Have you made a New Year's resolution to focus on your physical health but have already started to slip? Setting and keeping goals can be hard, but it is of primary importance to do so with your physical health. After having Covid, a stomach virus, and then a cold over the holidays it was a vast realization for me how central it is to keep up your physical health and energy levels up to perform in all aspects of your life. With not having many health issues up until now, being low on energy and not as productive as normal for 3-4 weeks felt debilitating. And as a business owner, a parent, a family member it is was hard to keep my commitments.

As a leader it is vital to keep your energy levels up physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. And as I realize over the holidays physical health for me is the foundation for all of the others. Are you working out? Eating right? Getting enough sleep? All of my normal habits went by the wayside while I was sick and I felt it. Now my body needed the rest and to heal but it has been a process to get back to working out each morning, sticking to my nutrition plan rather than stress eating, and for me getting about 8 hours of sleep (even with a toddler at home). 

Now that I am getting back to those habits I feel better, have more capacity to do the things I want to do in my work life and personal life, and can contribute back to all of those commitments that I have. I know that everyone has different levels of physical health but what is one action you can take today to begin to focus on taking better care of yourself? What can you do to move the needle on enhancing your physical health?

Are you leading from your core values? Are you making decisions as a leader focused on what is most important to you? If not, you may be blindly making decisions which are not aligning to those things that matter most.

Getting clear on your values is critical to leading from a place of integrity. My values: Faith, Family, Integrity, Boldness, and Growth are so important in leading the way for me to make decisions as a leader and as a parent. If you are not clear on your values, go to the list of values here. Pick your top 10 that resonate the most with you.

Once you are done with your top 10 list, then whittle the list down to 5. I know it is hard to do but this helps you to get really clear on what is most important. And then take that list down to your top 3. Phew. That was hard I know, but the clearer you get the better you will be able to define what really matters to you as well as make decisions from that place.

As a leader this is a great activity to also do with your staff. They will also get clearer on their values and then together you can share what is most important for each of you. This is a great way to get to know each other as well as develop a strong bond what matters most to each of you.

Values is a critical part of leadership and strong teamwork. Getting clear on them for you and your team can really pave the way to leading from a more purpose driven place. Do the activity and let me know how it works for you!

As a leader you may have gone through a process of change and re-evaluating things during the Covid times. When the entire world was shut down for some time and now that we have re-emerged and begin to flourish in a hybrid environment, who we are and what is important to us is paramount in helping us make decisions daily on what to focus on and where to spend our time.

As I got clearer in my personal life and through becoming a mom, it has emboldened me to make powerful changes in my work life and align my duties, responsibilities and where I want to spend my time based upon the values and now purpose (building up leaders and organizations to thrive as well as lead from the heart and core purpose). For the most important things I do now align to the purpose and as I develop more business I am looking for more opportunities to build more and more things that allow me to serve that purpose.

For leaders this similar process is critical. Really getting clear on what is most important to you and how you want to show that through action out in the world is getting clear on your purpose and values. Once you are clear on those two things then you can truly align your vision with the actions and words that you speak each day.

Are you clear on your values and purpose? If so, are you living those out in the world?

While many people are getting back to "normal" socially and travel wise and are beginning to venture into the office sometimes, most clients I know are still doing much of their work virtually. Hybrid seems to be the way most organizations are moving but that means that the virtual part of work is not going away. As a result we still need to be adept at running virtual meetings effectively as well as managing the chaos that comes with working from home with others there as well.

Check out my two classes on Skillshare that will provide you some insights on how to manage these two scenarios:

Sustaining Balance in Virtual Chaos
​Are you struggling with working from home trying to balance work and family commitments? Has the virtual environment caused a lot of stress and uncertainty for you? Come and learn three skills on how to Sustain Balance in Virtual Chaos. These skills include: how to build up your resilience, set healthy boundaries, and build healthy habits.
#resilience #healthyhabits #healthyboundaries
Check out this virtual class at: https://skl.sh/3g4eI5U

Virtual Facilitation 101
Are you having to lead meetings remotely and wanting to facilitate them even more effectively? Come and join this class to learn the basics of virtual facilitation, a skill which is not going away even in a hybrid environment. Learn about basic technology tools needed. Then learn how to prepare for the meeting, what to do during a meeting and how to make it engaging, and finally what to do post meeting to make it most effective.
#virtual #facilitationskills #meetings #virtualmeetings
Check it out at: https://skl.sh/3w87BAN

As I have learned to become safe in my own skin, elevate the authentic version of me, as well as open up to the real joys of life - love, care, empathy, cherishing the little moments - I am finding that I am much happier and more dedicated to the things that are important to me. I used to spend time on things that didn't matter, that weren't aligned to my purpose, that elevated togetherness but with those whose presence did not uplift me but drained me. 

Now as a result of my family life needing time and dedication I am much less pulled towards opportunities, challenges, and even time spent with others which doesn't uplift and/or inspire me and my daughter to be more and more fulfilled and aligned to who we truly are.

