Can you believe we are already more than halfway through the month!?  Time just keeps flying and I hope you are making the most of every day!

One of the things that makes our days fulfilling is the quality of our relationships.  Whether that is with family, with friends, with business associates, clients, or team members.  

At the core of every relationship you have is one thing:

Communication.  

When we increase our level of communication, we can significantly impact the quality of our relationships.  Yet, communication is a HUGE category.  So this week I wanted to break it down into 3 very easy steps for you, so you could easily and systematically become a better communicator.

There is a big difference between "knowing" versus "doing".  

So as you review these 3 steps, I want you to be extremely honest in evaluating yourself.  Give yourself a score on a scale of 1 to 10 on the "doing" of these skills.  (Ten being perfect.)...

Have you ever thought to yourself, “what the frick?!”  Specifically on where a span of time has gone in light-speed fashion?

Well that’s what I’ve been asking myself the past couple of weeks… “What the frick Brenda?!  How did the past 6 months go by so quickly?!?“

As some of you may know, 6 months ago my Dad passed away unexpectedly.  He was 79 years old and lived across the country from me, 3000 miles away in Florida.  He was my first athletic coach and my last living parent.

The past 6 months have been two completely opposite experiences…

1. A whirlwind of activity, travel, to-do’s, logistics, etc.

And on the other end of the spectrum…

2. The feeling like I’m stuck in a quagmire of emotional molasses with an overwhelming sense of loss.

A sense of loss that goes beyond just the passing of my Dad.  An overwhelming sense of loss that encompassed that and much more, and...

Family & Friends

/ˈfam-lē/ noun  a group of persons of common ancestry

/ˈfrends/ noun  one attached to another by affection or esteem

Let’s talk about family and chosen family... aka your closest friends. I believe we are spiritual beings having a human experience here on Earth. One of the biggest ways that our soul grows and evolves while we are here, is through our relationships. The relationships that we have with others provides us a mirror and shows us which spiritual lessons we are here to learn this time around.

Those that we are closest to, either through birth or by choice, are the most important “things” we have in our lives. And yet in my experience, often times, they are the first to go on the back burner when we need to work long hours, or feel the stressors of money. We end up either not spending quality time with them or when we are with them we are checked out and not present, or even worse, we take out our negative emotions and...

First and foremost, Happy Father’s Day to ALL the fathers out there: dads, stepdads, uncles or friends who chose to step into that role in someone’s life, bonus dads, adoptive dads, gay dads, and even you moms out there who play the dual role of both momma and daddy.  You are appreciated.

To those of you that may struggle with Father’s Day... those who have lost your dad or those who don’t have the type of dad that deserves celebration, you are in my heart and prayers this weekend.

This is my first Father’s Day since losing my dad last October.  Reality is... it sucks.  However I am going to choose to find the good in it by remembering my Dad and all of the lessons he taught me - verbally and mostly non-verbally.

And that is my wish for you today.  Find the good and hold onto it.  If you have a great dad, celebrate him and be sure to give him a hug - literally or virtually.

If this day is a sad one for you, hold on to the...

Every year, this particular week is always a difficult one for me.  It's the week leading up to Mother's Day.  (I promise there will be celebration in this post also!)  

If you don't know the story, I lost my mom over 18 years ago.  I was only 26 at the time and she was a very young 63 years old.  My mom Faye, was a wonderful, loving, and stubborn woman!  And I am so grateful that she was a stubborn as she was.  

Because of that, I got an extra 20 years with her.  Let me explain...

When I was 5 years old, she was diagnosed with cancer.  Specifically, Hodgkin's Disease.  Which apparently was one of the "good ones" because it had a pretty good remission rate back then.  Now we are talking almost 40 years ago, so technology and medicine were not what they are today.  (And yes, we still have a LONG way to go in terms of cancer prevention and treatment).

By the time I was 6 years old, she had gone through...