Stories from Kristina + Breanne

  Shared by Breanne Smedley “Resolutions…” Every year, I’m tempted to make a long laundry list of resolutions for the new year. It comes at a perfect time. Last week, I spent every day enjoying the company of family and friends. I ate great food, but not food I eat on a regular basis. I stepped out of my normal eating, exercising, writing, and mindfulness routine for the week. Usually, this leaves me feeling ready to make a change. To get back on track. Enter New Year Resolutions. In my mind, I think, “This will be the year! The year I read tons of books, be in the best shape of my life, and become the very best version of myself.” And if I just make a list, they will happen. I even try to be as specific as possible. “Read one book a month…” “Go to the gym 5 times a week…” “Give 3 compliments a day…” The problem is, I can’t remember one resolution I’ve set on January 1st that I’ve actually accomplished. That’s not to say that I haven’t accomplished things in my life. I have. But not be

  Shared by Kristina Smedley Do you guys remember holiday break from when you were in school? I was always so excited to hit mid-December – my birthday just a few days away and a nice 10 day or so break to eat, chill, and not go to school. Well, one great thing about Boeing is that we too have a holiday break! Yep, all my life I have had this break. I love having a few days with no work, time to work on my own projects and hang out with friends and family. I’ve been especially looking forward to it this year, with a long to-do list ready to tackle! I couldn’t wait to check items off this list! As we drove to my parents’ house for a 6 day, family slumber party, I had my list in toe: Stick to my morning routine. Finish one of my assigned books through Audible during the car ride. Start planning healthy recipes for 2019. Optimize our Mindfluent Leader ®  website for cell phones. Brainstorm with Breanne about our future business offerings. Write stories every day. Paint more of the upstair

  Shared by Kristina Smedley Happy holidays and best wishes from our family to yours!       #MindfullyEvolving Check out what we're up to now!

  Shared by Kristina Smedley I used to be a professional note-taker. Yep… this is how it went: listen, take notes, submit, cha-ching.  Now, I wasn’t rolling in the big bucks, but my 20-year-old self did have a steady (and pretty exhilarating) college work-study job as a note-taker. I know you guys are jealous… thinking back on your work-study jobs in the cafeteria or the library, while I was going to class, writing things down, indenting, organizing, highlighting, making checkboxes. Don’t you feel that excitement! Can you keep a secret? Sometimes I even rewrote my notes so they were more organized and pretty before I turned them in. So, professional OCD Note Taker is probably a more appropriate title. I still take a lot of notes (certainly not as beautiful or organized) and draw out mind maps of the various ideas running through my head, connections being made, visions formulating. I just found a mind map from last spring, from before Breanne and I started our Mindfluent Leadership jou

  Shared by Breanne Smedley “Diet starts January 1st…”  It’s the holiday season, and for the past few years, it’s been the same cycle.  Around Halloween time, sugar starts to enter my diet more than it normally does. Mini reeses, kit kats, skittles, you name it. If it’s around, I’m likely eating it. Then we ramp up for Thanksgiving. All the yummy recipes and family favorites. I decide it’s going to be a “cheat day” to indulge in foods I don’t normally eat. Which is fine.  But then this “cheat day” turns into a “cheat week.”  Because we have leftovers, and now we’re entering into the Christmas goodies season.  Egg nog. Peppermint mochas. Cookies. Yum. Then the holiday season really ramps up. Party after party with pies, drinks, and “so and so’s famous recipe that you have to try!”  Now I can’t really remember where the cheat day started, and where it ended.  And now, it’s almost the end of December. I might as well go out with a bang, because the diet starts January 1st.  So, I give mys

  Shared by Kristina Smedley My friend Ryan stated today: “To be disciplined is what empowers us. But it’s also what drains us.” Face-palm. Yes! In many ways, that’s how I’ve been feeling lately. Drained. Remember my exploration and commitment a couple of months ago into “less is more”… well, I think I’ve reverted and maybe tipped over the edge of “more and more and more.” Somehow, in all my excitement, I’m now trying to build a daily routine that includes: meditating working out journaling reading storytelling getting enough sleep and waking up early and one loud scream in the car every morning (that’s another story). Oh yeah, and healthy eating. And Sennad. And Lexi. Oh, and work. Thankfully I haven’t tried to add no wine to this list! So far, I haven’t had a single 100% committed and disciplined day! Not one. My mind seems to be craving a cheat day, every day. And since I’m only half-assing all of these intentional practices, my mind has actually created a cheat month in retaliation

