E2: Better Never Bitter: Resilience and Mindfulness in Career Navigation with Alicia Sebastien

Overview:
In this episode of our podcast, join Alicia Sebastien as she shares her professional journey and personal growth. She reflects on the profound insights gained through her experiences in various corporate roles and her pursuits as an author and career consultant. Her narrative is interwoven with practical advice and motivational wisdom aimed at inspiring listeners to navigate their own career paths with resilience and mindfulness.

Guest:
Alicia Sebastien, from Houston, Texas, thrives on change. Skilled in professional and personal rebranding, she navigates the fast-paced tech world easily. Her career journey has seen multiple shifts, from a sudden layoff in the oil & gas sector in August 2019 to a contractual change in the tech industry in November 2022, which inspired her to write the e-book “Better Never Bitter (A Self Help Guide for Job Loss & Transition).” With a background in Environmental Science and experience in Safety Operations and HR, Alicia is currently embracing her third career transformation.

Alongside her role as an HR Information System Specialist, Alicia serves as a part-time career consultant for a global HR firm. She helps candidates from diverse industries, such as insurance, pharmaceuticals, automotive, healthcare, and banking, transition to new opportunities at major companies, including Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, HP, Apple, Intel, JP Morgan Chase, and Wells Fargo.

Alicia is also active in the "Better Never Bitter" networking group in Houston, which focuses on:

• Making charitable contributions quarterly, ideally to grassroots organizations.
• Enhancing professional, financial, and personal well-being by utilizing self-help books and fostering group discussions through local library partnerships.
• Strengthen community ties and promote personal and professional accountability to achieve established goals.

Dedicated to continual learning and community engagement, Alicia leverages her networks to expand her impact and support others in their professional journeys.

LinkedIn | Instagram | TikTok | E-Book

What You'll Discover This Week:

• Resilience in Career Transitions: Alicia shares insights from her experience navigating layoffs and career changes during the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the value of resilience. She discusses the importance of proactive career management, continually seeking opportunities, and building a robust network, ultimately leading her to secure a pivotal role in October 2020.
• Creating the "Better, Never Bitter" eBook: Motivated by her personal career hurdles, Alicia authored "Better, Never Bitter." This eBook serves as both a professional roadmap and a personal development guide, emphasizing the need to process and accept life's challenges to advance effectively.
• The Power of Support Systems and Strategic Planning: Alicia underscores the essential role of having a supportive network and the importance of strategic planning in her career recovery and stability. She details using the five whys analysis to set clear goals and stresses the importance of staying grounded and present throughout one's career journey.

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Where Mindfulness Meets Mastery in Work-Life Balance

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Visit www.pausepoint.io to explore the PausePoint platform - built to bring mindfulness and burnout prevention into the workplace.

Transcript

  Welcome to PausePoint the podcast, your ultimate destination for reclaiming your time, revitalizing your spirit, and saying no to burnout.  I'm Felisa Wiley, CEO and founder of PausePoint, and I'm here to ignite your journey towards a more balanced and mindful life.  Join us each week as we delve into practical tips, inspiring stories, and expert advice designed to integrate mindfulness into your daily life. 

We'll explore mental health tips, discover ways to strengthen work life balance, and find methods to reduce your stress.  Whether you're new to mindfulness or seeking to deepen your practice, we're here to spark action. It's time to reclaim our time, take more breaks, and infuse our lives with moments of peace and rejuvenation.

Join us starting July 15th for our debut season, where we'll share practical tips, inspiring stories, and expert advice to help you thrive in today's fast paced world.  Let's create a mindful world, one pause at a time. 

Welcome to this week's episode of PausePoint.  Today, we're excited to have Alicia Sebastian, a seasoned career coach and author whose professional journey through corporate America has been marked by resilience and adaptability. Facing industry shifts and personal challenges, including layoffs and the global pandemic, Alicia has turned adversity into a catalyst for growth and development.

