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Reflection Questions for Soul Searching with Your Business Model

Ariana Friedlander

Mar 28, 2018
3 min

Reflection Questions for Soul Searching with Your Business Model

In my book I wrote that “The hardest part about being a Misfit Entrepreneur isn’t building a successful business endeavor; it’s doing so while being true to yourself.” The challenge is earning an income while filling your cup. This is particularly difficult because the need to earn a living can trump the need to align your efforts with fulfilling your greater purpose. Furthermore, finding that sweet spot doesn’t happen over night. So many of us need to earn a living and so we

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4 Reflection Questions for Developing Awareness of Your Patterns

Ariana Friedlander

Feb 14, 2018
4 min

4 Reflection Questions for Developing Awareness of Your Patterns

We are creatures of habit. And by habit I mean our brains are etched with neural pathways that create these patterned responses we enact every single day of our lives. That’s why you have the same reaction to certain stimuli – like when someone cuts you off while you’re driving. Or when someone utters a word that rubs you the wrong way. It’s just your brain running through a patterned response like a rat running a maze to it’s food bowl. As you begin to be more aware of your

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Stones of Remembrance – Try These 4 Steps for Reviewing Your Journal

Ariana Friedlander

Jan 31, 2018
3 min

Stones of Remembrance – Try These 4 Steps for Reviewing Your Journal

One of the joys in journaling happens when you go back and re-read what you wrote months or years later. It’s amazing the perspective you gain over time and the things you forget that felt so visceral, so painful, so consuming in the moment. I’ve found that routinely taking the time to review my journals has been a great practice for elevating my personal growth and development. Re-reading old journals was one of the many benefits I enjoyed from writing my book. Looking back

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4 Reflection Questions for Rebooting When Navigating Life’s Transitions

Ariana Friedlander

Jan 17, 2018
3 min

4 Reflection Questions for Rebooting When Navigating Life’s Transitions

Last fall I did something completely unexpected…I moved my family into a new home. It was an exciting change and as we approached moving day I was eager with anticipation. It wasn’t until after we moved that I started to feel lethargic, fatigued and overwhelmed…turns out moving really is stressful. And it hit me like a ton of bricks. I felt depressed, lost, exhausted, unable to focus… Rather then get sucked into the vortex of over-analyzing the situation by asking questions l

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4 Reflection Questions for Reviewing 2017

Ariana Friedlander

Dec 20, 2017
6 min

4 Reflection Questions for Reviewing 2017

And just like that, we are about to say farewell to another year! I’d by lying if I said this was my favorite time of year. Yes, I love the festive decorations and holiday lights. It is true, I enjoy watching my daughter experience the magic of the stories and traditions we carry forward. And I must confess, I like any excuse to write in my journal (i.e. year end reflections). Despite all of that, I feel a burden from the shorter, darker days. In other words, getting to the h

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Four Reflection Questions for Managing Disruption

Ariana Friedlander

Nov 30, 2017
3 min

Four Reflection Questions for Managing Disruption

This week I had the pleasure of attending a Thought Leader Speaker event featuring Peter Sheahan. He was a feisty speaker, calling out executives for bad decision making and cracking jokes at his own expense. His message was thought provoking, in large part because he encouraged those of us in the audience to reflect on and discuss our own experiences that might be limiting our abilities to effectively navigate change. I always enjoy more interactive talks, it’s easier to pay

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Four Reflection Questions for Being More Present in Conversation

Ariana Friedlander

Nov 16, 2017
4 min

Four Reflection Questions for Being More Present in Conversation

This past week, we hosted our Annual Rosabella Tea and Cookies community celebration in honor and memory of our namesake’s birthday. I love everything about this tradition. Particularly the fact that it helps keep me grounded and connected to the source of inspiration that has led me down this path. I am also a big fan of Rosabella Tea, the scent of chamomile, spearmint and rose buds is so refreshing and calming. For five years now, we’ve been making and gifting Rosabella Tea

