Category: Learning

Isn’t it fascinating how good we are at procrastination when it comes to things with the promise of long-term pleasure, and we’re terrible at putting off things that produce short-term satisfaction?  Tim Urban calls it the instant gratification monkey.  Sometimes instant gratification has a stronger pull than the long term pleasure of being proactive. I get it. The struggle is …

Depression can be a hard one to understand, especially if you’ve never experienced it first hand yourself. Learning to support a loved one with depression is not intuitive when what we want more than anything is to offer help. Someone I love is struggling with depression, and it’s been hard for me to understand. I’ve had been periods in my …

Last fall I was challenged to “unplug” for a full week. During this digital detox, I was asked to pay attention to how I felt, notice any changes in my behavior, and watch for how many times I had the impulse to pick up my phone. The challenge helped me gain some interesting insights and learn to think twice before …

Many of you know how I love knowledge. Learning new skills and improving my understanding is almost like a drug for me. I thirst after it. So, when I had an opportunity to take an online class to enhance my business acumen I jumped. One of the exercises in the first module focused on discovering your strengths. The compelling thing …

The day we officialy became empty nesters I was caught off guard in the way loneliness enveloped me. I was drowning in sadness as I found myself wandering around the empty bedrooms remembering the funniest of details about raising our family. For years I had been looking forward to having them all leave home, and when it finally came I …

When I want to create some sort of change in my life, whether it is for personal growth or development, I typically start looking at what habits might help. A Habit is an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary, whereas, a goal is a result or achievement to which an effort is directed. While in …

Let’s talk about guilt? It’s not a great feeling, is it? By definition, guilt is a feeling of deserved blame for something. It is an emotion we associate with being sad. When we use guilt the right way, it keeps our values and actions in check because it is something we want to avoid. It moves us to act and …

Life can seem busy. It’s easy to feel like we’re always caught running and doing something, but sustaining a busy lifestyle isn’t always in our best interests. Usually, the first thing to get pushed aside is the time for self-care. Neglecting our physical or emotional health leads to feeling overwhelmed, stressed and anxious. If you have issues with insomnia, headaches, …

When our family was young, I felt like success was defined as picture-perfect. Nice, well-behaved children, a clean house, a husband who not only helps out but can read my mind. Has anyone else fallen for the same trap? Success isn’t about working to make everyone around you act a certain way. If we spend our time working on things …

Have you ever felt totally paralyzed to the point you had no idea how to move? Stuck because you didn’t know how to build momentum to get things done? I have this crazy fear of heights and a husband who is a restless explorer. One time on a family trip at Lake Powell we took a little hike up a …

I was out on a bike ride with my husband. Tired and grumpy from training for an upcoming race, I was more negative than usual. My husband noticed I was having a hard time shaking it. He reminded me about how developing a positive mindset would help my riding. Too often people tend to give up just because something is …

What do you think about new year’s resolutions? For years it felt kind of like I was throwing darts at a moving target. My hopes and aspirations either didn’t stick or I was stuck trying to move to the next step. Have you ever felt that way? Why do we set goals, anyway? Is it just because it’s the thing …