denise marek

“Are we there yet? Are we there yet?” If you have children, you likely have first-hand experience with just how impatient they can be when it comes to traveling. Or perhaps you can remember the impatience you felt as a child during a long trip. Now that you’re all grown up, the big question is: Are you still impatient on the journey?

Many of us have carried this “destination impatience” forward into adulthood. When we’re in school, we can’t wait to graduate. When we graduate, we can’t wait to work. When we work, we can’t wait to work somewhere else, find… Read More

 To overcome the fear of making mistakes, aim for success, not perfection.

Is the fear of making a mistake preventing you from taking action? If so, the way to move beyond this fear and gain the courage to follow through on your action plan is to aim for success, not perfection. As a “recovering” perfectionist, I understand that if you have perfectionistic tendencies, you may equate success with perfection. After all, if you make a mistake, it means you have failed, right? Wrong. A mistake is not a failure. A mistake is simply the outcome of an action.… Read More

In his book For One More Day, Mitch Albom writes, “I met a man once who did a lot of mountain climbing. I asked him which was harder, ascending or descending? He said without a doubt descending, because ascending you were so focused on reaching the top, you avoided mistakes. ‘The backside of a mountain is a fight against human nature,’ he said. ‘You have to care as much about yourself on the way down as you did on the way up.’” That’s good advice to remember.

It’s easy to value, accept, and care about yourself “on the way up,”… Read More

I was walking to a restaurant with four other people whom I had just met at a conference that day. On our short walk to have dinner together my negative assumptions were on a downward spiral!

Here’s what happened: At one point during the journey, two of the people were huddled in discussion as they walked together in front of the group. The other two were together in the middle of the group also engaged in in what appeared to be a gripping conversation. That left me at the back of the group—walking all by myself.

I began to make… Read More