Tiny Bites of Wagaliciousness

Especially if it’s something you dreamed of doing since childhood, do you ever question whether you’re in the right profession? Often what we think a job will be is very different than what it turns out to be. If you find yourself questioning your career path often, it could be time for you to think seriously about what you want to do vs. what you’re doing. Don’t be afraid to make a different career choice, and don’t make major changes without consideration and exploration of other paths. Career counselors and life coaches can help you, and if you already have trusted mentors, that’s a great place to begin exploring your feelings and options about your career. Your degree is not a life sentence. You’re allowed to change your mind if you want to. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

Did you know you’re a big chemical factory? Your feelings happen when your brain delivers shots of specific chemicals. The “warm fuzzy feeling” chemical is oxytocin and you can make your brain deliver it any time you want. How? Do something nice for someone. Doing something nice for others gives you a hit of oxytocin. One of the ways I trigger that feeling might be something you’ll have fun with, too. They’re called drive-by’s. When running errands, I pay attention to the people around me and call out excellence or creativity or beauty when I see it. If a woman has a fabulous smile, I tell her she’s winning at smiles today. When a little girl has on sparkly shoes, I tell her she’s winning at shoes. If a man is particularly well-dressed, I tell him he’s winning the GQ award. The smiles I get tell me that they appreciate being noticed, and the feeling that gives me is at least as good at what I gave them. Do some drive-by’s and let them lift your spirits too. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

Are you a compassionate person? Very few people would answer that question “no” and yet I bet you can be very non-compassionate at times. For example, when you make a mistake, where does your compassion go? When you have to ask someone else for help, where does your compassion go? When you say words you wish you hadn’t said, where does your compassion go? You are a compassionate person and you’re also human. Being human means you’re not going to get everything right all the time. It means you do need to ask for help sometimes. And it means that words won’t always come out just the way you mean them. In those times when your usual reaction is to mentally berate yourself, remember that you’re a compassionate person. Give yourself compassion, too. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

It can suck to be human some days. There are days when you feel blue. Days when you feel as if the road you’re on leads nowhere. Days when it feels like what you do doesn’t matter. Welcome to the human race – we all feel that way sometimes. The trick is, instead of focusing on the feelings of frustration, sadness or even despair, distract yourself. When you let your brain marinate in unhelpful feelings, that will only produce more unhelpful feelings. Distract yourself. Take a walk outside. Listen to a song that makes your heart sing. Draw or paint or sculpt or journal. Create a pathway to relief. You’re the only person who can do it, and you CAN do it. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

Most leaders have a season when their team isn’t working their best together. Try this experiment…each morning, before your workday begins, focus on one team member and make a list of their positive attributes. Think about their good qualities only – no negativity allowed – and think about what you respect and appreciate about each one. Focus on what you’ve written, and then look for those qualities in that person as you go through the day. The next day, focus on a different team member in the same way. When you are 100% committed to appreciating and respecting the best in each team member, their best attributes are what you’ll elicit from them. I double-dog dare you – try this experiment and let me know how it goes. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

Do you ever feel like an imposter in your own life? What does that even mean? Imposter syndrome is something almost everyone feels – like if people only knew the “real” you, they wouldn’t feel as good about you as they do. Imposter syndrome crops up most often when you’re learning something new or doing something that you haven’t done very many times. Imposter syndrome often shows up when you’re on the steep leg of the learning curve, and that’s just when you need to give yourself some grace. When that feeling of not being good enough comes up for you, ask yourself what it is that you’re trying or needing to learn, and then focus on learning that. Buh-bye imposter syndrome, hello more resilient you! PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

There you are, doing whatever you’re doing right this very minute. Do you know how strong you are? You are amazing – even on the days where you don’t feel 100%, you still show up, doing your best. Even on the days where hormones are your enemy, you still show up, doing your best. Even on days where your team isn’t getting along, you still show up, doing your best to help them do their best. Is your best the same every day? No – some days you’ll have more mental resources and resilience, and some days not so much, but you still do your best every day. You are strong and it’s perfectly human if your strong looks a bit different today than it did yesterday. You are still amazingly strong because you’re showing up, doing your best. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

