SigmaU Blog

The definition of stretched is “of something soft or elastic be made or be capable of being made longer or wider without tearing or breaking.”

I’ve been studying resiliency lately, listening to podcasts, reading books, and doing so because I feel like, recently, I’m being stretched. I also see colleagues and team members who seem stretched as well.

During one of the resiliency podcasts I was listening to, the speaker said that we don’t bounce back we rebound forward further. I’m paraphrasing but I loved the concept!

We don’t necessarily go back to where we were before because the situation changes us!

Go back to the definition above. It refers to something soft changing into something bigger without breaking. How cool is that? I don’t know about you but there are times when I feel soft when I feel like I can’t take on anymore and somehow, someway, I keep pushing and I do come out stronger.

When we’re at the gym, we mold...

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...

I’ll be honest with you. I’m a pretty impatient person. I want things done yesterday and I don’t like waiting. It’s an area of improvement and growth for me, along with being flexible. When I’m hyper focused, I tend to be rigid and I am certainly not naturally wired to “go with the flow!” Having said all of that, I feel like COVID has forced a bit of patience and understanding on all of us during the past year.

P – Present

This forced slow down has made many of us pause and enjoy the moment. There has been an increased awareness of our humanity, fragility, and our ability to adapt. We’ve been forced to slow down, take stock and be grateful for our health and celebrate if we have been able to keep jobs and businesses running while so many others have suffered tremendously!

A – Adaptable

Whether we were a buttoned-up banker, lawyer or other professional, we adapted to living from home. We leaned in to the change where pets...

Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one's life or the world at large. As a verb, its definitions include: "expect with confidence" and "to cherish a desire with anticipation." Wikipedia

I have a daily practice of gratitude, setting intentions, reflections and prayer. Recently, I read about the subject of hope and it has stuck with me for a few days.

Here’s what I read:

“Why is hope essential? During World War II, Viktor Frankl, an Austrian Jew, was imprisoned in Auschwitz, one of the worst concentration camps where his wife and his parents died. Frankl was a trained physician and his experience led him to observe the value of hope. Those in the concentration camp who had a sense of hope would talk about the future and what they would do once they were freed or once the war was over; they became the ones to survive the kind of natural causes of death that wiped out...