PowerLiving with Kimberlee Langford
PowerLiving with Kimberlee Langford
Harnessing Focus and Creativity for Success - 4 key pillars from Robin Sharma
What if you could achieve greater joy, peace, and fulfillment by simply investing in your own wellness? Join us as we chat with Kimberlee, a multifaceted professional who combines her expertise as a nurse, Reiki master, and certified professional coach to share invaluable insights on kidney health and business development. In this episode, she shares the significance of self-care during tough times, revealing her personal practices like restorative pajama days. She also draws inspiration from Robin Sharma's workshops, discussing the critical importance of investing in key wellness assets, such as energy, to lead a purposeful and joyful life regardless of external challenges.
Kimberlee will break down practical strategies for maintaining intense periods of concentration, such as eliminating distractions and setting boundaries. She also dives into the necessity of fostering creativity for better problem-solving and innovation. The discussion pivots to execution intelligence—highlighting the need for tangible results—and the value of networking up to foster personal and professional growth. Wrapping up, we explore four key principles from Robin Sharma - to navigate life's challenges: protecting your energy, honing your focus, nurturing creativity, and executing your goals. Tune in for an episode that promises to inspire you to believe in yourself and truly relish life's moments.
Hey, hey. So it's Kimberly here with Reiki and Coaching Specialty Care Management. So for those of you who don't know me, or if we haven't met yet, I'm a nurse, I am a Reiki master and a certified professional coach and my passion is kidneys and I do business development with specialty care management, where we really help save employer groups and help brokers, advisors, consultants in the healthcare industry protect their clients from high cost, catastrophic claims. So if you don't know me, if we haven't met, please reach out. I'd love to get to know you. Hi, sandra, I'd love to get to know you. Hi, sandra, I'd love to get to know you and maybe what things in your life you're working on, what struggles are you coming up against, what victories are you having? And I thought I'd share a few things that I caught today. So Saturdays and weekends now are very nourishing for me and our family's been through a lot in the last. Well, it was most families. The last few years, the last couple of years, have been a challenge for all of us, for our family. We've had a lot of change in the last couple of years, and particularly this last month has been quite challenging for our little family. Last month has been quite challenging for our little family. So today was a day of rest, restoration, really refilling my cup and I hope that you are taking some time to refill and replenish yourself on a regular basis. So for me personally, every Sunday is the day I disconnect. You won't find me much on social media or anything like that. I try to completely unplug and really just spend time focusing on and on what is of eternal significance for me personally. For me personally, saturdays are wonderful for catching up and doing projects that I really want to do, that I don't have time to do when I'm in my work mode, and also to refill. So today I'll tell you how luxurious today was. Today I got up and I had breakfast and then I went right back to bed and I think I had three naps. It was glorious. My body obviously needed some rest and some time to catch up.
Speaker 1:Sometimes you may need a pajama day. Pajama days can be luxurious and it doesn't mean that you're not getting any work done. But sometimes, when we spend a day a pajama day, we can really focus in on slowing down. We can really focus in on slowing down and I think sometimes, especially in the day-to-day of kind of the busy lives that we lead. Sometimes we just hustle, hustle, hustle and we're going from one task, one to-do list, to the other, and sometimes what that leaves us with is feeling like we're just. We feel like we're really busy and if you were to look back and you were to report on what kind of an impact you had, or in terms of execution, what did you really do or produce or put into the world? Not really much, right?
Speaker 1:Oftentimes, with the kind of clients that I work with, they're busy professionals, they're executives, and a lot of times, if you talk about, if you talk on a very personal level, they feel very void of significance, and that's really what they want is to be able to feel like they're contributing something of significance for themselves, for their families, for the people that mean the most, for their businesses, for their communities and their industries. And so that doesn't happen by mistake. It's carefully crafted, and you cannot produce significance when you're really busy with trivial pursuits, right? It doesn't happen like that. Really busy with trivial pursuits, right? It doesn't happen like that. Hey Steve, how are you? Oh, my gosh, it's good to see you.
Speaker 1:So I thought I'd share a few things. So I'm getting ready for every fall I do a workshop. It's called the Three Pillars, and the Three Pillars are really all about recrafting yourself on a personal, professional, professional, community level. But anyway, so as I'm preparing for that and really taking some time to restore and rejuvenate for myself, today I had a great workshop with a coach I've been working with. If you're not plugged in with Robin Sharma, he's one of my very favorites. I highly recommend his works. He's got several books out. He does a phenomenal workshop series. His Titan Summit is really fantastic. If you're looking to really 10x your game, whether it's in your professional or personal life, he's one of my favorites to work with. But anyway, so I had a few key tips from him today in this workshop I attended today, and especially in terms of making sure that you're maximizing your wellness, and especially in today.
