Focusing in on your value

What is the value of  your time, energy and creativity? The best way to find the answer to that question is by journaling. In this episode, Jenn explains why she created her focus journal.

AUDIO VERSION

This version is a bit different than the video version.

TRANSCRIPT

Samantha Morgan: ThrivTalk, episode three. We are back. I am Samantha Morgan, the producer slash...

Jenn Ocken: My rock right now.

Samantha Morgan: Hey, I'll take rock. That's a pretty good one. This, of course, is Jenn Ocken. Another name you have is accountability partner, and unfortunately, I bailed on you this morning so this is my first time seeing you today where it should be my second time. First time, should have been at yoga this morning. Couldn't do it today, guys. Couldn't do it. You went, but did you do yoga?

Jenn Ocken: I never did make it to the yoga. I went and I did my sauna. You know how I love me some hot sauna.

Samantha Morgan: She loves the sauna.

Jenn Ocken: I will spend 40 minutes in there and I meditate. That is my place to meditate and you got to find what works for you in this space. I do guided meditation at this moment because my stillness is not rarely where I would like for it to be, but I'm doing my best. So I'm in there meditating and I get out at the proper time to take a quick shower and go on to yoga. And I was like, "Wait, do I really want to go to yoga or do I need to kind of journal today?" And I decided that I needed to take some time to journal. So, I sat in the locker room. I did get dressed.

Samantha Morgan: Noted.

Jenn Ocken: But one of the great things about Sam and I going to the Y and working out is afterwards, we journal. I think it's a great practice. So I had my journal with me and I just started journaling and I started journaling about my vision. Was it last episode or two episodes ago, we talked about writing out a vision and I had realized after I did that episode that I hadn't wrote out my kind of vision mission statement for the podcast and connecting. So I sat with that for, I mean, I think I was sitting in that locker room in this little corner by myself, which I work really good when I'm all by myself. In my developing of my vision for this podcast is I want to make a spiritual impact for people. And I'm saying that in a sense of the I am spiritual. The I am blessed to have this talent that I've received through developing my craft as a photographer and empowering other people to move forward with some visions and dreams that they might have. We're so ingrained with making our time and our energy being the value and worth that we put on what we do in this world. Taking that time this morning and journaling, it centered me. It prepared me for what's to come and moving through time, space, energy, bringing worth and value to you. I think a lot of us, I know I was one of them, that just didn't give enough time and value to centering yourself, however that looks for you. And opening up just some ideas on a page, giving it a value and a life. And that is so valuable, as much valuable as if I were to sit in front of a computer this morning and just work on the photos that I have to enhance before I did an assignment. So managing your time and finding purpose in what you're doing is a balance, and that's one of my core values is to live a balanced life. And another one is to cultivate creativity. Well, stopping, deciding not to do yoga and journaling instead was a decision that I made that I could've very easily got hard on myself and put myself down.

Samantha Morgan: Oh yeah, definitely.

Jenn Ocken: And I hope that you weren't hard on yourself.

Samantha Morgan: No, girl. I did my sunrise salutation at home and I said, "That's it. That's all I got for today." I also got a Chi in my lap now. Come here, Chi. Now, I want to ask you about, because you think journaling is so important that you actually created a journal that people can use-

Jenn Ocken: I did. I do.

Samantha Morgan: Can you tell people about it? Because it's really cool.

Jenn Ocken: Yeah. It's a focus journal and I actually made this tool for me, and different parts of it, you can download on the website, like the priority checklist and the week at a glance pages. Those are a free download. But the focus journal for me is it's a three-month journal that has no time or dates on it because we really have to be in control of our own time and dates. So being somebody that needs to meet people at a certain time to take photos, you have to have some sort of timing, but I like to block off certain things too for just some organic flow and visionary work and that kind of stuff. I have a page that allows you to create kind of a vision for the next three months, and then the very next page, you can kind of break down that vision into three different goals, three different tasks, three different things that you want to accomplish in that next three months. It comes into the priority checklist where then you can break it down to individual tasks so you can see the big picture. And then dividing it up, I love breaking it down because once you get to the priority checklist, you get to rate how these tasks that you need to do, how they make you feel. You're either energized, neutral, or distressed.

Samantha Morgan: Oh! Yeah.

Jenn Ocken: If there's a deadline that you need to place on there, a place to check it. How much time does it take, if you're that much into organizing that you need to know, I can only spend a half an hour on this? So it's really nice because that helps me as someone who is not a strong commitment to doing tasks, it kind of keeps me in line.

