Posts Tagged ‘life’
The Moment I Stopped Living on Autopilot
by Odilia McLeod You can be successful, driven, and still feel completely disconnected from your life. I know because I lived it. I had goals. I had direction. I even had a reasonable sense of what success looked like on paper. But purpose? That was something else entirely. Something deeper than achievement. Something beyond the…
Read MoreWhat Walls Have You Built Around Yourself?
by Odilia McLeod 𝗛𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁… 𝗺𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗯𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝘃𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳? We hear the phrase limiting beliefs all the time. We know, intellectually, what it means. But I like to think of them differently. I see them as…
Read MoreDiminishing Returns Impact Performance
by Odilia McLeod 𝗦𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗿𝘆. 𝗛𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀. Over the course of my corporate career, I lived through multiple economic cycles. Hiring freezes. Budget cuts. Reorganizations. Pressure to do more with less. I understood the business rationale behind those decisions. Most professionals do. What I didn’t fully appreciate at the time was the psychological impact. Recently,…
Read MoreIs This Your Chosen Mountain?
by Odilia McLeod 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗯𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝘀𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝘆 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗯. The hardest decisions often come down to one question: Are you choosing for yourself or for everyone else? I see so many people stuck at a crossroads because they’re trying to solve for everyone else’s definition…
Read MoreDesign The Life You Want
by Odilia McLeod Do you have a plan or are you helping other people fulfill theirs? Not having a plan in life makes you vulnerable to spend years (yes, YEARS) working on someone else’s plan, making their vision come to life. And of course we get some incentive out of it, be it money, prestige,…
Read MoreAccurate Self Assesment
by Odilia McLeod 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸 𝘁𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳.Yet somehow, we’ve normalized it. That’s the gap Accurate Self-Assessment is designed to close. The Institute for Social and Emotional Intelligence defines it simply: 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗴𝘁𝗵𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘁𝘀. But if we’re honest, how accurate are we really…
Read MoreWhere have All the Leaders Gone?
by Odilia McLeod Very early in my career, I reported to a CEO who set a standard I’ve rarely seen matched since. He ran a manufacturing facility and he knew every single person by name. He’d sit in the cafeteria at lunch, not to be seen, but because he genuinely wanted to connect. He was…
Read MoreNot All Pressure Creates Diamonds
by Odilia McLeod 𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗱𝗶𝗮𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗱𝘀. 𝗦𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗶𝘁 𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗲𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝗰𝗿𝘂𝘀𝗵𝗲𝘀 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗵. That’s the part not emphasized enough. We’re told pressure can build resilience, sharpen performance, drive growth. And it can. But it can also distort your perspective, slowly, quietly convincing capable, high-performing people that we are simply not enough.…
Read MoreA Quiet Sense of Dread!
by Odilia McLeod Sunday evenings used to come with a quiet sense of dread. At first, I ignored it. Then it became impossible to shake. By Sunday afternoon, I was already mentally at work. I would open my laptop, “just for a minute,” and instantly felt the heaviness in my chest return. From the outside, my…
Read MoreMaking Space for Mindful Decision Making
by Odilia McLeod I remember looking at my calendar week after week and realizing 𝗜 𝗵𝗮𝗱 𝗻𝗼 𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝗳𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸. Every hour was booked, back-to-back meetings, calls, email and Slack messages in between. I was constantly moving from one conversation to the next, with little or no dedicated time to fully process it…
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