Be Determined

There are a lot of tools out there for assessing your current state and what might need to change in order to meet your goals. These kinds of situational analyses can help us have the self-awareness to navigate shifts in circumstances, creatively problem-solve where we can, and redirect when necessary. 

Today, I want to share how I’ve translated the SWOT analysis, often used by businesses, into a personal inventory. Taking stock of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats has helped guide me through moments of big change and is a tool I have come back to over and over again. 

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• How my changing mobility and energy levels have brought new people and opportunities into my life and work 
• Why needing to direct your efforts differently doesn’t mean starting over
• How acknowledging threats helps us meet them with our strengths
• How a personal SWOT supports self-leadership, self-determination and how we lead in the world

Learn more about Molly Kennedy

• Molly Kennedy Consulting

Humor can play a significant role in how we relate to each other and ourselves. 

It’s a release valve for stress; a way to connect with friends, family, and colleagues; and a way to acknowledge our mistakes and mishaps without beating ourselves up. Sharing laughter or a joke with others levels the playing field, giving us something in common whether we’re strangers in an elevator or old friends.

I believe my sense of humor is truly a gift that has helped me live with my disability, find light even in the darkest times, not take myself or my challenges too seriously, and build the connections and relationships that are most important to me. 

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• How humor reveals our personalities and forges connections 
• How using humor can cut tension and allow us to be more open and honest
• The difference between laughing at and laughing with
• How being able to laugh at yourself shows self-confidence and shifts perspectives

Learn more about Molly Kennedy

• Molly Kennedy Consulting

Being honest with yourself about your abilities and challenges, successes and failures, is essential to living an authentic and genuine life, regardless of whether or not you live with a disability.

When we’re not honest with ourselves about who we are, we can set ourselves up for disappointment and frustration. But at the same time, self-honesty has to include recognizing what we are capable of and what we’ve accomplished. When we swing too far one way or the other, self-deception has a way of creating its own set of roadblocks and rude awakenings.

At the end of the year, reflecting on what we achieved and where we could do better with integrity and self-honesty is a gift we give to ourselves that will help us live a self-determined life in the year to come.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• How self-honesty helps us to both be realistic and supports our big dreams
• How self-honesty positively impacts your professional and personal relationships with others
• How I use an annual personal inventory to review not only the year’s events, but also how I’m living up to my values
• How self-honesty helps us set goals and evaluate new opportunities
• Why acknowledging and learning from your fears and failures is vital to self-honesty

Learn more about Molly Kennedy

• Molly Kennedy Consulting

Resources:

• Ryan Holiday

Life is like a rollercoaster. Sometimes it’s one you don’t even realize you’re on when things are going well, but then the bottom drops out or you hit a major twist and suddenly your world is upside down. 

It can be overwhelming and terrifying. But we get through it.

After facing a major health challenge and all of the complex decisions that came with it, I’m back from hiatus. And today, I want to talk about coming out stronger on the other side of the rollercoaster’s drop.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• How a period of unexpected change can be an opportunity to reevaluate where we are and appreciate what we have
• Important steps for healing and moving forward from setbacks, whatever they are
• Why it’s essential to reach out to your support system and consider other perspectives
• How intentionally cultivating skills, relationships, and resilience in hard times helps us not just survive, but thrive the next time we’re thrown for a loop 

Learn more about Molly Kennedy

• Molly Kennedy Consulting

How would you describe someone who is ambitious? 

In our culture, it often means a person who is willing to do whatever it takes to get to the top, and it’s not necessarily a compliment. But ambition doesn’t have to be about power or money. Ambition can simply be about setting goals and working towards them. Ambition is all in how you use it and how it impacts people.

