MINDSET ZONE

If you are trying to make a difference – with whatever you are doing at this moment in your life – do you see age as an advantage or a disadvantage? Today, in our western society, a common belief is that as we age, our opportunities to make a difference diminish. Often we rationalize our inertia. We feel we are too old to make a deep impact in the world. We want to make a difference, but can we re...

Take a minute to do this awareness exercise: Look around the room and count how many red objects you see. Write that number down. Now that you know how many red objects you saw, do you have any idea how many blue objects were there? If you are like most of us, you didn’t notice the blue objects. So look around one more time and count the blue objects around you. Quite amazing! It’s similar to when...

Why do we spend so long to decide about a name? The name of our children, the name of our pets, the name of our business. I spent a long time thinking about how to name this podcast. If you followed me from the inception of this show, you know that I started as the "Self-Employed Professional Making a Difference” Podcast. Yet, I decided to rebrand it as the Mindset Zone. I explained my reasoning i...

Most people agree how important it is to be grateful. Research in Psychology also supports the power of gratitude. In her book–The How of Happiness–Sonja Lyubomirsky, dedicates a full chapter to this topic. She uses a definition from a world’s leading expert on gratitude–Robert Emmons:  Gratitude is “a felt sense of wonder, thankfulness, and appreciation for life." [Tweet "Gratitude is a felt sens...

Think about a time when you lost your car keys, and you are already running late. You know that they have to be somewhere in your house, and you almost sure that you left them in the kitchen, but you can't see them anywhere. You feel the stress build and know that doesn’t help, but it’s seems impossible to stop all your negative thoughts and emotions. Negative emotions are very strong and our body...

One of my favorite books is Viktor Frankl’s “Man’s Search For Meaning.” It’s a powerful book, divided into two parts. Part One is an account of Frankl’s experiences as a prisoner in several concentration camps during the Second Word War. His recollections are sad, moving, and inspiring. One of my favorite passages: “... any attempt to restore a man’s inner strength in the camp has first to succeed...

I received touching comments from Episode 4 where I focused on Carol Dweck's book, “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success." Here are a few: "If you ever wanted to make a difference in the world, you certainly did change my world with this podcast." "What a great topic, Ana. I've read Dr. Dweck's book and it really had a positive impact in my life." "I started believing something very different, t...

Not long ago, I read a book entitled: So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love The author, Cal Newport, argues that “follow your passion” is bad advice. So often, we hear this advice “follow your passion”, that we don't question its validity. What I love about Cal Newport’s book is that it’s truly thought provoking, and questions that assumption that s...

The secret of success for self-employed professionals is developing a growth mindset. What does that mean? Let me define the opposite - fixed mindset. In a fixed mindset, we believe our basic qualities, such as intelligence or talents are set. We believe that we were born with certain talents that determine who we are and what we can achieve in our lives. In a growth mindset, we believe that throu...

Last week I spoke about the Art of Repurposing and a new perspective from the Icarus Myth I learned from one of my favorite authors: Seth Godin. During that episode, I said: If we want to succeed, we may fail many times. Now, I want to correct myself: If we want to succeed, we must fail many times. We must build a strong failure resilience if we want success. It took me a long time to internalize...

As Self-Employed Professionals, we have to wear many hats. When we start our business, we soon realize that we also have to be our own marketing director, bookkeeper, sales person, webmaster, editor, and admin. Of course, we can bring people on board to delegate some of this work. In any case, to learn the art of repurposing content is an essential skill to develop. So, I'm walking my talk. In thi...

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