Build Your Alpha

This week's episode talks about communication and how important of a skill it is in our lives. How learning how you communicate, when to communicate, and thinking through your thoughts and feelings is crucial. That sometimes taking a step back to hear the other person may be more important in that moment and help build your relationship, then communicate your feelings at a later time. Being aware of these things can help improve your own well-being because others have the opportunity to understand.

This week's episode talks about how we live in a society that promotes constant growth and development. However, it is important to take some time to reflect on our own growth and assess how we can continue to move forward. Taking some time to Maintain, Reflect, Plan. So we can be flexible, make changes and continue to grow ourselves.

This week's episode talks about growing up and how we lose our comfort with failure and that loss keeps us from exploring our interests. That we need to be okay to fail and okay to "be judged" by others while we pursue our passion. By being okay with that fact and continuing to learn and develop skills, finding new interests, and exploring other passions we can retake our ability to "be a kid" and develop ourselves for our own best interest.

This week's episode talks about how our communication and the words we use are symbols. They're the symbols we create from our own experiences and perspectives to give a meaning to the word. How we may need to take a step back to understand that our symbols can have a different meaning to someone else because they don't interpret the words we're using in the same way. Think of it like this - have you ever gotten into an argument with someone over something, only to find out that you both were actually talking about the same thing?

This week's episode talks about how we need to stop "Keeping Up With the Jones" because we think others have such a better situation than we do. How we need to focus on keeping things in perspective and enjoying the fact that our situation is possibly the best situation for us and who we are. That we don't know other's situations or sacrifices to get what they have now, and that we had to sacrifice things ourselves in order to get where we are. The "grass isn't always greener on the other side, the grass is greener where YOU water it".

This week's episode talks about holding yourself accountable for your decisions in your own life. How it may have been engrained in us from childhood that being wrong or making a bad decision always had negative consequences, but that may not always be the case as we grow up. That keeping accountable and explaining how and why it won't happen again is critical to other's acceptance of the mistake.

This week's episode talks about how we can be our own worst enemy because we are our own worst critic. We know the potential we have and what we have the ability to "bring to the table", that when we don't reach that level each day, or consistently, we will beat ourselves up over it. We don't allow ourselves to forgive ourselves, to take the loss, and move on. We are people, and life isn't only going to be on-ward and up-ward.

This week's episode is about how the decisions we make - both daily and the one off choices - paint the picture of who we are. These decisions are the collective total of yes and no that we choose to make, that depict who we are. The daily decisions are the grayscale and the one-off decisions are the splashes of color in the painting. How these decisions at an individual level can be instantaneous, but when you take a step back and look, they create the entire picture.

This week's episode is about finding your path, and that if you are not sure what that path is that's okay. How the Divergent series can be so relatable to everyone, regardless of if you've always known what you've wanted to be, or if you don't think just one thing is right for you. How I almost hung up the skates and quit hockey at 16, how exploring different jobs has helped get closer to what the right path is.

This week's episode talks about first impressions and how we have the ability to curate our own. How it's not just about what we wear that makes the first impression, but also body language and approachability.