When I started my day last Sunday, I exhaled and thought to myself, “Today I will disconnect. Today I will rest. Today…I will let go of the measures and expectations of my work and remember who I am.” This is what I do on Sunday mornings. Do you give yourself that type of time and
“It is not the events that happen to us that cause our feelings and behaviors—it is our thoughts or, as we’ll call them, Beliefs (“Bs”) about the events that drive how we feel and what we do.” – Dr. Karen Reivich and Dr. Andrew Shatte In the book The Resilience Factor: 7 Essential Skills for
There we were, four adult friends gathered together in a bar, looking perfectly put together on the outside, talking about the anxiety and depression that run deep through our families into each of our hearts. While we are all very functional in our demanding professional roles, we carry a dysfunction in our minds. We have
Recently, I caught up with Dr. Justin Anderson, a well-regarded leader in sports psychology, about my performance anxiety. Anderson coaches “acceptance and commitment,” and to illustrate, he has his clients picture their minds like a segment of a river. In this river, red leaves and green leaves will float by. Red leaves represent thoughts that drain
I have several “to-do” lists that crowd my brain. There’s a list of personal items in my iPhone “Notes” app. There’s a list of activities queued for me on our internal workflow tool. My email inbox has its own lineup. And then my head reminds me of items I haven’t written down: pick up dinner
Is showing emotion at work verboten? I’m starting to re-consider the popular assumption that it is. Crying, laughing, protesting and celebrating are authentic displays of who we are and central to our humanness. The more human we are, the more we can fully engage with others. And as social acumen becomes increasingly critical to workplace
I rushed to the first tee of a networking golf event. The others in my group— all older than me and looking like successful businesspeople—had already hit their first shots. So naturally, the most laughable and embarrassing thing that could happen happened: My shot went almost directly to the left off the tee, cascaded off
I’ve been pretty sad lately. A smile feels forced, I’m tired, and my chest feels heavy and aches. I don’t want to look people in the eyes because I know they’ll see it. Some of my sadness can be explained by recent experiences with loss, disappointment and the passage of time. Most of it, I
We were in a meeting when people started whooping and screaming. In the middle of a weekday, in our office lobby, one of my teammates had gotten engaged. Her boyfriend had borrowed a car identical to the one in the movie Sixteen Candles—her favorite movie—and had dressed up like the boy in the movie. I
In recent posts, I’ve explained the importance of valuing ourselves and others for who we are more than what we do. In fact, who we are is at risk, but we do everything possible to minimize it. And the harder we try, the more anxious, bitter and tedious we get. In attempting to minimize all
Matt Norman is president of Norman & Associates, which offers Dale Carnegie Training in the North Central US. Dale Carnegie Training is a global organization ...READ MORE