Tanya Dalton is a best-selling author, speaker, and nationally recognized expert on purposeful productivity. I was recently so fortunate to sit down and chat with her! She helps women step into intentional leadership in their professional and personal lives. In addition to having her first book, “The Joy of Missing Out”, being named one of the Top 10 Business Books of the year by Fortune Magazine, Tanya’s podcast, “The Intentional Advantage” has received millions of downloads from listeners around the world.

What is some life altering advice that everyone needs to hear?

The moment when you start to accept that your choices really are your choices will change your life. You have full ownership over your calendar, who you are and how you receive things. You will no longer be a victim of whatever mood other people are in or whatever is happening in the world or feeling like the universe is against you. Taking ownership is the key.

Life can be tough sometimes. How can we change our outlook when we are going through a rough patch?

We're all going to have seasons where life is hard. It's the cyclical kind of thing that we go through as part of our human experience. So if you're in a season where things feel tough, know that it's not forever. The opposite of stuck is action. And that action doesn't have to be big. When we are really in a hard place, it can seem daunting to get unstuck. The truth is, it's not a big giant step that gets you unstuck. It's making a decision and saying, “This is where I want to go.” And then taking just a few minutes to make that initial step. When you take that first small step, the second step becomes easier and so on.

What is one piece of advice that people should know?

What we want, what we desire, what we dream of, is oftentimes on the other side of five minutes of difficulty. A five minute hard conversation you have to have with a spouse or a family member. It's just five minutes of discomfort but we let that five minutes dictate the next large chunk of time of our lives. The weight of it is the anticipation, the worrying and the stressing about it.

Once you get that first couple of sentences out, all of a sudden your shoulders feel lighter, things feel easier and the conversation just flows. That five minutes of uncomfortableness isn't really all that more uncomfortable than where we are right now. So choose the five minutes of extreme discomfort to get where you want to go.

Are you going to live your life on purpose today? What is stopping you?

Connect with Tanya Dalton: www.tanyadalton.com

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