So often we believe that in order to feel happy, our lives have to be full of events and experiences that cost money and completed to-do lists and material things. We have to strategically curate meaningful experiences, especially if we have kids.

But perhaps what is really required for a joy-filled, meaningful experience is a willingness to be fully present to the moment.

Holidays come with nuanced and multi-dimensional experiences for many people.

If there is any part of you that feels apprehensive, overwhelmed, lonely, frustrated or any other less than delightful feeling when you think about today or the rest of the year, I want to offer a few different perspectives that may be helpful to consider.

When we take the time to unravel and acknowledge our seemingly contradictory thoughts and feelings, we can get ourselves unstuck and start making conscious choices aligned our desired outcomes.

Read my interview with Authority Magazine to learn my top 5 tips for a successful performance review.

When we resign ourselves to the belief that we’re a failure, we give myself an out. We give ourselves a reason to give up. After all, if nothing is working, then why would we bother continuing to try?

When we jump to conclusions, we waste a bunch of mental and emotional energy on an assumed issue that may not even be an issue. There may be a very reasonable explanation that has nothing to do with you that you would know if you simply asked some clarifying questions.

How we feel about others has very little, if anything, to do with them and much more to do with us. Everyone is our teacher because everyone is simply a mirror reflecting back something we can learn about ourselves.

Once we figure out the real thing that’s been keeping us stuck, we unlock access to new perspectives we didn’t see before, which enables us to make new choices and experience life in a way that didn’t seem possible before.

Sometimes, there are things in life that operate on a different timeline and no amount of effort will bring them to fruition before they’re ready.

When we’re willing to be self-reflective and get to the thing beneath the thing, the subsequent clarity enables us to identify what we really want or need and what's really holding us back. 

We can then make conscious choices to overcome what's holding us back and experience what we really want and/or need.

When we ground ourselves in our desired outcomes, we increase our capacity to make aligned choices from a place of responsiveness versus reactivity.

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What differentiates today as the first day of the next part of your story versus just another day, is simply your choice to believe something new could exist for you and a willingness to start living as if that were true. And, the natural rhythm of seasonal shifts provide a heightened opportunity to positively accelerate the impact of our choices.

The state of our calendar is a reflection of our beliefs about our ability to make choices on how we spend our time.

When we settle for "good enough", we hold ourselves back from the possibility of experiencing "great". Sometimes the grass really is greener on the other side.

There are infinite ways to view and interpret any given situation. Choose the interpretation that is aligned with your desired outcomes versus the interpretation you’ve been habituated to choose that no longer serves you.

New situations call for courage more than confidence. Don't hold yourself back due to lack of confidence; instead, move forward with courage.

“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity.” James Clear

Ignored needs tend to either grow louder and more incessant or begin leaking out in unproductive ways the more we try to keep pushing them down. Taking time to acknowledge our needs allows us to consider how we might begin meeting them in creative ways.

Celebrating small wins doesn’t lead to complacency, it 1) creates important data points supporting the belief that you are capable of making progress and 2) creates positive associations in your brain with the action you took that increase the likelihood of repeating that action.