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Susan M Barber Coaching & Consulting, LLC > Blog > Blog

What Would You Like Your Definition of “Normal” To Be?

I posted a quote this week on social media that said, “If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.” by Maya Angelou.  In terms of self acceptance, this quote says it all.  How can you accept yourself when you are focused on comparing yourself to others?  Think about what other people may be showing you.  They are projecting how they want to be seen, which may not be the reality.  Basically, you…
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What If You See Change As An Opportunity Instead?

  When you have worked somewhere for a long time, it becomes difficult to leave. You are tied to the people that you work with, you know how everything works, it is comfortable and it has become a part of how others see you and how you identify yourself.  Your job has become a part of who you are and it may feel like you are only known as the person who works at that company or has a certain role.  Leaving all of…
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How Do You Want to See Things?

Do you choose to see the positive in life or can you only see the negative? How did you answer the question? Now how would you characterize the people around you…positive or negative? If you are surrounded by negative people, then it can be much more challenging to try to stay positive. You have a choice of how you want to see the world and who you want to hang out with every day. These choices are important, because they…
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What If You Eliminate All Of Your Limitations?

Do you remember the last opportunity you had to do something that pushed you out of your comfort zone? Some examples may be presenting in front of a group, attending a networking event or going in for a job interview. Some of what drives the nervousness or anxiety is the mindset of a past situation showing up. Did you have a situation in the past that didn’t go as well as you had hoped? Is that what is showing up…
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Is The Story That You Are Telling Yourself True?

“What makes you think that you are ready for that job?”  This is what some people may hear when they are getting ready to interview for a new role.  However, what if this question isn’t coming from a friend or family member, but it is coming from inside their own head?  Situations in their past or conversations with other people may have placed that seed of doubt into their mind and then the person replays it in their own head over…
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How Can You Prevent Self-Doubt in Your Life?

Self-doubt shows up when you are out of your comfort zone and trying something new.  All of these stories show up in your head telling you why you aren’t ready for it and placing doubt in your mind.  What if those stories weren’t even true, but you still believed them?  How can you move past them? Once you recognize that this is occurring, you can see that you are stuck.  It is important to remember that your ego is trying…
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Behind the Scenes of Planning a Retreat

I was so excited to have my women’s leadership retreat this past weekend!  The group of women that attended were all so wonderful and it went so well!  What I wanted to share with you though is the behind the scenes of what happened to make the retreat a reality. I was thinking about doing a retreat in 2019 and had created a plan in my head for all the things that I would do back in October.  I just had…
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What if You Lived in a Way That is Brave and Curious Again?

  Remember how free you used to feel when you were little and you would just play all day long?  Everything in front of you was something new and exciting to try out.  You were operating out of curiosity and a sense of adventure to see what other new things you could try out.   Somewhere along the way you were probably told to slow down, be careful or not to try out certain things by parents, teachers or babysitters. …
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How Can You Reach a Difficult Conversation Outcome Faster?

Imagine that you are driving down the highway and you see a big accident up ahead.  Your first instinct is try to get off the road and find a different way to get to your destination isn’t it?  So you most likely choose that option because it means that you will get to keep moving forward instead of just sitting in traffic and not getting anywhere.  However, you have no idea that the path that you chose is going to take…
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Is There an Art to Having a Difficult Conversation?

I was working with a client yesterday and discussing how to have a difficult conversation with one of his employees. He said “there really is an art to doing this well, isn’t there?” I hadn’t thought about it in that way, but I believe he is right. Although it would make it easier to follow a process, there is no perfect formula to follow for every conversation. Every situation is slightly different and you are dealing with human beings who…
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