In honor of Valentine's Day (and every day, really), I want to share some ideas for how you can demonstrate care to those around you without looking like you're trying too hard. Whether you want to use these tips on a love interest, colleagues you normally can't stand, or your office BFF, they're guaranteed to give you and the recipients the warm and fuzzies. You'll see them in list form, but I've also included a fun infographic below that for your viewing pleasure!
Read MoreI recently held a webinar with a new software system that I wasn't totally comfortable with. It was time to start the webinar, and I could see that people were signed in, so I went ahead and switched it to "live" and started talking. I knew the chat function wasn't working, but I didn't know how to fix it, and while normally I like to get confirmation that people can see and hear me, I decided to just move ahead since we were recording.
So, I'm talking, sharing my slides, doing my thing...for about twenty minutes. Twenty minutes, so like, almost half of the time I've set aside for this thing.
Read MoreMost of us have an aversion to the unknown. We're uncomfortable with whatever's unplanned, mysterious, or hidden. A lot of us were raised to believe that things should be known - that if we don't know something already, we need to learn it, measure it, shed light on it, etc. There's an air of desperation behind this belief, and it can drive us to create a false sense of knowing and control through excessive planning and worry.
Read MoreWe need a new vision for work - a vision that's more alive and more vibrant than the mechanical environments that most of us are offered in our jobs today.
Many of us still believe in old stories about work, stories that tell us things like: "you need a boss," "what matters is the bottom line," or "once you get to the top, you'll be happy."
Even if we know those things aren't true, we still cling to them and strive to fit into stories that don't serve us. We're hungry for something else, but we aren't quite sure what that is.
Read MoreTomorrow is officially the Celtic holiday of Imbolc, an ancient celebration marking the shift from Winter to Spring. It was a time when herding animals like sheep were beginning to give birth, little wildflowers were popping up, and the sun was lingering in the sky for a little longer each day. Even if there's snow on the ground, frost on our windows, or if the darkness still feels oppressive, something in us is stirring. We know deep down that Spring will inevitably come again, and soon.
Read MoreI grew up as the oldest of five kids. Our family of seven was...bustling, to say the least.
As the oldest, I thought it was my job to minimize the stress on my parents as much as possible, and so I got very good at being obedient (until my teenage years, anyway - but that's a post for another day).
I was a pretty mellow kid and didn't get bored easily, and my siblings were fairly similar. One thing we heard over and over again at church was "you kids are so well-behaved!"
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