Laura D. Harver

Friday

Are You Open To Learning Or A Know-It All? by Laura D. Harver

Image from Pixabay

None of us —even if you were called a Know-It-All—know it all. That's why lifelong learning is essential to being and growing. Still, you may know more about one topic over another. Your breadth of knowledge is not my focus in this article, but how you know what you know.

Why is this important? Well, what you know impacts your beliefs, stories, and behaviors. Your knowledge can help or hinder you by what you actually know and don't know as well as your perception of knowledge.

Oftentimes we value people based on their outward appearance, race, perceived ability, sex, gender to determine believability. We believe and relate to others who perceive the same or are similar to us. This can help us reach an agreement and achieve goals, or it can lead to our downfall, like when we reuse to listen to and consider divergent perceptions, thoughts, and interpretations.

When we get rid of our diverse facets of knowing/perceiving, we can lose value and brilliance, similar to cutting off facets of a diamond. When we refuse "others" ways of knowing and consider them uncivilized or barbaric, we not only marginalize populations, but we devalue ourselves collectively and individually while praising western canon as if they are the only ones worthy of high value and knowing.

We ignore or dismiss and even erase "other" ways of knowing. Unfortunately, we hamper our ability to hypothesize, develop critical thinking, build credibility, and be more persuasive when we do this. We also limit our ability to live life optimally.

As we celebrate Black History this month, let's consider other ways of knowing through the ears of Black birth workers, doulas, midwives, and hands of Black healers. Through the ears of birth workers, doulas, midwives, perhaps we can learn to listen actively and provide better care to Black women and decrease the alarming rate of Black Maternal Mortality and Morbidity. Through the hands of healers and inventors like George Washington Carver, perhaps we can change our climate, prevent waste, and get a feel for the land that needs crop rotation to heal and rest from the overuse of cotton crops.

Many Black birth workers, healers, inventors, authors, and scholars throughout the African Diaspora have added to various bodies of knowledge. We can learn from them to increase our health and wellness. So, let's consider gaining knowledge from "others" whether they look like or seem like us or not. We can gain and learn so much knowledge from each of us. Our knowledge can serve as a lesson or a leaping board.

#BlackHistory #Knowledge #Inclusivity #Wellness #LauraDHarver

Laura D. Harver is the founder and CEO of Harver Edge, LLC, a credentialed Professional Certified Coach (PCC), and the creator of the Journey to Love Expereince™. She covers topics centered around organizational culture and wellness, inclusivity, leadership, self-care, and legacy development. Uncover more about Laura by visiting https://harveredge.com and https://journeytoloveexperience.com.

What's Stopping You from Achieving Your New Year’s Resolution or Goals? by Laura D. Harver

In a Forbes article by Kevin Kruse (2016), he reports that research statistics show only 8% of people achieve their New Year’s Resolutions. So, what is going on? Do you know? Be mindful.

Have you explored what is going on with you? Your goals, your resolutions that you set this year, can go right out the window if you don’t know. So, what are you going to do?

Yes, make sure your goals are S.M.A.R.T. goals. Then, what? You’ve created S.M.A.R.T. goals, but you still don’t achieve the results you set out to achieve. Are your goals really S.M.A.R.T.? Are you being specific? Are you being realistic? What is going on? Are you sticking to your goals? Are you completing your action steps? What is going on? Can it be that something is keeping you from achieving your goals, your dreams? Is it fear, trauma, anger, grief, forgiveness, failure, guilt, shame, or low self-esteem, etc.? Is it something from your present or past? What is going on? Ask yourself, What is going on?

Recently, I gave someone a compliment and she could not receive it. This reminded me of the importance of capacity and the importance of receiving. We all must expand our capacity to receive and be open to receive. For example, if someone delivered a package to your front door, you would have to open the door to receive it. You would have to handle the package by picking it up, pushing it in, etc. Then, you would have to open it to receive it. Just because something has been delivered to you doesn't mean you see it or have received it.

