Jealousy doesn’t even begin to describe it. I so wish I would have thought of “The Land of Yes!” as the name for a company, blog, or even my personal homestead, but alas our friend’s brilliant daughter laid claim to it first for her farm-to-fork catering company. I simply adore how it sounds rolling off my tongue and all the …
The Myth about Emotions
Myth: All emotions will fall into a category of either “good” or “bad.” A lot of professionals I’ve met believe that feelings like excitement, love, and joy are “good” emotions, but emotions like anger, sadness, and jealousy are categorized as “bad.” Truth: Emotions are neutral. They are signals from our body or mind. They are an internal, personal response to …
Something to Look Forward to
A few years ago, one of my business coaches, Mark LeBlanc, gave me a piece of advice as I was creating my strategic business plan: Always have something you’re really looking forward to on your calendar, even if it’s months (or even years) away. He contended it would help to balance my energy on the days when life and work …
Be Like Ron
The countdown has begun. Three days to lift off! For many of us, it could be the lift off of big emotions, big drama, and big triggers that holiday events with family and friends can bring. I mean, we all know that person—the one we know will likely bring the match to the fire. But this year, what if we …
Cheer Up, Boys!
For 15 years, I lived on a small ranch in Southern California, just outside Temecula, which was an official stop on Butterfield Overland Stage, the southern stage line across the US in the mid-1800’s. Just off the corner of our ranch were the remnants of an old swing station for that stage line (with its own historical marker) which was …
Being Comfortable with the Uncomfortable
My friend and training mentor, Ian McKelvie, says, “If you can only have conversations with people who agree with you and feel the same things as you, that’s a very small sliver of humanity to access.” Another really smart guy, Mark Twain, is famous for saying, “When two people agree on everything, one of them is unnecessary.” Agreed. It’s hard …
6 Steps to Managing Unhappy Customers
Clarissa almost hated to hit the “send” button on her monthly statements. She knew from experience that by doing so she would trigger a cascade of unhappy phone calls to the office within 48 hours. “I’ve already paid my balance! Why do you now say that I owe $45 more?” “What kind of racket are you running over there! You …
Loosening Resistance
We have established many times that when we know what we do not want, we simultaneously can see more clearly what we do want. When we get this, it clarifies that we have a choice about where to put our focus. With all the events swirling around us in the news and in the world, I’ve recently come across a …
Thinking Your Way Back
You can never think your way out of something you felt your way into. Consider the last time you had an instant emotional reaction to something that someone did or said. Looking back, you can almost feel the moment your executive “thinking” brain was hijacked by a highly emotional response. Scientists have observed that it takes us 20-30 minutes to …
Today’s the Day!
Today was a milestone. Today, I hit “SEND” on my book manuscript to my publisher. I made my deadline of March 31st after over two years of solid work. Though I’m still months away from holding it in my hands, the heavy lifting is done, and now I get to enjoy a moment of pride and accomplishment. There is definitely …
