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THE ART OF NEGOTIATION FOR WOMEN
NEGOTIATION IS A LIFE SKILL
Welcome to Season 2: Episode 25 of the Claim The Lead Podcast.
SEASON 2 of the Claim The Lead podcast is for women who want to create a meaningful well-lived life. My intention is to support you in developing greater self-awareness, satisfaction and success in your work-life. My name is Teena Ever and I am a Life and Career Development Coach, Trainer and Speaker with a true passion for helping people navigate important transitions in their life and career.
Through a hybrid of interviews and solo shows, I hope to encourage and inspire you to embrace a whole-life perspective. This will help you take a deeper look into yourself so that you can develop a meaningful life and career that brings a positive sense of self, is engaging and exciting and provides a sense of balance.
Today’s Episode is about The Art of Negotiation for Women. I’ll be speaking with Carrie Gallant. Carrie inspires and empowers women to think bigger, negotiate more powerfully and step up into greater influence and impact. She is President of Gallant Solutions Inc., and founder of The Gallant Leader™ Academy and the EARN Your Worth™ Leaders Lab.
Carrie is a dynamic speaker, facilitator and pay equity advocate and brings her experience as an executive, former practicing lawyer and adjunct law professor to her work in helping clients master the art and science of negotiation and influence, conflict resolution and Conversational Intelligence®.
Carrie’s Art of Negotiation for Women approach is featured in The Women’s Enterprise Centre’s Negotiation for Women Entrepreneurs programs, and in author Tara Mohr’s acclaimed leadership program “Playing Big”. Carrie has also appeared in Cosmo Magazine, goop.com, vice.com, The Globe and Mail, The Financial Post, and CBC Radio. She is also a certified in Conversational Intelligence®, a certified facilitator of Authentic Leadership Conversations™ and Authentic Leadership for Teams™, and a qualified assessor of the Myers Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®).
I am delighted to have her on the podcast as she is wise and passionate about helping women learn the art of negotiation. It’s a life skill that all women should develop to empower them in both business and personal relationships.
In this episode you will learn:
♥ Why negotiation is important for women
♥ What it is about negotiation that freaks women out
♥ The biggest mistakes women make when it comes to negotiating
♥ The benefits for women in learning how to negotiate as a life skill
♥ How to check your negotiation competency
WHERE TO FIND CARRIE
The Unstoppable You™ Negotiation & Influence Competencies Quiz: https://negotiationcompetencies.com
To receive personalized life or career development coaching to create a more meaningful well-lived life, please send an email to Teena Evert, MA, LMFT, LAC, CCTC at support@teenaevert.com
BALANCE AND BOUNDARIES IN BUSINESS
HOW TO CREATE BOUNDARIES AND WORK-LIFE BALANCE
You are listening to Season 2: Episode 24 of the Claim The Lead Podcast.
SEASON 2 of the Claim The Lead podcast is for women who want to create a meaningful well-lived life. My intention is to support you in developing greater self-awareness, satisfaction and success in your work-life. I am a Life and Career Development Coach, Trainer and Speaker with a true passion for helping people navigate important transitions in their life and career.
Through a hybrid of interviews and solo shows, I hope to encourage and inspire you to embrace a whole-life perspective. This will help you take a deeper look into yourself so that you can develop a meaningful life and career that brings a positive sense of self, is engaging and exciting and provides a sense of balance.
Today’s episode is about: BALANCE AND BOUNDARIES IN BUSINESS
In this episode you will learn:
♥ How to create work-life balance
♥ 4 Keys to help you create practical boundaries
♥ 5 Questions to help you choose and set healthy boundaries
♥ 3 Steps to lead you towards creating balance and boundaries by raising your energy awareness
Creating Work-Life Balance
A day doesn’t go by where I don’t hear someone talking about the topic of work-life balance. Is this really achievable? Balance is not stagnant and rigid, it is fluid and ever changing. So how do we strike a balance and maintain it?
Creating work-life balance is much more than an intellectual pursuit. It’s a life skill that can teach us how to “go with the flow”, especially when big life changes or even transitions hit.
Balance is a state of our physical and energetic being. When we are aware of our energy and how it connects to our body, we can integrate the two and experience a state of inner-balance.
Balance promotes a state of mind that is clear and present. So what happens when we get thrown by a major life change? What can you do to internally shift yourself towards a state of balance?
The very first step is to become keenly aware of when you’re feeling balanced or unbalanced. On an energetic level, we can tell when we are in balance and when we are out of balance. For example, when we are out of balance, we often feel: pressured, stressed, taxed, drained, uneasy, anxious and depressed. When we are balanced we often feel: a sense of well-being, ease, flow, peacefulness and relaxation.
Both of these experiences shift our inner-state of being, which is energetic in nature. When we feel unbalanced we often say that we have low energy and when we’re balanced we have positive energy and feel bright and vitalized.
I’d like to challenge you to not look for balance at the end of your day, but rather be curious about the quality of your energy. At the end of your day you want to have the energy to feel motivated and inspired, grateful and appreciative about what you’ve accomplished for the day. Therefore, I invite you to think about what is it that gives you energy? Become curious and more aware of the quality your energy levels throughout your day, so that you can experience an inner-state of balance.
Boundaries and Balance
We live in a society where saying “Yes” is often the acceptable norm. How frequently do you take on extra projects, problems, or work when your plate is already full? Or perhaps you find yourself spinning several plates at once. What happens if you the spinning stops? – the plates come crashing down! Are you aware that your plate is full and your juggling act is not sustainable?
Unfortunately, this is a common problem amongst my clients that leads us right into a conversation about boundaries. The first step in setting boundaries is to get clear about what is important to you and what it is that you want to achieve. Your values and priorities, and the urgency and importance of each project or goal, will define how much time and energy you need in a day, week, or month.
If you’re someone who tends to be overly-committed, then boundary setting is essential to your success as as as for your personal accountability.
Are you a people pleaser? Someone who all so often wants to please others to the point where they have to manage their own guilt and accomplishment If this is you the setting boundaries can sometimes feel harsh or limiting. The truth is, boundaries don’t have to be harsh or limiting and sometimes they just are. The purpose of a healthy boundary is to create the space necessary to succeed in reaching your desired goals.
4 Keys To Help You Create Practical Boundaries
- Be Flexible – we live in a world where flexibility and continued re-assessment of work-life balance is essential to maintaining choice and being able to make a conscious decision to invite a new work-around when it’s called for. In order to have flexibility you must first define your boundaries by allocated time for yourself or scheduled commitments that also has defined space for flexibility – I like to call it padding or a buffer. Have a few alternatives ready for when you’re faced with a challenge, so that you can compromise or tap into a viable solution that works for you.
- Know Your Requirements – these are your non-negotiables and relate directly to your deepest and critically important values and priorities. They drive the creation of strong boundaries. Your ability to identify your non-negotiables and have awareness of them is imperative to your success. Knowing these requirements leads to values-based decisions.
- Create Space – by creating a mental or physical space between yourself and an unhelpful distraction can help prevent overwhelm or derailment from your goals and priorities. Consider planning a vacation or quick get-a-way in order to create physical distance and space from a project or person. Re-prioritize your less important projects or goals for a specific period of time in order to create time distance. Or even decide to focus on one goal at a time to create mental space from other potential distractions.
- Invite Adaptability – your ability to be adaptable requires both self-awareness and flexibility. This can be what you need it to be – such as a firm strong boundary or a more relaxed boundary depending on the situation. It can look like having flexible management of your time and goals, having clear awareness and recognition of your limits and the ability to prioritize new items as they arise, while managing previous commitments.
Defining specific boundaries and identifying your values that inform them will help you create the framework you need to steer clear of falling into the people pleaser trap that keeps you in a state of overwhelm and also leaks guilt into your accomplishment.
The good news is that you can still accomplish a lot and in less time and even be guilt-free, when you learn to master the art of setting practical boundaries – it is certainly a creative process.
5 Questions To Help You Choose and Set Boundaries
When we don’t set boundaries the person we most often disappoint is ourselves. I invite you to reflect the following questions, then choose one boundary to begin with.
- Who do you most need to set boundaries with? (make a list if needed)
- Where do you need to set boundaries for yourself?
- Try asking, “If I say “yes” to that, then what will I be saying “no” to? Then, “If I say “no”, what will I be saying “yes” to?”
- What is the biggest thing that stops you from setting and maintaining your boundaries?
- Choose you! What 3 boundaries could you set to ensure your needs are met?
