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In this episode, Leah interviews special guest, Jessica Klassen, who is the founder of Ripple Boxes, which are encouraging Christian gift boxes.
Leah and Jessica discuss caring for others and Ripple Boxes, talking about what they are and how they bless others through who they go to, those who send them, the small businesses the items in the boxes come from, and the people who the small businesses help and support.
Jessica shares her story about wanting to make a difference in the world and reminding others of Godâs love and how the Ripple Boxes came to be from this passion. She also explains her passion for helping those in trafficking and poverty and how the small businesses she works with help people with those struggles.
Leah and Jessica then discuss the progress of the company, the difference it has made, and how it has impacted many lives. Jessica also gives some advice on how to be a light and see people in a more intentional way and build relationships with them.
If youâre interested in Ripple Boxes or contacting Jessica, her website and email address are:
www.rippleboxes.com
Jessica is also gifting her Gratitude Journal to listeners and viewers of this podcast. To access it, follow this link:
https://www.pages.rippleboxes.com/freebie-9398-7212-4755
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What is the DISC model, and what is it used for?
In this episode, Leah interviews counselor and certified coach, Michelle Kessler.
Leah and Michelle discuss the DISC model of human behavior, explaining what it is and how others use it in professional and personal settings like at work and with family and friends. Michelle shares what each letter stands for and expands on what that looks like and how it shows up in individuals. She also explains how this tool helps with understanding ourselves and others, communicating, and strengthening our connections.
They continue on to talk about how the model assists with our self awareness and our relationships, and the two explain how that might look within the family dynamic in understanding our spouses and children better which can be empowering and lead to stronger relationships. The results of understanding the model in ourselves and others may look like less conflict and stress, more connection and stability, and assistance in navigating relationships.
If you are interested in learning more about Michelle and her work, or if you are interested in working with her, her contact information is below.
Michelle Kessler
Kessler Coaching and Consulting
Music credits: Holizna - Poor, but Happy
Edited and produced by Beruna Studios - berunastudios.com
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After spending some time looking at ourselves and our values, priorities, wants, and needs, Leah is shifting the focus to relating to others, relationships, and how all those things weâve been looking at in ourselves translate and play out within our relationships.
We are wired for relationships, and there are a few key components to building and maintaining those relationships. Leah discusses the importance of curiosity, believing the best, and gratitude within relationships.
She also explains a frame of looking at our relationships like accounts, not that theyâre transactional, but so weâre mindful of what we put in and receive. She expands on âdepositsâ and âwithdrawalsâ and what that looks like within our relationships.
Over the next few episodes, we will continue to discuss relating to others and how the information from the last several episodes translates into our relationships.
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In this episode, Leah moves on to discuss one of the influential aspects of frameworks, which is boundaries. She explains more in detail about what they are, why theyâre important, and how to create and maintain them.
Boundaries are the limits that keep you and your relationships safe. In life, we have boundaries all around us in different physical forms like fences and walls and even the lines on roads. These examples all keep us safe and show us limits.
Interpersonally, boundaries provide safety for us and our relationships. They protect our time, space, and energy and are about us, not the other person. Some may see boundaries as constricting, but theyâre really a safety mechanism and a basic function. When used correctly, theyâre not to control others or manipulate them, but to provide safety within our relationships. They also help us know what our responsibilities are and for others to know what theirs are. They are helpful and crucial for healthy relationships.
In practice, boundaries may look like not eating certain things because they donât make you feel good, or not drinking alcohol or rules around what you let others borrow of yours.
When creating boundaries, ask yourself what the things are that help to fulfill your wants and needs and that maintain your personal space, time, values, and needs.
Having boundaries helps our frameworks and knowing them ahead of time allows us to have those frameworks before weâre presented with a question or opportunity. Theyâre also important for being able to fit in those things that are important to us and the things we need to get done.
When enforcing boundaries, itâs important to use stand-up words like âI wonâtâ so that you can give strong, empowered answers instead of a partial yes or no. Itâs kind to give a clear answer and to have those boundaries since it helps give the other person clarity on where you stand and what to expect from you.
