Do you ever find yourself heading down a road that you followed instinctively, only to realize that you’re way off course? Maybe you were heading to a familiar destination but, driving on autopilot, you missed a turn. Or maybe you were headed toward someplace new, and you got so completely and utterly lost, you wouldn’t …

It’s Never Too Late to Course Correct Read More »

Have you ever noticed that, when people have conversation challenges, they tend to hammer through them with the same method that got them stuck in the first place? Yeah, me too. I think it happens because many of us use logic like, “He must not have understood what I meant. I’ll give another example that …

Ali’s Anecdotes: How to Course Correct Read More »

It’s easy to get stuck in a particular mindset. And when we’re stuck, it affects all of our interpersonal relationships, including how we engage with others in the workplace. A long time ago, I worked for a woman who had a challenging personality, to say the least. She viewed dissent (no matter how carefully worded) …

Ali’s Anecdotes: How to Reframe Your Mindset Read More »

Change is hard. (There’s no point in sugar coating what we already know to be true.) But do you know why change can be so hard? Because, in our efforts to move forward, we forget that the most important step starts backward. Looking backward that is. We can’t make any change for the positive until …

Trying to Improve…Anything? What You Must Do First Read More »

One of the most important things we can do when we want to move forward is to first take a look backward. I know that sounds counter intuitive, so allow me to explain. Any time you want to improve something in your life, you’ll need to understand how things got to the point they’re at …

Ali’s Anecdotes: The First Step to Take When Trying to Improve Read More »

When we think about how we’d like to improve, we often get stuck on the sheer magnitude of the task ahead. And I can tell you that nothing felt more momentous than trying to finish a PhD dissertation while running a business and raising two babies. The sheer enormity of the task nearly had me …

Ali’s Anecdotes: How to Enforce Lifelong Change Read More »

You’ve heard of the golden rule, right? Chances are, you have. It’s the most common thing parents and educators in the U.S. teach their children about how to treat one another. But I’d like to challenge that for a minute… …While the golden rule is perfectly nice, it’s not the optimal rule for someone trying …

How to Boost Your Brain’s Empathy Circuitry Read More »

Isn’t it funny how much time and energy we put into learning for our careers – and how little we put into learning how to be parents? Think about it, the majority of Americans attend school until they’re 18 years old. Then, some go off to spend another 4 years in college and potentially another …

Parenting Isn’t Taught, But It Can Be Learned Read More »

As a PhD, I know all about studying. I’ve spent a good portion of my life learning, studying, taking tests, writing papers, and jumping through hoops to get to the next stage. This is a process I know well, a process with which I’m comfortable. But as a parent, I don’t get the luxury of …

Ali’s Anecdotes: On Being a Pupil of Parenting Read More »

If you could change anything about yourself, what would it be? Would you become healthier? More successful? Improve your relationships? When we stop to reflect on how we’d like to improve, we can often get stuck when thinking of the sheer magnitude of the task. More often than not, the improvements we seek require far …

Easy? No? Worth It? Yes! How to Enforce Lifelong Change Read More »