“Negative people have a problem for every solution.”

― Albert Einstein

It’s the little things that create a weak spot in your boundaries, and this weak spot creates a tear that manipulative people will exploit.

Manipulators don’t wear name tags, they hide in plain sight and one person's toxic boss is another persons’ motivating mentor. So how can you tell the difference?

In this episode, we explore 5 phrases to be on the lookout for that manipulators use that will cause you to doubt yourself.

Toxic people, incivility, bad behavior, tyrants, bully’s, and entitlement. Bad behavior is on the rise. This episode will help you protect yourself.

What you’ll hear in this podcast:

• Is incivility and bad behavior on the rise?
• Toxic people and how they can hide
• What to watch out for with a manipulator
• How manipulators assault your boundaries
• Why toxic people use these phrases
• Why are these phrases a warning sign?
• What your body has to do with it
• How manipulators assault your self-esteem
• For a manipulator, it’s all about them

Work with Lara

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Corporate Training

Difficult Happens by Lara Currie                                                                    

Difficulthappens.com/workwithme/

Resources:

“Don’t you know who I am?” How to stay sane in an era of narcissism, entitlement, and incivility.” Durvasula Ph.D, Ramani S.

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“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”

― Albert Einstein

In this year-end episode, Amee Quiriconi of the One Broken Mom Podcast joins me to talk about endings and beginnings. 

Change is an inevitability in this world. Sometimes the change is something we choose such as ending a relationship or a job, and sometimes the change is thrust on us, like a relationship ending or losing a job. 

When things end, whether we chose the end or not, there is a lot that you can learn about yourself, what you want more of in your life, and what you want less of.

Reflection helps you not only see things in a different way but allows you to learn the lesson you need to from a situation. 

When you know what you want, you have a clearer direction and can make better choices for your new beginnings!

What you’ll hear in this podcast:

• Change that you chose, and change that you didn’t
• Change in your personal life & change at work
• Endings, the gift that keeps on giving
• The pain that change often causes
• The growth that endings, change, gives us
• How knowing what you don’t want helps you focus on what you do
• How reflection, considering something deeply leads to personal-growth
• Some personal stories of endings and beginnings that Lara & Amee have had

Work with Lara

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Corporate Training

Difficult Happens by Lara Currie

Difficulthappens.com/workwithme/ 

Resources:

Amee Quiriconi One Broken Mom Podcast

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The Away travel brand went from a fast-growing popular brand to the epitome of the new toxic work environment leading to one of the CEO’s & co-founder stepping down.

A workplace can become toxic by inches, like a lobster boiling in a pot of water, before you know it the environment has taken it’s toll mentally & physically.

In this episode, we take a look at the toxicity that Away’s CEO Steph Korey’s micro-managing created, and the way the companies ‘values’ were used to manipulate its employees into working underpaid hours in difficult conditions. 

This is the first case study where we break down the toxic work environment, how it happened, and what could have been done differently.

What you’ll hear in this podcast:

• The Away company was a toxic workplace
• How the employees were manipulated
• How Micro-managing impacted the environment
• How a companies Mission Vision & Values was used against staff
• The use of SLACK as the only means of communication and how that impacted communication
• Bullying with a smile
• How public shaming was used to keep employees in line.
• What was done right
• What went wrong
• How fear isolated individuals
• How loyalty was used to manipulate

Work with Lara

Apply for an On-air Coaching Call!

Free Breakthrough Assessment

Got a Question? Comment? Email [email protected]

Corporate Training

Difficult Happens by Lara Currie

Difficulthappens.com/workwithme/ 

Sources:

Here’s the leaked memo in which Away tells employees not to fave The Verge’s investigation

Former Away employees describe a toxic work environment at the luggage company

Away Warns Employees Not to 'Like' or 'Fave' Article Detailing Execs' Psycho Behavior

Away's CEO Resigned Over a Toxic Workplace Due in Part to the Company's Use of Slack

New Away leaks reveal employees worked without heat, struggled with headaches and nausea

Resources:

The Need to Belong: Desire for Interpersonal Attachments as a Fundamental Human  Motivation 

The Secret Gift in Every Emotion

Your Conflict Personality Type

Assessments in all their glory

How to Combat Manipulative Behavior

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Summary:

It started at a neighborhood wine bar and ended on amazon prime.

Your personal values, along with the social norms of the time dictate what you find embarrassing or shameful but those social norms can change with the times, situation and community you are in.