Likewise, you can be sent an email and never receive it if you don’t sign in, open it, and read it. It could be in your SPAM folder. You can even tell yourself and others that the email was never sent.

You can be in the presence of something or someone that you want, but don’t even notice it to receive it because you are not there. Yes, physically you are there but not fully present. So, how can you fully receive if you are not there? Can you receive?

I invite you to receive. I invite you to be present in the moment. I invite you to open up. Open the doors of your heart and start believing again. Start believing more. Yes, expect. Expect yourself to receive. Expect yourself to multiply what you have received. Expect yourself to achieve.

Reference:

Kruse, K. (2016, December 26). 7 secrets of people who keep their New Year’s resolutions.

Retrieved from

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2016/12/26/7-secrets-of-people-who-keep-their-new-years-resolutions/#17b870f07098

#Receive #Achievement #NewYearsResolution #Goals #Awareness #Mindfulness #Presence #Leadership #LauraDHarver #JourneyToLoveExperience

Laura D. Harver is the founder and CEO of Harver Edge, LLC, the Innovative Solutionista™, and a credentialed Professional Certified Coach (PCC) through the International Coach Federation (ICF). She covers topics centered around leadership, health & well-being (individual, family, organizational), diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, and legacy development.

Tuesday

WHAT ABOUT REST? by Laura D. Harver

During the holiday season, many people bake. They bake their favorite cookies, strudels, or pies for themselves and to give to others. Imagine the smell of these great delights. The bread leaves warm scents of sugar and butter flavored with hints of yeast. What a great fragrance to fill the air!

Ever since I was a child, I enjoyed baking. I was a great kneader even as young as seven, and still am to this day. I remember being summoned to the kitchen by my mother to help her prepare bread.

Upon my arrival in the kitchen, I placed flour on a clean counter. Then, I began to knead the dough with my hands. After kneading bread, I put the dough in a rimmed clear glass bowl and set a clean towel over it. While the dough rested in the bowl, I would watch the dough rise about three times the current size. What a fascinating experience for me to be a part of and watch the bread-making process as a child.

After the bread had time to rise, if the recipe called for it, my mom would tell me to punch down the dough. Then, the bread was given time to rest again. Rest was a needed part of the process to successfully make dough. Without a great dough, there could not be great bread.

The rest period gave the yeast time to work its magic, the flour time to soak up the water, the gluten time to relax, and the dough time to become pliable, making it easier to shape and cut if needed.

But this was not the only time the resting period was needed to have great bread. After taking it out of the oven, the bread needed to rest, so it cools down and had a great texture. It takes rest to make a great dough and bread.

Now that I shared a part of my life related to bread, I will share a little more of my life with you to support you.

At the beginning of this month, my podiatrist gave me a walking boot after an examination and x-rays. My doctor said that I needed to let my foot rest so it could heal. She prescribed medicine to aid me in the healing process, along with the boot.

As I thought about the boot, I thought about the power of rest. I reflected upon my life and other areas I might need to rest. Perhaps, the boot was a symbol of another place that I could benefit by resting in so I can have time to heal, expand, and be more pliable to increase positive outcomes and have better bread (i.e., possibilities, money, profits, etc.).

What does the boot symbolize for you?

o Discipline
o Strength
o Power
o Self-protection
o Protection
o Defense
o Groundness/Grounding
o Starting
o Planning
o Motivation
o Success
o Happiness
o Travel
o Other

What about bread? Surely, you probably heard of Money in terms of bread? But, what does bread mean to you?

o Money
o Life
o Time
o Inspiration
o Generosity
o Gift from God
o Word(s)
o Miracle
o Fertility
o Pregnancy
o Harvest
o Nourishment
o Transformation
o Protection
o Good fortune
o Other

Again, what about you? Are there areas that you can benefit from by giving yourself the gift of rest so you can rise beyond where you are now? Perhaps you need time to rest to be more open and available for opportunities that could involve shaping and cutting-letting go (i.e., training and development, coaching, consulting, mentoring, etc.).

