Exploring Gratitude: Gratitude and Sparkle

grateful

I was doing some nerdy reading recently and stumbled on a scholarly publication called “The Journal of Happiness Studies.” Yes, please! Basically these scholars review and approve articles all related to Happiness. Turns out study after study has been done to try to break the code on how to make us happier.

Exploring Gratitude: Gratefulness According to Webster

I confess – I’ve always had a secret love for the dictionary. I find language to be fascinating, care about the way that things are said, and appreciate the nuances in the choice of one word over another.

I found myself the other day thinking about how we have a tendency to interchange the words thankful and grateful. So I decided to do a little research and what I found really surprised me. It’s changed the way that I look at the idea of gratitude.

Dealing with Stress During the Government Shutdown

government

Part of the challenge with this kind of stress is that it is outside of our control. Most people can handle almost anything for a few days, but after that window of time, endurance fatigue starts to set in and people begin to feel overwhelmed and hopeless. It’s important to do what you can to manage the stress of the uncertain and unknown. Here are a few things that we recommend to our clients during times of stress…

Why Are We Running?

running

There was an intensity to the movement that left no doubt the only thing to do was join in the crushing 400 meter dash. We, along with the other 200 people on the train, made it out to the sidewalk so quickly that you would have thought the last person on the platform was going to be shot. There we were, arm in arm, backpacks jostling, approaching near Olympic speeds hurling headlong down the ramp – and we had no idea why.

Entrepreneurs: Sprint to the Spa

We talked about how our bodies prepare when we run from tigers (which are really imaginary hamsters chasing us). As you might imagine, this process is quite taxing on our bodies – it’s the reason that tigers sleep for a day or two after a big hunt, their bodies are refueling and repairing. The very process that maximizes our chance of survival, over time, becomes destructive and damaging when we don’t take time to repair. We are made to sprint from danger and then rest and recover.

Entrepreneurs: Don’t Run From the Hamster

Not many people would disagree that world changers, entrepreneurs, and visionaries are passionate people. Passion people invest so fully physically, emotionally, and mentally that it is easy for them to lose perspective. The problem with losing perspective is that we can no longer trust our perceptions to be accurate. This might not seem like a big deal but let’s talk for a minute about how important our perceptions are.

Entrepreneurs: Focus on 2nd

If you are a world changer (ahem…or a workaholic), chances are you are not going to lose sight of the first priority. It’s the one that keeps you up at night. The one that you talk about. The one that you have trouble getting out of your head. However, your 2nd or 3rd priority (while still important) likely gets far less attention. It’s easy to convince oneself that 2nd or 3rd place is only a degree or two behind 1st place, but then the question becomes – is that really the case?

Entrepreneurs: Are You Losing Your Head?

Here is something we’ve noticed – true entrepreneurs are mission minded, singularly focused, and seem to have the unique ability to invest “whatever it takes” to make the idea work. The other thing we’ve noticed? When those entrepreneurial qualities kick in, other important relationships, responsibilities, and opportunities seem to suffer.

Dealing with the In-Laws

According to Dickinson knowing where to draw the line is important because there are certain things that should be kept private between the couple that may not concern the in-laws. Balance is needed in the relationship with the in-laws so that everyone can get their needs met, making the relationship two-sided instead of one-sided.

Help our kids process Sandy Hook

As adults with fully formed brains, we are able to contextualize the events in a timeline that helps insulate us from what we call secondary traumatization. Subconsciously (or sometimes consciously) we remind ourselves that we are safe, that this kind of thing happens rarely, or that we believe in the good of most people to help or rescue if there was a problem. However, children are not developmentally able to do that.