Tiny Bites of Wagaliciousness

You probably know someone like this: ready to share their negative opinion about everything and everyone. Yikes…toxic! They think women with movie-star looks are stuck up. They think men who drive beautiful sportscars are compensating for a little…well, you know. They think rich people are greedy and dishonest. They have an opinion about everyone and it’s usually not a very nice one. When someone...

Does the voice inside your head keep reminding you of a painful life episode? When Dad’s Alzheimer’s disease made it dangerous for him to drive, my brothers and I got together and convinced him to stop. I bought his car, and though he was OK with it at first, he came to believe that I stole his car. He looked at me with hatred in his eyes and the last time I saw him he was yelling at me to get out...

Are you guilty of playing small? Do you go through life with few or no goals or a tiny goal, just living each day in the hopes that something good will happen? Yes, good things happen all the time, and it can be tough to recognize an opportunity if you have no goals. Do you know what you want your life to be this time next year? What will have to change in order for that 12-months-from-now dream t...

The first place where your dream can become a reality is in your imagination. What do you want? I want to live near the beach, and I daydream about beach life often. When will it become a reality? One day it will, and I can be patient in the meantime because the daydreams are fun and satisfying. What do you want, and can you simply enjoy your daydream until your dream happens, too? Many people ref...

Have you ever used the phrase, “that person just my buttons”? Do you know what the important word in that sentence is? My. Those buttons belong to you…yes, there are people who annoy the living snot out of you. Most of us know a person or two like that. Remember, though, those are YOUR buttons. Let’s say your partner chews with their mouth open and it pushes your buttons. You have three choices: D...

Have you ever heard the phrase “don’t should on yourself?” Maybe you’ve heard it on this podcast, because I believe “should” is a dirty word when you apply it to yourself. You might as well stand there wagging a finger in your face, chewing yourself out for not living up to expectations. Who’s expectations, though? Are you over 21? Are you self-supporting? What do YOU expect from yourself? I’m not...

Did someone do you wrong? It happens. Are you still angry or hurt or vengeful? That’s not on them, that’s on you. When you stay stuck in the muck of being hurt, you’re making a choice to let the other person control you. Seriously - they’re not in charge of your emotions, you are. But if you’re still crying to your friends, fixated on what that person did to you, you are putting that person in cha...

Have you ever heard of boundary training? Today I want you to begin boundary training all the people you deal with, especially those you love. It’s common to say “yes” when people request things of us because we like them, like helping them, and sometimes it’s just easier. Right up until it isn’t. Don’t wait until you’re ready to explode – set some boundaries. Giving people we care about boundarie...

When was the last time you really touched the heart of a stranger? I was at the checkout counter and the cashier seemed like he was having a bad day, so I decided I’d make him smile. Why? Because it would be fun for me and good for him. As I handed him paper money I asked if the store accepted “the annoying green stuff.” Close, but no smile. The change would only have been a few pennies, so I told...

Want to be a great leader? Realize it’s not about you, it’s about your team. Know each person – what they’re passionate about outside work, whether they’re better solo or on a collaborative project, and what support they need from you. Each one of your team is an individual – they existed before you began to manage them and they’ll exist after the two of you part ways. While you have them, be a go...

How do you feel when you see a confident, successful woman? Happy for them? A little tiny bit jealous of them? Or do you go off on how they didn’t earn it or even if they did, they’re probably such a rhymes-with-witch that they don’t deserve it? Sadly, a lot of people have a knee-jerk reaction in a bad way towards success. They assume the successful person is wicked and undeserving because th...

Do you even know who you are? Sure, you know your name, you know yourself in relation to your job and your friends and your family. So let me ask you again – do you know who YOU are? Each day you’re alive, you have the chance to learn a little bit more about you. Did you get adventurous and try a new-to-you kind of food? Did you get brave and introduce yourself to someone before they introduced th...