3 Steps To Lead Your Towards Creating Balance and Boundaries by Raising Your Energy Awareness
STEP ONE: Become Aware of Your Energy – we are made of energy and when it is flowing we are free from pain, disease and tension. These conditions are considered to be blocks or stagnation in our energy flow to where it gets thwarted and out of balance. There are several ways that you can begin to cultivate an awareness of your energy and it requires a daily consistent practice.
You might want to consider meditation, mindful movement, or a simple practice of slowing down and paying attention to what is happening in your body and observe your energy levels throughout the day. You might also begin to notice how the quality of your energy shifts moment-to-moment, as it can feel bright and full and it can also begin to drop and become dull. The more you become familiar with your own energy, the more you’ll know how to cultivate it and keep it in balance.
STEP TWO: Know What Affects Your Energy – lots of things can affect your energy that range from your environment to the work you do and the people you surround yourself with. Pay attention to what gives you strength and nourishment and also feeds you positive energy, as well as what depletes your energy. Take inspired action to increase time spent on fulfilling activities, and limit your time on depleting activities and engagements.
STEP THREE: Create Balance Through Boundaries – one of the best ways to experience heightened energy is to create clear boundaries. As I mentioned earlier, setting healthy boundaries with yourself is the most important boundary that you will create.
What agreements do you make with yourself? What do you do to take care of your yourself every day? For example, do you engage in activities that actively promote your energy like healthy eating, exercise and mindfulness practice? Do you have boundaries with technology, work and social media? Or do you stay up all hours of the night constantly scrolling and reading, go to bed late and feel tired and depleted the next morning?
Practice also having healthy boundaries with others. Do you tend to overextend, over accommodate or sacrifice yourself in order to be there for others? Do you give your energy and power away unknowingly? Do you feel the need to do this in order to be liked, accepted, or needed?
Consider the amount of time and energy you dedicate to yourself and your own creative passionate pursuits. How much attention do you invest compared to the amount of time and energy you give to others? What changes do you need to make in order to feel more whole, complete and centered? Learn how to effectively communicate your needs to others who may drain you or expect constant access to your attention.
Consider what boundaries you need to set to create more balance. Boundaries aren’t like borders they’re not walls that block people out of our lives. Boundaries help us to be honest and authentic about where we want to place our time and focus. The best boundaries are clear, peaceful and honoring to all people involved. They create containers of positive, focused energy where we can naturally experience balance and offer the best of who we are in any given situation..
Create “Energetic Boundaries” by considering making more than just “space” and “time” boundaries. Think of “energetic” boundaries that allows for the creation of a sacred space that is an energetic space to thrive, prosper and grow. Energetic boundaries can mean not taking work home with you or in your head – you can do this through grounding and releasing.
Energetic boundaries may also mean being honest with your loved ones about what you can do, and what you can’t do. It may require you to speak your truth and express your needs.
Striking a life-work balance is not a destination, it’s not something we arrive at one day – it’s a constant state of awareness and daily practice. This also holds true for the cultivation of healthy boundaries – as you’ll discover that it’s an important skill to be both flexible and adaptable – depending on the particular situation.
To avoid crashing and burning out – take time to listen to your body and your energy each day. Take small steps that you need to feel healthy, refreshed and free. Small steps often are easier to integrate into positive daily habits like meditation, exercise, healthy eating and conscious breathing.
To receive personalized life or career coaching to help you best cultivate balance and boundaries in your life, please send an email to Teena at support@teenaevert.com
HOW TO NAVIGATE LIFE & CAREER TRANSITIONS
CREATE A MEANINGFUL WELL-LIVED LIFE
Welcome to Season 2: Episode 23 of the Claim The Lead Podcast.
Season 2 of the Claim The Lead podcast is for women who want to create a meaningful well-lived life. My intention is to support you in developing greater self-awareness, satisfaction and success in your work-life. My name is Teena Evert and I am a Life and Career Development Coach, Trainer and Speaker with a true passion for helping people navigate important transitions in their life and career.
Through a hybrid of interviews and solo shows, I hope to encourage and inspire you to embrace a whole-life perspective. This will help you take a deeper look into yourself so that you can develop a meaningful life and career that brings a positive sense of self, is engaging and exciting and provides a sense of balance.
Today’s episode is about how to navigate life and career transitions.
I have experienced many transitions in my life and career that have always required both a ‘holding on’ and a ‘letting go’. This a natural part of the cycle of life that needs to occur before something new can be embraced. Similar to a child receiving presents on their birthday, new things cannot be added when their arms are already full.
In order to successfully make it through these important life transitions, I had to consciously get clear and engage in what I wanted to ‘hold on’ to and what I needed to ‘let go’ of in order to make the shift. It’s a process that’s not always easy to move through alone. Therefore, I recommend working with a life coach.
LIVING A FULFILLED LIFE
Are you too busy and feeling rushed everyday?
Have you lost track of your friends?
Have you lost track of yourself and your goals?
Many people come to me for coaching because they want to find ways to make their life more satisfying and fulfilling. They want to feel more alive. They want to get out of the trance that they’ve fallen into from the high levels of stimulation in our modern society – that is beginning to make them feel robotic.
One of the issues of feeling dissatisfied and unfulfilled is that people are being driven by habitual choices and ways of coping that were developed as young children and have remained unchanged. When coping habits outlive their usefulness and become outdated, they turn to a life coach like myself, seeking help to reshape and update their life. This requires coaching my clients how to develop new habits of thinking and behaving – it also requires a personal breakthrough.
The first step is to gain some clarity about the ways your habitual thinking and coping habits are your limitations to moving beyond your current life choices.
When I coach my clients, we often focus on life purpose and life design work. As they become conscious of their unconscious they experience a transformation or personal breakthrough and begin to design their lives more purposefully – meaning new good habits and daily practices, and a new way of being.
A key to this transformation and personal breakthrough is creating positive habits that replace unhealthy or unwanted behaviors. Designing a life gets you out of being a creature of habit where you keep falling into a familiar sort of autopilot stupor.
My coaching process uses the principle of examining your everyday life habits to determine which are habitual and the assumptions that underpin them. I work directly with my clients to explore cognitively and emotionally ways to change habits and create more purposeful behavior that is in line with their desired life.
The strongest route to authentic happiness is to use your signature strengths in service of something greater than yourself. Your strengths can be your best motivators and I love helping people identify what they are. I use both formal and informal assessments to find their signature strengths, then coach them how to best leverage them.
The truth is, most of us did not grow up thinking we could design a life. Maybe a garden or a sandbox, but not your life. I help my clients become the interior designers of their lives in an integral way – body, mind, and spirit. Through our work, they realize they can make choices about their lives. They can consciously design a way of living that will bring them deep fulfillment – a feeling of satisfaction of having achieved one’s desires.
I help my clients discover what they desire and want to bring into actuality, to completion. Fulfillment is not the end goal – it’s about experiencing fulfillment in the moment. Life brings new challenges and learning opportunities.
What I want for my you is to learn that in being more purposeful – in consciously choosing and designing your experience – you have opportunities to experience moments of fulfillment more frequently.
Let’s be honest with ourselves, we all want more of whatever feels fulfilling. Living purposefully and living with design allows people to be more conscious of their choices, actions, and mind-set.
Eleanor Roosevelt said, “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
It takes courage to create the life of your dreams.
L.J. Cardinal Suenens said, “Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true.”
There is a high cost of not living the life of our dreams, of not leading a fulfilling life – it takes courage and being honest with yourself to explore a new way of being.
LIFE CAN WORK
Many of us need to be reminded that WE create our own lives – through our intentions, beliefs, courage, and ability to link our desires with our actions. The real art of life is in balancing – living in the present with an ability to focus on the future.
On one hand, life can feel like it’s working in our favor when we are happy, everything seems normal, whatever we are doing is succeeding, our routine is working, and we are comfortable.
On the other hand, life can feel like it’s falling apart when we experience a loss, where the happiness of routine begins to fall apart. A variety of events begin to signal change, and we are challenged to let go of the routine that worked so well.
When we experience loss in our lives, we want to return to our previous happiness as quickly as possible and regain our equilibrium. The healing and growth process requires one to experience the suffering and to allow ourselves to fully move through the feelings of loss. Unfortunately we can not avoid this process and still hope to achieve our goal. We can’t go over, under, or around this life transition – we must go through it, with all the hard work of planning, implementing, and revising that it entails.
This is often an unpleasant process that involves true suffering: tension, stress, anxiety, worry, frustration, anger, conflict, and sadness. It is only through suffering – fully experiencing our pain – that hope arises.
