Posts in Productivity
Teach Me

We’re in the thick of holiday season, which for many of us tends to be a time when we’re around a lot of people…perhaps more than normal.  Especially for those of us who are introverts, all those extra people and conversations can seem overwhelming.  But I heard a reframing of conversations once that helped me embrace interactions with others more.

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Wanting What You Already Have

The holiday season is a time of year when we ask people for lists of things they want that can be purchased as gifts.  Making lists of things we don’t have but we want is a somewhat regular exercise for many of us.  But life coach Brooke Castillo encourages us to also regularly make lists of what we want and we already have

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Decide Again

On a recent podcast episode, life coach Brooke Castillo was encouraging people to participate in a concept she calls “deciding again.”  As Brooke explains, every year, she urges people to decide everything in your life again – who you want to be, your goals, where you live, how you dress, what you look like. 

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Wealth of Experiences

In a recent interview, Ed Mylett spoke with successful entrepreneur Jesse Itzler.  During their discussion Jesse relayed the story of being in a meeting with one of his advisors, and the advisor asked him, “If you could leave one of two things to your kids, all this money or a wealth of experiences, what would you rather leave?”  And Jesse answered, “Of course I want to leave the experiences.” 

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Permission to Be You - Granted

The alternative paths that I’ve been writing about resonate with me, and they help me to feel more myself when I follow them.  But if your path takes you in different directions, then your preferences are valid.  We are all unique.  So the most important permission you should be granted is to be unapologetically you.

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Permission to Strive for Less Instead of More - Granted

Our culture inundates us with messages of more.  We’re told we should always be striving for more money, better homes, more expensive cars, more luxurious clothing, more opinions, more networking acquaintances, more power, more rewards, more acknowledgement, more, more, MORE!  But Ed Mylett and Harvard Professor, Arthur Brooks, had a different point of view during a recent interview. 

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Permission to Be True to Your Word - Granted

Many of us live in a world littered with broken promises. We vow to get our kids their favorite fast food in order to make them behave one moment and then hope they are distracted and don’t remember the pledge in the future.  Buddy the Elf would probably yell at us, “You sit on a throne of lies!”

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Permission to Prioritize Your Life - Granted

One of Greg McKeown’s most notable quotes is, “If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will.”  He learned this lesson the hard way.  Greg often tells the story of the day when one of his children was born.  He had a professional meeting set up for that day, and after much tortured consideration, he ended up attending the meeting.  It was there at that meeting on the day his child was coming into the world that he realized he had made the wrong choice.

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Permission to Stop Equating Easy and Lazy - Granted

The oracle, Greg McKeown, wants us to stop equating EASY and LAZY.

Easy ≠ Lazy

Greg says, “Ask yourself, ‘What’s the simplest way to achieve this result?’  When we remove the complexity, even the slightest effort can move what matters forward.”

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Permission to Only Accept a Hell Yes - Granted

We human beings have a really hard time saying no to anything.  We fear missing out on opportunities and hurting people’s feelings.  But inevitably, we end up saying yes to so many things that we become overburdened and burned out.  But saying yes to everything is not the only way we can proceed.

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Permission to Reject Traditional Networking - Granted

In last week’s blog post, I introduced my counterculture oracle, Greg McKeown.  In a recent Instagram post, Greg asserted, “The key to networking is to stop networking.  99 percent of networking is a waste of time.  It’s fake.  It’s self-interested.  People are always looking over your shoulder to see who else is there.  People put on a show.  Nobody likes it.”

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