​​The “dog days,” I always thought, were those long summer days so devastatingly hot that the only energy dogs could muster was to lie around panting to help them alleviate the heat.

I learned recently that the term “Dog Days of Summer” actually has nothing to do with slowing down, but instead, it turns out, the dog days refer to the dog star, Sirius, and its position in the heavens during this time of year. 

Good to know, but I prefer the image of my Dog, Oz the Great, making the most of the summer by slowing down and truly appreciating what is important. Oz is an eleven-something year-old super mutt. He came into our life when he was three years old, already a soul who has seen a lifetime of pain. Yet he seemed to put it all behind him when he joined our family. Oz has been my mentor since the day we brought him home 8 years ago, but he becomes especially wise during the summer, when he reminds me to not only be and stay present, but to play every day even if it is only for five minutes, not hold a grudge, jump up and greet people in your life that you love even if you just saw them ten minutes ago, avoid biting when growling will do, accept yourself for who you are and where you are at this very moment, go for walks every day, and drink lots of water. 

All good lessons, but I would like to focus on the slowing down and staying present. Because as humans, even during summer, we forget to do exactly that. I personally find myself trying to pack in as much as I can in the summer including trying to have a year of dinner parties within three months, hiking all of those trails I didn’t get to over the spring, visiting as many family members as possible, tackling exterior house projects, visiting every creeme stand in the state of Vermont, and other “over-functioning” opportunities.  

For my dog, Oz summer means taking naps in the sun, rolling around in the grass, and just sitting in the backyard and watching the insects pollinate the flowers. He knows to look up at the stars when they magically appear before him at dusk. And during the day, he also knows to look up at the sun, only he does so without sunglasses, so he looks up through the trees and allows them to soften the light streaming through. For him, the dog days of summer mean being and going slower, in his walks around the neighborhood or when he eats. He has it figured out.  

For me, as the founder of FromWithin Coaching, I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the explosive growth our organization has seen in the past year and I have spent more time than I care to admit working on the business. But Oz the dog has helped remind me what is important: to slow down and see what is happening right in front of me. Because in order for me to navigate the growth of our organization, I need to appreciate where we are right now as a company. 

So, take it from Oz, tap the brakes a little and transition out of summer nice and slow. Listen and watch for what might be next for you and your life. Oz the Great is all knowing and truly powerful because he sees what is before him.

​What is possible for you? 

​It’s true. Our decisions determine our future. They influence our achievements,
our sense of purpose, and our overall happiness. Even the seemingly small
decisions that we make every day—what to have for lunch? what time to go to
bed? what movie to see this weekend? post it on social media or not? —are
building blocks of our future selves and ultimately of the quality of our lives.
Whether we realize it or not, we are constantly choosing to either seize an
opportunity for growth or make an excuse that allows us to remain within our
comfort zone. Most of us are hardwired to stick to what we know. Why risk our
sense of security for something bolder and brighter when there’s a chance it
might not work out?
 
It’s a good question. But reframe it. Instead of listing all of the things that could
go wrong (i.e. making excuses to “play it safe”), dream up all of the things that
could go right. The challenge then becomes justifying why we wouldn’t give up
safety and predictability to take a chance. When we allow ourselves to envision
all of the opportunities that exist outside of our comfort zone, the possibilities for
who we can become are endless. We are the limits we create for ourselves, after
all.
 
Not so sure? Does the name Bethany Hamilton ring a bell? Oscar Pistorius? How
about Jason Lester? The competitive surfer, sprint runner, and endurance athlete
respectively, are world-class athletes who have earned international recognition
for not only excelling in their sports, but for doing so despite having suffered the
loss of a limb—in Oscar Pistorius’s case, two limbs. These athletes risked
privacy, humiliation, and their own comfort zone to pursue what lit a spark in
them. And they did so by refusing to put limits on what could be achieved; they
chose the brilliance that comes from choosing opportunity over excuses.

Posted by:
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had John Wooden; Mat Fraser has Ben Bergeron; Nadia Comaneci had Bela Karolyi. Agnieszka Radwańska has Martina Navratilova who had her dad, then George Parma, then Renée Richards. Most people understand that every athlete has a coach. But, in business there is the concept that you are supposed to do it alone.
 
You don’t think you need a coach. Not now. You are not an NBA draft pick. You’re not competing at the Crossfit Games. You’re not training for Wimbledon, nor are you preparing to defend your Ph.d. dissertation. You are a professional and you’ve made it this far on your own. You’ve made it on your brains, your connections, maybe even on your good looks. But now what?
 
