Skip to main content

Maria Connolly, LPC Facebook Facebook Facebook

Category: Self-Leadership Skills

Learn to Trust Yourself: 7 Tips to Strengthening Your Self-Confidence

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

Before you can step forward with confidence, you must learn to trust yourself and not doubt or second-guess yourself. Here are 7 ways to learn to trust yourself more"Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement." ~ Golda Meir

I don’t trust myself to ___. With what words would you fill in this blank? …make good decisions? …follow through? …just say no? Before you can step forward with confidence, it’s important to learn to trust yourself, to believe you can do it, because it’s easy to get consumed by second-guessing and doubting yourself, which are key reasons for inaction.

Think about it…what leads you to trust another person? Is your trust earned by one grand gesture? No, it’s the consistent, trustworthy moments you experience that build up a pattern of trust. Likewise, each small moment of self-trustworthiness you experience builds a record you can count on.

Continue reading

15 Lessons to be Learned from Life Challenges in Your Path to Self-Discovery

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

Every experience in life provides you with invaluable information, if you listen carefully for the lessons to be learned. Here’s how to do it."Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you; they're supposed to help you discover who you are." ~ Bernice Johnson Reagon

What has life taught you? Have those life lessons made you hold back from experiencing life to the full? Painful experiences can cause us to withdraw from exposing ourselves to that kind of hurt again.  But there is a way to process the hurt and turn it into a stepping stone that leads you to a full, meaningful and rewarding life. 

Continue reading

How to Find YOUR Inner Voice and Quiet the Noise

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

Learn how to mindfully, and joyfully, find your inner voice, by assessing and controlling your thoughts, while quieting the unhelpful voices of others.“Somewhere in there, among the worries, questions, advice and advertising jingles, lives your intuition, your true 'inner voice.' You can hear it to the extent that you give it your attention.” ~ Martha Beck

There are times when I still hear my mother’s voice in my head. That’s not surprising since she’s been there my whole life. Sometimes I find her voice helpful; sometimes that voice is trying to keep me safe and not take risks. Over the years, the voices of authority — parents, teachers, mentors — became part of my inner voice, and they weren’t always speaking MY truth. This illustrates why it’s so important to know how to find YOUR inner voice — and learn to listen to it and trust it. Then you’ll be able to quiet the noise from everyone else.

Continue reading

The Ultimate Meaning of Life Reveals Itself if You Listen

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

You can find your ultimate meaning in life by mindfully listening for what life asks of you as each challenge, opportunity, and crisis comes your way.“The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive is the meaning.” ~ Joseph Campbell

After suffering a severe crisis, people often contemplate the ultimate meaning of life. After surviving the holocaust, Victor Frankl wrote Yes to Life: In Spite of Everything. After a different pandemic claimed two of her children, Mary Shelley wrote The Last Man which explored what makes life worth living. Walt Whitman wrote of this same question, after he suffered a paralyzing stroke.

These people knew suffering intimately. They didn’t try to forget. They didn’t try to pretend it never happened. They didn’t become embittered. Each one emerged from their crisis, with a valuable gift for the world. After allowing themselves time to fully experience their life, including the pain, they derived a sense of meaning from it. Then they bared their souls and we benefit today from their insights.

Continue reading

Be Ready for Change — How Virtual Coaching Makes Us More Adaptable

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

Coaches – how can you and your clients be ready for change, when you don’t know what change is coming? You can do so by preparing in these three areas… Doesn’t it feel like changes have been rolling in fast and furious, like the surf in a storm. If you work as a coach, no doubt you want to help your clients cope and be ready for change. How do you feel about change? As a coach, you most likely embrace it as a chance to experience something new and venture out past your comfort zone.  

But what happens when something comes crashing out of left field, completely blindsiding us? We may be left floundering ourselves. How can we not only embrace change but be ready to make the most of it? If we’re not able to do this, how can we possibly help our clients? These are the questions we can not afford to ignore.

Continue reading

Let's get started with 30 free minutes

I invite you to learn more about me and my coaching and counseling services. Please contact me to schedule an “It starts with you!” 30-minute complimentary consultation with me, in-person, by phone or via video consultation, so we can explore our partnership.

SCHEDULE

How to Step Forward to a Future You've Created

Discover how to replace your old, self-limiting map with a new map full of possibilities for the future

DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE INTRO TO STEPPING FORWARD TODAY!