Is there someone you have to be around that you wish would just go away? Can you ignore their poor behavior? How about ignoring their annoying behavior? When you learn to ignore things that ordinarily set you off, you’re learning to create your own inner peace. How can you ignore their behavior? Stop focusing on it, stop talking to others about it, and stop expecting it from them. When you allow someone else’s behavior to dictate yours, you’re creating your own inner turmoil and using the other person as your excuse to feel bad. Let other people do what they do – they’re going to do it anyway. Your job is to learn to ignore what has irritated you in the past – you’re not in control of the other person, but you are in control of your own inner peace. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

Don’t you just hate it when you don’t know something? Guess what? You can’t know things you don’t know. Really think about that…you cannot know what you don’t know. You haven’t encountered it yet in your life, which is why you don’t know it. Do you see the pointlessness of beating yourself up when you don’t know something? We all do it…you’re not alone in this annoying logical contradiction. You aren’t expected to know everything. You can’t know everything. And when you stop beating yourself up for not knowing, you open yourself up to the fun of learning something new. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

What do you do that feeds your soul? Do you love it? Would you do it, even if you never got paid to do it? Then do it…whatever “it” is. Maybe your work feels like a calling to you, and it feeds your soul. That’s great, and can also be very stressful, even on the best days. It’s important for you to do other things that you love. Give yourself a creative or physical or intellectual pursuit that you can pour yourself into at least once a week. It’s a wonderful way for you to ease stress, stretch your abilities and feed your soul. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

A lot of people say they feel like their schedule runs them, and they say it like it’s a bad thing. Can you let your calendar be the boss of you and be happy about it? Usually people who don’t love their schedule aren’t scheduling the very thing they need most – their time off. Calendar your time off and respect that boundary. No one can be on call 24/7/365 and that includes you. The way to create more mental wellbeing in your life is by ensuring that you have down time – time to recharge your batteries, feed your soul, read a good book, go out with friends, or just stay in your pajamas for a whole day. Decide what your work hours are, give it your all at work and fence off your time off – it’s yours and you earned it, deserve it and need it. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

Do you ever feel glum or sad or maybe even helpless? Welcome to the human race. Even if you’re usually upbeat and successful, it can help to remember that we all have down days and sour moods. Part of being human is having a full range of emotions, and some of them hit hard and hurt. Especially if you’re a normally happy, upbeat person, those more negative feelings can feel overwhelming. Our choice and our power is that we don’t have to live with those feelings forever. Feel them, fix what you have the power to fix, let the rest go, and then focus on something that helps you feel better. A pet, a loved one, a hobby, a favorite song – whatever. Focusing on it helps you find a way to get back up and get on with your fabulous life. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

Think about your normal day – is there a time of day when you feel tired or like someone drained your energy and brains right out of you? If you have a mid-morning slump, add things like yogurt, bananas, nuts, berries and oats to your breakfast, or have them as mid-morning snacks. If you’re slump happens after lunch, fatty fish like tuna and salmon for lunch can help you power through that. Mid-afternoon snacks like dark chocolate, cheese and maybe even a black coffee or espresso have the power to move your energy level back up. You don’t have to eat them all every day – just adding one or two of them to your meals or snacks will give you a natural mood lift. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

Have you ever examined the words you use? Language matters, especially when you’re in a leadership position. Loaded language is commonly used in newscasts, headlines, and videos because it triggers a response in many people. If you use loaded language like “greedy” or “struggling with” or “having a meltdown” think about ways you can soften your messages and make them more positive. Loaded language in and of itself isn’t necessarily bad – it’s intended to be persuasive. Examine the words you use and work to eliminate the ones with strong negative connotations. When you load up on positive messaging in your life, people respond to you more positively. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

Did someone say something hurtful about you? It could have been something they said to your face, behind your back, or even on social media. Hurtful words hurt. We’re social creatures and care about how others feel about us, which is why hurtful words hurt. How long they hurt you depends on what you choose to do with them. If you dwell on it, telling others about what was said and how much it hurt you, and maybe even trying to get the other person to see you differently, you keep the pain active. Or you can reframe the event and move past it. Hurt people hurt people – make up a story inside your head that explains their bad behavior and move on, giving it not another thought. That incident was about them, not you. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