Speaker 1:Most people I talk to are very heavy hearted. We have a lot of worries about our world right now. I'm not going to get into that right, it doesn't need explanation. We're all kind of wondering how in the heck did we get to where we are? We're all kind of like those frogs in a pot and the pot's now boiling and we didn't just get here. We've been here for a long time and the temperature's been climbing Well. Now we're in a boil.
Speaker 1:So, especially in a time like this, it's super important that you take some time to really um Cocoon yourself so that you can experience. You were created in any time, especially in a time like this, to experience joy, love, happiness, fulfillment, fulfillment there's my own word fulfillment right, generativity and significance. You don't have to wait for the world to right itself for you to experience joy. I want you to feel joy right now, today, and have peace, especially in your own home, in your own surroundings. So here's some principles. These aren't my creations. This is from Robin Sharma. Again, I highly recommend him. So he suggests four assets that you really want to invest in and take time to protect and nourish. One is your energy. I don't know anybody who doesn't want to have more energy. I've been described as a very energetic person, but I gotta tell you I work really hard at it and sometimes it requires a day, like today, where I slept in and then had three naps. My husband made me breakfast. I'm so in love had a massage today.
Speaker 1:If you're not getting regular massages, I highly encourage it. If money is tight, that doesn't necessarily mean you have to go somewhere. You have massage schools tight. That doesn't necessarily mean you have to go somewhere. You have massage schools in your area. They offer fantastic massages at low cost. I can't do that anymore because my school here in my neighborhood is fantastic, but then they work on Sundays for students and I don't do that kind of stuff on Sundays. But it doesn't mean that you can't, in a family setting or with a spouse or a loved one or a friend, trade massages. Right, maybe you didn't go to massage school, but you can absolutely work with a trusted loved one to help massage out kinks. Loving, healing, soothing touch is very beneficial for a lot of levels. There's therapeutic massage, there's lymphatic massage. Healing touch with the intention of making somebody else feel better is very healthy for you. So if you're not getting regular massages, I highly encourage it. Robin Sharma advocates a two massage week protocol per week. I don't do that. I do a once a month massage and, of course, in my Reiki office I regularly practice Reiki for myself and others. So in terms of energy, those kinds of nourishing activities there's training involved.
Speaker 1:To maintain a high level of energy involves obviously, obviously, things like we talked about massage. It involves exercising and it doesn't have to be anything crazy. Maybe it means a personal trainer. Maybe it means a free video on YouTube. Maybe it means doing calisthenics or something. Maybe it means gentle movement that's easy on joints If you have painful parts of your body. Your body's talking to you and it's telling you what you need Movement is good for you.
Speaker 1:He also talks about working six days, taking a day off. Right, so that's typically. I work six days. I give my employer a good five or six days and I usually have one day where I work on my own private business. But make sure that when you take a day off, you're really taking a day off, meaning you're unplugging, you're not checking into social media or email or anything like that. You're really taking time off Watching your environment. We talk about energy. It's really hard to maintain a high level of energy.
Speaker 1:If your home or your office, if your work environment, if your personal private space, your home should be a sanctuary. If it's cluttered with stuff just stuff, and no empty spaces, or if it doesn't have a spacious, comfortable feeling, I would make that your first order of business. Your home and your office should be. Your home should be a relaxing sanctuary for yourself and your friends, whatever that means like for you, for me it means cleanliness. I'm not anal or anything like that, but I like my home to be clean. I don't like walking on food. I have teenagers and we make them eat at the table on a plate for a reason, right. But there's simple things, and having an uncluttered environment is going to. If you're taking care of your house, if you're a housekeeper, it really cuts down on your housekeeping time. I don't spend a whole lot of time cleaning house, but my house is clean because we don't have a lot of clutter.
Speaker 1:Super important If you're holding on to stuff that you rarely touch or that doesn't bring you joy, if you have to move things to get to things, that's a clue that you might want to donate some things, give some things away, throw it away whatever. So your environment is really important, and your office as well. Your office should be a place that helps you protect your creativity and your genius so that you can put forth your best work, you're not distracted, making sure that you have work that matters. If you don't have work that matters, then learn how to reframe it. So, matter of fact, rick, I'm going to use Rick, my hubby. Sometimes he would ask him what he did, he would say what would you use to say? I asked him.
Speaker 1:If you asked him to describe, tell me about your work? He'd say I deny people's benefits. I deny people's benefits. He does not I fraud them. He does not. He helps people. Be honest. He helps people find access to the benefits that they are entitled to. That's a beautiful thing. He helps people at a time when they're most vulnerable. And that's how I put that right. So you could say I take out the trash. Maybe you're a sanitation worker, I take out the trash. Or you're a sanitation worker, I take out the trash. Or you could say you make your community a beautiful place, hi, elaine. You make it a beautiful, safe place that other people can enjoy and be healthy in Totally different energy.
