Carina Lawson's story

 Marie became my executive coach during a period of uncertainty at work when we were going through a tough corporate restructuring. The word of the year was ‘resilient’ and whilst I knew what it meant and felt like, I was somehow unable to be vocal about what I wanted. I was struggling to make myself heard. Every time I was asked to ‘be resilient’ I found myself becoming increasingly annoyed. Have you ever met a woman who isn’t resilient? I had just had twin girls, I was already back at work full time and I was learning to adjust to life as a working mother – resilient and I are very good friends, thanks! I was leaning in, working out and multitasking in ways that were taxing to my well-being and purpose.

Marie provided me with the tools I needed to clearly define my values and align my actions accordingly. She taught me the power of visualization and the benefits it can have not just at work but at home as well. I was actively imagining better at every session. I have learnt how I can turn my ‘pipe dreams’ and ‘someday maybes’ into purposeful, meaningful, action.

Our inner voices and instincts are incredibly powerful.  “What do you really want?” Marie asked me one day in a way that is both caring but also a ‘kick in the pants’ kind of way one afternoon in her office. Ponderlily is one of the three things I had the courage to say aloud in Marie’s office. Once I learned to turn up the volume on my values, gained clarity on my purpose, and learned that I didn’t need more hours in my days: I needed space for meaning in my professional and personal life. This new perspective allowed me to act to spend more time with my children, less time being overcommitted or overwhelmed, and with greater focus dedicating myself to mindful living; creating tools to keep dreams AND appointments on the agenda; with space to focus, do, and recharge so you can rise to your fullest self every day.

In a world where we’re inundated with relentless beeps, pop-ups, alerts and likes competing for our attention, it’s questionable how productive we can be with so many interruptions. Coaching allowed me to gain self-awareness, clarify my goals, achieve development objectives and get closer to aligning my values with my everyday actions. This is why I created the Ponderlily planner – we know how to multi-talk, all too well. I wanted to create a productivity companion to help people cultivate a balanced life in today’s overfilled schedules. Pam Mueller (Princeton University) and Daniel Oppenheimer (UCLA) highlight that we retain and recall more information when taking notes by hand. 

As coaches and ‘thinking partners’ to high-potentials, using a paper-based system allows clients to find more space for meaning, commit writing to memory and explore new ways of thinking. Here’s what’s different about our planners and how they can help:

The Inspiration Spread This provides a space for ‘blue sky thinking’. It’s an area for inspirational thoughts, quotes, pictures and photos. These pages give busy people a blank canvas from which to begin to create a vision board so your clients have room to imagine what’s possible and have a boost of inspiration when needed.

The Explore and Experience spread gets people thinking about places to visit, people to meet, causes to support, new things to try, what they’ll learn and Celebrate in 2018.

The Monthly Road Map helps people set targets and monitor their progress through the year. These can be stand-alone goals or directly linked back to your Inspiration spread to design a powerful roadmap for your year.

One of the many things I learned from coaching was that the words we choose are indicative of our attitudes and thoughts. That’s why our Weekly Spread was intentionally designed to start and end on a positive note. It begins with space for writing positive intentions, it has a Recharge box for self-care practices, healthy habits to track, and a gratitude section.

The Monthly Review focuses on things to maximize and also minimize next month. Taking time to reflect on your experiences is a fantastic way to discover where changes can be made to impact your life positively. The month is done, learn from valuable experiences, and let’s turn a new leaf!

Notes The Ponderlily Planner was intentionally designed with a generous number of lined pages so it serves as a notebook as well as a diary.

A productivity tool designed with positivity in mind can help people dream fearlessly, live mindfully, set meaningful intentions and take bold actions to make space for meaning.

Coaching empowered me to find my purpose, align with my values and have the courage to take action to make my dreams become a reality.

To Marie and all coaches and clients in the Empower World community I would like to offer a token of gratitude. By using can using the coupon code EMPOWERWORLD you can avail of a 30% discount on any of your purchases entire order.

Please visit ponderlily.com

With gratitude

Carina Lawson

CEO

Ponderlily