An Open Heart In A Big World Can Hurt

I'm committed to sending you a few updates a month with helpful resources in answering the time old question: What does it mean to live our best life?    


Originally Published, Wednesday, Nov. 13th, 2019 - through email
Sometimes living with your heart wide open is bloody painful.  

Sometimes, the reality of having my heart wide open feels like it is literally throbbing on an open white table, blood sputtering about, exposed and vulnerable, available for anyone to take a squeeze, or walk past by, or worse yet, stab through with a dull scalpel. 

I've had an interesting few weeks, full of wisdom and connections. 

I find myself seeing more of the world than ever before, and sometimes seeing more makes it harder.  

I see the opportunities for connection, for deepening, for shared experience, for co-creation...and I also see closed doors, fear, rejections, and...

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Hard Time

Hard Time

A caring group of people is going through a hard time right now. I wrote this thinking about them.


Hard Time

When the world you know is shaken so abruptly that you lose trust in the vision of the future -- this is a hard time.
During a hard time, it takes your entire being to process it.
During a hard time, you can’t see the deep learnings and the hidden opportunities --these lessons of resilience haven’t revealed themselves yet, and you can’t trust the future right now.
Acknowledge the realness of your pain.
Acknowledge the width of the swath taken from your world.
Find safe spaces and places.
Find ways to say what needs to be said and learn what needs to be learned.
Let the water from your eyes give way to clarity and self-compassion.
Be cautious of the darkness of anger.
Anger is a disease disguised as truth.
Acknowledge it, and learn from it.
It's there to protect you.
But if you let it stick around for too long, you will miss its lesson, and you...
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What Is Purpose?

 

 

Are you living your "purpose"?

 

In the past, when I've been faced with this question, it used to send a punch of fear and a spike of pressure that made me want to run for the hills.  

 

Without a clear answer to that question, it left me thinking:

  • Does that mean I should know exactly what my one thing is?
  • And if I don’t, does that mean I’m not living my purpose, am I missing it?
  • And jeez, if I pick my one thing, but I’m wrong? 
  • Does it make me a hypocrite if I change my mind and my purpose path changes with it? 

 

I think the reference to “purpose” as being the one thing that we were put on this earth to do, is limiting, not all that helpful, and can harm our progress to living it.  I want to offer a different perspective.  

 

"Purpose" -  the lived expression of our values and our gifts.

 

I believe that the experience of living with purpose is one that takes...

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Three Of My Greatest Learnings In Personal Transformation

 
In 2018, on my 38th birthday, I made a major life decision, ending a 12-year career in business and corporate growth.   
 
Leading up to that decision (and living in that decision) has pushed me to face fears and limiting beliefs that I was living with and didn't even know existed.
 
This interview describes how I came to meet and train with a man whose presence, heart, and training helped me discover the deeper truth of who I am and what I am made of (which is a huge part of how I help entrepreneurs and business leaders today). 
 
I share three of the greatest lessons I am grateful to have learned, and John explains how and why this change occurs. 
 
Meet John Tozeland

In my interview with John, we cover:
  • My three greatest learnings from John and his work with an explanation of how I got here:
    1. Trust my intuition. (Time Stamp 3:03)
    2. I am not my fears or my limiting beliefs. (Time Stamp 7:26)
    3. Life is energy and how that energy...
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Back To School Parenting: Ten Opportunities To Pay Attention To

Today, we talk back to school parenting, during "these times".  

 

For me, COVID 19 acted like a magnifying lens helping me to pay even closer attention to my kids’ experience. 

 

As parents, we want to know that our kids will be alright, and with them facing a new school reality, I had some anxiousness.  

 

After watching my girls leave yesterday morning, I’m pleased to say I was less anxious and most inspired. 

In our house, the first day of school felt very much the same as others. COVID has not changed or ruined it. It is different, yes. And also, in that difference, there are opportunities.

 

Ten Opportunities To Pay Attention To "During These Times"

  1. Opportunities to face heavy disappointments. To know that they will be hard AND that we will get through it.  
  2. Opportunities to adapt to significant changes in routine and structure, together we figure it out
  3. Opportunities to meet new...
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Defending The Great Nation Of You

A story about the saboteurs of a great nation and what one ruler did to protect it.

The following story invites you to take on the role of the central character, a ruler of a great nation that is amidst an attack.
There are two versions of the story (each provided below), which ruler best describes you?

Act I - losing ground

 

Imagine you are the ruler of a great nation, you are under attack, you stand to lose your land, your rulership, and everything you’ve built a lifetime creating.  

 

You are hurried, you are under attack, and it's up to you to decide how to respond, your main line of defense is currently under siege, and losing ground quickly.  

 

On the ground, your enemy seems to be swarming from EVERYWHERE.  All angles are compromised, time is running out, soon there will be nothing left. There is too much to take in; you can’t possibly weigh all outcomes.  

 

You feel ...

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The 4 Saboteurs in the KNOWING-DOING GAP

These 4 saboteurs account for 90% of the reason why we don’t do what’s best for us, the first two are external, the last two are internal, and they are all interrelated:   

 

Saboteur #1. Information Overload & The Paradox Of Choice:  we are living in an era of abundant information, ask Siri or Alexa, type in where you want to go or what you want to know, and pages of answers magically appear. Information comes from everywhere at an alarming rate.  

 

For example, according to an article written in Forbes in 2018, “over the last two years alone 90 percent of the data in the world was generated.”  It went on to say that 2.5 quintillion bytes of data were being created each day. 

We also enjoy the freedom of abundant choice.  We, for the most part, are the designers of our life, from who we hang out with, what we eat, wear, live, and believe in.  We have choices to make in every...

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