Change is often seen as disruptive but it’s important to remember that so is innovation. So what if we could learn how to use change in a more constructive way by using Power-Pausing and asking questions, using curiosity and courage to get to the clarity that gives us the confidence to create?

CARE is a two-way street when it comes to human relationships, one that’s built on trust, empathy, and authenticity. Things can get muddy because we can only cultivate a level of relationship with others to the extent we have one with ourselves, which is also how you can survive a toxic culture: by taking care of you.

Solving a toxic culture is complex, challenging – and human. We need to start by recognizing that culture is about our human condition, experiences, and behaviors.

The person is more important than the award. Humanity is more important than accolades. This is how competition and care work together.

In our fast-paced world, harnessing our human advantage begins with a pause. It allows us to change the outcome by providing the space to listen to ourselves and ask better questions

Overwhelm is something we can feel in small moments or for days; for some, it can trigger an anxiety attack, and for most, overwhelm comes from the daily stream of more to do that adds up to chronic stress and a mind that feels like it's about to boil over.

Most people think they don’t have time to pause, when the reality is we don’t have time not to. For us to cut through the noise of challenges and problems and think with more clarity, we must pause.

You have permission to speak up, you have permission to be you, you have permission to do great work, you have permission to pause, and you have permission to choose what’s a good next step for you. 

We don't start our workday hoping for adversity, yet, adversity is what problem solvers are for, what innovation is for, what learning new skills is for, and what sometimes creates loss and sometimes creates a new path. The Self-Care Mindset® will give you the skills to make challenges and adversity at work easier to navigate, handle, and harness.

When things get difficult, we tend to drop our self-care and focus on sticking to what we know. That’s how we burn out, not because we wear out from working too much - which is often how we deal with adversity - but because we’re not integrating our emotions.

Maybe what we’re seeing right now is the great re-alignment, where we start to align people, purpose, productivity, and performance from a place that’s more care-driven from the inside out. Where the inner culture reflects the outer culture and where we are not driven by quick reactions to fixing problems but rather take a step back before we respond so that we can make more meaningful and discerning decisions.

Change is a strange thing. We want change when we are the ones deciding on it because something isn’t working. Yet, when we find the change uncomfortable, we fall back into old patterns and habits.

Let’s take a deeper look into the skills of The Self-Care Mindset® as we move through this year together and learn how to use them in everyday situations. You can apply the tools you learn in the book in any situation because self-care is not what we do at home after work to recover. It’s not the bubble bath or the me-time after dinner. Self-care is not time out, it’s how we spend our time better, and it’s a mindset we have with us all the time.

What if, every day, we could have a beginner's mind? The curiosity, courage and confidence to not know, to question our automatic reactions and do something with mindful care and attention? The beginner's mind allows us to make choices according to what is present, based on where we want to go. Instead of focusing so much on the goal, we focus on the journey of getting there.

I hope you will let go of the pressure we so often put on ourselves to achieve something before the year ends. It’s okay to think of life as a process of planting seeds, cultivating them and when the time is right. When they are ready, and we are too, we harvest. 

Self-care should always have been included in how we think about work because even though we live in a tech-driven world, it is still humans doing the work. And that means supporting human beings in being at their best to produce the best results. 

The time between Thanksgiving and the New Year is often so hectic that it can feel like time is running faster than usual. The human connection often gets lost in the hustle of making the perfect experience doesn't it? When we pause and step away from what we worry about, we can reclaim attention on what we care about.

The key that unlocks the power and ripple-effect of gratitude is feeling seen and heard. When we say thank you to someone or say, I appreciate you did this for me, do we pause to connect so that it's not a ping-pong game of exchanging praise, but rather a value system of shared CARE?

I often discuss with leaders that it’s not their job to care for their people, but rather to care about their people. But what does that really mean? Today I discuss how we care better when we care together.

The FUD you are experiencing today is real. FUD stands for “fear,” “uncertainty,” and “doubt.” If you are wondering why I’m writing about it today and in my new book, The Self-Care Mindset, it’s because the FUD is real—especially today.