Speaker 1:So when you talk about energy as we're talking about this first asset, having work that matters, either framing it in a way that you can find significance, or moving and finding work that's significant to you. That's really important. And people, I'm sure you can all relate. Some people in your life are you've heard the term energy vampires, right? When you spend some time with them and you leave and you just, oh, you feel drained, right, those aren't people you want to spend a lot of time with. Other people you spend time with and you think, oh my gosh, I can do something great with my life. You feel uplifted and edified. You feel enriched because of the time that you spent with him. Obviously, I'm thinking about my husband, because he's that for me. Aww, really, be careful when it comes to energy. Guarding who you spend your time with is really important. You don't have to be rude about it. You can be very careful about who you spend your time with so that you can maintain remember we're talking about investing in your energy and protecting your energy very important Focus is the second aspect.
Speaker 1:We talked about energy Focus. Focus, I think, is today's superpower. Rabin Sharma talks a lot about how many of us are living in this high anxiety, high fear state and we tend to drown that out in retail or TV or apps or social media or whatever it is. Distractions, right, or we sit down to work and we spend a lot of time doing emails that really aren't anything significant, versus really taking time to focus and take advantage of periods of he calls monomaniacal focus, and I think this is today's superpower being able to focus on what you're doing, on who you're with, and really give that all your attention. You can get so much more done. When you talk to people who get a lot done in a short amount of time, it's because they've developed right, they have invested and protected their ability to focus. This takes training and practice. It also takes efforts putting in some guardrails to make sure that you're limiting distractions One of the things that you'll see.
Speaker 1:I have an Apple Watch. I love my Apple Watch. I rarely use it when I work because of the notifications and I really want to make sure I'm in charge of my ability to focus. I don't need I'm pretty active on LinkedIn and social media on purpose, but if I have this going off, turn off your notifications. You still use your Apple Watch, but turn it off. Doggone it.
Speaker 1:God made voicemail for a reason, unless it's an emergency, unless it's a child. So when I was a home health nurse or working in the hospital and I was waiting for a doctor to call me back, I answered the phone like that On my car I had on the speed dial or the thing on your wheel, your hands-free phone, because when a doctor called me back, I needed to answer. It didn't matter what I was doing. I could have my hands in a body cavity and that's why I had my Apple watch, so I could get the phone for the doctor. I'm not that important anymore, all right. So most of us aren't that important. Most of us don't need to answer every phone call, especially if you're a busy executive, if you're a CEO, if you're president of a company and you're the one who's the real agent for vision and where your company's going. You cannot be disturbed by insignificant notifications. And that doesn't mean that people's needs aren't important, right, but we have to have a way to turn off some of those pinging so that we can have undistracted time to focus.
Speaker 1:And the third aspect is creativity. And the third aspect is creativity Making sure that we're allowing he talks about allowing us to step into our own audacious artistry In anything you do. It's not just arts and crafts kind of stuff. Creativity has to do with allowing for your genius to emerge. People who are creative are fantastic problem solvers. They can come up with creative solutions. They can help others in creative ways. They're coming up with fresh ideas. This is really important to really allow yourself the time and space and the environment for you to be creative and come up with good ideas. And the fourth area he talks about is your execution intelligence People who are very productive. They're not busy being busy. They're productive because they get results. They get things done and at the end of the day, that's what matters.
Speaker 1:What did you produce? What did you put into the world as a parent? What did you produce? What did you execute on that made a difference for your children or your family Right In sales? What did you produce? Doesn't matter how nice you are, how popular you are, what you know, how many emails you send out right? What did you produce? What did you bring in right? So execution intelligence is really important. How do you get ideas done? That might mean attending events that help you learn and grow and master your craft.
Speaker 1:Maybe joining a mastermind Doesn't have to be one. There are a lot of masterminds people spend a lot of money on. You don't have to pay a dime. I'm involved in a couple of masterminds and we don't pay anything. They are purposefully crafted with people I highly respect and admire. We get together and share ideas for living and work.
Speaker 1:Masterminds networking up. Networking up means if you're in the business or if you're in a desire to grow, then that means you don't hang out with people who are where you are. You're hanging out with people who are where you want to be Doesn't mean that they're better than you. It means they're farther along the path than you. And what happens? When you choose to spend more time with people who are a little ahead of the game than you, you're going to up your game right. You should not be the smartest person in the room. If you're struggling and maybe you set goals for yourself that you're not hitting, that's not a bad thing. It means you probably upped your game and you need to make sure that you're surrounding yourself with people, like-minded people, who can help you hit that right. We become like the people we spend time with. We become like the environments we spend time with.
Speaker 1:I thought these were fantastic ideas, and especially for today, where we really have a lot of challenges, a lot of threats, a lot of uncertainty, a lot of anxiety. If you can take these four principles making sure that you're taking time to invest and protect in your energy, your ability to focus your creativity and your execution right, your ability to execute on what you say you want to do this is going to help you experience joy, fulfillment, peace and satisfaction in your life, no matter what's going on around you. I believe in you guys a squillion percent. I really hope you take time for yourself this weekend and enjoy the rest of it. Bye friends.