Let me invite you to stop comparing and compartmentalizing your churning emotional world.  Comparative grief is a dead-end street. The worst grief is always the YOUR grief.

Who you are today isn't who you have to be tomorrow.  Growth is hard and beautiful and worth it.  Greet the new versions of yourself with a kiss and be willing to part ways with what no longer serves you.  What would you say to a younger version of yourself?

Whether it is reaching quarterly goals, implementing new payment software, or facing the final semester of high school before your child goes off to college, may you feel (and co-create) confidence and competence to face the uncertainty ahead.

Remember, progress over perfection every time.  Don’t be a Self-Loathing Sally or an Avoidant Andy.  Instead, when you realize the gap between who you want to be and your actions, move into the gap with meaningful actions and communication.

Showing up for people doesn’t always feel easy.  While creating cultures of care at work, in friendships, at home, there are moments where you’d rather not.  Not write that text or come back early.  Not lean in and listen or show up.

Anniversaries are not just dates on a calendar, they are written in and on our bodies.  Maybe you also mark anniversaries with a bodily manifestation.  Or perhaps you feel particularly disembodied around times of remembering.

These Cheer-Up Cheryls have a gift of positivity and are usually driven by connection; they care about the other person and desperately want to make things “better”.

But they end up sounding tone-deaf and forcing the other person to either put up a happy facade or to shut down into silence. 

Many of you know me from a stage or a conference room, where I appear professional and talk easily about empathy and human-centric skills.  But in today’s newsletter, I want to give you a snapshot of a younger, desperate and grieving Liesel.

Shame is a crappy motivator. Shame can get you short-term results, but in the long term, it demeans your people and undercuts your authority as a leader. Communicating boundaries and expectations with trust shows confident, caring leadership.

How can you support someone in your life or on your team as they go through the death of a pet? Here are just a few of the meaningful gestures that our community sent our way after we lost Tozer.  Maybe they can inspire you as you consider care for those that have lost a pet.

If you want to build sustainable cultures of care, you need to learn kindness towards those pieces/versions of yourself that you are *currently* meeting with disdain or dread.

Showing up for others means showing up in a way that matters to them…and this sometimes involves setting aside your ego.