Gnarly roots

While out walking on the beach a month ago, I ran across this fallen tree with the most amazing gnarly roots. It reminded me of the complexity of interpersonal communications on some teams. We sometimes need a lot of patience to unravel issues and get back on the same page.

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Send yourself a Valentine

While Valentine’s Day is the quintessential couple’s day, I think it’s also a great day to treat ourselves well. It’s more likely we’ll inspire others when we are feeling terrific about ourselves, and this comes with the care and feeding of our own souls.

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Hitting the wall

I think this says it all. There are just some days when nothing seems to work, but after some yoga or meditation, a brisk walk, a good sleep, a good laugh, or even a short break, most problems become manageable. It just takes some perspective to get out of making a habit of downward spiral thinking.

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Dance your way to happiness

What more to say about today’s blog? It’s difficult to hang onto a bad mood when you play your favourite high energy music (mine is disco 😉 and dance like no one is watching!

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Random acts of kindness

The random acts of kindness movement has been around for some time, and, given this is BC’s first ever Family Day, it seems right to focus on it. Have a great day everyone!

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Leading through happiness 4

Today’s happiness practice is one of the more challenging ones for me. I’m a bit of a glass half empty kind of gal and my default is to see (or even make up!) negatives in any situation. Reframing things in a positive way, while challenging at times, is a practice that has made a big difference in my life.

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Leading through happiness 3

The third happiness practise focuses on taking the time daily to notice what others around you are doing that contribute something to your quality of life (work life included) and acknowledging them. It’s amazing how this practise helps me “get out of myself.”

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Leading through happiness 2

Continuing yesterday’s theme of happiness as central to leadership, today’s practise is a daily walk. And today is a most amazing day here in Victoria to do just that!

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Leading through happiness 1

I’ve been having conversations about happiness over the last week and it reminded me of one of the best books I’ve read on leadership in some time, How Remarkable Women Lead, by Barsh, Cranston, and Lewis. Their 5 elements of centred leadership (meaning, framing, connecting, engaging, energizing) really spoke to me, in particular the concept that meaning involves identifying strengths, purpose and happiness. I’ve had to work on happiness and so I will be featuring practises over the next few blogs that have helped me cultivate happiness. Today’s is the practise of writing down 5 things at the end of each day that you appreciated about the day.

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Losing the plot

Having decided to do a number of things differently this January (this 30 day visual challenge but one of them), I got to thinking about what it is that contributes to a lack of self management and meeting goals I have set for myself, and here is what I came up with for me:

Lack of reflection time and rushing here and there
Too much TV
Too much fiddling with technology
Scheduling too many meetings too close together
Drinking/eating too much

The last one bites as those who know me know I am a big foodie and winey (is that a word?)

Here’s to a little less of these things and a little more self management this year 🙂

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