’m not supposed to do that. I’m a powerful coach, a deep spiritual practitioner, a human being on purpose, but that’s what I was doing.

Each year I take most of December off and I enjoy these slow mornings where I can do my practice or watch TV. Work on a new book idea or simply read one for hours in bed. I love my Decembers and yet, each January when it comes time to return to work, I don’t feel like doing anything for about a week.

I don’t feel like checking my email, starting a new project, exercising, or getting on client calls. My body feels like an object in perfect stillness at the center of a frozen universe. It doesn’t want to move, think, or put in effort in any way.

This is where I found myself this morning. Knowing that with a few clicks, I could continue my marathon of The Office, or lose myself in shopping for a valentine’s day gift, or just look at pictures of other people doing stuff.

And when I find myself here I have found a few ways to get myself out.

STEP 1 – Get out of bed.

I can literally go anywhere else in the place I’m staying. The kitchen, the bathroom, the couch in the living room. Just the simple act of getting out of bed moves my energy. It takes me from horizontal to vertical, from inert to active. It can feel like a hard step (even though logically you may think it shouldn’t be hard) but getting out of bed really helps.

STEP 2 – Make the bed

I know, super lame. But making a bed reduces the chances you are going to get back into it. And it invokes your adult mind. Your day matters. Your bed matters. You are preparing your bed for when you will meet it again tonight. At the end of the day you’ll look at your bed and remember that you love yourself. You have set the stage for sleep.

Sleep that will happen later. Not now. Because now there is a day.

STEP 3 – Drink Something (not alcohol)

Water, tea, coffee, juice, it doesn’t matter, but you get bonus points for preparing something to drink. Drinking is a ritual. I spend 10 – 20 mins making coffee every morning. I hand grind beans. I measure water. Yes I’m a bit of a snob about coffee, but this ritual makes a difference to me.

I am preparing something for myself. I am preparing myself for the day. Plus it’s a simple and embodied activity. It is NOT on a screen. It is in the physical world. I boil water, measure beans, time the brew. All of these things are here in this world, where your life is.

STEP 4 – Do something that turns on your mind and/or body

Either one of these works. I mean both are better. But the key is to read something that turns on your mind or do something that turns on your mind or body.

If you’re going to read, pick a devotional, or maybe something on meditation. Bonus points if the chapters are short and inspiring. Anything by Pema Chodron* is great. Or Zen Mind Beginner’s Mind*. The Book of Awakening* is Dope. I even wrote a devotional for coaches, which you can pre-order right now.

Just read something that makes you think. Not the news. Not Facebook. Probably not even a blog post. Something that invites your mind into a deeper experience of yourself.

Same with exercise. It doesn’t have to be intense. Yoga, tai chi, gentle stretching. I love the stuff put out by Gold Medal Bodies. But just move, for 10-15 mins. Anything is better than nothing.

You are invoking engagement through movement. You are creating momentum which can carry you into the day.

STEP 5 – Write or draw something

Do morning pages or write a post about not wanting to do anything. Or just journal for 5-10 mins. Both exercise and reading have a quality of receiving. This is why you need to move very gently into creating.

You don’t have to write or draw anything good. Crap is fine. Maybe even better. The point is to shift. From laying to standing. From mental space to physical space. From preparing to moving. And then from receiving to creating.

So create something. Anything. It can be small. I write little poems sometimes.

The dog upstairs
barks with a low and yearning tone
I hear her
calling for the woods
through the plate glass window
that separates her
from the wild and the past

It’s probably not a great poem. It doesn’t matter. I created it. Now I am creating.

STEP 6 – Begin your day

You’re ready now. You’ve warmed up. You are already doing something. And now that you’re doing something you can do something else.

You could review your tasks for the day, you could work on the hardest one, you could answer your email. Whatever it is. You can more easily move from doing to doing.

And what if you get stuck?

Now you have 5 things you can try to get back on track.

1. Stand up
2. Prepare something for later
3. Drink something
4. Move or read
5. Create something

As I move throughout my day I use these simple tasks as a way to bring myself back. Back from the land on inertia and indifference.

You were not made to lay about. You were made to give your gifts to the world.

All it takes is a small reset to remember.

*This article contains affiliate links which means I may make a small commission if you use the link to purchase.

Inspiring leaders are known for keeping a positive attitude in hard times.

Winston Churchill inspired the british people with radio addresses and speeches during the worst parts of WWII.

FDR encouraged a nation in tatters with his fireside chats during the great depression.

How do they do it? How do leaders, in the face of incredible challenges, remain optimistic and engaged with their work?

Let’s look at some of the key ways leaders find hope in the midst of turmoil:

What are you committed to?

“People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.” -Mother Teresa

Great leaders center their lives around great commitments. Commitments that exist beyond the conditions they find themselves in.

These are not reasonable commitments, they are commitments beyond reason. Mother Teresa worked with some of the most disadvantaged people in the world, but her commitment to serve, to elevate, and to love was deeply inspiring.

Many of us have commitments that only exist in the moment. We’re committed to loving so long as they love us back, we’re committed to writing so long as we feel inspired, we’re committed to voting so long as the candidate completely aligns with all of our views.

Great leaders get rid of the “so long as”. They are their commitments. They stay committed beyond where other people would stop. This kind of commitment creates its own hope and optimism because it’s the strength of the commitment that matters, not the results of the moment.

How humble are you willing to be?

“For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit.” -Ira Glass

Great leaders are willing to be wrong, to learn, to grow, and to find new ways to succeed.

Many of us are full of pride in who we are or were as leaders. This pride exists until we read the edge of our capabilities. When you hit that edge you are humbled by what you don’t know, what you can’t do, and who you have yet to become.

If you allow yourself to be humbled you can pass through the gate and continue down the path.

If you refuse the call, you go back to where things felt safe and often become cynical about anything beyond what you currently see is possible.

Great leaders are willing to be humbled in order to go forward. They understand that humility in the face of adversity is not defeat, it’s the doorway to victory.

Are willing to accept what is?

When my master and I were walking in the rain, he would say, ‘Do not walk so fast, the rain is everywhere.’ -Shunryu Suzuki

Great leaders don’t exist in a state of denial or fantastic thinking, they accept what is, and work from there.

Many of us would simply like to forget that the world is on fire. This is true even if the world at large is on fire or if it’s just our personal world that’s burning. Your desire for things to be ok, or ‘normal’ can override your willingness to see things as they are. This denial can lead you to numb out on fantasy, distractions, or even anger that the world is not how it should be.

From this denial, it’s hard to do anything. How can you act on a world you’re not even living in?

Great leaders don’t hide the truth from themselves. While they may paint a picture of possibility for others or even put their faith in an inspiring vision of the world, they start where they are right now. They choose the world as it is, people as they are, and life as it exists as the foundation to build hope on. This radical acceptance grants them an integrity that makes optimism possible.

The SuperHuman Illusion of Leadership

Most people when faced with adversity complain or avoid the challenge of the moment. Great leaders choose to take on the moment, which can create an illusion that they are superhuman.

But they aren’t, and you don’t have to be either.

Leadership is mostly a choice. A choice to find something you’re willing to commit to beyond reason, a choice to be humbled by the growth being offered to you, a choice to accept what is and begin with step one.

The world doesn’t need any more false superheroes. The world needs leaders and people who decide the problem is theirs — even if they didn’t cause it, don’t know how to solve it, and aren’t sure it’s even possible to make a difference.

Optimism isn’t some magic spell you cast, it’s simply a way of relating to the world, something which has to be renewed again and again. You can start now, you can make the choice to lead.

I hope that’s what you choose.