4-Emotional Openness With Impulse Control

4th of 6 Parts In my first years as a journalist, I remember talking to so many people about their lives – letting every bit of it soak in as I learned about the lives of people from all walks of life – everything ranging from fear of losing their homes and health concerns to deep insecurities and at the extreme – murder. I really wanted to talk to these people, to know them, to learn, to try to understand, to see how I could share their story in a way that connected them with others. It was an emotional process for me as much as cerebral one full of facts and brass tacks information. I wanted people to feel what I felt sitting with them knowing their difficulty was all of our difficulty if we don’t stop for a moment and understand we all impact each other. I used to talk about it with friends in the newsroom. I wondered if emotional openness with impulse...

3-Never Show Vulnerability…Unless…

3rd of 6 parts I know a lot of people fervently believe the idea – NEVER SHOW VULNERABILITY. Never let anyone see your weakness. I understand the thinking, but what if it’s better than pretending you are invulnerable? Is a cardboard existence for a huge portion of your life enough for you? Maybe it is. I’m made differently than that. I have always known that wouldn’t be enough for me. It’s what makes the world so darn interesting, isn’t it? People are different. I’m going to dive a little deeper here, however. Hold your breath and take the plunge with me for a second… How can you trust someone who pretends everything is ok all the time or that something difficult doesn’t really bug them much, if at all. That’s always interesting to me. Isn’t there a lot of lying in that kind of existence? There’s a time and place...

2-Smashing Self-Doubt

2nd of 6 parts How much self-doubt do I have? Sometimes so very much. Sometimes so very little. It depends on what I’ve challenged myself to do. How do I address this? I’ve always had to make sure I break things apart in my mind one by one versus jump in to what’s happening around me with too much vim and vigor. When you have can-do enthusiasm – it’s easy to overwhelm yourself. I’ve learned as I’ve matured to stop, take a deep breath, and break apart what I’m doing into much, much smaller pieces. One decision at a time is my go-to centering place in my work. A creative spirit is awesome, but can become unwieldy fast. Keeping self-doubt in check is possible because I’m ok with who I am. I know who I am. I like who I am. If I worried about what others feel about me 24-7, I’d be more invested in them and their random thoughts...

Duly Quoted

There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: fear of failure.  -Paul Coelho

Horrifying Moments That End OK

One of my most horrifying memories was when I opened the door of my 1 1/2 year old son’s bedroom after hearing the smoke alarm and saw a room full of smoke. In the thick haze, I could barely see my whimpering son, Liam, standing in his crib a couple feet from the flames on the other side of the room from where I was standing. An oscillating floor fan caught fire and the blaze was 2–3 feet wide, 3–4 foot high, and growing fast. I yelled, “House on fire – get everybody out!” …and ran into the room feeling my way to grab my little boy. I often think of how precious the seconds were that kept him safe that night. I don’t even like to think about what would have happened if I had been even one minute later. The room was damaged as you can imagine, but no big deal there. He was safe. He clung to me for three days after that and then he started to relax and trust his surroundings...

Micro Moment

There is no failure – only redirects loaded with information that will propel you forward if you listen and apply those messages.   -Maria Henneberry