Tag: Tips

How To Find Inspiration When You’re Just Not Feeling It

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Inspiration can come at any time and from anywhere. It can also feel like it’s lost in the uncertainty of the times were experiencing now. We can easily get bogged down with online school, remote work and the thousand things dragging on us each day. I have felt that lack of inspiration many times over the last few months.

How can we feel inspired when the nation feels like it’s falling apart? What can when do when our time and energy is spent teaching our kids and completing our professional work? We can regroup and refocus. All it takes is a little bit of action to help you get back to your center. Continue reading →

What is Social Media Doing to You?

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We curate everything in our lives. From who we talk with to what we view on social media platforms, we create the world we want to see around topics that interest us. Social media plays a big role in what we view and listen to each day. It’s evolved over the years and with those changes, we experience both the positive and negative outcomes of our social media habits.

Social media provided many positive results over the years. People connected and reconnected. Nonprofit groups reached people far and wide. Movements for change occurred through social media. Fundraising reached remarkable highs and new businesses thrived through social media. Continue reading →

5 Ways To Build Your Resilience

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Resilience is one of my favorite topics to learn about these days. We have so much to deal with as we face COVID-19, racial inequalities and unemployment. Resilience simply put is one’s capacity to overcome difficulties, challenges and even trauma. There’s nothing simple about it though.

Do you ever wonder how some people bounce back quickly after something traumatic or challenging happened? Resilience is learned and strengthened over time. It’s like a muscle that you build with each adverse thing that enters your life. And we have challenges to meet almost every day whether it’s the little things or the traumatic events that reshape our lives. Continue reading →

Being a Working Mom During a Pandemic Part II

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Where has the month gone? I read my last post about Being a Working Mom During a Pandemic Part I and realized how far we’ve come in 30 days. We left off with the overwhelming transition into homeschooling and remote work. It was a huge undertaking to get familiar with the Google classrooms, lesson plans and class conference calls. We’ve been joking that our daughter is having more conference calls than we are during the week.

All joking aside, it’s been a tough transition. I wonder how other moms and dads are managing everything each day. I’ve seen funny pics with kids climbing around during Zoom calls and attended calls where the presenter was locked in a closet to get an uninterrupted call done. Many parents have thrown in the towel on homeschooling all together. Continue reading →

Being a Working Mom During a Pandemic Part I

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Well that’s a title you don’t see every day. Being a working mom can be tough during any given week. Now that we’re in the middle of a global crisis, being a working mom feels like 5 more jobs at the same time. We shifted from going to work, school and community gatherings to working and schooling from home with complete social distance. That’s a lot to take in.

Like many working parents, I worked remote a handful of days out of the year. It wasn’t the norm for me, but when it was needed, I made the best of it and my employer was accommodating. It was a very abrupt shift to remote work and online school when it happened two weeks ago. I was already on PTO for a couple of days before the change and then I got the call that my office was for the most part moving to remote. As of this writing, I haven’t had a day back in my office for three weeks. Continue reading →

Dream It. Plan It. Do It.

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Have you ever been around someone who constantly talks about how busy they are? There’s so much work to be done yet not much ever gets accomplished. The conversations revolve around all the things on the list instead of actually working on it.

This thought process becomes a repetitive cycle of the perceived busyness versus being productive. So how do you break the cycle?

As we move into 2020, the resolutions will likely fail and we’ll fall back into bad habits. I know that sounds negative but the statistics about New Year’s resolutions are pretty bleak. Instead of another post about setting resolutions, I thought I’d share 3 steps to get started on your next accomplishment. Continue reading →

Book Review: The Energy Bus

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We all face challenges and adversity in our lives. Negativity can take hold and sabotage your thoughts, health and happiness. We have a plethora of research at our fingertips that describes how positive energy and positive interactions can improve our lives, make us more productive and increase our happiness. To create success at home or at work we have to overcome the negative way of thinking and that can be a challenge.

Written by Jon Gordon, The Energy Bus is an inspiring story about a man named George who has challenges with his marriage, his team at work and his life overall.

The story begins with a Monday morning and a flat tire. That flat tire and subsequent car repairs change George’s life because that is how he met Joy, the bus driver. George had no choice but to take the bus to work until his car was fixed. And Joy was no ordinary bus driver because she made it her mission in life to be an Energy Ambassador. She tried to energize everyone who came on her bus. Continue reading →

Homemade Trampoline Therapy Activities

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It took over five years to get our daughter’s conditions diagnosed. We moved to a new state in between all of the doctor appointments and it was a very long journey.

Her first neurologist couldn’t figure out her conditions. He looked at me that last day I saw him and said, “She is a little girl who needs a lot of  therapy.” He also encouraged me to go to Phoenix Children’s Hospital when we got settled into our new home and get a second opinion.

During that time, we were encouraged to start Occupational Therapy (OT). I had no idea what that was or what it could do for her. I started reading and learning what OT was and why it’s important for people with disabilities. Continue reading →

Kids, Bikes and Adaptive Play

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Riding a bike is like a right of passage for a young child. It’s the moment when the training wheels come off and they take off with that little wobble. I saw a father help his girl take that first ride in a field behind our house the other day. She was smiling and beaming with excitement. She fell once and then got back on long enough to ride away.

For moms like me, watching that moment is inspiring and also bitter sweet. It’s hard for me to imagine our girl taking off on her own two-wheeled bike.

She has balance and coordination challenges along with other conditions and intellectual disability. She tries very hard to ride her bike and she really just wants to join in play with others. Continue reading →

Book Review: Strengths Finder 2.0

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Strengths Finder 2.0Do you know your strengths? It’s likely you’re not able to use them every day while at the office or home. So many of us move through life without truly tapping into our talents and strengths.

Strengths Finder has been around for many years. The first version came out in 2001 and my husband introduced it to me several years ago when he was at a large Silicon Valley corporation that used it.

Strengths Finder 2.0 is a reference guide by Tom Rath that is based on research from Gallup and Dr. Don Clifton, Father of Strengths Psychology. I call it a reference guide because you can use for years after you complete the assessment tool that comes with the book. You’ll begin with the first chapter that sets up the importance of understanding our own unique strengths and how they impact all aspects of your life. Continue reading →