Samantha Morgan: I think next episode we're probably going to talk more about the myths that are associated with time. I think that is one of the myths that gets associated with being an organic or free-flowing person is that you're just unable to...

Jenn Ocken: Wrangle it in.

Samantha Morgan: Mm-hmm.

Jenn Ocken: But because I can wrangle it in, because I'm so good at procedures, so good at seeing the big picture and breaking them down, which is what the focus journal does, I'm very fast at creating good quality situations, experiences, products, everything with my task. And that's a skill. That's not necessarily me just being able to do it. Now, I really enjoy it, so that enhances my ability, but it's a learned skill that anybody can do.

Samantha Morgan: Absolutely.

Jenn Ocken: I'm not just one of the lucky ones that can do business and creative or you know what I'm saying? The other thing I realized is not everybody's going to do it the way I do it. And that's the great thing about the focus journal. There's no time, there's no dates. You can use these sections for other things. I even give suggestions. What do I need to do personally versus at my craft or my business? It's very versatile. Making space for the time it takes and the energy it takes, if you are doing that in such a way that you can feel a little bit more organized or peaceful doing it, it actually goes faster. I read this book from Gay Hendricks called The Big Leap, and he calls it Einstein Time where you are so in the moment of doing the things that you enjoy, that's why you rate if you are energized, neutral, or distressed about a task, and what I do is I will get completely into the task of stuff I enjoy and sometimes I have to do those first in order to get the momentum rolling for the distressed or neutral tasks needed.

Samantha Morgan: Oh, that makes so much sense. Yeah.

Jenn Ocken: And then you just work through everything as it's done. And before you know it, you're done and you're moving on. It does take some practice, but one thing that I kind of almost made things hard on myself early in my career because I felt like I wasn't enough value in producing what I was producing. I almost was more critical of myself because I felt like I had to be, so it'd bring more value to what I was getting.

Samantha Morgan: Yeah. I think that has a lot to do with the way our current social structure is. It's so time-oriented, and I mean, you can be the most go-with-the-flow person in the world, but that clock's still ticking and we all know it's there and we're never going to be able to stop thinking about it. So it's how do you get to that point where you stop thinking like an office job, "Oh, I have to fill out my eight hours a day and I have to spend a lot of time doing this, that or the other"?

Jenn Ocken: Well, you know some people work really great in that structure and they bring that to the same structure when they are on their own doing a solo career instead of a career that is structured within other levels of professions, like when you're working for somebody instead of for yourself. You just got to understand who you are as a person. And that's where the journaling on blank lines come in.

Samantha Morgan: Oh, gosh. Yeah.

Jenn Ocken: That's where the meditation, that's where your thought processes can be cleared out when you're exercising, taking walks in nature. It's legit when they say, "Give value to all of that."

Samantha Morgan: Let's define meditation real quick because I think a lot of people might hear that and have a very preconceived notion of what meditation is, but I think the way you're using the word is a little more open than that. Can you-

Jenn Ocken: Very open.

Samantha Morgan: Yeah.

Jenn Ocken: It's kind of interesting. Everybody perceives me as a yoga person automatically, and I can get where they say that, but actually, literally three months ago is when... Or when did we start doing that yoga class?

Samantha Morgan: Yeah, about three months. Nah-uh.

Jenn Ocken: That's the first time I've been this consistent about yoga. So thank you, Sam.

Samantha Morgan: Sorry I bailed on you today.

Jenn Ocken: Do not! Do not.

Samantha Morgan: I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.

Jenn Ocken: There are all levels. And again, the same way when you approach the way you work, you need to approach the way you meditate. I know my nephew, he can step out of the realm of all of his stress and anxiety from school when he's exercising. For me, it's when I'm journaling or speaking out loud. These organic raw talks that we have, even not if we're not recording them for the podcast, that's a form of meditation where I am truth saying, walks in nature, kind of getting into that present moment is where is really what meditation is for me. So when I walk in nature, I'll take Chi and I will go on walks really early in the morning, even before I go to the sauna, before I meet you.

Samantha Morgan: Wow!

Jenn Ocken: I know, right? I am up early. I'm an early bird.

Samantha Morgan: You are up early, jeez.

Jenn Ocken: And we'll just go on simple walks and I'll literally say, "Oh, look at that yellow flower." That is in the moment-moment. It seems arbitrary, but it's like, I mean, there's nothing stressful about the yellow flower and that's the goal of meditation is not to be stressed of all the external things that you have going around, but stepping outside of that for just a moment or two and letting your body relax into what is happening at the moment and not thinking of anything that needs to happen or that has happened.