All of the world now feels more genuine, more loving, as well as a lot more open to me receiving and allowing more of the universe's gifts. The universe is always wanting us to pursue our highest potential but I was not always ready to do that based upon my own insecurities. But as I have grown in the last year I have seen just how important time together with positive people are, just how good love feels, and just how regular it is to feel loved and cared for back.

Now that I have incorporated so many of those things into my life I have been able to relax work wise, trust that the right opportunities are not just coming there, but am beginning to say no to those which are no longer aligned to me growing naturally and with the family I need/want to be around moving forward. It feels good to now say no and no longer hold back my true voice, deepest dreams, and now my love, care, and empathy towards others as well.

What do you need to start saying no to in your life or business to make room for the upleveling things?

With deep inner resources now forcing me to stay still I am finally content in my own body, mind, and spirit leading to a deep sense of commitment, to groundedness, as well as now contentment within. For the real me is winning now that the dreams I have had have begun to happen. Life is being lived contentedly and the future within me is pulling me towards love, empathy, compassion, care, as well as now deep fortitude not only but nurturing. 

As a result commitment reigns. Commitment to my daughter. Commitment to the role of mother, daughter, sister, aunt, as well as partner. For the real me is now deeply integrated with others and I feel so much more content as a result. Deep worthiness now opens up inside of me not only but spreads it to others through time, energy, as well as now boldness in the road I am taking towards love as well as career choices. For the commitment inside of me now touches love, joy, fear no more and bravery.

What are you committing to? What is important enough to you to lay down your guard and truly connect with?

When you are living your values and purpose you are in in alignment with your highest self. While things may still be hard at some points there is clarity, development at a deep level as well as joy in the everyday because you are living so on purpose. 

Since my daughter has arrived so many things are falling into place. The role of mother has enhanced my deep development as I am aligned finally with the things that matter most to me - family, faith, and giving back to others. While the real me always had those intentions becoming a mom finally put family first as my daughter is so important to me. Faith has been a guiding principle in my life for a long time, but now I am much more focused on the clarity that it provides to me through living reaching for my highest potential. And finally giving back to others is becoming much more aligned career wise as I am moving more towards transformational work in my coach training, in doing much more leadership training work for the corporate world (but those who also want to do good in the world) and finally now aligning again with the mindfulness and resilience work I got trained in back in 2018. While all of that work came naturally it is because I aligned myself more to my purpose and those things just seemed to arrive.

As I leave my old doubt behind about how I can truly achieve what is most important to me I settle into a value driven existence which is fueled much more by caring, empathy, compassion, as well as trust in the guiding forces of life.

After so much time working in the human potential field and all the while doing the work on myself as well I am fully in the present now. What I mean is that motherhood has really brought out the most authentic version of myself - strong and nurturing, giving and allowing myself to thrive, open and quiet no more but challenging the aspects of life which no longer power me or help me to join with the real tribe I thrive alongside. 

For doing the work internally especially when working to help others to do the same is so important. I can now authentically show up emotionally as well as spiritually in terms of being loving and caring of others and myself.

Due to the deep connection I have with my daughter I have a deep purpose and that fulfills me in such a profound way. It buoys me up and thereby allows me to grow as an individual not only but dutifully as the partner to others I happily accept being. 

What do you need to shed in order to live your best life?

As joy has taken over my heart new opportunities are flowing to me personally and professionally. I am delving deeper into creativity by creating two new video based courses (out this spring) as well as now pursuing more partnership possibilities. The heart is the gateway to relationships as well as creativity and now that mine is so wide open due to my daughter's arrival I am able now to open up to both of those dreams I held for so long. 

While it is just the beginning I feel like there is so much space to belong, to nourish, as well as to thrive for the possibilities now are readying themselves no more but actually arriving. Due to the wellspring inside of me I draw to me now those aligned to joy, to heart possibilities, as well as those now ready to grow together. While I no longer live so undernourishing of my deepest needs, the values inside of me are propelling me into the growth possibilities which I was worried I would never be able to achieve for so long. Now I realize that it was all part of the growth process and that I am now capable of achieving them due to my heart orientation now rather than solely my head one. 

What are your heart dreams? And how can you go about achieving them?

 With all of the change in my personal life last year I was a bit distracted from going full force at work. That being said some wonderful new opportunities came my way which has pushed me into new directions and as a result new and great career trajectories. While I wasn't looking colleagues recommended me for opportunities and/or reached out to me to partner with them for opportunities which were in line with growth areas I wanted to build, but hadn't had the space to do so before.

As I needed to clear out space from my schedule to make time for my daughter's arrival I had to say no to opportunities which opened up space for these new ones. And I am grateful. For the work I began last year is aligned with who I am and the values I hold dear. It is still teaching leadership but focused on the commercial sector and for businesses who want to do good in the world. I also spent more time on Mindfulness and Resilience work as well as online work. As a result I am set up really well at the beginning of this year to launch more deeply in the career trajectory I have been wanting to lean into for some time and those things came to me with support from my network. For that I am truly grateful and thereby continue to allow things to flow as well as be persistent in moving towards the type of work I desire.

​What new ways of thinking/operating do you want to consider in your career in 2022?