It’s hard to believe we are nearing the end of week three of our eleventh month on this Intentional Leadership* journey! If you’ve been along on the journey for any length of time, you’re aware of our Friday ritual; if you’re relatively new, jump in, you might find this useful!

As you head into the weekend, I ask you to consider how you approach your weekends. Many people rush into it with a need for rest, maybe some idea of what they would like to do or get done over the weekend, but often just move through it haphazardly, seeing where the days and hours take them.

As we are focused on becoming more intentional, I encourage you to consider a different approach to weekends (or whatever days are your typical days off!).

How might your life be different if you took a more intentional approach to your time off? What might that impact? Energy levels, relationships, projects?

How might your Monday be different if you took the time over the weekend to prepare for it, in whatever way makes sense for you?

To get you started, here are some questions to ponder:

What do those close to you need from you this weekend?

What do you need from this weekend?

How much time and attention will you allot to rest, projects, fun, relationships, future preparation?

How do you want to feel on Monday? What can you do to prepare for that?

What do you have going on in the coming weeks or months? What can you do now to prepare for that?

However you decide to spend your weekend, I hope it’s intentional!

“See” you Monday!

Spend some time with your journal today. Here’s the exercise:

Identify a long-term project for which you are responsible. Reflect on what you’ve been learning over the past couple of weeks and use those lessons to build a plan for taking initiative with your project. Write it out…

If you already have a plan in place, how can you integrate some of the recent lessons to make adjustments to it?

As this month’s focus is initiative, I must encourage you to take action! What steps can you take in the next couple of days to get started or move to the next level?

What actions could you take now that will smooth the path and make the project easier over time?

How would getting some of the key tasks completed help you to see ahead more clearly?

We often can learn from the experiences of others, and we should take advantage of those opportunities (do not, however, misinterpret this to mean that you should always wait for someone else to try something new first!). Spend some time reflecting on a time when you observed someone close to you taking initiative in spite of fear.

What was the situation?

How did they handle it?

What was the result?

What did you learn from watching them go through this experience?

Now, think of a situation you are currently faced with in which you need to take initiative and have some fear about moving forward. Get in touch with the person from today’s exercise and tell them the situation you are in. As them for guidance on how they would handle it. Then, spend some time in reflection about what they’ve shared with you. In your journal, note some of the recommendations you think are worth following through on. Consider the risks, implications, consequences, and benefits associated with any of the actions you might take. Then, make a decision about moving forward.

What value did you receive through someone else’s experience? And what value do you place on having them as a trusted confidant?

It’s good to know we have support when faced with significant decisions and challenges, and can deal with them before they grow into something more unmanageable!