As we approach the new year, we explore ways to make sure we are planning and prioritizing what we want for next year and the years ahead, and take the real steps to make that happen. We delve into what it means to “Plan your work…Work your plan.”
Question Why
Why is it so tough to plan ahead? Even more, how do we do the real work of sticking to the plans we make?
Three Points on Why This Matters
Make a plan. I share why I create 3-, 5-, and 10-year plans for every program or project I build and how I’ve helped others do the same.
Pour the Glass
Are you someone who makes plans and leaves it on the shelf? Do you have goals and dreams that have never come to fruition because you didn’t plan for them at all?
Three Tips on How to Do the Thing
Homework
As we prepare for the start of the new year, begin to plan and make a commitment to take the real steps to make it come to pass. Don’t let another year go by without living your purpose fully.
Encouraging Word
It may feel daunting, but you can do it. The journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step.
Additional resources:
Link to my website: yvettesimpson.com
Link to the book: authoryvettesimpson.com
Link to my IG page @theyvettesimpson.com and DM us your comments and show ideas @powerofypodcast
Show credits:
Producer: Nathan Ivey IG/FB @nathaniveycreative
This episode is for anyone who wants to find a way to give a different gift this holiday season. To focus on time and experiences over gifts, and to learn how to get back to the true reason for the season — hope, joy, peace, and love. We delve into why it may be more significant to give your presence than a present.
Question Why: Why do we focus so much on giving presents and not our presence? Why do we continue to forget the true reason for the season?
My insight on how I navigate this season as someone who is not a gift-giver, but instead someone whose love language is quality time.
Three Points on Why This Matters
Three Tips on How to Do the Thing
Pour the Glass
The challenge is when the gift is a replacement for something else. Is this me compensating for something that I know that I’m not able or willing to give? What would happen if we got back the heart of it — giving yourself rather than a physical gift?
Homework
Focus on giving your time and energy to someone you love this holiday season. You are the present that they want to receive. And if you do give a physical gift — let it be something truly special, something that only you can give and that the person will truly value and appreciate.
Encouraging Word
Things are disposable, but you are irreplaceable. You are the gift that keeps on giving. So enjoy the experiences of this holiday season and the memories that you will make with those you love —— they will last a lifetime.
This episode discusses the importance of taking time, slowing down, and reflecting on this year. Reflecting can be tough because it requires that we see ourselves truthfully, which is tempting to avoid, particularly those parts that aren’t so positive or perfect. Together, we learn how to begin the ritual of reflection so that we can make the coming year even better by improving on our wins and growing from our losses.
What you can learn about the importance of reflecting on yourself and your life from Snow White, the Evil Queen & the Magic Mirror.
Question Why
Why is it so difficult to take stock of our lives?
What would happen if we spent a bit more time thinking and a little less time doing?
I share my process of reflecting at the end of the year and why it’s such an important ritual to prepare me for the year coming, with a sense of soberness and optimism, and to think about how life changes from year to year.
Three Points on Why This Matters
Every year, something happens that shapes our world in a way that demands reflection and adjustment. It could be something good, like a marriage or having a child or it could be a loss. If you don’t take the time to revisit and consider the ways your world has changed, you may be chasing dreams from 5 or 10 years ago, or responding to the person you were then rather than who you are now.
Pour the Glass
There are times when we refuse to look back because we are afraid of what it will reveal. We just don’t want to face the truth, especially our losses, mistakes, and failures. But it is the looking back that is the lesson — you simply can’t confront what you don’t face. So face it.
Three Tips on How to Do the Thing
Homework
Take some time before the ball drops to get quiet and reflect on this year. Meditate, journal, nurture yourself, rest, and recharge as you prepare for the year to come.
Encouraging Word
Don’t be afraid of your reflection. It reveals the truth — the good, the bad, and the ugly. But it is that revelation that can help you learn and grow, and in some cases accept the things about yourself that you wish weren’t true.
