How To Weeble Your Way To Success

Resilience(Published in Huffington Post)

Years ago, as a single mom I was working very hard to reinvent myself with very few credentials to my name. My financial and emotional bank accounts were constantly being drained with demands and responsibilities. There were days where I would have preferred to stay in bed for a month, but I got out of bed, painted on a smile and picked up my boxing gloves; just like every under-employed single mom I knew.

At work, I had a colleague named Raj. He had a Master’s degree in Mathematics, came from a prominent family, and was newly engaged to a professional woman. They were living the dream and had life by the balls! (more…)

You are Amazing! Wait. What did you say?

Out of the blue, someone I know professionally wrote me a quick Facebook private message telling me he thinks I’m amazing. Truthfully, I didn’t even know how to respond. I read it and sat with it for a couple of hours before I responded. It truly confused and bothered me.

He was not pointing to anything in particular I had done.
I expected he was most likely responding to a Facebook opinion post. (more…)

Fun Interview About Some People I Help

Checking out my YouTube  videos and I thought I’d reshare an older one.

At 8:05, it gets a tad saucy. 🙂

Who do you know might benefit from my speaking, training or private coaching services? I’d love an introduction.

BIO

Monique Caissie x150Monique works with organizations or people who want to reduce conflict to create a culture of collaboration, engagement and productivity. The most successful leaders are not infallible when faced with someone who “drives them crazy!” Her strategies to empower people to better understand each other and have better outcomes, while having fun, are appreciated by all who meet her. She draws from 30 years of crisis intervention and mental health work, she is a Level II Accredited Trainer for DISC as a Human Behavior Consultant and a Certified NLP Professional Coach. She loves meeting people and getting to know them and their industry. So feel free to reach out.

Making the Time to Grieve: Even if Nobody has Died

When we love and care for someone who suffers from a serious mental illness, there are beautiful, joyful moments where everything is well managed.
The best of everything and everyone is possible.
I try to take pictures with my heart at those moments.

Then, every number of years, there is a major health crisis. (more…)

Breaking the silence of the glass ceiling

Listening to the Harvey Weinstein story brought back some memories. One of them is of a parenting workshop participant I had several years ago. As a Family Life Educator, in my workshops, because it’s such an important topic, I often opened up the concept of how to teach children values and sexuality. This workshop was no different. (more…)

Knitting Lessons about Business Procrastination

At one point, I asked Dad to teach me how to knit. My first project was some uneven potholders for my mom. They were yellow. Of course, Mom loved them.

Eventually, wanting to do follow more intricate patterns, I bought a book on how to knit.

I was having a difficult time understanding one of the steps for a sweater and asked for advice.

The girl at the knitting store told me that I was holding my yarn and needles in the wrong hands. I was basically knitting backwards. (more…)

Am I allowed to say that?

When I first heard “haters gotta hate”, I didn’t know what it meant until I changed the words to “saboteurs gotta sabotage”. Then it made sense.

When I decided to go out on my own and be an entrepreneur, the skills I needed were opposite from what my environment taught me.

After all, to attract paying clients, I have to put myself out there.
I have to tell people my stories so they can laugh at what not to do.
This is my method of teaching others what I have learned in the school of hard knocks. (more…)

The Benefit of Not Feeling Attached To Outcomes

If you have children, you have probably read something at some point about how to raise a happy child. They all include the advice of “Love them unconditionally”.

No matter what our children do, love them beyond the behavior. Otherwise, our act of resentment will drag them down and hold them back in life.

Successful parenting always has components of forgiveness, adapting and letting go. Those are elements of unconditional love. (more…)

Survival Guide to the Holiday Flu

1925344-li(As published in Huffington Post)

I still remember as a little girl while at school, I suddenly began to feel very poorly and almost passed out. When the school nurse took my temperature, she immediately called my father to come bring me home. By the time he got there, the cold compresses had had their effect and I felt quite normal. My father punished me for faking a temperature and pretending to faint. To this day when I get sick, I try to power through, convincing myself that it will pass. (more…)

Free Yourself From Emotional Blackmail At Work And At Home With Healthy Boundaries

emotional blackmail(Published in Huffington Post)

As a recovering doormat, I struggled with setting boundaries.  But first, I needed to figure out when my boundaries were actually being crossed. When working as a counselor in mental health, I got a crash course on personality disorders. These disorders have a strong element of emotional blackmail to them where another’s boundaries are unimportant. This was an eye opener! (more…)

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