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Passion.
Merriam-Webster defines passion as an “intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction.” I don’t really like this definition. I can have intense feelings of happiness or sadness or anger or any other emotion. I feel like passion is more encompassing, but I’m not sure of what. You always hear motivational and inspirational speakers tell you to “Find your passion.” Like, what does that even mean? 🤷🏻♀️ Why don’t they say “Find what you love?” or “Find what makes you happy?” What is it about passion that sets it apart? I’ve had a lot of jobs in a lot of different industries. But it wasn’t until I started working in farming that I truly began to understand what “find your…
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Selfless Leadership.
Leadership is hard, you guys. 😔 I can’t attribute all of my life changes to leadership specifically, but it has played a very large role in shaping my perspective and how I interact/think of others. Not only have I become a more assertive communicator, but I have heightened self-awareness, higher emotional intelligence, and a much bigger “big picture” approach when analyzing most situations. It feels like I am constantly making (big and small) sacrifices for the benefit of others, often with little to no reward. But then, I got to thinking about Jesus. And living impeccably. My assumption was that living impeccably makes life easier; that there would be more happiness. But that’s not really the case. Life has definitely…
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Happiness.
Philosophers caution against focusing on happiness as the ultimate good in life, and I tend to agree. Happiness is subjective; it’s not a constant. I think we’ve put happiness on this unobtainable pedestal. It’s something that we haven’t actually defined for ourselves as individuals, and we strive for an unrealistic, curated ideal (however it is we perceive that ideal). Basically, we really don’t even know what we are searching for. What we talk about in our culture as happiness is really kind of a revved-up version of happiness. It’s a high-energy [state] — scientists call it a high-arousal positive affect. It’s a feeling, it’s transient, it’s not quality of life, it’s not so…
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Emotion.
I write a lot about emotions and feeling them. Psychology fascinates me, so it’s not surprising that this is where my writing leans. But throughout my business and leadership readings, trainings, and experiences, it’s become quite evident to me how much emotion plays a part in our daily lives – and how many people dismiss it as playing an important part in our daily lives. In a TED Talk presented by Harvard Medical School Psychologist Susan David, she performed a study of 70,000 people and found that 1/3 of these people judge or actively try to push aside “bad” emotions such as grief, anger, or sadness. Normal, natural emotions are now seen…
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Melancholy.
Melancholy is defined as a “depression of spirits” or a “pensive mood.” I want to focus on the former definition, because I feel like that’s exactly what we’re experiencing as humans right now. At least, I am. In Brené Brown’s new podcast, she talks with David Kessler on grief and finding meaning. Kessler says that grief comes after loss. That loss can be anything of significance to the individual. He points out that during this pandemic, we could list a 100 different things that we have lost: our social lives, our ability to converge in public, physical touch (as simple as a handshake), and the big one: the world as…
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Sharing is Caring.
A colleague recently recommended I listen to an episode of a podcast called The Happiness Lab by Dr. Laurie Santos, but I accidentally listened to the wrong one. It was called “Caring What You’re Sharing.” I can’t really say it was an accident though, because the message actually helped solidify some thoughts I had swirling around. I’m inclined to believe there was a reason I listened the “wrong” episode. Have you ever watched a movie with someone, and that person falls asleep? Or maybe when two of you go to dinner, but the other is on their phone? Think about how those circumstances make you feel. A little ignored? A…