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All About Goals

Exercise 2: Crafting a Goal that’s SMART, SMARTER, or SMARTEST

Now, how can we go about answering the question that lies before us? One of the best ways to start is by ensuring that your goal is SMART, that is: If you’re able to answer each of the following questions in the affirmative, you’ll know you’ve set a goal that’s SMART: Returning to our example, […]

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All About Goals

Exercise 3: Put Your Goal(s) to the “Achievement Test”

One of the common characteristics that SMART, SMARTER, and SMARTEST goals share is that they are Achievable. In the spirit of former late night television talk show host David Letterman, I’m going to share with you two top ten lists of features that differentiate achievable from potentially unachievable goals, and let me emphasize the word […]

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All About Goals

Exercise 4: Brainstorming Solutions

Research has demonstrated that, when it comes to either very simple or very complex problems, brainstorming on our own is more productive than brainstorming in a group. And when problems are moderately complex, brainstorming in a group wins out over brainstorming on your own. I’ll leave it to you to decide where your goal falls […]

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Work-Life Integration

What Type of Leader Are You?

When you hear the word “leader,” who comes to mind? Joan of Arc . . . George Washington . . . Harriet Tubman . . . the Dalai Lama? What about you? When you think about the qualities that effective leaders possess, you’ll likely consider some of the following attributes: honesty, integrity, and accountability; the […]

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Attending to Our Minds

The Many Faces of the Saboteur

The following grid was created using information presented in Shirzad Chamine’s Positive Intelligence: Why Only 20% of Teams and Individuals Achieve Their True Potential and How You Can Achieve Yours. Paid Advertisement

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About My Practice

Caveats to the Buddy System and How to Overcome Them

A client of mine joined an online accountability group for added support as she worked toward her goals. Each week, members of the group called in to share their successes and discuss any obstacles that they were in the process of overcoming. Everything was going well, until, slowly but surely, one member after another stopped […]

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Attending to Our Minds

Proteus: The Old Man of the Sea *

When Poseidon became the god of the sea, he let Oceanus, one of the old sea-gods, and all his many children have part under him in ruling the great ocean and the other waters of the earth. The most interesting of all the children of Oceanus was his son Proteus, whose duty it was to […]

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Attending to Our Minds

“I Have Met the Enemy and It is Me”

Well, not you in your entirety, but rather an aspect of yourself. And, while it’s often characterized as an enemy, it can also be conceptualized as a friend, albeit a misguided friend at times. We often encounter this aspect of ourselves when we attempt to make meaningful changes in our lives, or even think about […]

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Attending to Our Minds

Dr. Bollé’s Saboteurs

Following is a list of my saboteurs, those cunning characters whose raison d’être is my safety.  Perhaps you will recognize some of these saboteurs as your own. For a detailed discussion of “the saboteurs,” please see my article, entitled “I Have Met the Enemy and It Is Me.” Reasoner – comes up with seemingly plausible […]

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Attending to Our Minds

The Story of Ivan

This story concerns a man named Ivan who lived in Moscow and was married and had a successful business. One day, in middle life, he began to be haunted by a devil. The devil had hooves and horns and all the usual appurtenances, but no one could see or hear him except Ivan. The devil […]