Swayance

I am a bit surprised that I had a ch-ch-ch-change in my result! I took this test back in January and my result was The Entertainer. Out of curiosity, I proceeded to take the test a couple more times over several days to confirm it and got the same result each and every time with very minor shifts in the percentages. I'm taking the change as a sign of personal growth and the likely impact of Dr. Reina's leadership course that I'm wrapping up this week. It's focus on mindfulness really had me looking inward a great deal. TBH, I think I'm the most disappointed that I'm losing my sassy, little dancing avatar! This time around, my results showed that I am now a Campaigner.  Although I don't believe there's really a significant shift in my values, I love the brief description of the ENFP-T type shown below. It absolutely sums up my life over the last 12 months - teacher, student, parent, wife, party planning business owner, etc. etc. etc.  The...

I sat and stared at the topic for this week's post for so long that the word 'risk' began to look seriously misspelled. Has that ever happened to you? Risk. R. I. S. K. Just me? Okay then. Well, I really had to delve deep to come up with something here. Not that I've necessarily played it safe in my life but I don't really equate some of the things I've done with risk per se. To clarify the topic, I looked up the definition - (1) possibility of loss or injury: peril (2) someone or something that creates or suggests a hazard; (3)...you get the idea. This information only made writing this post more challenging.  Initially, I thought I'd write about making the decision to join the MPI program. How I thought about applying for months and reread the program description over and over again before I finally submitted an application (last minute, the day it was due). I also scheduled my GRE test that night and took it two weeks later. Not only was it diffic...

Normally I prefer to write blog posts in a very stream-of-consciousness kind of way. However, since these are a part of an on-going class and are connected to learnings that I care deeply about, I've tried to begin each one with some brief research to gain some insight into what's trending on that topic. So, you can imagine my surprise when my search yielded old Mentos commercials because I had mistyped my search... The concept of mentorship feels a bit foreign to me at this point in my life. I haven't really thought of seeking out formal mentorship in many years and kind of feel like it's inherently a young person's game. I've been on the other side of mentorship for so long now that I don't really know how to approach it from the mentee side. However, I do seek out guidance often - it just usually feels more like a conversation with a peer. The people I would consider mentors for my project right now are the following - Brandon Atkinson + Dallas Ed...

Not sure why the topic of FEAR makes me think of this Simon + Garfunkel song, but it does.  Also, the old joke (with darkness obviously sitting it for fear): Me: Hello Darkness, my old friend... Darkness: I am not your friend.  I am very familiar with this podcast, as I'm a HUGE fan of Elizabeth Gilbert. I've read most of her books with Big Magic being a personal favorite that I reread periodically. I'm also a fan of Brene Brown (loved her cameo in Wine Country) and Gretchen Rubin (don't love her podcast as much as her books though).  For me, fear tends to manifest as the inability to commit and began shortly after my father died my senior year of high school. It was like all of the air was forced out of my lungs and suddenly I didn't have the nerve to commit to anything anymore. I was always thinking of my exit strategy and constantly looking for the parachute that would help me exit (even if it wasn't gracefully).  I struggled to ...