planning

Kindness Begins With Me

  In the spirit of #keepinitreal, I am often unkind. I am compassionate. I have a heart for justice and equality. Yet, I can be blunt, judgmental and harsh – especially to those I love most. Perhaps it is part of being human. That doesn’t mean it is acceptable. That doesn’t mean it is who I […]

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Craving Balance

When I first met The Daily Thrive’s founder Lisa Gates, I discovered her term “craving balance”. That term has stuck with me ever since. It seems to capture the hunger we have, with our multi-faceted lives that can be so exciting, so challenging and so exhausting! Too much of being pulled in innumerable directions; our […]

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Six Keys to Opting In (or Career & Skills Emergency Preparedness 101)

This is the second is a series of three posts focused on those who have mothered (and fathered) at home for a substantial period of time, the so-called ‘opt out’ cadre. I am passionate about what these parents (yes I was (am?) one) bring to the table of companies and communities if and when the […]

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Making Your Case for Having a Life

You’re drowning in tasks and a list of priorities longer than you can possibly fit into any reasonable life, and your dreams of contribution, progression and quality time with those you love are getting way-laid. It’s time for *the* conversation. With your spouse. With your kids. With your communities. With your boss. And then there’s […]

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Why Making a Plan and Talking to Your Boss About Flex is Critical

Is it any wonder some in the traditional workforce throw their hands up in the air? The Work Life Dilemma Our increasing hunger for work life policy reform has been thrown into sharp relief for me via my friend Lisa’s recent childcare conundrums. A few weeks ago she started a brand new job. No sick […]

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What Does an Integrated Life Mean, Anyway?

Our souls desire to behave in ways that line up with what we believe and value.  That is called living an integrated life.  When behavior matches values, we are whole.  We live without apology, heads held high.  Not in arrogance, but in quiet authority that we are on the right path. Join me for She […]

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Sweet & Sour

I spent the Christmas/New Year week focused on my family.  It’s a different kind of work than the usual weekly rhythm, but it is still work.* We had a wonderful few days.  Friends and wonderful food and the thrill of all my children engaged and in a magical frame of mind for the most part.  […]

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Why Walking The Talk Can Be Harder Than We Plan

To Get From Here: Our family has been trapped in the narrow rigidity of an old-school employer. Under the weight of an obscenely long commute, long hours including weekends, and a structure that regards any kind flexibility as a sign of weakness (precluding our children from spending much time with their father), I chose to […]

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Cash, Post-it Notes and Paperclips

Debt can be useful when leveraged properly.  For most of us however, it has the potential to become a scary millstone.  The work life impact?  Choices.  Excessive debt removes our choices, burdens our mind and body and adversely affects our well being.  Which is why I was intrigued to discover several months ago Adam Baker […]

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The Key to Whatever Work Life Balance I Possess is Right Here!

I am a Planning Geek There is an opinion that planning creates restrictions.  Reduces fluidity, spontaneity.  I firmly hold the opposite view. Like budgets, I find planning empowering.  Planning gives you a framework, a methodology, an approach.  The mistake people make, myself sometimes included, is that the plan becomes the end game.  My mantra is: […]

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