It’s 2023 and I’m back from my month off! 

Yes, I did say a month! 

I seriously checked out from both school and my business when the semester ended and came out of hermit mode this week, just in time for the start of the semester.

Trust me, I know how blessed I am to be in a position where I can take a month off and this is never taken for granted.

During that time off, I traveled home to Louisiana and spent the holidays with my family. 

If you know anything about the Five Love Languages, quality time is one of my top two. So, let’s just say, my soul was fed, and my love tank was filled (reference to Vicki from The Real House of Orange County) as I got to spend time with family and friends.

Upon returning back to Virginia, I spent the next two weeks reflecting about the past year and making plans for my future. Goal setting has really become one of my favorite things.

One of my biggest lessons for 2022 was the realization that I was in somewhat of a holding pattern. In certain ...

What's the one thing you tell yourself when you're feeling a little less than confident or struggling with imposter syndrome?

You guessed it!

"Fake it til you make it."

Don't get me wrong, back in the day I used say this to myself religiously. Particularly, when I found myself in new environments and situations. But to be honest it never really worked for me because deep down, on top of feeling incompetent and unsure of myself, I now knew myself to be a fraud.

As a result, over time, I grew to despise this phrase.

There's a flaw in the logic of faking it til you make it:

It assumes you are coming from a place of lack.

When you tell yourself, "I'll fake it til I make it," it assumes that you are deficient in some way. So, you go about the business of pretending you are competent and capable, which affirms that you are indeed, "fake." Thus, creating a negative mindset.

Question: When you're putting on the pretense of faking it, aren't you in fact doing the very thing you believe ...

Death and taxes aren't the only things life gives us without fail.

There are 4 other constants in life, what I like to call the “4 C's of Life”.

Certainty #1: Change

If there is one thing we can count on in life, it is that change will come. 

Change doesn’t care whether we like it. It gives no consideration to how prepared or unprepared we are. With change comes emotions that run the gambit, from fear and anxiety to excitement and eagerness. 

Change is an inevitable fact of life, which also brings chance.

Certainty #2: Chance

Chance is the beautiful gift of change.

With chance, we have the opportunity to evolve, to create, and to experience something new and different. We get to make mistakes and learn and grow from them. Chances are easy to overlook especially given our busy lives.

Sometimes we need to slow down, take a deep breath, and look around to see the many chances that are waiting for us to choose from. 

Certainty #3: Choice

Chance’s gift to us is choice. 

With cho...

Time management isn’t about getting as many things done on our to-do list as quickly as possible.

It’s actually far more about being effective–doing the things that will move the needle and get you closer to your goals. 

If you’re feeling that you are losing the battle with time, here are 5 small (but easy to implement) time management tips that will have you taking back control of your time and accelerating your productivity exponentially.

Time Management Tip #1: Remove Non-essential Tasks

In order to remove non-essential tasks, you must determine what’s important versus what’s urgent. 

Important tasks deserve your time. They take longer and are more strategic as they bring the most value to you, your family, and/or your organization. Consider these your “needle movers” that result in achieving your personal and professional goals.

On the other hand, urgent tasks are those items that need attention right now and tend to have immediate consequences if they are not dealt with at t...

When you look at your to-do list, where do YOU land on the list? 

Are you even on the list?

For many of us, our lives get so busy with all of our work and family to-do’s that we fail to take care of ourselves and our personal needs. We tend to invest all our time, resources, and money into others, often leaving ourselves at the bottom of the list.

If this is you, I want to encourage you to STOP! 

You are your most important investment.

It may seem like a contradiction, but when we expend time, energy, and effort into our well-being and personal needs, we not only make our lives better but we’re able to make the lives of those around us better as well.

Here are 3 areas to consider when investing in yourself.

#1: Connections

Invest in the people you surround yourself with. You want individuals in your life who will support, value, and respect you and your journey. 

I’m currently part of a small accountability group that meets weekly, in which we celebrate our wins and support on...

Everyone struggles with difficult conversations.

They:

• Are emotionally charged

• Can lead to conflict

• Require preparation and emotional regulation

Difficult conversations require work.

Think about the number of times you mapped out in your head what you would say when preparing to have a difficult conversation with your boss, peer, or a loved one. You thought about every detail, plotting out when, where, and how the conversation would take place.

That can be quite taxing, both mentally and emotionally.

One thing to remember when engaging in conversations is that we, humans, are emotional beings.

When we enter a conversation, we bring our own perspectives and expectations. If those opinions and expectations are ever challenged, then we tend to take is personally. Oftentimes, resulting in emotional reactions of anger, aggression, fear, or defiance.

And as these emotions grow stronger, our ego steps in to protect us. We find ourselves saying and doing things that f...

I wouldn't call myself a habits' expert.

However, I have spent decades reading and learning about success (e.g., what is success, what does it mean to be successful, and what does it take to be successful). And I have spent hundreds of hours the past couple of years developing habits that I believe best position me for success.

My interest in productivity habits began because:

I was sick and tired of making little to no progress on my dreams.

I had big goals and dreams that I wanted to achieve, but I was consistently experiencing overwhelm and burn out, getting nowhere fast.

The one thing that many of the gurus on success and habits agreed on was that successful people are consistent in their habits and routines. They design their lives in an optimal way, having routines and systems in place to help them achieve their goals. The problem: the rebel in me fought the idea of having plans and routines for years.

Until the day, I said no more and made the decision to "experiment" (thi...

Regardless of your commitments, sometimes you just need to unplug.

One of my goals for the year is to increase my outreach and establish more of a social media presence. So, in the month of June, I challenged myself to post content on my LinkedIn profile five days per week. Surprisingly, I didn’t find the experience to be as painful as I had imagined it to be and found the process to be quite the confidence booster. It helped that I viewed this challenge as an experiment, where my only motive was to develop the habit and routine of posting daily without any concern for the number of likes and comments I received.

After my June success, I committed to posting every day in July. 

Yes, seven (7) days per week, including posting while I’d be away on vacation. I went as far as to pre-schedule my posts to go live while I was away. 

There was one little snag in my plan. I had no posts scheduled for when I returned home. My thinking was that I’d be well rested from my vacation and would ha...

What’s the deal with morning routines? People swear by them and  all the gurus and “successful” people claim you have to have a morning routine.  

I’ll be honest, I’ve tried establishing a morning routine several times, without much success. Waking up at 6am or some other ungodly hour just did not work for this night owl. I need my sleep. I like my sleep. As someone who goes to bed at 2 or 3am, on average, it simply could not work for me.

So here I go again, another attempt. One thing is different. My attitude.

My word of the year is “Experiment”, so that is the energy I am bringing into this. I refuse to allow guilt to overcome me if I don’t complete a task in my morning routine. Not this time!

In order to achieve the goals and dreams we have in life, we  must identify the action steps, tasks, and habits we have to create. The key to our success lies in   committing and implementing these actions to achieve the vision we have.  

For example, this year I have set a goal to expand ...

What are your intentions for 2019? What are the three words by which you critique your life?

In today's video, I ask you to reflect on what will be your guiding principles for how you show up in 2019 and your life in general as well as share them with community in the comments section.

If you need a little assistance in choosing your three words, feel free to download my values worksheet: http://bit.ly/values-free-download  

Have a wonderful holiday season! 

#JourneytoYou #reflection #worksheet #LivingYourBestLife #personaldevelopment #video