Friday Favorites: Trade-Offs

Welcome to this week's edition of Friday Favorites: a weekly curation of reflections, resources, and invitations on leadership and life. If this email was forwarded to you, or if you'd like to invite a friend to subscribe, you'll find the sign-up link here, or anywhere on the Zing Collaborative website. Thank you!

Happy Friday, and Happy August (!!),

Are you on Team Can't Wait for Fall, or Team Endless Summer?

I'm an enthusiastic member of Team Endless Summer, though of course I accept and will work to understand all of you who are on Team Can't Wait for Fall, even though we may not agree. ;)

This week, we are going to explore the topic of trade-offs.

Thomas Sowell has said, “there are no solutions, only trade-offs.”

What do you think of this quote?

If this is true, this means that anything we do (or don't do) will have trade-offs.

If we accept this fact, we can give ourselves permission not to uncover the perfect solution (there might not be one), but rather to reflect on possible trade-offs and decide how we feel about them.

We can do this for small decisions (the trade-off for eating at this restaurant is waiting 20 minutes; how do we feel about that?) and big ones (the trade-off of saying yes to the new opportunity is giving up my fully remote working structure and being in the office 3 days per week; how do I feel about that?)

As Cheryl Strayed reminds us in her exceptional piece, The Ghost Ship that Did Not Carry Us,

“I'll never know and neither will you of the life you don’t choose. We’ll only know that whatever that sister life was, it was important and beautiful and not ours. It was the ghost ship that didn’t carry us. There’s nothing to do but salute it from the shore.”

Our sister life, and our sister decisions, are important and beautiful and perhaps not the ones we choose. Exploring trade-offs is one possible avenue to help us determine which path to choose.

What do you think?

Any decisions you're currently in the middle of at the moment? Or, any ghost ships you've set free?

If you'd like, feel free to drop me a note and let me know. It's always a treat to hear from you.

And: a big thank you to the wonderful women within current programs who I've had the gift of exploring this question of trade-offs with in real-time over the last couple of weeks.

With that, we'll move on to this week's list of Friday Favorites.

Thank you for being here and for reading.

If you enjoy Friday Favorites and have a friend or a colleague who you think would enjoy them as well, I would be beyond grateful if you would consider sharing. This community is made up of exceptional humans, and this avenue allows us to stay in conversation outside of the algorithms and tracking mechanisms of social media.

Wishing you a wonderful Friday and weekend ahead!

With Gratitude,

Sarah

How Not to Let Your Phone Ruin Your Vacation by Catherine Prince (NYT)

This article is packed with tips for how to create reasonable boundaries with your phone while on vacation. Any others you'd add to the list?

Thank you, Raw Signal Group (I believe) for sharing this one…

For More. . .

Catherine's book on the topic: How to Break Up With Your Phone

Are you squeezing in any additional summer vacations this month? Or, any favorite spots you've been enjoying this summer –whether far away from home, or perhaps camping out in a new corner of your back yard?

People Everywhere Podcast

Niko and Andy started a new podcast, and it is excellent so far.

It's all about creating great workplace culture in a remote world. Their first few episodes have dropped if you'd like to check them out.

Copper Cow: Coffee on the Go

Another awesome option for coffee on the go —individual pour over packets in all sorts of fun flavors that come with little packs of creamer if desired. Plus, a woman-owned company with a compelling set of core values.

“Do whatever brings you to life, then. Follow your own fascinations, obsessions, and compulsions. Trust them. Create whatever causes a revolution in your heart.”

—Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic

What is one decision I am currently considering?
What are the gifts?
What are the potential trade-offs?
How do I feel about each?

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