More By: Laura

Focusing on the "Controllables"

Posted on By: Laura
Focusing on the "Controllables"

If you’re like many of my clients you’ve probably found yourself in career situations where you are trying to control things that are entirely out of your control. You find yourself trying to do things in just the right way and are overly concerned with how your work compares with others. At times, you perceive a feeling of impending doom if just the slightest thing goes wrong with a project. Talk about pressure! It is in that moment that you have reached a level of control that is actually sabotaging [...]

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Career Finder: Following Your Instincts

Posted on By: Laura
Career Finder: Following Your Instincts

When I began my training as a Career Coach, my coaching mentor told us that the key in finding your ideal career is to look back at your childhood. What did you love to do? What filled you with joy? It’s a question that I’ve attempted to answer and one that I asked my clients often. However, it is has was never easy for my clients, or myself, to answer. It’s not that there weren’t things we loved to do as children, it’s just that over the years it has become increasingly difficult to recall them. Years of work [...]

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Success Meter: Do You Want it Bad or Not Bad Enough?

Posted on By: Laura
Success Meter: Do You Want it Bad or Not Bad Enough?

We all have our own measure of what we see as successful. We may know what we want, but the hard thing is getting there. I generally encounter two types of people in my coaching practice: “the want it so bad it hurts type” or “the I want it but not enough to make the time to make it happen. Both of these groups have a difficult time getting to their destination because they both have difficulty allowing things to happen.

The “I want it so bad it hurts” folks are in a constant mode of doing and overdoing everything. They [...]

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How To Manage Risk and Reward with Your Career

Posted on By: Laura
How To Manage Risk and Reward with Your Career

There is no error proof way to take a risk at your job. However, there are ways to remove some of the stress and pressure we feel when stepping out of our comfort zone. If you have an idea you want to develop or know that you’ve been playing it small when you really have the capacity to be a big asset to your employer, there is no better time than right now to share who you are.

Many of us play it small because taking a risk actually magnifies a lot of the fear we have created around new experiences. [...]

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Want to Be More Productive? Look at Your Focus

Posted on By: Laura
Want to Be More Productive? Look at Your Focus

What are you paying attention to? So many of us spend our days checking our blackberries and iphones, text and e-mail. We check out our favorite website and tv shows. We are constantly paying attention to so many different things that it can be overwhelming. Have you ever checked in with yourself during the course of the day?

It sounds like a strange question, but where and how we set our attention affects every moment of the day. I recently heard the phrase “organizational ADD”. In the business world it is the unending list of small tasks and the constant jumping [...]

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The Sleep Factor: How it Affects Your Performance

Posted on By: Laura
The Sleep Factor: How it Affects Your Performance

We’ve all heard the stories of the amazing things people have done on little rest. I recently heard that former General Mcchrystal only slept somewhere between 4 and 6 hours per night. We often celebrate those who sacrifice well needed rest in order to serve the greater good. We are often impressed that people can function at such an intense level with so little rest. It may be impressive, but that doesn’t make it good for you.

A June 2010 Newsweek article entitled “The Surprising Toll of Sleep Deprivation”, discusses a research study that only allowed participants 6 hours of sleep [...]

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Are You Afraid of Success?

Posted on By: Laura
Are You Afraid of Success?

It’s not that you don’t have the idea; it’s that the big F word is standing in your way. FEAR. I spend a lot of time working with my clients on their fears and developing strategies they can use to move past the roadblocks that fear creates. This week I found an inspiring way to look at the fear that may be holding you back.

If you are interested in Entrepreneurship or are ready to finally take the first step toward your ultimate goal, I found some wonderful advice from Jonathan Fields. Jonathan Fields is a multi-time health & fitness industry [...]

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Stop Surviving and Start Thriving in the Workplace

Posted on By: Laura
Stop Surviving and Start Thriving in the Workplace

A large part of being successful is realizing what you can control and what you can’t. There will always be annoying bosses and pushy co-workers, and a never ending list of deadlines. Even if you are a solopeneur (self employed) there will be parts of your career that are frustrating. The trick for thriving in any environment is learning to not take anything personally. You may not be able control what happens, but you can choose how to handle it.

I have worked with some clients who are people pleasers and will say or do anything to make their co-workers happy. [...]

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Simple Success Formula: Give Yourself Permission

Posted on By: Laura
Simple Success Formula: Give Yourself Permission

I often get e-mails from readers who want advice on how to get motivated and move forward in their careers despite the nagging fear that follows them in every endeavor. It’s as if we believe that a magic wand can fix our circumstance and suddenly experience success with little thought or effort. Though I am a believer in serendipity, creating success in your life doesn’t happen with a quick twist of the hand, it actually does take effort.

 Before you get worried that I am going to give something else to add to your to-do list, take a moment and pause. [...]

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How to Begin Tackling Organization Overwhelm

Posted on By: Laura
How to Begin Tackling Organization Overwhelm

Our environment is a reflection of how we are operating in the world. All we need to do is to look around our environment to realize how overwhelmed we feel. There is always an urgent task that needs to get done and before we know it, the desk is full of papers, dishes are overflowing in the sink, and of course the laundry isn’t folded. For some people, that is just the home environment, there are more papers waiting on the desk at work.

I have never been great at organizing, but I could organize things just enough so I could [...]

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