Sometimes it’s tough to ask for help. For much of my life I felt like I had to be self-reliant – maybe you’ve felt that way too? Learning to ask for help means you’re learning to be more vulnerable and that can feel scary. The benefits of asking for help are huge, though: you open yourself up to other ways of doing things and sometimes even other ways of thinking  you signal to the person you asked that you trust them and value their opinion, and that you’re coachable and teachable  you let someone else help you out of the corner you feel boxed into by your lack of knowledge And you learn. And it’s all good! PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

Are you an optimist or a pessimist? The truth is, we’re not either/or, each of us is somewhere on a continuum between the two extremes. An optimist is someone who expects a successful outcome of something. A pessimist is someone who feels that if something can go wrong, it probably will. We get the chance to find optimism or pessimism many times each day, and most people feel either optimistic or pessimistic based on how they’ve felt about most things throughout their life. Yep, optimism and pessimism are habits, and habits can be changed. If you find yourself having knee-jerk negative reactions often, stop yourself as soon as you notice you’re doing it. Inside your head, laugh at this old, unhelpful habit, and intentionally find a more optimistic way of looking at whatever triggered the negativity. Cultivating a more optimistic outlook will help you destress your life. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

Has life just thrown you a huge curve ball? It could be a car wreck, a job loss, a relationship loss, or even the loss of a loved one. Curve balls hurt when they hit you, and it can be easy to feel as though that pain will last forever. It doesn’t have to, and it won’t unless you allow it to. As soon as you can dress yourself, start making decisions. Decisions help you feel alive and in control. Ask your friends for help. Allowing them to help you cements your friendship and supports you through a tough time. Change your routines so you’re not going through your day the way you did before the curve ball landed in your life. Getting through a major shift in life is a mental game you can play to help you feel less alone, more alive, and more confident in yourself and your abilities once you’ve made it to the other side of the pain. Curve balls create resilience, and since resilience is a good thing, maybe life’s curve balls are, too. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

Is your day off to a rough start? Has everything that could go wrong seem to have gone wrong? Are you willing to spend one minute refocusing so you can feel better? When you’re focused on what’s gone wrong, you continue to notice things that go wrong. When you give yourself one minute to refocus, you can more easily notice what’s going right. For one minute, take long, slow, deep breaths and think about the next thing on your schedule. Remind yourself how good you are at whatever that is. Think about the times that you’ve succeeded at whatever it is. Really focus as you continue the long, slow, deep breaths for one full minute. Remind yourself that you’re in control of you. At the end of your minute, you’ll feel less stressed and more focused. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

Does it make your heart sing to help someone learn something? Yeah, me too. Think about the questions people ask you, and what you enjoy teaching people. Can you see a pattern – is there one topic that you’re asked about often? Now, think about the topic – what groups of people need the expertise you have where that topic is concerned? Inside your workplace are there departments or employee resource groups who need what you know? Is your knowledge relevant to local business networking groups, like chambers of commerce or Rotary? If you like to teach, then you need to teach – find ways to feed your soul while helping others grow. It’s a win/win/win and one of the best ways for you to feel amazing about yourself. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

If you have a staff that doesn’t get along, you know that’s bad. It’s bad for productivity, it’s bad for individual performance, and it’s bad for your mental wellbeing. As the team leader, playing referee to people clearly old enough to know better is the last thing you need to spend your time on. If it’s so bad you don’t even want to walk through the front door in the morning, try this – create a document with every staffer’s name on it, each name on its own line, with three or for blank lines between names. Print a copy of the list for each person on the team and hand them out. Tell everyone to write one nice thing about every person on the sheet using their non-dominant hand. You collect the sheets, cut them apart, and create a collage of the nice things people wrote about their co-workers. Post it where everyone can see it, and watch the tension ease, at least a bit. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

What is your workspace like? Is it a place that feels comfortable and home-like, or one that’s sterile and bland? If you can, give yourself the gift of comfort while you work. Put padded mats or rugs where you stand for long periods of time. Get an ergonomically correct, comfortable chair to sit in. These things are not frivolous – they’re the tools you need to do your job well. Dad taught my brothers and me to always use the right tool for the job. You need the right tools for your job because your comfort directly impacts your effectiveness. Look around your workspace – how can you improve your comfort in the place you spend a third of your day? Give yourself what your body needs so you can do your best work. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

