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Tag: Personal Growth – Professional Growth

Find Your Passion, If You Want a Sustainable Business and Happy Life

Written by Maria Connolly. Posted in Embodied Leadership, Private Practice Advice, Self-Leadership Skills.

When you find your passion, your life is enriched and it gives you a clear direction and guideposts, as you build a business around your passion.“We should always have three friends in our lives — one who walks ahead, who we look up to and follow; one who walks beside us, who is with us every step of our journey; and then, one who we reach back for and bring along after we’ve cleared the way.” ~ Michelle Obama

If you’re like other women in my community, you want to make the most of your life while making a difference in this world. So how will you know when you find your passion? The people you serve feel right, and the service you’re offering brings you lightness and joy, even if it’s hard work. 

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Don’t Be Afraid of Starting a Life Coaching Business. It’s An Amazing Experience!

Written by Maria Connolly. Posted in Life Coaching, Private Practice Advice.

Have you toyed with the idea of becoming a life coach, but starting a life coaching business sounds too hard? Follow my journey, it’s one step at a time.“There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long-range risks of comfortable inaction.” ~ John F. Kennedy

A few years ago, I made a decision that has changed my life and given me so many unexpected benefits. I’ve always been fascinated with the positivity and forward-thinking stance of Life Coaching. So, in 2013, I decided that starting a life coaching business was right for me! I changed my branding, read books and took online courses to get up to speed with this growing field and to feel more confident and competent.

At times, I would feel discouraged and my own inner critic would creep in with statements like: “You were doing just fine, why did you have to go and change things?” Well, that was just fear of the unknown. And no, I wasn’t doing fine, I wasn’t fulfilled anymore. I was just afraid of making the change. 

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Agile Learning — Fuel Your Growth and Self-Leadership

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

Agile learning enables you to quickly pick out what’s important, so you can apply and remember it, in a way that helps you thrive in any situation.What does learning mean to you? Over time, I’ve seen that learning means different things to different people. There are those who memorize just enough to get by and then they promptly forget what they’ve “learned”… Other people dive into a subject and get so bogged down in the details they can’t figure out how to use the information. However, those of us who are committed to self-leadership, have learned the secret of agile learning. 

What if I could walk you through a way of learning that enables you to quickly pick out what’s important, so you can apply and remember it, in a way that will benefit you for your whole life?

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Recovering From Emotional Exhaustion? Wholeheartedness, Not Rest, Will Heal You!

Written by Maria Connolly. Posted in Emotional Intelligence, Life Skills, Mindfulness.

When you're recovering from emotional exhaustion, mindfully developing a deep awareness of your mind/body connection is vital to restoring your balance.“Burnout is a state of emptiness, to be sure, but it does not result from giving all I have: it merely reveals the nothingness from which I was trying to give in the first place.” ~ Parker Palmer, Let Your Life Speak

We have all been through some pretty hard times, and the world isn’t getting any rosier. There are so many ways to describe how people are feeling today — burnout, emotional exhaustion, mental exhaustion, mentally drained, emotional burnout, nervous exhaustion, overworked, over-stressed, over-committed, over-stimulated, and now we even have Zoom fatigue! And some of the tried-and-true methods for recovering from emotional exhaustion aren’t working. 

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Shame Resilience: The Antidote to Shame Is Vulnerability

Written by Maria Connolly. Posted in Emotional Intelligence, Life Skills.

Shame resilience helps you, as you experience shame, to consciously choose supportive emotions instead — connection, empathy, worth, and power.“Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy—the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.” ~ Brene Brown

We long to fit in, to belong, to be accepted. Yet this very longing can keep us from making the deep connections we crave, because we’re afraid to be seen, to show our true selves for fear we’ll be rejected. On a deep, very personal level we’ve judged ourselves as unworthy, so we’re ashamed that something about us isn’t acceptable, “normal” or perfect. This shame, this fear of disconnect, is powerful. But we can shine a healing light on it by cultivating vulnerability. Yes, we can build our shame resilience!

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