Have you ever thought of yourself as a "meaning making machine"?   Transformative learning - the kind of learning that deeply affects us, and sustainable change - the kind that sticks, require us to have awareness of our frame of reference and how it can change.  In my video this month I talk about The Impact of Our Frame of Reference.  Click here to view.

I hope you enjoy the video and will leave a comment with your thoughts!

Margie Carter, Wendy Cividanes and Debbie Lebo of Harvest Resources Associates speak about coaching and fostering reflective practices
Please click the following link to listen to the Coaching Connections radio show hosted by Constant Hine at http://tobtr.com/s/3111929 .

Margie Carter, Wendy Cividanes & Debbie Lebo of Harvest Resources Associaties talk about coaching & fostering reflective practices Please click the following link to listen to the Coaching Connections radio show hosted by Constant Hine at http://tobtr.com/s/3111929 .

For Sustainable Change we need to focus on what we want to change.  Then for many of us the big question is about HOW.  What's the process?  How do we cause change and learning to happen and to sustain?  View this month's video for a discussion of 3 essential things to do as part of the change process. Click here to view!  Would love your comments with your thoughts and experiences.

Hello!  I hope your 2012 is off to a great start!

What makes change stick??  This is one of the questions I’m going to be focusing on in my blogging and videos this year:  Sustainable Change.  What causes change to last?  What can we do to intentionally bring about sustained change over the long haul in our everyday work and personal life?  We'll be exploring and inquiring in the videos this year about what makes change stick.  This month we look at indicators of change, and offer some questions for beginning this inquiry together.   Click here to see the video.

What are your questions and experiences with sustaining change?

Last month my partner and I told you about the holiday season challenges we gave ourselves.  We're back on video to share what has happened for each of us from our personal stretch of the last 30 days.  We also want to share a little holiday cheer with you - a very short outtake from our video recording that we hope you will enjoy watching. 
"Holiday Challenge Outcome"  Click here.
"Outtake: Laugh with Us!"  Click here.

How about taking on a personal stretch for the holiday season?!  My partner, Debra, and I have given ourselves challenges that we share with you in our latest video.   And we invite you to find your personal challenge that could bring more joy to this holiday season.  Have a look!  Click here.  Happy Holidays!

Take action to transform stress.  Change happens one response/one action at a time to transform stress and create ease in your day’s work.  Never give up!

In my last post I talked about how to simplify in your physical environment.  Now let’s take on the challenge of how to eliminate nonessentials in your thoughts, actions and habits.  This for me is a bit harder than working on my physical environment, but well worth the effort.  Keep your attention in the present moment.  Develop self control of your mind and thoughts.

Whether you feel the need to clean up your classroom or office, get better organized, reduce stress, become more efficient or make a big move, here are some tips to help you create time and space for things you really care about. You can also watch my "Tips & Talks" video, "Simplify Nonessentials", to hear more about specific actions you can take right now to start to simplify your environment.  Click here.  Here are 3 tips for simplifying your environment: Keep it simple.  Simple doesn't need to be sparse, it just needs to be intentional.  Visual simplicity creates calm.  Because there is space available doesn't mean it should be filled.  Whenever possible, store things out of sight - in a drawer or behind a cabinet door.  Order reduces stress.  Create order by using containers that are uniform size, stackable or nesting. Have no excess, have no lack.  Reducing your belongings will simplify your life.  Let go of items you no longer use, are the wrong size, or you simply don't need anymore.  Also, don't settle.  Don't acquire or by things that aren't quite right.  Have what you truly need....

One way many of us try to accomplish more is by multitasking.  You know, cooking dinner, talking on the phone and answering your child's question seemingly all at the same time.  Well, I want to share a video with you where I describe how multitasking is a myth! There is research coming out now that is helping us to see what's really going on when we think we are doing several things at the same time. And what about the mistakes and problems that can occur from trying to focus on many things at once?  What's the alternative for increasing our ability to respond to all those demands that constantly come our way?  Slow down and accomplish more!  You probably don't believe me when I say that.  But watch the video and hear how it can be true for all of us.  Click here to watch the video.  I'd love to hear what you think about all this after you watch the video.

Let's talk a bit more about transforming stress and creating ease in our daily work.  If you are like me (and everyone else) you probably have a lot of demands that come from inside of you.  They may have been around for so long you don't even notice them much of the time.  But if you listen inside, do you hear things like: "I should get everything done on my to do list everyday."  "I have to do this thing right."  "I'm just not good enough."  Or whatever your version is, listen for a moment.  Do you hear it?  One way to stay focused on what we do want is to create what I call mental billboards to remind ourselves of what we do want.  Watch this video where I explain more about mental billboard signs to help us take the pressure off from these demands we put on ourselves.  Click here to watch the video. What negative self talk do you hear inside yourself?  What mental...

Thank you, Sherie, for your comment.  What you describe is a very demanding role in caring for children and working with parents.  Sometimes it’s hard to accept that the behaviors and habits of other people are not in our control.  There are ways to handle it “without burning ourselves out”.   I want to share with you another of my videos where I talk about dealing with external demands.  What’s an external demand?  All other living human beings, traffic, weather conditions, everything outside of us.  We don’t have any control over the demand coming up.  BUT we can choose what to do when it does come up so we have less stress about it.  And when we are calmer, more ideas for what to do about a situation can come into our mind.  You sound like you have tried many things.  Good for you.  I encourage you to not give up.  Watch this video, “Start Where You Have Choice” and see if you can take any or all of the strategies for dealing with the demands that come at us to find calm for yourself and to keep going with...

In my work with childcare directors, supervisors, coaches and teachers, I find that many people are feeling overwhelmed, “can’t get it all done”.  Many of us are feeling stressed from difficult interactions with adults and children.  I’ve developed a program for transforming stress to create more ease in your day’s work.  I want to share with you a short video I made about what I call Becoming Response-Abled.  In the video I’ll introduce a menu of choices for making positive, intentional responses.  Take a peek!     

Click here to view the video.

Over the next weeks, I’ll share more videos with you from the Transforming Stress program.  What are the kinds of stressful situations you experience?  What helps you respond positively and intentionally?  I’d love to hear your comments.