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Are you avoiding something and feeling bad about it?If so, you are not alone. And there is nothing wrong with you.But it doesn’t mean you are powerless. That you can’t do something about it.In this episode, we look at the things we avoid and why it is costing us more than we think. And of course, something we can do about it.Let's walk!  To learn more about The Last 8% Academy:https://last8percent.com/ “The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.” (Joseph Campbell) When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness.” Joseph Campbell “You’re always one decision away from a totally different life.”Anonymous "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."Mark Twain

With the pandemic receding and things returning to normal, are you keen to get moving and healthy again? Not sure where to start? In this 3rd episode on our Health series, we describe an approach to movement that you might find useful to get going again, and maybe more importantly, keep going.Let's walk!"Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far.” Thomas Jefferson“The only bad workout is the one that didn’t happen.”Anonymous"Good things come to those who sweat.”AnonymousInterested in finding out what your biggest mistake is when you face a Last 8% conversation? To take our assessment go to: last8percent.com/quiz.You can register for our next Last 8% Academy athttps://last8percent.com/

Are you looking for a guaranteed way to lose and maintain weight? Well then, you might want to go somewhere else. There are no guarantees here.But if you want an approach that takes in the best of what we know about human behavior and brings it to maintain a healthy weight, then you have come to the right place.Today, the second in our series on health and weight, I give you an approach that has worked for me.And that I am excited to share with you!Lets’ walkInterested in finding out what your biggest mistake is when you face a Last 8% conversation? To take our assessment go to: last8percent.com/quiz.You can learn more about the Last 8% Academy at https://last8percent.com/“THE FIRST WEALTH IS HEALTH.” – RALPH WALDO EMERSON, ESSAYIST, LECTURER AND POET

With the pandemic receding and things returning to some kind of normal, have you put on your pre-pandemic clothes yet and found that they...ahh ...no longer fit anymore?Well, I have and it wasn’t much fun. But really, are you frustrated at how difficult it can be to maintain a certain weight?Today, we give you an insight that can make all of the difference in helping you get to and maintain your desired weight and be healthy.Let’s walk!Interested in finding out what your biggest mistake is when you face a Last 8% conversation? To take our assessment go to: last8percent.com/quiz.You can learn more about the Last 8% Academy at https://last8percent.com/“I found in my research that the biggest reason people aren’t more self-compassionate is that they are afraid they’ll become self-indulgent. They believe self-criticism is what keeps them in line. Most people have gotten it wrong because our culture says being hard on yourself is the way to be.”— Kristen Neff “You’ve been criticizing yourself for years and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.”— Louise L. Hay “If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.”— Jack Kornfield

Are you letting fear rule your life?Are you allowing it to hold you back and keep you stuck?Are you wanting to challenge yourself to create a different life?In today’s episode, I want to challenge you around a central question: are you willing to sacrifice who you are for who you could be?It is an exciting episode today – we have a big announcement at the end!Are you excited to be here?I certainly am!Let’s walk! Announcing the Launch of the Last 8% Academy!To learn more about how you can transform your life and career and live with more courage and less regret with The Last 8% Academy, our 6 week digital/live course go to: last8percent.com/quiz where you will get an opportunity to take an assessment to find out what the biggest mistake is that you make when it comes to Last 8% conversations.                                                                                                                                             "Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.'-Marie Curie"I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning how to sail my ship."-Louisa May Alcott “You can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again."-Abraham Maslow

You want to do a good job. You want to feel productive and purposeful at work. You want to create a good life for you and your family. But you face challenges – and stress and you want to be better at handling challenges and stress.In Today’s episode, we spend more time that usual in the practice of mindfulness and use it to watch our thoughts with more accuracy.Let's walk!"With mindfulness, we are learning to observe in a new way, with balance and a powerful disidentification."Jack Kornfield"When we are identified with our thinking mind, our experience of life is constricted and limited to an opaque screen of words, images, concepts and labels – second-hand representations of life that might as well be a movie on a screen."Eckhart Tolle"Your outer journey may contain a million steps; your inner journey only has one: the step you are taking right now."Eckhart Tolle

