Are you an Optimist, Pessimist or Realist?
Be the Exception, 7 Keys to Transformation, Rewrite your Story, Break the Cycles that no longer serve YOU!
Being The Exception
It’s interesting to me how people respond when I talk about being the exception. Some say, “Wow, you really are the exception! You’ve overcome so much while staying positive and being generous.” Other times, people call me out and say, “You don’t always live an exceptional life or have it all perfectly together. I’ve heard your stories.”
The truth is, I believe we’re all a work in progress; the magic doesn’t just happen overnight. Being the exception, breaking cycles, and rewriting my story is daily work and some days are definitely better than others.
The 7 Steps, which to me seem more like The 7 Ways of Being, give me something to work on every day. As I navigate through the steps I have to remain mindful in order to be intentional with my thoughts, words, and actions.
Step 1, be honest, may be the biggest challenge for me. This step requires me to analyze my thoughts, judgements, and stories then ask myself, “Is this true? Does it serve me? Does it serve others?” We all carry stories in our head and those stories often become our truths.
Step 2, be open, applies to opportunities, new perspectives, mentorship, and so much more. By being open, all of us have had moments in life where we’ve learned a great deal from others. By doing so, we have the chance to apply it to our own lives and share our new knowledge with even more people.
Step 3, be healthy, can be a slippery slope for someone who loves treats. I have to actively make different choices and remind myself how it will positively impact my body, mind, and spirit.
Step 4, be flexible, is accomplished for me through the serenity prayer. It reminds me that I’m not able to be in charge of everything and that life will always be changing.
Step 5, be gentle with your story, looks like practicing an abundance of grace in my world. Each of us has a story, none worse or greater than another. We all have stories of success, failures, and challenges in our lives. It’s how we talk about our story that determines if we embrace where we came from and where we’re going next.
Step 6, be courageous, means looking fear in the eye and saying, “I can do this anyway!” It means not only overcoming my fears to help myself, but overcoming my fears to better sever others, too.
Step 7, be authentic, may be the other biggest challenge for me. It’s especially tough when there are so many others telling me I’m either too much or not enough. It takes a lot of practice and being present in the moment to be authentically myself though with each day, I know who I am more and more.
This week, I encourage you to join me in being the exception! We aren’t going to do this perfectly, but we are going to do it intentionally. Together, we’ll use these ways of being to bring awareness to our thoughts, actions, and words. I’m a work in progress and so are you! Won’t you continue alongside me as we journey toward being the exception? What does living your exceptional life look like to you?
Do you feel like you’re the exception? Why?
What does living authentically mean to you?
Which of these 7 Ways of Being is easiest for you? Which one challenges you the most?
Winnie the Pooh, What character are you?
Winnie the Pooh
Do you long for simpler days when you were young and carefree with your friends at times? Do you miss hanging out and talking about everything in life, getting to know all the things that make them tick? As we continue finding new ways to connect, it’s much harder to get to know someone with all of us behind the screen.
However, something that’s always intrigued me are the fun personality assessments you can take online. There’s plenty of great professional ones available but I feel I learn more about someone, their personality, and their characteristics through quizzes like “Which Winnie the Pooh Character Are You?”
Stop for a moment and think about who you may be. Are you Tigger, like me? Bouncing all over the place, always having fun, in danger of getting into trouble or breaking something along the way. How about Rabbit who’s always overthinking, or Owl who’s always yearning to know more?
Maybe you’re like Piglet, going along for the ride; or how about Roo, just traveling along with his loving mother? Do you feel like Christopher Robin who’s overjoyed to simply wander through the woods with his friends? Are there times where you see the sad side in everything, like Eeyore?
Thinking of others as Winnie the Pooh characters helps remind me we’re all different yet need one another to thrive. Each of us brings a unique response and perspective to the varying situations we encounter each day. Getting to know someone is a learning opportunity to help grow our minds and our hearts.
This week, I encourage you to take the time to seek out and learn more about one person in your life. It’s important now more than ever that we strive to understand each other, learn how we can use our differences to achieve new goals, and to love even greater than we already do!
What does living your exceptional life look like to you?
Which Winnie the Pooh character are you? Why?
Who will you take the time to learn more about this week? What do you think you’ll learn?
What’s your favorite way to get to know others right now?
Turning Ideas into Reality
Turning Ideas into Reality
Are you someone who’s full of ideas? Sometimes, when I begin coaching a new person in transition, they have hundreds, if not thousands of ideas which is always so exciting! I love helping them document all the things they want to do, could do, and think they should do. Once the list is created, we then start narrowing it down.
As I work with clients to narrow their lists down, we not only narrow them down to what they could do, but more importantly, what they would love to do and why it’s important to them. From there, we work to select their top ten most important ideas, followed by their top three, until finally we identify the top idea they want to explore.
We then work together to break down the components of the idea into a step by step, week by week plan to keep positive momentum going. Whether an idea is set professionally or personally, it still needs to be taken one step at a time and given great care.
I’ve always been a big dreamer, and over time I’ve learned that without an action plan and accountability, very little will be accomplished. Without a proper road map, some people may never see their idea in action because they get caught in the dreaming stage.
It’s important to me that I work with clients to make a plan, help them share that plan with others in their lives, then start coaching them through the plan to see them turn their idea into reality. One of my greatest joys as a coach is watching my clients achieve what they set out to do while walking alongside them to offer support.
This week, I encourage you to act on an idea you’ve long held in your mind! Take time for yourself to write that idea down, create a list of the steps you need to take to get there, and then break them down further by adding the who, what, how, and why to each step. From there, it’s time to start seeing your ideas as reality by taking the first step!
What does living your exceptional life look like to you?
Do you write your ideas down? Where do they go from there?
Do your ideas stay in your head and turn into daydreams?
What do you imagine building or creating? How would it help your life?
Tell Annie what life you’re living! E-mail her at:
Annie@AnnieMeehan.com
H3 Cultures in the workplace where people are Healthy, Hopeful and Happy
H3 Cultures is the Key to bringing your office back as you recognize, appreciate and support your employees as they move forward from the challenges of last year. H3 Cultures is about bringing Health, Hope & Happiness back to the workplace. Showing your team you care and support them as you bring me in to Present some positivity and ideas around getting Healthy so you can bring your best to the workplace #h3cultures #healthyhopefulhappy #BeTheException #mentalhealthmatters #wellbeing #selfcare
