Penny Casselman [00:00:00]:
I am consistently trying to get better at setting an intention before I start any task, before I engage in any conversation. Because without setting an intention, things are left to potentially chaos, where if we set an intention, we at least have a small spark of focus that will help guide us through our actions or our interactions with others. Welcome to the Pivot with Passion podcast. Hi. I'm Penny Casselman. I believe everyone is deserving of a phenomenal life. Regardless of where you came from, life is what you make of it. And when you learn to pivot with passion, your world explodes with opportunities.
Penny Casselman [00:00:55]:
Go grab your favorite beverage, and let's shake things up as we explore how to pivot with passion. Hello, director. How are you? I am coming at you again this week from Southern California, and to ensure you got a little glimpse of what I get to experience every day, I thought, I need to make sure that you can see a palm tree in my background. So if you are simply listening to this through a pair of earbuds, on a walk, at the gym, doing dishes, then take a listen, but then hop over to YouTube and take a watch, because I am sitting on the front porch of where I'm staying with family, and you get a little peek into the front yard. So although it is warmer in Southern California, there's still little chill in the air, especially when you're in the shade. Hence, I have a hoodie sweatshirt on and, you know, but I'm feeling good. So let me ask, how was your last week? Did you show up? Did you crush it? Did you make a list of all the things you were gonna buy on Black Friday or Cyber Monday? Did you buy anything on those days? I really stayed away from too many shiny objects on those days because, honestly, where I'm at is just too pretty not to absorb all the goodness of the ocean that is a block away from me, and palm trees, and blue sky, and all of the things. So this year, I kinda let those days just come and go, regardless if you jumped in, got deals, or you did what I did and just found yourself surrounded by beauty, or friends, or family.
Penny Casselman [00:02:50]:
It's all good. An audio that I listen to every single morning is through an app called Growth Day. I will link to it in the show notes. It is a personal development platform that I am in love with. I adore. Every single day, there is a new audio to listen to to give you some new perspective. And every Monday, there's a little extra bonus. Today, his little talk had to do with the ocean.
Penny Casselman [00:03:20]:
And I thought, oh my gosh, it's such a great perspective. I chose to scoop that idea up and I'm gonna be showing my perspective on his takes. And it had to do with the chaos that you see on top of the ocean in form of waves and turbulence, and how different that can be from going deeper into the ocean, where you find complete still and calm and quiet. Since we are coming off of the frenzy on an ocean surface that is Black Friday and Cyber Monday, I thought this is a great opportunity to talk about what happens when you find yourself smack dab in the middle of all of those chaos, All of the things vying for your attention, family drama, external drama. How do we navigate that, and how can we be successful during this holiday season? And when I started thinking about it, the ocean is such a good metaphor for how we can approach dealing with the chaos of life when it presents itself. Here's a little statistic. Did you know that it takes 90 seconds for an emotion to completely work its way through your system and conclude? So when you feel that burst of excitement, you will feel it intensely for approximately 90 seconds before it starts ebbing away. The same thing with anger or frustration.
Penny Casselman [00:05:02]:
Any emotion that you experience, if you are patient enough, will subside within 90 seconds. As I continue this episode, I wanna explore and share with you a new framework. But first, you know what's coming. I'll see you on the other side. It's time for a clarity cocktail. Today's clarity cocktail, I took from Marcus Aurelius, and he wrote, when you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive, to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love. I felt this quote was so appropriate for this time of year because regardless of what holidays you celebrate and how you celebrate the holidays, it seems that we all find ourselves with this crush of activity, like the waves are crashing in on us from all sides. Whether it's family or friends or work or retail sales on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Penny Casselman [00:06:17]:
There are so many things that can churn up and cause chaos in our lives. And let's not forget, during the holidays, we are rushing towards the end of the year, which for some is exciting, because they're gonna get to celebrate how different their life looks. For others, it's gonna be slightly mournful, because they realized they got to the end of the year and didn't accomplish everything they had set out to do. But Marcus Aurelius boils it down to what we truly, truly can embrace during this holiday season and end of year, and that is when you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive, to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love, regardless of how much chaos is going on around you. In fact, back in episode 63, I talked about living with intention. And I invite you to go back and listen to that episode because I think it provides some good perspectives on why it's so important to set an intention. If we think about waking up in the morning and being grateful for the precious privilege it is to be alive, how does that not start off your day with a spark of positivity, a spark of gratefulness? And when you start off with something positive, it helps your brain start to find all the other positivity around you throughout the rest of your day. We could all use a little bit more positivity, especially during the holidays, every morning that you get up.
Penny Casselman [00:08:02]:
What is one thing you are grateful for? What is one thing that can help your mind start your day off with gratitude and positivity? So once again, here is the quote from Marcus Aurelius. When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive. To breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love. And now, back to the episode. Cheers. Okay, director. What I wanna share with you next is taking that idea of what we can learn from the ocean about navigating chaos. Now I am excited to share with you my SURF framework.
