SigmaU Blog

An ally will tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear! A great friend listens, is empathetic, compassionate, and soothing. This is great under some circumstances like experiencing a loss. If, however, you want to be challenged to grow, you want an ally.

I was going through a difficult period in my life and one of my “big brothers” on my executive board said, you want an ally, not a friend, so I’m going to tell it to you straight. This gave me tremendous perspective. To change and grow, I needed the hard truth.

An ally may show up as a devil’s advocate. I have an amazing right hand person on my leadership team.  She plays the devil’s advocate; she will challenge an idea or present her so-called “crazy idea” that is often genius. Having someone challenge an opportunity or decision, especially if you are a trigger-happy person and they are more measured, like in my colleague’s case, can save a lot of heart and...

We’re near the end of the year and some of you are STOKED that you’ve reached or surpassed your goals – awesome! For others, you may feel frustrated that you’re off track and feeling in a bit of a funk.  Regardless of where you’re at, I want to encourage you today. You can reignite the fire with a few sparks!

First, revisit your north-star! What is your long-term goal?  Do you take on new things or develop daily habits that support your vision for the future. This also helps you eliminate the crap in your life that distracts you, like cat videos on social. Your north-star will keep petty things in perspective.  You’ll have to let some things go that aren’t worth your emotional, mental, or physical energy. Release and move on, if it’s out of alignment with future you!

Next, you want to revisit why your goal matters so much! What will you feel like once you’ve accomplished your goal? What do you wear? Where do you...

We’re in the homestretch for 2022 and for some this is exciting as you’re right on track with your goals. For others, you may feel a sense of frustration or even dread that the year is coming to an end, and you may miss the mark.

Now is the time to buckle down and get hyper-focused on the goals that matter most to you.

We’ve just had Canadian thanksgiving; Halloween is around the corner and the holiday parties will be starting up in November. This can be a dangerous time for the proverbial wheels to come off as we indulge here, compromise there, and the next thing we know it’s the end of the year and we’ve undone all our positive habits.

I want to encourage you to flip your thinking a little on a couple of concepts that I learned while studying to become a High-Performance Coach. One is that Christmas day is just that, it’s a day.  It’s not a week, month or quarter to celebrate so keep that in check so you feel proud of how you handle...

When did challenge become such a negative thing in society?

I noticed this recently when I was texting with a friend.  Whenever I added the words hard, challenging or difficult my phone automatically registered a stressed out or sad emoji.

Since when did doing hard things become equated with being super stressed or sad.  It even registered a sad emoji when I entered the word “work”!

We all know that in order to grow and level up we must conquer things that stretch us outside of our comfort zones. As critical thinkers and high performers, we need to challenge the status quo when we see things like auto populated emojis.

The reality is, when I post a picture of a “hard” workout to my accountability partner it’s making me stronger.  When I report to my coach an assignment was difficult, I’m actually leveling up my thinking, questioning and ultimately expanding my mind.  Yes, sometimes it’s difficult to ask ourselves tough...

Accountability starts with you! That can be harsh to hear, but it’s true, and a lesson that I’ve learned over the past couple of years.

No one is coming to hold your hand, or mine, to make sure we get stuff done.  The person who cares the most is standing in the mirror.

We may have friends that support us, accountability partners we check in with and coaches who champion us along; at the end of the day, its up to us to get the work done.

I’ve found that friends and even accountability partners can let us off the hook too easily.  We make a big claim about our fitness, and we falter. Often, we’re met with niceties such as “don’t be so hard on yourself”, “you needed a day off”. While this feels good in the moment it’s not what we need and it won’t challenge or change us.

We make the change every time we decide to make a promise, set a goal, and then do it no matter what. Coincidently, every time we keep that...