Pursue What Matters

Episode 124: What the Best Teams Understand About Trust

Trust is vital to just about everything in life. Trust with your spouse, your family, your neighbors, co-workers, friends, even your mailman. Trust is vital to a civilized society being able to function. You're likely very familiar with this need for basic trust in day to day life.

Trust goes deeper than just believing that not everyone is out to get you or that most people are generally good folks. Trust has levels. This week I want to talk about having deeper trust at work.

You and I understand the importance of trusting your co-workers and teammates. Without that trust, work would be ineffective and unsafe. But beyond this basic level of trust there is greater trust that is so incredibly important to making the best teams thrive. This week I want to help you understand how trust can increase the happiness your team feels, their effectiveness, and the quality of the work they do. This concept of trust is not just the key to a functional team, but is one of the vital keys to an exceptional team. I hope you'll join me as I help you as a leader to better implement trust in your life and work.

Show notes available at:

www.drmelissasmith.com/trustmatters

Episode 123: Power Unpacked

As a leader, you have power. Whether it's as a boss, team leader, parent, or simply leading your own life, you have power. Many are afraid of power, while others seek to increase the power they hold. Learning how to use power for good is vital to leading well. In the words of Spiderman's Uncle Ben: "with great power comes great responsibility."

This week I am talking about power and how your willingness to understand it can make a big difference not only professionally but also personally. As is the case with so many things in life, the issue isn't really power, it's how you use power. Join me as we unpack power and see how you can use it as a force for good.

Show notes available at:

https://drmelissasmith.com/powerunpacked/

Episode 122: Arrogance vs. Confidence

Are you arrogant or just confident? If you've listened to the podcast recently, you know that not all pride is created equally. Some pride is healthy, while other forms of pride are incredibly unhealthy.

This week I’m tackling arrogance and confidence. Arrogance is a weapon used against others to compensate for low self-worth, whereas confidence is a tool of contribution. Those who are confident have nothing to prove and so they are freed up to contribute at their highest level. 

Join me this week as I discuss the difference between arrogance and confidence and the key to making sure confidence doesn’t become arrogance.

Show notes available at:

www.drmelissasmith.com/arrogancevconfidence

 

Episode 121: Book Review - Beginners: The Joy and Transformative Power of Life Long Learning

Children are beginners in the true sense of the word. Every day and every experience brings something new. This makes learning so much easier for them. Without preconceived notions, previous life experience, or strongly-held opinions to interfere with the learning process, children are miraculous learning machines. 

While you and I can't turn back the clock and learn as children again, there is another option. Learning how to learn like a beginner is a skill that is rarely talked about but is so important. Today's culture stresses knowing everything without a learning curve, but that mindset is dangerous and can rob you and I of the valuable experiences that come from being a beginner.

This week on the podcast I'm talking about the book Beginners: The Joy and Transformative Power of Lifelong Learning.This great book discusses how you and I can take on the mindset of a beginner, and how doing so can transform the way you and I learn, work, and handle new experiences. Join me as I discuss how to be like a beginner, and why it can be so helpful for you.

https://drmelissasmith.com/beginners/

Episode 120: Healthy Pride

If you were like me growing up, you were taught that pride is one of the deadly sins. But what if that wasn't completely true?

Certainly pride, when it displays in unkindness towards others, boasting, or any form of narcissism, is not productive and can be cancerous for a team. But there is such a thing as healthy pride. It comes when we banish self-deprecation, people pleasing, and caring how others perceive our accomplishments.

Join me this week as I discuss this vial aspect of developing a secure identity, taking empowered action in your life, and contributing at your highest level. 

Show notes available at:

www.drmelissasmith.com/healthypride 

Episode 119: 7 Keys of Self-Connection

Self-connection is the foundation for living a meaningful life. That’s quite a statement, but it’s true. Last week’s episode focused on the plague of disconnection that keeps you from appreciating your most important relationships and accomplishments in life. 

In this episode, I define self-connection so you know what it is and why it’s so important. Then I’ll share with you seven keys to help you cultivate self-connection in the life you live now.

