It might be impossible (and even undesirable) to avoid the responsibilities of life, but how we choose to view the world that we live in can mean the difference between a life filled with happiness, optimism and enthusiasm and one that is laden with misery and depression. When things begin to feel a bit lackluster (more…)
This past weekend I had the opportunity to hear Kathy Ireland speak at a marketing conference in Chicago. Just before she was scheduled to be on, I was headed to the restroom and ran into her. She smiled brightly and said “hello” – like we were old friends just running into each other. I returned the smile and greeting – not putting it together fast enough that it was Kathy Ireland I was talking to. Living in Los Angeles, this happens to me often. I see someone I recognize and then after the moment has passed I realize that they are some sort of celebrity I’d seen in a movie or on TV. Duh!
Anyway, Kathy Ireland soon took the stage and shared her story. She talked about how she leveraged her super-model career into a $1.4 billion empire by creating (more…)
There’s a photo on the wall in a restaurant near the Grand Canyon. It shows a rubber pontoon raft in the middle of a rapid on the Colorado River in the Canyon. It’s in the process of flipping over, and inside are a bunch of folks about to go for a swim. This is not the photo, but it looks something like this.
I’ve had the opportunity to go on a number of rafting trips down the canyon because one of my best friends is Brian Hansen, who has been leading river trips down the Canyon for 30 years.
Brian is one of the coolest cats I know. You have to be pretty steady to drive a rubber boat filled with passengers of all ages into a monster rapid such as Lava Falls, one of the biggest rapids on the river. A lot of things can go wrong, not just on the river, but on land as well. Brian recently told me about one of the most severe situations he’s had to deal with down in the Canyon.
It was a calm, placid day in the Canyon, and Brian and his river rafting passengers were camped out on a beach on the river. Suddenly it started to (more…)
When I moved into my current house, four years ago, I was still riding the remodeling high I had been on for 6 months. My cousin and I had torn up my old home – refinishing the hard wood floors, previously covered by wall-to-wall carpet, remodeling the kitchen, etc. The living room, dining room and bathroom were freshly decorated, thanks to the show “Designed to Sell.”* I sold the house within a week of its being listed. It was awesome to finally have a perfect house, but I only enjoyed it for 2 weeks due to the closing date and business travel.
So, I moved into my “new” house with yet another outdated kitchen and white walls in every room. I was NOT going to live in a house for another 8 years in these conditions. I rolled up my sleeves and got to work. To save money on the kitchen remodel, I did all of the painting and cabinet refinishing. I painted the living room, dining room, den and bathroom; however, at some point pure exhaustion or a need to just unpack my life (more…)
We get so busy in our lives, performing our daily juggling acts of home, work, exercise, down-time, that we rarely take a step back to see if the circus has left town without us.
In my last article, I shared with you all that I am taking the Brave Girls Club online Soul Restoration course (www.bravegirlsclub.com). This 6 week course is drawing to a close and what it has given me is a lot of perspective on my life and how caught up I am in the routines that I truly do not enjoy at all.
I am a doer. I have always been good at doing. Have a task that needs to get done, give it to me and I’ll get it done. This is not necessarily a bad thing; however, it has created a laundry list of activities in my life that truly bring me no joy (including laundry itself). (more…)
How do you find a balanced life when you’re overloaded with work?
How do you switch off work when you’re away from the office?
The answers to these very common questions are elusive. It’s never an easy thing. But once you do find this balance you’ll find enormous benefits: more enjoyment of life and better relationships and less stress and a better quality of life overall.
A reader recently asked:
“I’d love to hear advice on how people who work full-time jobs can still manage to attain a well-balanced life. Especially in roles that give you sales targets, monitor you, and can be very stressful. I know it’s best to switch off after working hours, but sometimes (as humans) it is tough.
In Hong Kong, part-time jobs don’t pay well here and are tough to find, and full-time jobs often require overtime and are very stressful (it’s the Hong Kong norm to squeeze out as much as you can from an employee). In this corporate jungle, a part-time would be a perfect job for me (say 9-3 everyday); however it’s very hard to find jobs like that – it’s just not how the job market here is in Asia.
So how does one keep their calm and be grounded and still make time & energy for family, friends, myself, hobbies, interests and let’s face it – sanity? How does one learn to ‘not keep goals’ when that is what is expected from 8:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m. 5 days a week? It’s tough to be 2 different people at work and outside of work.”
That’s a tough one. I should note that in many countries — including the U.S. — this is a common problem even if it’s not as pronounced as in Hong Kong (for example). We all face these problems whether we’re employees or self-employed or free-lancers or own our own businesses. (more…)