The Flourishing Note™

Hi Reader,

Yesterday was Day 1 of the Top 100 Most Powerful Black Women Virtual Summit, and my session premiered that morning.

If you read Ready to Receive last week, you know I had not named my intention for the summit when I wrote it. I was writing partly to find it.

Going into Day 1, I was thinking about growing as a leader and growing as a CEO. So, my intention for this week is to find the sessions connected to where I am stretching. Not to attend everything. To choose.

Then the Day 1 Experience Partners (Tish Baldez and Wendy Ellis Green) shared a saying that I already know will stay with me for the rest of this week and for future learning experiences.

Take Notes & Make Notes.

Taking notes is capturing what you heard: your notes, your takeaways, the lines you do not want to lose. Making notes is writing down what you are going to do because of what you heard.

Inspired in Practice

In Ready to Receive, I wrote about letting your intention choose your sessions instead of letting volume choose them for you. This week I am practicing what I wrote.

Choosing the right room is only part of it, though. I also wrote about how so many of us leave learning spaces with pages of notes and very little that actually reached us. You can walk into exactly the right session and still leave with nothing but the notes you took.

That is where making notes comes in. When a session meets you where you are stretching, the Make Notes side of the page is where the stretch actually happens. Taking notes is receiving. Making notes is deciding what you will do with what you received.

I think that is why the saying landed for me the way it did. My intention this week is to grow where I am stretching, and that growth does not happen in the notes I take. It happens in the notes I make, and in whether I follow through on them. A page full of good ideas can feel like progress. A short list of things I am committed to doing is what changes how I lead.

Learning that only passes through you is not the same as learning that reaches you. Your intention chooses the room. Your notes decide whether the room changes anything.

Reflections

Here is a simple way to put this into practice for any session, workshop or meeting on your calendar.

Before you choose what to attend, name where you are stretching right now. Let that decide where you spend your time. Once you are in the room, divide your page in two. Label one side Take Notes and the other Make Notes. Let the first side fill up the way it naturally will. Before you move on to the next thing, give yourself a few minutes with the second side and write down one thing you will do because of what you heard. One is enough.

If the Make Notes side is still empty when the session ends, that is not failure. It may mean you need to sit with what you heard a little longer before you know what it is asking of you.

Where are you stretching right now, and what note will you make once you find the room that meets you there?

This Issue's Focus

I am putting the summit in front of you one more time, and I want to tell you why.

My session, Own What You're Building: The Work That Holds It Up, premiered yesterday morning. If you missed it, I would love for you to take a listen.

The summit runs through Friday, which means you have four more days to practice exactly what this issue is about. Through my speaker link, you can claim complimentary access, valued at $97, and it includes replays so you can watch on your own schedule. When the form asks which speaker gave you access, enter Jennifer McClain.

You can register here. Choose the sessions that meet you where you are stretching and bring a page with two sides.

With you on the journey,

Jennifer

Keep flourishing fiercely.