Tag: life

Lessons from fruit

Lessons from fruit

There is a good chance you’ve heard this lesson previously, but it is one I come back to often and wanted to be sure to share. The late, Dr. Wayne Dyer is known for asking the question, “When an orange is squeezed, what comes out?” {read more}

Life lessons from baseball

Life lessons from baseball

Welcome back to my blog everyone, and happy autumn season here in the northern hemisphere. As baseball season is transitioning from its regular season into playoffs; I thought this was the perfect time to highlight how great of a sport it is! And of course, {read more}

What should I be when I grow up?

What should I be when I grow up?

It’s quiz time again! Today’s quiz turned out to be a welcome surprise. Something that started out as a silly quiz just for fun, becomes the realization of a lifetime!

This quiz was just TEN questions to determine what you should be when you grow up. Or, in my case, what I apparently need to pivot to! If you’d like to take the quiz it is here: https://brainfall.com/quizzes/aspirations-quiz-what-should-i-be-when-i-grow-up/

No matter your age or status in life, I’d love for you to take it and see what you get!

Extending grace in the low moments

Extending grace in the low moments

Build self trust through being honest with yourself at your lowest, growing from it and extending yourself grace.

Difficult Person Test

Difficult Person Test

This is a new one and I am excited to share it with you! In a recent HBR (Harvard Business Review) article, titled, “Have you taken the difficult person test?“, a ‘darker’ personality test for the taking. The article indicates that taking any personality quiz {read more}

Day in the life of

Day in the life of

You asked for it! So here it is. Below is a typical ‘day in the life’ of me 🙂 Most days I try and mix things up, but the activities contained in my day are usually the same. The theme of the pandemic and being home all the time, and not really seeing many people is apparent in this post, simply because we are still living through it. One day Ill do a day in the life of, once things are back to normal!

This post brought back memories of my this or that post about a perfect day!

 

Morning

First, waking up, sometimes to an alarm, sometimes naturally. Typically, 6am-ish wakeup, dependent on how early my first meeting is. And immediately taking Bianca out for her morning walk. Sometimes she is grumpy in the morning, however with the temperatures cooling down she is a bit more chipper in the morning!

Next, we make coffee, meditate and enjoy the morning. I especially love mornings where it is still dark when I get up and I can sit outside and watch the sun come up. Sometimes I’ll take my journal outside and others I’ll sit with my hot coffee and enjoy fresh air.

After a nice slow morning, next it is time to get ready for the day. The means either a quick shower, or at the very least washing my face applying lotion and brushing my hair. Followed by makeup some days, others none.

 

Work Day

As you may already know, I am an intermittent faster, so you’ll notice no mention of breakfast. Coffee only and it is basically black. Most days I log on 30 minutes before my first meeting to catch-up on emails and make sure I’m prepared for any meetings. Working from home because of the pandemic has been nice to be close to more coffee and the ability to take Bianca out whenever she wants.

I do try and take breaks while I can and do little stretches here and there. Around lunch time I’ll heat up something prepared (see my last meal prep post here). Now that we’ve been in work from home for so long, I typically actually take a full lunch. Either by taking a longer walk after eating or doing anything by going in the office in my house.

Once the day is wrapped up, I change back into workout clothes.

 

Evening

By this time, all I want to do is be outside and moving. This means walking around the neighborhood, or going to a local park. Sometimes meeting up with friends to walk and enjoy one another’s company. Either way, getting additional steps in, either full out exercise or chatty walking! Afterward I’ll pick up dinner or heat up whatever I meal prepped.

Then it’s time to do all the things I love to do … yoga, deep breathing (more on that one day later), more meditation, reading, watching shows or talking to friends.

 

Night Time

Once it is time to wind down, I’ll take off my makeup, take a shower or tie up my hair, get Bianca outside for one last time and get in bed. I’ll admit, sometimes I stay up on my phone way too long, and other times I’ll go right on to sleep. Sometimes I’ll stay up reading and others I’ll barely lie down before I’m out!

 

Thoughts?

I’d say this is a mostly typical day for someone with a job like mine who is still work from home! I’d love to hear your thoughts and how this differs with your own day in the life of! Would love to hear from you in the comments down below!

 

wake up hug dog have a good day

Myers Briggs : My personality type

Myers Briggs : My personality type

Your interest The Myers Briggs personality test is something I bring up every so often in my blog. The post about the brain character quiz peaked the interest to know my Myers Briggs type. In the spirit of embracing my personality, I am sharing my {read more}

Embracing who you truly are

Embracing who you truly are

Welcome back fam! I’m going to get straight to the point: for the longest time I forced myself to be someone I wasn’t. Instead of embracing the delicate, soft parts of myself; I showed the world only my thorns. Randomly finding this little quiz on {read more}

Decision making: logic versus our gut feeling

Decision making: logic versus our gut feeling

Hello everyone, welcome to today’s blog post. We are really happy you are here. I want to start off today’s post by saying, the wisdom contained here comes from years of trail and error. But also, sometimes this wisdom escapes me. Therefore I wanted to post it to keep it with me. I would love to hear your thoughts on this, if you feel inclined please leave a comment below.