She now uses her experiences to guide others through career transitions as a career coach and through her ebook. Better never bitter, which offers strategies for overcoming obstacles with focus and determination. Today we'll delve into Alicia's methods for building resilience, maintaining focus, and the role of mindfulness in personal and professional growth.

We'll also discuss how her journey has equipped her to help others achieve fulfilling career paths. Alicia, welcome to PausePoint's podcast. Can you please tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey? 

Hi, yes, I'm Alicia Sebastian. I was in the health safety operations doing HSC analytic, and I got promoted into an adjacent HR role, which was workers comp associated when doing that particular role, I felt like that was an idea of being good in something that came. 

And from there, I got recruited from another oil and gas company to do data analytics, not necessarily HR adjacent work. I continued on that momentum. I got laid off subsequently a year and a half later after joining that organization. It was acquired by a large organization. And in that time, I decided to go full speed on me and doing HR.

So it took me from August of 2019 until March, 2020 to secure employment. In HR information systems, however, my offer was rescinded due to COVID in March of 2020. So I had to immediately pivot into doing another role in which I was still in the running for meaning the screening process and the stages of interviewing.

And it was for a role I was doing benefit enrollment or pretty much a benefit administration company. You didn't know who the client you were going to be on their particular account until you got to your onboarding. So I was able to be a part of the Starbucks team for benefit enrollment. And that taught me a lot about structure, organization, being able to speak to certain prompts without thinking too much, and holding myself to a high expectation, which is what you're With the Starbucks or organization fast forward to now after being laid off, I am fully in the HR information space at an insurance domestic insurance company.

And then I'm also a career consultant for the same company that we use out placement services with when I was laid off five years later and helping those that are in need of those same services who have been subsequently laid off from their employment. So talk about a full circle moment. 

That is a full circle moment, and what's amazing though is that the one, the resilience that you had to build throughout your career, just jumping from place to place, contact switching, trying to figure out what's next, being on your toes, but ultimately you figured it out.

And that's what you have to do in this life. Success is not linear. You have to figure out your own pathway. And you also are going to have a lot more no's than yes's. But how do you come back from it? All I needed was one. Yes. I was told I didn't have a degree for HR and I relied on my faith. I say, God, if this is meant for me, please make the path and align that whatever that opportunity looks like.

And that's what I did. So I consistently woke up every day, planned out, applying for jobs, networking, and that director gave me the opportunity just to circle back to that. As well. Once that offer was rescinded and I had to do a six month. role with Starbucks. I kept in touch with the director and the role I was originally going to be hired for was analytic.

And then when I kept in touch with her around October, I asked her, Hey, do you think that if there are any vacancies coming up? And she said, there actually is, we got approved for our budget in the system space. And I re interviewed and I got the job October 2020. It's very rewarding to see that my efforts didn't fall through.

Overnight success is really not a thing. You have to nurture it. You have to have a plan. 

And all of this also 

inspired 

your ebook, Better Never Better. 

That is directly the root cause of that. I wanted to give People, something to refer to, and this is not just for someone that's been faced with layoff.

It's also for those who see themselves looking for other opportunities. You're not a tree. You're not rooted. Wherever you are, you can move. Being open to the process of new opportunities is always going to be there as long as we need work. And when you see the elevation in your self development, I created this 10 module guide that walks you through that step in process.

I was reading 

through just the chapters and skimming through it. And one. I love how the first step is processing the situation, because it's the first step for any sort of situation that happens. You need to take a step back. I really like the line that you use in module one, which was, it happened for you, not to you.

Because it also touches on, not only is that person now processing what happened, It's acceptance. It's literally the first step to change. 

Being present, that's another key, is being present in the now. You have to absorb where you are, what you need in that moment, and where are you headed from that situation.

And it does not define you. Even if it ended in a way that you didn't foresee it ending, Subsequently, that chapter has ended, and it has the opportunity to be something beautiful if you trust the process. What were some techniques that you 

used for your own regrounding? 

Having a support system is key. So Better Never Bitter, in extension to this ebook, is also a budding networking community here in the Houston area.

