Encouragement Archives - Greatness Magnified

March…Ahem April Break? New Family Rituals You Will Want to Keep

April 8, 2021 By Sarah McVanel Leave a Comment

Here in Ontario, it’s been a topsy-turvy school year (I know for you fellow homeschooling parents, that’s the understatement of the year).

For many of you, you’re experiencing March Break not in March but this week, and it’s “OMG we do not need MORE time together!” So how do we keep on keeping on when tensions run high? When there is, at times, a little too much togetherness? When it’s much of the same old same old?

New traditions (a bath, book and washroom door that locks also wouldn’t hurt).

In this post, I’m sharing some new traditions that we’ve been experimenting with that have brought joy back into togetherness. Use these as a launching pad for other ideas, trying new rituals and bringing back old traditions.”

Here are some great ideas to help create Family Greatness over the break:

The Hygge Game – Great conversation starter card game
FROG Tributes – What a wonderful way to acknowledge something great in others
Greatness Bingo – Click the link to download, if you’re not already a member, join…it’s full of Great Happy resources!
Big Fun Pictionary – Generate Pictionary words by clicking the link
Globe Mondays – Spin a globe, pick a place and create and enjoy a meal of authentic food from that country!

I hope that you and those closest to you give one or more of these a try over the March (or April) Break. They are all great ways to connect on a fun level at any age. I know my family (of 3 generations) all had a blast and I am sure yours will too!

Here are a few more resources that will help you to keep bringing joy to those you are spending your time with:

And always remember…You Are Already Greatness!

PS. Virtual has opened up the opportunity to celebrate rockstars across North America. That’s why we are hosting the Nurses Week Resiliency Reboot and so far, has small to large healthcare organizations across North America joining together to recognize their clinical folks. Want to join us? And please, spread the message. We can have a HUGE impact through virtual connection and support.

Self Love: How to Stop Being so Hard on Yourself & Leverage Unconditional Recognition

April 1, 2021 By Sarah McVanel Leave a Comment

Have you ever found yourself:

Prioritizing someone else over time you set aside for yourself
Giving yourself a negative label (e.g., “Control Freak” “Bossy”)
Saying meaner things to yourself than you’d ever say to someone else
Breaking promises to yourself

I get it. I have. In fact, I grew up believing that this was what being an adult was all about. “Responsible people” put kids, the job, laundry, mortgage, inbox before everything else (fun is for Sunday nights between 8 and 10 pm, vacations once every five years, retirement…)

Here was my “this is 40” realization: The more we deny our own greatness, shirk off compliments from others, hold ourselves in lower regard than others, and are uncompassion with ourselves, the more we form confidence deconstructing habits.

Does this resonate with you?

If you are only good enough when ____, if _, or because _ recognition of self is conditional.

Recognition conditional based on ‘when’ may lead us to appreciate some time in the future (versus being curious what is working in the present)
Recognition conditional upon ‘if’ is conditional in meeting a goal (versus the progress toward it or being compassionate if we regress back)
Recognition conditional to ‘because is often based upon external validation (versus based on what we most want and need)

Anytime recognition is conditional, we get caught up in binary thinking; I am either worthy or I’m not; I am either good enough or not good enough; I am either winning or losing. Maybe it’s a continuum rather than good enough being a bar so high that it’s almost impossible to reach and if you do, the fall is that much more painful when we slip. We are human after all.

In the “Flip Side of Failing“, I implore you to consider your failure resilient versus resistant mindset.

Want a hack to shift that mindset. Well, I have one inspired by the Dalai Lama when he spoke about love leading to compassion in “The Book of Joy.” I’ve taken that to heart, and decided to share with you a hack I’m using with myself and with my clients, that’s making some serious inroads in self-compassion and believe in the mantra, professed by Brene Brown in her work on shame reduction, “I’m doing the best I can.“

Self Love Exercise

List what it means to love someone (your partner, child, BFF)
Circle which ones you do for yourself
Decide from this list which one self-love strategy will help you with the current challenge
Complete this sentence: “I used to _. I am in the process of ____“

Huge thanks to my dear speaker friend Nathalie Plamondon-Thomas for teaching me the last step of this process. Pure magic.

