Episodes

This is the last episode around the book: The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz To summarize, The Four Agreements are: First Agreement: Be impeccable with your word Second Agreement: Don't take anything personally Third Agreement: Don't make assumptions Fourth Agreement: Always do your best Today, I’m going to focus on the last agreement: Always do your best. Don Miguel Ruiz defines this Fourth Agreement as: 1. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-...

On the last episode, I spoke about “Don't take anything personally” – the second agreement from the book: The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. In this episode, I focus on the Third Agreement – Don't make assumptions. Don Miguel Ruiz summarizes this agreement as: Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really wantCommunicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness, and drama Don't Make Assumptions Easier said than done. We have a natural tendency...

On the last episode, I focused on the the first agreement from the book: The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. I spoke about “Be impeccable with your word" and reflected on the Power of Words. I even shared some insights from recent psychological research that can help us take this concept to next level, and avoid “The Inverse Power of Praise” Today, I want to focus on the Second Agreement - Don't take anything personally. Ruiz summarizes this agreement as: 1. Nothing others do is because of y...

On the last episode I spoke about the book: The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. I explored what Ruiz calls Self-Limiting Beliefs. I call them Mindset Blind-Spots because we are not aware that we hold them, and yet we filter our experiences through them. I even started a 7-day Awareness Challenge for myself. Just to become aware of some of my self-limiting beliefs, and to try to articulate them. The reality is that we all have many of these Mindset Blind-Spots. Don Miguel Ruiz suggests to rep...

At the beginning of the year, I like to re-read books that impacted me in the past. This year, I decided to read again The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. It’s a beautifully written short book that calls our attention to the many self-limiting beliefs we hold in our lives. The author, Don Miguel Ruiz, calls these beliefs agreements. I like to call them Mindset Blind-Spots, because we are not aware that we hold them, yet we filter our experiences through them. According to Don Miguel Ruiz, if...

Perfection - I strive for perfection. I always did, and I still do. I like to do things as well as possible. I'm always looking for ways to improve. I know that perfection is an illusion. It's impossible to produce something totally flawless, but why not to try to create something as good as possible. In preparation to produce this Podcast, I invested the time and money to learn from the Podcast Answer Man, Cliff Ravenscraft. To launch this podcast, I invested the time and money to learn from Jo...

During this episode, I interviewed my mentor Michael Port about the Think BIG MindSet. Michael Port has been called an "uncommonly honest author" by the Boston Globe, and a "marketing guru" by The Wall Street Journal. He has written 5 bestselling books including Book Yourself Solid, Beyond Booked Solid, The Contrarian Effect, the New York Times Bestseller, The Think Big Manifesto, and Book Yourself Solid Illustrated Edition. He is also known as “The guy to call when you are tired of thinking sma...

The idea behind this podcast is that our mindsets determine the way we see the world. And, because it’s so easy to stay stuck in Fixed Mindsets, that prevents us from learning new things, it’s vital to intentionally cultivate Growth Mindsets. These concepts of Fixed and Growth Mindsets are based on the work of Carol Dweck, a Stanford University psychologist. In her book–Mindset: The New Psychology of Success–she describes decades of research about why people succeed or fail, and how the Fixed an...

I had a thought provoking conversation with Sarah Thompson, a financial expert, on how to overcome the fear of running out of money. I invited Sarah, because she has a well of experiences, from working on the corporate world, to her own personal struggles with debt, finances, and success. Now she brings it all together in her own coaching and consulting business - MoreMoneyMentoring.com. Love to hear your comments about this conversation. Others links: Mindset.Zone/8 - Episode 008: React or Crea...

If you are trying to make a difference – with whatever you are doing at this moment in your life – do you see age as an advantage or a disadvantage? Today, in our western society, a common belief is that as we age, our opportunities to make a difference diminish. Often we rationalize our inertia. We feel we are too old to make a deep impact in the world. We want to make a difference, but can we really make it happen? We listen to the amazing stories of Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. They started work...