Having that support system is essential in how you ground yourself. Those people know you best. They pour that love into you. For me, Words of affirmation are my thing. I need to know what I'm good at, why I'm good at it, and I have the power and the resilience to keep going forward. And that was necessary.

Also having a plan. It all goes back to having a plan. And being from the safety operations area, you always work backwards. So you establish the said goal, and then you keep asking yourself, it's called the five why analysis, but we're going to say how. Instead of why, how do I get to Zango? And you just keep asking yourself how until you get to that beginning stage of where you need to start.

And if it becomes overwhelming, create a checklist. Find somebody on LinkedIn. This is where I want to be. I curated my timeline for people that were already significantly well into their careers. And I followed them and I said, this is where I want to be. So that gave me something positive to look forward to.

And having a lot of timeline curates of that. Also following recruiters in state space. Those were my steps essentially starting out and getting grounded. 

I love that because it's very true. Everyone needs a support system. Someone to tell them, Hey, I understand what you're going through. Someone to carry you out and hear what you have to say.

And also your words of affirmations. What are some of your words of affirmations? 

So this is coming from some of my favorite ones that I take on to my Mac group. I collect fortune. The first one is don't wait for others to open the right door for you. That represent what we're doing right now, right? We stepped out on faith in these initiatives that we have going.

And we have a plan in mind as to where we want to be. And I wasn't waiting on someone to say, you know what? Here is the basis and the criteria for writing an ebook. No, I took it upon myself and said, this is how I'm going to outline my ebook. I want it to be interactive. And this is how I'm going to go for it with doing it.

And I'll tell you the inspiration. I was able to come to Fort Myers in February with my parents. I needed that trip in order to, as a refresher for me. Something about being by the water, it helps. And on the plane back. I just was writing. I was able to write five modules on the plane ride back in February.

And here we are in June with it published. Going back to the other second affirmation is we judge others by actions. We judge ourselves by intention. We judge others by what they do and not necessarily What they say, but as for us, we know we're born, we've been in our bodies for X amount of years. So we know what our intentions are.

We have the power and the control of our situation. That's how I interpret that particular one. I'm glad you had them right on your Mac, but they didn't have to. It's something that I'll have to, you can look at this every day. If it's a mirror or it's whatever you tend to have your inspiration at. Put those affirmations there, a mirror, my mother gave me a short one that I have on my mirror and I can see obviously when I'm looking at my stove.

It's necessary feeding yourself positive words, positive messages, consistently repeating those messages until you literally have them memorized. You can't go wrong. When I read this book called The Artist's Way, are you familiar with 

it? I'm not, but now you've added a book to my collection. It's 

really good.

It's. It's great. Similar to your self help ebook, it's primarily for artists trying to tap into your creativity, but the messages are the same. Where one, step one is to journal every day, at least a minimum of three to five pages. I think the second step is to take yourself out on artist dates, where you can be by yourself, with yourself, and really get to know yourself.

Other steps include finding what values you're aligned with, writing out vision statements, and then just repeating those vision statements out. Every day I have it in my notion. Every day I would wake up, I would say my own words of affirmations. Let me actually see if I could get it up for you. Hold on.

You might like this. You might be very proud of me. Yeah, it's my core values, my purpose and vision statements, and my affirmations, and my vow to myself. So every day, I I would repeat my ranked core values. There was about seven of them and I would change the ranking based off of how I was feeling that day.

So for instance, like right now, my number one core value is spiritual growth. So I would repeat to myself every morning, I value having sacred boundaries that foster growth. A deeply grounded presence and authenticity, a balanced approach between intuition and action, and the courage to embrace change at my inner power.