The good news is that hope begins to emerge when our plans begin to work. We start to notice progress and begin to feel competent. We hold a vision of a return to happiness and normality. Naturally, the new normal will be different from the old. When the process of change is effective, the elements of our life come together in a new configuration. We find happiness in a new state of equilibrium.
Keep in mind that happiness is rarely a permanent state of being, change will reliably come as we move through life.
NATURAL EMOTIONS OF CHANGE
As a consequence of change, which is part of the natural cycle of life, we repeatedly experience the emotions of change. With loss we can experience feelings of anxiety, apprehension, and worry. We can feel sad, angry, irritated, and frustrated. Grieving needs to be done. Along with the experience of suffering through change, we may experience stress, depression, burnout, helplessness, and even hopelessness.
Eventually hope brings renewed energy, optimism, and enthusiasm, and happiness brings a sense of satisfaction and contentment.
Trying to grip onto the state of happiness in order to stay in a state of happiness forever is not realistic. Change is a natural part of our lives. It brings growth and is inevitably accompanied by the emotions associated with change.
CLAIM THE WHEEL OF YOUR LIFE
Coaching offers you the opportunity to put your hands on the wheel of your life and turn it at a speed that returns you more quickly to happiness when your life has gone off course. I help you discover your strengths so you can manage your life through important transitions and help you learn to navigate these times as smoothly as possible, emerging more resilient and less drained.
When we are experiencing loss we have to fully experience it to move through it and coaching gives you the tools to design your life in the spirit of hope so that authentic happiness occurs more quickly, more easily, and more frequently.
If you are suffering greatly and in pan, coaching can assist you to experience and move through the pain as elegantly as possible.
If you are interested in learning more about my coaching practice and services, please send an email to support@teenaevert.com
I look forward to connecting with you!
YOUR POWER MOVES
5 Steps You Must Make to Get to Your Next Level
The Claim The Lead Podcast is a weekly conversation with your host Teena Evert MA, LMFT, LAC, PC. She is the Founder & CEO of Claim The Lead. Teena is a Life Coach specializing in executive wellness and career transitions. She coaches professionals to help them achieve greater work-life, home-life and relationship satisfaction.
Through interviews and stories Teena will explore all aspects of personal leadership, which is the leadership of the self connected to the emotional and psychological well being of women to help develop greater self-awareness, satisfaction and success in life, work and love.
In this episode I am speaking with Devonia Reed who is an author, speaker, and educator. Ms. Reed was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. She has served as a public school educator for over 19 years in various capacities. She is also the Co-Founder and CEO of Welcome 2 the Queendom, a non-profit organization that empowers young ladies. She has dedicated her life to empowering youth and women to be “stretched into their greatness”.
“Your happiness doesn’t come from places or things, happiness is purely personal and it’s really all about you.” – Devonia Reed
In this episode you will learn:
♥ How to use your biggest obstacles to propel you forward in life
♥ Inspiration to stretch into your greatness
♥ What are the power moves that will get to your next level
♥ How to be a happy whole woman in today’s world
Where to find Devonia
Power Moves: 6 Steps You Must Take To Get To Your Next Level
Ignite: A 30 Day Guide To Get You To Your Next Level and Achieving Your Goals
11 Ways To Increase Your Positivity
How much positivity is enough?
Barbara Fredrikson is the author of Positivity and her work has shown that a reasonable aim is to have a ration of three “heartfelt” positive experiences to each negative experience. This formula requires positive experiences be authentic - just pasting a smile on your face or faking it does not meet the test of authenticity.
The ratio of one negative experience to three positive experiences is a tipping point and predicts whether people will flourish or languish.
Research shows that each individual has a set point for positive emotions. Some people more naturally gravitate to positivity whereas others more naturally gravitate toward negativity.
Because research finds that positivity is more beneficial, those with a general proclivity toward negativity may wonder if they are doomed to having a less happy and rewarding life.
Fortunately, they can actively increase their positivity and reap the benefits generated by being more authentically positive.
Eleven ideas to boost your positivity...
- “Find positive meaning in situations.” - What is the blessing or gift in each situation and what can be learned from the experience?
- “Savor goodness.” - When something pleasant happens enjoy it to its fullest.
- “Count your blessings.” - What good things can you be grateful for each day?
- “Kindness counts.” - What kind word or act can you offer in the situation you are experiencing?
- “Follow your passions.” - Find out what makes you come alive and do it.
- “Dream about your future.” - What do you want? If you were to create your best life, what would it be life?
- “Apply your strengths.” - Find out what your strengths are and use them often.
- “Connect with others.” - No person is an island. We need each other. Build relationships that support and nurture you.
- “Connect with nature.” - Take a walk. Watch a sunrise or sunset. Get your feet on the ground. Hug a tree. Splash in a puddle. Breath fresh air. Fly a kite. Let nature nurture you.
- “Open your mind.” - Have a beginner’s mind, one that is open to learning new things. Expand your thinking. Invite different perspectives.
- “Open your heart.” - How can you be more inclusive? What touches your being?
Teena Evert, MA, LMFT, LAC, PC is executive wellness, career transition and life coach who specializes in helping her clients achieve transformation in their lives both personally and professionally.
To schedule a FREE CONSULTATION please >> CLICK HERE
CHAOS TO COLLABORATION
HOW COLLABORATION CAN HELP YOUR PERSONAL AND BUSINESS GROWTH
The Claim The Lead Podcast is a weekly conversation with your host Teena Evert MA, LMFT, LAC, PC. She is the Founder & CEO of Claim The Lead. Teena is an executive and life coach specializes in helping working professionals achieve greater work-life, home-life and relationship satisfaction.
Through interviews and stories Teena will explore all aspects of personal leadership, which is the leadership of the self connected to the emotional and psychological well being of women to help develop greater self-awareness, satisfaction and success in life, work and love.
In this episode, I am speaking with Charmaine Hammond who has been in the business of transforming lives, building sustainable collaborations, and helping businesses succeed for more than 25 years. CSP™ Certified Speaking Professional, bestselling author with a Master’s Degree in Conflict Management, she has developed collaborations and sponsorship relationships with more than 40 sponsors and 60 business partners and has helped her clients do the same. As a former counsellor, Charmaine worked with many families and communities to create collaborations built to last.
Charmaine has sat on all sides of the collaboration and sponsorship table. She has started and been the Executive Director and Board President of non-profit organizations where her role included building powerful collaborations, leading innovative fundraising, submitting grant applications, and securing sponsors. She has also worked as a funder and sponsor, making those tough decisions of who is awarded funding/sponsorship dollars. As a business owner herself for the past 22 years, she has been a sponsor of various projects, events and causes. Now she teaches people to do this for their businesses, projects and BIG DREAMS.
Prior to opening her first business, more than 20 years ago, Charmaine worked for all 3 levels of government (including the Correctional System where she was a Correctional Officer… bound to be some interesting stories there), and led a non profit organization. As a speaker, facilitator and consultant for more than 20 years, Charmaine’s clients have included Fortune 500 companies, all levels of government (including 65 municipalities), industry, educational institutions, corporations and businesses in a variety of sectors and non profit organizations. These experiences have provided Charmaine with a unique “inside” insight into the corporate, government, NGO and public sector world.
In this episode you will learn:
♥ How collaboration can help you with your personal and business growth
♥ Ways that collaborations can go sideways and how to get back on track
♥ How to shift out of chaos
♥ The key elements to a good collaboration
♥ Tips, tools and practices to improve your ability to collaborate more effectively
Where To Find Charmaine
Charmaine’s Website: https://charmainehammond.com/
Raise a Dream: https://raiseadream.com/
How To Prevent Short-term Stress from Becoming Long-term Problems
FIVE KEYS TO LIVING WITH VITALITY
There are five essential elements of well-being:
- Career
- Social
- Physical
- Financial
- Community
These are the keys to not just surviving, but full thriving! People who are excelling in all five areas are happier, more engaged, and more productive.
Resilience is an essential part of our overall emotional well-being. Emotional well-being is less about what happens to us in life and more about how we respond to what comes our way. It's about resilience.
The biggest obstacle we face in building resiliency is STRESS - or so it seems. We've all learned that stress is bad. But new studies are now showing that stress can actually be good and even "beautiful."
Research has shown that short-term stress can actually enhance immune function and can also increase performance.
What we don't want is long-term stress. This is "bad" stress, which is definitely deleterious for our health.
What can we do to prevent short-term stress from becoming long-term stress?
One step that we can each take is to do the same, but differently (as in a more relaxed manner).