  Shared by Breanne Smedley “I do it for the paycheck…”  Recently, one of our district Athletic Directors sent all the head coaches in the district a form to fill out. It was titled “Coaches Salary Survey.”  In the email, she said that they are evaluating coaching stipends and need to know the average weekly hours worked in season and out of season as a head coach.  So, I began filling out the form. It asked for hours spent in the following categories: Practices, matches, tournaments, planning, film, meetings (with coaches, players, parents, team, administration), team bonding, scouting, trainings, camps, fundraisers, traveling, weight training, leadership development, sending/responding to emails.  When I had filled out the hours, the form gave me my averages.  37.8 hours per week in season (12 week season). 20 hours out of season (remaining 40 weeks of the year).    “What?!” I thought. That’s on top of a full-time teaching schedule. Meaning, I work about 75 hours a week during the se

  Shared by Kristina Smedley I’m sure you have a detailed career plan, right? You know, the steps on how to get from here to your dream job. Mine was the BEST one… a one-page document, with a column for each year. And it was pretty – colorful, organized, and easy to read. I added my current role and then jumped out 5 years and wrote down my next desired role. Obviously, the next step was to fill in what I needed to do, who I needed to meet, etc to get from here to there. Easy as that. Sometimes I would even print it out and check things off as I accomplished them… now that was fun! As many past mentors pointed out, there are so many options available; I needed to focus my attention on the specific items that would get me where I wanted to be. I have to say, in many ways this old technique worked. It prompted great discussions and I was able to do many of the things I planned for by simply making the desires known to others. Slowly but surely, I was getting where I thought I wanted to g

  Shared by Kristina Smedley In the moment, it’s hard to know if you’re making the right decision. Then, over time, you gain perspective. You understand the effects of your decisions. That’s why we say: “hindsight is 20/20”… looking back, we can see more clearly. 4.5 years ago, Sennad and I packed up our bags and moved to Southern California. We honestly didn’t contemplate this decision at all… it felt right and we went for it. I don’t remember making a pros/cons list or even researching anything more than the stops we wanted to make on our drive down. I think most of our friends and colleagues respected the idea that we wanted to go on an adventure together. But, we also got: “Why are you moving down there? There’s such little opportunity.” “The business here is growing; why would you leave now.” “You’ll never go into management down there; no one ever moves around.” We pulled out of Seattle on July 25 th  and took a weeklong drive down the absolutely stunning Oregon coast, through th

  Shared by Breanne Smedley “Multitasking vs Single-Tasking…”  The other day, Brett asked me a simple question as I was sitting on the couch. “What are you doing?”  My answer, “I’m feeding Charlee, responding to emails, writing an IOD, and finishing some online Christmas shopping.”  Sounds….productive?  Popular belief would lead me to think, yes. I have a lot that I need to get done, and I’m feeling a bit of satisfaction knowing that I’m working a little bit on all of those things…all at once!  In reality, it looks like this:  A tab open with a partially composed email Another tab with a few lines of an IOD finished A few more tabs to shopping sites with carts open Adjusting every few minutes to make sure Charlee is still attached to me And stopping everything to respond to whatever text just popped up on my screen Not one of these tasks is getting my full attention. I’m half-assing each of the things I want to accomplish today. And I’ve been told you’re supposed to use your full ass w

  Shared by Breanne Smedley “Hard choices…”  Almost three years ago, Brett and I were faced with the hardest choice in our marriage so far.  Move back home to Vancouver, or stay on Whidbey Island.  We had been living, coaching, and teaching on Whidbey for four years and had grown to love the area, scenery, and people.  It’s where we started our lives together, in a 540 square foot bungalow on the beach  Where we bought our first home together, and where I started my career as a coach and teacher.  We were offered teaching and coaching jobs back in our hometown of Vancouver, at Brett’s alma mater.  Closer to family, friends, and opportunities to grow and expand our careers.  But that meant leaving a place we now called home.  I agonized over this decision for weeks.  I gathered as much information as I could, and compiled it all into a pros and cons chart. I talked to everyone about it, trying to get all the perspectives (on what they thought we should do with our lives) Ha!  I prayed f