Uniquely Brilliant Podcast

By Diana Bader / Becky BerrySociety & Culture Health & Fitness Mental Health

Uniquely Brilliant Podcast episodes

January 25, 2016 Episode 013: The Adventure of Keeping It All Together Part 3: 5 Strategies and Tools
Becky and Diana discuss 5 specific strategies and tools they use to keep it all together and stay focused.
GOALS:
Diana: Uses a whiteboard because she needs visuals. She takes a picture and makes it the wallpaper on her phone and computer so it becomes portable!
Becky: Uses the Nozbe & Asana apps so she can track and access her goals and info on all platforms (phone, tablet, laptop).
Bonus: followupthen.com is a website that sends you reminders about your goals.
PACE:
Diana: Uses her life to set her pace. Her dogs, her kids, her life in general set the pace of her work. This allows her to honor the season of her life and her priorities without guilt.
Becky: Uses the Breaktime app, a recurring timer, so she can set both the length of time and length of her breaks to set her pace based on the tasks at hand.

ACCOUNTABILITY:
Diana: Calendars, highlighters, and markers because she need them in her face. Her favorite is Jon Acuff’s Do Over Calendar.
Becky: Her checkbook!! Outlook and Nozbe.
Both Becky and Diana also count on people. Having great people around you is the best accountability strategy.

SQUIRREL: Use Squirrel Repellent to stay on track!
Diana: Visual, vision boards, whiteboards, checking in with goals. She always asks the question: Is this serving me?
Becky: Her checkbook and deadlines. Using deadlines helps her stay accountable to herself.

CELEBRATE! Don’t miss the WOW!

Diana: Win Jar, where she writes down her wins (small and large) and puts them in her jar every day. Of course, it’s decorated!
Becky: Uses idonethis, an app that asks her what she’s done every day.
Bonus: Keep a fan mail file, either digitally or on paper. Put all the compliments and accolades you receive in your file so you can look it on down days!

STAMP OF BRILLIANCE

Celebrate the wins, so they can motivate you to keep moving forward and stay on track!
24 min
January 18, 2016Episode 012: The Adventure of Keeping It All Together Part 2 Staying On Track
Becky and Diana discuss how to take focus to the next level and maintain it for the duration of a project or completion of a goal.
Diana uses visual reminders, Becky uses technology. What works best for you?
One of Becky’s favorite tools is Nozbe, based on David Allen’s book Getting Things Done. It gives her a way to do a brain dump, then organize all the items from the dump and organize them.
You can also accomplish brain dumps using paper files.
Reacting to things as they come makes it hard to stay on track and take action.
Give yourself permission to create the system you need based on your life as it is now.
Margin in your schedule creates open space so you can be present for your life and work.
Instead of continuously looking for new ways to do things, first master what you have started.
Accountability is key for staying on track, but choose your accountability partners wisely.
Accountability builds trust = Success.
Using the correct tools is vital to staying on track.
Knowing what works for you not only makes you more productive, it also builds your self-esteem by giving you a way to track your accomplishments.
Evernote is a great tool to use with many different systems because it is flexible.
You can schedule your tech time to create boundaries that help you stay on track.