To stay on the "good" side of stress, be nice to people, smile more often, intentionally choose the longer line at the grocery store, drive in the slow lane, and read good, long works of literature.
When you optimize your stress you sharpen your short-term stress. This means increasing our levels of stress in the short term can be good - and can be a great source of energy.
The key, though, is to then offset these short-term bouts of stress with what recharges you - quality sleep, healthy food, moderate exercise, spending time with friends, practicing gratitude, and being nice to others and to ourselves, as well as engage in restorative activities - things like meditation, yoga, music, art and walking.
If you are struggling to manage the stress in your life and you know you could benefit from designing a plan to reduce it...
I invite you to message me so we can have a conversation about how you can increase your vitality and strengthen your resilience.
Just simply send an email to support@teenaevert.com and share two things with me:
- Your BIGGEST stressors.
- What you've already tried doing to manage your stress - that's both worked and hasn't worked.
I"ll respond to schedule a day and time to speak with you and help you break free from the cycle of stress that you're in.
I look forward to connecting with you!
Warmly,
Teena Evert, MA, LMFT, LAC, PC is executive wellness and life coach who specializes in helping her clients achieve transformation in their lives both personally and professionally. She is of great help to busy professionals on a quest to have it all: life satisfaction, a meaningful career, sane work / life balance, and healthy relationships. Teena encourages you to develop your own unique self-care plan and give yourself the gift of deeply caring for and loving yourself, so you can you can thrive in a forever changing world.
SELF-CARE MASTERY
CULTIVATE PEACE & BALANCE IN YOUR LIFE
The Claim The Lead Podcast is a weekly conversation with your host Teena Evert MA, LMFT, LAC, PC. She is the Founder & CEO of Claim The Lead. Teena is an executive and life coach specializes in helping working professionals achieve greater work-life, home-life and relationship satisfaction.
Through interviews and stories Teena will explore all aspects of personal leadership, which is the leadership of the self connected to the emotional and psychological well being of women to help develop greater self-awareness, satisfaction and success in life, work and love.
In this episode I am speaking with thought-leader and “Self-Care Concierge”, Pamela Zimmer. She is #1 bestselling author, sought after speaker and featured guest on countless radio shows, TV, podcasts, blogs and tele-summits, professional Architect turned Stay-at-Home Mom, and Founder of YOUR Permission Pinwheel™. Pamela teaches professional women how to have peace and balance in their lives through a consistent practice of self-care (which is more than just a monthly massage or mani/pedi).
With a leap of faith, Pamela quit her career of 13 years. What she didn’t anticipate was the 6 year struggle she would face battling severe Postpartum Depression. Out of her pain came her purpose, and the lesson about self-care. Today, Pamela mentors women with her groundbreaking, 5-step permission-based program, offering the structure, foundation and guidance they need to take care of themselves first. Self-care isn’t selfish, it’s essential.
In this episode we explore how:
♥ Self-care is always a choice
♥ Your thinking, feeling, and behaviors impact your overall health and well-being
♥ To not give up or give into life’s challenges
♥ To give yourself permission to be on purpose
Where To Find Pamela
Pamela’s Website
FREE GIFT – 7 Simple Self-Care Secrets
The Secret Solution To Staying Happy
WHAT DOES HAPPINESS MEAN TO YOU?
What have you been manifesting in your life lately?
Whatever it is, is it bringing you joy or stressing you out?
Are you where you truly want to be?
Can you honestly say that you’re happy and content with where you’re at right now? or are you still searching?
Most people are searching because we all have a desire to find happiness, be happy and stay happy. But can it be as simple as choosing to be happy? If it were that simple, wouldn’t we all be walking around with a permanent smile on our face?
Although I agree choosing to be happy is an important first step, we still have to consciously create the right internal and external environment to manifest what we truly want and to feel content in life.
A Decline in Happiness
According to the 2019 World Happiness Report, happiness and well-being has declined among adult Americans since 2010. This same report states that the feeling of happiness is made up from experiences that satisfy us on a deep level and bring an overwhelming feeling of contentment.
I agree with that, but here’s the challenge most of us face:
How often have you had an amazing experience that left you beaming with joy, then not long after it was over, you were right back to where you were before the experience? Your emotional state was in the doldrums feeling ho hum without anything extraordinary happening to arouse your senses.
This experience is true for many. We get used to experiencing the highs and lows and ups and downs of life and accept this stress cycle as the norm. But isn’t this how we build our resilience? Perhaps this is true, but does it have to be so tumultuous? Can we learn to remain in a state of flow regardless of what’s going on around us?
Is it possible to use our emotional resilience to move through life’s challenges without turning things into mountains that were originally just a bump along the road?
I believe so. Now don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy a good mountain to climb that challenges my stamina, physically, mentally and emotionally. What I don’t enjoy is when the mountain suddenly appears in front of me unexpectedly and I am not prepared for the challenge. I don’t have the right shoes, clothing, food or gear to make the trek. It could actually be dangerous to attempt the climb without adequate preparation and supplies.
Solving Unsolvable Problems
This is an example of when we’re most likely to give up. We tell ourselves we just don’t have what it takes to succeed, so we don’t even try. The truth is, we all have blind spots especially when it comes to conquering life’s challenges. In most cases, if we ask for support, we can find a solution to what we perceive, as an unsolvable problem.
Others can often see what we can’t see during times of high stress. Our brain is in survival mode and as a result our creativity gets thwarted. This is why when faced with a big challenge, one that appears to be unsolvable, it’s important to seek support or guidance to help you discover a viable solution.
I can’t tell you how many times I put my head down and just walked away because the task in front of me looked too daunting. I didn’t even try or put forth any effort, because I believed it was an impossible task or unsolvable problem. However, if I had asked for help, I would’ve been able to see that the challenge was totally doable, manageable and even fun to conquer.
Asking For Support
When was the last time you were faced with a challenge and your first instinct was to walk away and not even attempt to face it? What if in that moment instead of giving up, you asked for support?
What would be different today if you choose this option?
How would you feel different about yourself?
What kind of support do you need to manifest your dreams?
When the going gets tough, stop what you’re doing and find someone who is willing to help you see or find a solution that works for you. Not only will this boost your confidence it will strengthen your resilience and ability to thrive during difficult times. This may even lead you down a path where you feel happier and more content overall.
All too often, we just have to get out of our own way by dropping our ego and our preconceived notion regarding how we think things should be. We get so attached to the outcome that when things don’t start to unfold the way we had imagined or don’t look the way we had envisioned them to be, we get frustrated and try to control the outcome even more.
This pattern of thinking and behaving is what feeds our resistance and robs our joy in the process of creating and manifesting. We shut off the value to these energy flows and instead open the valve to fear. The more we tap into the fear the more it becomes the primary source of fuel that drives our behaviors.
We don’t even realize that we’re operating under such adverse conditions. We blame external circumstances and avoid taking full responsibility for our happiness. And so it goes…we do this over and over again throughout our life with no conscious awareness that we keep repeating the cycle that disconnects us from our true desires.
It can be really difficult to sustain the amount of energy it takes to drive our lives from this place of disconnect - and we all have a breaking point. Unfortunately, this can lead to a wide variety of disorders, diseases, loss of wellbeing, and loss of productivity.
Nothing changes until we acknowledge the stress cycle and get the right support.
What’s it going to be for you?
It’s your choice and although that sounds like the easy part, it’s can be the hardest step to take. You get to choose what happiness means to you.
The secret solution is, you have to believe that you can be.
I want to leave you with these questions:
Do you believe you can be truly happy?
Can you keep striving to be the best version of you and still feel content in the moment?
What support do you need to manifest your dreams?
Teena Evert, MA, LMFT, LAC, PC is a licensed therapist and transformational coach who helps stressed out professionals strengthen their emotional resilience to increase their overall work-life satisfaction.
To schedule a Free Consult with Teena >>> CLICK HERE
YOUR FEMININE CORE
WOMEN’S HEALTH AND HOMEOPATHY
The Claim The Lead Podcast is a weekly conversation with your host Teena Evert MA, LMFT, LAC, PC. She is the Founder & CEO of Claim The Lead, where she specializes in job burnout solutions and personal leadership development for healthcare professionals.
Through interviews and stories Teena will explore all aspects of personal leadership, which is the leadership of the self connected to the emotional and psychological well being of women to help develop greater self-awareness, satisfaction and success in life, work and love.
In this episode I am speaking with Janice Solomon who is a nationally certified homeopath and holistic health practitioner and mentor. She works with women who want to feel more freedom, ease and joy. She has been in private practice for 14 years and has offices in Nyack, NY, Maplewood, NJ and globally via Facetime, Zoom or Skype.