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5 Reflection Questions for Uncovering Your Passions

Ariana Friedlander

Aug 31, 2017
2 min

5 Reflection Questions for Uncovering Your Passions

It’s back to school time and in honor of the season, I’ll be posting a series of blogs that share insights from some of my favorite teachers! As I say in my book, the first practice in the entrepreneur’s journey of mastery is understanding yourself. This is a crucial and ongoing process of deepening self-awareness. Tasha Eurich, author of Insight, defines self-awareness as, “the ability to see ourselves clearly – to understand who we are, how others see us, and how we fit int

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Four Simple Steps to Stop Feeling Overwhelmed and Start Getting Stuff Done

Ariana Friedlander

Aug 15, 2017
2 min

Four Simple Steps to Stop Feeling Overwhelmed and Start Getting Stuff Done

One sure fire way to de-clutter my mind from overwhelm like that is to do a brain dump. Of course I do this in my journal. In fact, the last pages of my journal are dedicated to brain dumps. Sometimes I’ll fill up over a page in 1 session. Other times I’ll write down just a handful of ideas. Either way, my brain dump pages are the inbox of my journal. Ideas go into my brain dump to ensure I capture them and integrate them into the rest of my planning efforts later. Otherwise

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4 Reflection Questions to Begin Re-writing Negative Conversational Patterns

Ariana Friedlander

Aug 8, 2017
3 min

4 Reflection Questions to Begin Re-writing Negative Conversational Patterns

Our bodies make some pretty powerful chemicals! I recently wiped out on my bike and despite being hurt I got up and went on. Right after my wreck I felt fine. Granted, I was a little banged up, but compared to how I would feel just hours, days and even weeks later…I felt like a million bucks. I was pumped up on adrenaline. I’ve heard other stories where people have far worse injuries than my own and have a similar reaction. Sometimes, it’s cool to have a go, go, go response l

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6 Tips to Make Your Journal More Functional AKA Lessons Gleaned from My Bullet Journaling Experiment

Ariana Friedlander

Aug 2, 2017
5 min

6 Tips to Make Your Journal More Functional AKA Lessons Gleaned from My Bullet Journaling Experiment

courtesy of bulletjournalcollection.com Just over a year ago, I returned from my second solo writing retreat. I felt refreshed, rejuvenated and recommitted to my journaling practice. But I had a nagging question I couldn’t answer for the life of me, how can I take my journal to the next level? Also nagging me was my good friend, Kristen. “Why don’t you try Bullet Journaling already!” She asked me for the n-tenth time. I had to admit, it was because my ego was in the way. I wa

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Try This One Simple Trick for Reframing Fear

Ariana Friedlander

Jul 25, 2017
2 min

Try This One Simple Trick for Reframing Fear

Do you ever have those weeks where the same conversation keeps coming up with a bunch of different people? That’s been happening to me lately. It’s like there’s this collective struggle we are all dealing with and it’s nice to know you’re not alone. One moment of profound awakening I had years back was when I realized that the entire notion of being fearless is BS. Fear is always there. It’s hardwired into our DNA and for very good reason. The problem is that all too often we

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Three Simple Steps to Use Your Journal for Tracking and Logging Things

Ariana Friedlander

Jul 11, 2017
3 min

Three Simple Steps to Use Your Journal for Tracking and Logging Things

I focus a lot of my blog posts on reflection questions for writing in your journal. But in order to turn your journal into the ultimate momentum making machine, you need to do more than just write your reflections. One of the tools I use my journal for is tracking and logging things. Tracking and logging is a great way to benchmark a number of different elements of your life. Some of the items you may consider tracking and logging include, habits, triggers, time, focus, energ

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Reflection Questions to Help Your Draw Better Boundaries

