Life in Focus Podcast

How appropriate is it to talk about dreaming big, thriving and living a great life when people are being gunned down in the streets, individuals are fleeing bloodshed, only to be marginalized in their ports of arrival, and the ones who govern us act like bickering children on a playground?

This summer has been one of chaos, bloodshed, sadness and hysteria both here in the States and around the world. The truly sad thing is that the realities we have been privy to over the past couple of months are common daily occurrences for many people around the world.

It is hard to be unaffected by all of this pain. It seems impossible to go on without addressing it.

Life in Focus’ message is one of hope. The idea behind what I do is to remind people that they have one life to live, and that they owe it to themselves to live it as best they can… but how appropriate and realistic is that in a world where survival takes precedence over thriving?

In episode 47 Chris and I talk about how important it is to continue dreaming. I explain why dreaming big, maintaining hope and shooting for a great life is neither trite, nor superficial, but ESSENTIAL today more than ever.

 

[bctt tweet=”Dreaming big allows us to advance, become a better society & as human beings evolve beyond chaos.” username=”lifenfocus”]

INSIGHT

* When life is looking really dire you have a choice: either allow it to cripple you,  allow it to be paralyzing or recognize the pain and ask yourself what you want to do, given the realities of your world.

* Pain and misery are not reasons to give up, they are what should motivate us to hope and strive to live better, and in so doing to create a better world for ourselves and others.

* It is important to be able to dream big, to want more without feeling guilt.

* By building a better life for yourself, you create better opportunities for others.

* The only control we have over anything that is happening in our world are the choices and actions we take.

* Don’t just feel sad or sorry for the misery you see, understand why it bothers you deep down inside and make life choices that directly reflect those values.

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Get your questions answered! We are going to be hosting monthly Q&A podcasts! What do you want to know?

What help, advice or inspiration can we provide you? [email protected] Ask away!

We love to think of great content for you, by subscribing to the podcast, rating and reviewing it you can both show your love and help others discover Life in Focus.

That kind of love and feedback means a lot to us and is priceless.

Do you know what kind of impact you have on your world and your business? Knowing your IMPACT can help you stay in love with what you do, and keep that sense of purpose and value flowing in your life.

Watch out listener! This episode is double the info, double the insight and could be divided in two very important messages.

The first has to do with the IMPACT that being a women has on how we conduct our business and how we see ourselves personally and professionally. As much as we might want gender equality to be a reality, the fact is doing business as a women is very different (not necessarily worse or better) from doing business as a man. Ana Ottman has made a career of helping women express themselves in their businesses without fear, shame or moderation.

The second half of the episode explores this issue of IMPACT on a broader scale, looking at how understanding the impact you have on your clients and followers can help you stay in love with what you do and rediscover purpose and passion in your career.

Episode 46 of Life in Focus takes a look at women’s voice in business through the eyes and experience of writer, copy editor and business woman Ana Ottman.

 

[bctt tweet=”Is the value you are bringing into the world is the value you want to bring? #podcast #insight #lifeinfocussd” username=”lifenfocus”]

INSIGHT

* “Most women have stories, ideas, messages inside of them that they’re not sharing for a variety of reasons… fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of success!”

* We can’t have a positive forward looking society in which half of the people are not fully themselves!

* To know yourself, to understand your impact and your value, allows you to not only build but find purpose in your life.

* Is the value you are bringing into the world the value you want to bring?

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Get your questions answered! We are going to be hosting monthly Q&A podcasts! What do you want to know?

What help, advice or inspiration can we provide you? [email protected] Ask away!

 

More on Ana

I’m a writer living in Los Angeles.

As a literary fiction writer, my short stories focus on themes of womanhood and self-determination and have appeared in award-winning literary publications including The Rumpus and Eclectica Magazine. I serve as the associate fiction editor for the literary culture site, The Nervous Breakdown. At the moment, I’m working on a novel based on my Italian great-grandparents’ marriage.I’ve led feminist communications projects since 2003. My work background includes lobbying for federal funding to combat violence against women, coordinating operations for pro-choice Democratic women political candidates in the U.S., and managing a copywriting agency that served women business owners.