Music credits: Holizna - Poor, but Happy
Edited and produced by Beruna Studios - berunastudios.com
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In this episode, Leah discusses decision making, decision fatigue, and frameworks to lessen the toll of decisions.
In life, there are many opportunities and decisions that arise, and it can help to have âunshakeable unbreakablesâ or frameworks based on personal rules, values, and priorities. These frameworks can help protect you from decision fatigue, over giving and depleting your energy, and keep you oriented towards the things you want in life.
With some decisions, having personal rules makes the decision for you before you face a question, which can help take the pressure off in the moment. Taking your priorities and values to make a framework can look like personal rules, time blocking, and personal purpose statements. Time blocking helps to balance life and work, allowing for focus on specific commitments in their dedicated time block.
With personal purpose statements or personal constitutions, you can compare opportunities to what your purpose is and see how it aligns with your values and priorities and how they fit into what you want in your life. In Leahâs Burnout Buster Blueprint, she works with others to create their personal constitutions. Having your own personal purpose statement or constitution helps take the pressure off when opportunities and decisions arise, protecting you from decision fatigue and pressured yeses. You can compare opportunities to this framework and ask questions like âwill this help with what I want in life or will it pull me away from where I want to goâ or âdoes this align with my priorities?â
Having these frameworks already set in place can reduce pressure and decision fatigue while bringing relief, peace, and confidence, allowing for empowered nos and resounding yeses.
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Do you have trouble saying "no"? Do you worry about letting others down or missing out on an opportunity because you say "no"? In this episode, Leah discusses saying "no", why itâs important, and how to practice this in your life. When we say yes, we are also saying "no" to other things.
Sometimes situations come into our lives that are simple yeses or easy nos, but other times we may struggle with saying "no". Saying "no" is an important muscle that we need to exercise, not only for our own protection, but for others.
Expressing a direct "no" helps us to feel empowered, and it protects our time and energy while also being kind to the other person. We can use stand-up words like âI wonâtâ or âI donâtâ when we say "no", and we can express our appreciation for the consideration.
Sometimes saying "no" can be difficult if our brains arenât used to it, so practicing with ourselves or friends can help rewire our pathways and make saying "no" easier when the time comes.
Learning how to say "no" and exercising this muscle is important since it protects and empowers us while showing kindness to those on the other end.
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In this episode, Leah reviews some of the things we've learned about finding and setting our priorities. When we don't know what we should be aiming at, life can often feel like a game of Chutes and Ladders. You work so hard only to find yourself sliding back to where you were ten moves ago. That's why it's important that when we set our priorities, we are setting them with a clear understanding of our values and our roles.
It's also important that we are intentional about how we set our priorities and spend our time. If we don't establish priorities (and boundaries) we will often find that we are ruled by the demands of the day, and not the other way around. We can also find ourselves acting upon other people's priorities to the neglect of our own.
Now is a good time to figure out what your priorities are. Set aside a little time with a pencil and paper, follow with Leah as she guides you through the process, and refer back to other episodes as needed.
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Life is chaotic. You've got a million things all demanding your attention and you feel like the things you really want or need to get done just never get done. You thought you would have time for them later, but that time has mysteriously disappeared. Where did it go? It may be time for you to do a time audit.
In this episode Leah walks us through the process of time auditing: tracking your time so you can find out how you are actually spending it. She discusses some of the reasons you may want or need to do one yourself. As it turns out, we tend to give ourselves more time for things that don't matter than we should, or more time for things that do matter than we really need.
One of the side benefits of time auditing is that it can reveal other things that affect our effectiveness, like our energy. When am I most energetic at my best? When am I feeling drained? When is the best time for me to do mental work?
Leah suggests that once we've tracked our time we can begin working to budget for the really important things, and let everything else squeeze in where they can.
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Have you ever felt stuck, not because you couldn't move, but because you didn't feel you could stop long enough to take a breath? Have you ever wondered how some people seem to know exactly where they need to direct their attention.