Ariana Friedlander

Jul 4, 2017
3 min

Reflection Questions to Help Your Draw Better Boundaries

Lately I’ve been having a lot of conversations with people about feeling overwhelmed and stressed. The pervasive sense is that there’s too much that has to get done and not enough time to do it all. With our penchant for keeping busy as a society and the possibility to always do more, these feelings can persist. Compound all that with the desire to be a good person by helping others out, and saying no comes with a heap of guilt that is easiest to avoid by just agreeing. The r

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Tired of the Emotional Roller Coaster Ride from Putting Yourself Out There? Checkout These 4 Reflect

Ariana Friedlander

Jun 27, 2017
3 min

Tired of the Emotional Roller Coaster Ride from Putting Yourself Out There? Checkout These 4 Reflect

We went around the park, with camcorder in hand. And we now have a home video of bears being super cute and my brother asking every other second, “Did you get that?” Followed by my Dad responding, “Yeah, I got it!” As I reached a new level of putting myself out there with the release of my first book last fall, I felt like my brother in that video. I would send an email, then constantly check to see if I’d gotten a response. Or I’d post a video on social and continually check

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4 Reflection Questions to Help You Prepare for Difficult Conversations

Ariana Friedlander

Jun 20, 2017
2 min

4 Reflection Questions to Help You Prepare for Difficult Conversations

Have you ever procrastinated on having a difficult conversation with your boss or colleague or a loved one? I know I have! It’s a common scenario really. The anticipation of the conversation weighs you down. Some of us fear what the other person will say. While other’s fear how we might show up in the conversation. Either way, the fear creates dread, the anticipation creates anxiety and we experience cortisol pumping through our bodies that tells us this conversation posses a

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Tired of SMART Goals? Try WOOP!

Ariana Friedlander

Jun 13, 2017
2 min

Tired of SMART Goals? Try WOOP!

Who doesn’t want to do the smart thing? The opposite would be to do the dumb thing, so of course we all aspire to do the smart thing. Like setting SMART goals. SMART is an acronym and stands for: Specific Measurable Attainable (or Achievable) Relevant (or Realistic) Timely The idea is that when you set a goal, you want it to have all of these characteristics to be a SMART Goal. Otherwise, it is said, that you will probably never achieve it. But here’s the thing. Setting SMART

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Anniversaries, Celebrations and Community: You’re Invited to Join in the Fun

Ariana Friedlander

Jun 6, 2017
1 min

Anniversaries, Celebrations and Community: You’re Invited to Join in the Fun

We tend not to take the time to look back and acknowledge how far we have come. I think this is a common struggle for the Misfit Entrepreneur. There’s always something new and exciting to strive for, as a result we become future focused to a fault. But it is important, necessary even, to take a moment and celebrate past accomplishments and milestones. It gives perspective and resolve to persevere. This year is different, in large part because we have a few huge milestones to

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Journaling Prompts for Staying Focused to Finish on Projects

Ariana Friedlander

May 31, 2017
2 min

Journaling Prompts for Staying Focused to Finish on Projects

I’ve had a few coaching sessions recently with clients that felt overwhelmed by everything that they have going on. For some, the seasonal nature of their work is ratcheting up. For others, the pace of work is not slowing down and the need to better manage their productivity is clear. I will go to a blank page in my journal and write Current Projects at the top. Then I will list out all of my projects, leaving room between each to write out more specific ideas, like my next s

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Annual Staff Retreat Builds Trust and Improves Collaboration at Water for People

Ariana Friedlander

May 24, 2017
3 min

Annual Staff Retreat Builds Trust and Improves Collaboration at Water for People

When we were brought in, Water for People was in the midst of many changes. They had new leadership and the organization had been going through tremendous growth, hiring many new staff members. They were preparing to host their Annual Reflection retreat for the second year, and they were rolling out a new 5 year strategic plan. One of the changes that the new CEO brought to Water For People was implementing a Balanced Scorecard (BSC). The BSC is a tool that sets organizationa

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