These Three Things REVOLUTIONIZED My Life in 2021

These Three Things REVOLUTIONIZED My Life in 2021

If I had to pick just three things that have revolutionized my work in 2021 these three would be it. I am sharing them with you here because they may inspire you for your work and mission in life.

#1: Notion and the “Second Brain”

The first big item is a combination of two: Discovering the “all-in-one workspace” app called Notion and the “second brain” concept by Tiago Forte. This combination has revolutionized the way I work.

  • In short, I have Notion installed on my laptop and my phone. I capture my thoughts as soon as they occur on my “resources” page. It is a growing, searchable database of ideas.
  • It also helps me to reduce paperwork. If a piece of information is worth keeping, it is worth putting it into Notion and tagging it. Through tagging, I can find it later much faster than any other way I have ever used.

I invite you to check out Notion and the PARA method by Tiago Forte. Just a word of caution: You may get addicted to it. Also, what are you going to do with the extra time you get from using this tool and method? Ah yes, be even more creative and innovative!

#2: The Brilliance Nugget Journey

  • Writing one Brilliance Nugget per day for one year is Brilliance Extraction™ on myself.
  • It also is a colossal writing journey. Writing short nuggets (less is more) took some work (it still does).
  • The Brilliance Nugget journey got hundreds of people engaged with my thoughts (scary?).
  • I realize it is not only about what I produce but about who I am becoming in the process.
I'm thinking of setting up a challenge in January. It is about YOU writing a Brilliance Nugget every day for one week. A short one. Even just one to two sentences or bullets. What do you think? Are you in

#3: Extracting My “Brilliance” and Expanding My Bandwidth

I finally did for myself what I do with my clients: Leverage my “brilliance” and make it immortal. I launched my Brilliance Mining course and began to expand my bandwidth. I invite you: As you read this, think about what YOU could do.

  • Brilliance Mining™ is a three-stage process I use with clients
    • Brilliance Mapping™ (what is your brilliance?),
    • Brilliance Extraction™ (let’s pull it out of your brain), and
    • Brilliance Replication™ (let’s put your brilliance into a system to then leverage it by training others).
  • For developing my course, I used an Agile process. Agile means: Get to something you can use (a functional Minimum Viable Product (MVP)) as quickly as possible. Make it even better from there.
    • I spent a few months documenting how I do this work with my clients. I got support and feedback along the way. (Don’t do this completely on your own. At the very least, it is hard and too slow. And you may never see all of your brilliance by yourself)
    • A live workshop with the core material was next. I got more feedback and realized that I’m on the right track.
    • Next up, I implemented the feedback and then recorded videos, created lesson pages and assignments in the Learning Management System I use (Lifter LMS).
    • I soft-launched the course, inviting only hand-selected people. I didn’t charge them for the course – only for the accompanying coaching.
    • Come January, the course will be offered to cohorts of six people at a time. It is an online course plus coaching three times per month. The goal is that participants can do Brilliance Mining™ in their organizations (with whatever amount of support they need).
  • What is essential is
    • Leverage your brilliance and
    • Put your brilliance system into motion ASAP. Document it. Get feedback ASAP. Put it to use – and get more feedback.

This process has vastly expanded my bandwidth and will make Brilliance Mining available to a greater number of businesses and organizations.

I invite you to consider: Where can you do this?!

Special Thanks!

Along the way of the Brilliance Nugget journey, dear friends have given me encouragement, comments, ideas, and most of all, love! Thank you all so much!! I couldn’t do this with you!

These two people who deserve special thanks: Robert and Irene Donnell from P5 Marketing. They have worked with me for several years, and have been an essential part of this journey. For example (there is much more): Robert showed me Notion and told me about Tiago’s send brain method. He challenged me to write a Brilliance Nugget each day. Holy smokes!

It was Irene who a few years ago said, “Stephie, do you know what you are really good at?” I asked her to tell me. She said “You pull the wisdom out of people’s brains and lay it before them. Then you help them see it with fresh eyes and make more happen with it!” Well, that was it. Thank you, Irene! The term Brilliance Extraction™ was born that day. – By the way, this story shows how important it is to have someone outside of yourself recognize your brilliance. Everyone needs and deserves that!

Another special shoutout and thank you goes to Susie Carter from Mixed Media Creations. She and Robert both were instrumental in creating my new brand “The Brilliance Mine.”

I’m Curious

  • Which are your top three things that made a difference for you in 2021?
  • What are you taking away from my top three?
  • Would you be up for a challenge in January? I’m thinking of setting up a challenge of YOU writing a Brilliance Nugget every day for one week. A short one. Even just one to two sentences or bullets. What do you think? Please leave a comment.

Stephie Althouse

I Love Your Comments

Please use the form below for private comments and the social links for public comments