Take a minute to do this awareness exercise: Look around the room and count how many red objects you see. Write that number down. Now that you know how many red objects you saw, do you have any idea how many blue objects were there? If you are like most of us, you didn’t notice the blue objects. So look around one more time and count the blue objects around you. Quite amazing! It’s similar to when we buy a new car and suddenly we are more aware of a particular brand or color. If our mind is focu...

Why do we spend so long to decide about a name? The name of our children, the name of our pets, the name of our business. I spent a long time thinking about how to name this podcast. If you followed me from the inception of this show, you know that I started as the "Self-Employed Professional Making a Difference” Podcast. Yet, I decided to rebrand it as the Mindset Zone. I explained my reasoning in the new reloaded Episode 1 (click here to listen it). I now understand better some Native American...

Most people agree how important it is to be grateful. Research in Psychology also supports the power of gratitude. In her book–The How of Happiness–Sonja Lyubomirsky, dedicates a full chapter to this topic. She uses a definition from a world’s leading expert on gratitude–Robert Emmons: Gratitude is “a felt sense of wonder, thankfulness, and appreciation for life." [Tweet "Gratitude is a felt sense of wonder, thankfulness, and appreciation for life. - R. Emmons"] In her book, she shares the multi...

Think about a time when you lost your car keys, and you are already running late. You know that they have to be somewhere in your house, and you almost sure that you left them in the kitchen, but you can't see them anywhere. You feel the stress build and know that doesn’t help, but it’s seems impossible to stop all your negative thoughts and emotions. Negative emotions are very strong and our body is wired for a quick response to negativity. This happens because negative emotions have a survival...

One of my favorite books is Viktor Frankl’s “Man’s Search For Meaning.” It’s a powerful book, divided into two parts. Part One is an account of Frankl’s experiences as a prisoner in several concentration camps during the Second Word War. His recollections are sad, moving, and inspiring. One of my favorite passages: “... any attempt to restore a man’s inner strength in the camp has first to succeed in showing him some future goal. Nietzsche’s words, “He who has a why to live for can bear with alm...

I received touching comments from Episode 4 where I focused on Carol Dweck's book, “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success." Here are a few: "If you ever wanted to make a difference in the world, you certainly did change my world with this podcast." "What a great topic, Ana. I've read Dr. Dweck's book and it really had a positive impact in my life." "I started believing something very different, that this is a skill set that I can build with practice and intention." Learning about Growth and Fix...

Not long ago, I read a book entitled: So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love The author, Cal Newport, argues that “follow your passion” is bad advice. So often, we hear this advice “follow your passion”, that we don't question its validity. What I love about Cal Newport’s book is that it’s truly thought provoking, and questions that assumption that so many people have that “follow your passion” is the most effective way to find the work we love. It...

The secret of success for self-employed professionals is developing a growth mindset. What does that mean? Let me define the opposite - fixed mindset. In a fixed mindset, we believe our basic qualities, such as intelligence or talents are set. We believe that we were born with certain talents that determine who we are and what we can achieve in our lives. In a growth mindset, we believe that through dedication and hard work we can develop our talents and skills sets. We are open to learning and ...

Last week I spoke about the Art of Repurposing and a new perspective from the Icarus Myth I learned from one of my favorite authors: Seth Godin. During that episode, I said: If we want to succeed, we may fail many times. Now, I want to correct myself: If we want to succeed, we must fail many times. We must build a strong failure resilience if we want success. It took me a long time to internalize this maximum, and I have to admit it’s not always comfortable to follow. Two resources that help me ...

As Self-Employed Professionals, we have to wear many hats. When we start our business, we soon realize that we also have to be our own marketing director, bookkeeper, sales person, webmaster, editor, and admin. Of course, we can bring people on board to delegate some of this work. In any case, to learn the art of repurposing content is an essential skill to develop. So, I'm walking my talk. In this Self-Employed Professionals Making a Difference podcast episode, I'm repurposing content from my w...

Listen to this episode to get a feeling of what MINDSET ZONE is all about. This way, you can choose to subscribe and follow the MINDSET ZONE podcast.