Full Cup Friday #2: Top Tips and Weekly (P)review

“You can’t pour from an empty cup.”

Fill up here with your weekly dose of winning tips while you preview next week on Hybrid Consonance.

Hybrid Consonance is the collection of practices, habits, mindsets, and more, that contribute to Holistic High Performance.

As an educator, musician, and writer, I am here to serve you.

“Rest and self-care are so important. When you take time to replenish your spirit, it allows you to serve others from the overflow. You cannot serve from an empty vessel.”
–Eleanor Brown, writer on Medium.

It’s Friday! At least here in my time zone. So, on with the second of my Full Cup Friday posts.

I’ll start with things that I hope you’ll find helpful.

Here are my top three tips of the week:

Top Tips

1. Momentum Dash – I’ve been using this on and off for over a year, initially on subscription, but now I am happy with the free version. The best way to see it in action is to click on the link. Preview what you’ll see each time you open a new tab. A neat idea which you can develop into a simple guard for your online focus.

2. Stop saying “I’m busy.” Read more about how – and why – on the Hybrid Consonance Talk On Tuesday post “Words are powerful – so is your voice!”
3. Sleep. Vision. Connect. These were my Words of the Week.

Sleep: I focused on getting at least 8, and sometimes up to 10 hours of sleep a night.

Vision: I thought through, and wrote out some clear visions of the future. And in case you’re wondering where the time to do all of this came from, we are on a one-week holiday for the Lunar New Year here in East Asia. Which leads me to the final word:

Connect: I focused on connecting with loved ones this week, thanks to the holiday.

Which word connects with you strongest this week?

Weekly Wins

In other words, my weekly review – with thanks to Michael Hyatt for this idea. 

1. Posting on Hybrid Consonance – this blog – according to schedule.

It’s my aim I achieved my goal of posting five days a week, Monday to Friday. See my post one week ago. I settled on some themes for each day of the week. Curious as to what they are? Read on to the Preview below.

2. Writing about High Potential.  This seems to have hit a nerve, whether for educators interested in the field of ‘gifted and talented education,’ or professionals seeking to achieve high performance or parents (like me) who want the best for their child. See my posts here (for everyone) and here (for educators).

3. Posting about Digital Minimalism: Ryan Holiday and Cal Newport’s Tuesday call. Subscribers to Newport’s email list were invited to join him and Holiday discussing the new book, as well as stoicism in general, in a small and exclusive online Zoom call. I wrote some notes for my Thursday post. Check them out here to read more about digital minimalism as a constellation of positions rather than a spectrum, and why Cal Newport still reads books on his Kindle.

Preview Next Week On Hybrid Consonance

Again, thanks to Michael Hyatt, who combines his review and preview into a ‘Weekly (P)review.’

First of all, astute readers will note some of these are the same as last week’s preview: that’s due to the unexpected gift of the talk on Digital Minimalism between Newport and Holiday, which I took advantage of to write yesterday’s post instead of the review of Newport’s “So Good They Can’t Ignore You.” I hope to remedy that in the coming week. Also, I’m still waiting for my copy of Digital Minimalism to arrive – speaking of which…

1. On February the 5th Cal Newport released “Digital Minimalism.” My analog copy is on its way, and unlike Newport who sometimes gets impatient with waiting for the physical book, I’ve held off on buying a kindle copy for now. Once my copy arrives, I’ll devour it and create a summary for you, my readers, and tweet, blog, and share it on all things digital… and then see if I’ll take his advice about closing down all social media accounts determine how to apply his latest advice on (re)-considering my use of social media.
2. In celebration of 1., and because I may not receive my copy at the same time as my US readers, I’ll read and post a summary of “So Good They Can’t Ignore You” – also by Cal Newport. He’s also the author of ”Deep Work.” It is a wonderful introduction to the focus and depth of work made possible by drawing tight boundaries on your time and energy. Highly recommended. [Yes, I wrote this last week, too, but due to the unexpected bonus call between Newport and Holiday to discuss the new book, I postponed this. Plus, I haven’t finished reading “So Good…” yet!]
3. You will continue to see new posts every weekday. Preview them here:

Move on Monday: How we move our bodies is crucial to moving into action and getting into the right mindset. As a musician, I know how crucial breathing is. This will be a short breathe breeze through an important topic.

Talk On Tuesday: I’ll continue discussing “Digital Minimalism: Choosing A Focused Life in A Noisy World.” As a musician, I can totally relate to the idea of a noisy world, so I’ll be drawing on insights from my work as a music educator, as well as drawing on insights from having lived in Australia, India, and now north-east Asia – in other words, having developed some level of cultural intelligence.

Work On Wednesday: High Potential and High Performance are phrases capturing the minds and the money of a growing number of people. I am working towards the terms “Holistic High Potential.” As I prepare to speak at the Just Learning Conference 2019 on February 16th, I’ll continue to share my thoughts on this important topic. See the post about Harnessing High Potential here, and High Potential: Mindset, Motion, and Mentoring here.

Think It Through Thursday: With all the buzz around Cal Newport’s book, “Digital Minimalism,” I thought it high time I actually read and absorbed his book on finding the right work working right: “So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trumps Passion In Finding the Work You Love.” You’ll finally get to read a summary right here, on Hybrid Consonance.

Full Cup Friday: Like today, I’ll share three tips, three wins and highlights, and a preview of the week to come on Hybrid Consonance.

Like what you’ve read? Please comment below, on Twitter, or connect on LinkedIn.

I’d love to hear your thoughts, your tips, and your wins!