Working with difficult personalities can dampen our ability to think clearly and make sound decisions.

We’ve all been in the awkward situation of meeting someone new and having to build rapport quickly — at networking events, industry conferences, charity events, dinner parties, and other social-professional situations. If you’re like many people — especially most Americans — you break the awkward silence with a pretty standard question: “So, what do you do?”

We hear it all the time: the importance of being thankful or showing gratitude. For some people, these words elicit an eye roll or a blank stare (at best). Sure, we know that gratitude is important in an abstract sort of way—but it can be hard to take seriously when our primary mode of interaction with the concept is the #ThankfulThursday hashtag on social media.

Defining purpose in work, life and business is not about the daily tasks, it’s about the reason for the tasks in the first place – the why, not the what. Discovering purpose allows a person to create the vision behind the tasks and know that vision can dramatically change results.

There are days when things get crazy or really rough. That's especially when I need to remember to love myself ----- so, I keep these words near the bathroom mirror so that I can focus on them. I thought you might appreciate them…

Dr. Gary Chapman wrote The 5 Love Languages back in 1992. In that now-famous work, he coined the term “love languages” to explain the fundamentally different ways we express and receive love. But the love languages aren’t just for romance! You can use the love languages to appreciate people in business, to support friends, and to show a partner you care.

Use love languages to appreciate people, support friends, and to show your partner you care.

In Hans Christian Andersen’s fable The Red Shoes, a young girl longs for a pair of pretty red shoes. She ultimately tricks the blind woman who cares for her into buying her a pair. Her love for the red shoes causes her to give them priority over the more important things in her life, and, as often happens in fables, karma is not on her side. The shoes become firmly stuck to her feet and force her to dance non-stop, to the point where she almost dies from exhaustion and starvation.

I usually hit 'pause', if not in January, certainly during the first two months of the year, to take some time to think about how special a time it truly is.  I purposely get quiet or centered and listen to myself about how to release what was in the past year and the steps I will take to enter the year proactively.   

So, what I've decided to do now is to focus, to prepare my mind, body, and spirit for 2023 by writing my affirmations for the year, reflecting on the past few weeks of activities and, once again, begin a gratitude journal. 

The start of a new year is the perfect time to turn a new page, which is probably why so many people make New Year's resolutions. The new year often feels like a fresh start and a great opportunity to change bad habits and establish new routines that will help you grow psychologically, emotionally, socially, physically, or intellectually.

It is hard to believe it, but the holidays are upon us! And while that may look a bit different this year, with fewer parties to attend as we social distance, less communal office goodies, and a reduction in family gatherings, you may still feel some holiday angst surrounding what to eat and how to continue to train.

Do you have trouble keeping your New Year’s resolutions? You’re not alone. Most people who make resolutions fail to keep them.

There are ways to deal with holiday stress, but first, you need to understand your triggers.

This time of year brings with it the joys—and challenges—of family gatherings, gift exchanges, and holiday festivities. The good news is that with a little planning and thoughtfulness, you can navigate the holidays with grace.

The idea of going home for the holidays will elicit either genuine cheer, slow-growing dread, or any of the myriad emotions in between. Maybe this is how it’s always been with your family this time of year, or maybe there’s a fresh wound you’re not sure how to heal. Or as one goop staffer puts it, maybe your family makes King Lear look like Three’s Company.

Not everyone is spiritually or emotionally healthy enough to have a front-row seat in our lives. There are some people in our lives who are best loved from a distance. It's amazing what we can accomplish when we let go, or at least minimize time with draining, negative, incompatible, pointless relationships, friendships, and fellowships! 

We’ve all met people who focus on the “what” they’re doing instead of the “why” they’re doing it. It’s difficult to feel passionate about something when we’re missing the meaning behind what we’re doing and why we’re here.

Somewhere around September when the weather changes, the kids go back to school and the leaves begin to wither, it starts. By Halloween, it's gathering momentum and by Thanksgiving, it has us in a full-body press. "It" is The Holidays, and whether you celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa or simply "the season," what everybody has in common during the last quarter of the year is stress with a capital S. 

“When unfavorable situations, actions and emotional conflicts happen again and again in your life—same scene, different characters—there’s a good chance you are in the presence of a negative “pattern.”

“Good fences make good neighbors.” So goes the old proverb from the well-loved Robert Frost poem. Likewise, good personal boundaries make for good relationships.

Boundaries are those invisible lines around yourself that let people know the limits of what they can say or do around you. Make your boundaries too solid and you build walls, too weak and you allow others’ actions to harm you.