Paige Power

  One thing I’ve learned over the years is that when you lead, your followers will find fault in your decisions. It doesn’t matter if you are a mom or dad heading up your household, the CEO of a large corporation, or the president of the United States. There are always naysayers questioning your decision-making skills. My experience has been that the naysayers rarely take the leap to actually leading. They are comfortable in their lane of criticizing. The question is why then would you want to be a leader? It is easier to be a follower. No one asks a follower why they made the choice they made. You never get caught holding the “bag” when you follow; you can always point your finger at the person calling the shots. Leaders have many advantages; the best is that when you lead, you make the decisions. I dislike being beholden to others and I dislike being told what to do. I’ve been a rebel since I was a kid, and I guess that trait runs deep in me. I’d much rather be in charge of ...

  I’m continuing with the ten habits I plan to develop this year. Habit seven is all about self-reflection. Self-reflection is hard but worth it. People who practice self-reflection will have a better understanding of their inherent strengths, and see improvement in those areas. I often feel that when I’m trying to make improvements in areas I’m weak; I fail. However, when I focus on areas where I’m already powerful, I improve, and that is a great feeling. We can’t all be astronauts, some of us are gardeners. I try not to waste energy on areas that are not aligned with who I am in my heart. You can use self-reflection to identify deeply held values and to focus on your goals so that they are aligned with your values. For example, I believe in a frugal lifestyle. I want to help others see the benefit of living frugally, therefore I have a goal of writing books and blog posts with frugal living as an area of focus. My values are aligned with my goals, and my belief system is int...

  Recently I was listening to a doctor explain her area of expertise on an NPR program. Her topic was within my echo chamber so I should have been highly attuned to listen to her evidence and for her to make her point. However, as an academic she didn’t have great presentation skills. I found her unlistenable. Folks, that makes me sad. She simply was not able to present her facts without fillers. Fillers in speech include the sounds um and uh, and words ‘like’ and ‘so’. If only she had the benefit of speech class. I believe people use fillers because in our society most listeners are preparing to chime in with their opinion. We have learned that we have to speak continuously otherwise we will be interrupted. We say “umm” to hold off the interruption. Becoming an excellent public speaker, and I argue an excellent speaker interpersonally will help you grow by leaps and bounds. The World Wide Web provides the following unscientific information regarding the benefits for e...

  Are you loving sleeping in each weekend? That lazy Sunday morning stretch and yawn? Coffee in bed, and the Sunday newspaper-or more likely a few hours perusing social media? That is delightful. However, long mornings in bed after waking up late may not be serving you. Did you know that people who wake up early have better mental health outcomes? I understand from the World Wide Web that many of us are having a difficult time mentally after the toll Covid-19 took on us. Why not try getting your sleep routine in order to see if it helps? If you are having mental health challenges, you should probably see your doctor and not take advice from my blog post. But if you are just feeling like you want to have an organized 2023 and you want to include a few habits that may help you get through with good results, keep reading. According to the Mayo Clinic website, you can adopt good sleep habits which includes sticking to a sleep schedule. But why are good sleep habits important? P...