And that's just one. I have my second would be harmony, third effortless, fourth intelligence, and five discipline. I would just literally repeat. Every single one and recite it every morning and then my purpose and vision statement I would say I exist to serve by achieving my goals or I exist to serve by maximizing my possibilities and by saying this you feel like I said the second one and I got goosebumps because I Feel it because I wrote these because I knew that these were very important to me giving yourself positive messages and letting yourself repeat them Very helpful in your day to day and what I love about your the modules that you created You is that all of this is grounded in mindfulness, being in the present, and getting to know yourself, which sounds super, super easy, but we are in a world where there is so much noise, so many people telling us who we should be or what we should be, so many rules, whether it's politics in a workspace that we have to deal with, or when we're dealing with like family, where you know you're not supposed to say something because Z's here.

So we have all of these external constraints around us. Even just getting to know ourselves, understanding like who we are and what we want. Being 

by yourself is truly a gift. And I spend a lot of time alone. I live alone now after being with my parents for so many years. So being alone allows you to push out, as you mentioned, the noise.

And also just come to truth about who you are. When you spend so much time about your, with yourself, you acknowledge that. Okay, if I'm having a bad day and someone has directed something towards me, that's not of me. That has nothing to do with me. You can be able to decipher between the two because you've spent so much time by yourself for eight hours.

That behavior is not representative of who you are. And that's a deflection coming from them. A challenge to those out there, please spend some time with yourself. It's necessary for growth. And COVID set us all down. People were going absolutely crazy and I was like, this is great for an introvert. I'm an introvert.

I love it. Give me more. Obviously, it was a very traumatic situation and a lot happened during that time. And I hate that it did in regards to the amount of fatalities and things, so let's be sensitive to that aspect, but it was a great opportunity. I don't know if you recall that me going around, we're going to see who comes out of this with a new skill and what it does.

And I was like, okay, we don't know what's going on. We're all processing it the same. If you come out, even in just your faith alone, you've done something, you've accomplished something. If you come out and you build a relationship with somebody because you have no choice, you're in the house with them, and you treat each other on a different level, that is something to be grateful for.

Absolutely, and it's as long as you're making some small incremental improvement, getting to know yourself or another person a little bit better. every single day or doing something that is just more than what you've already done. You're doing a good job doing something like continue. Yourself grace.

Give yourself grace. Yourself grace. I think a lot of people need to give themselves a little bit more grace. I feel like we live in such a hustle culture and we also live in a world where we're bombarded by advertisements like how a perfect life should be lived. That we are constantly trying to keep up with the joneses where we don't give ourselves The grace to be like, you know what?

I'm happy. I'm content with what I have, where I am. I'm okay with who I am. The society just wants us to keep wanting more. 

You have to be careful about what you consume. You can have a TV in your house, but that doesn't necessarily, you're consuming it for all parts of the day. And you may not be consuming all aspects of it.

We have so many streaming services. I can't even watch reality TV in the same way that I did Apple TV. Because in what world? It's all that arguing, hell, it's not. The root cause of it is sometimes just something that could have been a misinterpretation of an event or an action. It could have been resolved in one conversation, and here we are, six episodes later, still beefing about that same issue.

In what reality? I'm sorry, that's not real. It's being aware of what you consume, how you consume it. And being able to detach, that's not really reality. The same, touch grad, that's not what's going on in my world. And I'm able to decipher from it too, but you have some people who are so dedicated and involved in what is on social media, they can't separate the two.

So just be cognizant of that. 

Thinking back, some of the TV shows that I used to watch, This was just not healthy, the messages that they're giving off. And what scares me is I think some people live like that. I think some people argue almost every day with people in their lives. And they think that's normal.

And they don't know how to have a conversation, express their feelings. You're like, hey, you did this, and I do not appreciate that. To me, that's like second nature. That's easy. It's the argument that confuses me. And in 

environments also dictate what is normalized. But it's up to the individual to break that curve.

Now that I'm exposed to something different, when you know better, you do better. This is not a healthy habit. We should keep going on. Now, segue, you 

definitely have a lot of One, you've worked a lot on yourself, it's your mentality, your approach to situations that happen. How has this shaped and influenced your approach to human resources?

