I chose the city for a couple of reasons.
👩🏻 I’ve been coming here since I was in high school. I’m familiar with the subway and how to get around.
👩🏻 Enough folks speak English. It’s not a barrier to entry.
👩🏻 It’s a city, I can walk everywhere. I don’t need a car.
You don’t have to go all the way to Paris to change your environment to get your goal. Here are 3 things you could do today:
🔵 Remove distractions. Inside of the white space I’ve created here in Paris, it would be very easy for me to replicate the schedule I have at home. Gym. Work. Home. TV. The worst thing I could do is go back the same person I was before I came here.
I have a notebook, pen, phone, and computer. I picked an apartment with a sunny space and big desk. Peonies sit in a 1 liter water carafe on my desk. That’s it. No TV. No friends inviting me to this or that. No treats in the fridge calling my name.
I looked around the rooms where I spend the most time at home and realized its riddled with distractions. What behavior does this space encourage? Certainly not deep focus. Or innovation. I thought critically about how I could set up things to make my good habits easier.
A month in Paris was it.
What distractions could you remove now?
🔵 Cut down on decision fatigue. My boyfriend jokes that I spend weeks packing for trips. See, we wake up each morning with a reserve tank of will power. That will power gets depleted over the course of the day. (It’s why folks cheat on a diet at dinner time.) If I’m seeking a big goal, the last thing I need is to waste energy on a menial task such as “deciding what to wear.” By systemizing and optimizing my wardrobe, I removed decision making around clothing choices. I’m now using my mind for big decisions, coming up with new ideas for my business, forging the curriculum for my Mastermind in 2024.
What decisions are sucking up unnecessary bandwidth in your life and could be systematized or optimized?
🔵 Make a decision. Today, I woke up feeling restless. I don’t love that I’m tethered to my desk, working. I’m in Paris for god’s sake. I read that French women visit podologues regularly to take care of their feet [Article here: https://shorturl.at/elq02]. I decided to change contexts. I’m 6 hours ahead of New York. Folks start emailing at 2pm my time. I had the morning. I grabbed my notebook, walked over to a pedicure place in my neighborhood, and saddled up into the chair.
I outlined 5 blog posts in 1 hour.
Sitting at GlossUp.
It all started with a decision and a change of environment. Where could you go for a change of context today?
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I head up a women’s leadership platform. Next, I’m heading to Turkey. Want to go on a one week sail of the Turkish coast August 12-19th with other women leaders? Fill out this form https://lnkd.in/eZ2smwya
