Play to Your Strengths–Literally–to Feel Self-Mastery and Fulfillment

I advocate playing to your strengths instead of compensating for weaknesses as a way of creating self-mastery and empowerment in your life.  Helping my clients to recognize and use their strengths is one of the hallmarks of my coaching and my teaching. Recently, I had this very experience in a domain that is near and dear to my heart-my piano playing.  See how I learned the different between playing to my strengths and struggling to overcome my weaknesses.

Hope Springs Eternal: How to Change Your Perspective of Your Difficult Situation

Last week, I had the privilege of conducting a class on life balance for the medical residents at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.  The class is part of a wonderful program that the medical school runs called “Advancing Idealism in Medicine”.  The goal of the class is to prevent residents from “burning out” on the job.  I was asked to …

Play to Your Strengths: How to Find and Use Your Strengths to Create Success

Our culture is rampant with negativity.  From report cards to annual reviews at work to billboard advertising, we tend to hear what’s wrong with us, where we are weak and what we need to do in order to improve.  Wouldn’t it be nice to live in a society where everyone’s talents were recognized, validated, encouraged and admired? That’s why strengths are such a positive factor in creating success:  they tell you what is right with you.
Strengths are the tendencies and skills at which you naturally excel.  Strengths can be developed, deepened and even resuscitated after lying dormant for many years. 

My message to clients is to play to your strengths.  It is one of the keys to creating success in your life.

Know Your Values: The Key to Great Decisions and Positive Motivation

I am a big believer in the importance of knowing your values and aligning your life in order to honor those values. 

What are values?  Quite simply, the principles by which you live your life: authenticity, courage, fun, relationships, personal growth, service or spirituality.   Each person has a unique set of these principles that define you and tell you what is truly important to you. In effect, values are the essence of who you really are: i.e., the core to your authenticity.

Know Your Core Values: Great Decisions vs. Difficult Decisions

Values are the core principles that run your life.  They are the key to your authentic self. One of the best ways to create success in your life is aligning your life with your top values and making decisions that honor those values. In my career development workshops, I introduce the concept of values so that my workshop participants can …

Celebrate Your Achievements and Get Over Your Perfectionism

Many high-achievers reach their goals, only to move on to the next one without pausing to reflect on their accomplishments.  Then they wonder why they do not derive satisfaction from their achievements. Often, the reason stems from perfectionism and the voice of your inner critic.Celebrate Your Achievements and Get Over Your Perfectionism

The Music Entrepreneur’s Personal Board of Directors Meets Again: Specific Ways to Get Support and Boost Your Career

A few months ago, I wrote about the first meeting of the personal board of directors of my friend and mentee, a brilliant, talented musician. This young music entrepreneur has assembled a personal board of directors with a wide range of experience: 

•    An internationally famous professional musician
•    A retired business executive
•    A retired media executive
•    Her boyfriend/life partner, also an early-stage professional musician
•    Me, a lawyer, life coach and former arts executive who knows a thing or two about creating career success in the music world

Whereas our first meeting was a general discussion of how our young musician could launch her career, this meeting has a very specific goal:  to provide feedback on her applications to university teaching positions.

Declutter and Open Yourself Up for Success

Welcome to 2011!

Are you one of those folks who made a solemn New Year’s Resolution that this is the year that you will lose 10 pounds, start working out or learn French? 

How long has this been on your list?  And what’s your pattern? 

If you are like many people, you devote yourself to this new activity for the month of January and then, a month later, that life-changing resolution has fallen by the wayside.  Often, these new goal are “shoulds” or are motivated by fear rather than things that you genuinely want.  Another reason is that you may not have cleaned up your house enough to let in new habits.  Think about all the things that are sucking the energy out of you and do not leave you with enough time or energy to devote to your authentic self.  You may not even have the energy to contemplate your authentic self.  So instead of making a lofty New Year’s Resolution, maybe what you need to do is to declutter and get rid of that negative energy.