Communication is the backbone to successful marriages, successful families, successful teams, and successful businesses. When communication is clear, complete, and compassionate, misunderstandings are far less likely to happen. When everyone talks to each other as equals, with respect for what each person brings to the success of the team, cohesiveness is the order of the day. When everyone understands the goal and the path to achieve the goal, each team member becomes a leader on that path. Your own internal communication is important to tend to, too - when the voice inside your head beats you up, ask it to be more respectful. When it reminds you how good you are at leading a team, you and everyone in your circle succeed. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

Have you ever met someone who could not take initiative? They don’t ask how they can help, they’ll usually do what you tell them to do, but they can’t seem to see something that needs to be done and just do it. How does that make you feel? Does their behavior irritate you, or make you judge them as lazy or uncaring or just plain stupid? Can you find compassion for them so you can deal with them better? Maybe they’ve been beaten down by a parent or a partner who always belittled them or told them everything they did was wrong. Think about it – if that happened to you, maybe you would lack initiative, too. Resist the temptation to beat them down more – find it in your heart to try to lift them back up. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

It’s probably not about you, so don’t own it or worry about it or dwell on it. When someone goes off on you, no matter what the topic, what they’re really saying to you is that they’re having a bad day and taking it out on you. Don’t take it personally, don’t respond in the moment, and maybe don’t respond at all. They’re going to vent, so let them. Keep a placid look on your face and put imaginary duct tape on your lips. When they stop, they’ll either stomp out or glare at you for a response. Don’t respond hotly. If you have something soothing you can offer, say it. If you’re their supervisor, tell them the two of you will talk privately once they’ve cooled down. And then get on with your day, secure in the knowledge that the tirade was about them, not you. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

Those who don’t read are no better off than those who can’t read. That’s a paraphrase of something Mark Twain wrote, and it’s true. When you have a skill you don’t use, it’s exactly the same as not having that skill. Many people come out of their school years and don’t read anything that challenges them or expands their mind. When was the last time you read a book that challenged your beliefs or expanded your knowledge? Expand your mind – learn new things, explore cultures and places, and challenge what you think you know, all from the comfort of the inside of your skull. Read for ten or 15 minutes each day. Because those who don’t read are no better off than those who can’t read. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

Have you ever been so mad about something that you mentally concocted scenarios of how you could get back at whoever wronged you? Oh, the sweet savoring of revenge! It’s very human to use your marvelous imagination to plot your rival’s downfall, and it’s detrimental to your own mental wellbeing when you focus on revenge. Instead of thinking of how you could take them down, focus on lifting yourself up. You survived, you saw a side of them that you now know exists, and you’ll move forward with more awareness of their character. Act accordingly, now that you understand them better. Don’t stoop to their level and don’t let their bad behavior ruin your mood or spur you into bad behavior of your own. Chin up, dust yourself off, and get on with your wagalicious life. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

When was the last time the hair on the back of your neck stood up? Did you trust the warning and move away from where you were, or did you just forge on anyway, trying to rationalize why your intuition was wrong? Bad vibes, also known as gut reactions, happen when your internal wisdom is trying to keep you out of danger. They are a primal reaction to a subtle change in your surroundings that happen at the beginning of your body’s fight or flight response.   Trust your gut reactions – when you feel one, heed the warning instead of explaining it away or just plowing ahead. Trust the very intricate systems that work to keep you safe in the world. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

We all have different opinions, and all of us are right. Yes, even when the opinions are diametrically opposed to each other, each person is still correct to believe what they believe. How can that possibly be? Our opinions are informed by those who raised us, the experiences we’ve witnessed, and the experiences we’ve had. I like snakes and find them fascinating because Dad did and my 7th grade science teacher kept one in our classroom. You may think snakes are repulsive because that’s what you learned from your parents, and every time you see one you feel frightened. Each of those points of view is correct, based on each person's life experience. Next time you bump up against someone with a very different opinion than yours, remember – theirs is as valid to them as yours is to you. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

Is your life what you want it to be? Now and then, most people question whether or not they are in the right place in their lives. It doesn’t matter whether you define the right place as a relationship, a town or a career. Think about your life right now – do all the pieces feel like a good fit for where you are, or do you feel like one of them needs tweaking or maybe even a complete overhaul? Before you make any major decisions, think about what you like and dislike about your life right now. Then think about the change you’d like to make – first, is the change even possible, and if so, are there others that you care about who need a say in what happens? Before you set change in motion, can you make mental tweaks in your thought process to make things feel like they fit better? Make the changes inside your head first, and if they feel right, go for it in real life! PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

