Motivation Blog Post : Decisions, Decisions, Decisions...

Today's topic is about making decisions. Several of my friends, including myself, have been faced with making several important decisions lately. Some of these include accepting or rejecting job offers, deciding to leave or stay in a relationship, deciding weather to splurge on that Labor Day weekend getaway, etc...

When it comes to decision-making I'm kind of the worst---and I'm sure many of you can relate this. What I tend to do is gather the opinions of about 250 people before I wind up choosing what I had originally decided from the beginning. At the end of the process I just wind up thinking myself, "Why did I even have to ask or tell anyone!? I knew the answer all along". 

I get caught up in this cycle because I let the fear of making the wrong decision get in the way of my intuition. I've seen this happen recently among my friends as well. I'm slowly getting to a point where I can trust my gut and make choices without seeking the opinions of others. However, I admit I still have a lot of work to do. 

Today I am sharing a video by one of my fave's: Marie Forleo. If you don't know Marie Forleo she is a life and business coach who has been featured on Oprah several times. She's awesome because she gives real, valuable advice in a fun, relatable way. (She is also a Seton Hall alum. Go Pirates!)

In this video she talks about how to distinguish Fear vs. Intuition. I think this video will help all of us the next time we're faced with making a big decision.

Fear vs. Intuition: How To Tell The Difference (4:20)

(P.S. The quote at the end is kind of confusing as it relates to the whole video. So I just ignore it.)

Motivation Blog Post: Body Language - Fake it 'til you become it.

Hello my beautiful divas, 

There have been study's that show that clinically depressed people who are forced to smile for 20 minutes a day come out of depression faster than those who don't. The reason for this is because the act of smiling naturally releases feel-good hormone dopamine (aka the happy hormone). It doesn't matter if your desire to smile is genuine or not--the hormone is still released. This kind of research says a lot about how our body language can affect our moods. 

Today I am sharing with you an amazing TED talk on the topic of non-verbal communication. You will hear Princeton PhD and Harvard Professor, Amy Cuddy, talk about the importance of body language and the subtle ways it affects your life. She points out that body language not only affects the way people perceive you-- it more importantly affects the perception you have of yourself (which BTW is the only perception that matters!). She gives tips on how you can "fake it 'til you make it" but also how you can "fake it 'til you become it" in whatever you want in life.

If you are currently in the process of interviewing for something this TED talk is a MUST SEE. 

Have an amazing week ladies,

Amy Cuddy: Your Body Language Shapes who you are

Motivation Blog Post: Bad Ass Woman of the Week

Today I want to share with you someone who I consider to be a total bad ass. You probably know her from the hit show Shark Tank... Barbara Cocoran, from the Cocoran Group. 

Why Barbara Cocoran is a bad ass...

Barbara was a waitress at the Fort Lee Diner in New Jersey when she met a suave man who swept her off her feet. One day he told her that she would be great at real estate sales and she ran with it. Against her mother wishes she crossed the Hudson river and started her first real estate company with $1000 she borrowed from her boyfriend. After 7 years in business together, her long-term, live-in boyfriend ran off with her secretary...leaving her with nothing. It was then when she decided to start the one and only, Cocoran Group. Barbara says it was mostly out of spite that she turned her $1000 start-up into a bIllion dollar business... yes, billion with a B. In 2001, Barbara sold the Cocoran Group for $60 million (not bad for starting with only $1K). Since then she has become a public speaker and an angel investor for start-ups. Above all, Barbara is an inspiration for women everywhere. She was told that she would never be anything without her man and she went out in the world to prove everyone wrong!

Here are other reasons why Barbara Cocoran is a bad ass...

1. She's from Jersey (duh! lol) 

2. She's one of 10 siblings. 

3. She was dyslexic and barely graduated school. 

4. She has 23 different jobs by the time she was 21 (and fired from three of them).

5. She didn't let the devastation of her boyfriend leaving her for the secretary stop her. (toma!)

6. She an overall inspiration to all women. 

Here is a speech she made at an Entrepreneurs conference about her life lessons... 

Barbara Corcoran on Risk-Taking, Failure and How to Get Back Up (one-hour long)

Shorter Interview...

Barbara Corcoran on Her Journey As an Entrepreneur (7 mins)

Link to her book: Shark Tales: How I Turned $1,000 into a Billion Dollar Business