If you are feeling stagnant or are not finding the results you seek, it’s time for a career coach. The perspective and good feedback you’ll get from a coach will help your career evolve. In our nation of individualists and bootstrap pullers, it takes courage to admit you need help. It takes genius to ask for it. Here are five reasons why you should:
 
1. Insight
The right career coach won’t tell you what to think; instead she’ll pick your brain and show you the treasures she finds there. From where you are sitting, you are too close to these gems to see them. Those great ideas incubating in the back of your mind need to come forward to propel you to the next level.
 
2. Accountability
Are you on task? Are you staying there? Maybe not, you’re reading this blog post. Engaging the right career coach with help you stay accountable to your good intentions. A weekly phone meeting, or even a quick email, might be all it takes to keep you moving forward.
 
3. Challenge
You’ve got good ideas. You know what to do, but implementation is holding you back. The right career coach will challenge you to uncover and possibly dismantle your self-imposed impediments to progress.
 
4. Synergy
Two heads are better than one is an old adage for good reason. In a recent study at Duke University, researchers used sets of electrodes to connect the brains of two rats tasked with a specific challenge. Together, the rats completed their task more effectively and efficiently than any single rat in the study could do on its own. The right career coach will help you expand your capacity to meet your goals. Together, you’ll set the appropriate goals and realistic deadlines.
 
5. Hold My Beer
“Hold my beer, I got this.” Ever question your own judgment about your next step? Wonder if that new business idea is a good one? Big change (even small change) necessitates some risk. Your friends will hold your beer while you dive into the risks of the unknown, but the right career coach will lend you the objectivity and insight you need to mitigate those risks.
 
How do you find the right career coach?
Our coaches have a variety of skills and experiences. Find the one who meets your needs by scheduling a FREE exploratory session. No matter what you’d like to change or achieve, this session is the perfect next step to help get you there.
 
Go ahead. Ask for help. Be a genius. You know you are one.

“What?! People hire you to write their resume?”
 
Yes, yes they do. And, their cover letters. And bios. Oh, and LinkedIn profiles. It’s more common than you may think.
 
Before I go any further, I need to say this: Resume writers will not misrepresent your skills and experience. Instead they will help you produce a better document that will get you noticed by the right people. And, as we know, all good writing requires proofing and editing. Resumes are no different.
 
If you’ve never hired a writer before, here are two approaches.
 
Option 1 - Ghostwriter: This means the writer designs a resume layout and writes on your behalf, with your input throughout the process. Think of it this way: the writer completes 85% of the effort, you edit the content. This ensures accuracy and that your voice resonates throughout the document.
 
Option 2: Editor-in-Chief: This means the writer gives you customized step-by-step instructions to improve your resume format and content. In this option, you perform 85% of the work while the writer focuses on editing and supporting your direction, focus, and content. This is a very hands-on service and is often for those who seek to polish their resume writing skills. It’s a somewhat cheaper option than ghostwriting.
 
Other things to know:
Hire a writer you want to work with. Most writers have no problem jumping on the phone to talk over what you’re looking for. Make sure it’s a good fit. 
 
After you’ve found your writer and discussed your needs, they should send you a timeline outlining when to expect your first draft, how many revisions you get for the price, and how they will be communicating with you throughout the process (phone, in-person, e-mail).
 
Resume writers know how online career sites work. You will want to provide them with at least one job description so they can make sure your resume has the right keywords to make it through.
 
Resume writing is collaborative. This is not a “set it and forget it” process. If you don’t have the time to dedicate to the process right now, don’t hire a writer. Like you, their time is valuable.
 
It may not cost you as much as you think. And, you can spend your time doing stuff you actually enjoy…like kite surfing or reading. 
 
Once you have your snazzy resume, you can do all sorts of things, like… be your confident self when applying for jobs, use it to inform improvements on your LinkedIn profile, and when the time comes to update, you can DIY!  
 
Voilà!
 
Hop on over to takeaimfromwithin.com/services to see what we can do for you! 

Oops, I just broke my New Year's resolution that I wasn't going to talk about resolutions this year.

​Ok, ok, I am going to talk about them, but my hope is that what I have to say comes as a relief. 
NEWS FLASH - you most likely have already failed in some way only two days into 2017...resolutions aren't easy to keep. If they were, we wouldn't be writing about them two days after New Year's...We put a great deal of energy into making them, but the reality of "Change" often kicks in and keeps us from meeting the resolutions. 