Additional resources:
Link to my website: yvettesimpson.com
Link to the book: authoryvettesimpson.com
Link to my IG page @theyvettesimpson.com and DM us your comments and show ideas @powerofypodcast
Additional resources:
Link to my website: yvettesimpson.com
Link to the book: authoryvettesimpson.com
Link to my IG page @theyvettesimpson.com and DM us your comments and show ideas @powerofypodcast
Show credits:
Producer: Nathan Ivey IG/FB @nathaniveycreative
This episode is all about being grateful for what you have. As we approach the time and season that is often more about buying things, let’s focus on the importance of gratitude, and appreciating what we have already. This is the time to take a moment to be grateful for the people and things you have in your life; the experiences you get to have, and the life you get to live.
Question Why: Why is gratitude something we have to practice? How does being grateful impact your perspective and relationship to your life and the world around you?
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. The food, fellowship with family and friends, and time to slow down and appreciate all the things and people in my life. Because of this, I try my best to really take the time to enjoy it and resist the temptation to skip Thanksgiving and rush to Christmas, focusing more on appreciation than acquisition.
Three Points on Why This Matters:
1. Gratitude helps you see what is going well in your life, rather than what isn’t working or what is negative.
2. Gratitude when expressed externally, is a two-way street. The more you give, the more you get.
3. Gratitude reminds you what is important.
Gratitude has to be personal to you. And it should be more than material. What would it look like to share publicly, in your own words, your appreciation for the non-material things: love, life, health, family, friends, your gifts, your compassion, your generosity? We often don’t appreciate these things until we lose them.
Three Tips on How to Do the Thing:
Homework: As you gather around the table with people you love next week, be sure to tell the people you love how much you value them, and how much they mean to you.
Encouraging Word: Look at your life and be grateful for what you have, even as you look to make it better.
Additional resources:
Link to my website: yvettesimpson.com
Link to the book: authoryvettesimpson.com
Link to my IG page @theyvettesimpson.com and DM us your comments and show ideas @powerofypodcast
Show credits:
Producer: Nathan Ivey IG/FB @nathaniveycreative
In this episode, we explore the power of choice on the eve of Election Day in the United States. Learn how to make decisions, even when it’s tough, and that not making a decision is a decision, which has consequences that may be far worse than making a choice, even if it isn’t perfect or ideal.
Question Why: Why don’t we own our power to choose what we do with our lives? How might your life be different if you decided to choose how you live it?
Why not voting is a privilege that most people cannot afford, especially those who fought to exercise that right in the past.
Three points on why this matters:
1. The power to choose is one of the most foundational and fundamental freedoms of being a human.
2. Your life, your future, your trajectory is within your control.
3. If you want to change the world, you will have to make choices, especially when you don’t want to. It’s often the toughest choices that are the hardest to make, that matter the most and have the biggest impact on your life.
Politics, like life, is not an all-or-nothing proposition. If you’re first choice for dinner, or body wash, or a car or a house, you make the next best choice.
Pour the Glass Moment: The toughest decisions to make are often those that have the greatest impact on our lives. You don’t absolve yourself of the consequences by not making a choice.
Three Tips on How to Do the Thing
1. Start by removing avoidance [not making a choice] from your list of options.
2. Understand that perfection is not the goal; progress is the goal.
3. Make the best choice for you based on what you know and need right now.
Homework: Take some time this week and think about all the choices you GET to make. Commit to making the best decision you can based on what you know now. If you are in the US, go and vote tomorrow, if you haven't already.
Encouraging Word: Relish in the fact that we all get the right to choose, which is a privilege.
Additional resources:
Link to my website: yvettesimpson.com
Link to the book: authoryvettesimpson.com
Link to my IG page @theyvettesimpson.com and DM us your comments and show ideas @powerofypodcast
Show credits:
Producer: Nathan Ivey IG/FB @nathaniveycreative
This episode delves into the ways that fear keeps us from doing the things we are meant to do for ourselves and the world. Learn about when fear is useful and when it is destructive and how to change your relationship to fear so that you can do and accomplish all the things you desire and share your gifts with the world.
Question Why: Why is it so difficult to overcome our fears? How can we change our relationship with fear so that we can get unstuck and move forward?
Learn how my fears as a child kept me from doing things like cartwheels, roller skating, swimming, and riding a bike.
Why this matters:
Are you still having a boogeyman experience that is holding you back? Are you worried about something that may not ever happen? Fear and worry don’t change the outcome; they are wasted emotions.
