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Values

What You Mutter Matters

what-you-mutter-matters

One of my coaches always reminds me, “What you mutter matters.” As an author who aspired to be a journalist, I know the power and impact of words. I understand how words can have a great impact on us. They can either make us feel helpless or make us feel in control.

Here are a few words right now, during this Coronavirus pandemic, that are having a big impact on me:

Lockdown vs. Stay at Home or even Shelter in Place
Stay at Home and Shelter in Place are phrases that are being used interchangea…

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Invest In Yourself. It's a Great Payback

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"She was a 'what if' personality and because of that she never really happened." ~ Anne Wilson Schaef

For us to be truly living and to feel that aliveness, we must continually invest in ourselves. The quote above reminded me of how much of our lives we live in that "what if" place. Or that "if only" place, or that "someday" place. Lots of us get stuck there and live our entire lives there.

Do you know anyone like that?

In the past I have talked about the GULP factor and what a juicy place…

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The Value of Being Vulnerably Authentic

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I presented at a luncheon the other day at an international biotechnology company. It was a talk I had given before and I knew my material really well. I was prepared with stories from my own life that demonstrated the points I wanted to make.

What I wasn’t prepared for was the comment by a participant when she came up to me after the presentation and said, “I so appreciate your vulnerability.” 

Interesting. I simply said, “Thank you.”

She responded, “I don’t see that in too many people and I…

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The Worst Advice I Ever Got

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I’ve been in business as a leadership and team coach for over 17 years. Because of this, people come to me frequently for advice. I love to be of service this way, and I do remind them I do not have all the answers and the advice I give them may not work in their specific situation and just maybe, it might be the worst advice they get.

Again, I don’t have the answers for another person’s life. What works for me may not work for another.

This Thrive Global article talks about The Worst Career A…

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How to Find Serenity

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"God, Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the Wisdom to know the difference." ~ Reinhold Niebuhr

I struggled with what to use as the topic for this post. I just kept thinking and thinking and thinking and nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

Then I took a deep breath, leaned back in my chair, closed my eyes and just breathed. Deep... long... full breaths. The idea came to me. Serenity. That ever elusive, but wonderful, glorious feeli…

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Six Ways to Practice The Art of Tenacity

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“Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity.” - Louis Pasteur (1822-1895)

Louis Pasteur was a French biologist, microbiologist and chemist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation and pasteurization. When I think of tenacity, I think of Pasteur who required a huge amount of persistence and relentlessness in his research.

I need a bit of that.

One truth I know about me is I love to start things.…

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Adopt an Attitude of Gratitude

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‘Tis the season! Yes, it is here and it seems to have arrived ever so quickly.  As I’m pondering what I want to create for my experience of this season, I realize I want to create this season to be one full of gratitude. 

Mirriam-Webster defines gratitude as simply the state of being grateful. The English Language Learners definition of gratitude is a feeling of appreciation or thanks. 

While researching the impacts of gratitude I ran across an article Giving thanks can make you happier by Har…

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How to Know You Are Accountable

Accountability

“It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable." - Moliere

“Accountability” seems to be the buzzword lately. This has been coming up a quite bit over the past year, but it seems to be more predominant now than ever before.

I remember working in companies when the question, “Who is accountable for this work?” would bring up fear when the boss asked it. We knew that he was looking for one individual to blame. It was viewed as negative and we were always lo…

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Women in Leadership Learnings

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I just completed my fourth year co-leading an 8-month Women in Leadership program. This cohort had twenty-four emerging and new leaders who completed the program. We cover self-awareness in the context of the doing and the being of leadership. Much is revealed over this program that changes the definition of what leaders are for these women.

The closing exercise in individual groups of 8 is to look back on their journey and look forward to their new journey being future leaders. We ask them to …

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How to Wipe the Blood Off Your Chin

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Resiliency is the ability to bounce back from adversity. It’s the ability to stand up after a hard fall and wipe the blood off your chin.

Dictionary.com defines it as springing back; rebounding; returning to the original form or position after being bent, compressed, or stretched; recovering readily from illness, depression, adversity, or the like; buoyant.

I imagine resiliency to be like a rubber band. It can stretch and stretch and when you let it go, it returns back into its original form. …

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