If I was still in my hazy, crazy highly stressful career as a recruiter/account manager/”swift hat changer” in the IT world, I’d probably not be able to digest the title of this blog, “Peace in Times of Stress”. I wouldn’t have the time or the patience for its proper contemplation.  I’m asking you to take a moment and give yourself the time to ponder about peace in these times of stress.  How do you experience peace? Do you even know what it feels like? I’m serious here; there have been times that I did not have a clue that I was even stressed out, much less what “stress” meant to me. How does stress manifest for you? Do you feel like you’re going full throttle with no “extra” give on anything?  Do you even have time to stop and ponder what is going on in the world around you (with your family, your friends, your community, your society?). (more…)

When I think of the term, “stepping up to the plate”, I think of a baseball player stepping up the home plate facing the pitcher with his/her bat upon their shoulder ready to hit the very fast and pitifully small ball heading toward their face.  If you guessed that I am scared of small hard objects heading towards my face while simultaneously not having the confidence in the coordination needed from my brain, eyes, hands, arms, body and legs…you would be right! (more…)

What comes to your mind when you hear/read the word “strength”?  For me, a strength is something you do well, you do it alot and you enjoy doing it.  What is the distinction between a skill and a strength?  I believe that a strength is something you were born with, it flows from you naturally and a skill is something you learn.  Some people have strengths that help them learn some skills very well. For instance, some of my strengths include being very sociable, very assertive and very creative.  On the other hand, some of the things I am not strong in include being trusting, amenable and deliberate.   (more…)

Choices are good, choices can bring us opportunity and choices can bring us freedom.  Choices can also give us the building blocks to create a prison inside of ourselves which enable us to freeze up and not be able to move in any direction for fear of making the “wrong” choice.  (more…)

Lately, I’ve been on a “rant” about leadership and CEOs because I really believe that it is important (in how we communicate and work with each other), for any new behavior and ways of being to change, the change must begin with the first thoughts and words communicated within and from the most influential person in a company through to the person who mops the company’s floors. (more…)

In various 12-step programs they often use the following analogy about what the flight attendants instruct us to do in case of a sudden lack of oxygen. They ask us to put the oxygen mask on ourselves first and then on the child or person who needs our help next (because we would be of no help to anyone if we passed out first due to lack of oxygen).   (more…)