Mastermind

When I lived in Las Cruces, I met weekly with three other women. We followed loose mastermind guidelines to help each other meet our goals. Each week, we reported our progress for the previous week and set our intentions for the coming week. That sounds simple -- what made it great is that all of us were seekers, looking to live better and contribute more to the world. And they met me each week with kindness and creativity. Amy, Genevieve, and Chris, you greatly improved my life!

Now we have moved. I live in Midland, Texas, Chris is often on the road, Amy splits her time between Las Cruces and another home in Colorado, and Genevieve went to Albuquerque. We have a Facebook group. It is not the same as seeing each other in person every week. No meals together! No hugs or smiles, and all the bandwidth of being with someone in person -- the expressions, the sound of breathing, the body language, and the aura, for lack of a better word -- is gone.

So, I have been making an effort to post my weekly progress and priorities to our Facebook group. Now that the practice is so much sparer, I found myself thinking today about what I really get from writing out goals and seeing if I meet them.

The support and accountability and connection were wonderful! What remains is a much lighter connection. And this, which turns out to matter a lot to me: I make visible to myself what I intended and how it compares to what I did.

I don't harsh on myself about it. That would make the whole process unfun. I notice, I wonder, I accept, I try again. And that is incredibly valuable.