Perhaps you need time to rest from specific foods to detox your body and decrease inflammation. Maybe you need time to rest to obtain adequate rest, so you improve your state of being and give your body time to heal.

Perhaps you need time to rest to break from all your hard work. Rest is crucial to your growth process and wellbeing. So, explore what the gift of rest means for you. Take time to rest and reflect and discover what comes up for you. If specific feelings, words, sounds, images, or senses in your gut come up for you, journal them.

Then, honor the wisdom that comes from within you by giving yourself the gift of rest where you need it.

#Rest #Honor #Wisdom #SelfCare #Leadership #PersonalLife #ProfessionalLife #HolisticLeadership #LauraDHarver #JourneyToLoveExperience

Thursday

Leaders Are People Too! by Laura D. Harver

Growing up, I heard the saying, kids are people too (Bob McAllister). I love hearing this especially since I often heard the words 'kids are meant to be seen and not heard". This saying is usually used in reference to children and women to marginalize them, but what about leaders? What about you?

Certainly, most people do not feel that leaders are marginalized. We look to leaders to solve problems and provide solutions. We often have high expectations of leader without looking at them as people with lives just as us. People often look up and down at the same time at leaders leaving some leaders not feeling enough, inadequate, drained, and too tired to give themselves the self-care they need.

Still, self-care for leaders is important because leaders are people too. So, care About You Because Leaders Are People Too! As a leader, you have needs that are different than those you lead like how to reduce the budget without excessive major layoffs, how to mobilize your team and get the buy in you need during a time of change transition, how to build trust among your senior leaders, or how to achieve work life balance. You have these needs, but you have basic needs and goals too. Your goal maybe how to lose weight this year, become more tone, build your personal portfolio, start or build a new personal relationship, etc.

As you develop as a leader, I wanted to take this special moment to encourage you to take care of you. Yes, take care of what you need to in your professional life, develop your relationships and take the time to develop your personal life too. After all, your personal life can impact your professional life and vice versa. It can help feed your success or halt it. So, take care of you.

#Leadership #SelfCare #PersonalLife #ProfessionalLife HolisticLeadership #LauraDHarver

Friday

Stand on Shoulders by Laura D. Harver

Have you heard the sayings that we stand on the shoulders of our ancestors (African proverb) or the shoulders of giants (Isaac Netwon, c. 1675)? Of course, not literally, but most if not all of us have someone who has lifted us literally or figuratively, in person, through books, stories, the Internet, etc. None of us ever truly stand-alone, although it may look or feel like it.

To move forward to maximize your potential and develop your legacy, you must learn and develop your ability to draw upon the resources within and around you.

Questions & Self-Reflection:

What can you draw upon as a leader, a team, and an organization?

What resources do you have?

Books
Internet
People (human and social capital—family, friends, predecessors, team, contacts, networks, etc.)
History
Lessons learned
Stories
Passed-down legacies to draw from

Frequently, we hear that the fruit does not fall far from the tree or a similar saying with a negative connotation. Well, what about the positive? Things passed down typically come with a mixture of strengths, weaknesses, and challenges like anything else, but why focus on the negative?

Look at the information or strategies you gained from what worked or lessons learned for what did not.

Do you have something you can gain from in your personal life, family, community, background, experiences, and history that you can draw from? If so, what? How can you use it as a strength?

Do you have something you can gain from in your leadership, team, or organizational background, experiences, and history that you can draw from? If so, what? How can you use it as a strength?

Do you have something you can gain from in your neighborhood, state, heritage, national background, experiences, and history that you can draw from? If so, what? How can you use it as a strength?

Reference:

Newton, I. (c. 1675). Issac Newton Quotes. https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/isaac_newton_135885

Tuesday

Self-Served Beliefs by Laura D. Harver

Image from Pixabay

Are you suffering from your own beliefs? There are times that you should hold fast to your beliefs, of course. But there are also times when you must challenge your beliefs to move on and grow. As Stevie Wonder sung in Superstition, "When you believe in things that you don't understand, then you suffer." So, what?

