No, I’m not the Broadway director of a ‘Smash’ hit, but I will make you the star of your own life!

Love reading my Personal Growth Gabs? Been thinking about working with me but not quite sure what you’ll take away?

Check out the testimonials below or on my LinkedIn profile, or read the Forbes.com article where I was the coach featured in What I Learned Working with a Career Coach.

Interested and want to get started but not sure how?  There are oh so many ways!

 This month you can:

* book a one hour phone session

* attend a group coaching session

* attend a workshop

* book a one-on-one in-depth session

*and more!

Click here and scroll down for all the details!

Contact me to schedule your session today so that you can spring forward with purpose, clarity and the support you need in whatever changes you want to make in your personal and/or professional life!

There are many options for you to work with me this Spring so I sincerely hope to have the opportunity to show you that where you are right now is exactly where you need to be, and then help you get to the place where you want to go ne

For more information click here.

P.S. For those of you looking for your weekly dose of PGG, just scroll down or click on the archives to find all of my past posts.

I recently attended the funeral of a good friend’s father.  He was Ukrainian, along with most of his relatives and friends, so everything was conducted in his native language.  At the brunch after the burial, a woman stood up and read with great emotion what she had written on a few sheets of loose leaf paper while many of us choked up.

I saw her by the ladies room soon thereafter and mentioned how beautiful her speech was.  In broken English she went on about how she messed up and it didn’t come out the way she wanted etc.  I stopped her mid-sentence and said, “I don’t speak a word of Ukrainian.”  Puzzled, she replied, “Well, I just spoke from my heart.”  And I said, “Yes, that’s why it was so beautiful.”

I often begin my seminars reminding the audience that someday, hopefully in the very distant future, they will die.  Perhaps it’s morbid, but like change and taxes, death is one of the few certainties in life. When you look at your existence through that lens, before a crisis forces you to do so, it can be extremely powerful in helping to organize your thoughts and actions in a way nothing else can.

When we can accept it, our own mortality, or that of those closest to us, really puts things in perspective: what is it that we value, what and who do we hold dear, what is real and meaningful for us?  And when you look back on your life, how do you want to have used your time and energy while you were here?  What is the mark that you want to leave on the world? How do you want people to remember you when you are gone?

It reminds us that when all the external stuff falls away – what’s left?  You can’t take that designer bag, fancy car or impressive job title.  It cuts to the core and brings us to the one essential thing that every human being desires: to love and to be loved in return.

At the end of the day all you have is the impact of the life you led, mostly found in the close connections with others and memories you’ve shared.  We may never know the affect we’ve had on strangers, and family dynamics can of course be complicated, but remember, you choose your friends, and true friends who have been a part of your journey are precious; they are there regardless of too much time having passed or petty misunderstandings.

A crisis will always give us clarity as to what’s important and what we can offer one another.  If you let it, all that comes to the surface is love and compassion.  And to be there for someone, to have the opportunity to be a healing presence in whatever form that may take, is a gift for both the giver and receiver.

As we approach this significant week in two of the world’s major religions as well as embrace the energy of Spring, think about which parts of yourself can bite the dust, giving way for the rebirth of and deeper commitment to honor and cherish your relationship with yourself and the healthy ones you have with others, to cultivate new connections that will enrich your journey, and to reaffirm your relationship to life itself.

Not sure what you would want to hear when you go or simply want to develop more fully all that you can’t leave behind?  Give me a buzz and I’ll help you Walk On, and be able to feel good about it all, here and now.

P.S. For related thoughts on this topic, check out my posts: The Passion of Passover, Here Today, Gone Tomorrow and Joni Mitchell Never Lies

P.P.S. In case you didn’t see it last week, I was featured in an article What I Learned Working with a Career Coach now on Forbes.com!

Last week I was featured in an article in The Daily Muse so I thought I’d share it with you here:

 What I Learned Working with a Career Coach

by Ilana Donna Arazie

I remember the day I got laid off. While the HR woman was reading off some legalese about my rights and benefits, my mind was drifting off to a beach, where I’d relax, sunbathe, and take some time off.

At that moment, I was grateful that I was being given the time to plot my next move and create my dream job (while sipping a few Mojitos, of course). I decided I would never sit at a cubicle again, my alarm clock would never go off before 8:30, and I’d only work on projects I was passionate about.

