I took a film appreciation class is college. I thought how cool is it that I can get college credit for watching movies??? (Don't tell my Dad )

I didn't really care for the movies we had to watch (no Tom Cruise involved) but I did walk away with a key phrase: "suspension of disbelief."

Any good movie-goer knows: to really get into a story that, if we're being honest, would NEVER really happen, you must have a suspension of disbelief. That, and have POPCORN! .

You must put logic to the...

I am speaking directly to LEADERS. 

Leaders who want to make a positive impact on people.

If that's you...

I've been listening to my entrepreneur /  business owner / leader clients who have a team of people they work with whom they wish to inspire to even greater heights.

Meaning...

...They have employees, staff, co-workers, partners, committees, boards, a community, or non-profit groups they wish to influence to step up and achieve for the greater good of the group, the...

Have you ever wanted to quit when things get hard?

Hopefully you have't labeled yourself as such - a person who quits when things get hard. Even if there has been an occasion when that has been true.

Do you??

Do you see times when you did quit when something got hard? Conversely, do you see times when you persevered, stuck with it and kept going?

There have been times when I didn't stay in the fight. And plenty of times I did. 

This morning I literally listed out cases for both...

So much talk about work-life balance/harmony/integration/management/blend.

Your business (career) doesn't have to come at the expense of your family, or self, or health, or other relationships and interests.

Being a martyr for work is a choice. You can CHOOSE any aspect of your life at any given time.

As a mall marketing director (10 years of my life!), I worked holidays and at least half my weekends. Four days off a month never seemed like enough! Because it wasn't.

When I was promoted to...

Sometimes we hear a whisper. "I don't know about this" is playing in the back of your mind. Something just doesn't feel quite right. You know something is off but you can't quite put your finger on it. 

You're uneasy about something. The thought of it makes you uncomfortable - maybe mildly so or greatly so. It's just this feeling you have in your gut.

If you're being pushed in a direction and it feels uncomfortable, dig beneath the surface of that and examine where the discomfort is...

It's what Sergeant Daniel "Hondo" Harrelson (played by Shemar Moore) of CBS' S.W.A.T. says when his team of highly trained officers is about to enter into a dangerous situation. 

After hearing the iconic phrase several times I started to ponder what it meant.

My 2 cents? It means be flexible. Be ready, willing and able to adjust on the fly based on what the situation calls for. Don't get so convinced that an "op" will go a certain way that it causes mistakes. Adapt to your environment...

Saying "yes" to one thing means saying "no" or "not right now" to something else. And whatever choice we make often leads to a feeling of guilt about the thing we said "no" to.

With so many people and things vying for our attention, no wonder we seek work-life balance. As an achiever, the options for how to fill your time are plentiful. Time is like a bank account that feels like it's always in the red.

What do we achievers feel guilty about?

Everything. Anything. Pick your...

VICES! Most of us normal people have one...or a few.

Some infamous ones include:

• Drinking too much soda/soft drinks
• Shopping as therapy
• Chocolate
• Smoking
• Alcohol
• Eating when bored (or stressed, sad, lonely, celebrating, etc.)
• Facebook in excess
• You Tube in excess

We love our vices, most of the time. Except when we take them too far and they cause us pain.

Ready to rid yourself of such a villain?

First, decide if you want to reduce or delete the behavior.

This is an important...

Do your monthly Wheel of Life scores look more like a record of your mood swings on the the 30th of the month than an actual record of how well you're doing in each category?

When you don't have a framework or criteria from which to measure your results, your self-scoring can end up being all over the place, based on how you were feeling when you did your monthly dashboard review. 

For example, if you just landed a big new client - your scores may have been high in the 'mission"...

We are what we think we are.

You can't be it, if you can't see it. Your life is limited to your vision. If you want to change your life, you must change your vision of your life.

In the 70's, Arnold Schwarzenegger had reached the peak of his bodybuilding career and then decided to retire. Back then he was not as famous as now. In 1976 a journalist asked him:

Now that you have retired from the bodybuilding scene, what do you plan to do next?

Schwarzenegger smiled and calmly replied "I'm going...