How do you get in the right relationship with fear? Don’t let it control you. Instead, you keep fear under your control.
Pour the Glass Moment: Fear can be scary, but you can reframe it. When I wear a costume at Halloween, it’s my way of reclaiming a holiday I avoided because of fear.
How to do the thing:
Encouraging Word: Fear is False Evidence Appearing Real. It isn’t real. It just looks that way. Don’t continue to allow fear to keep you from a life of purpose and fulfillment.
Additional resources:
Link to my website: yvettesimpson.com
Link to the book: authoryvettesimpson.com
Link to my IG page @theyvettesimpson.com and DM us your comments and show ideas @powerofypodcast
Show credits:
Producer: Nathan Ivey IG/FB @nathaniveycreative
In this episode, we explore the idea of change as a natural and evolutionary part of life, like the seasons and time change naturally. We discuss how to embrace change, make change our friend and not an enemy, and how the world can benefit from that.
I love the fall in the Midwest because of the visible changing of seasons and how that relates to how we, as people change. What I gained by releasing control and perfection and embracing change in this recent stage of my life as I began my purpose and reinvention journey.
Question Why: Why do we resist change? What would happen if we saw change as like nature, a part of life?
Three points on why this matters:
What the pandemic taught us about adapting and embracing the new, and how people who have done that have changed the world in the process.
What we can all learn from my grandmother’s evolution story at the later stages in her life. How she pushed past her fear and discomfort to embrace a new life and make a new friend.
Pour the Glass Moment: Change can be difficult, but we have to move forward. Staying in one place and not evolving can be worse. Even if you don’t change, the world will change around you and leave you behind.
Three Tips on How to Do the Thing:
It’s a process. It doesn’t have to be perfect. You just have to start.
Homework: Make a list of all the things in your life that you want to change. Make a list and start with just one.
Encouraging Word: You can learn to embrace change. You can evolve. You have to change your relationship to change and begin to see change as good.
Additional resources:
Link to my website: yvettesimpson.com
Link to the book: authoryvettesimpson.com
Link to my IG page @theyvettesimpson.com and DM us your comments and show ideas @powerofypodcast
Show credits:
Producer: Nathan Ivey IG/FB @nathaniveycreative
In this episode, we are joined by ACLU New Jersey President Amol Sinha to talk about the important work he is doing, using the law, advocacy, and organizing to secure freedom for all.
Amol shares his childhood sense of the injustice he witnessed in his hometown in New Jersey, specifically the inequity he observed living between two communities separated by race and class and what they taught him about systemic racism and oppression and his own identity and place in the “hierarchy.”
Illustrative Example: We have an over-incarceration problem in this country. Learn about the importance of decarceration, specifically during the COVID-19 pandemic as the ACLU worked to prioritize a group of people who were not thinking about, those who are incarcerated, and the public health and racial justice issues that arose there. Amol shares his work creating the model which led New Jersey to the lowest rate of decarceration in the country with similar reductions in crime and recidivism.
Why Does it Matter: People review security and freedom as opposed, but you can be safe and free at the same time. People who wield power often use it to oppress. The Rule of Law has been used to oppress than to liberate. The importance of elevating collective power over individual power — and where beloved communities can hold power rather than reserving power for the few. Why we should be striving to live up to the ideals of freedom, and how we reclaim those words for ourselves.
Pour the Glass Moment: The “tough on crime” narrative that has taken hold is very harmful to the work of securing freedom for those who are incarcerated and oppressed. It has been used by both sides of the aisle. Instead, Amol recommends that we follow the data rather than furthering that narrative. We should also raise the bar for what democracy looks like and the language and rhetoric we accept from our leaders. Amol shares all the tools that he uses at the ACLU to move the needle on the work of securing freedom.
How We Do the Thing: ACLU is everywhere, so reach out to your affiliate and connect with them to volunteer or donate. Support the Clemency Project: Advocate for and organize your governor to use their power of clemency as a decarceration tool as they have done in New Jersey. Learn more about and support the other issues and challenges that the ACLU is working on immigrant rights, book bans, DEI, and LGBTQ+ advocacy.