But after I had packed up my boxes and walked through those corporate doors for the last time, another thought hit me: Um, so what exactly is my passion anyway?

I realized that I wasn’t so clear on my dream job, or how to even approach planning the next steps in my career. And although I’m sure the answers were somewhere inside me, I needed to bring them up to the surface.

So I decided to enlist the help of a career coach-a move I’d recommend to anyone in my boat. Kristina Leonardi, a coach recommended to me by a friend, helped me figure out how to better integrate my passions into my job (after a nice beach break, of course). After meeting with her over several weeks, here are the important lessons she’s helped me remember and discover.  Read More 

Justice is what love looks like in public. Tenderness is what love feels like in private. ~ Cornel West

Be kind; everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. ~ Plato

I’m a pretty even-keeled gal, and have become somewhat adept at managing/mitigating stress in my life, which I share with others through my work.  Part of that strategy includes limiting/filtering my daily dose of news and media so as not to get overwhelmed by the gloom and doom that is the majority of what is broadcast.

But lately I’ve been feeling like the character in that famous scene from the 1976 movie Network: ‘mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore.‘  Just pick a topic, whether our broken political system, the war on women’s reproductive health, the global economic mess and decline of the middle class, or vigilantes and blatant attacks both here and abroad, including massacres and ethnic cleansing, both overt and subtle, of particular races, religions, sexual orientations and nations. There are so many things under siege in our culture, society and around the world that it’s easy to get lulled into the feeling we can’t do anything, but we can take matters into our hands – in a responsible way.

Besides using your voice, signature and/or pocketbook to make a difference, we can check our egos at the door and let balanced emotions guide our actions, not uncontrolled rage or fear.  There is plenty of wonkiness/intellectual and pseudo-intellectual approaches to go around, and unfortunately pure hatred and insanity as well to fuel many an action, so the question that each of us needs to answer is: How can we inject more love, understanding and compassion in order to effect the change we want?

A good place to begin is to think about how we can create more justice and peace in our own lives, starting with our relationships. Are you unfairly punishing, harshly judging or incorrectly perceiving people closest to you whether family, friends or those you work with? Are the thoughts and actions towards yourself and others around you positive and constructive, or negative and destructive?  

Since today is the first day of Spring, it’s a good time to clean out your mental and emotional closets as well as your physical ones.  By making more of a commitment to create your own just and peaceful world, only then can we expect it of the world around us. ‘Cause guess what? That world is made of us!

Do what you can to activate love and compassion within yourself, scan reactions and prejudices, don’t throw stones, and stand up for those who can’t.   Most of all, go easy on yourself – we’re often our own worst critics and judges and end up imprisoning ourselves and those around us because of it. Most people are doing the best as they can. As so eloquently stated in a TED Talk by Bryan Stevenson, remember that “Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done” and “Our humanity depends on everyone’s humanity.”  

Not quite sure where you need to balance the scales of justice in your life? Give me a buzz and I can be a softer, gentler version of Judge Judy, helping you to separate fact from fiction in your court of personal opinion so you can spring yourself from whatever slammer you’ve put yourself in!

P.S. For related thoughts on this topic check out my posts: Let Love Rule, Deja Vu All Over Again.

“The true harvest of my life is intangible – a little star dust caught, a portion of the rainbow I have clutched.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

“There is no question that there is an unseen world. The problem is, how far is it from midtown and how late is it open?” ~ Woody Allen

Ah, the paradox between poetry and practicality, art and accounting, beauty and bottom line, meaning and metrics. Especially in this results-oriented, materially-focused, high-powered metropolis that is New York, it’s often challenging to communicate the value of things we are unable to touch, see, or can be precisely measured.

After assigning some journaling to a client recently, she seemed perplexed and not too happy about it.  When inquiring what was the problem, her concern she said, was because as graduate of MIT, it would be difficult without having any sort of metrics or immediate tangible outcome to guide her or let her know she was doing it ‘correctly’, which her perfectionist self needed in order to be validated in the exercise. She was not the first to be challenged by or question the effectiveness of the solution I offered, just the first to articulate it so well.