What if you don’t hold beliefs about rabbits’ feet, broken mirrors, black cats, cracks in the cement, alleged stolen elections, or even conspiracy theories? What if this not what is holding you back, but it’s rather something else, whether it is conscious or unconscious?

Perhaps, you wouldn’t say that you are superstitious—neither would I—but there are some things that we need to reconsider about our beliefs. This can also relate to implicit and explicit biases, and how attributes and actions are directed and sometimes withheld from certain populations while others believe in and assert their privilege, consciously or not.

Are you making assumptions and connections where there are none? Are you ascribing causes and effects—or even relationships—where there are none? Could these be beliefs that you held based on a specific event or time in your life?

Think of the classic study about the conditioning of Pavlov’s dog. In the experiment, a bell rings and the dog receives food. Eventually, the dog salivates in anticipation of food whenever it hears the bell, even if no food is given.

How can you apply this to yourself? Whether you have been in a situation or experienced an event that caused you to respond in a certain way, or you did not experience the situation, but saw it dramatized in pictures or heard stories passed down through generations, you will find that many of your beliefs have been shaped around these circumstances. Now you have views about and have attached meanings to these things or occurrences. You’ve developed these beliefs, and you can apply them to most, if not everything. You believe that you can or cannot do things because of your beliefs and experiences. This becomes like a self-fulfilling prophecy, also known as the Pygmalion effect.

You don’t understand why the same undesirable things keep happening over and over again. Your beliefs develop into a web of beliefs and your mind gets set in its ways. Your mindset drives the behaviors that you choose, whether consciously or not.

Do you have beliefs that may have worked for you before, but are not working now? Have you attributed beliefs to a relationship that was never really there in the first place? How did your beliefs serve you in the past? How are your beliefs serving you now?

Are your beliefs true absolutes or situational? Could it be that your beliefs served you well or protected you based on your perception, but that the beliefs are not serving you nor others well now? Acknowledge, examine, and decide what you want to do with your beliefs now, seeking help if you need it.

If you find yourself believing in things that you don't understand, don’t continue to suffer.

Instead, eliminate or reduce your suffering by increasing your awareness and examining your beliefs about yourself, your organizations, and other people. Minimize the amount of suffering in your own life! No matter what beliefs you hold, it is important to examine them. Why, you may ask?

Again, your beliefs shape your mindset, which informs your action or inaction, which sets patterns and cycles in your life. Understand? If you want to have breakthroughs and change your cyclical outcomes, examine your belief(s), challenge and shift your mindset, and alter your patterns of behavior, as needed. Otherwise, you may wind up fulfilling an unwanted self-fulling prophecy. You may accidentally sabotage or undermine your own success or the success of your own team, organization, or others. So, do yourself a favor and begin the examination process, such that you can take appropriate steps that support your personal and organizational well-being.

Monday

Unexpected by Laura D. Harver

Sometimes life brings you unexpected blessing in the most unlikely places

Like in the moments you may feel overcome and weak

Muster up your strength anyway

You are unique

On the road of life

You can give back to someone, in their moment of feeling defeated

Your victories model for them a different view

A view, a picture that they can make another decision

Look at things differently, expand their beliefs, and take another action

Truth

The power is in theirs

Actually, truth be told, in each of our hands

So, muster up your strength, embrace your uniqueness, and prepare for the possibilities

The opportunities in the expected, familiar places

And also dare to believe in the possible in unexpected places

Laura D. Harver is the founder and CEO of Harver Edge, LLC, the Innovative Solutionista™, and a credentialed Professional Certified Coach (PCC) through the International Coach Federation (ICF). She covers topics centered around leadership, legacy, health & well-being (individual, family, organizational), diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, and legacy development.