Encouraging Word: When his work is done, Amol wants to see HOPE as a common sentiment across all communities, especially those who have felt hopeless and that their prosperity (not just financial) is reachable. It shouldn’t be a far-off dream for kids to see and experience life and the world fully. When we have achieved freedom for all, we should have people entering communities that in the past they wouldn’t have before, without fear. It would be great to eliminate prisons in certain jurisdictions and have a larger conversation about how we have used prisons as a tool of oppression.
Connect with Amol:
Twitter: @aclunj and @AmolSinha | Instagram: @aclunj | Facebook: @aclunj | LinkedIn: @aclunj and @AmolSinha
Additional resources:
Link to my website: yvettesimpson.com
Link to the book: authoryvettesimpson.com
Link to my IG page @theyvettesimpson.com and DM us your comments and show ideas @powerofypodcast
Show credits:
Producer: Nathan Ivey IG/FB @nathaniveycreative
In this episode, I am joined by my friend and amazing faith and community leader, Michael-Ray Mathews, who is a spiritual and social justice consultant who works at the intersection of faith and organizing. Michael-Ray and I discuss his key insights on the Power of Faith in changing our world for the better, particularly to the benefit of the unheard and marginalized in our country. Learn more about why faith is broader than religion or the church and why the binary and political polarization is a significant threat to our democracy.
Introduction: Michael talks about his ancestors and the significance of family and faith in his life. How his generational connection to faith, a family of preachers and missionaries are such a big part of who he is, and the work he does now as a faith leader and organizer.
The importance of understanding the integration of culture, faith, community and connection.
Illustrative Example: How the murder of Michael Brown Jr. informed his early work with Faith in Action, as an organizer of clergy and a connector to young activists on the streets in Ferguson at the time.
How faith and activism have long been part of the battle for freedom and justice, a battle that feels far too long, and how faith has been weaponized to condone hate and violence, but can also be a source of joy, hope, and healing.
Faith doesn’t have to be a religiously bound term — people can and do practice faith and spirituality regularly and every day. It’s not just about religion as an institution or about one faith or one God. The future requires us to be more open and work cooperatively with people of moral courage to change our world in such a tough time.
Pour the glass moment: Political polarization and binary thinking and the demonization of the other as one of the greatest obstacles to the future of our democracy.
How do we do the thing: Power is the product of relationships. We must value the power of relationships, weaving experiences across shared values, gifts, and dreams. We need to have more conversations both 1:1 and in our broader communities. Those relationships lay the foundation for organizing to make real change. It starts and ends with us, we can all connect and build relationships with our neighbors, colleagues, and friends.
Encouraging Word: When your work is done, what kind of world can we expect to see? How will we know we have succeeded? Success is unknowable except in retrospect, even years, decades, and generations later. MRM predicts that racism will still be alive 150 years from now. But the work we do now is about preparing us for that very possible future, planting seeds of wisdom, depositing wisdom in the ancestral stream of the trans-generational river as medicine for the future.
Homework: This is the time to examine the sources of wisdom that have shaped our lives. Where did you learn those important foundational lessons of who you really are? Consider how you will reclaim your relationship to spirituality as you engage in the work you are doing in the world.
References:
Guest: Michael-Ray Mathews, Spiritual and Social Justice Consultant. Founder of The Prophetic Foundry & Senior Fellow, People for the American Way (PFAW)
IG: @michaelraymathews; PFAW @peoplefor_
Books [available on Amazon]:
Co-Author, “Trouble the Water” Link: https://a.co/d/dDsz0NK
Contributor, “I Wish My Dad: The Power of Vulnerable Conversations between Fathers and Sons” by Jordan Tune Link: https://a.co/d/1HctUms
Additional resources:
Link to my website: yvettesimpson.com
Link to the book: authoryvettesimpson.com
Link to my IG page @theyvettesimpson.com and DM us your comments and show ideas @powerofypodcast
Show credits:
Producer: Nathan Ivey IG/FB @nathaniveycreative
As we commemorate Women’s Equality Day, this episode delves into what happens when we persist and decide that we will not quit, no matter how tough it gets.
How the character Dory from “Finding Nemo” inspires me to “just keep swimming” when I want to give up.
What the leaders of the women’s suffrage movement and women who have fought for equality throughout history have demonstrated about why persistence is essential to changing the world.