This type of scenario has been the bane of my existence, as the world of the intangible has been my field of expertise and the ‘meat’ of my work for most of my professional life – teaching  or speaking, creating programs that promote intercultural understanding and women’s empowerment, individual and group coaching, even writing these posts.  Most everything  I do is impactful on an internal level, enabling shifts in perception and healing to take place, so my challenge has always been how to grade, evaluate, measure or assure the merit of such things; how do you quantify understanding, inspiration, identity, and transformation? 

With flowers and trees now blooming all around us, remember that they didn’t just magically appear overnight – there was an unseen force at work during the barren winter months – the result is tangible, but the process itself is a thing, too. Fertile soil, sunshine, water, time and nature’s mysterious special sauce work consistently in harmony behind the scenes, making it all come together for us to once again enjoy the gorgeous potpourri of colors and shapes.

Feeling like your Spring needs to be sprung?  You might just need a little professional tending to your garden along with some Xray vision, so give me a buzz – I’ll bring on the blossom and have Everything Coming Up Roses for you again!  ‘

*(Today’s PGG was originally posted on April 26th, 2011) 

Today* is the 100 year anniversary of International Women’s Day so in honor of this occasion I’d like to give a special shout-out to all the men out there and encourage you to celebrate all the ways in which women make your lives better (i.e.check out my post from last week), acknowledge what you can learn from us, and inspire you to get in touch with your feminine side with unabashed pride.

Dan Abrams just came out with a book called Man Down, a tome that provides extensive research proving how women are pretty much better at everything than men. Whether you believed that or not already, the key here is to remember that we are not in a Battle of the Sexes, but more that everyone, regardless of which gender you are identified or associate with, needs to demonstrate the best characteristics of both worlds.

But the reality is that most men have a problem expressing emotion, long considered a girly trait. The amazing irony is that as I am literally in the midst of writing this post (which has been planned for more than a day) I flip the channel to see the end of Charlie Rose interviewing David Brooks about his new book The Social Animal. Charlie, who is clearly an exception to this rule, admits how important it is for people to have the “power to express yourself and have emotional intelligence.” David comments how he, and most men, struggle with this and how he admires Bruce Springsteen as someone who is a ‘manly working class guy who can be emotional in a respectable way.’  (Thanks fellas for validating my post right as I type it!)

Most men will never know What It Feels Like For a Girl, so since this year the day also falls on Mardi Gras, what better excuse is there than to ‘dress’ in drag metaphorically and try your woman-like alter ego on for size.  I don’t mean like a full-on Tootsie or Mrs. Doubtfire, but more like the guys in I Love You, Man or The Boss in all his glory; allow yourself to be just a little more sensitive, intuitive, creative, and expressive of what it is you’re feeling.

Whether your birth announcement was pink or blue, we all need to balance our Mickey with our Minnie, so give me a buzz and I’ll give you an opportunity and show you the way to make the most of all of who you are, without having to shave your legs, put on a fake moustache or become like SNL’s Pat

*(Today’s PGG was originally posted on March 8th, 2011) 

P.S. For related thoughts on this topic check out my posts: You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby?, Girl Power, I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar, Are You Gonna Go My Way?,Rage Against the Machine    

Last week* marked the 41st anniversary of thelanding of Apollo 11 on the moon, where the famous words uttered by Neil Armstrong beamed down “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Most of us will not be able to have our feet touch the lunar landscape in our lifetime, but can you imagine what kind of step would be the equivalent of that for your life here on Earth?

When you’re on a tightrope or crossing over a stream you must be very conscious and super-present at every moment, as one wrong move would surely cause you harm.   Each step serves its unique purpose to get you further to your destination, no matter if there are 200, 20, or a very special 12.

As the wise saying goes, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Sometimes we need to take baby steps, sometimes we have to take one giant step, and many times we seem to take two steps forward and one step back.

But most of all, from time to time, it’s important for us to step outside our comfort zone. If we don’t take the initiative to stretch ourselves here and there, then we often miss opportunities to learn and grow (and/or the Universe eventually ends up pushing us one way or another anyway)!

So if you are in transition or at a place where you feel like your footing is a little unsure, give me a buzz. I will help you get your bearings, hold your hand, keep you steady, and guide you along, one step at a time, to get from one side of the riverbank to the other or one moonbeam to the next.

Happy Leap Year!

