The Intentional Advantage

We've been talking about happiness all season long, and today we're discussing the importance of connections and how that impacts your happiness. It's important that we treat our friendships as the priority that they truly are because as humans, our need for love and belonging are the foundation for who we are. In this episode, we'll discuss how important friendships and connections are, the way that connection impacts your health, and why it is important to build a friendship on a variety of different interests on multiple levels.

What's In This Episode:

• Choosing connection in order to nurture relationships as an important part of our holistic selves
• Building true connection through quality time
• The impact connection and loneliness have on your health
• Showing up for collective moments of joy and pain to bear witness to human connection
• Creating relationships on common interests on multiple levels

Do some hours seem long and enjoyable while others feel fleeting and full of stress? Today, we are going to be talking about eliminating stress by bending time. We'll talk about the impact planning fallacy has on our perception of time and how to make our important tasks more manageable and our days more enjoyable by using time buffers. We'll also discuss the importance of lingering and six ideas that reinforce the idea of not rushing on to the very next thing.

What's In This Episode:

• The concept and benefits of bending time
• Reclaiming our time by intentionally scheduling for action, thought and conversation
• The impact planning fallacy has on our future planning
• Making our important tasks manageable by using time buffers
• Six ideas to reinforce the idea of lingering

Learn how to be intentional with your family in today's Ask Tonya Q&A episode. I'm answering listener's questions about how to create & maximize time with family, the difference between urgent tasks and important tasks, getting your family on board with new systems, and how changing your perspective on others' successes can lead to your own accomplishments.

What's In This Episode:

• My favorite tips on how to carve out whitespace & recharge so that we can work effectively & feel successful
• Distinguishing between what is important and what is urgent in our daily lives
• Planning and maximizing your downtime with your family
• What is frequency illusion? And how to use it as a springboard for success

There are some things in our lives that feel like they shouldn't be scheduled, but when we make time for them, they truly increase our happiness. Today we're talking about scheduling the unschedulable to allow yourself the space to be able to do what you want to do. We will talk about the importance of planning your free time and prioritizing your tasks, your loved ones, and yourself.

What's In This Episode:

• Prioritizing your tasks & investing your time consciously
• Setting boundaries to allow yourself to dedicate your time intentionally
• The consequences of deprioritizing yourself and your loved ones
• Planning your free time in order to truly enjoy it

Are you good at taking breaks? Do you feel guilty taking breaks? Do you feel like they are a waste of time? Many of us skip breaks, just trying to push through and be as efficient as possible. Skipping out on breaks isn't good for your productivity or overall happiness at work & at home. Today, we're talking about the importance of taking breaks and the types of breaks that will make us feel happier each day.

What's In This Episode:

• Increasing your productivity with breaks
• Scheduling well-timed breaks for mental clarity
• Understanding the types of breaks you really want to take
• Five categories of breaks you'll want to implement into your day
• Ways to have a greener workspace to incorporate nature into your day

We've all heard of FOMO, the fear of missing out, but what we need to do is to work to cultivate the joy of missing out. We'll find the happiness in not following along what everybody else is doing, purposely not following the crowd, and doing your own thing. On today's episode we are talking about where our FOMO comes from and the things that exacerbate it. We'll also learn practices that will help us cultivate solitude and help us discover what we truly love.

What's In This Episode:

• FOMO: where the fear of missing out comes from
• Exacerbating our comparison issue with technology & social media
• Forming an internal understanding of ourselves and our mission in this world
• Top 5 practices to cultivating solitude

Today we're shifting our perspectives to cultivate a happier, more satisfying life. We'll focus on mindset, the importance of identifying negative self-talk and thoughts, and the five practices that will allow you to shift your perspective. Learn to finally stop finding the negative in situations, and instead choose to become more aware of the positives and create your happiest life.

What's In This Episode:

• Lazy vs. Intentional: How your actions and emotions make all the difference
• Choosing positive, intentional thoughts
• Identifying negative loops & consciously shifting your mindset to optimistic
• Top 5 practices to help you finally shift your perspective

What does happiness have to do with productivity? Everything. The goal of productivity is to find ways to create space, to focus our time, our energy, and our effort into what really matters most, the result of which is happiness. Today we start season 7, on cultivating happiness through productivity. We'll start with discussing the idea of choosing happiness. I'll talk about what it looks like to choose happiness, how to handle our negative emotions and inner critic and four mindset shifts that you can start making today.

What's In This Episode:

• Choosing happiness & the realistic choices you can start making to cultivate happiness
• Showing up to your emotions so that you can bring happiness into your everyday life
• Being happy and being comfortable: What's the difference?
• Four mindset shifts you can start making today

All season long, we've uncovered several of the stumbling blocks many of us deal with and turned them into starting blocks. We're really only limited by our visions of who we are and what we're capable of doing & the stumbling blocks we experience are merely small obstacles to overcome. Today, I'm building on that idea and the importance of visualizing success. Visualization is the deliberate creation of images in one's mind and when done correctly, visualization is an effective way to overcome your obstacles and achieve success.

What's In This Episode:

• Utilizing detailed visualization to break down stumbling blocks & plan our actions
• The relationship between visualization and success
• Four benefits of visualization
• Starting the practice of realistic visualization
• Expecting results from your visualization practice

Risk taking involves testing our boundaries in a safe environment, which helps us cultivate what we value and define who we are. However, it is a skill that is often under practiced because many fear stepping out on a limb and failing. Today, I am going to be sharing why it is important to practice the skill of taking risks, practical tips for assessing whether a risk is meaningful, and how to accurately define success when stepping outside of your comfort zone.

What's In This Episode:

• Practicing the skill of taking risks
• Deciphering between fear and intuition
• Assessing if the risk has intention or not + a FREE download
• Actionable ways to take intentional & meaningful risks
• Defining success when taking risks