Priorities are tied to our values and our situations. Our values can inform us on which decisions will help us succeed, when all else is equal. But sometimes we encounter unexpected cicumstances that can create a complete shift in priorities overnight (for example, an serious injury or a promotion). Having a system for dealing with incoming tasks and changes in circumstance can help us keep thriving, and prevent things from getting out of control.
In this episode, Leah gives an overview of the four quadrants in First Things First, by Stephen Covey and Roger and Rebecca Merrill. She explains how we can begin to prioritize our work, and why we absolutely must. For those of us who feel like slaves to the urgent, knowing what is important, what is not, and giving attention to the tasks that will bear the most fruit in the long haul is key to not only reducing our overall stress, but helping us gain traction in our lives by helping us work on what really matters.
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April 2, 2024
Flourishing Flame: From Burning Out to Burning Bright
Ep. 24: Knowing what comes first: Priorities Overview
When you have a lot to do it can be difficult to know what to do first. That is where priorities come in. In this episode, Leah offers an overview on priorities. They help you to make sure you are doing the right thing the right way - really the best thing in the optimal way.
Knowing our own priorities is important. If we do not prioritize our lives, we run the risk of the important things falling through the cracks and being super busy without getting accomplished what we truly need to do. None of us can do everything, so knowing our priorities can help us determine what is truly important and what is busy work that robs us of our time and energy.
Download your Values List here!
Contact Leah at leahlittlebrown.com for a special offer on your DISC Assessment results!
Edited and produced by Beruna Studios - berunastudios.com
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March 25, 2024
Flourishing Flame: From Burning Out to Burning Bright
Ep. 23: Capacity: Knowing your limits
You know that feeling you get when you have more on your plate than you can comfortably handle? Or maybe you feel completely overwhelmed and youâre just in survival mode. These are signs you may have extended yourself past your capacity.
Your capacity is the limit of what you are able to contain, or what you are able to produce. It is unique to each person and situation and is linked to our energy and our motivation. When other aspects of our lives (for example, our values) are in proper alignment, we find ourselves more motivated, with more energy, and therefore with a higher capacity for work and enjoyment. The reverse is also true. If you are making decisions that are not aligned with your personal values, you can find yourself feeling low on motivation and energy, and therefore with less capacity.
Knowing our own capacity is important. If we donât know our own limits, we risk overcommitting and burning out, or undercommitting and never really knowing our full potential. None of us can do everything, so knowing our capacity can inform us on when to say yes (and no) and how to manage our valuable time, energy, and resources.
Download your Values List here!
Contact Leah at leahlittlebrown.com for a special offer on your DISC Assessment results!
Ad music credits: Holizna - Poor, but Happy
Edited and produced by Beruna Studios - berunastudios.com
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March 19, 2024
Flourishing Flame: From Burning Out to Burning Bright
Ep. 22: Personal Values: Motivation and Setting Better Goals.
How do I choose a career field? Who should I pick as a coworker for a project? How do I find motivation to pursue new goals? What should I do (or not do) next? Why do I sometimes feel conflicted when I try to get work done? All of these questions touch on our personal values.
Personal values are the standards by which we measure our own success. They are how we judge what is important and what is trivial. Everyone has them, and in the last episode Leah discussed some of the ways our personal values are formed. In this episode, Leah gives some examples of values and explains how they can affect our decision making.
While values might restrict our effectiveness in some areas (for example, someone who values excellence may have a hard time actually finishing a project or publishing their work), they can also be tools for motivation and evaluation. Perhaps youâd like to exercise more. If you value nature and solitude, it may be much easier to commit to a weekly hike than a crossfit class. On the other hand, if you value social connection and fun, then a class or group sport may be right up your alley.
When we live out of line with our personal values, we may end up feeling stuck, apathetic, or unsatisfied with our work and life situations. If this is where you find yourself, take a minute to reflect on your own values by clicking the link below, and ask yourself: am I making decisions that correspond to my values?
Download your Values List here!
Contact Leah at leahlittlebrown.com for a special offer on your DISC Assessment results!
