Design Yourself

Fashion is a creative playground. Every new day offers a chance to express yourself. How has your style evolved? What are opportunities to honor who you are and the cultures where you show up?  Join us in this episode of Design Yourself to reflect on these questions together. "Fashion you can buy, but style you possess. The key to style is learning who you are, which takes years. There's no how-to...

Wisdom surrounds us. One of the most profound teachers is the natural world. We can learn strength and power from the wind, resilience from seeds, and adaptive leadership from our shape-shifting landscapes.   In this episode of Design Yourself, we explore six lessons we can take in from our own backyards as we talk about delighting in small wins and other lessons from the garden.   Links and Resou...

Our time on this planet is absurdly brief. Our gifts and perspectives are uniquely our own. Being intentional about where we gift our talents and attention is critical to leading a life of intention.  As we step into the second half of 2023, it is a natural moment to check in and take stock on how we are doing - and also a chance to reset our intentions and focus. Join Sharon as she reflects on fi...

Translating what we think and feel on the inside to the outside world isn't always easy. It requires us to discern our point of view and find the words and voice to share them with authenticity. It also asks us to consider the people and environments where we are communicating that message. What do I want to say? And how can I draw that out of myself? In this episode of Design Yourself, we explore...

News flash: You are doing a great job. So why not celebrate it? In this episode, get a sneak peek into the difference between adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism, learn why celebration prevents burnout and set you up to start planning your own Trying Party. (Yeah, it's a thing.) So here's to know what matters and bravely taking small steps each day to move towards being the fullest expression o...

We spend about 1/3 of our waking hours at work. And yet many of us don't know how to navigate our careers. While we can allow our professional lives to be molded by the people and environmental circumstances around us, there is a cost. In today's episode we look at how to support ourselves and those around us in building meaningful career paths.   Links & Resources: For show notes visit:   https:/...

Women continue to struggle. Same with our kids. The height of the global health crisis may be behind us, but not its impacts. Families around the world are struggling financially; children are facing increased poverty and anxiety; women and leaving their professional roles at a higher rate than any other demographic. What norms do we need to disrupt? How can we bring more equity to the way we supp...

Can we ever really go home? In a literal sense, maybe. In a figurative sense, probably not. As dynamic human beings living in an ever changing world, there is no going back to what was. We are changing. The places around us are changing. This is the gift of growth. Still it can be a joy to return to a location or experience that holds special memories. It offers a chance to reconnect and reevaluat...

We live our lives, one choice at a time. That choice can be conscious, of our own making. And it can be unconscious, left up to the whims of the momentum that swirls around us . What do you wish to express in your own life? What are the brushstrokes and compositions that make your life a work of art? That's what we get into in today's episode on living a creative life.   Links & Resources: For sho...

What you do is not who you are. But left unchecked and unconsidered, our roles become part of our identity. In this way, the roles we play create pathways for what we see as possible - or not possible. In this episode, Sharon talks about the impact that roles and identity have on professionals and human beings considering making a change. She also discusses her challenges of answering the question...

How many times have you shrunk behind the weight of your desire and said nothing? A dream that sits only in the quiet of your own heart is just that - a dream. But a vision communicated with curious confidence is something you can move with - something that can come to life.  In this episode, Sharon invites listeners to ask for what they want and challenges them to get curious about when and how....

We are living through unprecedented times. Words like pandemic, recessions, layoffs, hybrid work, and more are part of our everyday professional vernacular. And that's to say nothing of ongoing systemic issues from which there are many to choose. As a result, anxiety has become a necessary part of workplace conversations. What do I do when anxiety strikes - for myself or for a colleague? How can I...

The week we explore how to stretch into greater capacity. Both within yourself and beyond yourself. As we age and evolve, we often seek to be able to do more. This desire to grow might be tied to a certain season of life when you are stepping into something new and expansive - taking on a new role, launching a side hustle or creative endeavor, welcoming a child into your family. The need to stretc...

Oh the things we carry. Our capacity is precious resource and must be treated with care and attention. And to do this, we have to have an honest assessment on what our capacity actually is. This episode is all about deepening our awareness on how to assess our capacity. We gain new perspective as we explore the interplay between capacity and scale, capability, attention and discernment. And we ref...

It is easy to get distracted by what we can see. Or what we want others to see. But what is visible is a small fraction of what is there. What happens on the inside, out of sight, is a tremendous source of wisdom and guidance for each of us. How can we connect to our interior selves? What clues might we find at the surface to help us drop in and see with new eyes? In this episode, we deepen our aw...

It is easy to get caught up chasing dreams. Yes, I am an advocate for daring to imagine what you really want and going after it; however, it is equally important to remember that the end goals and outcomes achieved aren't the only point.  The experience that we have on our way to a particular destination gives us a strong indication of how we will feel when we arrive. Life is not about rushing and...

We create our paths through every step we take. Yes plans and visions can bolster - even accelerate - our paths forward. But the actual road taken can only be seen in the review mirror. Because we forge our paths as we go. In each decision we make, each choice we own, each step we take. This   podcast lays out 5 habits to nurture as you take the next step.

Spring is here and with it an invitation. We have made it through the cold, dark, fallow period. And it's time now to wake up. To move and stretch and create focus. What do we wish to cultivate this season? What do we hope to grow? And how do we do so with intention? That's what we discuss in today's episode on Planting Seeds. "My seeds are afraid to grow?" asked Toad. "Of course," said Frog. "Lea...

Being able to move with your vision is pure magic. To do it, requires not just that we are able to take aligned and vision-forward actions; it also requires that we can see and delineate the connection between what we want and what we are doing. It's easy to feel stuck on a hamster wheel if we are missing the big picture. And it's just as easy to feel ungrounded and stuck if we know what we want,...

Is raising the bar a familiar activity to you? Always pushing and expanding to do more, bigger, better, faster? Me too. While there is a time and a place for this direct growth strategy, this podcast episode shares an alternative: Lowering the stakes. The approach is not about apathy. When we clear the clutter of our expectations, we can see our way through to smaller, more manageable approaches l...

Growth lies in the edges: Those places where we push past discomfort to metamorphosis. Our learning edges clarify the path to our potential - whether through skills, knowledge, or perspective. In this episode of Design Yourself, Sharon holds space for listeners to name and explore their learning edge. She then guides listeners through reflections about her learning edge - "let go and go fast" - an...

Anguish shows up when we don't know how to move. Many things can cause this stuckness. Maybe it's a limiting belief that we aren't worthy of having what we want. (Not true.) Maybe it's a lack of clarity on the direction we want to head. (Time to create a vision.) Maybe it's that we don't know how to get there. (Pause, look back, ask for help.) In this week's episode Sharon highlights two stories o...

Wild growth is possible when we abandon our addiction to knowing and surrender to wonder and awe. A beginner mindset acknowledges that we always have more to learn and accepts that failure is just a natural part of the process. But it's tempting to sit back in old habits. And really who will know if we are accelerating toward growth or relying on what we already know to be true? So often the diffe...

Listening is an incredibly powerful leadership and life skill. But that doesn't make it easy. There are habits and culturally accepted practices that hold us back from really listening to understand. But the good news is that you can create simple shifts to improve the quality of your listening and inspire others to do the same. This change requires radical self-awareness. This episode highlights...

A powerful question will stop us in our tracks. It will demonstrate that the asker is listening deeply to us. It will deepen our own best thinking and invite us to see our situation with a fresh perspective. In a world where talking the loudest and unfailingly asserting our viewpoint is modeled in the highest levels of leadership, asking questions offers an antidote. The quality of the conversatio...