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Continually grow as a person and find your work/life balance

Live a Better Life by Making Good Decisions Faster

Written by Maria Connolly. Posted in Life Skills, Self-Leadership Skills.

Learn how to live a better life by making good decisions faster, bringing greater satisfaction, while producing the least amount of regrets.“When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision.” ~ Paulo Coelho

Who you are today is a direct result of the decisions, small and great, you’ve made throughout your life. Sometimes, this can be a bitter pill to swallow. However, once you accept it, you can purposefully alter the way you make decisions, so you can live a better life — one that you design for yourself, not one that’s been designed for you.

Some decisions you make rationally, after weighing the pros and cons. Other decisions you make intuitively, based on an internal sense of knowing what’s right for you.

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How to Be Fearless — Courageously Meet Challenges Head On

Written by Maria Connolly. Posted in Fearless Mindset.

Fear is useful when it alerts us to real danger; yet personal development demands that we be fearless when we’re faced with challenges and new opportunities“Of all the liars in the world, sometimes the worst are our own fears.” ~ Rudyard Kipling

Public speaking…heights…revealing true feelings…snakes…what do these have in common? They all generate fear in the hearts of many people. Children seem to be fearless, but over time, we collect our own unique set of fears. What you fear and why, will not match up with what I fear. But the good news is we can all learn how to be fearless, in the sense of not letting unreasonable, out-of-control fears keep us small.

What is fear and how can we be fearless?

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4 Core Components of Resilience: How to Become a More Resilient Person

Written by Maria Connolly. Posted in Controlling Stress, Handling Change, Positive Mindset, Self-Leadership Skills.

Quote: You Are Stronger Than You Think“If you can see yourself as an artist, and you can see that your life is your own creation, then why not create the most beautiful story for yourself?” ~ Don Miguel Ruiz

Life is full of unexpected twist and turns; some are pleasant and welcomed, others are devastating. At times we may think we just can’t endure it. Especially is this so after the loss of a loved one to death or a cherished privilege is snatched away from you, such as a dream job, a vocation that has defined your identity, or your security. What is it that makes us get back up, dust ourselves off and keep going? It’s the quality of resilience.

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Be Patient with Yourself by Mindfully Observing Without Judgment

Written by Maria Connolly. Posted in Handling Change, Self-Leadership Skills.

As the crisis continues, be patient with yourself. Even if you feel like you can’t do anything, you can strengthen your patience and come out of this a stronger person. “Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

This pandemic doesn’t seem like it’s going away any time soon. As the days turn into weeks, and the weeks turn into months, our patience may begin to run thin. Since we know this, it will be helpful to review how you can become more lovingly patient with yourself.

While you may plan to use the stay-at-home order to feverishly clean your home, write a book, or work on increasing your mastery of a new skill, you might find yourself feeling too down to do so. And that might lead you to feeling worthless or unproductive.

Now is not the time to put such undue pressure on yourself. The stress and worry of trying to make sense of these unpredictable times, is hard on us, whether we admit it or not. It can’t help but change us, as it changes the very world around us.

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10 Principles of Mastery — Become Highly Skilled and In Demand

Written by Maria Connolly. Posted in Self-Leadership Skills.

These 10 Principles of Mastery will help you find your motivation and give you the attitude and emotional skills needed to master a new skill or profession.“The future belongs to those who learn more skills and combine them in creative ways.” ~ Robert Greene

Now that we have more free time to finally master a skill, where has the motivation gone? Maybe you created a list of things you could do, during this stay-at-home social distancing. However, now that over a month has passed, has your list been neglected? I understand. During stressful times, it’s hard to focus. Our bodies are flooded with stress hormones that make us pull back in, to keep ourselves safe. We feel tired and afraid to start anything new. That’s why I think it’s time to redirect our focus. And the principles of mastery will help us do that.

Firstly, I encourage you to get outside for a walk, dust off your dreams, turn down the noise from the news, and focus on the one thing you really want to master. Take a notebook with you and jot down ideas as they come to you. When you find a spot to sit, create a checklist of all the things about the subject you already know, and then the things you want to know.

A book that has really helped me is Mastery by Robert Greene. After studying the lives of numerous influential figures, he learned that our culture has many myths about genius that need to be debunked, and he distilled the wisdom of the ages, revealing the secret to greatness in his book.

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