Music credits: Holizna - Poor, but Happy
Edited and produced by Beruna Studios - berunastudios.com
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March 12, 2024
Flourishing Flame: From Burning Out to Burning Bright
Ep. 21: Personal Values: What are they and where do they come from?
Where do our personal values come from? How do they help us understand ourselves and others? What are personal values? How are they connected to our experiences?
In this episode Leah will discuss some of the factors that help (or hurt) the formation of our values, including communities, generational differences, and even our historical moment. This can have a major impact on how we evaluate stories from other cultures and times, and even how we see our own story.
Not all values are received equally. Some we absorb and internalize completely. Others we hold only loosely, as guidelines. Still others may be rejected outright, or over time as we learn and grow and change. Some may be a reaction toward the values of others (for example, a person who grew up in a cluttered home might embrace minimalism).
When we understand our own values, we can learn to live in line with them and have a greater sense of purpose, peace, and fulfillment. We can also better understand our own motivations and ensure we are spending our time doing the things we actually want to do.
Download your Values List here!
Contact Leah at leahlittlebrown.com
Music credits: Holizna - Poor, but Happy
Edited and produced by Beruna Studios - berunastudios.com
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Every personâs uniqueness is shaped by their personality, their experiences, and their values. Over the past few weeks, Leah has explored different personalities in depth. Now we take a look at experiences, and how they can potentially impact each of us.
Each of us has a library of experiences as unique to them as a thumbprint. The dynamics of their family, their ethnicity, the regional cultures they grew up in and encountered, their education, their relationships, and their successes and failures are just a few examples of factors that can have a major impact in the shaping of a person.
Leah also explains that when we consider our experiences, we also need to consider our responses as a part of that experience. For example, identical twins who do not have the same level of strength because of how they have chosen to engage in athletic activities. Even though they have identical DNA, their experiences have been different because their responses have been different.
What experiences have you had that have shaped who you are and how you interact with the world around you?
Take your DISC assessment here!
Download your Values List here!
Contact Leah at leahlittlebrown.com for a special offer on your DISC Assessment results!
Music credits: Holizna - Poor, but Happy
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Personal development involves a commitment to strengthening areas where we may be lacking. And, for many of us thatâs a struggle with conflict. In todayâs episode Leah explores how the DISC assessment plays a crucial role in navigating conflicts and fostering personal development.
The DISC assessment provides valuable insights into our communication styles, decision-making processes, and behavioral tendencies. Conflicts are inevitable in human relationships, and they can either create a rift or serve as catalysts for personal and relational growth. Leah reminds listeners on how essential it is to hit pause and reflect on the personalities involved. What is the personality type of the person you're in conflict with?
In rounding out this series on the deep dive into the DISC Assessment, it's crucial to emphasize the transformative power of self-awareness and understanding others. The DISC Assessment stands out as a valuable tool for understanding personality dynamics. By using this framework during moments of conflict, individuals can transform challenges into opportunities for personal growth and relationship development.
Take the Disc Assessment
Contact Leah at leahlittlebrown.com for a special offer on your Disc Assessment Results
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In the pursuit of personal and professional growth, Leah embarked on a journey to explore the intricacies of personality types through the DISC assessment. It's essential to recognize that each of us embodies aspects of all four personality types to varying degrees. In today's episode, Leah is eager to shed light on the significance of understanding these traits in both professional and personal realms.
Exploring our personality types provides valuable insights into our strengths and areas for growth. Recognizing and accepting our tendencies allows us to adapt our behaviors to work more effectively in various situations. Leah encourages listeners to bring this understanding of personality traits into the workplace. Acknowledging and respecting diverse personalities is crucial for fostering a positive and productive environment. By recognizing each team member's strengths, we can allocate tasks accordingly.
Similar principles apply to family dynamics. Understanding the unique personality types within a family can lead to more effective communication and conflict resolution. As we grow in our understanding of ourselves and others, the ability to adapt and negotiate becomes a valuable skill. In both work and personal settings, individuals can negotiate responsibilities based on their strengths, leading to a more efficient and satisfying outcome.
