🥁 The OffBeat #78: Lead Sheet | Leadership Digest
Something to read, something to think about, something else
This is The OffBeat, from jazz drummer, two-decade marketing leader, and mom of two Allison Stadd: music-inspired answers for your leadership challenges, like identifying the “drum rudiments” of your professional life.
Lead Sheet is The OffBeat’s every-other-week roundup of links, recs, and quotes. Like a lead sheet in music (just the essentials: melody, harmony, lyrics), it always has something to read, something to think about, and something else—all within the themes of leadership cues from music, cultural curiosity, and personal/professional balance.
What would have to be true? ()
The internet we have, and the one we want (The Atlantic)
How to get an enthusiastic yes ()
Google is now the East India Company of the Internet ()
10 money rules (IG)
Employees are prioritizing work-life balance ahead of their salaries (Inc)
The secret behind inspiration (Tobias van Schneider)
“You can drive yourself crazy thinking about different things you could have done in the past. But sometimes I think, actually, I didn’t have that much power over my life anyway. I mean, I couldn’t give myself a new personality out of nothing.” — Sally Rooney, Intermezzo
I recently told a mentee that I “refuse to not have it all” when it comes to balancing a high-powered career with being a mom. Every person who has caretaking responsibilities and works outside the home has their own version of how they balance it all; some combination of professional help, “village,” or other scotch-taped-together mechanism to fend off a slow descent into insanity.
The fulcrum upon which my own personal/professional balance rests is a constant negotiation with myself on what “all” means. In this current season, two of my onetime-priorities I’ve bumped out of the “all” definition are TV (I watch *maybe* 30 minutes a night, a few nights a week) and anything-beyond-the-bare-minimum exercise (I do a single 10-15-minute Melissa Wood Health video most days, try to walk my older son to school in the morning when it’s not arctic out, and that’s it).
There will be a season in the future where one or both of these pursuits—keeping up with all the au courant TV shows, taking multiple weekly workout classes—will slide back onto my main radar screen.
Until then, I enjoy contemplating alternative, unusual ways to “work out” both my brain and body—a few below:
30-minute “noticing” workout (via
): walk around, pay attention, take picturesColor walks and shape walks (via
): paying attention to specific colors or shapes as you roam15-minutes-a-day observation journaling: record everything you notice, including “the people, sounds, smells, noises, and screens”
Silent walking: unplug, move, and clear your mind
Micro-meditations: take two-minute pauses throughout the day to focus on one sensory detail (the temperature of your coffee, the texture of your clothing)
For double the reading recommendations, including why every home needs a “house meal,” and how 70% is actually better than 100%, plus some things to listen to / watch, keep reading.