👉🏻 It's all personal
And a new book review for Soundtrack: Liner Notes From A Pandemic
As we enter the end-of-year rush, it’s time to take stock of the year’s accomplishments, reflect and plan for next year. I’ll do that properly after Thanksgiving. Today I am packing and bracing myself for Thanksgiving travel we have all been warned not to do! (see “I’m the problem it’s me” newsletter post from May 9, 2023).
But no worries, you’re in for a treat today.
I started thinking about this taking stock thing weeks ago. Thinking about the next chapter of Monumental Me… where to focus our energy and resources, where to replant the seeds from the fruit of our successes, and what the evolution of our tools to thrive looks like - especially this newsletter, The Thrive Letter, and our podcast, The Mindshare Podcast. The platforms we use to “share evidence-based tools and experience-based insights to help you thrive in life and in work.” In our first Thrive Letter post, we wrote “It’s about cultivating a positive mindset, removing your roadblocks and getting out of your own way.” Do we get in our own way? Michele and I think many people do way too often. The post from January 2022 continues:
“When it comes to finding your thrive in life and in work… It is all personal.
Yup. Don't let anyone tell you differently. Work, relationships, parenting, goal setting, business, career growth. It's personal. Too often we gloss over the importance of our inner voice, our mindset, our strengths, and how self-knowledge can really help us thrive in these personal and professional aspects of life …
"Your mind can be your best friend or your worst enemy. Your mind is constantly sabotaging your potential for both performance and happiness. All your negative emotions, including stress, are the result of self-sabotage." ~ Shirzad Chamine, best-selling author and Stanford lecturer.
You may disagree. That's OK. We want to hear from you.”
This is an excerpt, and I share it now for many new and beloved original readers to underscore that we are still focused on providing tools to help you feed your mind, to remove the roadblocks, to get out of your own way, and to see things from different perspectives. Monumental Me was born during the pandemic lockdown of 2020, a period of time that we all faced and from which we rose to thrive … or we found our ways.
And with this, the treat: I share a new book written by my dear friend, and past contributor to the start of Monumental Me, Alison Cupp Relyea. I strongly recommend you read her collection of very personal essays Soundtrack: Liner Notes from A Pandemic Mixtape. Alison’s storytelling is so relatable and uplifting and generates the feeling of connection we all crave, now and particularly during the dark days of the pandemic. I just love the way Alison uses music and other media and pop culture to engage her readers. You have to read it to see what I mean.
✨ It’s all personal.
You can find my book review of “Soundtrack: Liner Notes from A Pandemic Mixtape” and purchase a copy on Amazon HERE. Alternatively, purchase it from the independent online bookstore Bookshop, but Amazon is so good at making ratings and reviews easily accessible to millions of people that it still must be part of the mix to get this delightful read into the hands of many.
Spread the word.
And stay tuned. In the next Thrive Letter, I WILL be digging deep into our accomplishments of this past year and taking your input and suggestions to heart. So do not hesitate to reach out. Let me know what you think we need now.
🧡Liana