Question Why: Why does the journey seem the hardest when you are almost at the finish line? How do we stay motivated to keep going when the journey has been long and tough?
My personal persistence story on the road to college, and why the journey seems the most impossible just before you get to the finish line.
Three points on why this matters:
The Final 10: What we can learn from marathon runners about the toughest part of the race.
Pour the Glass Moment: We are in a seemingly impossible time. We need to persist now more than ever. Our lives and the world depend on our ability to finish. Many of us know someone who isn’t here now because the journey was just too tough. If that is you, please keep going.
Three Tips on How to Do the Thing
Encouraging Word & Homework
The journey is tough, but just keep swimming. Your world and the world around you will be better for it.
Additional resources:
Link to my website: yvettesimpson.com
Link to the book: authoryvettesimpson.com
Link to my IG page @theyvettesimpson.com and DM us your comments and show ideas @powerofypodcast
Show credits:
Producer: Nathan Ivey IG/FB @nathaniveycreative
This episode delves into what happens when we see ourselves for who we are, not for who we do. Reinvention is about dreaming beyond your current position, company, and title. Reinvention requires that you see yourself more broadly, embrace change, and believe that who you are— your gifts, passions, and talents are what the world needs. If you are someone who is feeling like it is time for more, time for a change, this episode is for you.
What I learned from Ava Duvernay & Michael Phillips about the power of purpose and reinvention, and why it’s never too late to take the journey.
Question Why:
Why I am called the “Queen of Reinvention” and how reinvention, like purpose, is a journey, not a destination.
Three points on why this matters:
Pour the Glass Moment
Three Tips on How to Do the Thing
Encouraging Word & Homework
Don’t be afraid to do something new. Reinvention can be reinvigorating. It opens you up to so much. You don’t have to wait to retire — reinvent now.
Additional resources:
Link to my website: yvettesimpson.com
Link to the book: authoryvettesimpson.com
Link to my IG page @theyvettesimpson.com and DM us your comments and show ideas @powerofypodcast
Show credits:
Producer: Nathan Ivey IG/FB @nathaniveycreative
In this episode, we explore what happens when we break through old patterns and learn how to identify them and go the other way so that we can move forward. We are in a time when the world really needs us, and we can't move forward if we are walking in a circle.
What the Myth of Sisyphus and walking in circles through a forest can teach us about forming and breaking old patterns in our lives.
Question Why: Why is the familiar so comfortable? Why is it so difficult to break old patterns?
We explain the tree experience and why it is such an important lesson in moving forward beyond the old, negative patterns that exist in our lives.
My relationship tree experience, and why relationships are often the toughest patterns to break.
Three points on why this matters:
How to navigate the promotion tree experience and why it has people stuck in the same position or the same job for years, frustrated, stuck, and not moving forward.
Three tips on how to do the thing:
Encouraging Word:
You can move forward. The world needs all of us, free of old patterns, walking forward and not in a circle. So identify those trees and go a different way.
Homework:
Begin this practice by thinking about and identifying the trees in your life. Commit to breaking those patterns and moving forward, right now.
Additional resources:
Link to my website: yvettesimpson.com
Link to the book: authoryvettesimpson.com
Link to my IG page @theyvettesimpson.com and DM us your comments and show ideas @powerofypodcast
Show credits:
Producer: Nathan Ivey IG/FB @nathaniveycreative
In this episode, we discuss one of the more significant barriers to purpose and reinvention, breakthrough. In the first of this two-part series, we explore breaking through old beliefs, those false negative messages we believe about ourselves.
What Van Van and other positive young social influencers are teaching us about self-love and fostering positive self-beliefs.
How we begin to combat imposter syndrome and why Michelle Obama’s struggle shows how difficult it is to overcome.
Question Why: Why are beliefs — especially false, negative beliefs — so hard to change?
My early childhood struggle with loving the way I looked and believing I was beautiful, despite my dark skin.
Why this matters:
Why knowing that we are worthy is a foundational belief because it is something we are intrinsically — just by being.
Pour the glass: Acknowledge that this isn’t easy work. This involves undoing decades of programming.
In practice. How to make this happen:
Encouraging Word:
This is a practice. Give yourself grace as you put these new principles in place in your life. But don’t let up — it takes a lot of work to unroot negative beliefs once they have taken hold. Think about who you would be and what you could do if you saw yourself as beautiful and powerful… capable and worthy. The world needs you to be that way.