In this episode, you will learn:
♥ That there is more to health and wellness than the current medical model offers.
♥ What the feminine core is and how finding it can help you on your healing journey.
♥ Ways to work with your physical and energetic body and whole being.
♥ How to break the pain cycle and transform your life into long lasting health and vitality
Where To Find Janice:
Website: janicesolomon.com
Finding Your Feminine Core: http://resonanthealingny.com/finding-your-feminine-core
HOW TO MOVE THROUGH LIFE CHANGES WITH GRACE AND EASE
THE FOUR STAGES OF CHANGE
Are you experiencing change in your life right now?
You may or may not be aware it, but something feels a bit uncomfortable for you. I know this feeling well and I have helped many of my clients through the process of change with ease and grace, rather than pain and resistance.
Where are you?
We are always in an evolving cycle of change and ultimately expanding as human beings.. Sometimes we welcome this change with open arms and other times we resist with all of our might. It can be helpful to know which stage you’re in, so you can better understand what is going on for you. When you have a better understanding, you can have more compassion for yourself and be better equip to work through this process of change, rather than against it.
STAGE ONE
The first stage of change is dissatisfaction or what I call “feeling the gap”. This is when there is a large gap between where you are and where you would like to be. You might not be completely clear where you want to be. You may just have the clarity that what you are experiencing now is not working for you.
This can be an uncomfortable place to be and oftentimes I have clients come to me and label this stage as “depression” or “anxiety”. Try to frame the dissatisfaction as information signaling you to grow rather than labeling it as a permanent position - “I will always feel this way–my life never goes the way I want it to.” How you frame it can change your experience of it. If you frame it as a signal for growth you will feel empowered and if you focus on it from a state of helplessness you will feel despair.
STAGE TWO
The second stage of change is exploration. In this stage you feel the dissatisfaction, but you don’t quite know what would feel better to you. Or you have a sense of what would feel better, but you don’t know how to get there.
This is the stage where you explore options and “try them on” to see how it would feel or you explore options of how to get where you want to go. It’s important to take your time in this phase to truly explore. People oftentimes feel uncomfortable with the lack of certainty at this point and may try to bypass this by choosing an option to get out of this stage.
Reassure yourself that you will come to an option that feels right to you, just give it time. The other thing to watch in this stage is the opposite, which is exploring so much that you get confused and stuck in considering options. Sometimes people fear making a change and hang out in the exploration stage as a safety zone to not take any risks. Make sure you aren’t doing this either.
STAGE THREE
Stage three is what I call action or visualization. In this stage you have clarity about where you want to go and you develop a plan to get there. Again you may know where you want to go, but you’re unclear of a plan to get there and this is something that can to be finalized in this stage.
You may have developed somewhat of a plan in the exploration stage and in this stage you will clarify this plan and begin to implement. In this stage it is important to get support in order for you to stay on track with your implementation. Without support the fears that surface may sidetrack you and stop you from moving forward.
You can share with a close friend or partner and ask them to be an accountability buddy to you. The other part of this stage is to spend time visualizing the positive outcome of your desired change. See it working out in the easiest, magical and fun way. This vision can help keep you focused when your desired change is in process and not quite complete. The phrase “keep your eye on the prize” is fitting here.
STAGE FOUR
The fourth stage is stepping into the new. Moving into your change can be a gradual process or it could come more quickly (like meeting your ideal mate within weeks of this process or your dream job lands in your lap overnight). Either way there is an adjustment phase to the new change.
There can be feelings of loss from letting go of the old, even though you were dissatisfied, because it represented the familiar to you. With the new changes may come feelings of having a new identity or parts of you being expressed that have never been expressed before.
Typically people feel more aliveness and vitality in this stage. You can also feel a deep sense of satisfaction that you made a change that was in alignment with your true self and you feel on the right path with your life and doing what you came here to do.
What stage are you in?
How are you framing this stage?
Are you viewing it positively or are you stuck in resisting it?
PROTECTING YOURSELF AGAINST PAIN
If you find yourself stuck in resistance or let's call it fear and you are not able to move forward you might be protecting yourself from pain. When you were little, if you experienced pain and your primary care givers were too caught up in their own world to comfort you or they were the ones causing you pain, then you most likely developed methods to block the pain.
To feel the pain and have no way to process it or to have someone comfort you is very overwhelming for a child. Kids will begin to block painful feelings very early on if they are in this kind of environment. The part of us that does this is an underdeveloped protective part of us that had to intervene and protect against pain.
We all have different methods of protecting against our pain. Such as, over thinking, overeating, overworking, being obsessed with being perfect, over-focusing on others, daydreaming, watching TV, or reading etc. The last two I mentioned, watching TV and reading can either be coming from an intention to block pain and avoid or they can be a healthy form of enjoyment. For example you can watch a movie to avoid some painful feelings you are having and you want to escape or you want to have some enjoyment and fun by watching the movie, same activity but different intentions.
As an adult, blocking our pain ends up getting in our way and keeps us from moving forward. The methods we use to block pain can also get in the way of us feeling deeply connected to ourselves and our capacity to connect with others. Our feelings are part of us and if we are blocking them, we’re missing a deep connection with ourselves that allows us to feel happy and content in our lives.
The truth is that as an adult, you now have the capacity to process your feelings, comfort yourself or get support and guidance from those around you. You aren’t alone with your pain anymore. The protected parts of you need to be reassured of this, because these parts of you are locked in the past and feel like what was happening back then is the current environment. As a result, they are tirelessly blocking your pain because they feel they need to for your own survival!
It can take time for these blocking mechanisms to relax and acclimate to what is truly happening. These protective parts believe that if you feel pain, then it will be overwhelming and that you might even die. Reassure your wise and resourced adult self that you can handle the pain now and you can share with others how you are feeling. You are now fully capable of feeling and processing your pain, both from the past and pain from the present.
You help you through this process you can journal your feelings or seek the support of a licensed therapist or transformation coach to help you through your process.
If you'd like to schedule a time to speak with Teena you can do so HERE
Teena Evert MA, LMFT, LAC, PC is a licensed therapist and transformational coach. She has been working in the helping profession for over 20 years and has a real passion and drive for helping people work through important life changes such as divorce, career transitions, and lifestyle change to minimize stress and design a life that aligns with their core values. Her Journey to Self-Discovery program is designed to uncover meaning in your existence while exploring your potential.
HOW TO TRULY THRIVE
WHILE NURTURING OTHERS AND NOURISHING SELF
The Claim The Lead Podcast is a weekly conversation with your host Teena Evert MA, LMFT, LAC, PC. She is the Founder & CEO of Claim The Lead, where she specializes in job burnout solutions and personal leadership development for healthcare professionals.
Through interviews and stories Teena will explore all aspects of personal leadership, which is the leadership of the self connected to the emotional and psychological well being of women to help develop greater self-awareness, satisfaction and success in life, work and love.
In this episode, I am speaking with Global Impact Visionary Leader Sue Dumais who is answering the call to heal the world. She is a best-selling author, an international speaker, a divine leader of light leaders, a sacred guide, a gifted intuitive healer, a miracle weaver, and a global voice of HOPE and inspiration for the “Heart YES Movement.”
Sue brings the gifts of insight, awareness, and self-empowerment to her global audience, creating a shift in consciousness from head to heart. Her mission is to ignite our hearts to uplift humanity and unify us in love for each other and our planet.
Through a divine blend of transformational guidance, unique perspectives, and a radically honest approach, Sue fosters deep healing and a profound awakening. She guides others to hear, answer, and trust the highest calling of their heart. Sue is passionate about illuminating the path for others as they discover, embrace, and embody their heart YES.
In our conversation we talk about:
♥ How to truly thrive as a helping professional
♥ Tips to make a greater impact as a healer
♥ Ways to uplift humanity without self-sacrifice
♥ Inspiration to realize your fullest potential
Where To Find Sue
IS YOUR LIFE CAUSING BURNOUT AT WORK?
IMPROVE YOUR LIFE AND WORK SATISFACTION
I teach healthcare professionals simple ways to keep the normal stresses of being in the helping profession - from crossing the line into threatening their career, their marriage and even their life.
It’s tempting to blame others for all of our worries. The causes of burnout are complex for all of us and we each have a pattern of stresses that are as unique as our fingerprints. There are however burnout stressors that we all have in common. It’s important that you look at the stress patterns holistically and root out all causes of stress at work and at home.