We often struggle with small, everyday frustrations and even feel, at times, feel embattled. It could be in our relationships, or at work, or at home.Today, we are going to look at why mindfulness and meditation is such a foundation for creating a life of both unnecessary suffering and more freedom and more joy.Let’s walk!"Step out of the tangle of fear thinking, and flow down and down into ever widening rings of being."Rumi, 13th century, Persian Poet"Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness. If, in our heart, we still cling to anything — anger, anxiety, or possessions — we cannot be free.”Thich Nhat Hanh,

What do you do when you are staring at a task that is important, but for whatever reason, you continue to put it off? It brings up strong emotions in you and is part of what is keeping you stuck in your career or in your life?This is known as a Last 8% task.In today’s episode, we explore why we procrastinate on our important, Last 8% tasks.Let's walk!"You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.”Henry Ford“Among other things, neuroplasticity means that emotions such as happiness and compassion can be cultivated in much the same way that a person can learn through repetition to play golf and basketball or master a musical instrument, and that such practice changes the activity and physical aspects of specific brain areas.”Andrew WeilAmateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” —Stephen King“The highest reward for a person’s toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it.”― John Ruskin

In today’s episode, we work hard to be our best in our Last 8% moments not just because it serves us or because it helps us be our best self and grow our career and relationships, though that is certainly one of the great benefits.We work hard, we practice, because we want to have a bigger impact on the world around us, we want to have a more intentional impact on our world.In today’s episode, we explore our motivation for why we practice and why we are engaged in this Last 8% project.Let's walk!“Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It's a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.”Pema Chodron“If your actions inspire people to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.”John Quincy Adams“Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.”Martin Luther King, Jr."The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others." Mahatma Gandhi

Have you ever walked out of a Last 8% situation and thought: yikes, I don't think that went too well.... It can happen. In these moments it is very possible to lose all perspective and think everything is going to crap. What to do in these moments? That’s what we talk about in today’s episode: what can we do to be more resilient when a last 8% situation goes poorly. How do we maintain perspective? Plus I will give you the correct starting date for our Last 8% Academy digital course - as opposed to the incorrect one I told you last week!Let's walk!"Coaching is not teaching at all, but is about creating the conditions for learning and growing."John Whitmore“Experience is not what happens to you; experience is how you interpret what happens to you.”Aldous Huxley

What do you do when you prepare, prepare, prepare some more and try to have an effective Last 8% conversation but it doesn’t go well? The other person doesn’t respond very well.It can be disheartening.And, worse, it can cause us to back down in the moment, or at a later date. And, we feel awful.Today, we cover what to do when a Last 8% situations that doesn’t go well – and what we can learn from ... women...in this respect.We also have a really big announcement about when the Last 8% Academy, our digital course, launches. So exciting! Are you ready?Let’s walk!"As Any fool can know. The point is to understand."Albert Einstein"Ideas without action aren’t ideas. They’re regrets."Steve Jobs"By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest." Confucius"The quieter you become, the more you can hear."Buddha

Have you ever walked into a situation that you knew was going to be difficult, where you had to give feedback to someone or you needed to deliver a tough decision that you knew was not going to make people happy, and then, as opposed to stepping in and doing what was required and delivering the information, you backed off? You avoided it?In this episode, we want to understand why we avoid, and what we can do to deal with it better.Let’s walk!"You can choose courage, or you can choose comfort, but you cannot choose both."Brene Brown"If your dream only includes you, it is too small."Ava DuVernay"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.”Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

In order to not be left behind, we must learn as fast as the world is changing.However, that is not easy to do today as 96% of people who start a digital course never finish it.Why is that? In today’s episode, we explore the role of social learning in changing that percentage.Let’s walk!  “For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them ...”Aristotle “The only way to learn mathematics is to do mathematics.”Paul Halmos “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” Benjamin Franklin, statesman and inventor

There's this crucial moment when you must confront a very uncomfortable situation, it could be in a work meeting, a difficult conversation you need to have with someone or maybe a tough decision. But instead of facing it, you back off, you avoid it. This is a last 8% situation, and it’s what’s might be keeping you stuck in your life and in your career.In today’s episode, we explore a path to being more effective in these difficult last 8% situations so you don't let critical moments pass you by and feel regret that you didn't take your shots.We also make a big announcement we are so excited about!Let's walk!“A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.”— Mark Twain"Man's ind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions."— Oliver Wendell Holmes“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”― Mahatma Gandhi