While out at a wine bar with friends I got some unsolicited advice from a stranger. The interaction has stuck with me for several reasons.  In this episode, I share what happened while chatting with some strangers, why it got me thinking about that old playground taunt “I know you are but what am I”, and how you may see things differently when talking with someone from a different context than you.

What you’ll hear in this podcast:

• What Context is
• How Context impacts your perception
• How the values of a group can grow and change over time
• Why we show people what we value, sometimes through judgment
• How our word choices can clue you into what we value
• How the stories we believe about ourselves impact discourse
• The need to belong & how it drives us
• The cultural silence around health issues specific to women

Work with Lara

Apply for an On-air Coaching Call!

Free Breakthrough Assessment

Got a Question? Comment? Email [email protected]

Corporate Training

Difficult Happens by Lara Currie                                                                    

Difficulthappens.com/workwithme/

Resources:

The Need to Belong: Desire for Interpersonal Attachments as a Fundamental Human  Motivation

I know you are but what am I?

The Secret Gift in Every Emotion

Your Conflict Personality Type

Assessments in all their glory

How to Combat Manipulative Behavior

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Image for episode graphic Photo by Mark Malekela on Unsplash

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Have you ever noticed that procrastination goes hand in hand with pressure?

Whether it is the pressure that came first or the procrastination that leads to the pressure, they go hand in hand.

Everyone procrastinates from time to time, it’s perfectly normal. Until it’s a problem. When that procrastination leads to missed opportunities, loss of revenue or worse, it can keep you stuck in the cycle of pressure, procrastination, stress, shame, rinse repeat

Procrastination can be confusing, it has many faces, from the busy work of productive-procrastination to the frozen effect of procrastination paralysis.  If you find yourself stuck or heading into procrastination’ville, I’ve got some tried and true skills to get you unstuck.

What you’ll hear in this podcast:

• What procrastination looks like
• How stress affects procrastination
• The many faces of procrastination
• What perfectionism has to do with it
• How stress plays into perfectionism
• Why some people can handle (are more used to) stress
• The many faces of procrastination
• The perfectionist procrastination connection
• Productive procrastination
• Productivity paralysis
• The Pomodoro Method
  
  

Join the Masterclass

The Perfection Principle - From Awareness to Action

Work with Lara

Apply for an On-air Coaching Call!

Free Breakthrough Assessment

Got a Question? Comment? Email [email protected]

Corporate Training

Difficult Happens by Lara Currie                                                                    

Difficulthappens.com/workwithme/

Resources:

The Secret Gift in Every Emotion

Your Conflict Personality Type

Assessments in all their glory

How to Combat Manipulative Behavior

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Image for episode graphic Photo by Aarón Blanco Tejedor on Unsplash

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Summary:

Shorter days, colder nights and seasonal celebrations abound, welcome to trigger-season.

This is the season of gathering & celebrating. There are family functions, social get-togethers, and work parties to attend.

Along with that, there are inevitable assumptions about how everything will turn out and expectations of how we want things to go.

To go into this season prepared we here at Difficult Happens have you covered, in this week’s episode I give you concrete steps that you can take to prepare for and navigate through, this trigger-season.

What you’ll hear in this podcast:

• How the holidays & weather impact interactions
• Why winter is “trigger-season”
• Our conscious & subconscious brains in action
• Family conversations & expectations
• The work party a petre dish of awkward conversations
• The conflict loop
• What assumptions, judgments, expectations, and reactions have to do with your communication
• How our family of origin informs our triggers
• What a triggered reaction is
• What to do before during and after this season
  
  

Work with Lara

Apply for an On-air Coaching Call!

Free Breakthrough Assessment

Got a Question? Comment? Email [email protected]

Corporate Training

Difficult Happens by Lara Currie                                                                    

Difficulthappens.com/workwithme/

Resources:

The Secret Gift in Every Emotion

Your Conflict Personality Type

Assessments in all their glory

How to Combat Manipulative Behavior

Mentioned in this episode:

Podcast Series on Manipulation

Perfectionist Principle Masterclass

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How do you find gratitude when you have a bad attitude? 

As whole human beings, we experience a range of emotions every day, some are good, and some we think of as bad. So how do you practice gratitude when you just don’t feel like it, that is the topic of today’s episode.

We tell ourselves stories about ourselves to ourselves, about situations and experiences and what those stories mean to us. Those stories become a self-fulfilling prophecy, that by just believing in them, make them true.