I have a suggestion - what if we imposed the 80/20 rule on our resolutions this year? The 80/20 rule can apply to your weight loss resolutions, your job search resolution, your stop smoking resolution, or whatever else you look to change. If we approach our resolutions thinking we are going to be able to hold to them 100% of the time, then you are living in a fairy tale land where Bernie Sanders actually won the 2016 election and will be our President in a few short weeks. But that didn't happen nor will the chance you will be able to stick to your resolutions 100% of the time. So let's apply the 80/20 rule to your resolutions and be ok with 80% success rate. 

80/20 means I am suggesting you allow yourself to make mistakes 20% of the time. That means you have to be more structured 80% of the time when you eat, smoke, work out, or job search, but also gives you a chance to go "off the rails" when life throws a challenge at you. And it will. That is what life does. It tests you. So nail it, 80% of the time and be stoked you did. If you want to work out seven days a week, apply the 80/20 rule and allow yourself a day off. If you eat 5 meals/snacks a day, that means a total of 35 meals...80% of them should be spot on, but that leaves you 7 times to be a bit less "spot on". That doesn't mean go nuts with those 7 meals, but allow yourself to be less than perfect. Because this is the second NEWS FLASH - you aren't perfect. No one is. And when you fall off the wagon because you aren't perfect, you often decide to just not get back on that wagon...what I am suggesting is step off it briefly and then allow yourself the ability to get right back on...

Resolutions are not about being perfect, they are about consistency and being in the "change game" for the long haul. 

​Good luck and enjoy that 20%.

What do you want? Most people are asked that when they want to achieve a goal. But I think the most important question to ask is "What do you have in you"? The quote above is a perfect example of the thinking most folks have when it comes to getting their dreams. The second half of the quote is more true. So I ask YOU, are you ready to work your ass off and never give up? Then you will not only be able to set a goal but actually achieve it. Bravo. 

I just unveiled a new part of my website that is focused on the work that I do with Strengths Based Coaching focused on Clifton's StrengthsFinder assessment. I am a “Strength Strategist.” I help companies and individuals identify their strengths and devise the right strategies to put these strengths to work. Each person is born different. You must do everything in your power to help them capitalize on this difference. The question is, do you know what strengths YOU bring to the table? 

​I have worked with the StrengthsFinder Assessment ever since Lu Setnicka introduced me to it when I was on the Board of the Outdoor Industries Women's Coalition. And it changed my life. I now bring StrengthsFinder to both individuals as well as to teams around the country. And each time, I show them that we need to focus on our strengths and not our weaknesses...as we are not broken, it is more so that we don't truly understand what our conscious strengths actually are. 

As Marcus Buckingham likes to remind us in "Go Put Your Strengths To Work", when you were a child, you knew what your strengths were. You may not have known what they were called but you knew what kept drawing you back, you knew which situations thrilled you. And you sought them out. You knew which kids you wanted to hang out with. You knew not only which subjects interested you, but you knew your yearnings and passions intensely. And then at some point, your childish clarity faded. And you listened to the world more closely than you did to yourself. The world was pervasive and loud and so you resigned yourself to conforming to its demands. You had to get into college and study what “others” advised you to study. You had to get a job and pay the bills. Once you got the job, it came with a job description and a performance appraisal and a career leader and a set of customers and to manage all this for you, a boss. In the midst of all of these expectations, your strengths became, if not irrelevant, then merely a curiosity, to be touched on briefly during your annual review before the serious business of your performance and your development needs and your career were discussed (Buckingham, 2007).

Now, as an adult, most conversations at work do not concern your strengths. Your world at work isn’t much concerned with you and your strengths. A strength is an activity that makes you feel strong. It invigorates you, you look forward to it, sure you may feel nervous about it, but at the end you won’t feel ‘thank goodness that is over’. So then it makes sense to look at weaknesses not so much as things that you aren't good at doing, but more so a weakness is one that robs you of energy or drains you. A strength takes virtually no effort to do. You even use your strengths when you are hungry, angry, stressed, tired, over worked, overwhelmed, etc. because they don't make you more hungry, angry, stressed, tired, over worked, or overwhelmed, they make you less because when we use our true strengths, they lift us up and give us energy. So you are walking around work, completely clueless as to what your true strengths are...no kidding you have the 3pm slump...because you most likely are doing work that is far from your true unconscious strengths. Isn't it time to dive deep and really understand what drives you? 

To start your journey on using your strength, consider what is stopping you. You must consider the possibility that what is stopping you is what you believe; that in effect you are stopping yourself.

Still with me?  Then book a few minutes with me to discuss your strengths as you see them now and let me show you how to uncover your real strengths and help you develop a plan to use them...every day, in every way. And benefit from an action that takes no energy but instead fuels you.