In 1981 Nile Rogers of the band Chic wrote a song called “Your Love is Cancelled.” Fast-forward to around 2010 and people started cancelling those they disagreed with, and the term “cancel culture” came into common use. Social media sites made it simple to gather a gang of keyboard warriors ready to do battle against anyone who said or did things they disagreed with. Suddenly it became dangerous to be different – you might be cancelled! Those who practice cancel culture say they’re holding people accountable. Those who dislike cancel culture say it’s censorship and online bullying. Can you walk the line between the two? Can you assume that the intentions are good, even when the action looks misguided to you? When you can do that, you’re taking care of your mental wellbeing and letting others be in charge of their own. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction

Have you ever been around someone who suffered a big loss? Maybe it was the loss of a job, a relationship or the loss of a loved one. Whatever it was, you can see that their own light is dimmer as they struggle to cope with a major change. Maybe you don’t know what to say? Here’s a news flash – you don’t have to say anything, and if you do find words you want to share, they may or may not be able to process those words. In the wake of a major loss, helpless and hopeless are two common feelings. When you’re there, just your physical presence is enough to support them. There are no perfect words to say to help them back to happiness, and there is no magic phrase that will take their pain away. Be there physically if you can, and if not, then check in often and maybe organize friends who can be there physically to stop in with food, offers to do the laundry, etc. Loss happens – support is the best gift you can give when it does. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

Are there people who suck the life out of you? They need more from you than you have to give, or they don’t value your time or your patience or your support or your caring heart, yet they constantly want even more from you? Yep, today’s Tiny Bite is about boundaries. People who suck the life out of you either violate your boundaries or you haven’t set any boundaries to keep their neediness from bleeding you dry. Get creative on how you can only give this person the resources that you want to give them. If they reach out to you many times a day, set up a quick automatic response just for them: “Busy - I’ll get back to you later today.” Keep it bland and impersonal and use it every time a call, text, or DM from them arrives. You might feel guilty – do it anyway. They might get mad – do it anyway. If they’re mad, they’re showing you that your boundary is perfectly appropriate. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

How often do you feel insignificant? Many people feel like who they are and what they do doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. Maybe they even feel they’re not making a difference in this world. Does that sound like you, even just a little bit? Please know this: it’s very human to take our strengths for granted because they come easily to us. It’s very human to assume that others are at least as good, and probably better than we are at the things we do well. You are not insignificant. You are unique, and the skills and heart you bring to the world are irreplaceable.  Whether you know it or not, whether you acknowledge it or not, the world is a better place because you’re here. Thank you! PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

How do you feel when someone doesn’t like you? The answer is probably a big, “it depends!” Let’s say it’s someone important in your daily life and it feels like there’s been a big misunderstanding. Do you try to help them understand who you are? Do you do things for them so they can see what a good person you are? Think about it – you don’t like every single person in your life, right? Accept that some people just aren’t going to like you. The more you try to convince them of your value, the less likely they are to want to see it. It’s part of the human experience and it has nothing to do with you. What other people think of you is none of your business. Go on with your life and focus on the people who do value you, not the ones who don’t. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

Are you a confident person? Before you answer that, how old are you? If you’re between 20 and 30, your self-esteem is just over 50% of what it will be when you’re between 50 and 60. Why is that? Because the more life you lead, the more you prove to yourself that you can handle stuff. Confidence grows with age because we gain more perspective, in addition to learning that many problems aren’t even ours to fix! When you know you can learn new things, you gain confidence. When you do something successfully, you gain confidence. Being confident doesn’t mean you think you’re better than others. Being confident means you are the quiet master of your day, no matter what it throws at you. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

What do you love to do outside of what you do for a living? In other words, what is your hobby? Hiking with your dog? Pickleball? Going to places you’ve never been before, either down the block or around the world? Whatever feeds your soul, do it. When you look at your weekly calendar you should see your hobby showing up there somehow. Block out time for what feeds your soul and don’t let work or other obligations continually crowd out your hobby. Mental wellbeing is necessary in order for you to be your best self and give your best service and your hobby gives you a much-needed outlet for built-up stress. Permission granted to go play!! PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

