The Unlikely Artist

In today’s episode, learn how to manage the tension between your desire to be in the full enjoyment and appreciation of your life as you experience it now, and your simultaneous need to grow and evolve and submit your life to constant change.

You might think you’re required to choose between one focus or the other. You don’t. A truly transcendent life happens when you balance in equal measure your full presence and your pursuit of possibility. This balance is a recipe for your ultimate feeling of “aliveness” every day.

It doesn’t serve us to push down our negative emotions. Sadness, pain, grief, doubt, frustration are all part of our full human experience. These feelings can be beautiful in their own right.

In this episode, I talk about Ukrainian violinist Illia Bondarenko’s sad rendition of a Ukrainian folksong in a YouTube video. Illia was joined by violinists from around the world in support of fundraising efforts to help Ukrainians affected by the war. The beautiful sadness in this music takes us out of our heads and into our hearts. To hear this video and find the fundraising link for UN Refugee Agency promoted by Violonists Support Ukraine, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQSIeD-x6dQ.

This video and world events got me wanting to explore the feeling of beautiful sadness. I wondered if there’s a word that precisely reflects this emotion. I found it and, ironically, it’s the Russian word “toska”. I found a perfect description of what this word means in a quote from an American who spent several years in Russia. Toska, he said, is a feeling where we’re “keenly aware of the terrible sharpness and intensity in a single moment in life…We feel utterly what it is to be human, to be pierced by loss, sadness, betrayal and all the myriad of things that can happen over the course of a single human lifetime… And yet, this very toska ties us intrincially to the very spark that give us life as humans and allows us to hold a small bright torch against the weight of that endless void…”. This quote is from Georgy Mananev’s article, “What is TOSKA, the Russian Despair?” in the May 6, 2020 edition of Russia Beyond.

Savvy Souls, we don’t need to push down the feelings we think are “bad”. We can stare at something beautiful and open ourselves up to the sadness the beauty inspires. We can notice ourselves feeling sadness, despair, grief, loneliness, frustration, and find beauty in that.

We can allow ourselves to feel the beautiful sadness of life. This will make our lives richer. This ability to feel whatever we’re feeling will foster our courage.

In this episode, you’ll learn one way of creating peak experiences – experiences where you feel intensely connected to life, you forget your troubles, and your sense of time, space and self collapse.

Don’t get trapped by your routines. In this episode I show you why it’s important to walk around a new “corner” and explore. Exploration will waken your five senses, trigger your curiosity and engagement, create an opening for new ideas, and help you feel more alive.

The smallest changes to your routine will cause peak experiences to become a more regular occurrence in your life. Not only will you enjoy the journey more, but you’ll find yourself heading in a more fulfilling direction. Make sure to join me today to learn exactly how to do this.

Tune in to learn how switching up the small things you do will get you unstuck and open you to a world of possibility.

You’ll find this episode helpful if you find yourself pushing away your desires because you’re convinced they’re not possible to achieve. Most likely, you can cite several reasons why you can’t have what you truly want. And you think those reasons are what’s keeping you from getting what you desire.

They’re not.

The truth is that it’s most often your thoughts about why your dreams are impossible that are the real culprit. When your mindset is that something is impossible, you won’t think, feel and act in the way that you need to in order to make what you desire a reality.

Tune in to this episode to learn how to think in possibilities, not impossibilities.

If you decide to create a vision board, please send me a photo of it, and let me know whether you’d like me to post in on Instagram or not. It would be so fun to hear what you’re dreaming up.

Tune into this episode if you’ve been believing your career needs to be built in an orderly and logical fashion, starting with the foundation of your education and your work experience to date. This artificial constraint will severely limit your choices and steer you away from a more fulfilling direction.

It’s a fallacy to believe that your best next move is to always add the next logical building block. It’s not the right choice if the building you construct from that foundation will never become the building you want.

The truth is that it’s never possible to “waste” your education or career experience. They’ve made you what you are now, and you get to take THAT with you wherever you go.

All you ever need to do is make the best choice for you now.

In this episode, you’ll learn about how to use a simple, feeling based goal to solve any problem.

You’ll find this episode helpful if the goals you set for 2022 already have your brain confused and you feeling discouraged. Try out the method I recommend here, and you’ll be surprised at how quickly you can turn things turn around and feel good about your progress.

Even if you’re happily pursuing your goals, no problem, you’ll still benefit from learning about this easy and productive way to create an antidote to any problem you’re facing.

Tune in if you feel stuck, feel confused and don’t know what to do, have too much on your plate, don’t feel good enough, or lack confidence. Or if you just want to find a bit more joy or a sense of belonging in your life.

I got the idea for this episode when one of my clients reported, “I’m like a Ferrari!” My intention is that after you listen to this episode, you’ll be ready to embrace your own inner Ferrari.

You’re more powerful than you think. You’re powerful when you have an inner strength that doesn’t depend on what other people think. You’re powerful when you feel able to accomplish things, know how to exercise your influence, and are aware of your own natural strength and authority.

When you recognize and connect with the power within you, that's when you’ll find the energetic capacity to birth whatever wants to be created through you.

In this episode, I show you how the way you think either increases your power or diminishes it. Your ability to access your power makes the difference between a speech that reaches your audience and one that doesn't, a promotion to the position you desire or getting overlooked, inspired decision making or always needing to ask permission.

If you’ve been listening to this podcast, it’s because there’s a part of you that wants “something more”. You want to flourish.

Even if you’re in a “good” job, that doesn’t mean it feels good to YOU. If it doesn’t, ask yourself, “How long will I keep telling myself, ‘Maybe I’ll make a change … later.’”

My wish for you is that you live a life without regrets.

This episode makes the case for you to take the first step in a new direction now. I explain why your brain will think that’s a terrible idea, and why you need to ignore your brain’s advice if your want your life to be different and better.

Too many of us have been taught that prioritizing ourselves is selfish.

Let’s debunk that myth. Tune in today to let me change your mind about what it means to prioritize yourself and show you why it's an essential skill.

In this episode, I put on my lawyer’s hat and present four arguments in favor are you putting yourself and what you need on the agenda. You’ll learn why doing this will help you create a more meaningful life, more easily access the innovative part of your brain, feel happier in your relationships, and become more capable of achieving your goals.

“Failure trauma” happens when life teaches you that failing – EVER - simply isn't acceptable. When you become afraid that failing at anything could cause you to become socially ostracized, lose your job, bankrupt your business, or hurt a client or patient.

When your brushes with failure lead to adverse reactions and important, negative consequences, your nervous system will start to overreact. It will constantly fire up with the fear that you might get it wrong. It will be on watch for danger as it tries to protect you. You will become constantly vigilant in a desperate effort to avoid a catastrophe.

There are all kinds of circumstances where it does make sense to be cautious and careful. But when you become obsessed with not failing, your fear of failure no longer protects you. It causes you to hold back, not try, be less creative, less engaged and less fulfilled.

In this episode I explain why the most successful people in business, and the people who advance most quickly in their careers, understand that failure is part of the journey.

It's a huge relief when you realize that failure can often be a good thing. In fact, failure can be your biggest teacher, help you connect better with other people, and take you closer to your dreams.