Mistral Spirit Snapshot

The focus of this episode is on 4 tips to improve your relationships, conversations and meetings using your bullet journal, but I also steered into some personal growth territory! It's really just a long heart-to-heart chat and journal entry mixed into one (which you can now listen to as a podcast!). I chat about something I've been thinking about lately regarding different types of growth we go through, my very inward-focused, psychology growth phase three years ago, and why I'm grateful to have blogs and journals to look back on. Speaking of which, I really should start journaling again... I chat about how you can start your own podcast, and why everyone should write a blog. And I chat about stressful jobs, resilience, some video interviews I've been watching lately and learning a lot from, and the board game Catan. Enjoy! ••••• TIMESTAMPS •••• 00:00 mistral spirit snapshot is now a podcast! 2:21 on different types of growth and journaling 4:35 4 note-taking tips to improve your relationships & conversations 11:39  what I've been doing 12:49 on looking through old blogs & journal entries 15:14 what I've learned & resilience under stress 18:17 what I wonder 18:28 what I'm currently loving

october 15 || I got back into reading a lot more this summer, and from July to September I read these 5 (technically 7) books! Really enjoyed filming short reviews and summaries immediately after each one, so I decided to compile them and make this into a recurring series. As is classic Mistral Spirit style, I'm focusing on a brief summary, my recommendations, and the themes & main discussion points in the books. Particularly had a lot to say about my first time reading Brave New World, even though I didn't like it! :-P   For more like this, follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mistralspirit   And on Goodreads: http://goodreads.com/mistralspirit

october 2 || How do you balance productivity with the ordinary, unplanned parts of everyday life? Not only is this a pressing topic as the line between work and personal life gets blurrier, but it's absolutely critical to find a balance for the sake of our mental health! It's also something that many ambitious, self-critical high-achievers struggle with!  The focus here is twofold:  First, we don't fall into a category. It's not like we're either Productive People or Not Productive People. Even categorizing your days like that can spiral into negative thinking. Rather, understand that life is made up of fast-paced and slow-paced moments.  Second, we can't have one without the other. You wouldn't be able to appreciate your most productive moments without having experienced moments of idleness and unplanned lounging around. Similarly, you'll enjoy relaxing without feeling guilty so much more having experienced the constraints of high achievement and expectation.  QUOTE: Reality is what you are living, not what you are planning for.

september 3 || Chatting about my story and personal experience with hiring for Ernst & Young, as well as 4 of my top interview tips for internships. Are you recruiting this September as well? If so, what industry are you looking to go into, and what are some of your biggest lessons for the interview process? I'm also coming to you today from Quebec City - my boyfriend and I have moved in and gotten organized at our new place! It's been a fun week and I shared some of the highlights in the update portion of today's Snapshot.

august 19 || A month ago, my 6-cup aluminum moka pot temporarily went out of commission after losing an oxidation battle with the dishwasher. What followed was a week of cold-turkey ending my habitual caffeine intake, and a period of severe headaches, fatigue and unhappiness. I was experiencing Caffeine Withdrawal! This got me thinking about the effects of coffee, and whether it might not be good to decrease my intake a bit. I also wanted to find out if decreasing my caffeine dosage in the long-term would make my quality of life worse than continuing to drink a compound that 80% of awesome people drink on the daily.  And so I embarked on the notorious Google Search. Realizing this wasn't the way to go about educating myself (I could make a pillow out of the fluff in those articles), I then went down the rabbit hole of reading scientific studies via Google Scholar, and found some exciting tidbits of information! It's confirmed: I'll be decreasing my coffee intake to get a better grasp on my body's fatigue signals, without fear of losing out on my high-energy, productive lifestyle!

august 6 || I'm all about constant self-reflection and self-improvement, but the number one thing to remember when setting goals - productivity, health, fitness, habits - is to appreciate that your current position IS A PART OF THE PROCESS. Don't use guilt to motivate yourself. It's not a long-term solution for change. And it's particularly dangerous when your goal is body image related. Motivate yourself with the desire to BE BETTER because who you are NOW deserves it.  This snapshot episode #2 is all about the right goal-setting mindset! Tune in every second Thursday for another snapshot of what I've learned, thought about, wondered, loved and read recently.

july 23 || In the first of my "Snapshot" series, I'm sharing the story of my sales & sponsorship experience in my 2019 summer internship! This is a lesson that I've applied to interviews, answering questions and everyday conversations. It's all about asking better questions to allow you to give better answers and have more interesting conversations! Toward the end, I'm also answering today's update prompts, and explaining my reason for trying out a new series.