Category Archives for Uncategorized
Amanda approved Coronavirus Oases on Demand
My criteria for Oases on Demand is that I have checked it out my very own self, everything works out in the end, and no one is in any real pain. I want to see conflict and tension and a compelling arc with strong characters, don’t get me wrong… but I don’t want to question the meaning of life or the nature of humanity.
Books
- Uprooted. It was gripping! It was well developed! It was devoid of body drama (the main character wasn’t “unexpectedly the most beautiful girl in the land,” thank God) and it was LONG. Blessedly, beautifully long. You need this in your life.
- A Man Called Ove. This book is about a 100-year-old man who escapes from his nursing home and decides that life is for LIVING. He goes on a romp around the countryside that made me happy from start to finish.
- The Little Paris Bookshop. A man has a book shop on a barge and then one day decides to give it all up and float off down the Seine. He travels down the river and around the south of France to shakes off the ennui of a stuck-in-the-mud life and re-open to the potential of love. There’s a tiny bit of overwroughtness, but nothing that stops this from being a rich and textured escape novel.
- The Art of Inheriting Secrets. This one was free with prime reading at a moment when my husband had decided $50 a month for books was too many dollars a month. I read it because it was free… AND I’M SO GLAD I DID!!! Step right into a world where it’s perfectly normal to inherit a massive English estate AND TITLE even though you are American! Oh, and let’s suddenly come into millions of dollars to renovate it. That’s how that would go, right? Also, why not fall in love with a best-selling author and eat inexpressibly good food every single day. Ah, real life. Such a treat.
- Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime. I am actually “reading” this one as an audiobook while I go for my daily walk. Now it’s set during Apartheid in South Africa so there’s no escaping the context, but Trevor is so matter-of-fact about it, and so earnest, caring and funny in his descriptions that it still meets my criteria.
TV Shows
- The Great British Bakeoff < This is my go-to. It inevitably makes me feel like life is actually pretty darn good and sends me off to bake bread. Win-win.
- Nailed It < Makes me feel better about how my own baking turns out!
- Some good news. Every single episode of this makes me weep with relief.
- The Office. <Enough Said
- Psych < My favorite show of all time. Outrageous silliness mixed with true friendship
- Phinneas and Ferb < I make an appearance in seconds 34 and 35. I’m the one on the left.
Finding Yourself When You’ve… Found Yourself?
I got a book deal! EXCITING! And, like all exciting things, it’s also kind of a pain in the booty. Not to write the book, because I looooooove to write… and a book about burnout? I AM SO ON IT.
But to get this book out there, it means that I have to get serious with myself about my expanded “brand.” I coach coaches and therapists about how to get more clients so they can make more money. Simple, straightforward, everyone gets it. And I’ve been taking my own advice and just talking about that on my website and social media for a long time now so I can get booked solid and establish a strong practice. And I am and have.
BUT.
With this book about burnout now on the horizon, I need to be honest about the rest of me. I also have a TedX talk and a keynote that I do about procrastination. And my book is on burnout. (And, relatedly, my dissertation was about how people argue about issues of social importance like abortion and gun rights). So… when I’m being everything that I am…
Who am I?
Well, here’s my truth: I love to understand the hard stuff. The pain, the suffering, the failure, and the OVERCOMING.
Because honestly, life is going to be complicated, messy, sad, and overwhelming. And that’s OK. We’ve got this… in fact, as humans, this is what we are designed to do!
Check out the updated website if you are interested!
What It Really Takes to Grow a Practice
I recently did a survey of almost 50 coaches and therapists to get a pulse on what they struggle with the most when it comes to building their private practice. And do you know what they wrote again and again?
“I work and work and work and work and WORK. I write blogs, I post on Facebook, and I tweak my website… it’s nonstop, I’m never done… And NOTHING is happening. How do I know what to do, what to stop doing, and what’s really going to return on investment?”
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How To Tackle Self-Promotion Without Feeling Like A Fraud
When I decided to dive head first into my business, I was PUMPED. I couldn’t wait to share my gifts with the world and really help people succeed. But there was one aspect of the business that really didn’t sit will with me – self-promotion.
Logically, I knew that people wouldn’t know who I was, what I could do, or how I could help them unless I gave them a gentle nudge and told them. But try as I might, I kept imagining myself as one of those people dressed up in a giant hot dog uniform handing out flyers and free samples that inevitably get tossed out into the garbage… metaphorically speaking of course.
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How to have productive and calm conversations across the political divide
Originally published on Quartz on 10/24/2016 with the title: Yes, it is possible for Trump and Clinton supporters to have productive (and calm) conversations. Though the focus is on the election, the need to understand how our brain sabotages our discourse has only heightened since the inauguration of our 45th president.
The other day, a man I love and respect posted a note on his Facebook page: “Be a real American. Vote for Trump.” An instant social-media war broke out. His sisters and other women in his life rose up in retaliation, demanding that he explain how he could support someone who so clearly and maliciously objectifies women. Somewhere deep in the thread, a liberal friend-of-a-friend commented, “You can’t worry about people who are so clearly broken. Trump supporters like this man just don’t care about women.”
Scenes from Half a Marathon
Last weekend I travelled to Philadelphia and took part in the festivities for my first half marathon! My excellent husband agreed to watch our kids and our friends’ son so that the three of us (my 2 friends and myself) could stay in Philadelphia overnight since the race began at 7am.
The Expo
We arrived in Philadelphia on Saturday afternoon and checked into our hotel which was about a mile from the race start. As soon as we arrived we started to get excited- there were signs everywhere welcoming us to the race weekend. We were given our useless breakfast vouchers (breakfast opens at 7, even on “race weekend”) and dropped our bags into our room.