Homework:
Put these principles into practice right now. Journal, talk to someone you trust, maybe a therapist because this is tough stuff, and if you find someone who needs this message, share it with them.
Additional resources:
Link to my website: yvettesimpson.com
Link to the book: authoryvettesimpson.com
Link to my IG page @theyvettesimpson.com and DM us your comments and show ideas @powerofypodcast
Show credits:
Producer: Nathan Ivey IG/FB @nathaniveycreative
In this episode, I’m speaking to people who are waiting for the perfect time to move or do something. There is no perfect time to move. The time is right now.
Why “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay” and “Waiting on the World to Change” might not be the best strategy for those who are too patient, or have trouble getting started.
Question Why: Why is it so difficult to know when it’s time to jump in? How long is too long to make a move?
Personal Story: What my experience as a double dutch champion can teach you about not missing your turn to jump in.
In real life, there is no perfect time to jump in. If you wait too long, you won’t have enough time to complete the assignment.
Why this matters:
Pour the glass moment:
It’s comfortable to believe there is a perfect time or that there will be this sign to tell you to go. But there is no perfect time and no sign that can tell you that for sure.
Practical Tip: Step out of fear. Step out of your need to be perfect. Understand your power to make a move right now.
In practice: How to make this happen:
Homework:
Don’t sit on the dock for too long. Champions get in the rope quickly. No one wins an award for staying outside the rope.
Encouraging Word:
When you win, we all win. The world needs you at your best doing what only you can do, and doing that now.
Additional resources:
Link to my website: yvettesimpson.com
Link to the book: authoryvettesimpson.com
Link to my IG page @theyvettesimpson.com and DM us your comments and show ideas @powerofypodcast
Show credits:
Producer: Nathan Ivey IG/FB @nathaniveycreative
For all of my impatient listeners, learn why your impatience is a good thing, and when it is important to lean into patience.
What I learned about impatience on my ride to the studio to tape the podcast, and why I can’t get past the first line of the serenity prayer.
Question Why: Why is patience considered a good thing? Are there times when patience isn’t virtuous?
How I am slowly transitioning from Dorothy to Sophia as I get older, shifting from impatient and fired up to don't care and "let them."
Why this matters:
Practical tip: It’s not about right or wrong, it’s about balance. In any situation, learn when to wait, and when to rush in.
In practice: Let’s do this:
Homework:
Add patience to your to-do list this week. Before you rush in, ask yourself whether you need to be the person who fixes the problem or whether a different person or different tactic is required.
Encouraging Word
There is virtue in patience, at the right time, and in the right circumstances.
Additional resources:
Link to my website: yvettesimpson.com
Link to the book: authoryvettesimpson.com
Link to my IG page @theyvettesimpson.com and DM us your comments and show ideas @powerofypodcast
Show credits:
Producer: Nathan Ivey IG/FB @nathaniveycreative
If you are a FOMO person, we have a few tips for how you say “No” strategically to avoid misalignment and burnout.
What we might learn from New Zealand PM Jacinda ??? and Forrest Gump about stopping when you are done.
Question Why: Why is it so hard to say “NO” even when you’re tired and stretched thin?
What my first encounter with ABC taught me about the importance of saying “No” or “Not now” especially when you’re not ready.
Why this matters:
Practical tip: Don’t have more than you can hold in one hand.
In practice: Let’s do this:
Homework:
Confirm that the things you are doing are aligned. If a new opportunity arises, test to see if it is worth your time.
Encouraging Word
You are a precious gift. We need you at your best. Take the time to care for yourself and you will have more to give to the world.
Additional resources:
Link to my website: yvettesimpson.com
Link to the book: authoryvettesimpson.com
Link to my IG page @theyvettesimpson.com and DM us your comments and show ideas @powerofypodcast
Show credits:
Producer: Nathan Ivey IG/FB @nathaniveycreative
In this episode, we explore the importance of saying “YES,” especially if you are a JOMO (“Joy of Missing Out”) person who says NO most of the time.
What “Mikey” from the Life Cereal commercials can teach us about the Power of YES.