The first one is our human blind spots, we don’t learn to take care of ourselves in school. What we learn to do is survive by getting passing grades, making friends, staying out of trouble and graduating to the next grade, rank or level of approval. Self-care principles such as nutrition, rest, exercise and relationship skills fall by the wayside in pursuit of reaching out education and or career goals - even if we are in the health and wellness industry. We don’t learn to care for our physical and energetic needs until after we experience an episode of burnout.
I teach healthcare professionals simple ways to keep the normal stresses of being in the helping profession - from crossing the line into threatening their career, their marriage and even their life.
Let’s face it, life itself is stressful and if our stress is not managed properly can lead to burnout. As human beings we only have so much time and energy to give. There is a difference between stress and burnout. Stress is when you are drained, but you are still able to recover. Burnout begins when you are drained and NOT able to recover between your shifts or work life regime.
The original burnout researcher, Herbert Freudenberger, describes this relentless downward spiral as, “...an erosion of the soul caused by a deterioration of one’s values, dignity, spirit and will.”
Burnout is the development of a negative balance in your energy bank accounts. It’s a syndrome that has physical, psychological and spiritual components. When you cross the line from the “normal” stresses of being in the helping profession into job burnout you will begin to notice one or more of the following symptoms.
These three main symptoms of job burnout are measured by a standardized research survey tool called the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). They are:
- Exhaustion -physical, mental, emotional and spiritual exhaustion.
- Depersonalization - usually shows up as Compassion Fatigue, sarcasm, cynicism and blaming your patients or consumers.
- Lack of Efficacy - presenting as thoughts of “what’s the use”, doubting that your work makes any difference and/or questioning the quality of your work.
These scales on the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) each correspond to a negative balance in your Energetic Bank Account and you have three.
Exhaustion is your Professional Bank Account; Sarcasm, Cynicism, Blaming is your Emotional Bank Account; and “What’s the use?” is your Spiritual Bank Account meaning your deeper connection with meaning and purpose in your profession.
Your profession requires you to expend physical, emotional and spiritual energy as you work with your patients/clients/consumers. Once you become aware of the three energetic accounts, your job becomes very clear. You need to keep all three accounts in a positive balance to do your job well, with high work life satisfaction.
I invite you to check the balance in each of your three accounts, by asking yourself the following questions:
Your Physical Account
- How is your physical energy? Are you in a positive balance?
Your Emotional Account
- How are you feeling emotionally? Are you getting your needs met with regards to your most important relationships?
Your Spiritual Account
- How connected are you to feeling like your work makes a difference and is a meaningful path for you?
The syndrome of burnout is a dilemma that needs a strategy in order to reach, as well as maintain a healthy energy balance in our work life. There are two methods of maintaining the balance we all seek:
- Lower the stress and energy drain
- Increase your ability to recharge
Although it may sound simple, the truth is that preventing and treating job burnout involves a series of simple steps and none of them are easy for a busy professional because they sit in a hug blind spot created by our higher education.
- You were never taught how to lower your stress levels or create work life balance.
- There can be shame and guilt around getting your own needs met.
- You can fall into denial of your need for help, so you don’t ask for support no matter how burned out you might feel, because this would be a sign of weakness.
There is not a quick fix to job burnout. It’s a series of little steps, done consistently overtime, that collectively produce significant changes in your life. It’s a process that takes some time and will absolutely require you to do things differently. If you follow these steps and apply these strategies you will get back to positive balances without having to quit your current position or change careers.
Here’s how you can get started:
STEP 1: Decrease the Drain to Lower Your Stress
Think back over the past month or so and ask yourself the following questions:
- How draining is your day at work?
- What are the specific situations, people, activities and things that drain you most?
- How can you set yourself up to do LESS of the things that drain you most?
- What are the things you find the most rewarding and enjoyable at work?
- How can you set yourself up to do MORE of those things?
Decreasing the drain begins when you take a good honest look at what you don’t like about work and begin to accept it for what it is. This will get you into a healthier mindset where you stop blaming, complaining, and making excuses so that you can take action towards making some changes that will eliminate some of your stress.
STEP 2: Increase your Deposits to Increase Your Energy
What are your favorite recharging activities? Let’s look at the three bank accounts, physical, emotional and spiritual.
Physical
- What things do you do outside of work that you find the most restful and rejuvenating?
- When can you do more of these things?
- How can you take better care of your body through exercise and eating more healthfully?
- Which of these things could you begin to incorporate into your work day?
Emotional
- What relationships in your life give you the most joy and satisfaction?
- When was the last time you spent quality time nurturing these relationships?
- What makes you feel happy, joyful or gives you pleasure in life?
Spiritual
- What are the things in your life and at work that are most meaningful to you?
- What is your, “why”? Why did you choose the profession that you are in?
Your goal is to develop new habits that maintain a positive balance in all three of your accounts. This doesn’t happen naturally, it requires self-awareness to become more conscious of how you are using your power and spending your time and energy.
STEP 3: Get Started and Get Support
As you answer the questions above, pick one area and get started. Notice the difference this change makes in how you feel at then end of your first day of trying it out. If you would like additional support in your healing process towards achieving a healthy balance of energy that leads to less stress overall in your personal and professional life, then I encourage you to schedule some time to talk with me.
I will give you 30-minutes of my time for a consultation. No cost, no obligation, and completely confidential. Here’s a the link to my online calendar >>> SCHEDULE HERE
Teena Evert, MA, LMFT, LAC, PC is the Founder & CEO of Claim The Lead. Teena is a Professional Transformational Coach and Licensed Therapist, Speaker and Podcast Host. She specializes in helping healthcare professionals and organizations prevent and recover from job burnout.
THE IMPOSTER SYNDROME
BREAK UNDESIRABLE BEHAVIORAL PROBLEMS
The Claim The Lead Podcast is a weekly conversation with your host Teena Evert MA, LMFT, LAC, PC. She is the Founder & CEO of Claim The Lead, where she specializes in job burnout solutions and personal leadership development for healthcare professionals.
Through interviews and stories Teena will explore all aspects of personal leadership, which is the leadership of the self connected to the emotional and psychological well being of women to help develop greater self-awareness, satisfaction and success in life, work and love.
In this episode, I have the pleasure of speaking with Allyson Roberts. Allyson uses her Intuitive super powers to help women (and men) break behavioral patterns that no longer produce a desired result. She is a highly sought after speaker, panel expert and life coach. Allyson is internationally acclaimed and has been featured on The O’Reilly Factor, The Morning Show, Dallas Times Herald, and many other print publications, closed circuit programs, radio and podcasts. She is the proud owner of Outrageous Freedom celebrating her twelfth year in business and has served over 2000 clients worldwide.
In our conversation we talk about:
♥ What is the Imposter Syndrome
♥ The 5 Archetypes of the Imposter Syndrome
♥ How to recover from this syndrome
♥ The importance of tapping into your magic
Where To Find Allyson:
TENACITY WINS!
EP15: When Failure is NOT an Option
The Claim The Lead Podcast is a weekly conversation with your host Teena Evert MA, LMFT, LAC, PC. She is the Founder & CEO of Claim The Lead, where she specializes in job burnout solutions and personal leadership development for healthcare professionals.
Through interviews and stories Teena will explore all aspects of personal leadership, which is the leadership of the self connected to the emotional and psychological well being of women to help develop greater self-awareness, satisfaction and success in life, work and love.
In today’s episode I am speaking with Abigail Tiefenthaler, who is a paradigm shifting and bridge building consultant, wife, mom, and speaker. She meets business owners where they are by identifying simple and practical business steps that have the power to radically shift how they make decisions and positively impact their business, their community, and ultimately, their personal lives. She has been a solopreneur for 21 years and has built a $1MM business.
In this episode we talk about:
♥ The art of always saying “yes”, then figure it out later
♥ How each step is a challenge and a chance to be empowered
♥ Asking for a seat at the table will help you grow your business
♥ When failure is not an option, you’ve got to get uncomfortable
Where To Find Abigail
BREAK THE CYCLE OF BURNOUT
GET ON THE RIGHT PATH TOWARDS RESILIENCE
We live in a time-starved world where many healthcare professionals are stuck in a state of fatigue and frustration as they try to manage their time and energy at work - and burnout has become the norm. The cycle of burnout is a syndrome that has physical, psychological and spiritual components. It shows up as chronic physical exhaustion, cynicism, self-doubt, professional inefficacy and uncertainty about one’s purpose and direction in life.
Time is a resource that we all have a relationship with and as human beings we only have so much time and energy to give. When we feel like we’re always running up against the clock, with little to no energy to spare, we run the risk of chronic tension, anxiety, depression, and a decrease in the quality of our relationships.
