Masterful Mindsets

"The journey to joy begins with acceptance." ~ Margaret Feinberg

Ever have one of those days when nothing seems to go right? Kinda makes you cranky, doesn't it? But what if you just accepted it and laughed it off? Could it be possible to find joy even when life seems to be unraveling?

Let’s get one thing straight about this week’s quote, it does not mean that you should settle for whatever or wherever you are in life. But rather, I believe it means that once you face where you are with acceptance of the situation – whether good or bad – you can put your energy into adapting and advancing. In other words, instead of wasting time and energy staying stuck in the problem, you just acknowledge it and then you can begin to shift your focus to the solution and moving forward into a more joyful life.

Let’s face it, life does not always turn out exactly as we’d like. There are plenty of mistakes, disappointments and failures all along the way....

“Grow through what you go through.”

Well, spring is here! My family is home for spring break, and we are busy planting, playing, loving and working. In other words, we are enjoying life.

Although the reality is, life can be chaotic and full of hardships, disappointments, and trials. I was thinking about this recently as my youngest daughter is nearing the end of her senior year. Time has flown by, and we are about to embark on a new chapter of our lives. That’s a challenge for me because I know she will be leaving soon. But instead of choosing to stay stuck; rejecting change, and resisting the future, I went through a process that I want to share with you today. I set into motion a series of steps that have pushed me past the bittersweet pain that change often brings and on to making the most of the life I have while I work towards embracing the future that is before me.

In general, it can be easy to get stuck in the trap of...

“Sometimes life takes you in a direction you never saw yourself going but it turns out to be the best and most beautiful journey you’ve ever taken.”

I read a short story once by Longtime Sesame Street writer Emily Perl Kingsley. It was something she had written to help people understand her experience of raising a child with disabilities, as her son was born with Downs Syndrome. She explains it as someone who’s planned and planned to take a vacation to Italy, only to board the plane and land in Holland.

Imagine the surprise and disappointment you might feel when you realized you’d reached the wrong destination. All your preparation, studying the Italian language, mapping out your trip, creating your itinerary, researching your destination, were all lost. Time wasted. Now you’re somewhere you didn’t want to be. At first you might not be able to look past the disappointment of not being in Italy to see what a beautiful place Holland...

“My Definition of Success: When your core values and self-concept are in harmony with your daily actions and behaviors.” ~ John Spence

Think about your greatest successes in life and what you value most. Odds are, if you are truly happy then your values and successes will be aligned. Why? Because what you focus on will be where you put your energy. Which is great if you can stay focused on what you value and believe in most. But sometimes, we don’t always live in congruence with what we value most and that is when things go astray. Because when you don’t live in congruence with what you value, your level of happiness can never be where you want it to be. And when you don’t stay focused on what’s most important to you, you’re likely to wake up one morning and realize that everything you’ve been working for is nothing that you really want. Or that will fill the void that you feel.

Reflecting back on my life as I celebrated my birthday...

“The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate. ~ Oprah Winfrey

November is one of my favorite months of the year! It’s fall, the holidays are getting close, and the new year is right around the corner. It also happens to be my birthday month, so for me, it’s a great time to reflect on my life and be grateful that I’ve been able to create a life worth celebrating.

I truly have so much in my life to celebrate and be thankful for... My life is filled with loving relationships and a deep sense of purpose that I get to share with others every day. I am blessed to have a life that brings me happiness and joy. But I’ve also lived through a lot of hardships, a ton of life lessons and plenty of failures. Not every day has been champagne and roses. But yet as I reflect, what I see most are the moments to celebrate. The successes from working hard to reach goals. The growth from stepping out of the comfort zone....

“You can only be you when you do your best. When you don’t do your best you are denying yourself the right to be you. That’s a seed that you should really nurture in your mind. You don’t need knowledge or great philosophical concepts. You don’t need the acceptance of others. You express your own divinity by being alive and by loving yourself and others.” ~ Don Miguel Ruiz

Have you ever wished you had a practical guide that could tell you how to live a life of personal freedom in just a few simple steps? Would you commit to following it if you knew it could be that simple? Good news! It can be…

There’s a reason Don Miguel Ruiz’s book, The Four Agreements, spent over 10 years on the New York Times Bestseller List and sold nearly 7 million copies… It’s an inspiring book with a phenomenal message that offers a practical guide to creating personal freedom. Who wouldn’t want that kind of transformative information...

"Surround yourself with the dreamers and the doers, the believers and the thinkers, but most of all, surround yourself with those who see greatness within you, even when you don’t see it yourself."

I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, that you are like the five people you surround yourself with most. So think for a minute about who you spend the majority of your time with… are they people who encourage and empower you or do you spend most of your time around negative people who would rather pull you down to their level than hold your hand as you rise to greatness together?

I realize that sometimes you don't have a choice. You may work with toxic people. Their negativity can bite you without warning and start to flow through you like gangrene. Creeping through your body and killing off the parts of you that contain your hopes and dreams. You may also have family members or people in your current social circle, like this. They are negative, non-supportive of...

“Relationships are like plants… Nurture them, they grow. Ignore them… they wilt away.” ~ Namrata Britto

Valentine’s Day is coming up next week, but keeping the love in your relationships strong, is a daily affair not just a one day event. So, if you haven’t expressed love to your significant other lately, or (even if you aren’t in a relationship) at least told the people that matter most to you how much you appreciate them… read on because this is important if you want to make sure your relationships aren't just surviving but that they are actually thriving!!

Relationships require effort. It doesn’t have to be difficult but it is essential. If you don’t nurture your relationships, they will suffer. Some can withstand the test of time (a rough patch here or there) but without nurturing, relationships will not grow and may not be strong enough to survive, let alone thrive. So rather than waiting to express your love...

“Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.”  – Lucille Ball

Most of the people I work with are heart-centered, service-oriented, high-performers and yet, extremely hard on themselves. They are quick to focus on the love they have in relationships with others but equally as easily, overlook the relationship they have with themselves. Sound familiar?

The problem is... if you're someone who wants to be your best and give the best of yourself to others, you’ve got to have a loving relationship with yourself or you will always hit a limit that you can’t get past. 

As the saying goes: If you want to say "I love you", you must start with "I".

One of the many areas I coach people on is having the confidence and courage to take risks and strive for success in all areas of their lives. And the thing I know for sure, is anytime you are pushing out of your comfort...

“True success is a feeling of happiness and joy.”  ~ Michelle Weimer

If you were going to define success for yourself, how would you define it? It’s easy to get caught up in the idea that success is a certain dollar amount in your bank account, a seat at the top of the corporate ladder, a new car, beautiful home, fit body, perfect relationship, etc. You know, the storybook life that all too often gets portrayed through pictures on social media and in the movies. But what I think is even more important than “Instagram Glam” is the true feeling behind those images.

If you’ve ever gotten an email from me, you know I sign off, “Happiness and Success” all the time. There’s a reason for that… It’s because I wholeheartedly believe that they go together. See, in my opinion, it’s the way we feel about our lives that defines true success. You might have it all according to the external image, but if you...