Transforming Your Relationships: Part II

A couple of months ago, I was teaching an introduction to the Enneagram, and a student raised a question that frequently comes up in a discussion about personality types. She said: “I think my [colleague, friend, spouse] is the Enneagram type that we’ve just been talking about. How can I get her to see that she’s doing that thing that is typical of her personality type, and by the way, it’s really driving me crazy!”

My response was: “Whenever you think that someone else is driving you crazy, the first thing to do is to look … READ MORE

Transforming Your Relationships: Part I

You have a service that helps people. You’re an expert in this particular area and you know that you can bring solutions that have amazing impact. Only problem is, the people you’re trying to help are often challening to work with. Sound familiar?

You probably had no idea that such a huge part of your skill set was going to involve emotional intelligence. Yet time and time again, I observe that what makes or breaks your business success is your ability to skillfully work with your client’s emotions – before, during, and after the “work” is … READ MORE

Tackling the Impossible

Writer Annie Lamott, in her wise and entertaining book Bird by Bird, has some of the best advice I’ve ever seen for tackling a project that seems impossibly big or complex:

“…thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write, which was due the next day….He was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my … READ MORE

It Starts With Yes

“Our only choice is a question of engagement.”
– Brene Brown, Daring Greatly

Lately I’ve been noticing that of all the choices we can make in life, one particular choice makes all the difference.

What I’ve been seeing is how the ability to engage, to say Yes to what matters, is the choice that sets everything else in motion.

By saying Yes to a new career direction or a new way of focusing in their work, my clients have had dream opportunities present themselves; developed creative new offerings by letting go of work that no longer fits their … READ MORE

Building Resilience to Get Through the Tough Times

Being an entrepreneur can be like a roller-coaster ride of exhilaration (whee, I’m on top of the world!) and terror (help, this thing is going downhill!).  With no big company behind you, and maybe no other employees beside you, you need to rely on your own resilience and power to keep yourself going in the scary times.

Let’s talk about how you can build that resilience and power in your body.

Why your body? Because when things get scary, your body will want to default to its natural stress response. This could look like:

Flight (hiding under the … READ MORE