As a result, we can feel overwhelmed and powerless. We lose touch with our aspirations for being a helping professional and we work on overdrive, pushing ourselves to our limits to stay on top of what already feels impossible. The uncertainty of how much longer we can sustain this way of being and working diminishes any sense of hope for change.
GRIT AND RESILIENCE
Before I got into the helping profession, I worked as Fisheries Biologist in Alaska. For 10 years, I lived remote with very little access to technology. The demands of my job were dictated more by the seasons and weather patterns than anything else. I learned important life skills such as grit and resilience and a connection to something much greater than myself that I can’t even explain. This become my inner power source, a true source of strength and inspiration that fueled my career aspirations at the time and helped me manage the physical demands of my job and psychological impact of living remote.
When I left Alaska and returned to the lower 48 to pursue a career change in healthcare, I had to go through a reintegration process. This process required me to learn how to manage my time and energy in a world where everything seemed to be moving so fast. I no longer felt like I had an an abundance of time and I was being pulled in several directions at once. As result of the increased work demands, I was forced to learn new skills and strategies to survive, so that I didn’t drain my main power source.
Although I believed that every new step was a challenge and an opportunity to be empowered, I lost touch with my aspirations. As result, my main power source got drained and my grit and resilience weren’t enough to keep me from getting caught in the cycle of burnout.
YOUR INTERNAL POWER SOURCE
I’ve been there many times and didn’t even know it, because I thought it was just that I wasn’t strong enough or smart enough or competitive enough to make it work. I thought that simply changing the environment that exposed me to situations where burnout was caused would be enough for me to recover, but this wasn’t enough. I knew I had to find a way to plug back into my internal power source, in order to restore the energy that I’d lost.
3 STEPS TO BREAK THE CYCLE OF BURNOUT
Here are the 3 things that I did to begin to break free from the cycle of burnout.
- The first thing I did was increase my self-awareness so that I could be more conscious of how I was using my power and spending my time and energy. Our self-awareness is the first step towards changing anything.
- The second thing I did was learn to focus on the right things. Fortunately, I had a mentor who taught me to focus my attention on only two things in life to be successful. First, focus your attention on what you are really good at and passionate about that adds massive value to others and a generous income for you. Second, when you’re not doing that to completely unplug, relax and rejuvenate so that you can get your energy back.
- The third thing I did was learn to eliminate the things in my life that robbed my energy. It can be really powerful to identify the things in your life that are draining your energy. It could be your environment, a relationship or something you feel ashamed of or guilty about. Whatever it is, seek professional help to create a plan to eliminate these things so you can plug back into your power source and fully recharge.
GET SUPPORT
Breaking out of the cycle of burnout and getting onto the right path towards resilience is essential for healthcare professionals who are stuck in fatigue and frustration from trying to manage the demands of their job. If you are a healthcare professional experiencing signs of burnout, I want to encourage you to get support.
Get support for JOB BURNOUT
HEALING
Healing begins when we can reclaim our power, own our time and tap back into our greatest aspirations. Then we can do the work we’re meant to do, feeling fully powered up with an improved sense of wellbeing and overall greater satisfaction in our work life.
Teena Evert, Founder & CEO of Claim The Lead she is a Professional Transformational Coach and Licensed Therapist, Speaker and Podcast Host. She specializes in helping healthcare professionals and organizations prevent and recover from job burnout. https://teenaevert.com/
You might also want to read, HOW TO RECOVER FROM THE SYMPTOMS OF BURNOUT
Know Your Worth
EP14: EMPOWERING WOMEN
The Claim The Lead Podcast is a weekly conversation with your host Teena Evert MA, LMFT, LAC, PC. She is the Founder & CEO of Claim The Lead, where she specializes in job burnout solutions and personal leadership development for healthcare professionals.
Through interviews and stories Teena will explore all aspects of personal leadership, which is the leadership of the self connected to the emotional and psychological well being of women to help develop greater self-awareness, satisfaction and success in life, work and love.
.In today’s episode, I am speaking with Carmen W. Landrau, MD a board certified physician who specializes in cardiology, a professional keynote speaker and business coach. She is originally from Puerto Rico but has been living in Houston, TX for more than 16 years.
Dr. Landrau completed her medical training at Ponce School of Medicine, followed by a residency in internal medicine and fellowship in cardiology, both at The University of Texas Medical School in Houston. After her graduation she was hired as part of the staff of the cardiology division at UT and later on opened her own private practice.
As a professional speaker, Dr. Landrau uses her experience navigating a male-dominated and hierarchical career to empower other women and help them recognize their talents, and voice their achievements. This in turn leads them to regain confidence, and take the next steps in their careers and in life. As business coach she works with women business owners who want to improve their business visibility to reach their ideal clients.
In today’s episode we talk about:
♥ What it means to own your worth in a male-dominated, hierarchical industry
♥ What makes you worthy of achieving your goals
♥ The importance of speaking your truth and projecting confidence at work
♥ Discovering what makes you unique and believing in yourself
♥ Tips for managing your time and energy as a professional woman with a family
Where to find Dr. Carmen Landrau
HOW TO RECOVER FROM THE SYMPTOMS OF BURNOUT
HOW BURNOUT DIFFERS FROM STRESS
If you’re feeling exhausted and have little motivation to get through the day, you might be experiencing some burnout. Burnout is different from stress in that stress happens to all of us. Burnout on the other hand, comes when chronic stress that creates physical and emotional exhaustion.
Are You Experiencing Burnout? Take this quick self assessment tool to check yourself for burnout. It helps you look at the way you feel about your experiences at work, life and relationships, so that you can get a feel for whether you are at risk for burnout.
The good news is that you can recover from burnout and I’d like to start to show you how. Today, you are going to learn the signs and symptoms of burnout, how it progresses and how to recover from it.
By increasing your awareness around burnout, you can increase your ability to prevent it. Burnout does not happen overnight. Burnout happens when we miss the warning signs along the way. One day we stop functioning like we used to, even if we work harder and try harder to maintain our productivity.
Check in with yourself and reflect on where the level of your function is currently. On a scale of 1-10 how would you rate yourself. 1 - extremely poor; 5 - average; and 10 - exceptional.
Notice how your body feels and how positive or negative your thinking is and what emotions come up for you. Simply having an awareness around this is the first step in recognizing the warning signs of burnout.
MENTAL AND EMOTIONAL SIGNS OF BURNOUT
To help you understand what is happening within you when you’re experiencing burnout, I want to share some common experiences that you might have with burnout.
Difficulty concentrating on what you’re doing no matter what the task is. It could be constantly procrastinating because you can’t muster up the energy. It could be making careless mistakes.
Even if you aware that you are experiencing burnout, you may not know the common emotions that go with it.
Feeling resentful, annoyed, overwhelmed, powerless. It could be noticing it’s difficult to feel happy and laugh or feeling indifferent about things you should care about.
We live in very stressful times and you are not the only one who’s experiencing these things. Know that being aware of the mental and emotional signs of burnout can help you take steps towards recovering from it.
PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL SIGNS OF BURNOUT
Whether you’re aware that you are experiencing burnout or not quite there yet, it can be useful to recognize some important signs.
Insomnia can be one of the early warning signs and as a result we might feel tired all the time. Other physical signs include persistent headaches, intestinal issues and even clumsiness. Physical signs can warn us of many things therefore, it’s important to use all of your resources, such as going to get a check up with your doctor.
Burnout can lead to feeling socially isolated and alone as well. We can feel detached from our loved ones, especially if we miss important events due to work or health and sometimes when we are with other people we’re not truly present. Remember, that because life can be stressful you’re not the only one experiencing these things.
STOP OR SLOW DOWN
When we start something new, we can be so excited that we give it our all. We are so enthusiastic about what we’re working on that we don’t mind the stress that comes with it. In an effort to maintain a high level of productivity we don’t notice the toll it takes on our mind, body, emotions and relationships, to maintain this high level of productivity. This is how it becomes possible to be close to running on empty and not even realizing it until it’s too late.
One of the best ways to recover from burnout is to stop or at least slow down and get the mental, physical and emotional rest that you need. We aren’t machines, we are human beings and we all need that. You may have already thought about stopping or slowing down and talked yourself out of it. We can always come up with reasons why we can’t slow down or stop.
Recognize that you are taking an important step right now to resolve burnout by taking time to learn about the signs and symptoms so that you can recover. When you help yourself shift away from a burnout state and into a calm state, you’re naturally in a more empowered and energized state of being.