Have you ever had stress dreams when you’re starting something new? When I worked on the radio, each time I’d go to a new station the stress dreams about saying the wrong call letters or not being able to reach the microphone switch on the control board would haunt me for about a week. Has that ever happened to you? Those dreams don’t feel good and can leave you with lingering dread throughout the...

How often to you explain your actions to others? May I lovingly suggest you stop doing that? Here’s why – people see you and respond to you based on their life experiences, not yours. They see you as they are, not as you are. When you try to explain yourself, they’re hearing your words through the same set of their life experiences that made them misunderstand you in the first place. Explaining yo...

Think about something that’s a current goal of yours. It doesn’t matter if it’s a personal or professional goal, focus on it. How does it make you feel? Excited? Anxious? Frightened? Goals are wonderful to have because they give us an excuse to focus, learn, and grow. That’s the excited feeling – the possibilities of who you’ll be once you’ve accomplished the goal. Anxiety and fear are the “can I...

You’ve probably heard that the brain can’t tell the difference between what you’re thinking about and what you’re actually experiencing. You can use your brain’s powerful imagination to create more success. Athletes train mentally as well as physically, going through their upcoming performance in their head, seeing themselves excelling and winning. You can do that, too, about anything you want to...

Do you work as part of a team? When you walk into work, how does the atmosphere feel? Supportive and helpful or guarded and suspicious? Which atmosphere would you rather work in? When a team is operating well, they are supportive and generous with each other – generosity of spirit, of time, and of assistance. When that’s the atmosphere, turnover is low and targets are achieved or exceeded. When pe...

People say “control freak” like it’s a bad thing. I want to encourage you to let your control freak flag fly!! Keep listening though…there’s a right way and a wrong way to flaunt your inner control freak, and it’s the right way I want you to embrace. The trick about being a successful AND well-loved control freak is to know what you actually can control, and only try to control that. You’re only i...

Is there something going on in your life that’s so distressing that it seems to suck all the light and life out of you? That’s an awful way to feel, and that feeling is a normal response, so the first thing I want to remind you is to be kind to yourself. Challenges and losses can feel as if you’ll never get over them. Here’s the truth about everything: it’s temporary. No matter what is happening i...

Want to help your boss be a better leader? Boss them around! OK, maybe something a little more subtle than that would be better. First, what kind of leader is yours? Poor leaders boss people around, mediocre leaders complain and play favorites, and great leaders own their mistakes and lift up their people. When you see an area of improvement for your boss, here are three things you might try:...

Are you a genius? I bet you are! Wait, before you start telling me how not-smart you are, here me out. Genius is attention to and passion for a subject. Genius is intense curiosity allowed out to play. Genius is you being into a topic, learning about it, and expanding yourself into it. That’s all genius is. Think about something you have a passion for. For me, it’s dogs – how they think, how they...

Do you worry about someone you love? Think about what your thoughts are as you’re feeling worried about them – what, specifically, are you worried about? Would it surprise you to know that the act of worrying about a loved one is a VERY unloving act? Worry is focusing on their weaknesses, and when you’re looking at their weaknesses – which we all have! – you’re not focused on the parts you love, s...

What do you avoid doing? Think about this carefully – what is one thing that you’ll put off doing until you absolutely, positively have to do it? Or maybe you’ve been putting something off for a long time and still haven’t done it and have no plans to, even though you know it must be done? Avoidance is normal, and avoidance causes you stress, because somewhere in the back of your mind there’s this...

Are you a generally satisfied person? By that, I mean you don’t worry all the time, you don’t get angry easily, and you try to see the best in others. If so, yay you! Are most of your friends pretty much the same? Yay, you! You’ve set yourself up for success. If you have one or two friends who can be difficult to be around because they like finding drama in every situation and have a more fie...

How often do you get offended? Does it upset you when people mispronounce your name? Do you get huffy if someone calls you ma’am and you think they think you’re old? How about when the waiter seems to be ignoring you? When you find yourself starting to get offended and defensive, stop. If you were out walking and saw a pile of dog poo sitting on the ground in front of you, would you walk around it...