January 2017

How to Stop Small Misunderstandings from Turning into Big Mistakes

This past December a busy attorney named Valentina and her 10-year-old son, Marco, moved into their new home in New England. The winter season was already in full effect, and a massive snowstorm swept through the area the morning after they moved, closing all the schools.

Although young students like Marco suddenly had the day off from school, Valentina still needed to visit her office for a couple hours to finish up some important paperwork with a new client. So, despite the snowstorm, Valentina drove to work, leaving Marco in their nearly snowed-in home to write a short essay that was assigned by his teacher to make up for the missed school day.

Shortly after Valentina arrived at her office she received a text message from Marco that read: “Windows completely frozen. Will not open.”

Valentina squinted at her phone in confusion, because she couldn’t fathom why Marco wanted to open any of the windows. But she was really busy and [Read more…]

4 Ways to Keep Your Attitude Up When Life Brings You Down

“I’m drained and so very tired of all the anxiety, negativity and stress. Too often my mind is consumed with unforgiving thoughts, and every muscle in my body is full of tension. It hurts. I don’t want to feel this way anymore. I don’t want to feel like I live in a whirlwind of constant exhaustion. I don’t want to just ‘get by’ day to day…”

Those are the opening lines right out of a Zoom chat session I had last night with a long-time reader and new course student of ours. I’m sharing this with you today (with our student’s permission) because, in somewhat different words, I’ve literally heard this same message from hundreds of course students, coaching clients, conference attendees, and readers over the past decade.

Can you relate? To an extent, I bet you can. Sometimes life brings even the best of us down to our knees.

I’ve fallen into a deep trench of despair in my life more than once. Looking back on these trying times, when I was struggling to get back on my feet, I now appreciate just how powerful our minds can be. They can bring us down even further or lift us up at a moment’s notice. How we think about things, changes everything!

Whenever I’m coaching someone who’s struggling in the trenches, I gracefully shift their focus from what they don’t want to what they DO want. I remind them that what you focus on grows stronger in your life, and that the best time to focus on the positive and take responsibility for your happiness is when you don’t feel like it. Because that’s when doing so can make the biggest difference.

It’s about thinking better so you can ultimately live better.

The key is to understand that no matter what happens, you can choose your attitude and actions, which dictates pretty much everything that happens next. Truly, the greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose our response – to train our minds to make the best of what we’ve got, even when it’s less than we expected.

But how exactly can you adjust your response, and keep your attitude and actions positive, in the heat of the moment? Let’s take a look at a few strategies that work… [Read more…]

Archives for January 2017