SigmaU Blog

Ever have one of those “hit you over the head” moments where your perspective dramatically changed in an instant?

Well, that happened recently while I was watching a recording of Brendon Burchard’s teaching.  He was talking about his ability to connect deeply with a diverse group of people across ages, gender, cultures, religions, political affiliations, and it all came down to one powerful concept.  Release your expectation that others should think and behave the way you do, and your life will be forever changed!

What the what what??!!! YES!

See I’ll admit, I was stuck in this way of thinking and it absolutely impacted my relationships. I would get frustrated when my husband would hold on to something that I deemed he was holding on to for too long. Well, who cares? Let him feel and process things the way he wants to. In the past, I would immediately want to remedy the situation, give him 3 ways to change his physiology or make him tell me 3 things...

Who would have thought that one of the most powerful ways you could get ahead today is to be fully present!

Back when I wrote Relationship ROI, my keynotes were all about being a magnetic person to do business with by giving people your undivided attention. It was true then and it’s incredibly relevant now. We’ve all been on Zoom calls for over a year and I totally get it - fatigue can set in and we’re distracted more now than ever.

The challenge is that when we’re not present, we do more damage than good. I remember several years ago when I trained to be a kids coach for Future Possibilities for Kids. One thing that they taught that has stuck with me is the importance of presence. They warned that if you seem distracted on a phone call, your kid will sense it and probably call you out on it. As adults, we’re not as forthcoming calling it out.  Instead, we proceed with the meeting while others on a Zoom call check their phones, turn their videos...

I bought into the lie that I was someone who would always have to watch their weight. In fact, I’ve been up and down since eleven years of age and with dramatic swings. I’ve been unhealthy consuming less than 300 calories a day in my teenage years living off lettuce and diet coke and I’ve been over a hundred pounds heavier than my tiniest weight.

I’ve invested hundreds, no thousands of dollars in weight loss programs from Herbal Magic to high-end weight loss doctors and systems and here’s what I found. I would gain quick success and see huge results that NEVER lasted! I would be so disciplined with my eating that I would literally stand around and watch everyone eat my birthday cake while I munched on celery sticks. Not a sustainable or very enjoyable way to live!

It was only around 40 when I had a breakthrough and that was to do the inner work required for long-lasting and sustainable results.

Many motivational speakers including Ed Mylett talk about...

Just how powerful is a question? Well, it can be life changing as a matter of fact! I’ve had the privilege of working with clients as a High Performance Coach™ and I can tell you that questions change peoples’ lives!

Here’s how it happens!

• Changes our Perspective!

When we change our lens, we change our lives! A coach that I worked with in the past used to ask me a very thought-provoking question when I was upset with someone or a situation. He would always ask “Nikki, what else could it be?” This helped provide such perspective because, of course, I begrudgingly came up with half a dozen possible scenarios which proved his point!  When we approach challenges or setback with a powerful question like this one, we also change the lens in which we see the world. Perhaps at first, I think “that person is rude.” What happens when I replace it with “that person must be pretty stressed out right now.” It instantly changes my...

Your parents were rightly concerned about the shady friends you may have had during your school years. My parents always wanted to know who I was hanging out with and warning me when they felt uneasy about someone’s character. Our friendships and associations have a massive impact on our actions and character. This got me thinking about positive friendships and those associations that achievers look to have. Here are the four P’s to look for…

1. Push You!

Great friends, mentors and associates push you to be a better version of yourself. If you say you’re going to run 5KM and you only run 4KM, a great influencer will hold your feet to the fire. They will make you uncomfortable, so you reach your potential! They will challenge you when you settle for mediocre thinking or goals. They will stretch your current beliefs and replace skepticism with possibility thinking. The wrong person in your circle will tell you that you “work too hard.” None of my...

The mind is such a powerful force! I recently listened to an Ed Mylett podcast with Trevor Moawad. They talked about just how powerful our minds are and what we feed it matters a whole lot! They talked about the science behind our words and how much power we give our words. When we talk, our brain goes to work to close the gap and make our words our reality!

They shared two powerful stories which I will leave to you to hear about here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yzIXv9XY7Q as it’s definitely worth the time. Your mind will be BLOWN when you hear about someone who lost a championship by self-prophesying defeat and someone who DIED because their negative beliefs took over!

Awareness

I used to really struggle with negative self-talk. For me, my struggle was body shaming. I used to remind myself several hundred times a day how awful I looked. I spent time in therapy bringing awareness to this toxicity and have released something that once had a powerful grip on me. My...

What is pessimism? It is a tendency to see the worst aspect of things or believe that the worst will happen. It is a lack of hope or confidence in the future.

I’ve been reading a lot about mindset, the power of the subconscious brain and the science behind just how powerful our thoughts are and the impact that they have on our life and happiness. During a recent Zoom call between family members, it was abundantly clear how pessimism and optimism are powerful opposing forces.  While I listened to two people describe the same job, one hating every minute of it, feeling like he was being “used” by corporate evil bigwigs, the other saw the job as quite satisfying. He described loving the freedom of the work in comparison to the chained version that the other family member described. It got me thinking a lot about optimism and pessimism and so I wanted to share the following thoughts with you.

Price #1 – Lower Levels of Happiness

It seems quite apparent that...