Guest Contributor for My L.A. Lifestyle At a barbecue the other night, a new acquaintance was telling me that she had the hardest time staying motivated to do her job. She’s a single mom raising two teenagers, so she needs her steady income. But to feed her spirit, she has a robust side-business teaching children to play instruments. Essentially, she’s working two jobs. The job that has her feeling like she’s really engaged, where she really loses herself in the activity of her work? Teaching music. Is it exhausting to do this and her regular job? Yes. But in an energized, fulfilling way that comes with knowing she’s made a difference. “It’s instant gratification,” she tells me. “I can see how these children develop and learn in one lesson, not to mention what they’ve learned by the time they perform at the recital,” she says, laughing. Her energy is up,… Read More
Daisy Swan & Associates
Dreaming In Color
Guest Contributor for My L.A. Lifestyle I love to bake. Pies, in particular. I often do this while listening to NPR on KCRW. So when I had learned that Evan Kleiman of the noteworthy KCRW show, “Good Food”, was teaching a class on pies at The Gourmandise School in Santa Monica, I signed up immediately. I’ve made a lot of pies, but I’m self-taught. To learn from Evan — well, you can imagine (or maybe have experienced) the thrill of just standing next to someone who’s an idol (say, Kobe or Derek Jeter, Hillary Clinton or Annie Lebowitz) — it’s a kick and well, a moment. Evan owned and ran her restaurant, Angeli Caffe, for about 27 years and made the hard decision to close it last winter. I’ve listened to scores of interviews that Evan’s done on her KCRW show and have always appreciated her straightforward conversational style, the inside scoop on the… Read More
You Can Get It If You Really Want…
Daisy Swan – Career Coach Guest Contributor for My L.A. Lifestyle It’s true. Jimmy Cliff sang it, so it must be true. You really can get what you want. The trick is, as the song goes, “…you must try, try and try, try and try.” Sometimes, I think the tougher issue is that you must know what you want. We tend to want so much, and yet don’t seem to stop and really consider what it is that we really want. Perhaps it’s out of fear, not inspiration, that we want what we want. And if it’s just lusting for something – craving something – it can feel kind of empty, and fear-based, like a greediness instead of a fullness and inspiration. Feeling a sense of yearning can show us what we want. Taking time to reflect and listen when we are open and clear, can… Read More
Listen for Truth, Find the Time
Daisy Swan, new guest contributor to LA Yoga Magazine! Read her first article in the July/August 2012 issue… When I look at my life, what do I want (and need) to learn that will enrich my experience of my work? What will add to my personal and professional growth and vitality? I meet people all the time who are tired, exhausted really, by the work they do. They are putting in too many hours at the office or the studio; answering emails and texts has become part of family dinners, school drop-off, and even yoga class. So much so that we’ve all come to recognize the intrusion of these electronic demands in our romantic and family lives. People are running on empty, sucked into a sense of choicelessness so they don’t know — and simply can’t imagine — what needs to be done to make satisfactory… Read More
How Big Is Your Bubble?
Daisy Swan – Career Coach Guest Contributor for My L.A. Lifestyle I’ve been thinking a lot about innovation and creativity. For years, actually. Most of the people I work with want to be creative in their work – or more creative, in fact, since many people I work with already are pretty creative. Seems like most of us feel really satisfied when we generate something unique, different, new, and which solves a problem in an elegant way. And getting paid and recognized for that, makes it even better. (No kidding.) But what helps us to be creative? When I started reading Jonah Lehrer’s book “Imagine: How Creativity Works,” I felt like I hit pay dirt. I’d like this book to be required reading for folks in business, the fine and commercial arts, high schools, the sciences…there are so many useful nuggets in this book that we could… Read More
With Tough Times to Enter The Job Market…We Get It
It’s so important to know you aren’t alone in your frustration and disappointment when you’re starting out your career (or ever for that matter). Don’t go it alone. Get together with friends to brainstorm ideas, keep your energy up by doing things you love, and volunteer! Great ideas come from unsuspected places. Read the whole article here… Read More
When Bad Jobs Happen to Good People
Daisy Swan – Career Coach Guest Contributor for My L.A. Lifestyle Boy do I hear a lot about the lousy jobs that people have. It’s my job of course, my career – and really, my life – to listen to these stories. Everyone has one to tell. It’s as if lousy jobs are the common thread that runs through all of us. In modern America you probably won’t find someone of working age who hasn’t had a bad job or two. While I love good and inspiring news I also appreciate a bad job story because I know there will be redemption at some point…like the arc of any good story, there will at some point be a turn toward a positive resolution. So what makes a bad job bad? Read the whole article here … Read More
Poll Findings Reveal Which Sex Works Harder
On Monday, April 16, during the 11 PM airing of Los Angeles’ CBS 2 News, Daisy appeared in a segment about women and their careers versus men and their careers. If you missed the broadcast, take a look at Daisy’s interview on the subject…you might be surprised at the findings in this feature! Watch Now… Read More
Wisdom, Geeks and Good
Why did 620 people show up in Silicon Valley to see and hear founders and leaders of some of our favorite Internet companies talking with well-respected teachers of mindfulness and neurosciences specialists last month?