Samantha Morgan: Yeah. It's such an important thing.

Jenn Ocken: Right.

Samantha Morgan: And that's so funny because the cup that I picked out of your cabinet today says, "Be in the moment."

Jenn Ocken: Right. It's a camera.

Samantha Morgan: And it's a camera. It's very cute.

Jenn Ocken: Basically, meditation is like while I'm driving, acknowledging-

Samantha Morgan: You drive. Listen to this, people, this blew my mind. She does beach photography, right? So the drive is about a four-hour drive, and I'm like, "Do you listen to podcasts? What do you listen to?" Because I know she's not a music listener person in the car. And she goes, "I just drive without anything on. Just silent. I just sit in silence." And I'm like, "No."

Jenn Ocken: A lot of gratitude thoughts. A lot of like-

Samantha Morgan: Yeah. Could you imagine being alone with your brain for that long in a day? I mean, most people can't do that. And that, again, is another skill. It's training.

Jenn Ocken: It is training. It's training.

Samantha Morgan: It's doing it over and over again and building up to that.

Jenn Ocken: Well, and it's also... Another form of meditation that I have utilized is sitting with my fears and my anxiety and acknowledging them and giving them sort of some validity, "Yeah, okay. You're right. You're protecting me right now from something. I hear you. You're not going to drive this train, but you do get to have a small voice, so give it to me right now." You got to find a way, usually through affirmations, listening to guided meditations, allowing myself to step into my power, it will dissipate or make those fears, give them less value, that kind of thing. But I find if you give some attention to them, they're going to slip away faster.

Samantha Morgan: Yeah. Speaking of affirmations, we haven't really talked about it yet, but at the end of each show we include an affirmation by the wonderful Cindy Wonderful.

Jenn Ocken: That is really her name, too.

Samantha Morgan: That is really her name.

Jenn Ocken: Cindy Wonderful.

Samantha Morgan: Yeah, yeah. So can you explain to people why that was something important that you wanted to include in the shows?

Jenn Ocken: Well, Cindy's mixes, affirmation mixes, she is a DJ and she was a rapper in Berlin. She is a beautiful creative cultivator here in Baton Rouge. She just has a really kind soul too. And she wanted to empower people through these affirmation mixes, but she does it in a DJ form, like in a dance mix form. And so I find dancing is a very powerful meditation and I love it. It just gets the energy moving. So she told me she was doing them and she actually helped me, coached me through the first one that I did outside of these podcasts. And I've listened to it 100 times and it's about 10 minutes long and it's just using my voice and using music and the beat and some electronics to really just make this fluid, flowing affirmation. And you just get into it because you are hearing it and moving with it. And so I just was really moved by it that I wanted to start creating them from the episode and adding them onto the episode so that other people could get into the affirmation flow, but kind of different than what I will hear on my meditation apps that I have. I like different, and Cindy provides something that is way different than I've ever heard, and it taps into affirmations and another form of meditation that I love, which is dancing or movement kind of stuff. So it's dance mixes too, so it's nice.

Samantha Morgan: Yeah.

Jenn Ocken: She is going to be taking things that we say in this podcast and mixing them in, and we will then add them on as an extension of the podcast, and hopefully have an album after we're all said and done.

Samantha Morgan: That's cool.

Jenn Ocken: I know.

Samantha Morgan: So we want to know what you guys think about the affirmations and also what your affirmations are. Maybe share those.

Jenn Ocken: Yeah, share them!

Samantha Morgan: Maybe record one and send them to us. So we'll put all that up on all the different social channels, because again, we want you to participate in this and be an active, engaged-

Jenn Ocken: Yes. Cindy actually will take a voice memo recording from your phone.

Samantha Morgan: Yeah, she will.

Jenn Ocken: And create a mix for you.

Samantha Morgan: You want your own personalized dancing affirmation? We can make that happen.

Jenn Ocken: Right on! Focused in.

Samantha Morgan: So we're going to close shop here at this point. Go download those journals, the online ones, or go to the store. There are also some worksheets available that you can get physical copies of. Go download that and start journaling because it is a process, like you said. It is a skill, so any skill has to be developed by repetition. So get started and then see what happens. All right. Miss Jenn, two Ns, Ocken, this has been great. Thank you.

Jenn Ocken: It has been. I just really... I'm just so grateful. I really love my life.

Samantha Morgan: You really do. All right, we'll see you next time guys.

Jenn Ocken: Peace out.