Penny Casselman [00:08:45]:
Yes, s u r f, because that goes so well with the theme of the ocean today. But my SURF framework is something that you can lean on to help you when you face waves of chaos in your life, whether it's during this holiday season or as we kick off the new year in just a few short weeks. So the s stands for see it for what it is. So when you are involved in a situation that is uncomfortable or feels chaotic, see it for what it is. So take a pause, look at it and ask yourself, Is this a disagreement? Maybe it's a misunderstanding. Maybe it's chaos because there's incomplete information available. So don't judge what's happening. 1st, we have to be observing and see it for what it is.
Penny Casselman [00:09:44]:
The next step is you, for understand where you fit in. What part are you playing in this chaos, in these waves crashing on the shore? Are you the cause of the chaos? Were you blindsided by the chaos? Or maybe you are just participating in keeping the chaos moving forward. It's crucial to understand where you fit in, because only then when you are aware of what it is and where you fit in, can you then start to craft a way to mitigate what's happening. Next is are, and that is reflect and set an intention. I touched on this in the Clarity cocktail, but it is so important and this director, I will tell you, is something I am consistently trying to get better at, setting an intention before I start any task, before I engage in any conversation. Because without setting an intention, things are left to potentially chaos, where if we set an intention, we at least have a small spark of focus that will help guide us through our actions or our interactions with others. So reflect and set an intention. We talked about maybe the chaos you find yourself in is a disagreement with some way.
Penny Casselman [00:11:22]:
Maybe it's a misunderstanding. It's incomplete information. What is your intention for this chaos? Maybe you got blindsided by this whole thing, and as you reflect, there's no need for you to add more chaos to the waves. Perhaps the intention that you wanna take in is to resolve it, or disengage, and take yourself out of it, and then we end with f for fine tune your actions. So here, you've seen it for what it is, you understand where you fit in, you've reflected, you've chosen an intention. Now with that intention, you can fine tune your actions. When I think about all of the surfers I see every day, out catching waves, they run through this framework as they sit on top of the chaos that is the ocean. Right? They look at the coming wave and they see it for what it is.
Penny Casselman [00:12:27]:
They then have to understand where they fit in and then immediately set an intention. And oftentimes, they set the intention to wait and they fine tuned their actions. They stayed on their board, they didn't paddle, and they didn't stand up. So as you think about chaos on the top of the ocean and how you might learn to navigate that better, we can find the calm by calling on this surf framework to move us forward. Now I know you're thinking, Penny, this sounds great, but in the moment, it can be so difficult to run through this. So I would invite you to apply this surf framework to a past interaction. Think of a time when things were chaotic, where you did not handle them in the best manner possible, and pause and think, alright, in that moment of chaos, how could I have applied the SURF framework to help me navigate and come out more calm and focused? Because your brain cannot tell the difference between reality and thoughts. Because of that factor, you can now retrain your brain when it encounters a different circumstance to suddenly get triggered and go, oh, wait.
Penny Casselman [00:13:55]:
Surf. Yes. Let's surf this experience, and make it one that makes me a better person, a better human navigating things as we go forward. I love learning, director, and I hope you feel the same way. I have taken this SURF framework and applied it to a past interaction. Last year, I can think of a few times where things did not go as planned. I felt blindsided, and chaos was crashing into me, and had I just paused for 90 seconds, that intense emotion would have gone away and given me a second to run through this surf framework to try to set a better intention so that when I move forward, I wasn't compounding it into something worse. I'm excited for this new year ahead as I move forward and lean into this framework, and I hope that you would join me in trying it yourself.
Penny Casselman [00:15:02]:
As always, I would love to hear what thoughts you had about this episode. I would love for you to share this episode with someone who might need a little spark positivity, someone who needs a new perspective on life or how they might navigate the chaos that they are seeing in their life. Director, as always, I want you to know that that dream, that goal, that vision you have for yourself is absolutely possible. I want you to feel that you can embrace your ability to figure it out. And I want you to take action and surf your way to a phenomenal life and holiday. I hope you enjoyed this little slice of Southern California behind me, and I look forward to hanging out with you again next week. Until then, ride the waves, take a pause, and make this next week your best week yet. Friend, thanks for listening to this episode of Pivot with Passion.
Penny Casselman [00:16:18]:
If you've been feeling stuck, exhausted, or frustrated, this is your permission slip to go grab a red marker and claim the life you desire and deserve. If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend, and then hop over to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts. Because my goal is to put a red marker in everyone's hand, and I need your help to spread the word and make that happen. Until the next episode, go grab a red marker, get excited for your future, and make your first move to pivot with passion.
