Countdown: Ignite Your Inner Light and Power

Day 49: Today’s goal is to establish new healthy habits. It’s time for YOU to become the center of your attention. Ready to start? Then stop for a moment and turn your attention inward. