How to Develop Emotional Agility

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How to Develop Emotional Agility

There comes a time in everyone’s life when things just aren’t jiving. Maybe you have hit some challenges in life or work and are struggling. Or maybe things are great on the surface, but deep down, you feel that things just don’t feel right. Either way, this post is for you.

Whether you are dealing with personal or professional challenges, an important skill to build is the muscle of emotional agility. Emotional agility is the ability to move through emotions instead of getting stuck or suppressing them. It’s a way to stay flexible when encountering hard emotions, and to stay present to the moment instead of acting out in less productive ways. 

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Reimagining Imposter Syndrome

/ Lila & Company/
Reimagining Imposter Syndrome

Imposter syndrome is a commonly reported experience among the women I coach. I too have felt like an imposter at times. But lately, I’ve had to re-evaluate my relationship to this term.

At the start of my career, I entered a top business school. I felt like a fraud. I didn’t doubt that I was smart enough to be there. Having graduated from a competitive college, I didn’t doubt my ability to get good grades or graduate with honors. It was the soft skills that made me wonder if I had the qualities to become the leader that top business schools expected out of its students.

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Live Your One Wild Life

/ Lila & Company/
Live Your One Wild Life

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” - from The Summer Day poem by Mary Oliver

Decades ago, I met a man who volunteered with a non-profit organization that provided seminars to help Korean American youth with their career choices. He told me that the organization had held a career summit for medicine. The event was standing room-only as students and their parents crowded into the seminar room. Later, the organization held a summit on journalism careers, and only three people showed up. As a writer and a creative, I was saddened to hear about the turnout at the journalism event because it reminded me of my own struggles to find a career path in a creative field.

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Tiny Habits for Big Results

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Tiny Habits for Big Results

At the start of every year, I always spend time reflecting on the last year and considering all the things I want to achieve in the new year. Like so many other people, I used to write down my goals, then look back later in the year in disappointment when I fall short from a realizing them. That's when I realized that my approach may be flawed. Perhaps instead of goals, I needed to focus on habits.

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How to Gracefully Deal with Transitions

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How to Gracefully Deal with Transitions

Transition brings up so many uncomfortable emotions. When I took my first leap out of a corporate career and started my own company, I faced so much fear and anxiety. When the future is unknown, questions abound. How will I make a living? Will anyone hire me? How do I do this? Uncertainty can whip you into a frenzy of what ifs. What if I can’t make pay my bills? What if I'm not capable of running a business? What if if I fail? Deep Breath.  Here are some things to keep in mind about transitions.

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Four Ways to Practice Mindfulness

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Four Ways to Practice Mindfulness

What is mindfulness? Mindfulness is the moment-by-moment awareness of the present moment. It focuses our attention on our thoughts, feelings, behaviors and environment in a non-judgmental way. When we practice mindfulness, we begin to discover some of the subconscious thoughts that often get in the way of living our best lives. Mindfulness practice is a way to know ourselves better and to develop a more loving and kind appreciation of ourself and the world around us. Here are four ways to practice mindfulness….

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