Handling The Hard Stuff

Tag: Self-Improvement

  • Build Toward YOUR Future

    It’s the end of the school year where I am and I find myself looking around at the circumstances my friends and I find ourselves in. Some of us have kids graduating and are processing transitioning into the parents of adult children. Some of us have littles and are juggling trying to be present parents…

  • More Isn’t Always Better

    Sometimes it’s just more. And oftentimes more just means more drains on your time and attention and energy. More often means less focus on the things that matter. I would rather have two pairs of jeans that fit me really well and are of high quality so I can keep them for a long time…

  • Wellness Check

    I stumbled across this poem by Andrea Gibson the other day and I couldn’t ignore it. “In any moment, on any given day, I can measure my welness by this question: Is my attention on loving, or is my attention on who isn’t loving me?” This is so powerful to me because it is so…

  • Have the Hard Conversations

    Avoiding hard conversations in relationships just postpones difficulties. That anxiety and concern over the outcome of the conversations just festers and builds and ends up manifesting in more ways than you’d think. Studies have shown that avoiding difficult conversations forces us to focus on protection and survival instead of growth and adaptation. This ends up…

  • Electronic Leash

    I was reminded earlier about what life was like in my own childhood – we went outside and no one could contact us directly, no one got an answer from us to their immediate question, and people had to wait if they wanted to connect with us. We returned messages at our own discretion. We…

  • Calm your own Storm

    Venting is my love language. Agonizing to my village is a large component of my relationships. And vice versa. I’m the person people call when they need to rant. But how healthy is that really? Recently, one of my close friends had major drama and a scheduled “relationship discussion” phone call with another friend. We…

  • You Do Not Have to EARN Love

    Love is not contingent. Love is constant. Love comes without strings. You do not have to do chores or contribute to the household or slave to your partner to earn their love. You do those things because you are a partner, a team member, a co-pilot. But the love you receive should be entirely disconnected…

  • Women with Money Change the World

    There has been this big phenomenon in the last couple years that seems to be shocking most news organizations, but not shocking most feminists paying attention to financial matters. Women are a huge and underestimated market. Women treat money differently. Women spend it. Of course that’s a stereotype and maybe that’ll get condemnation, but women…

  • Not Every Choice is a Decision

    We go through the day choosing A or B all day long to the point of exhaustion. I can’t get out of the house without a hundred decisions. But not every choice is a decision. A decision is a choice plus an emotion. A choice is truly just that – you try a different coffee…

  • Progress is a Process

    I’ve seen a lot of incremental process in my life. I’ll lose a little weight or I’ll be consistent with a training plan or a savings goal and then I’ll lose focus. I pat myself on the back and congratulate myself on a job well done. And then I let my foot off the gas.…