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Category: Stepping Forward

Build Meaningful Relationships That Nourish You & Help You Succeed In Life

Written by Maria Connolly. Posted in Healthy Relationships, Stepping Forward.

It takes work to build meaningful relationships because these four primary skills don’t happen automatically. Which skill would you like to improve?Do you want to feel powerful and successful in your life? Then build meaningful relationships with others who are committed to the same goals. If you want to thrive, surround yourself with people who are better at whatever you aspire to do! They can give you advice, guidance, and practical examples for living the kind of life and choices you want.

People who know and care about you are your greatest teachers. They’re your role models and your most truthful mirrors. They’ll be the ones you turn to when you’re confused, need help, and feel emotionally fragile. These “low” times will occur in your life, and if you only have “fair-weather friends” the low times will be hard to take.

You are only as strong as your support network. And as Jim Rohn says, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” 

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How To Overcome Obstacles In Life — Managing Setbacks With Ease

Written by Maria Connolly. Posted in Change Your Life, Self-Leadership Skills, Stepping Forward.

When you need to overcome obstacles in life, use this easy exercise that empowers you to identify and regulate your emotional reactions to situations.Under the best circumstances, change doesn’t come easily. Some people say it takes 21 days to create a new habit. However, one study shows that on average it takes up to 66 days. Some people can create a new habit in as little as 18 days, while others take 254 days! What do we learn from this? Don’t count the days. Be convinced that the new habit is what you want and practice it until it becomes a part of who you are. Because let’s face it, life isn’t ideal. Much of the time we’re overcoming obstacles as we make these changes.

How about you? Do your goals and intentions fade after the first setback? How many challenges can you handle before you give up?

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Multipotenialites Rejoice! The Path to Success Doesn’t Require Specialization

Written by Maria Connolly. Posted in Stepping Forward.

Your path to success must adapt to how you’re wired. You CAN pursue your many passions if you learn to channel your energy into all of them coherently.Everyone wants to be on the path to success. It’s exhilarating that we each get to identify what success means for ourselves, and then we get to create the path we travel to get there. That means we have endless possibilities. And if you’re like me, you’re excited to try all of them! But that can lead to problems…

Unless we’re independently wealthy, we need to make a living to support ourselves. So that brings us crashing back to earth. We have to narrow our focus and specialize or master one craft/job/skill, so we become indispensable and in demand for life, right? That’s what we’ve been told.

If, at this point, you’re feeling a bit frustrated, keep reading, because this article will break wide open that stereotypical way of thinking about the path to success.

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Have Your Strengths Become Your Weaknesses? Time to Use This Secret Weapon!

Written by Maria Connolly. Posted in Life Skills, Mindfulness, Stepping Forward.

Your strengths become your weaknesses when you mindlessly hold onto behaviors, even good behaviors, that don’t match or help the situation you’re in.This may startle you, but many of the excellent behaviors that help women rise in their field will eventually become the behaviors that keep them from further advancement. How can that be? When can excellent behaviors hold you back? Have your strengths become your weaknesses — how can you determine that?  And then what can you do about it?

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Nurturing Yourself Stimulates the Power that Makes Good Things Happen

Written by Maria Connolly. Posted in Change Your Life, Stepping Forward.

A committed practice of nurturing yourself, honoring your own needs, makes you better able to honor others and can transform your world on every level.Usually, we face January with the resolve to “do better this year”. Yet, that’s starting from a very judgmental and negative space, isn’t it? What if, instead of setting lofty goals this year, we work on cultivating a more robust base on which we can build healthy systems for life? Imagine setting the intention of “nurturing yourself” as your only goal knowing that doing this will bring real improvement to all areas of life.

Making a commitment to deeply care for yourself and to engage in daily practices that come from a place of compassion, love, tenderness, and gratitude is a very unselfish thing to do. A committed practice to uplifting and honoring your own needs makes you better able to honor others. When you embrace the power of nurturing your heart, your world can be transformed at every level.

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