Think of every argument you’ve ever been part of – there were at least two people in it, right? What do you do when a family member, friend, or co-worker gets mad and wants to argue with you? You can just let them vent. Go ahead, give them plenty of time to spout their irritation. When they run out of steam and are finally quiet, take a breath before you start to reply. Let there be space in the silence between you, then respond in a soft tone of voice. Even if they’re behaving like the south end of a northbound mule, respond the way YOU want to behave, not the way they want or expect you to behave. It takes two people to argue – when you chose not to be one of them, then an argument can’t happen. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

Are you self-employed, or maybe you have a job with minimal supervision, requiring you to set your own schedule and police your own time? Do you sometimes find it hard to prioritize your many to-do’s? It may help to spend a few minutes today categorizing all the things you need to get done in order to do your job well: Income-producing tasks Marketing tasks Tax-related tasks Networking tasks Business-expanding tasks Think about how each group of tasks relates to the success of your job or business, then allocate time to each group: Income-producing gets 2 hours a day, marketing gets 1 hour a day, etc. Consider taking those groups and times and calendaring them, then following your calendar for a couple of weeks. Adjust as needed – when you create your own prioritized schedule it’s easier to ensure that everything gets done, instead of just the things you like to do. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

How do you feel when you can’t answer a question? Many people hold themselves to impossible standards and then beat themselves up when they fall short in any way. Don’t know the answer to a question? Beats self up. Can’t figure out how to do something. Beats self up. Single-handedly takes on a project that’s really a task for three people, and then can’t complete it on time. Beats self up. Did I mention that the standards they’re holding themselves to are impossible? It’s not possible for one person to take on the world every day with no help and succeed valiantly. It is possible to set a great example to others as you retrain your own expectations. Next time you don’t know the answer to a question, try this: “I’m not sure of that answer – let’s look it up together and then we’ll both know!” PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

Quick – think about this: what do you have in your life that’s really valuable? Most people think of their car or house or other material things. Those are valuable, for sure. What’s really valuable to me – and maybe to you, too – is a bit different. I love that my eyes work. I love being able to tell the difference between my two dogs in the dark, just with my fingertips. I love walking through a pool of fragrance that’s wonderful and having no idea what produced the fragrance. I love the friends who know exactly what to say when I’m having a tough moment. Your turn – today, focus on what you have in your life that’s really valuable. Make a list and add to that list any time you think of something else. The really valuable things in our lives aren’t the material things, are they? PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

When you have a big idea, people get scared. Maybe they’re scared of the bigness of the idea, and maybe they’re scared for you because they don’t want to see you fail. Big ideas scare people, and when people are frightened, the worst parts of their personalities come out. Jealousy and a desire for you to fail comes out in some people. Others want to make you conform so they won’t look bad by comparison. Still others truly care about you and don’t want you to fail. All of them will throw figurative stones at your idea, and maybe at you. Because they’re not real stones they won’t break your skin or your bones, but they still have the power to hurt, and maybe even make you second-guess yourself. Don’t react to the stones. Keep following the dream that is your big idea. Those who come with you are the ones whose opinions matter. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

Frustration is so frustrating! You are trying to do something that doesn’t make sense, it refuses to make sense, and you feel mired in your inability to make it make sense. That feeling sucks, doesn’t it? You feel like you can’t, like you’ll never be able to, and thoughts like that take you down the “beating yourself up” road. Stop. When you feel frustration coming on, take a walk. It could be up and down the hall or it could be outside – move your feet and let your arms swing naturally. This will bring your brain back into a calmer state, one where creativity is more likely to come out and play. When you go back to the impossible task, instead of saying “I can’t figure this out” say “I’ll learn how to make this work.” You’ve been learning all your life – you’ll learn this, too! PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

Are you a reader? I love books and usually have two or three going at a time. Most of them are non-fiction, and there’s usually a fiction tossed in for fun. Do you ever just stop reading a book? I do, though it rarely happens with non-fiction. Sometimes I’ve chosen a fictional tale that I thought I’d like and then discover I really kinda don’t. Does that happen to you, too? You keep reading, and suddenly instead of wanting to turn the page, you want to close the book. Go ahead. Close it. There’s no reason to keep reading a book you don’t care for, and this works in life, too. If you’ve been doing something that seemed like a good idea when it started, and now it’s just not interesting or fun, close the book. Whether it’s work, friendship, or relationship, close the book when it stops feeding your soul. Life is short. Live it the way you want to. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

