Let’s talk diet! And there’s no one better to talk about it with than Ms. Gina B. Gina is a sought after dietitian, public speaker, and body health expert. This message is something we can all relate to. Gina shares 3 things that can help us decide what to do when we are faced with head hunger.

This thought applies beyond weight loss, and more generally into healthy life choices. Now that we know what head hunger is, we can be more careful to not let it influence our eating habits. Gina’s 3 step process is fast, emotional, and craving.

I did it! Another 30 day challenge complete. This one was about self-love, and the challenge was to write three things you like about yourself every day for 30 consecutive days.  

My experience was interesting, and just to preface it all, not as ground-shifting or life-changing as you’d expect. But, it could be great for you, and that’s exactly why I want to share about it! To start, I wrote down things that were really generic. “I like my routines”, “I like my work ethic”, “I like my enthusiasm”. Although it made me feel good, it wasn’t anything I wasn’t already aware of. Over time, it got narrower in scope, and what I noticed was, it turned into an opportunity to reflect on the previous day and the characteristic traits I displayed that I was proud of. It served as an interesting combination of gratitude and self-acknowledgement all wrapped into one. “I like how I handle rejection”, “I like how I make time for calls”, “I like how I am in the habit of reading before bed”.

One thing I wish I did differently is I wish I focused more on the physical parts of myself. I think that could have been a really helpful part of the exercise because that is often where people, including myself, fail to do the work and reflect.

At the end of the 30 days, I went through all of the nice things I wrote down about myself, and it did make for a heart-warming moment because the validation behind 90 compliments is hard to deny.

Again, this wasn’t life-changing for me, although I did enjoy it. I’m not jumping to start all over again, but I will consider doing it once a year moving forward. This could be exactly what you’re looking for, and by taking two minutes a day to appreciate yourself, you might come upon a whole new version of you that you were refusing to acknowledge.

“Every accomplishment begins with the decision to try”. Do we know why this is? It’s because every thing that happens once started as nothing. It started as zero. Everything in life requires a first step which leads to inertia and building into a steady momentum.  

Every accomplishment starts with a beginning, but what about the rest? When is it that we make the decision try? To me it happens in two different settings.

The first setting is pretty obvious. It’s at the origin, or the start.  We make some decisions that takes us from inaction to action, and that transition is the decision to try.  The second setting is a bit more overlooked, and even more interesting.  It’s the moment when we fully commit . How many times have we started something and then not backed it up with our actions? Those are the situations where we’re convincing ourselves we’re trying, but we really haven’t started trying yet. Great things can’t happen until you commit to the result you want.

This thought pairs really well with a quote I learned from my mentor, Mike Sherbakov, taken from the novel, As a Man Thinketh, by James Allen. Allen stated,“The greatest achievement was at first, for a time, a dream”.  So, that’s the start. Identifying the dream and what you want to achieve, so you can turn that dream into a reality. “Every accomplishment begins with the decision to try”. Go all in on that dream and make it happen! Knowing that we have the power to turn our dreams into a reality is definitely something worth smiling about!

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a time when you were in physical pain? It was a pretty bad memory right? It might have been so significant that you still carry trauma from that event. Well, perhaps we can begin to look at pain from a different angle. Dr. Jen Esquer, a doctor in physical therapist and body health expert was recently featured in a Self Improvement Sit Down, and had this to say on the topic.

While Jen focused on the value of physical pain, the same thought applies to emotional pain. The fact that something hurt you means that you need to take note of the event. Pain is your body’s way of communicating that you should avoid whatever happened to cause it, whether that’s physical or emotional. Let’s be grateful for those signals so that we can continue to optimize our beliefs, behaviors, and processes as we experiment with what works for us in our lives.

I was camping with my girlfriend and some friends and we were working on packing everything up. I received directions from one person that I then needed to relay to another person, and when I had successfully done that I took a moment to think about what had just happened. I can’t remember all of the specifics, but it had something to do with packing the car and the order of events we were about to take. The communication was completely impromptu, not prepared at all, but very effective.

A few things I did in that communication,was I catered the message to be most pertinent to the receiver. I also gave them a reason why what I was about to tell them was important. I answered their follow up questions before they needed to ask it, and I shared a clear plan that they felt comfortable moving forward in their role.

The things I just listed, I didn’t think about them. I didn’t brainstorm the different elements I wanted to include in the message and think it through. It all came out naturally as part of the way I communicate, which I believe comes from years of leadership experience.

Taking that moment to step back and realize the nuances of my own communication style was really rewarding. Not only was it validating to see the progress I’ve made and my skill in practice, but it gave me a renewed confidence to be assertive in similar future situations. And the best part is it all happened subconsciously!

There is so much wisdom when you use ideas from other fields. This is the beauty of a multi-disciplinary approach to problem solving and creativity.

And that is evident in this topic. We’re talking about about a common household appliance, the thermostat, and that it’s functionality explains how we as humans respond to and achieve things in our life. Coming from the founder of Daily Law of Attraction on Instagram, Jay Stark.

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The concept is, we have our own internal gauge or setting for what we want to achieve in our life. Sometimes we under achieve, sometimes we over achieve, but at the end of the day it all balances out to that setting. We can take advantage of this by setting our internal thermostats high and let the world conspire to make that normal. This is the law of attraction to a tee.

Can we all agree that we want a little more fun in our life? Fun usually leads to happiness, which is something we all could use a little more of. The reality is, happiness is a little more ominous than we think. This can best be explained by Dr. Mike Rucker, who is an expert on the psychology of happiness and fun.

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Dr. Rucker stated, "For many of us, a fulfilling life includes a drive towards happiness, making attaining happiness worthy of pursuit. However, there is an inherent risk when we chase happiness in this way. When we make happiness our goal, often unconscious dissidence is the result. This occurs because when we try to resolve ourselves to being 'happy', we naturally become aware of the distance in our current reality and the reality we seek. You might have heard the coaching maxim, 'Its better to measure the gain, than measure the gap'. However, when we blindly pursue happiness, that's exactly what we fall victim to. Measuring the gap. I submit to you there is a better way, and that way is creating a bias towards fun. This approach steers our focus away from the happiness gap, which science suggests paradoxically makes us less happy. Instead, it creates us more opportunities to create joyful moments. When we take action-oriented approach to creating more joy in our life, we move our focus away from what is missing, and towards the awareness that we posses the agency to create our own joy".

It’s a dangerous game when we are explicitly pursuing happiness. Dr. Mike suggests instead that we pursue happy moments by way of having fun, because that is more objective than playing the comparison game, or falling into the happiness gap. Measure your happiness the right way!

I met a woman two days ago who probably doens’t know how big of an impression she left on me. She had a great answer to an interesting question, “What is the one thing you have to do to turn your passion into a business?”. Her answer was, "follow your shine". First, the word "shine". You can’t be angry and use the word shine. It’s just impossible. "Shine" has a positive connotation that speaks to a very natural beauty.  It also makes you feel protected. When we’re safe, we have more courage to explore and experience.

The last word is "follow". "Follow" provides the direction for the expression. Once you find your shine, what do you do with it? You use it to guide you where you are meant to go. It is the path being paved before you on your journey. Which is why it is the perfect thing to tap into when turning your passion into your business. You have faith in your skill set, you answer the call, and you trust the process.