We Can All Learn From Each Other — Featured ILLUMINATION Writers
The 3 X 3
Since my last edition of the 3 X 3, I have been thinking a lot about our most valuable asset, time. How often do we use the excuse of ‘I’m too busy’ or just get on with the next thing on our to-do lists instead of sharing the hours with those that are most important to us (and to whom we are most important)?
Visiting my hometown of San Jose, California a few weeks ago, what I enjoyed most was spending time with people, having real conversations, and touching lives. It reminded me of the connections we are gifted with and need to take the opportunity to cash in on. I was saddened to miss a dinner with an old friend, and I vowed to make time in my schedule to chat with people that have had meaning in my life through the years. I look forward to sharing joy and sorrow, learning about what is going on with them, and communicating what’s happening with me. That is the gold of life.
Too often we give pat answers that don’t reveal our true selves to those closest to us. It’s a real shame, an opportunity lost.
Well, these three writers have not lost opportunities. In fact, they have made an effort to reveal a sense of authenticity that helps us know them, and thus find a commonality that binds us together as people wanting to live better lives and move others towards that place as well.
Michelle Marie Writes is the mother of an autistic son, a Cuban national, and an amazing writer, too. In Meet Lola, The Girl From Havana, she writes about a Cuban girl who does not give up on her dreams despite them being ripped away from her on several occasions.
Michelle describes her motivation for writing in this story. I couldn’t agree more. As I was doing an exit debriefing with a client today, I wanted her to know that the most important thing to me was she finds her path to success in whatever form that takes.
And this story is a good reminder that good things often take longer than we think to materialize. “Things happen for you, not to you.”
I’m not a big tech reader, but editing Meriç Melike Yılmaz stories in ILLUMINATION and finding more outstanding content on her profile page changed my mind about the topic. She is a senior manager of engineering, and her stories often explain concepts in humility, professionalism, and management that we can all apply, regardless of our situations.
This story gives advice about checking code but could just as easily apply to giving feedback in any situation.
The next story gives tips for working remotely that are also applicable to working in the office or any collaboration. Tip 3, Active Communication, is one of the biggest ones for me. I know people are busy, and occasionally volunteering their time. I just need to know where they are in the process of completing deliverables and where that is in their current list of priorities. That is crucial to any project.
To demonstrate her coding chops, she made this simple app for you. It is a way to analyze your Medium network.
Finally, let me introduce You, Me and Happiness who asks the simple question, why not be happy? She is focused on conscious living and smashing through mental blocks.
This cool life hack about supplements blew my mind, and not just because it works!
If you are a foodie, her list of 10 sinful foods will have you heading for the kitchen. I recently made some sinfully delicious new dishes: creamy tomato soup with grilled cheese croutons and zoodles with clam sauce. Yummy. What are your sin foods?
And I’ll leave you coming full circle with this poem about what is really important in life: a good relationship with yourself.
You can discover more amazing writer in my 3 X 3 list.
Thanks for reading. I appreciate you.
Win the Day!
John