Is there someone in your life who can be very very very difficult to be around? They run on knee-jerk emotion, are offensively defensive, and the cherry on top is that they’re judgmental? Wow…fun times! Wouldn’t it be lovely to wave a wand and have them suddenly be the balanced, reasonable, fun person you wish they could be? Yeah…not gonna happen. And the harder you try to help them behave better, the more frustrated you become. You can’t change another person. You can change how you choose to see them, how much time you spend around them, and how you let them affect you or not. Before you’ll be around this person, think of how they usually act. Prepare yourself mentally for them to act that way. Apply imaginary duct tape to your lips. Have reasons to have to leave the room, or even leave the event early. You take care of you. You’re the important person in this equation. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

I saw a young man a few days ago with the sweetest, shyest smile. We didn’t know each other – our paths crossed at an event where I was in a position to help him a little bit. I complimented his smile and he proudly told me he’d be getting his braces off in a month, and his smile got a little bit bigger. I made a lame joke about how it would feel for him to go out in the world with naked teeth, and he was gracious enough to laugh. In nearly every way, this was a human being who was as different from me as possible, yet he was open and willing to banter with me as we loaded his car. I reflected on his openness and wondered if I kept myself that open to others. Do you? Can you? Let’s do it – the world is a better place when we’re willing to play with those who cross our paths. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

Yesterday you were strong physically. You moved boxes around, maxed out your steps for the day and added more, and you rarely slowed down. Today you woke up a bit sore and slow, yet you still took care of the things you had to take care of, showed up for others to the best of your ability, and didn’t even come close to the level of physical strength you demonstrated yesterday. Today you’re still strong. Strong can be physical, strong can be stick-to-it-iveness, and strong can be doing your best to hold yourself together when what you really want to do is curl up and cry. Strong looks different every day. Celebrate your strength, no matter how it’s showing up for you today. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

Are you a smart person? Most people consider themselves reasonably smart, especially those who did well in school, because they were told often in their formative years that they were smart. As we grow and age, the smartest people are the ones who: consider different perspectives than their own, usually have at least one non-fiction book in the process of being read, admit when they’re wrong, are flexible enough to change their opinion, love having challenging conversations with intelligent people, and spend time improving their knowledge and skills. Does that sound like who you are right now? Yes? You’re a smart person, then, because you understand you’re a lifelong work in progress. If that doesn’t sound like who you are right now, think about one of those attributes you could focus on for the next month, and get in the habit of doing it. When you’re willing to grow, you’re a smart person! PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

People aren’t either friends or enemies. People aren’t either lovers or haters. People aren’t either for you or against you. Most people are much bigger than that. Sure, coins have two sides, and black and white are the absence of and the presence of the full spectrum of color. People are the full spectrum too. People can be an acquaintance, neither friend nor enemy. People can fall out of love with each other yet still care what happens to the other person. People can wish you well without pitching in to help. Before you decide that someone is an angel or the devil, remember that every one of us is a bit of both, and a lot of what’s in between. That includes me, and that includes you. Take a breath. Forgive. Find their good aspects and focus on those. You won’t change them, you’ll just create more peace and calm inside you. PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing

Why is it so hard to forgive another person? Why is it so easy to relive a personal affront over and over inside your head, having imaginary arguments until you finally win? Why do you insist on getting even? Pride, and I’m not talking about a group of lions. Our own sense of self – our pride – is an important part of feelings of self-worth and self-confidence. Pride is not a bad thing until it’s allowed to rage out of control. That’s when you are so upset that you say you’ll never forgive someone, or relive the affront endlessly inside your head, or plot ways to get even. None of that is productive, it’s destructive to your wellbeing, happiness, and success. Take care of you – channel your inner Disney princess and “let it go, let it go!” PS...want more? Subscribe to the Mind, Body, Soul Sessions podcast, a weekly mental spa treatment for your total self! #success #leader #lawofattraction #personaldevelopment #mentalwellbeing