Looking, being from the employee's perspective. So before I was part of HR, I would be end user per se. And for me, I enjoy a self service experience. So if I could go and be empowered to find information on my own, I felt confident about state service. Or department. And now that I'm in an HR space, let's find things to where the employee knows where to go, how to go about getting that set request fulfilled, and it really improves the employee experience.

At the end of the day, it's about the employee experience. So how can we make it better? And that's what I've been able to do from transferring from safety operations now into HR information system. 

And what I think makes your situation unique as well is that you did come from analytics. 

Yes, that's the bridge.

And that's something that we cannot forget about those transferable skills. So just to. Point this out, the three things or the three transferable skill sets that I had was already data administration, process improvement, and also data analytics. So, it made for a good segue to move into. So, if you're in transition right now, and you're interested in another career path, you have to identify what are those key requirements of that same role and do you already encompass.

Those skillsets now in your current role. 

Knowing how users use information systems, trying to figure out ways to make that a little bit easier. It makes them less stressed, and they get what they need done quicker. Everyone's a little bit more happy at the end of the day. 

And it all ties back to reputation, right?

Yes, departments within said overall arching organization have their own reputation. So you want to exemplify what it is, always put yourself in the opposite person's position, what it is that you can benefit from and what that looks like from the employee's perspective. It also ties back to reason too, everything within reason, right?

We can't get too crazy. Is there a budget in place? What are the details specifics? What if it's low hanging fruit? Let's try to map that out and get it integrated. 

And I like what you said about employee needs. What do they need? I don't feel confident saying that companies care about employee needs sometimes, and you did a little bit of a smile.

So what's on your mind? 

From past company cultures, there's sometimes a disconnect, honestly, between management and lower level employees. And when you're making key decisions, that are impactful to everyone, you have to have those people at the table. Otherwise, the effort is going to be missed. You can have, this all goes back to that saying about we judge others by actions, we judge ourselves by intention.

If the action is not mapping out with what you can put it on paper all day long, this is what we intended to do, but there's a disconnect in how it was delivered. And now. You will see the initiative scrapped a year later because it didn't go over well with the employee. The key aspect of that is having the right people at the table, the key decision makers, a part of the conversation.

And then also what's the harm in creating a pilot group, doing a test deployment on it. Let's do maybe 30, 60 day, 90 day pilot. And then come back with a lesson learned and then use that as a basis for your establishment. 

I like that because once again, you're taking a step back. You're involving those who this new process procedure will impact.

You're getting their feedback and you're helping it. You're letting their feedback iterate into the entire process in and of itself to make sure that it's actually working as intended instead of just throwing something out into the ether and hoping that it falls. Exactly. It shows you're being genuine about having a true connection 

with the employee experience again.

I think that authenticity and being genuine is something that most don't actually take into consideration, unfortunately. 

You can definitely tell when something is It's not authentic. I pick up on energy all day long and I can definitely tell when someone is just talking at me and not to me. 

For sure.

And that all goes back to being present in the moment. You're just, are you doing it just for a tick, just to say you did it as a checkbox or are you really invested in what can come from this outcome? 

What do you think some organizations can do to be a little bit more authentic in their actions? When it comes to employee well being and mental health, 

definitely having a work life balance, reiterating the importance of what does that look like?

Do you have outside of your PTO bank policy something for self care days to show that you're invested in wholeness and health? Some organizations also have rest, resting weeks. I know I may not be saying the correct terminology. I can't remember, but at a former tech company. Everyone was off, the whole company was off at the same time, so it didn't feel like, if this team is out, then I feel obligated to pick up the slack or carry the load type thing.

No, because everyone was out of the office at the same time. 

And it worked. I like that only because sometimes, even personally in my work, if I'm off, there might be another team that may need me. So I could very easily see how, okay, having everyone off at the same time, you all have no reason to be on your laptops.

Clothes un shut, why are you sending that email? And that one person who does send an email, we need to check in on her because something's You need to make sure everything's alright, you know. How would you be able to measure the impact of mindfulness and wellness 

programs? Everyone loves a good survey.

