vision

Discovering Your Life Purpose with the DISC Self Assessment

2014-05-22 By Monica 1 Comment

As Shakespeare said, “To Thine Own Self Be True.” But what if you’re not clear about who you really are? What if you don’t know what you want to do with your life? How do you really get to know yourself? In this series of posts I’ll show you some great tools for discovering who you are. Knowing who you are is a necessary starting point for finding a purpose that aligns with your true self.

We’ll start with the DISC assessment, which was first introduced in 1972, and is based on the theories of psychologist William Marston. Marston’s work centers on four different personality traits, most commonly described as: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Compliance. [Read more…] about Discovering Your Life Purpose with the DISC Self Assessment

10 Ways to Create Your Own Good Luck

2014-03-10 By Monica 4 Comments

Some people seem to have it all: a great career, lots of friends, good health, a great marriage, and plenty of money. How did they get all that? Are they just “lucky”? How can you be “lucky” too?

While good things and bad things happen to everyone, it’s the choices we make every day that determine our ultimate reality. Chances are if you really look at the “lucky” person’s life, you may find that she received some great opportunities. But the real deciding factors are that (a) she made the most of them, and (b) she helped create those opportunities in the first place by taking the right steps to prepare herself.

You have great opportunities waiting for you too, and you can help create your own “good luck.” Here are 10 actions you can take today: [Read more…] about 10 Ways to Create Your Own Good Luck

5 Ways to Get Back On Track When Things Fall Apart

2014-02-11 By Monica 2 Comments

It was all going so well. I was making significant progress toward my goals. I established a consistent yoga practice. I was eating healthier. I was keeping up with my blogging schedule, doing well in school, and just feeling great about life and my direction in general.

But then a week ago, I realized that almost everything was off track. I hadn’t been to a yoga class in almost two weeks, my eating habits weren’t healthy, and my focus on work and projects was abysmal.

Why? Well, as most of you have probably experienced in your own lives, the unexpected happened while a major life event was underway.

Is Being A People Pleaser Making You Miserable?

2013-08-28 By Monica 3 Comments

Do You Say “Yes” When You Should Say “No”?

We all want to lend a hand and help out where we can, but sometimes saying yes can cost us our own happiness and peace of mind. I know I hate to disappoint people when they need help, and I may even be too much of a “people pleaser” sometimes. Do you find yourself doing the same thing?

This “can-do” attitude has certainly helped me in my career and in climbing the corporate ladder. I became the Chief Operating Officer at a managed care company before I was 35. There’s no doubt one of the biggest reasons for my success was my willingness to take on big projects and work long hours without complaining. I was the go-to person for tough assignments.

What Is That “Yes” Costing You?

My “success” came at a big price however: I missed spending quality time with my family. When I was home, I was exhausted. I had also gained some extra weight and started to experience health issues. While I earned a decent salary, it wasn’t commensurate with the amount of responsibility I had. It turned out I was too agreeable when it came to salary too. I was working hard, but not very smart. I was miserable.

6 Practices for Opening Your Mind to Abundance

2013-08-14 By Monica 6 Comments

Feeling Abundant by Overcoming a Scarcity Mindset

How many times have you said, “I don’t have enough time,” “I don’t have enough money,” “I don’t have enough…. love, enough friendship, enough knowledge, enough energy….enough you name it”?

I know I have found myself saying these things, especially about time. I never seem to have enough of it. I’ve been focusing on reminding myself that I have enough time and that I just need to slow down and breathe.

Any time we focus on scarcity, lack, or limitation, we lose focus of our own abundance and actually make things worse instead of better. Stephen Covey coined the term “scarcity mentality” for this principle in his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Covey says, “People with a scarcity mentality tend to see everything in terms of win-lose. There is only so much; and if someone else has it, that means there will be less for me.”

We Were Made For These Times

2011-08-06 By Monica 2 Comments

“When a great ship is in harbor and moored, it is safe, there can be no doubt.
But … that is not what great ships are built for.”

A few weeks ago when I was in Portland, I had the privilege of attending a talk by Lisa Davis on the topic of Vision. There were many “aha moments” for me during Lisa’s talk, one of which was at the end where she read a letter from Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés, author of Women Who Run with the Wolves.

The timing of the message from this letter is as appropriate today as it was when it was written ten years ago, perhaps even more so as our world and economy face even greater challenges. It’s easy to get caught up in world events and feel helpless at times but as Estés points out, we can weather the storms. We are more prepared than we realize, and she says it best in the opening lines, “We were made for these times.” The letter is a bit lengthy but I hope you enjoy it as much as I did, I’d love to hear your thoughts and feelings in the comments section below.

Do Not Lose Heart, We Were Made for These Times
by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Mis estimados,
Do not lose heart. We were made for these times.

I have heard from so many recently who are deeply and properly bewildered. They are concerned about the state of affairs in our world right now. It is true, one has to have strong cojones and ovarios to withstand much of what passes for “good” in our culture today. Abject disregard of what the soul finds most precious and irreplaceable and the corruption of principled ideals have become, in some large societal arenas, “the new normal,” the grotesquerie of the week.

It is hard to say which one of the current egregious matters has rocked people’s worlds and beliefs more. Ours is a time of almost daily jaw-dropping astonishment and often righteous rage over the latest degradations of what matters most to civilized, visionary people.

…You are right in your assessments. The lustre and hubris some have aspired to while endorsing acts so heinous against children, elders, everyday people, the poor, the unguarded, the helpless, is breathtaking.

vision

Before Footer

Let’s Connect