STAMP OF BRILLIANCE:
The best way to stay on track is to find the system that works best for you.
33 min
January 11, 2016Episode 011: The Adventure of Keeping It All Together - Focus
The Adventure of Keeping It All Together - Focus
Becky and Diana discuss ideas and strategies for maximum productivity.
Your brain is a muscle, and like all muscles, it tires from repeated stress.
A recent study shows that the most productive people worked in 52 minute segments followed by 17 minute breaks.
When you focus too long, your brain becomes fatigued and your production actually goes down.
Taking a break is as important to productivity as focused work.
Productive work happens in sprints not marathons.
Short bursts of focus (52 minutes or so) builds the brain.
You have to know your own focus limits – the optimal out of time for you to work in a stretch (no, it’s not 8 hours!).
Schedule breaks, and stick to a time limit by using timers or an app like BreakTime.
Use timers to keep track of how long you have been working and how long your breaks are.
Be realistic in your estimation of how long a task will take – put in time to ramp up if you’re learning something new or doing something difficult.
Turn Off To Tune In - All alerts are distractions, even the anticipation of an alert is a distraction.
Set Boundaries - Teach people how to treat you and respect your time.
The BreakTime app lets you set up how long you want to work and how long a break you want to take. It lets you know when it’s time to work, when it’s break time, and when it’s time to go back to work.
STAMP OF BRILLIANCE
Your brain is a muscle, and like ALL muscles, it tires from repeated stress. So work in sprints, not marathons.
26 min
January 04, 2016Episode 010: The Adventure of Mindsets from the Uniquely Brilliant Perspective
Episode 10: The Adventure of Mindsets Part 4 - The Uniquely Brilliant Perspective
Diana and Becky talk about:
All people, especially Uniquely Brilliant ones, are born with a Growth Mindset. When we are born, we start exploring and learning.
We don’t judge babies as they try to learn new things and fail repeatedly, we cheer them on. Why does that change as we grow older and learn to do harder things?
People with Growth Mindsets can hit a societal wall of “This is how WE do it,” which implies there is one correct way to do everything.
Uniquely Brilliant people can give the impression of having a Fixed Mindset, or be perceived as stubborn because their unique perspectives are challenged so often that they can become defensive.
Uniquely Brilliant people may have a hard time explaining their perspective, because others can’t relate to it.
The Fixed Mindset is often based on judgement – right/wrong, black/white. The Growth Mindset is based on opportunity – “let’s see what happens if we try this.”
When you ask Uniquely Brilliant people to do something and they seem resistant to doing it, try explaining the process to them – show them the “why” for the process.
Society frequently assumes that the Uniquely Brilliant perspective is the one that needs to change. This leaves Uniquely Brilliant people feeling wrong, which stunts their Growth Mindset, and leads to frustration and, in extreme cases, acting out.
Uniquely Brilliant people can become angry or frustrated because other people don’t recognize how much effort they are putting into tasks. They may also have a nagging feeling they can do more than people expect from them.
The best way to reward effort is to provide people (all people) with opportunities to expand, grow, and succeed without judgment or prejudice.
Strategies for Uniquely Brilliant People to embrace their Growth Mindset
Learn about yourself and the way you see the world
Learn how to explain your perspective to others
Understand that others do not see things your way
Practice asking “Why”, so it is received the way you intend it
Be okay with a default reaction, and practice having a calm response
STAMP OF BRILLIANCE
It is critical to understand that Uniquely Brilliant people can present as having a Fixed Mindset because their ideas and visions frequently butt up against the attitude of “We’ve always done it this way” which completely discounts both their point of view and original ideas.
23 min
December 28, 2015Episode 009: The Adventure of Changing Your Mindset
Episode 9: The Adventure of Mindsets Part 3 - Why Change Your Mindset?
Becky and Diana continue to explore the book Mindset by Carol Dweck, and discuss why anyone would decide to change their mindset, especially if things are going okay.
They discuss:
Figuring out your pain point – how much pain do you have to experience before you decide to change?
Your Mindset is just one piece of the puzzle that is your personality.
Your Mindset can change completely, or depending on the situation.
One aspect of the Growth Mindset is being vulnerable enough to ask questions.
Working on acquiring a Growth Mindset can start with a baby step.
Fixed Mindsets frequently look at situations as all or nothing – good/bad, succeed/fail.
Effort, in a Fixed Mindset is assumed to be bad. The Fixed Mindset assumes things should come easy.
When you have a Growth Mindset, you expose yourself to the journey of effort.
It can be challenging for someone with a Growth Mindset to have a Fixed Mindset leader.
Uniquely Brilliant people have Growth Mindset in a Fixed Mindset World.
Growth Mindset people work to figure things out – they don’t jump to label experience as either good or bad.
The Fixed Mindset assumes there is one right way to do things.
STAMP OF BRILLIANCE – When you take the time to make a situation work for everyone involved, you are modeling the essence of the Growth Mindset. You are putting effort into understanding everyone’s needs and creating a solution instead of assuming that someone is wrong and someone else is right.
27 min
December 14, 2015Episode 008: The Adventure of Changing From Fixed to Growth Mindset
Episode 008: The Adventure of Mindsets Part 2

Becky and Diana continue their 4 part series on the book Mindset by Carol Dweck. In this episode they discuss abilities and resilience.
The 2 mindsets look at abilities differently.
Fixed Mindset - Talent will take me where I need to go.
Growth Mindset - If I work hard, I can go anywhere.
Fixed Mindset is not always negative, in many cases it is comfortable and non-threatening.
Growth Mindset is not always positive, because it can be hard to stay in the present moment.
The power in Failing Forward
Fixed Mindset sees failing as personal. Something is wrong with me. Somebody did something wrong. It’s also about blame.
Growth Mindset sees failing as a learning experience.
Thomas Edison taught us the power of surrounding ourselves with people who compliment our abilities so we can be successful.
His life also shows us that there is freedom in starting over
Are you holding on to things you should let go of?
If you learn something from a situation that didn’t turn out the way you wanted it to, it’s not failure.
When you learn from failure, you start learning what’s important to you.
Uniquely Brilliant minds sometimes seem to shut down and be still.
When that happens, embrace it.
Figure out what you can do to get past the shut down.
Strategy: begin naming everything in your surroundings to help bring you back to the moment.

