“How do I advance my career?”

“How do I have better work/life balance?”

“How do I overcome me weaknesses?”

All of these questions revolve around our personal development – a broad looming topic that means something a bit different to each of us. So, what does personal development mean then? Great question!

Personal development simply refers to anything we want to grow in, be better at, and improve about ourselves. Typically (even in organizations), we characterize our personal development from a negative “What’s wrong with me” perspective. When we do this, we, more often than not, are harder on ourselves than needed and, we make it hard to achieve the growth we want!

We can, however, flip the above script and not only set ourselves up for success in achieving what we want, but also clearly outline what we want to achieve and carve out an easier path to achieving it! Join me as I break down what personal development truly is and how we can easily accomplish it.

“I have to be perfect! There’s no other choice!”

“I can’t screw up! People will think less of me!”

“If I’m not perfect, I’ve failed!”

Perfection is highly sought after, held as the ultimate standard, and comes with a steep price! What happens though when we aren’t perfect? We call ourselves names, we beat ourselves up, and we are harder on ourselves than ever before! The need to be perfect comes at a cost!

“But Steven, that’s how I’ve been successful – holding myself to excellence and being perfect!”

I hear you, and I don’t disagree! However, there is a way to do this AND alleviate all of the stress, negativity, and issues that arise when we fall short of perfection. This is the key difference between pursuing perfection and the need to be perfect; the pursuit of perfection comes with excellence AND the acceptance of our fallibility as human beings. When we make this shift, we not only can continue to execute at a high level, we also get better because we learn how to leverage our “failures” as growth opportunities to miss the mark less.

Join me as I break down how to embrace the pursuit of perfection and overcome the detrimental impact of the need to be perfect.

Difficult people are irritating!

Difficult people are frustrating!

Difficult people are tiring!!!

How the heck do I deal with them???

Those we characterize as difficult can absolutely drain us…if we let them! While difficult people impact us, we CAN choose how to let that impact affect us! That is and will always be in our control. So, what does this mean in terms of how to deal with difficult people? Good question! It means, it starts with us!

We always can choose how we feel, think, and act. While something, or in this case someone, may bring out non-serving reactions within us, we don’t have to let that consume us! This is just one of the pieces to the puzzle to dealing with difficult people – negating the detrimental impact they have on us! Learn how we can do this AND other key components to dealing with difficult people in this episode!

How do I find a job I’m passionate about? A question that many of us have asked in our lifetime, more likely than not on many occasions. Numbers, such as 70%, have been thrown around as the percentage of Americans who do not like their job. Are you within this percentage? If you are, you are definitely NOT alone!!!

Finding what we are passionate about is a hard thing to do for many of us; however, there is a WAY to find the answer you are seeking. We CAN know what we are passionate about AND find a job that fulfills that passion within us! It IS possible!!

Knowing it is possible is foundational because it frees us from the “I don’t know trap” we often fall victim to –

“I don’t know! I can’t figure this out!”

“I don’t even know how to get started.”

“This is too much to think about! I don’t know how I’ll ever figure it out!”

And so on and so on. The “I don’t know” trap can paralyze us and prevent us from taking action because we’ve already convinced ourselves it’s not possible.

Join me as I share that it is not only possible, but also there are clearcut ways to determine what we are truly passionate about!

Wanting to advance our careers but seeing no positions available at the next level in our organizations can be extremely frustrating! Rightfully so! We want our careers to progress AND know there is the ability to do so. Having the ability to advance upwards is absolutely critical to this!

So, how do we handle when we don’t see options at the next level? It’s a very common question, and one that actually has many answers to it! Join me as I explore how we can advance our careers even when we don’t see that next level being readily available in our organization.

In addition to asking where we want our careers to go, we also commonly ask how do we successfully advance our careers? Many of us have asked this question and, many of us have answered it as well - successfully advancing our careers to where want them to go.

One of the easiest clearcut ways to know how to advance our careers comes from Harvey Coleman, author of Empowering Yourself: The Organizational Game Revealed.  He outlines the P.I.E. model which dives into how our performance, image, and exposure come into play regarding career advancement.

Spoiler alert! The largest factor we commonly believe plays a role in our advancement isn’t the most important by far. Join me as I dive into this model and share easy actionable steps to start advancing your career today!

Knowing what we want to do is one of the hardest questions to answer.

“What do I want to do for a living?”

“What am I passionate about?”

“Where do I want my career to go?”

These are all common questions we ask when trying to figure out what to do, especially when we feel compelled to continually advance our careers year after year. And, we often get stuck in perpetuity trying to answer these questions.

Get stuck no more! In this episode, we’re going to share some tried and true guidance to start answering the question of where we want our careers to go.

“I’m working all the time and have no balance!”

Sound familiar? If it does, you’re are not alone! Even before the pandemic we were overworked and our lives were “out of whack.” A feeling that has gotten worse and become even more prevalent over the past 2 years.

So, how do we change this?  How do we create better work/life balance? The answer starts with an objective look inwards to see what it is we truly want, what leads to our feeling of imbalance, how many hats do we wear, and more. In this episode we’ll dive into each of these areas, providing a clear-cut way of finding the balance you want in your life right now!

Have you ever been misunderstood?

“That’s not what I said!”

“How is that what you heard?”

Misunderstandings happen all the time when we communicate with others. So, how do we ensure we are clearly understood? Today, we are going to answer this question with easy tried and true techniques that will clearly convey what we want, and ensure others understand it too!

Can I share a secret with you?

We all get nervous speaking in front of a group of people. And, you know what? That’s okay! It’s part of who we are AND there are ways to present the way we want to even while being nervous.

In this episode, I am going to share some tried and true tips that will help us present better by being more focused, confident, and resonant with whom we are presenting to. If you are giving a keynote, delivering a talk at work, or simply wanting to tell better stories, this episode is for you!