Show notes available at:

https://drmelissasmith.com/selfconnectionkeys/

Episode 118: Are You Disconnected?

What if I told you that we have a serious crisis on our hands? It’s not a global pandemic and yet it may be just as dangerous to our health and well-being as a plague. The malady of the day is disconnection. Disconnection from friends, emotions, the present moment, and so much more. So much of what you and I take in everyday reinforces disconnection. Disconnection is driven by incessant marketing campaigns telling us we're not enough and we need more, social media that teaches constant comparison, and a culture of unending self-improvement at the cost of self-acceptance. Disconnection is the difference between a meaningful life with an awareness of the goodness in life, and a miserable life filled with an unending search for the next achievement.

My goal on this episode is to help you better understand disconnection and why it’s a problem, assess how it might be showing up for you, and sharing 3 things from the research that you can begin doing today to reconnect.

Disconnection is the plague of our day, I hope you'll join me this week as I discuss why that is, and how to fight that plague. Be sure to turn in next week as I'll be sharing the seven keys of self-connection, so you can really take action to help yourself. 

Show notes available at:

https://drmelissasmith.com/disconnected/

Episode 117: Book Review - Resilient: How to Grow an Unshakeable Core of Calm, Strength, and Happiness

It’s time for another great book review. This month I'm reviewing Rick Hanson's excellent book Resilient: How to Grow an Unshakeable Core of Calm, Strength, and Happiness. Hanson teaches that, "Fundamental to psychology & medicine is the idea that the path your life takes depends on just three causes: 1) how you manage your challenges 2) how you protect your vulnerabilities and 3) how you increase your resources." Resilience is key to managing each of these three essential areas of life.

Resilience brings the calm in the face of life’s challenges and complexities. Resilient discusses how you can "develop key inner strengths – like grit, gratitude, and compassion – to stay calm, confident, and happy no matter what life throws at you."

We all want more calm, right? Join me this week as I discuss this excellent book and how you can cultivate a resilience that will grant you a calmness and strength despite all of life’s many challenges.

Show notes available at: https://drmelissasmith.com/resilientbook/

Episode 116: Living an Abundant Life

I spend a lot of time on this podcast talking about how to lead your team effectively, how to improve your work environment, and how to help your team with specific concerns. All of this is dependent on you being in a place as a leader to effectively lead. It’s difficult to lead your team when your personal life is in shambles. 

This week I’m focusing on helping you live an abundant life. An abundant life means a life full of joy. I’ll be diving deep and answering questions like what helps you connect to peace and joy? What do you need to avoid in order to stay on track?

To help you see what makes up an abundant life, I’ll discuss some contrasting principles, a kind of “this, not that” list. I hope you’ll join me as I help you to focus on the most important things and banish the clutter that so often undermines efforts. 

I also have a free resource for you to download that will lay out these principles simply and in a way that will help you apply them to your day to day life. 

Show notes available at:

https://drmelissasmith.com/abundantconcepts/

 

Episode 115: Do You Wear Busy as a Badge of Honor?

Do you wear busy as a badge of honor? Maybe you look at your busy schedule, and between the stress of figuring out how you’re going to manage it all, you feel a little pride that you can “handle” such a crazy schedule. 

Being busy can often be worn as a badge of honor. Does having a busy schedule actually make you happy? Does your busy-ness move you forward in purpose-driven ways? Do you feel fulfilled in your busy schedule? 

This week I want to encourage you to shift your mindset. Don’t get me wrong, being busy on it’s own isn’t bad, in fact it can be a natural byproduct of doing meaningful work. But too often you may be busy for the sake of being busy or perhaps you push your dreams and goals to the sidelines in well-meaning attempts to help others. Wearing busy as a badge of honor keeps you on a never-ending treadmill of having worth tied to productivity, external reinforcement, and living your life for a future that never comes. 

I hope you’ll join me this week to relinquish busy as a badge of honor and learn some helpful solutions for how to center your work on what matters most.

Show notes available at:

https://drmelissasmith.com/busybadge/