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Why I’m Not Afraid of Change
When I logged in to prepare this post, I realized that I haven’t sent an email since September 28th. At first, this bummed me out because one of my missions for this year was to be more consistent with writing and sharing. The reality is that the only thing that has felt consistent these past couple of years is…
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Thoughts About Fear and Bravery
I have been thinking a lot about fear this week.😬 During a recent conversation with my niece, while I was trying to help her assuage some of her own fear, I told her “I feel afraid A LOT of the time.” “But you always seem so confident”, she replied. “Ha! No, my love, but I’ve learned how to practice being…
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A Personal Reflection
September 16th is always a special day of reflection for me. On this day in 2007, I almost died when I accidentally crashed my motorcycle into a telephone pole. My injuries were so severe that the doctors at Mass General Hospital were not sure if I would live through the night. I was in a medically induced coma for 6…
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Are You Shy?
People don’t usually believe me when I tell them this, but I’m actually really, really shy. No, seriously. Hear me out. I wrestle with self-doubt, imposture syndrome, not-enoughness…and all the other usual stuff shy people and introverts (and most other humans) deal with. The thing is, I also really love to solve problems, build communities, create experiences for people, and explore cool…
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Cut Yourself Some Slack
Sometimes it is really hard to write these emails. Every time we turn around, we are faced with another problem, challenge or hardship at the collective level. It’s wonderful that we have technology that allows us to connect with folks and witness what’s happening everywhere in the world at every moment. And… It’s not always possible to hold all of…
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Bracing for Monday? This is for You.
Monday is upon us again, and if you find yourself bracing for the impact of another big busy week, then this gentle invitation is for you. When you approach your tasks from a quieter mental space, things that felt impossible just a moment ago suddenly feel easy, things that seemed like a huge forest fire suddenly feel like barely a…
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A Note About Striving
Of all the unconscious behavior I see on social media every day, unconscious striving is perhaps the one that gives me the heaviest feeling in my soul. So many people out here endlessly checking boxes and celebrating hollow victories, ceaselessly extrinsically motivated by a culture of grind and comparison that places more importance on what a person is able to…
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Self-Doubt Creeping in? Try This.❤️
In my work, themes emerge weekly, and sometimes daily. Self-doubt is, in a sense, always sort of a running undercurrent in personal/professional development work. It shows up in lots of different ways throughout a person’s life. For whatever reason, for the last couple of weeks, it has been the main topic of many conversations that I’ve had – with my…
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3 Tips for (Re)Claiming Your Energy
Ok, so…that weird-ass sluggish January is coming to an end, and many of us are starting to feel our brains and bodies ever-so-slowly coming back to operational mode. Yay! And, whew! Below I have shared three condensed tips to help you continue to reclaim your energy, as well as to help you nurture and protect it while you move forward…
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Stop Counting Your ‘Ums’
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but there is no moral problem or indication of personal failure if you say ‘um’ when you speak. In my mind, there are two main reasons for building awareness of, and understanding your use of um and other filler words. The first is fairly straightforward to tactical: If there are too many,…
