There are starlings in the eaves/ceiling space near where I sit and type by the big windows with the Bay view. Every morning I hear them scrabbling about (like right now) making their little birdhouse within my house more to their liking. Sometimes I hear them argue with each other, sometimes they bill and coo. They steal the herbs from my balcony planters, eat my tomatoes in the summertime, and crap on my back steps. They’re really not very melodious birds, either.

Very practical people who know about such things advise me to plug up the hole where they have gotten in. They wisely counsel me to evict them and rid myself of all that annoyance, citing the obvious nuisance and destruction and filth and such. Got a great estimate to fix it, too. Nuisance abatement, they called it. It’s very good advice indeed, and makes a great deal of sense. I feel absolutely no regret in refusing it. You see, here’s the thing about those damned dirty, thieving, destructive birds:

I love them.

Last year they had babies, which resulted in intermittent flurries of ravenous peeps emminating from my ceiling throughout the day. During that time of year I sit without music, listening intently as I type, eager to enjoy the sounds of new life flourishing above my head. It’s one of my favorite springtime delights at home. Can’t wait for this year’s clutch to hatch out. Should be soon.

Starlings are undoubtedly bad for my roof, but they’re very good for my soul.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Molly Burke CPCC MSU
Queen of Confidence
www.lifepurposeworks.com
“Everyone can use an extra confidence boost every now and again.”

I am a buxom woman. For years, both in my business as well as my personal life, I struggled to get men to look me in the eye instead of the cleavage. Now a solution is at hand! In service to all women in business, indeed, for all women everywhere, I present the following…

Forehead Tittaes

Yervelcum.

Sometimes someone comes along and embodies confidence is such a delightful, genuine way that I am blown away with their fabulousness.  Enjoy a bit of Gaby’s “Prom night in Hollywood”.

Gabourey Sidibe takes confidence to new heights!

“Nuff said.

I continue to notice both in my private practice as well as in my volunteer work some consistently recurring patterns (hey, it’s what I do) that effectively hamstring the some of the finest folks you’d ever want to meet.

Which of these PITFALLS apply to you?

1) Negative self talk: This dandy includes internal beratement as well as what I like to call “the stories we tell ourselves”. These stories include seemingly “factual” declarations such as, “I can’t rely on anyone else ever”, “No matter what I do, I can’t seem to get ahead”, “The world is not a nice place”, “Money is scarce”.

The best and fastest solution to counteract the ill effects of this sort of toxic self talk is to shout “STOP” in your head every time you realize you’re talking crappy to yourself. Take a deep breath. Then use a positive affirmation immediately to counteract it. I like these, “Even before I begin, I am made of win!” and “I, <name>, am continually showered with blessings.”

2) Refusing help: Over and over I see really smart people do the same dumb thing: when faced with a daunting challenge or circumstance they do not ask for help. They fail to use the abundant resources around them, and then wonder why their lives are so hard. Even worse, those same people outright refuse fine, useful offers of assistance, help, support, and encouragement. They stubbornly, steadfastly insist that they can do everything just fine all by themselves in the face of contradictory results. They refuse to acknowledge that they are allowing, yes even encouraging their pride, ego, embarrassment or stubbornness to make their lives harder by requiring personal effort instead of expanding their life skills repertoire to include delegation, inclusion, and cooperation.

(whew, that was wordy)

Here’s what I know: we did not incarnate on a planet of over 6 billion people to do everything alone, fercrissakes. In fact, the very smartest, most savvy folks I’ve ever known have sought out help (assistance, cooperation, support) early and often. It’s one of the key practices that materially contributes to their overall success in life.

For more information about getting quality help, please refer to my recent blog series, “Get some allies!”

In the next part of this series I’ll be disclosing another couple of pitfalls and sharing some strategies for avoiding and/or dealing with them.

Molly Burke CPCC MSU
Queen of Confidence
www.lifepurposeworks.com
“Everyone can use an extra boost of confidence every now and again.”

Welcome back to the 3 part series, “Get some allies!”. In Part 1, I talked about how important it is to have allies in the first place. In Part 2, I spoke of the difference between allies and them what’s not.  This is the final installment, wherein I help you to identify the key characteristics [...]

In part one of this 3 part series, I talked about how important it is to surround yourself with allies.
Now it’s time to talk about who to choose as your allies. The allies you choose will be instrumental on your path to success. The wrong choices can materially contribute to your failures. It’s up to [...]

You’ve heard the old adage: people are like snowflakes, no two are alike. Essential and delightful are all those differences. Worthy of celebration.
Society, humanity, tribe, family, partners. While our similarities draw us together, it’s really the differences that make it go. The differences between us give our world richer flavor, greater opportunities, more options. We [...]

This is an ongoing series of posts on various subjects for which I lacked a decent Google-searchable keyword title. Searching Google for ideas produced, “PEARLS OF WISDOM”, which has such a rich flavor of hubris and chuzpah that I just HAD to use it.
Here’s the first part of a pearl …
GET SOME ALLIES.
Every successful person [...]

During my long reign as Queen of Confidence I have witnessed many triumphs and tragedies of confidence. Periodically I’ll be sharing what I hope shall be pithy insights intended to act as cautionary tales and inspirational anecdotes as well as practical tools for improving one’s own sense of confidence. You’ll also find powerful questions, confidence [...]

Here’s the finishing part of a short series on one my favorite words:
VITALITY
Which we have already ascertained is cool for being a peculiarity, amongst other things. Now let’s talk about vitality and Life Purpose.
The daily practice of Purpose driven living encourages you to expand your present relationship with the peculiar quality of vitality that is [...]