Podcast referenced in this episode: Hack the Entrepreneur with Jon Nastor. Jon asks interview subjects about how they handle the entrepreneurial gap – jumping from one project to the next without taking the time to recognize what they accomplished in their last project.

STAMP OF BRILLIANCE
Another way to figure out your Mindset is by examining how you react to failure. People with growth mindsets see failure as a learning experience. People with fixed mindsets see failure as personal, that something is wrong with them, that they are not good enough.
23 min
December 07, 2015Episode 007: The Adventure of Mindsets
Episode 7: The Adventure of Mindsets: Part 1
Becky and Diana begin a 4 part series on the book Mindset, by Carol Dweck. In this episode they introduce Growth vs Fixed mindsets.
Imagine a bad day… how do you react? Do you feel like a failure? Do you blame someone for your bad day? Or, do you move through it, assuming the next day will be better?
Fixed Mindset believes things are the way they are. They are static and out of your control
Growth Mindset believes things can change. They are dynamic and in your control.
Mindsets are learned, so they can be changed.
Growth Mindset understands that there is no growth without risk.
Expectations always influence the journey to an outcome. They can be premeditated resentments. If you have an expectation of an outcome, and that outcome doesn’t happen, do you resent it? Are you angry about it?
Your mindset isn’t always fixed or always growth – there are plenty of gray areas.
STAMP OF BRILLIANCE:
You can identify your mindset by looking at the difference between your gut reaction to a situation and the next action you take.
22 min
December 02, 2015Episode 006: The Adventure of Giving Feathers, Not Anchors
The Adventure of Giving Feathers and Building Wings instead of Anchors
Diana and Becky discuss how learning life skills adds feathers to your wings that help you soar, regardless of your age.
The Myth of “I’ll pay someone to…”
Building skills increases self confidence.
Anchors keep you stuck in one place.
Throughout your youth people add feathers to your wings when they teach you new skills.
As an adult you get to choose what feathers to add.
Anchors = Expectations of an end result.
Anchors = Assumptions about your ability to grow.
Anchors = dependence on others for basic necessities of life (cooking, laundry, communication).
Stamp of Brilliance
Anchors keep you stuck right where you are. Adding feathers to your wings makes your wings stronger and helps you soar!
23 min
December 02, 2015Episode 005: The Adventure of Self-Advocacy
The Adventure of Self-Advocacy
In this adventure Diana and Becky discuss the importance of advocating, especially for yourself.
**A special note for support people like parents, teachers, coaches, and bosses. Give your uniquely brilliant people wings not anchors. Trust your gut and let go of the outcome. Allow them to become the star in their own lives, and get comfortable in your supporting role.
It’s important to know yourself, know your strengths, and know your limitations (the limitations you know, not the ones people tell you are your limitations) so you can help people understand how you function best – at home, at work, and at school.
AT SCHOOL:
Ask for the help you need.
Ask questions!
Don’t assume there is only one way to complete an assignment. If you can do it another way that works better for you, suggest it to the teacher.
Remember, you aren't the only one who will benefit from your ideas and questions.
AT HOME:
Learn what works best for you. Do you need chores written down? Do you need them scheduled for a specific day? Do you need a chart, or a list?
Let the people around you know what you need help with and what you can do on your own.
Ask to take on more tasks and responsibilities as you feel ready.
AT WORK:
Create a schedule that works for you
Don’t be afraid to set boundaries, like how fast you respond to emails. We have to teach people how to treat us. It won’t take long for them to catch on.
When you are working in a way that is best suited to you, you are automatically more productive.
WITH PEERS:
True friends like you for you.
Never try to be something you aren’t just to fit in.
Don’t make friends just to make friends. Having the wrong friends (friends who don’t like you the way you are) will keep you from making true friends.
There are plenty of people in this world who will get you and accept you, so never stop looking.
STAMP OF BRILLIANCE
You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.” - Jim Rohn
29 min
December 02, 2015Episode 004: The Adventure of Introverts and Extroverts
The Adventure of Introverts and Extroverts
In this Adventure Diana and Becky discuss the differences between being an Introvert and Extrovert.
Introverted is NOT the same as shy. Shyness is the result of something that triggers a “pull-back” response in certain situations.
Introvert and Extrovert IS about energy and how you recharge.
STAMP OF BRILLIANCE
Understanding your energy and the energy of the people around you gives you the knowledge you need to respect what different people need to re-charge.
27 min

About Uniquely Brilliant Podcast

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The podcast with strategies for creative, quirky, and extraordinary people. Diana Bader and Becky Berry accompany you on the adventure of living life authentically. Learn to squelch the voices in your…

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Uniquely Brilliant Podcast

Uniquely Brilliant Podcast episodes

About Uniquely Brilliant Podcast