Yesterday, I turned 55.
To celebrate, I decided to create a list of 55 of my favorite blog posts (from the 385 I’ve published) to jump start your personal development.
The look back reminded me of the topics I’ve dug into in the last two years.
You’ll see that journey in the headlines below.
I hope you enjoy!!
- Redefining Success – This first post introduces the 8 dimensions of wellbeing and poses questions to understand how you define success.
- Wellbeing Journey – Building on the 8 dimensions, we can consider each area to determine if we are struggling, soaring, or somewhere in between.
- Occupational Wellbeing – This post provides an overview of occupational wellbeing and a few high-level questions to consider our status.
- Navigating Career Capital – How our skills, experience and personality traits all play a role in our overall value.
- Career Journey Map – Have you heard of a career journey map? Explore what to include and how this map could help you understand your career – in the past and what is to come.
- Intellectual Wellbeing – The first post covers an overview of intellectual wellbeing and reflection questions to consider the status of this dimension of wellbeing.
- Types of Intelligence – There are many types of intelligence, and this post describes 9 different types to consider which are more prevalent for each of us.
- The Greenhouse – Part of intellectual wellbeing is ideation. This post highlights the importance of capturing and storing ideas in a place where they can co-mingle and grow.
- Social Wellbeing – The first post provides an overview of social wellbeing and questions to reflect our status in this dimension.
- Supporting the Energy of Others – Partnering with others who don’t have the same tendencies that we do can sometimes be challenging. This post provides ideas on supporting the energy of others.
- Lilies and Leeches – Not all people and projects are good for you. This post highlights how to tell the difference between the ones that lift us up vs. drag us down.
- Physical Wellbeing – The first post provides an overview of physical wellbeing and questions to reflect our status in this dimension.
- The Power of Rest – Book Overview – Rest is foundational to physical wellbeing. This book summary provides tips and ideas for incorporating more rest into our day.
- Meal Planning – Eating well is another pillar of our physical wellbeing and can be tough to manage in our busy lives. This post has ideas to help with meal planning.
- Emotional Wellbeing – This post provides an overview of emotional wellbeing and a few high-level questions to consider our status.
- Dimensions of Emotional Intelligence – There are five different areas that make up our emotional intelligence. Learn a bit about each in this post.
- Reversible Decisions – We overthink way too many decisions. This post reminds us that there are many choices that can easily be reversed.
- Spiritual Wellbeing – The overview of spiritual wellbeing is covered in this post along with a set of questions to consider the status of this dimension.
- Journaling Isn’t One Size Fits All – There are many reasons to journal and many approaches to capture our thoughts. The key is to find the technique that fits us best.
- Do Less Achieve More – While somewhat counterintuitive, this post explores the benefits of slowing down to help us connect with our inner selves and achieve more.
- Environmental Wellbeing – Environmental Wellbeing captures the essence of the physical spaces in our lives – indoors and out. Questions will help assess the status of this dimension.
- Storage is a “Store” – The concept described in this post changed my whole perspective on storage areas in my home. I hope it has the same positive impact for you.
- Everyday Entropy – Energy is required to keep our spaces organized. This post explores why that is the case and the importance of frequent maintenance.
- Financial Wellbeing – The last category of wellbeing is financial. As with the others, this post provides an overview and questions to evaluate our status.
- Income Portfolios – This post explores why we might want to treat our income like our investments and diversify to minimize risk.
- Time and Money – The age-old question of time vs. money is covered in this post and provides thoughts on when to know when to spend and when to invest in sweat equity.
- Self-Awarness is the Beginning – This first post highlights how doing a bit of self-reflection and understanding before trying to make changes in our lives can be a great foundation.
- Careers and Hobbies – This is a framework I use in MANY coaching conversations to support people in sorting out the difference between all their interests. Personally, I revisit the framework often.
- Ikigai – A Path to Purpose – If you haven’t created an ikigai before, this is a great pairing with the prior post. Providing insight into your career and life.
- Personal Development = Experimentation – Personal development is not a one-size-fits-all endeavor. This post highlights how we should treat it as an experiment.
- Lovemarks for Personal Brands – One of my favorite branding books inspired this post on how we can apply the concept of a lovemark to our personal brand.
- Taylor Swift Eras – Career Advice – Part of personal branding involves succinctly summarizing our career journey. This post explores how to apply inspiration from Taylor Swift to our career path.
- From Footprints to Fingerprints – Building off the last post this one explores how we shouldn’t just pay attention to the path we have taken, but rather the prints we have left along the way.
- From CEO to ME-EO – The first post is one of my favorites so far because it articulates an umbrella idea of taking charge of our careers and our lives.
- Personal Board of Directors – This selection highlights one area of a business that can apply to our careers – having a personal board of directors.
- Finding Unicorns – We are all different when it comes to our careers and interests, yet often we discuss “the one thing” that we do. This post explores other structures.
- Time Audits – There were MANY posts to choose from in this category. I figured I would start with the foundation – time audits. The post describes the benefits and approach to take.
- Productivity in 25 Minutes – A favorite technique of mine is shared in this post. I’ve found value not just in the deep work moments, but also focusing on the breaks.
- 5-Steps to Estimating Your Week – Great time management often starts with a plan. This post provides a 5-step process to estimate how to use the 168 hours in the week ahead.
- Understanding Personal Energy – While time management matters, energy management is even more important. This first post helps you recognize your personal energy cycles.
- Maximizing Daily Energy – Diving a little deeper, this post explores the different categories of activities that fill our days. We can each determine the time of day we are at our best for each type of activity.
- Right Size Containers– This final post in the category stresses how we need the space for energy, time, and ideas.
- Start by Starting – The first post provides a structure for daily discipline and how small moments across longer period of time can make significant impact.
- 15 Minute Project – Q4 Progress – Building on the post above, this provides a summary of my year intentionally leveraging the 15-minute project concept.
- Harnessing Hope for a Brighter Tomorrow – Once I heard that a formula had been created for hope, I was hooked. I read the books, explored the concept, and now see it as a core element to personal development.
- Understanding Willpower & Waypower – Digging into the hope formula, this post explores willpower and waypower through the lens of a 9-box grid where the “optimal” space is in the middle.
- HOPE – Making Goals a Reality – My exploration into this topic resulted in my own acronym for HOPE that is explained in this post.
- A Letter to Your Future Self – Before we start down the path of planning our personal development, this post highlights an activity that can help set the vision for where you are going.
- Strategic Life Plans – When we become the Me-EO of our career, we can also treat our strategic life plans like organizations treat their business strategy.
- Personal Planning Day – Planning our personal development can take time. Sometimes instead of short bursts of focus, a better solution might be to set aside a personal planning day.
- Don’t Wait for “When” – Often the most difficult part of a project is just getting started. This post encourages us not to wait for someday when.
- Seeds for What’s Next – This post is a reminder that the actions we take today are the seeds for things that may take shape in the future.
- Life Quests – A fun way to take action might be to design a personal quest. There are moments in life where these might make perfect sense.
- Seeking Career Advice – I’m often asked about seeking career advice. This post sums up a lot of alternatives in a 9-box format to help you select the approach that is right for you.
- Career Coaching Considerations – The final post pairs with the last and provides some things to consider if you are thinking about partnering with a career coach.