So many people and tasks, and opportunities and events, and choices are on my plate. I’m pulled in many directions, ALL- the-TIME.
I KNOW you are too.
A friend, colleague, fellow Nurse Coach and all-around awesome person Jackie Levin from Leading Edge Nursing once called it, ‘being distracted by the shiny penny’. I have learned to call them shiny penny Yes’s.
It goes something like this…
In your mind, you have a task…
Don’t Forget the Ketchup
Don’t forget the ketchup. You go into the grocery store to get ketchup, see oranges on sale, stop to get a bag. Get a text from a friend, you stop to answer it while in the frozen foods section, and remember you need frozen spinach, get a bag of that.
Oh yah! Ketchup. Onwards to that row. On the way there, you get a push notification to send a quick email to the senate about better staffing ratios, so you stop to do that- it only takes a second, they say. Easy enough to do and contributing to a great cause.
You recall your significant other wanted pickles, same row as ketchup, you think? Phone rings, a potential new connection in the community you’ve been wanting to speak with. You take the call, add notes into your phone, and set up a lunch date next week.
You go to the checkout. Cashier notices you are in scrubs and asks what you do. You explain and give her your business card- maybe she’ll call?
You pay. Jump into your car with oranges, spinach, pickles. You drive home and make a fresh sandwich, cut the pickles and oranges, lay spinach on your bread and go for the…ketchup. Oh no!
You Forgot the Ketchup
Yep. You forgot the ketchup. The very thing you were going to the store to accomplish! Who cares you say, it’s only ketchup! But the thing is…. What else are you forgetting, or misplacing? What else is moving down on the list of get-to-dos? Who else is becoming less of a priority because of all your distractions?
The Shiny Penny Yes’s
The shiny penny Yes’s. These are the things you kinda want to do. The tasks or events seem easy, or more interesting and rewarding at the time than the things you REALLY need or want to accomplish.
The shiny penny Yes’s are things that don’t really need to get done, but look more fun, more attractive and quicker than the tasks that are most important to moving you forward in your precious life.
Stop Following the Shiny Penny Yes’s
So what’s the purpose of this post? You might hope I have some tips to help me stop following the shiny penny yes’s.
I only have a few…. And you know, as I do, that reading my tips won’t help you , as much as YOU discovering what tips will help you…(maybe through the work of partnering with a Nurse Coach??).
For me…
Meet Myself with Kindness
Writing these words, helps remind me to see my patterns and meet myself with kindness. To watch out for the shiny penny Yes’s, and to notice myself and my ways of being. To acknowledge. To see my patterns and meet them with an openness.
To look up to the sky instead of looking down at the ground.
To walk through the distractions with awareness, and sometimes say NO. Sometimes say Yes. And sometimes, say, thank you, but not today.
To treat myself with compassion and self-love, knowing, it’s ok to sometimes forget the ketchup, because I can always jump back in my car and begin again.
Nicole Vienneau earned her Master's degree in Nursing Science & System's Leadership from the University of Arizona (go Cats!), and believes it's important to continuously learn & grow in life’s journey.
She achieved an Integrative Nurse Coach board certification through the American Holistic Nurses Credentialing Corporation & graduated with an Advanced Nurse Coach certificate from the International Nurse Coach Association (INCA), & a certificate in Advanced Clinical Nutrition in an Integrative Nurse Coaching Practice from the Institute for Functional Medicine & INCA.
She is Faculty with the Integrative Nurse Coach Academy and an approved supervisor for Nurse Coach students, a Functional Aging Specialist and Brain Health Trainer with the Functional Aging Institute, a Menopause Fitness Specialist, a certified National Fitness Presenter with the American Council on Exercise & Personal Trainer with the Athletics & Fitness Association of America, a 200 YTP Yoga Instructor with the Yoga Project (Thailand), a former Reebok Sponsored Fitness Athlete, Educator & Wife, Daughter, Sister, Friend & Crazy Cat Lady.