I received a B.A. in Chinese Language and Literature, and an M.A. in Public Policy and Women’s Studies. On a daily basis, I’m searching for answers to life’s big philosophical questions at the same time as I’m obsessively tracking the details.

Come, take a seat next to me and tell me how you, too, want to change the world.

FIND ANA:

ONLINE

Whose’ life are you living? Are the choices you make yours or are they influenced by the values and desires of others?

We are all influenced by the people in our lives. Sometimes the influence we get is sought out, and other times it is subtly internalized. Some influences we want and others we would rather rid ourselves of. Even the most independent person has elements of their life that are determined by the influence of others (our parents being the very first group of people to imprint their values and ways on us).

Today’s episode talks about recognizing the power of influence, especially as it relates to our professional choices (although everything that I discuss in Episode 45 can be applied to any area of life).

Do you know whose influence is being exerted on you? Is it helping you thrive or holding you back? How do you go about finding it out and making a change. These are things that I discuss in this week’s podcast of Life in Focus.

[bctt tweet=”It’s hard to decline the unwanted influence others have on you, but far harder to live someone else’s idea of what your life should be. #drwallsays #truth” username=”lifenfocus”]

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Get your questions answered! We are going to be hosting monthly Q&A podcasts! What do you want to know?

What help, advice or inspiration can we provide you? [email protected] Ask away!

Join the Challenge

 

We love to think of great content for you, by subscribing to the podcast, rating and reviewing it you can both show your love and help others discover Life in Focus.

That kind of love and feedback means a lot to us and is priceless.

Let’s talk about the most exciting, useful and self-defining document you can create to thrive and never feel lost again.  

A year ago a few questions from a perceptive friend, and the right space of mind lead me to redefine who I was. In a matter of minutes I had created one of the most important documents I would draft that year. My manifesto is a declaration of the most important aspects of who I am, a promise to myself to stay true to the values that I uphold, and a vision of the woman I want to become.

When I feel stuck, unsure or lost all I need to do it look back upon the words I wrote and everything becomes clear. The directions I need to take, the nature of who I am, it is all there.

In this shorter episode 44 of Life in Focus I talk about the events that lead me to write my manifesto last year, and invite you to join me this summer in the Manifest Yourself challenge.

The challenge runs for six weeks during which you will receive a weekly question to answer. The questions are designed to help you gain insight into your needs, values and hopes. Armed with this insight you will have the basic building blocks to create your very own manifesto. Finally, I’ll share specific ways in which you can use your manifesto to improve your fulfillment and thrive on a daily basis.

Listen & Subscribe

Join the Challenge

 

[bctt tweet=”I’m taking the Manifest Yourself challenge, listen here and find out why! Then join me #podcast #manifesto #thrive” username=”lifenfocus”]

Get your questions answered! We are going to be hosting monthly Q&A podcasts! What do you want to know? What help, advice or inspiration can we provide you? [email protected] Ask away!

We love to think of great content for you, by subscribing to the podcast, rating and reviewing it you can both show your love and help others discover Life in Focus.

That kind of love and feedback means a lot to us and is priceless.

This is part II of our Level Up Episode- Learn about small changes you can make in love and happiness to get to the next level and THRIVE.

Small changes can have a huge impact. Yet, we often ignore the smaller steps we can take in favor of big shifts, long-term goals and fancy transformations.

At Life in Focus INSIGHT is king. All my experience as a psychologist tells me that if you don’t understand what you need, if you are unclear about who you are, then the choices you make and the path you take in life will be less than fulfilling. Insight is necessary for change to be right for you.

(Choices+Action) x Insight = Right for you

 

When your choices and your actions are informed by true insight about who you are/what you need, then you create a life in focus, a life that is right for you.