When you practice gratitude, in whatever way works for you, you will be a happier healthier person.

What you’ll hear in this podcast:

• How the stories we tell ourselves create our reality
• How to have a clinicians attitude
• How to reframe to turn your mind
• How gratitude changes your mood
• Have to versus get to

Work with Lara

Apply for an On-air Coaching Call!

Free Breakthrough Assessment

Got a Question? Comment? Email [email protected]

Corporate Training

Difficult Happens by Lara Currie                                                                    

Difficulthappens.com/workwithme/

Resources:

The Secret Gift in Every Emotion

Your Conflict Personality Type

Assessments in all their glory

Mentioned in this episode:

Brene Brown

James Wedmore

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How to get over it
Whether you have experienced a major life blow, like a divorce or a job change, or a more minor slight like a negative comment or angry road incident, it can be hard to move past it.

On today’s show, we talk about how to ‘Get over’ tough things and move past them to a place where you can find some peace. 

You can’t control the fact that other people’s actions will impact you, but you can control what you do about it.

What you’ll hear in this podcast:

• How you are impacted by others’ actions
• The difference between fault and responsibility
• What your reactions mean
• How you can ‘turn your mind’ about hard things
• How taking responsibility empowers you
• What the four agreements are
• How to use  the four agreements
• Time frames for moving on, yours and other peoples

Work with Lara

Apply for an On-air Coaching Call!

Free Breakthrough Assessment

Got a Question? Comment? Email [email protected]

Corporate Training

Difficult Happens by Lara Currie                                                                    

Difficulthappens.com/workwithme/

Resources:

The Secret Gift in Every Emotion

Your Conflict Personality Type

Assessments in all their glory

Mentioned in this episode:

Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Preditors

Will Smith; Fault vs Responsibility

Super Soul Sunday with Malcolm Gladwell

The Four Agreements

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If you are a Perfectionist or have the Disease to Please, your very environment can trigger you.

www.difficulthappens.com We have unconscious reactions all day long, ones that we aren’t aware of and yet they impact us in ways that will surprise you. Your subconscious is in control of your actions and reactions 99% of the time so it’s no surprise that it takes a strong reaction or reason to take a mindful look at why we respond in a certain way.

Don’t wait for a conflict to identify yours.

When you shine the light on triggered reactions, where the ‘action’ of any interaction happens, you can respond with purpose.

Break free from the pull of perfectionism join me today and discover how to identify your triggered reactions.

What you’ll hear in this podcast:

• Where ‘difficult’ stuff comes from
• The trap of perfectionism
• The disease to please
• What a triggered reaction is
• What an environmental trigger is
• How to identify your environmental triggers
• Becoming who we were meant to be
• Don’t ‘should’ on yourself
• Why my sister passed out in Geology 101

Work with Lara 

Apply for an On-air Coaching Call!

Free Breakthrough Assessment

Got a Question? Comment? Email [email protected]

Corporate Training

Difficult Happens by Lara Currie                                                                    

Difficulthappens.com/workwithme/ 

Resources:

The Secret Gift in Every Emotion

Your Conflict Personality Type

Assessments in all their glory

29 Why your subconscious is the REAL boss

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Perfectionism is a trap that can keep you frozen in inaction or frenzied in productive procrastination.

This perfectionist trap can trigger feelings that lead you down the road to a fight, flight, freeze or appease reaction and start you on that familiar hampster wheel of emotions which impacts the way you feel, act, and react.

In today’s episode dive into recognizing one of the things that can trigger you, how you identify it and what you can do about it.

Want to break free from this trap? Tune in and get out from under the stress of perfectionism

What you’ll hear in this podcast:

• How perfectionism impacts you
• What an emotional desire path is
• What a triggered reaction is
• How to identify when you have been triggered
• What an emotional or feeling trigger is
• How triggered reactions can be positive ones
• How to identify your triggers
• How to break free from the stress

Work with Lara

Apply for an On-air Coaching Call!

Free Breakthrough Assessment

Got a Question? Comment? Email [email protected]

Corporate Trainings

Difficult Happens by Lara Currie                                                                    

Difficulthappens.com/workwithme/

Resources:

The Neurobiology of Sentence Comprehension

The Conflict Personality-Types

College Campus Desire Paths

How the Brain Decodes Sentences

The Secret Gift in Every Emotion

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Listen for free on the go with any one of these players for both Android & iPhone