Ever go on a diet and gain weight? Ever promise yourself to cut back spending to the bare minimum and find yourself shopping online? Ever find yourself pining over someone you're not supposed to date? The good news is that it's not because you're a weak person with no willpower, no matter what you say to yourself, it's simply that you haven't learned to manage your will power and intention in a way to help you succeed more easily. There's all kinds research to back me up on this....the idea that what you resist persists! Read more »

Early last week I got a desperate text from my youngest child. It read "I don't want to" 8 times and "I'm afraid of the ball." (Lacrosse balls are hard!) She was referring to the lacrosse try-outs that were scheduled for that day. She's in 8th grade and was trying out for the high school junior varsity team. So, a bit intimidating for her. However, reading her message, I got a vivid flashback from her at age 8, crying the exact same words right before a violin performance. It was deja vu and I knew she wasn't just afraid of the ball, it was performance anxiety. It was a repeat of an old pattern. Easy to see this in other people....hard to see it in yourself. Your brain doesn't want you to make it change paradigms or think bigger. Read more »

You've heard that everything is energy. I don't get the science that well but it is clear that feeling higher energy makes you attractive, or even magnetic, while negative energy brings you, and everyone around you, down. People are always asking me how I stay so positive or how do I keep my energy so high. One big factor is that I sleep well at night. Here are 9 things to keep the winds in your sails, so you keep moving forward. (Remember it's a process, Aristotle said excellence was the sum total of your habits, not a one-time event.) Read more »

Do you ever feel dread when you see you have 11 new messages on your phone? For the sake of full disclosure, my voicemail box is completely full and I have to talk to Sprint to gain access to my messages. However, first I thought it would be fun to write about voicemail, and fix my problem later. Do you wonder how people feel as they listen to your message? Read more »

If you have teenage or preteen/tween girls in your life, you are, by definition, familiar with Justin Bieber. He's just another teenage idol, cute, all his songs sound the same, and girls literally flip out for him. He's not the first young man to soar in pop culture, but a debut song that goes platinum? It's curious to consider why him, why not somebody else? He's self-taught nobody from nowhere, Canada. What's his X factor? If you watch Never Say Never, you can get a glimpse, although hearing this kid ask from the stage "Who wants to be my baby?" was a tad nauseating for me. (The things I do for Mixonian readers!) Note: I'm not suggesting you Bieberize your next talk, but consider what made him successful. Read more »

When people ask what Mixonian Institute is really about, I'm often told how much people hate speaking in public or talking in front of any group. (Actually I hear about a lot of other leadership problems, but those are outside today's conversation.) You read a lot about self confidence here because that's the term that comes to mind when people think about public speaking: having or not having enough self confidence to get your point across in an engaging manner. However, it might be more effective to forget about feeling self confident and focus on being fully present in the speaking situation. Read more »