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Every one of us has unique experiences and personalities. That means we all have so many different stories. Do you share yours? It can be hard to trust that we’ll be accepted by friends and family, but to live a life that matters – a life with purpose – you need to embrace who you are, and be honest and authentic with those around you.

That doesn’t mean you need to share every story with everyone you know. But living your life as your true self means that all your interactions will be genuine, and when you do decide to trust someone with a story, you will be able to handle their reaction. Why? Because loving and accepting your true self gives you strength and allows you to see who you are clearly.

How can you express your true self? Here are three purposeful ways to take a closer look at who you are and how you choose to connect with those around you:

1. Mean Your Message – look at your emails, social posts, texts, etc. that you put out into the world this past week. Take an audit: Did you mean what you said? Did you spread positivity or negativity? Be honest with your assessment and then put a plan in place to make adjustments.
2. Cherish Love – find a way to share your love with friends and family in your own creative and meaningfully way.
3. Be a Flatterer – arm yourself with compliments, Post-Its and a pen. You know what you need to do next.

Morgan Vogt, Sourcebooks Employee

Discover more ways to live a life that matters with Every Monday Matters>>

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New Year, New You is all the rage in 2019. Information is being thrown at us across all channels - each platform offering their own definition (and solution!) to become a better, improved, polished, “you.” While I agree that these steps to professional growth are necessary, I was somewhat reluctant to jump in head first to the latest and greatest trend to make me a better version of myself. I wanted something different – a concept that could be learned and understood quickly, but with measurable results. I was looking for simple steps to help me live healthier and happier while allowing for milestones that could be met throughout the year.

Taking a look at the preview of Smarter Next Year, I saw eye-opening information that helped me decide to work on my mind first. If 50% of the population start to show a decline in metal ability by the age of 40, I knew I needed to do something and I needed to do it quickly. Learning further that some of the top causes of of this decline are lack of sleep, poor diet, and physical inactivity, I had a solid plan for what I needed to do right away.

By taking an hour for myself this weekend, I dove into Smarter Next Year. Author David Bardsley helped me change the way I think about my brain by showing me how I could improve my ability to understand, store, and retrieve information with a very simple idea. I learned that there are ways to having a younger, sharper mind… and they are built on uncomplicated concepts – almost easily attainable once I put my mind to it.

I was impressed by the information I read in this book and how relatable it was on both a personal and professional level. After seeing the downloadable training preview, I knew this was something that would go further than a conversation with friends or discussion with my book club. Seeing the slides that offered such relatable data in a simple way was helpful for me to make my 2019 goals and to determine what my New Year, New Me would entail.

Kavita Wright, Sourcebooks Employee

Learn how you can improve your mind and health with Smarter Next Year >>

Change is not easy, but it is simple. Things will always change. We don’t have a choice about that, but we do have a choice on how we react to change; and, as a leader, whether or not we choose to create change. The choice really boils down to this… either we manage change or it will manage us. With these 6 tips, you can start inspiring your team through any organizational change.

1. Walk away from outdated beliefs and practices. How? Forget for Success. Remove flawed data from your memory banks and free up space for more of the "right stuff".
2. What are you good at? Focus on Your Strengths and make them all they can be.
3. Inertia can stop you in your tracks if you don't act quickly. Lead with Speed and never underestimate the significance of early victories.
4. Accept personal responsibility for your behavior and results. Once you do that, you can Inspire Personal Accountability in each individual in your company.
5. Change takes courage, and big change cannot happen unless you Take Calculated Risks.
6. There are many challenges along the way to change because changes takes time to take root. But if you plant the right seeds and Respect the Growing Process, you will see great things happen!

From Mac Anderson and Tom Feltenstein

Read more tips and stories in Change Is Good...You Go First >>

I had a money makeover some years back and, while that got me on the right track, I still stress about finances. So while the concept of money management is not new to me, I still continuously strive to learn more on the topic. Most of the books I’ve read about finance had some great tips that I’ve incorporated into my budget, but I’ve always felt like something was missing.

As it turned out, The 30-Day Money Cleanse provided more insight into what I needed to do. The ideas were simple and easy to implement. My first task was glaringly obvious, but something I had never done: calculate my annual expenses. While I knew what I spent each month, I never took the time to find out how much that equaled in a year. I was completely floored. Did I really spend that much money on eating out? Was all the money I spent on clothes worth what I didn’t spend on finally creating my home library? And what in the world did I do with all those tech gadgets I purchased?

I’ll admit that my first response to all of this was guilt and shame; I wanted to just give up right there. But I didn’t – I kept reading. And that was when I finally understood why knowing where all my money was going was so important – because now, I could choose where I actually wanted it to go. I wasn’t powerless after all.

It was exciting to think about how I really wanted to live my life. Once I understood what mattered, it didn’t feel like I was getting rid of anything. Instead, I saw money that I once wasted was now being funneled into things that are truly important to me. I want to spend time with friends and family, but there are much more interesting and “fabulously frugal” ways to do so than just eating out. And taking stock of all the things I bought but didn’t use made it easy to put that money into my library instead.

This is what I learned – don’t let the fear of guilt or shame get in the way of taking a closer look at your relationship with money. You may be shocked at first by what you find; but when you dig a little deeper, you’ll see that this awareness brings with it so much power to truly transform your life.

Morgan Vogt, Sourcebooks Employee

Shop The 30-Day Money Cleanse >>

Computers work because information is gathered, transmitted and stored via electrical signals.

The human brain works because information is gathered, transmitted and stored via electrical signals.

Computers work because they are directed to do so by special programs referred to as software. Humans create the software for computers. Perhaps in the future computers will be able to create their own software. (artificial intelligence)

The human brain works (thinks, calculates, remembers, deduces etc.) because it possesses the most complex software (human intelligence) known to mankind. Moreover, the human brain can change and create new software (thoughts, ideas, memories etc.) throughout its life. No current computer is capable of doing that.

The hardware of a computer consists of a series of wires, electrical micro circuits, chips, processors, screen etc., all of which are made by man. There is no computer on the face of the earth that is capable of repairing or replacing even the simplest part of its own hardware.

The human brain, on a daily basis, changes its hardware, better known as neural circuits. The basic unit of the human neural circuit is the neuron. Thousands of neurons die on a daily basis and are replaced by new ones. Branches of existing neurons wither while new ones reach out to connect with adjacent neurons. This is our neural network, our hardware, and it changes daily. No computer on the face of the earth can do this.

There are many things we can do to harm the growth of our neural circuitry. The good news is that there are many things we can do to stimulate the growth of our neural circuits, at any stage of life.

This involves making better lifestyle choices. What are they?

David Bardsley

Shop Smarter Next Year >>