This is a picture of the Chinese character for water. One of the students made it for me in my journal. He said that this character holds a lot of power in China. Water is a powerful symbol because it is so adaptable. Think about all the forms that water can take and the power it has in each of them: ice, steam, erosion, irrigation, floods. Flowing water will find its way over, around or through obstacles that are in […]
Things are so different here in China and yet there are so many things that we have in common. There were some common themes from my coaching sessions with the young Chinese women this week. I think we can all relate to them, so I thought I would share them along with some tips. How do you balance a lot of pressure and feeling tired from too much studying and work? -Focus on staying present. Focusing on the current task and […]
Can you picture one of those medieval machines used to stretch and torture? Periodically I picture this terrible device and although I am in no physical pain whatsoever I still feel like I am being stretched on it. The level of suffering in my mind is consistent with the level of torture I imagine. Of course, this is all in my mind but if you have had a “stretching” project or task recently then you can relate to this […]
I read this blog post earlier this week and loved it, “Three Tips for Becoming an Energizer” by Rosabeth Moss Kanter for Harvard Business Review. She emphasizes the importance of this overlooked leadership quality and lists three characteristics of energetic leaders (see the link for more): A relentless focus on the bright side. Redefining negatives as positives. Fast response time. Energizers don’t dawdle. People with these qualities light up a room and other people are naturally attracted to them. […]
How well do you listen to yourself and others? Do you fully focus on the other person when you are in a conversation and give them space to fully express themselves? Do you give yourself silence during your day to tune into your thoughts? In our fast-paced, multi-tasking world we tend to miss out on fully focused listening. While on the phone we are sorting through e-mail, thinking about our tasks for the day, or doing a thousand other […]
Last week I wrote about having strong commitment and letting go of our attachment to the outcome. Having a strong commitment can become stressful and serious, especially if the deadline is coming more quickly than you anticipated, or other unplanned events take your time away from the work required. I am working on a couple of deadlines right now and in the midst of this work my cell phone connector stopped working and subsequently my phone died as I […]
Do you struggle with this like I do? I sometimes get very attached to the outcome that I have visualized and if it does not materialize then I become frustrated and disappointed. I remember when a friend kindly pointed out that I must let go of my attachment to the outcome. What? Let go of it? But that is what I am so committed to and visualizing and it is helping drive me to be more successful. Does this […]
“Oh there is a word for that!” is a reaction I often have when I make a discovery about something that I intuitively sensed was true but had no way of describing it. Because I had no known description, my sense of truth was accompanied by doubt. It is interesting that when we have a word and even better some scientific evidence to back up how we are feeling then our doubt disappears and we are empowered to take […]
Earlier this week I had the experience that we all get periodically when we become adults; we usually whine and complain when a summons for jury duty arrives in the mail. The last and only other time I had jury duty was at least ten years ago. I expected a similar experience this time but I was pleasantly surprised that it was better. One of the key differences was a video that explained the process and emphasized how important […]
In last week’s post I wrote about the importance of defining your purpose in order to create a strong personal foundation and navigate to success. This post is dedicated to helping you figure out what your purpose is. If it is already crystal clear to you then congratulations; please post a comment on how you reached this clarity! If you have not given it a lot of thought or you have some “fogginess” around what your true purpose is then […]