*(Today’s PGG was originally posted on July 27, 2010) 

P.S. For related thoughts on this topic check out my post: The Year of Living Uncomfortably

Whether it makes you think of Catholic school nuns, dog training or your struggle with diet and exercise – we are certainly witnessing some of the most disciplined minds and bodies as we watch the Winter Olympics*. Any form of excellence requires it, and these amazing athletes show what can happen when you are singularly focused on and dedicated to a particular goal.

For most of my life, I admit I had always associated the word with limitation: something negative, bad or oppressive.  Over the past several years I began to learn that instead, it is a positive attitude and approach that can actually be quite liberating. When used in the right way, discipline is an extreme act of self-love.

For example, realizing that I needed to stop working 24/7, and make time for activities that are fun, pleasurable and social is something I am now very conscious about.  I even include going to the gym in that category! It has become a discipline of mine that has made my life a lot less stressed and more enjoyable.

As they say, ‘one man’s pleasure is another man’s pain’ – and I say what you may consider a pain for yourself, can often turn into a pleasure once you discipline yourself in that area and reap the benefits!

Discipline means that you care so deeply about yourself that you want to improve or create balance wherever you need it.  No matter what goals you are working towards, you are doing something about it every day to make yourself the best you can be.

But sometimes we can’t do it alone.  Like those Olympic athletes, who are able to stay on that razor-edge track with the help of their coaches, think of me as one of them, guiding and supporting you to a personal Gold Medal in whatever area of life you choose!

*Today’s PGG was originally posted in February 2010

Staying deeply in love with someone happens gradually and requires conscious decisions, made over and over again.   -Dr. Neil Clark Warren

 This week I’m sending a little excerpt from one of my talks, which marks a milestone for me finally editing some videos and feeling comfortable enough to put them out there even though they, and I, are not perfect!  Click here to watch.

To read related thoughts on this topic, check out these past posts:

  One is The Magic Number

Like a Fish Needs A Bicycle

Jungle Love

Let Love Rule

Happy Valentine’s Day!

xoxo Kristina

 P.S   Spend some of that quality time with yourself this Saturday at our  Visioning Workshop on 2/18/12!

Tell me what’s wrong with having a little faith in what you’re feelin’ in your heart. – The Dixie Chicks (via Patty Griffin)

I try not to think as much as possible. This serves me well for many reasons. First of all, I am somewhat dyslexic, so the more I stay out of my head, the clearer things are for me. And forget about speaking; whenever I do my seminars what I say has to come from my heart and gut otherwise I would get super-confused and choke from stage fright and the fear of sounding stupid.

I have learned to operate this way more and more; it reduces stress by keeping me connected to myself and in the flow of life, in harmony with who I am and what I need or want at any given moment. It is the best source of motivation, decision-making and communications tool I possess because I have harnessed and developed it as such.

In the movie Jerry Maguire, Tom Cruise confronts Cuba Gooding, Jr. about why he hasn’t been offered a ten million dollar contract yet, citing that how he is off the field is how he needed to be on the field. “Right now you play with your head….in your personal life: heart….Play the game Rod, play it from your heart and you know what, I will show you the kwan. That’s the truth, can you handle it?” Jerry knew that if Rod did what he loved with love, then, and only then, would he be able to show him the money.

And that doesn’t just hold true in the movies. Steve Tisch, proud co-owner of the NY Giants declared that the key to their big victory this past weekend was that they “…played with heart, with passion, with love for each other and for the game of football.”

Does that negate, replace or even diminish all the hard work, training, strategy, talent and skill necessary to achieve such great heights? No, of course not. But it’s the thing that will make the difference between a good team and a great team, a good life and a great one.

Most of us are taught to live by our heads, logic and ego, not by our hearts and guts. But only when we listen to our hearts and put love into everything are we our most authentic selves, which means living our truth. And when we are living our truth, we can then more easily speak our truth, and stand in our truth. And that is the best way to guarantee peace and prosperity in our lives, no matter what the circumstances may be.

Million dollar contract, Lombardi Trophy or not, we are all players the Superbowl Game of Life – so are you playing with your head or your heart?  Give me a buzz and I’ll make sure that unlike Tom Cruise’s confrontation with Jack Nicholson, you can indeed handle the truth and start living in alignment with who you are and what you want to make happen both on the field and off!

P.S. For related thoughts on this topic check out my posts: To Tell The Truth and U.S.A

P.P.S Find out what’s in YOUR heart at our upcoming Visioning Workshop on 2/18/12!