When a storm comes into our life, it is unpredictable and unexpected. Our natural reaction is to fight it. But a storm demands something from us. It demands that we make changes, learn, grow and make progress that we wouldn’t ordinarily do. We no longer have the luxury of staying on our original, known course.  Sometimes we need a disruption in our pattern. As creatures of habit, we tend to stay in our same patterns

There have been countless times that I have laid in bed at night, stressing over so many things. Mostly over things I cannot even control. Some of them were big things, like a serious existential crisis. But many of them were small things, that in the grand scheme of things, really didn’t matter. Then one day I saw a quote that was a question. Now this question is literally my litmus test as to whether

There have literally been many days that I have repeated this quote to myself. When I would allow destructive, unhealthy behaviors in my relationships or when I would stay in a toxic work environment (the quote not my circus, not my monkeys works for that one, too! Maybe I will write about that one next week!). The truth is, sometimes we stay in the circus because we feel uncertain about what else to do. In

The will to succeed is created when you understand and internalize why you want to make a change. Your why is your fuel and motivation. You need this fuel because willpower will only get you so far. And there will be days that you don’t feel motivated. So how will you keep going when you don’t feel like going anymore? Discipline. Jocko Willink (yes, another Jocko plug this week, because he’s just so good) talks

Actions speak louder than words. People can say all the right things, but at the end of the day, how they choose to treat someone else through their actions says it all. I am a big believer in observing people and what they do, rather than what they say – or what they say they are going to do. I like to look for patterns of consistency with what they say and how they act.

Caring with other people think of us is very human. It’s kind of a protective perimeter that allows us to be mindful as to not being hurtful towards others and behaving appropriately in situations. But where we tend to get off track is when we take other people’s opinions of us too seriously. When we allow their thoughts about who we should be to overshadow our own sense of who we are, we are looking

I love being the person that others feel comfortable going to for advice or help. Seeing others happy, makes me happy. And I am a peacemaker. I am the girl version of Michael Bluth (Arrested Development reference) in my family. But in all seriousness, I recognize that focusing too much on other people’s happiness can be problematic for me because I will over give, without even realizing it. When we focus too much of our

In my early 20s, I worked for a book publisher. I loved working there, but I was also going through some very difficult times in my person life. I guess it had become obvious to others that I worked with, even though I thought that I had hid it well. One day when I came into work, this elderly man who worked there had left something on my desk. I didn’t know him well at