Okay. Why not? However, it's also about who is conducting the survey. I don't like when it's masked as though it's anonymous and it's in a Google Sheet. Hold on. No, let's not do that. Let's actually bring in a third party organization that will handle the survey. The information, and then if there's a group or team over a certain size, then the results are shared for that particular level of management to create action items around.

I know it's cliche. People don't like surveys, and it also comes down to people being engaged in actually doing them. I've been in organizations where there is an incentive. If you get X amount of things accomplished or surveys completed, you'll get an additional day off. 

For completing a survey. Lays off or 

HSA funds, something that can be directly impactful to the employee.

Obviously, it's a given type. You're asking of someone to do something. Let's at least try to do what we can as an organization to assist in that matter. 

No, I like that 

idea. 

There's a little something. Give us a little something. You'll get a little something. 

Everyone wins. Exactly. And it all goes back to within reason.

Everyone's organization is set up differently, but the key is being connected with your, what are the needs of your organization? Go to your Glassdoor page. Look at some of those reviews. Like anything in life, you gotta have a barometer of what that looks like. And of course, anything on the internet, you have to take with a grain of salt, but everybody can't be saying the same thing.

It's really true.  

Gloucester profile, one of my old jobs, and I remember when I first started working there, they had a 4. 8 Gloucester review. I think they're down to a 3. 8. That's a whole point drop. Whatever they're doing is not working, and people are definitely saying the same thing. So if all they have to do is go, chat, take note, it's anonymous.

And I think people feel a little bit more at ease when their voices, when they could say what they need to say anonymously. Of course, some people can just be like angry and bitter, but 30 people can all be angry and 

bitter. That takes a lot of effort. It's a lot. It takes a lot of effort. You just have to have your pulse on what's being, you have to have conversations with people, have small group sessions.

When you, it's all about relationship building. Once that person feels comfortable with you, they probably won't mind sharing, especially if it's in a one on one capacity. Comfort 

is very important. I don't know about you, but sometimes in a professional setting, I get nervous speaking my mind and I think it has to do with the layoffs that happened.

Me not wanting to put my head on the chopping block, and me just wanting to be liked by others, especially my manager, and has the power to give me promotions and whatnot. I don't think I was in a 

healthy work environment either. You bring up a very good point about being liked. I quit caring about being liked a long time ago.

It's about being respected. This is funny because this was an actual question by one of my directors. Would you prefer to be, it was an icebreaker question. Would you prefer to be liked or respected? And I said being liked is transaction. Because I can be doing a million good things, and then the one thing that I don't do that you don't like, now we have an issue.

So no, judge me on the basis of my work ethic. And my professionalism, and it all, that ties back to your, to being respected. So, no, it's very transactional to me and I stay away from that because it's too subjective. It's true. It's very true. I just don't want to get fired. That is the reason for getting fired or whatever the case is, then that's not your place.

I 

know. And honestly, I feel like this goes back to what we were talking about. I think we weren't even recording then. But companies just hiring their buddies. Yeah, they all like each other. And they're also safe from being an individual contributor. And they have a little extra say in whether you stay or go.

And I'm like, I just want to get up there and 

survive all of this. And that's that fight or flight thing, and you don't, that's not a healthy state to be in at all. And so, once you recognize that, it's okay, this place is no longer serving. Now, don't get me wrong, we all have taken jobs to pay the bills, a means to make an end, right?

However, You also want to find a bridge to where it's feeding your soul. It's feeding your passion. And that's what I'm doing in the career consulting space. I enjoy seeing the direct output of my input with helping others. Because I've been there before. I definitely want to touch 

on your coaching. How do you help people?

Yes. So if you're not already following my page on Instagram, it is better. Never bitter with the never NBR. And right now I am doing quick videos about. Different job topics. So I started literally as your professional conscience with the purchase of my ebook right now, and the link is in my bio of my Instagram page.

