Growth mindset

Say Yes – When You Usually Say No

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I know it’s well into the New Year, but I am still pondering what to do differently this year to take my life to the next level.  Here is one idea I am implementing – Say Yes, when I usually say no.

I am realizing, if I want to grow in life and at work.

  • I need to go outside of my comfort zone
  • I need to do things differently than I usually do.
  • I need to take new chances and learn from new experiences

Why?  Because the definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”   Even with that understanding, many of us have a harder and harder time saying yes to new experiences.   We have so many bad concepts in our head like ...  read more

What Kind of “Sugar” Can You Contribute?

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I can’t stop watching this video.  It just make me feel so good about life and people.  My husband showed it to us a few weeks ago.  Now my kids and I watch it almost every day and dance to it in pure joy.

So why am I share this on my career blog?  Well, it made think about the true meaning of success and a challenge for all of you. ...  read more

Who Would You Rather Be – Elsa or Anna?

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Lei:  I am excited to introduce a new Executive Author to our Soft Skills Gym – Cindy Wong-Zarahn.  I only met Cindy last year but feel like we have been old friends for years.  She has close to 20 years of experience in the corporate world with plenty of battle scars as well as very sage advice.  I already personally benefited from her advice for my own career. Click here to read her bio and why she wants to join our community.  You can also follow Cindy on twitter @CZarahn    ...  read more

Lei’s New Year Aspiration – Enjoy Life

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enjoy-life

Happy New Year everyone!  Hope you all had a great holiday or at least one that was better than mine.   I can’t believe it’s 2015.  Usually I love holidays as it gives me time to relax, regroup, and faced the new year with renewed energy.  I didn’t have such luck this holiday season.  Work was super stressful and I didn’t have as much time with the family as I would have liked. ...  read more

How to Be 10% Happier at Work?

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how to be happy at work

This article on how to be 10% happier at work is inspired by reading a blog post Penelope Trunk wrote on How to Love the Job You Have – Focus on One Good Thing.    It was a touching personal story and it sparked an epiphany in my mind – we often spend too much time focusing our thoughts and speech on what we don’t like about our jobs vs. what we do like. ...  read more

Growth Mindset Example – Learnings from My 4-day Cleanse

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growth mindset example

A few months ago, I did a veggie and fruit cleanse for the first time in my life.  Why?  All the usual reasons

  • Vanity – I wanted to get back to my college weight after having two kids.
  • Peer Pressure – My husband and my friend were doing it that week
  • Efficiency  – I didn’t have to worry about what I will eat for 4 days.  Everything was pre-prepared by our friend.  That actually helped a lot as I was starting to have meetings all day long.
  • New experience – I have been curious about doing a cleanse for the last two years.    I almost did a juice only cleanse once last year, but backed out the last minute.  I realized I rather still chew during a cleanse.

This article is less about the cleanse and more about what I learned during the experience.  First of all, I actually didn’t expect to last four days.  This is because I had some very strong pre-notions when it came to food and cleanses. ...  read more

Jim Carrey Inspires Us to Follow Our Dreams

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Jim carrey

Why am I here on earth?  What makes me truly happy in life?  How do I find my passion?  I don’t know about you, but I am asking myself these questions more and more often as I get older.  There is so much societal pressure to make more money, get that promotion faster, and show off the fancy car/house we were able to buy.  Yet, there always seems to be a disconnect between what we can achieve and our happiness. ...  read more