Maria Shriver

Ann Daly

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Blog Posts

• September 26, 2011

  Tips for Transformation

  

  Get Clear & Get Going - 5 Terrific Tips

  Follow @anndaly

  We’ve all had the experience. Remember? It was a time when life, or work, seemed to flow effortlessly. You knew what you wanted, and how to make it happen. You enjoyed each step of the way, and you loved the results. No stress, no struggle, no neurotic procrastination.

  When you’re clear, you can sort things out calmly, even playfully. Decision-making becomes easier. No wheel-spinning, no angsting.

  Clarity is the catalyst to action, because with clarity comes commitment. When you’re committed, action takes surprisingly little effort.

  Although we often think of clarity as an outcome, clarity is really a process. It is a habit of mind. What’s more, it is a habit of mind you can learn.

  What follows is a five-step process that will keep you thinking clearly and acting purposefully -- and accomplishing what matters most.

• July 6, 2011

  

  Creating Personal Policies

  “I’m sorry, but that’s my policy”
  
  What had I been thinking?
  
  Here I was, on the third day of a trip to Chicago during the dog days of summer, and I was having a meltdown. An utterly predictable, preventable meltdown.

  Actually, I do know what I had been thinking: I really wanted to visit my sister in her new home, in a new city. But I wasn’t taking into account how badly my body and spirit wilt in the hot weather.

  We spent our first day at a food festival, the second at the botanical gardens, and the third in the Frank Lloyd Wright neighborhood. Here’s where I melted down, insisting like a tween that I wanted to make a very short trip to the next house in the car and then stomping away when my idea was rejected.

• June 14, 2011

  

  Dad, Dreams, and Do-Overs

  My father was a clipper. Mostly book reviews. He underlined his favorite passages with a colored felt-tip pen, in a neat wavy line that tossed the words up off the page. In my senior year of college, he sent me a clipping from his diocesan weekly newspaper entitled “Climbing Mountains.” He had photocopied it, and inscribed it at top: “To ANN, I think you will reach your impossible dream. Dad”

• May 13, 2011

  

  My Mom, Running with the Hausfraus

  I often tell my audiences that I am the daughter of an engineer. And this is true. But it is only half true. I am also the daughter of a hausfrau.
  
  A hausfrau. That’s how my mother described herself in an oral history interview we did when I was in graduate school. It’s German for “housewife.” My mother had studied German in school.

• March 24, 2011

  

  Reinvent Your Life - How to Take a Do-Over!

  Every so often, when I’m reminiscing with old friends, I hear myself saying, “Oh, my gosh, that was at least three lifetimes ago!” And in fact, I have invented at least that many lives for myself. I started out as a daily newspaper journalist, then spent several decades in academia, and now I’m a life coach. I’ve always been eager to call for a “Do-Over!”

• February 14, 2011

  

  How to Break Through the Glass Ceiling

  I hear it from my coaching clients every day: The workplace is more competitive than ever, and there is no reprieve in sight. These smart, ambitious women tell me: “I am required to deliver more and more, faster and faster. I don’t have a moment to think.” And that, dear reader, is how women get stuck in middle management.

  If you’re aiming to break through the glass ceiling, you have to make a moment (and more) to think. You need to commit to getting focused. Despite on-demand communications, 24/7 work cycles, and expanding workloads, successful executives know how to keep focused on what matters most. It’s their competitive edge.

  How is it done?