Are You Busy or Just Blocked?

Most of us have heard ourselves say it before: “I’m so busy right now that I can’t even see straight.” Without question, there are times in life that are more packed with “to-dos” than others. At the same time, many of us have allowed the concept of busy to surpass being an occasional experience. Now, it’s a key part of our personal identities.

Just think about the phrase “I am busy,” which goes far beyond a mere observation about what a person is experiencing, and becomes a personal declaration of one’s state of being. When put into these terms, we might feel more compelled to ask ourselves, “Is busy the extent of who I really am?” Surely, we can all come up with something a little more creative, not to mention more accurate, for ourselves than that.

Nina CashmanApril 13, 2016#careercoaching, #toobusy, #stressed, #overworked, #worklifebalance, #workaholic, #makingtimeComment

7 Energy Levels Influencing Money In Your Life

Recently, I was interviewed by Hilary Hendershott on Profit Boss Radio about how our attitudes inevitably shape the way we experience money. Our money beliefs form early in our lives, and they typically are tied to our upbringings. Once you understand what’s behind these beliefs, you can challenge those that are holding you back.

At every energy level, there are unique core thoughts, feelings, and actions that affect our experiences. Let’s look at the seven different forms of energy that filter our perspectives on money. Which energy level filters your money views?

Expect More of What You Don't Want

Often, we find ourselves hyper-focused on all the things we don’t want — “I don’t want to fail,” “I don’t want this to go badly,” or “I don’t want to make a fool of myself.” Yet, doing this unwittingly steers us down the very paths we’d prefer to avoid. Why?

Because we aren’t widening our perspectives to see new possibilities of what we actually do want. The difference is this: “Don’t wants” focus our energy on driving us away from the things we don’t like, while “do wants” actually steer us toward the things that excite and motivate us.

Nina CashmanFebruary 18, 2016#TowardGoals, #WhatDoYouWant, #goalsettingComment

5 Easy Steps To Get Yourself Out of a Rut

Now that we are in a New Year, many people are looking to form new habits and develop new possibilities. During this process, we may notice areas of our lives where we feel really stagnant or stuck. Discovering areas of dormant energy during a process of change is incredibly common. Why? Because when we take steps to transition towards new endeavors, we often need to confront the old patterns and beliefs that once organized our lives.

January is not only a great time to make goals, it’s also a great time to ride a wave of fresh perspective to actually get those wheels in motion. So, for those of you who are feeling motionless within a particular career path, or are contemplating whether or not to make a big change this year, here are five helpful steps for getting in gear.

Nina CashmanJanuary 22, 2016#careercoaching, #Careertips, Getoutofrut, stuckinarockandahardplace, getunstuckComment

Facing The Truth In Challenging Situations

All too often, our culture subscribes to the “positive thinking” remedy in order to rationalize situations to make them sound better than they really are. This helps numb the pain of challenging situations, so we can feel slightly better about ourselves as we experience them. However, the danger of disguising painful wounds with positive masks is that it disconnects us from our true feelings, which when actually acknowledged, have the greatest power to guide us to the most conscious choices and values-based decisions.

Unless we really believe in our positive thoughts, fixating on finding the positive in each and every situation, whether our true feelings subscribe to them or not, actually creates more stuck energy for ourselves than progress. In fact, it is the truth, whether positive or negative, that provides us with the greatest compass to create change and progress.

Nina CashmanDecember 22, 2015 Comments

3 Questions To Ask Yourself Before Hiring A Career Coach

As a career and success coach who has worked with all sorts of clients at various stages throughout their professions, I’ve seen major differences between clients who have made breakthrough transformations from our partnership and those who simply had a nice experience from our time together. While the latter shows up and goes through the motions of each meeting, tool, and exercise, the former takes things a few steps further by enthusiastically engaging in our sessions and making them purposeful for practical implementation into her everyday life.