Question Why: Why don’t we start with YES? Why isn’t it our default position?
There is power in saying "YES" in our personal relationships, professional endeavors, and in our purpose work.
Why you should say “YES”:
The story about how saying YES helped me get past my fear of heights and my need to control everything.
Homework: Say “YES” to every opportunity that comes your way for a day and track the opportunities that come from that.
Encouraging Word: There is something great on the other side of your YES.
Additional resources:
Link to my website: yvettesimpson.com
Link to the book: authoryvettesimpson.com
Link to my IG page @theyvettesimpson.com and DM us your comments and show ideas @powerofypodcast
Show credits:
Producer: Nathan Ivey IG/FB @nathaniveycreative
This episode delves into the very real challenge of moving forward after a loss, and why it’s important and essential to beginning the next, best chapter of your life.
Question “Why” for this episode: Why is it so challenging to turn around, look ahead, and move forward after a loss?
What Jennifer Hudson’s elimination from American Idol teaches us about closed doors and open windows.
How I turned around from the closed door after I lost the mayor’s race and why doing that opened up windows of opportunity for me.
Are you staring at a door that is closed or are you refusing to close a door that needs to close?
Getting unstuck:
Homework:
What is the closed door that you are staring at that you can’t seem to turn around from? Imagine turning around from that door and walking toward the open window on the other side of the room.
Remember to subscribe, share, and leave a review.
Additional resources:
Link to my website: yvettesimpson.com
Link to the book: authoryvettesimpson.com
Link to my IG page @theyvettesimpson.com and DM us your comments and show ideas @powerofypodcast
Show credits:
Producer: Nathan Ivey IG/FB @nathaniveycreative
It is so tempting to either think about the past, good or bad or dream about the future. In reality, we can only live in the now. There is so much power in the present. In this week’s episode, join us as we explore the power of now.
What I learned about the Power of Now from the shows “Firefly Lane” and “This is Us.”
Question Why: Why is it so difficult to live in the now? What do we gain by remaining present and focusing on today?
How my Strengths Finder and my Enneagram results reveal why it is difficult for me to focus on now.
How my history-loving husband and my future-loving self try to focus on living every day.
The past has shaped you. It’s important to reflect on it. But you want to avoid getting stuck in the past.
Fixating on a perfect future can cause you to miss out on all the great things in the present.
The distractions of the past and the excitement of the future rob us of the opportunity to live in this moment.
Live and love every moment of every day. Appreciate it —It truly is a gift.
My journey with meditation and what it taught me about being present and grateful. It really is a practice.
Three practical ways to live in the now:
Focus on the work you are doing now. How do you make it more aligned with your passion and purpose?
As it relates to the past, take the lesson and leave the hurt. The emotional attachment to the past is often what keeps us stuck.
Try not to fantasize too much about the future or hold too tightly to what you think it will be. Remain realistic while also being open to the possibilities.
Homework: Try not to focus on the past or the future, good or bad, but on who you are today.
There is so much power in the present. We need you in this moment, at your best, giving your gifts to the world.
Remember to subscribe, share, and leave a review.
Additional resources:
Link to my website: yvettesimpson.com
Link to the book: authoryvettesimpson.com
Link to my IG page @theyvettesimpson.com and DM us your comments and show ideas @powerofypodcast
Show credits:
Producer: Nathan Ivey IG/FB @nathaniveycreative
Why Question: Why don’t we ask more questions? Does what we know, or what we think we know, hurt us?
Are you a member of People Pleasers Anonymous?
What we can learn from kids and their curiosity.
What happens when our desire to be right is often stronger than our right to be informed?
The world is not black or white. The good stuff is in the gray.
1. Get to the root of the truth
2. Step outside of your echo chamber
Pour the glass moment:
3. Engage with conflicting viewpoints
Three ways to “play in the gray” and why it’s important to do just that.
Homework for the week: Meet someone new and do something new.
Remember to subscribe, share, and leave a review.
Additional resources:
Link to my website: yvettesimpson.com
Link to the book: authoryvettesimpson.com
Link to my IG page @theyvettesimpson.com and DM us your comments and show ideas @powerofypodcast
Show credits:Producer:
Nathan Ivey IG/FB @nathaniveycreative