You will also get invited to a Q and a. And I meet the author invitation around mid July. So you have up until about mid July to take advantage. So it's a two for one deal, very good opportunity. So you can get like a peek my brain in the same sense. If you have questions about where you are in your career, what's next.

Also, I do look forward to doing partnerships with others in any capacity in which I can. And speaking engagements. So I'm open to doing speaking engagements. If you have your brunches, your lunches, hey, call me and I'll be happy to set something up with you. I'm on TikTok as well. So whatever you prefer, that's where I'm on TikTok, Instagram.

And also my Facebook is my name, my full name handle, Alicia Sebastian. 

That's amazing. So I love that you're fully inclusive. We have your ebook, you have a coaching service, you're on all the platforms and you are literally just here to help people be the best version of themselves, solidify their wants and needs.

In terms of career development and guide them through it based off of your own personal experiences. Yes, exactly. Love it here. Of course, even though your book is focused on career development. Honestly, I see this as. Based as personal development too. I see it as you just getting to know yourself better.

You creating goals and you figuring out and learning about yourself. And then also, yes, you did talk about networking, aligning your brand, which for your professional brand, which I also think people could do in their personal brand as well. I know that you went through a lot with your own career search and you came to Fort Myers and you felt refreshed and you wrote those five modules.

What in it sparked where you're like, I need to write this and I need to share this with others. 

I want to leave a legacy behind and all of the great creatives that have gone on they have a piece of them still left here for others to enjoy. So that is my legacy, writing out, even just journaling different thoughts and things.

That led me to this space of creating this ebook. And that's why I wanted to put it in writing in our established platforms so that people can have access to that information. You may not need it now, But it's always good to have as a point of reference in the events you do, or if you know somebody who does, it's a great gift, plug in that as well.

It is a good gift. 

For some of your journaling, do you have specific prompts that you use, or is it more of a free writing experience for you? 

Free writing. My brain, it never stops, it never turns off, unfortunately. Right now I'm up to midnight, I have insomnia really bad, and that is my way of, you know, My thoughts saying, okay, you need to purge, you need to get it out.

You need to write it down or you need to put it in action in some kind of way. So it's just free flowing. And sometimes it doesn't even make sense, but it's my way of just. Getting it out. 

And how has your understanding of mindfulness evolved through your writing? 

Just being able to enjoy where I'm at in this stage in my life.

And looking back, I'm now 10 years out of undergrad and seeing how far I measure from where I started and where I am on the path to going. And so, it has been very fulfilling to see I've done all of this within just seeing the idea come into fruition from February, like I told you, and everything is done.

And I'll tell you one thing, the one, the thing that separates us from everyone else is discipline. You can have the thought, you can have the idea, and also consistency. How dedicated are you to getting this done? And that's what I wanted to do. I said, okay, I gave myself until my birthday, which was September 4th.

I also shared with the queen bee, but I said, okay, listen, I'm going to give myself this time period. And then I got it done before then. So it's like under promise over delivered. And that's how I set myself up to for success in the professional world. I like that. 

And honestly, it's a good way to do it because.

One, you're remaining, you're remaining disciplined, you take action, which I think is hard, but we do it anyway, and we keep putting one foot in front of the next and we don't stop. That deserves commendments right there. 

No, literally, you have to wake up every day knowing. That all goes back to the mindset of better never bitter.

Alicia, how would you recommend this audience stays better never bitter? 

Every day, it may not make sense to you, but no, eventually it will if you keep going. And you have the ability to either look at it from an optimistic standpoint, or you can take it and be negative. However, You got to keep moving forward. 

Thank you for joining us for today's episode of PausePoint, the podcast. Our debut season is packed with enlightening conversations, featuring thought leaders, burnout prevention specialists, authors, and mindfulness coaches.  Together, we delve into topics like effective stress management, burnout, goal setting, and transformative mindfulness techniques. 

PausePoint is dedicated to enhancing wellbeing by seamlessly integrating mindfulness into your daily routine. Our innovative tool syncs with your calendar to identify opportunities. Transcripts provided by Transcription Outsourcing, LLC.