Unlike other “helper modalities,” where the helping professional is the authority — like therapy, mentoring, and consulting — in coaching, both the client and coach work together as a team. In other words, the client takes the reins of her own life and collaborates with the coach, who helps guide the process of getting her from somewhere functional to somewhere exceptional.

At the end of the day, those who benefit the most from coaching understand that the power of the partnership is all in the alliance they build with their coaches. So, if you are about to work with a coach, who is sought-out by you individually or by your company, I recommend you ask yourself the following key questions before you invest any time or money.

4 Steps For Putting Tough Emotions To Good Use At Work

As professionals, typically we don’t pay much tribute to emotions. In fact, this word is more likely to have a negative connotation than anything else — phrases like “you are getting too emotional,” or “it’s business, not emotion,” come to mind when we think about accessing our feelings at work. After all, nobody wants to work with the volatile person in the office who is labeled “overly emotional,” right?

On the other hand, emotions have an innate power to signal to us at deeper levels. If we have the courage to confront feelings with honesty before we take action, we can actually empower ourselves to make more informed decisions. These decisions, in turn, will bring us better results that align with who we are, as well as what we really want.

Nina CashmanOctober 16, 2015#EmotionsAtWork, #businesscoach, #careertips, #EmotionalIntelligence Comments

5 Questions To Ask Before Promoting Your Product

So, why does the mere term of “marketing” generate stress and overwhelm for so many people? Why do so many of us have angst when it comes to actually converting brand onlookers into real customers? With so many promotional avenues right at our fingertips, it’s no surprise that many of us feel a little stifled with where to begin, and in the process, we often overcomplicate marketing by forgetting its root principles.

Nina CashmanSeptember 25, 2015 Comments

The Magic Pill: Get Over Yourself

So, how do we heighten our awareness to ultimately connect to what many people call a universal power? What’s the magic pill, so to speak? For some, the answer might be a tough pill to swallow. Establishing a sincere connection with yourself, and consequently, your spiritual and external existence, has less to do with the seminars you are attending, the coaches and healers you are visiting, or the personal growth books you are reading. Getting “connected,” both in practical and spiritual terms, involves shifting mere philosophies into real life practices (which is easier said then done), and making a personal effort to actively participate in building the life you desire. All of this requires that you get over yourself.

Nina CashmanJuly 30, 2015#careertips, #connectivity, #paveyourway, #getoveryourselfComment

Increasing Your Intuitive Connection

Have you ever noticed how easy it is for us to discern what we might do if we were in another person’s shoes, yet at the very same time, struggle with a decision of our own? Why is it so easy to see things with complete clarity when it comes to a situation outside of ourselves, and in the same moment, feel foggy about a situation presented within our own lives? Whether dealing with a big decision related to your career or contemplating what to do in a particular relationship, knowing what’s best for yourself can be tough when personal feelings cloud your perspective.

So, how do we establish a strong connection with our own intuition? Here are some helpful tips for accessing your internal voice of wisdom...

Things We Do To Suffocate The Future

While tuning into our goals creates space for possibilities to unfold with clarity and focus, we can sometimes get so hung-up on the unknown details of future outcomes that we actually narrow the scope of possibilities to achieve what we really want. We either fixate on how the future needs to look so much, that we completely ignore existing opportunities to get there, or we predetermine the path to get there, before we’ve even allowed ourselves to experience anything at all. Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy! These are the all too common ways, in which, we don’t allow the future to breath.

Six Blinders of Right & Wrong

So, how can we make the most optimal use of the varying perspectives that are presented to us at work and within our daily lives? The simple answer is this – let go of your need to be right, which also includes the obsessive habit to constantly seek-out everything that you believe is “wrong.” In my view, the following are the six biggest reasons that right vs. wrong thinking can blind you from opportunity and success. Get ready, I’m about to get all philosophical on you : )…

Nina CashmanApril 8, 2015#businesscoach, #careertips, #careercoaching, #success, #leadership Comments