CREATING A SENSE OF BALANCE
It’s important to understand that work-life balance doesn’t mean that equal time is spent in working and playing. It means that the quality of our play, rest and time for our self, balances out the demands of work.
What is something that you love to do so much that you don’t even notice time passing as you do it? These are activities that we engage in wholeheartedly that time flies and it can help balance out our lives. It puts us into a physical, mental and emotional state that is the opposite of burnout.
As the demands of life shift, the quality of recovery must shift as well. The closer we are to burnout the more we need to engage in these types of activities that support us in slowing down and moving into a state of deep relaxation.
HOW CONTROL PLAYS A ROLE IN PREVENTING BURNOUT
We can easily become overwhelmed by the responsibilities that we have taken on or those that have been put upon us. Regardless of whether or not we have chosen the situation, somethings are simply within our control and somethings are outside of our control. The problem is that the more overwhelmed we feel the less control we think we have. So being able to distinguish between what we can control and what we can’t control becomes really vital to recovering from burnout.
Let go of what is outside of your control. There is no point in spending the time and energy or the focus on trying to control something that we can’t. It can be hard to accept that we simply can’t control something, but we can begin working towards this in order to take our energy back.
GET THE SUPPORT YOU NEED
Having support can make a BIG difference in one’s life. Support can come in many different ways. Some people are best at providing emotional support and are willing to listen and be compassionate. Others are not as good of listeners, but might be better at providing practical support, such as loaning you money, giving you a ride or helping you to fix something. While others can be a source of informational support. These are people you can count on to have specific knowledge on specific topics.
Who are the people in your life that you can count on? Knowing who you can go to for the type of support that you need is a sensible tool for preventing burnout. Visualize your ideal source of support. This will help you recognize opportunities to receive support.
Even if you are someone who doesn’t like to ask for help or get help, it will help you recover from burnout by realizing and visualizing the kind of support that you do need.
ENGAGE IN SELF-CARE
Self-care is an important thing that can quickly disappear from our lives and contribute to burnout. We can get so busy that don’t exercise, we start eating those sweet and salty comfort foods instead of healthier foods, we lose sleep and the list can go on and on.
Think back to a time when you were really taking care of yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally. What were the things that you did? Perhaps you were more physically active or maybe you liked to read more and spend quality time with friends and family. How would you feel if you could bring back some of those activities?
Unfortunately, when we are feeling highly stressed or in a state of burnout those are the types of activities we often don’t want to do even though they would help us the most. What would it feel like to do at least one thing a day for yourself?
Make a list of the ways you have engaged in self-care throughout your life and add any additional ways you can take care of yourself now. What are the things that you really need right now and simply make a plan to do at least one of these things a day.
Anyone can be susceptible to burnout. It’s not an indication of weakness or something about you. We all have our limitations. It’s when we disregard these limitations that we set ourselves up for experiencing burnout.
Now you know how burnout can happen and by putting together what you have learned so far you also know how to prevent it. Engaging in self care, getting the the support you need, letting go of what you can’t control. All these things can help you stay energized and productive. Know that these things can take time so be patient with yourself through the process.
Take a moment to think about the excitement that you had when you first took on your new job, new role, project, responsibility or even a new romantic relationship. Remember what your hopes and your expectations were and what motivated you to give it your all?
In addition to connecting to this purpose and feeling everyday, remember that a good plan for preventing burnout includes at least one self-care activity, knowing who you can go to for support when you need it and just that practice of letting go of the things we can’t control.
10 TOOLS TO STAY ENERGIZED AND AVOID BURNOUT
1. Deep relaxation can help you recover from burnout. I love this app Insight Timer
2. Know what your go to resources or power sources are that give you strength and nourishment What Are Your Resources For Support and Stabilization?
3. Create a self-care plan and develop habits for wellbeing Self-Care Checklist
4. Ten Tips To Manifest Your Unlimited Potential Download it here
5. Gain Back Control and Get Your Energy Back Download it here
6. Join our Private Face Book Community Own Your Power Sisterhood
7. Get coached by Teena Evert MA, LMFT, LAC, PC - Schedule a Free Consultation
8. Take the Self Assessment Tool to check if you are experiencing burnout
9. Get support for JOB BURNOUT
10. Read BREAK THE CYCLE OF BURNOUT here
Teena Evert, Founder & CEO of Claim The Lead a personal leadership development company. Teena is a Professional Transformational Coach and Licensed Therapist, Speaker and Podcast Host. She specializes in helping healthcare professionals and organizations prevent and recover from job burnout. https://teenaevert.com
Feminine Fear
EP13: HOW TO STEP BEYOND FEAR AND MOVE FORWARD
The Claim The Lead Podcast is a weekly conversation with your host Teena Evert MA, LMFT, LAC, PC. She is the Founder & CEO of Claim The Lead, where she specializes in job burnout solutions and personal leadership development for healthcare professionals.
Through interviews and stories Teena will explore all aspects of personal leadership, which is the leadership of the self connected to the emotional and psychological well being of women to help develop greater self-awareness, satisfaction and success in life, work and love.
In today’s episode I am speaking with the brilliant Annella Metoyer, a speaker, author and the President of Inspire Development, LLC. She empowers leaders and emerging leaders to be the change within their organizations.
With over 35 years of solving complex problems and building high performing teams in the financial industry, Annella knows firsthand what it will take to lead and succeed in today’s complex business world. She believes that great leadership relies on the ability to develop others and create a culture of teamwork.
In this episode our conversation is focused on Feminine Fear and how it can truly stop us from moving forward in both our personal and professional lives and what to do about it.
In this special episode you’ll learn:
♥ What feminine fear is
♥ How to step beyond fear and move forward
♥ Ways to increase your personal power
♥ How to become a power source for others
Where To Find Annella
Website: https://annellametoyer.com/
Dare To Be The Change Book
Stronger Than Fear Book
Self Appreciation (Part 3)
EP12: OWN ALL OF WHO YOU ARE
The Claim The Lead Podcast is a weekly conversation with your host Teena Evert MA, LMFT, LAC, PC. She is the Founder & CEO of Claim The Lead, where she specializes in job burnout solutions and personal leadership development for healthcare professionals.
Through interviews and stories Teena will explore all aspects of personal leadership, which is the leadership of the self connected to the emotional and psychological well being of women to help develop greater self-awareness, satisfaction and success in life, work and love.
Welcome to the Claim The Lead Podcast. I want to appreciate all of my new listeners and subscribers as well as those who have taken the time to leave a positive rating and review. This helps the podcast become more visible to others so more people can listen to the episodes. It is my passion to help lift other women up, whether they’re going through something that’s really hard or at a place where they’re uncomfortable because transformation is happening in their lives.
The truth is, this can certainly be a symptom of growth. We start to feel uncomfortable, things become more uncertain and we’re guided into our gut and asked to trust it. If we can stay open even when it hurts, amazing things happen. Remember this intention: Embrace Change, Follow Your Bliss and Breathe Away Fear my dear!Today’s episode on SELF APPRECIATION is Own ALL of Who YOU Are.
This is Part 3 of a 3-Part Series that started at Episode 10 with the Topic of Self Appreciation and How To Create an Unshakable Sense of Worth!
I shared the idea that self appreciation can often feel uncomfortable because we mistake feeling good about ourselves with something we’re not supposed to do. We think of it as arrogance or feeling better than somebody. But this is simply not true. Arrogance is about feeling better than other people. Self Appreciation is about feeling good about ourselves because we are uniquely who we are. Therefore, self appreciation is really fundamental to building our best lives.
In Episode 11, which is Part 2 of the SELF APPRECIATION Series we talked about how to Dial Down Your Negative Emotions that can arise when working on self appreciation and how negative emotions are normal and common as you develop greater self appreciation in your life.
Instead of trying to resist or get rid of these negative emotions just dial down the volume on them and turn up the volume on the positivity. Remember that we’re all born whole and complete with the potential for resourcefulness for passion for creativity and the full expression of our uniqueness. All of that is still there. We are just working on removing the blocks so we can access it by releasing our limiting self concepts.
This brings us to Part 3 of the Self Appreciation Series, Episode 12: Own ALL Of Who YOU Are! Listen to this 3-Part Series as often as you like and I want to thank you for being here. Just know that you are truly valuable, you’re truly worthy and truly deserving of the life you want to create. If this series on Self Appreciation touched you in anyway, I would love to hear about your process. If you’re open to sharing, you can send an email to me at podcast@teenaevert.com or leave a review.
By sharing your impact this will inspire others to do the same.
Thank you, YOU ARE APPRECIATED!