Who needs a reminder that they are deserving of love, including self-love? Will you share this with them and remind them they are worth it?

For more great tips on self-recognition, check out these resources:

PS. – Our amazing healthcare and essentials services folks have been telling me that they feel they’re not doing enough, they’re burnt out, they’re feeling they’re not doing enough. Will you PLEASE reach out to the rockstar frontline folks you know and say, “Hey, have you done a reality check lately about how amazingly well you’ve done through this?”

PPS. – We’re celebrating one of those amazing healthcare groups. Nurses Week in Canada is May 10-16th and we’ve launched the inaugural North America-wide Nurses Week Resiliency Reboot experience. Busy healthcare organizations, we’ve taken the load off you to plan an amazing event to be or add to your plans. Nurses, in fact, everyone is welcome to come and celebrate with you, when your organization invites you, we guarantee amazing content to boost your resiliency, hope and self-love. Learn more below and please pass it on. Let’s ensure not one single nurse doubts their greatness.

Answers for Setting Your Virtual Recognition Intention

March 25, 2021 By Sarah McVanel Leave a Comment

I had the honour of speaking for an amazing group of leaders about how to effectively recognize in a virtual world. They had so many fabulous questions. It occurred to me you may have some of the same questions.

Here are the Answers for Setting Your Virtual Recognition Intention:

How do we build some cultural competence around our recognition acts?
With retention being low – does recognition assist with retention?
Is there such a thing as too much recognition?
How do you motivate a team member who just wants to do ‘working hours and go home without being intrusive? How do we entice their interest?
How do we make it personal to who we are recognizing and making it real?
How do you address the negative Nellys who say “what about us” we are working too?

If you would like to catch the live answers, you can watch the video and even scroll to the questions that are top of mind for you.

Do you have more questions? Email me at info@greatnessmagnified.com and we’ll create a juicy list for a follow-up video soon.

Here are a few more “Your Leadership Questions Answered” videos to view…you never know, you just may be wondering the same things. These videos are full of juicy questions and answers that so many of you great leaders are needing at this time! I know that you will find some great tips to help you create your Virtual Recognition Program and learn more about finding Greatness in the Flip Side of Failing.

What are you doing for Nurses Week?

March 16, 2021 By Sarah McVanel Leave a Comment

Healthcare peeps!

I have been listening. I promise. I hear mass burnout, extreme stress, exhaustion. I hear you’re doing the very best you can and yet you don’t feel it’s enough. I hear that whether you are in direct patient care, support services, or a formal leader, you’re crossing your fingers that COVID is over soon (while also worried if you and others will have anything left once it’s passed).

I get it.

Okay, so I got to thinking. What could I do? I’ve tried to help a few different ways – writing ROCKSTAR (which I will gift you here), creating custom VLOGs and blogs by request, gave advice from your SOS emails, texts or calls, and yet, I think there is still more I think I can do.

Then it hit me in a juicy convo with a fellow healthcare speaker, Stephanie Staples: we could take Nurses Week off of your hands and make it phenomenal for your nurses.

Nurses Week Resiliency Reboot was born!

Here are three things you can do to make Nurses Week amazing this year:
1. text, message or call up a nurse TODAY and say “thank you, thank you, thank you…i.e., don’t wait until nurses week to show appreciation!
2. If you’re a nurse, forward this link to anyone who is responsible for nurses week to say, “Hey, we should do this here”
3. If you’re a nurse leader, contact us through the link about doing something really special for your team or the whole organization.

Last year was “The Year of the Nurse.” Well, let’s just all agree nurses deserve a redo. And we’d like to help.

Yours in greatness,

Sarah

Link to the Nurse’s Week event page

Link to FREE ROCKSTAR book