Considering our opinion versus another person’s reaction

Today’s topic, as indicated by the title is all about decision making. In the post about the mind/body connection I briefly talked about this, but let’s explore further. At some point in life, it comes time for us to make a decision. Perhaps we are at a crossroads and the next step determines the next few years of our future. Or maybe it is a more simple decision and there just happens to be many choices. When self doubt creeps in, we tend to have trouble making even simple decisions (dinner selection anyone?!).

In my experience, this all comes down to all facts to consider plus how we feel about those facts. Meaning, if we are having trouble deciding what to eat, it could be that we want to eat healthy but don’t have the energy to prepare a clean meal. Or we are SO hungry, we need to eat NOW and that makes the choice harder. Decision making can feel cumbersome when we aren’t feeling sure of ourselves.

As many people do, I sometimes find myself making decisions based on what I want other people to think about me; instead of what I think of me. Said another way, sometimes my decisions are based off another person’s perception, advice or simply me hoping they will accept me more. Have you ever found yourself making a decision and weighing the reaction of others more heavily than your own gut feeling? Or maybe even letting the facts and logic out weigh the feeling in your heart.


Here is an example:

I once new a person who had the opportunity to go to an Ivy League University. They came to me for advice, trying to make the final decision. This individual also had been accepted into their dream college, and many others. In discussion they told me that they didn’t really actually want to attend the Ivy League. They applied just to see if they would be accepted. Upon their surprise, they were!

Once this news came in, they felt a heavy burden that they would HAVE to go to that school…, “Because who on earth would pass up that opportunity?!” Deep down, however they really wanted to go to their dream college. In discussion with me, I asked some key questions about each potential college. The questions included the more foundational and basic information about finances and distance from their home. Where they would live and what they would study. In addition, I asked about networking, and their future career after college.

While asking these questions, I knew that whilst the answers were important; the most important thing was how the individual was feeling about their choice. If they went to the Ivy League just because it was the logical ‘right’ thing to do, they might be unhappy. While if they went to their dream college because it was their whimsical choice, they may feel they missed out on a huge opportunity.

Before we conclude the story, what would you have done in this instance?


How does this apply, generally?

When making any decision, the moment we feel that little pull away from our original instinct, we sometimes start to overthink or spiral. Knowing that, all the logical and ‘right’ answers in the world wouldn’t be able to truly answer the question. Pro’s and con’s list are helpful, but at the end of the day, our inner gut ‘knows’ the path WE want to take. Sometimes all the pro’s and con’s list do is create a situation of overthinking.

In addition, there can be SO many variables which go into decisions, it sometimes could literally be impossible to consider everything at once. Not to mention the unknowns which a person may not have enough time to research all the answers for.

That leads us to often having to make decisions without a complete set of information. All the while, our inner self, our heart, or our gut – however you see this ‘feeling’ – knows the answer. In the past, the advice to flip a coin to determine how you feel. If you assign an answer to each side, and the side you DON’T want comes up: you will feel disappointed. While if the side you DO want comes up, a sense of excitement comes over you.


Making the decision

To make the decision, I would recommend determining how you truly feel about the situation; either with the coin toss or similar exercise. Afterward, gather all the facts you truly need, keeping in priority order and then DECIDE. Give yourself a timeboxed date in which to make the decision. After you do, you will either feel dread and know you need to change it. Or you will begin to get super excited!

This also ties in on how to gain self-respect, which will be discussed in a future post. I also recommend making mini- decisions all day long to build your trust up for yourself. For example, if you’ve decided on a time to get out of bed in the morning: DECIDE not to sleep in. Or, if you’ve decided to do 5 minutes of stretching everyday, DO 5 minutes of stretching. These little mini-decisions will help to build up your self-trust and self-reliability. On the other hand, if you have told yourself NOT to spend time with a person or group because you know it isn’t a good idea. DON’T hang out with them, even if you feel lonely or want the company.

This may seem counter intuitive in some instances, however I see it as developing conviction and self-respect, which untimely leads to living a life YOU love. The last tidbit I’ll leave you with, is to make decisions in advance. So, if it is about dinner, select your meal before you get to the restaurant. Making the decision in advance, makes decision time much much less stressful!


Connect

Let me know if you start to make these mini-decisions for yourself. Soon enough, you should start feeling more sure of yourself! Remember: you want to have that ‘yay I can’t wait feeling‘ more than that ‘crap why did I make that decision feeling!’

Where are you going? and What do you want out of life?

Where are you going? and What do you want out of life?

When doing a life evaluation, it can feel so BIG. Interestingly, I tend to want to change my entire life every March or April. It is such an odd thing I’ve recognized about myself. Basically I wake up at the end of winter, when the {read more}