As we evolve in our self-awareness and understanding of others, the ability to adapt and negotiate becomes a valuable skill. We can navigate the complexities of our personal and professional lives with adaptability, compassion, and a keen appreciation for the diverse strengths that each individual brings to the table.
Take the Disc Assessment
Contact Leah at leahlittlebrown.com for a special offer on your Disc Assessment Results
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Positioned as the fourth personality in the DISC assessment, the C personality stands out for its remarkable competence and inherent leaning towards caution. In todayâs episode, Leah uncovers the various layers woven inside the C personality that enhance our understanding of others and lays a foundation for personal development and fostering relationships.
The C personality is characterized by competence and caution. Individuals with this personality type possess a deep-seated desire to comprehend the underlying reasons for their actions. Unlike some other personalities, they are not content with just the "what" and "how" â the "why" is equally crucial to them.
The C personality is often associated with a more serious demeanor. Their focus on detail and precision can create an air of intensity as they navigate through tasks with meticulous care. This seriousness, however, is an indication of their commitment to excellence.
The beauty of recognizing and understanding the various personality types, including the "C" personality, lies in its ability to foster effective communication and collaboration. By acknowledging the competence and caution that define the C personality, you can tailor your approach to encourage, support, and show appreciation to individuals with this trait.
Utilizing the DISC assessment doesn't just stop at gaining insights into individual personalities â it extends to understanding the dynamics within teams and families. Recognizing the diversity of personalities within a group allows for a more harmonious environment, where each personâ's strengths and preferences are valued.
Take the Disc Assessment
Contact Leah at leahlittlebrown.com for a special offer on your Disc Assessment Results
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The S personality stands as a pillar of support and compassion, quietly enriching the lives of those around them. Characterized by their reserved yet people-oriented nature, individuals with an S personality blend bring a unique set of qualities to the table. In todayâs episode Leah brings listeners into the essence of the S personality and explores how their innate traits shape their interactions and contributions to the world.
Whether youâre an S personality or know someone who is an S, knowing the heart of an S allows you to understand their deep sense of empathy and concern for others. They are the listeners, the caregivers, and the ones who offer unwavering support in times of need. Their quiet strength and reliability make them the backbone of families, friendships, and communities.
While the nurturing nature of S personalities is admirable, it also presents challenges. These individuals may struggle to assert their own needs and boundaries, often putting the well-being of others ahead of their own. To thrive, individuals with an S personality blend can benefit from learning to prioritize self-care and assertiveness.
Leah guides listeners through the S personality and how they embody the essence of support, compassion, and empathy. Their quiet strength and selfless nature enrich the lives of everyone they touch. By understanding and appreciating the unique qualities of the S personality, we can foster deeper connections, build stronger communities, and create a more compassionate world.
Take the Disc Assessment
Contact Leah at leahlittlebrown.com for a special offer on your Disc Assessment Results
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The DISC model serves as a valuable framework for understanding and categorizing personality types and over the past few weeks Leah has been unpacking the various personality traits. Each letter in the DISC acronym represents a distinct behavioral style, and today, Leahâs focus is on the I â the inspiring, impulsive individual who makes up only about 1% of the population.
At the heart of the I personality type is a vibrant and extroverted individual who thrives on being the center of attention. These are the people who bring life to the party, radiating energy and enthusiasm wherever they go. Their love for life and having fun make them magnetic personalities.
However, like any personality type, the I comes with its set of challenges. Undisciplined by nature, they may struggle with maintaining order and organization in their lives. Their impulsive nature can lead to difficulties in keeping a structured schedule and managing time effectively.
Leah gives listeners valuable insight on recognizing their natural ability to inspire and bring positivity into a team is valuable, but it's equally important to support them in areas where they may struggle. Whether you are an "I" or collaborate with one, understanding and appreciating these traits can lead to more fulfilling relationships.
Take the Disc Assessment
Contact Leah at leahlittlebrown.com for a special offer on your Disc Assessment Results
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