Over the next two episodes of Life in Focus, Chris and I invite you to take action and level-up your life TODAY by implementing small changes that will create big shifts.

Together we suggest three actions you can take today in each of the following areas:

* Health

* Productivity

* Love

* Happiness

This episode is about making small changes everyday to get big upgrades in your life over time.

 

[bctt tweet=”The changes you make dont; have to be radical to have a HUGE impact! #podcast #lifehack #thrive” username=”lifenfocus”]

 

 

Listen to Part I of this Episode : HERE

 

INSIGHTS

* In love give this a try: make eye contact… seriously it may be the most intimate thing you do on any given day. For two other easy changes you can make listen to this week’s episode.

* Happiness has a lot more to do with your mindset than your circumstances

* Check out the Manifest Yourself Challenge is a quick way to learn more about yourself and level up your choices this summer.

*

Get your questions answered! We are going to be hosting monthly Q&A podcasts! What do you want to know? What help, advice or inspiration can we provide you? [email protected] Ask away!

 

If you liked this episode, let us know by sharing it! (share buttons at the bottom of the post)

la

We love to think of great content for you, by subscribing to the podcast, rating and reviewing it you can both show your love and help others discover Life in Focus.

la

That kind of love and feedback means a lot to us and is priceless.

Small changes can have a huge impact. Yet, we often ignore the smaller steps we can take in favor of big shifts, long-term goals and fancy transformations.

At Life in Focus INSIGHT is king. All my experience as a psychologist tells me that if you don’t understand what you need, if you are unclear about who you are, then the choices you make and the path you take in life will be less than fulfilling. Insight is necessary for change to be right for you.

(Choices+Action) x Insight = Right for you

When your choices and your actions are informed by true insight about who you are/what you need, then you create a life in focus, a life that is right for you.

Over the next two episodes of Life in Focus, Chris and I invite you to take action and level-up your life TODAY by implementing small changes that will create big shifts.

Small changes can have a HUGE impact. #podcast #lifehack
Click To Tweet

Together we suggest three actions you can take today in each of the following areas:

*

Health

*

Productivity

*

Love

*

Happiness

This episode is about making small changes everyday get big upgrades in your life over time.

LISTEN HERE

 Listen to Part II of the Level Up Session HERE

INSIGHTS

* When you consider an action you want to take, ALWAYS look at the roadblocks that might slow you down, then build your action to account for or overcome those roadblocks.

* I am committing to putting my phone down at 6 PM, Chris is committing to writing a bit everyday. What small change will you take this week that will have a HUGE impact on the quality of your life? Share in the comments.

*

Get your questions answered! We are going to be hosting monthly Q&A podcasts! What do you want to know? What help, advice or inspiration can we provide you? [email protected] Ask away!

 

If you liked this episode, let us know by sharing it! (share buttons at the bottom of the post)

la

We love to think of great content for you, by subscribing to the podcast, rating and reviewing it you can both show your love and help others discover Life in Focus.

la

That kind of love and feedback means a lot to us and is priceless.

Have you ever sough out the advice of a professionals who seem to have ‘it’ figured out, all in the hopes of building a life/career/body/mind that is strong, successful, right for you? Me too, but what if I told you that there is one expert whose advice you have been ignoring, that that this expert is THE MOST IMPORTANT person you should be listening to?

Too often we seek out the advice of others, but fail to listen to ourselves. It’s unfortunate, because no expert out there knows more about what you need, crave or want than you do.

In episode 41 of Life in Focus I outline three signals that you are likely ignoring. Attending to these signals is critical to living a better and more authentic life.

I explore why we are so bad at paying attention to these cues, and talk about a few ways to get back in touch with yourself, listen up and act on the expert knowledge you hold.

This episode is about putting you back in control and reminding you that only you possess the keys to right for you.

