Spirit of Purpose · Validating Emotions Impacts Productivity Have you ever shared how you’re feeling about a situation and the person with whom you’re speaking responds with “Yeah, but…”?  “Yeah, but it’s not so bad.  Yeah, but that’s not how it really is.”  Even if their intentions are to be helpful, the likely impact of their response is […]

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Spirit of Purpose · Look for Learning Opportunities Learning opportunities abound, especially when you’re in culturally diverse groups.  To wake up your awareness of the disparate impact of certain behaviors on people of color and white women, take a more objective look at the dynamics that occur during meetings, in public spaces, even in personal relationships.  […]

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Undo Your Brain’s Natural Tendency to Make Snap Judgments Science now confirms that you only get one chance to make a first impression. That impression takes hold more quickly than you might think. Psychologist and neuroscientist Dr. Bastian Schiller and researchers in Switzerland have discovered that subconsciously, we decide within milliseconds who or what we […]

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The roles of mentors and sponsors, although closely aligned, are also different. While a mentor supports your development, a sponsor connects you to actual job opportunities. Sponsors are people in positions with enough clout to recommend you for promotions they learn about. It’s also not uncommon for one person to be both mentor and sponsor. […]

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The ease with which an email can be sent, and the rush to move on to the next task, can be a dangerous combination. The result can be emails that fuel the fire rather than move the process forward. So, if you haven’t read the sender’s entire email and understand the message, pause before you […]

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When you feel stress or anxiety, do you double down by also feeling guilty about it? According to the Harvard Health Blog, that can contribute to poor, long-term psychological health. Contributor Dr. David R Topor sites a study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, which concluded that people who accept feeling bad fare […]

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Spirit of Purpose · How To Live A Creative Life Keep Fear From Killing Your Creativity Author Joseph Chilton Pearce said, “To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.” By it’s very nature, creativity is about taking risks. Exploring the unknown can be frightening. Sticking with the status quo may […]

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Are you in a rut?  Having trouble getting excited about your projects, or the job itself?  Do you no longer feel challenged?  Are opportunities to move up limited or non-existent?  If so, here are a few Mindtools.com tips that will help you recharge. Get to the root of the problem.  Journaling about how you’re feeling […]

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Do you have a dream that you’ve just been too busy to think through and plan for?  Well, if you’re like a lot of people, you’re in a period of forced isolation that’s given you the gift of extra time.  Consider using it to propel yourself forward once the crisis passes. Here’s an approach.   Clarify your desired […]

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As a motivational speaker, I’m often asked how one can overcome the obstacles that keep them from becoming the person they want to be.  One path to overcoming obstacles is to understand what motivates and inspires you.  Then, using that self-knowledge, set up the right conditions that will keep you moving toward your goals.   For instance, if […]

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It’s challenging for leaders to keep up with industry trends, changes in market forces, as well as workplace dynamics.  Often, executives push their own personal growth needs aside, when that’s the very thing that will yield success.  Lolly Daskal, CEO of Lead from Within, says a coach can support executives in two important ways. Interpersonal skills education, which […]

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C-level executives who seek out coaching support do so to improve their skills beyond those needed for their specific industry. Lolly Daskal, CEO of Lead From Within, says these five things are among the ways executives benefit from coaching. Assistance with self-awareness. They seek to build self-knowledge that can help them identify and address blind […]

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Through conditioning we blind ourselves to the best of who we are.  We become untrusting of our inner guidance, too busy, too committed to rules and ideas that, in the end, don’t serve our growth or expand awareness of our purpose. We collude with messages from that internal, mental Border Patrol, that limit our self-expression and access to […]

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Diana Ross once said, “Instead of looking at the past, I put myself ahead twenty years and try to look at what I need to do now in order to get there then.”  Great advice for anyone looking for perspective and ways to set goals and make choices.  Whatever your time horizon, one year, five years, […]

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Whether you’re focused on how to enhance your self-awareness, solve a problem, take the next step in your ever-evolving quest for personal transformation, professional development, looking for inspiration, or just need to stir your creative juices, you need to get in the flow to generate the right ideas.  Jeffrey Davis says he’s in the business […]

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One of the biggest challenges in achieving success is learning to be uncomfortable.  Whenever we try anything new, we push up against our comfort zone and growing edge.  That’s where our comfort level ends, and where the new and different await. To discover the new, you have to push past your existing mental and emotional boundaries and […]

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Sometimes, we spend a great deal of time dwelling on why results fell below expectations.  That’s a good practice if your plan is to use what you learn to do better next time.  Now, here’s my question:  do you invest the same amount of time dwelling on your successes?  There’s also a lot to learn when things go well.   […]

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We live in a society where passing judgment on other people and situations is a favorite pastime.  We’ve been at it for so long and so often that it’s an unconscious reflex.  Experts might say it’s a hold-over from the human evolutionary period when we needed to make snap judgments about whether the approaching thing was going […]

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In a recent Success.com article, contributor Jamie Friedlander shared three stories of successful people who decided to start something before they were ready.  Each person took a chance and pursued their business goals instead of spending time over-planning and over-analyzing.    Friedlander, herself, was put in that position early in her career and her gamble paid off.  She […]

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