Doing this week’s worth of posts about the D5M has been somewhat tricky for me Rick, for I have been doing it for so long now (and coaching it organizationally as a cultural practice) that I am aware it can appear to be too detailed and structured and thus open to the yeah-buts;

“yeah, I see the value in this, but I’m not in this situation…”
“yeah, I could work on my approachability, but I’m not meeting new people regularly, and my peeps know me…”
“yeah, I wish I got more of these from my boss, but I’m not a manager…”

I have to constantly remind myself that “getting into” the D5M is not about the structure or circumstances being just right, it is about our intention to give a gift of attention to someone else. That’s the heart and soul of it, and where the goodness comes back to you, no matter how you approach it.

The alpha challenge is about creating the habit which puts us on automatic-pilot in a good way.

Like you, I work from home a lot or I’m on the road, and I have begun to use GMail chat for my D5Ms virtually, sending those in my network who are aware of what it is a chat-ping “Aloha, can you Take 5 w/me right now? Good time/bad time?” when I see their green status availability.

Here is another take from Leah Maclean (from a comment she left here in the Talking Story archives)

Thanks for the reminder about the daily 5 minutes Rosa. In fact you have given me cause for thought.

Just because I don’t have staff, as a solopreneur, doesn’t mean that I can’t employ the Daily 5 Minutes strategy. I can in fact use this strategy for the most important people in MY business – my top-rated clients. 5 minutes with 2-3 of them each day would take me less time than grabbing a coffee and more rewarding, for both them and me.

Gee I love it when good wisdom such as your 5 minutes can be taken into left field.
Be well – Leah