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Lessons from the Road: Know your values

Ever wonder why we so often don’t follow through on the goals we set for ourselves? Or why it is so easy to slide back into our old habits?

One part is neurological: our brain is full of established neural pathways that get larger the longer we reinforce the same behavior.

The other part is not having clarity on our values.

We can have all of the “right” motivation, including …

Lessons from the Road: What is Essential

How often do you take a moment to ask yourself: what is essential in my life? Today? Now? What do I need?

Knowing what is essential enables us to accurately prioritize. Whether from Stephen Covey’s Time Management Matrix in the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, or any part of the book Essentialism by Greg McKeown, knowing how to prioritize is critical. When we do, we avoid burnout, unhealthy …

Alternative Work Style: Lessons From the Road

For the last four months I have been working in the ‘cozy’ space of a 23’ school bus. Managing a business under the best of circumstances is stressful. Doing it on the road feels near impossible some days. The relocating, the dance of not being in the other’s way, and taking meetings without a proper setup can be frustrating. Not to mention the weather, which over the last four months …

The Importance of Language

After a short walk in the late afternoon sunshine, I found myself praising my noble steeds who come with me almost everywhere; aka my frenchtons. Moose, I’d argue the most sweet and stubborn frenchton, has Intervertebral Disk Disease (IVDD). This means most of what he does has to be monitored carefully as it takes more out of him and can lead to serious injury. It also means he and I …

Embrace Creative Living

“The universe buries strange jewels deep within us all, and then stands back to see if we can find them. The hunt to discover those jewels––that's creative living.”
Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

A couple of years ago I was at Huntington Beach State Park in South Carolina pacing up and down the path to the beach. I was talking to my therapist and out came …

How to Set Yourself Up for a Successful Meeting

There are a lot of mugs out there that say “I survived another meeting that should have been an email.” We’ve all been there, and more likely than not we have also facilitated meetings that others may throw in the “should have been an email” bucket. We’re busy and it happens. Meetings are constant, burdensome, and necessary. As a fellow survivor and bucket avoider, I’ve put together a few simple …

Get back on that horse

A few years ago I was diagnosed with a variety of conditions that came with the term “chronic.” Throughout the grief process, my partner encouraged me to write about it. It was uncomfortable to be publicly vulnerable in a professional world where “weakness = bad.” I sat there knowing logically that vulnerability was a sign of strength, but the risk adverse [read: scared] side of me still wasn’t convinced. How …

We're All In This Together

Recently I received a kind email from a client and friend in the Postgres Community. It struck a chord because she had listened to my podcast, hosted by Beautiful Strength, which was about having chronic illnesses while traveling in a bus and working full time.

Within the podcast, I reveal parts of myself that I don’t normally share with my team members, let alone with my clients. Until …

Top 5 Reasons to Move to a Peer Review Focused Business

At Command Prompt, we rely heavily on peer review for the success of our clients. We believe that the best quality work is provided when there is no silo and when team work, no matter how much or how little, is a part of the day-to-day. When a group of individuals is encouraged to work together in an effort to provide high quality work and learn from each other, you’re …

How to Achieve Success When Working From Home, Updated

Now that it’s been over a year, we thought it would be good to revisit the How to Achieve Success When Working From Home blog from March 2020. The idea of the original post was to help those who were challenged by the new work-from-home environment by sharing the knowledge that we’ve gathered over 15 years of working from home ourselves. Much has changed since that post was published, and …