Today I’m talking about moral ambition and using that drive to make the world a better place and positively impact others.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• How the idea of moral ambition ties our personal goals to their broader impacts
• How focusing on my ambition has helped me not get bogged down when people underestimate me
• How moral ambition supports us in being the kind of leaders who truly make a difference

Learn more about Molly Kennedy

• Molly Kennedy Consulting

Resources:

• Moral Ambition: Stop Wasting Your Talent and Start Making a Difference, Rutger Bregman 
• Rutger Bregman - “Moral Ambition” | The Daily Show

Creativity and disability go hand-in-hand.

Navigating a world that was not built for you requires creative thinking every single day to overcome obstacles, from opening a jar to taking notes in class to accessing a building or transportation. People with disabilities are full of creative solutions and workarounds for any number of problems we face.

In today's episode, I’m talking about the creative thinking and solutions that have helped me live a self-determined life.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• How I learned to anticipate challenges of access and opportunity and make adjustments or request accommodations
• How using a scooter for mobility requires daily creativity in navigating my environment
• Creative solutions I’ve found to retain autonomy and freedom, even with diminished mobility
• Why the creativity and innovation of people with disabilities is its own kind of brilliance

Learn more about Molly Kennedy

• Molly Kennedy Consulting

Everyone experiences anger. 

It’s an important human emotion that can serve a purpose in our lives. But people with disabilities can experience anger in different ways than their able-bodied peers. We frequently encounter systemic challenges in our physical environments and in the ways people treat us, and it can easily lead to anger.

In today's episode, I’m talking about the anger I experience as a person with a disability.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• Some key sources of stress, frustration, and anger for people with disabilities 
• Why we need to learn to recognize and acknowledge our anger in the moment
• How a supportive person can help identify the root issue and what you can do about it
• How I’m using my anger to try to positively create change in the lives of people with disabilities 

Learn more about Molly Kennedy

• Molly Kennedy Consulting

When parents learn that their child has a disability, it sets them on a road less traveled. Raising that child will be different than what they might have expected, and it’s normal to feel shock and even sadness or disappointment.

And all too often, the next thing parents and caregivers are met with is a list of things their child will “never” do. It can be scary and isolating, and it might take time to process.

But it is vital for parents to then focus on what their children can do and empower them to determine their own paths and make use of their abilities to their fullest potential. It isn’t 

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• Why parents don’t have to buy into the “never” list
• Why children with disabilities need to be given the chance to try 
• The difference between pushing limits and setting kids up for failure
• Why it’s so important for parents to let their child determine their interests and goals

Learn more about Molly Kennedy

• Molly Kennedy Consulting

For people with disabilities, it can be hard to get support that encourages you to use your strengths and reach for your goals. Too often, people with disabilities have their big dreams curtailed by others who think in terms of deficits, not possibilities.

But no one achieves every one of their goals on their path to growth and expansion, and people with disabilities need to be given the same space to try as everyone else.

Today, we’re talking about the importance of dreaming beyond our perceived limitations and taking the steps to turn those goals into reality. 

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• Why we need to shift to a mindset of building strengths, not just supporting deficits
• How even the goals we don’t meet allow us to expand and grow
• Things to consider when turning big dreams into manageable steps 

Learn more about Molly Kennedy

• Molly Kennedy Consulting

Achieving a big goal or completing a big project doesn’t happen overnight. (Who knew?) 

It’s easy to feel discouraged or overwhelmed when you’re not making the progress you think you should be making, or maybe you have so many ideas you don’t even know where to start.

I’ve spent the last couple of years working on how I set goals, break down projects, and maintain forward momentum, even through roadblocks and setbacks. It’s been a process and I want to share it with you today. 

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• How setting goals can help you feel a sense of purpose and focus while getting you out of your comfort zone
• The framework I use to set goals and track progress and achievements
• Why you need a timeline, but it doesn’t have to be set in stone
• Why it’s important that people with disabilities recognize that they can set and achieve goals beyond just getting by
• How resilience, collaboration, creativity, and adaptability help overcome setbacks

Learn more about Molly Kennedy

• Molly Kennedy Consulting