[bctt tweet=”Trust you wisdom and your knowledge, you are the only true expert on YOU. #podcast” username=”lifenfocus”]

INSIGHTS

* Emotions are simply signals telling you what you need. I decipher the major ones in this episode for you.

* There are four main reasons we struggle to listen to ourselves: 1) There is too much external noise, 2) we prefer distraction to distress, 3) we’re not entirely sure how to translate what we hear, and 4) we fear taking the path less travelled.

* To listen up you first need to create space to hear yourself – try practicing the Art of Doing Nothing or the 5 Step Check – In to create that space.

* Post on Stress 101 to get the 5 step Check-In.

* Check the box below to sign up for the Insight Builder Series

* Get your questions answered! We are going to be hosting monthly Q&A podcasts! What do you want to know? What help, advice or inspiration can we provide you? Email me at [email protected] to ask your question.

 

If you liked this episode, let us know by sharing it! (share buttons at the bottom of the post)

la

We love to think of great content for you, by subscribing to the podcast, rating and reviewing it you can both show your love and help others discover Life in Focus.

la

That kind of love and feedback means a lot to us and is priceless.

 

Episode 40 of Life in Focus is all about taking chances and living up to your growing potential. Dean is someone who has reinvented himself countless times, often successfully, and always by challenging himself to tap into his current strengths and interests.

One of the big takes homes from this interview is that our potential to grow into anything we want to be is there. It requires efforts and guts, but behaviors can be learned, and therefore change is possible. Dean also makes this great point that often we are far more willing to suffer than we are to face the uncertainty of change… Do you recognize yourself in this?

Trying to make a change? Feeling stuck? Are you sure it is easier to stay stuck and unhappy than it would be to change? This episode has some really great ideas and tips on how to transform yourself and make it work for you.

 

 

INSIGHTS

* “Behavior is malleable. There is absolutely no behavior that we can’t adopt if we don’t want to.”

* Here is Brock’s interview, if you are looking to make a change and wonder if it is possible, you need to listen to this episode.

* Part of the reason why change may be so difficult is that we are never really taught how to change.

* We are taught that you either have a skill set or you don’t and it stops there! That is not true folks. There are things you are better at than others, but skills can be learned.

* “It is easier to suffer than to change.” Fear can manifest in so many ways, some time we need others to help up see what we cannot face.

* There are only a few behaviors that drive any change – Dean gives a great weight-loss example from someone he interviewed.

* It’s not that we don’t know what to do, we don’t know HOW to do it!

 

If you liked this episode, let us know by sharing it! (share buttons at the bottom of the post)

la

We love to think of great content for you, by subscribing to the podcast, rating and reviewing it you can both show your love and help others discover Life in Focus.

la

That kind of love and feedback means a lot to us and is priceless.

More on Dean:

We could all use more Dean, unfortunately for us, Dean is revamping his website right now. What I can say about him is that this former teacher, gone author, podcaster, entrepreneur and speaker is a master of change, transformation, and systems.

Dean is someone who is passionate about pursuing right for him and understanding how he can use his own success to help others. He doesn’t believe in prescriptions, he doesn’t buy into adding to the noise; Dean Dwyer wants to teach us how to use the information that is already out there to make the changes we want to make.

He is funny, smart and best of all embodies one of my core tenets, he says what he means and means what he says – Dean speaks in truth – and we could use more people like him.

Find him:

Online

On Air

In Print

What is the value of community? Do we still fully understand what it means to have a tight knit community in this era of social media and virtual relationships?

Our guest on Episode 39 of Life in Focus is Blayne Smith, Executive Director of Team Red, White and Blue (TRWB). TRWB is a organization that aims to enrich the lives of veterans by building  connections and community through physical and social activities. They bring together veterans, military personnel and civilians and all benefit from these deeper social bonds.

The interview with Blaine was eye opening. For one, he pointed out that military culture is  one of community and deep connections, whereas the civilian world seems much less connected in recent times.