There’s a growing concern and recognition that our brains and minds are on overload these days, and are being investigated with increasing curiosity, and accuracy… there’s increasing acknowledgment that we are, in fact, being adversely effected by the bombardment, and sheer volume, of information we are living amongst. We are connecting and not connecting, getting more done and, well, not really getting more done. And if there’s something to be done with all of this information you can bet the folks in Silicon Valley want to be involved.
The outstanding reason that these technologists and mindfulness leaders were in the same room is that those who work the long hard hours to innovate and produce profitable companies realize that a clear mind — a focused mind — is a creative and innovative mind. And there’s a good dose of philanthropic energy there too since many of those great minds have amassed the wealth with which to change the world and many of those successful people in Silicon Valley actually want to change the world for the better. It turns out that a calm and mindful approach is highly correlated with a compassionate and peace leaning mind. So if the folks in Silicon Valley, the people who have created the very things that have changed the way do business and life are paying attention to this, shouldn’t you too?
How do you clear your mind to increase focus and be more innovative in your thinking? How do you press pause when the work and life you lead is draining you dry? Think the person who snapped at you (or was that you who snapped?), the boss or coworker who just stole your idea and threw you under the bus are aware of their impact? Could a little more kindness in your life make for more effective collaboration and genuine communication?
Appreciation of Our Differences
This is a great piece on Introversion and Extroversion. We can all get along so long as we pay attention to, and appreciate, our differences.
Heard on All Things Considered
MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, from NPR News. I’m Melissa Block.
AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
And I’m Audie Cornish. From Gandhi and Joe DiMaggio to Mother Teresa and Bill Gates, introverts have done a lot of great things in the world. But being quiet, introverted or shy was sometimes looked at as a problem to be overcome.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)
UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: If you’re what they call a shy guy, you’re standing on the outside looking in. You might have something to contribute to their conversation, but nobody cares whether you do or not. There’s a barrier, and you don’t know how to begin breaking it down.
CORNISH: In the 1940s and ’50s, the message to most Americans was, don’t be shy. And in the era of reality television, Twitter and relentless self-promotion, it seems that cultural mandate is in overdrive.
A new book tells the story of how things came to be this way, and it’s called “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking.” The author is Susan Cain, and she joins us from the NPR studios in New York to talk more about it.
Welcome, Susan.
SUSAN CAIN: Thank you. It’s such a pleasure to be here, Audie.
CORNISH: Well, we’re happy to have you. And to start out – I think we should get this on the record – do you consider yourself an introvert or an extrovert?
CAIN: Oh, I definitely consider myself an introvert, and that was part of the fuel for me to write the book.
CORNISH: And what’s the difference between being an introvert versus being shy? I mean, what’s your definition?
CAIN: So introversion is really about having a preference for lower-stimulation environments – so just a preference for quiet, for less noise, for less action – whereas extroverts really crave more stimulation in order to feel at their best. And what’s important to understand about this is that many people believe that introversion is about being antisocial. And that’s really a misperception because actually, it’s just that introverts are differently social. So they would prefer to have, you know, a glass of wine with a close friend as opposed to going to a loud party full of strangers.
Now shyness, on the other hand, is about a fear of negative social judgment. So you can be introverted without having that particular fear at all, and you can be shy but also be an extrovert.
