I like hacks. Not the kind of hack that gets personal and sensitive data from a computer system. I like the hacks that help us cut through thick things. Small hacks, help to cut through to what is really vital. Like when it seems there are 5 balls being thrown at you at the same time. You can’t catch all 5, so which one do you attempt to catch? Mere self-preservation has you curling up in a ball and covering your head. At least metaphorically. What if you had a hack to empower you to know which ball you needed to catch? W. I. N. What’s Important Now? Lou Holtz drilled this into his football players at Notre Dame. Asking those three simple words can help to cut through the five balls to grasp the one that is important NOW. It allows us to focus in the moment. It helps…
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I was trained as a traditional psychologist, so I practiced like one. My patients were taught how to be a patient so they made an appointment, showed up, we talked for 50 minutes and they made another appointment on the way out. What I have discovered is that there are other ways to be a psychologist. I made a huge change when I stopped taking insurance, labeling people with a diagnosis and being told when it was time to end their care. I was frustrated. And so I acted more like a coach and my patients became clients. I began to see people achieve more, take control and experience happiness. Over the years the business model has been changing and continues to change. And I have found that Group Coaching is really effective. I kind of already knew that having run youth and prison groups, but the benefits are much…
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We have been changing and developing from birth and we were meant to continue changing and developing after being fully grown.
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Recently I wrote a post about how we were meant to change. We are not meant to stay the way we are, but are constantly evolving, hopefully for the better as we have experiences and figure things out. As I work with people who want to make changes, they usually want a huge change and they want it fast. I am reminded that the small changes are what matters. We get to big changes through small adjustments. My son is a pilot and he tells me that being just one degree off, and not adjusted, will take you off course so you may not even be landing on the correct continent. In fact, when you fly, you may be off course as much as 90 percent of the time. This is due to air pressure, turbulence, and lots of factors. What gets you back on course are tiny adjustments. Pilots…
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Remember the mood ring? You put the ring on your finger and watched the stone change color. It would tell you what you were feeling. It sounds so silly now, especially since I have learned so much about the brain, but it was fun. Recently I heard someone talking about the mood of America and how bad it was. And I thought, “Moods change.” Just as easily as we can be in a bad mood, we can also be in a good mood. Our mood is dictated by how we process what is going on around us. Take a look at what you are taking in. Is the majority of your reading, listening and scrolling of a negative nature? If so, I can almost guarantee that your mood will not feel good to you. I get it, we want to be informed, we are concerned about what is happening and…
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I often say that, “kids don’t keep,” or “babies don’t keep,” meaning that they are constantly changing and growing. Becoming something else than what they were six months ago. I was reminded of this in my interview with Shane Torres that appeared last week on the Podcast, Live On Purpose Radio. Shane lost everything that he had defined as making himself successful. It was gone, the house, the cars, etc. He learned that those things are not what made him successful, they weren’t even the really important things in life. The important things were his family, and his relationships. I also recently had a few comments in YouTube about parents who do not see eye to eye on how to handle their children and a wedge starting to form between them. It saddens me to hear this because one thing parents need to understand is that they are supposed to…
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Unexpected Lesson from 9/11 I recently listened to a fascinating episode of a podcast about a man’s experience being in the World Trade Center on 9/11. The man is blind and had his guide dog there. The story is masterfully weaved of the relationship between the man, Michael Hingson, his dog, Roselle, and the sighted people around them. Michael had trust in Roselle, who was calm during the experience and helped him down 78 flights of stairs and exited the building. A few days after the experience, Michael called Guide Dogs for the Blind to see if there would be any repercussions from the experience. They asked if there were any injuries and Michael said no, that Roselle was acting normal and doing what she had done before. He was told she would be fine, that dogs aren’t like humans, they don’t do “what if.” Dogs don’t have a continuous…
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Let’s take the example of someone in a relationship that is not serving them well. It could be a relationship where you desire affection and want to spend time with your partner. They say they are committed, but they continue to schedule things ahead of you and don’t put you first. They avoid talking about the relationship and brush off your attempts to spend time together. People often tell me that they love this person and can’t let them go. Yet, they are disappointed, hurt and experience rejection multiple times a week if not daily. They see letting go of the relationship as giving up. Letting go and giving up are very different things. In letting something go, we are letting go of the expectation that the other party will be able to give us what we need. We are letting go so we can get something better. Giving up…
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Personal Development leads to better parenting and better parenting leads to personal development.
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