Episode 40 explores the importance of community and human relations. We talk about the need for strong communities from the perspective of helping veterans, but also from a universal Human perspective. We also discuss the process that Blayne went through as he shifted from his career in finance to being executive director of Team Red, White and Blue, and he very wisely reminds us that the changes we fear most (new careers, divorces, relocations…) are never as insurmountable as we think.

Findings other, finding yourself and having the courage to be yourself; this episode is all about human connections, fears and taking action.

 

INSIGHTS

* The quality of personal relationship is a huge factor in perceived life satisfaction – how good are your connections? Do you have close and meaningful bonds with at least one or two other individuals.

* Fear, again, is one of the big reason we hold back from connecting with others. Are you aware of the thoughts that cross your mind in social situations? Can you change them?

* There is nothing like sweat to bring people together – build a community around working out!

* This is the article I reference in the interview.

* Although we tend to label, segregate and separate ourselves across a variety of lines, we are far more alike than we are different. Try connecting with someone else along those values and experiences first.

* “Lack of genuine empathy is the root of most of our social challenges in America and throughout the world. It is very, very hard to use slurs, to use aggressive language, or to be oblivious, or rude, or anything to somebody if you’ve sat down and talked to them for 20 minutes, and heard their side of things.”

* Talking about life in general – you can’t define yourself through your 20-year-old self’s ideal.

* We think of big life changes (like starting over) as being so insurmountable, of being so difficult to overcome. The reality is that they are all survivable, and we will come out on the other side of them just fine; so take action.

* “Life is just a mirror, what you put out is what you will see.”

 

If you liked this episode, let us know by sharing it! (share buttons at the bottom of the post)

la

We love to think of great content for you, by subscribing to the podcast, rating and reviewing it you can both show your love and help others discover Life in Focus.

la

That kind of love and feedback means a lot to us and is priceless.

 

Team Red, White and Blue:

“Enrichment is defined as creating quality relationships and experiences that contribute to life satisfaction and overall wellbeing.

 

Dispensing advice and helping others figure out what’s right for them is easy, taking that same advice and applying it to your own life… not so  much.

Working with people to help them feel and live better can be grueling at times. One perk of the job, however, is that you are constantly reminded of your own advice, and you get to see the benefits in action. It is hard to be all talk and no action without feeling like a hypocrite.

This past week I took a cue from my patients and my clients. I was inspired by their courage and drive to finally take action on something I had been putting off for six months.

In episode 38 of Life in Focus, Chris and I explore why it is that we can know what is right for us, yet fail to act on that knowledge. We look at why personal insight is so hard to achieve, and talk about the universal roadblocks that stand in the way of change when taking action means confronting a difficult choice.

[bctt tweet=”If you seek certainty in outcomes before moving into action, you will forever stay stuck. ” username=”lifenfocus”]

We both acknowledge that to make changes and have the honesty to examine oneself requires an incredible amount of courage and integrity, and I  share three truths to bare in mind to stay motivated with moving forward with change.

Tough choices, hard conversations and daunting changes; this episode deals with how to move forward with these things.

 

 

INSIGHTS

* Even the most insightful and knowledgeable person struggles to act on what they know is right for them.

* Distress (feeling sad, angry, stressed, irritated, anxious…) signals the need for change. Never avoid distress, never ignore your feelings; it won’t end well.

* Change requires courage.

* Why do people avoid taking action: 1) it’s hard work, 2) the outcome is uncertain, 3) it breaks the status quo!

* If you seek certainty in outcomes to move into action, you will forever stay stuck. There is no certainty, only possibility. You can not wait to be certain of an outcome to move into action. Doing so will keep you perpetually stuck.

* The most common outcome of failure is a return to your previous baseline.

 

If you liked this episode, let us know by sharing it! (share buttons at the bottom of the post)

la

We love to think of great content for you, by subscribing to the podcast, rating and reviewing it you can both show your love and help others discover Life in Focus.

la

That kind of love and feedback means a lot to us and is priceless.