📧 PivotList: "Stop releasing your Reality Dobermans on my dream!" 🐾

🌊 What are your unique ingredients for finding a flow state?

Hi Friends,

That was my husband’s exasperated reply after telling me about his idea to paint en plein air at our local park in New York City one summer. He was busy dreaming, envisioning the huge canvas he’d prop against the concrete wall with Ryder relaxing at his feet while a breeze rustles around them, while my first reaction was to pepper him with questions and concerns:

Is that legal? Won’t you get in trouble? How would you keep Ryder from running after squirrels? What if you get a ticket?

“Stop releasing your Reality Dobermans on my dream!” he barked. “Just let me picture it for a minute before you shoot it down!”

In our relationship, I’m grounded in common sense and practicalities (dreams stress me out when I don’t have the basics in order), while he loves living in the realm of limitless possibilities. When we meet in the middle, we can create magic. But first, we have to work through the inevitable friction that arises between our two styles.

Last week, we focused on Collaboration; this week, the Strengthscope quality we’ll explore is Common Sense: Are you a free-floating butterfly or a “reality Doberman”?

Keep reading to find out . . .

💪 Strengthscope Deep Dive: Common Sense

Is common sense an energizer or a drainer for you?

Scenario: You’re part of a project where there is a clear precedent for an action plan that works, but others on the team want to brainstorm new solutions. How do you feel about that? Do you resent wasting time in meetings when the answers seem obvious? If so, here’s a meme for you:

🔋 If common sense energizes you, your mantra might be, “Let’s stick with what has worked before.” You make pragmatic judgments based on practical thinking and previous experience, and you identify with people who appear “down to earth.”

• Who annoys you: People who come up with ideas you regard as too radical, idealistic, or not sufficiently grounded in common sense logic. In communicating with you and others, their approach may also lack pragmatism and realism; they may either over-simplify or overcomplicate explanations to others.

• Who is annoyed by you: Creative, visionary, and strategic-minded people might find you too dismissive of ideas and solutions that don’t fit with conventional logic. They might see you as someone who stifles creative and inspirational ideas and initiatives.

🥵 When in overdrive: You have a tendency to dismiss new ideas or solutions that aren’t practical or don’t fit with conventional logic. You may stifle creativity.

• Self-check by asking: How can you balance your common sense approach with a broader consideration of creative and novel options? Ask the team members who want to brainstorm new ideas: Can you help me understand why the previous method/s wouldn’t work for us?

🪫 If common sense is a drainer for you: Your judgment may often be flawed by a lack of pragmatism and logic. You may over-simplify or over-complicate explanations.

• Reframe it by reflecting: How can I incorporate what has worked well in the past, before automatically jumping to new ideas or more complicated solutions?

📊 Get to Know Your Significant Seven Energy-Strengths

If you found this helpful and want to dive deeper into the 24 energy-strengths, including an assessment that will show your biggest energizers and drainers:

• Individuals: Take the Strengthscope assessment and join us for a 90-minute Upgrade Your Energy workshop on December 5. Register here » (Paying subscribers: scroll down below the footer for your special extra-discounted link!)

• Teams: If you work within an organization and have the budget to run this as an in-person half-day team-building workshop, we have two spots remaining this quarter and three open for Q1 2025. Learn more and inquire here »

📆 Upcoming Events for Paying Subscribers

🔗 The links to register are below the paywall in the footer of this email.

✍️ Write the Thing! First Wednesday of the next three months: Join us for the first co-working session on Wednesday, October 2, from 1pm ET to 1:45pm ET. This is guided co-working time (and moral support) to write what matters most: an essay, a newsletter, morning pages, an autoresponder, an invitation, an important email, a page of your book—whatever surfaces that would leave you feeling lighter ❤️

💻 Quarterly Office Hours — November 20: Ask me anything, connect with fellow Pivoters, and talk through your pivot-in-progress.

• Want to join us? See the footer (below the paywall) for the link. Upgrade your membership here »

🎙 Related episode from the Pivot archives

Although the podcast is paused, you can still browse the archives and subscribe here »

136: Start Finishing—Pricing, Projects, and Momentum Planning with Charlie Gilkey

Want help exploring your biggest strengths and how you can leverage them for your pivot-in-progress? Learn more and sign-up for Pivot coaching here »

That’s it for now . . . thank you for reading and listening!

❤️  With Love, 

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