With all you have going on, do you find that you are feeling less joy in your day? Less happiness? Less enjoyment? It is not surprising given the challenges we all face today.Is it possible to find a way to live less in the future or less in the past? Today, we explore a path to be a bit more present in the moment so we can live with more joy in our life.Let's walk!“Most people treat the present moment as if it were an obstacle that they need to overcome. Since the present moment is Life itself, it is an insane way to live.”Eckhart Tolle,"Life is available only in the present moment. If you abandon the present moment you cannot live the moments of your life very deeply."Thich Nhat Hahn"There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called yesterday and the other is called tomorrow, so today is the right day to love, believe, do and mostly live.”Dalai Lama"The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green earth, dwelling deeply in the present moment and feeling truly alive."Thich Nhat Hanh

We are In the middle of yet another wave of Covid affecting North America, Europe and the world, and it is clear that we are in for a challenging spring and it feels frustrating because, haven’t we been here before?In today’s episode, what do we when we feel disheartened? What tools can use to manage the hardship and pain we are experiencing?Let's walk!"I am a more sensitive person, a more effective pastor, a more sympathetic counselor because of Aaron’s life and death than I would ever have been without it. And I would give up all of those gains in a second if I could have my son back. If I could choose, I would forgo all of the spiritual growth and depth which has come my way because of our experiences. . . . But I cannot choose."Rabbi Harold Kushner"In some ways suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning."Viktor Frankl"Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out."Vaclav Havel

Do You experience pain? Do you experience suffering?While it is not something people want to talk about or admit, pain and suffering are part of life for everyone. It can be from something going in our relationships or at work or in our personal life and while we experience pain, suffering is optional.Today we will explore the difference between pain and suffering and see if understanding this difference helps us live with more wisdom.Let’s walk!In the next few weeks, we will be making an announcement about something we are working on that we are very excited about it. We think you will be too! Look for it.“When you open yourself to the continually changing, impermanent, dynamic nature of your own being and of reality, you increase your capacity to love and care about other people and your capacity to not be afraid.” – Pema Chödrön

After working different during the pandemic, will this experience change how we work in the future?Today, we are going to look at what we need in our work environment so that we can be more effective, productive and create the career, life, relationships and impact we desire.Let's walk!"Each decision we make, each action we take, is born out of an intention."Sharon Salzberg"Intentions shape light. They set light into motion. Each intention--anger, greed, jealousy, compassion, understanding--sets energy into motion, sets patterns of light into motion."Gary Zukav

You want to be productive, you want to get things done. You want to progress in your career. You also want to find more ease and happiness in your life. Is it possible to have both?In this episode, we look at a path to try to do just that.Let’s walk! “Letting there be room for not knowing is the most important thing of all. When there's a big disappointment, we don't know if that's the end of the story. It may just be the beginning of a great adventure. Life is like that. We don't know anything. We call something bad; we call it good. But really we just don't know.”Pema Chödrön “Live your life as an experiment.”Pema Chödrön

Do you struggle when things go wrong with a project, or a relationship, or a job? Do you get frustrated when you don’t hit your numbers and your team is falling behind? Today, we are going to look at how we can better handle those difficult situations that are keeping us stuck. It starts by understanding whether we are still holding onto the banana.Let’s walk!“The happiness we seek cannot be found through grasping, trying to hold on to things. It cannot be found through getting serious and uptight about wanting things to go in the direction we think will bring happiness. We are always taking hold of the wrong end of the stick. The point is that the happiness we seek is already here and it will be found through relaxation and letting go rather than through struggle.”Pema ChodronIf you're new to the Last 8% Morning, over the course of 15 minutes we integrate movement, mindfulness, and mental training exercises. Why? So we can build the skills necessary to be our best in our more difficult moments, what we call the Last 8%. What are these skills? These are skills of emotional intelligence. Why? We do this because it is emotion that gets in our way.Follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook! If you liked today’s session, review us on Apple podcasts!Join our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thelast8project/.As always, the work continues:This is a great article that details the "75 Things White People Can Do For Racial Justice."Reading List:Desmond Cole, The Skin We're InRobyn Maynard, Policing Black LivesIbram X Kendi's book, How to Be Anti-RacistMusic by @nop on CC Mixter, http://beta.ccmixter.org/people/Lancefield.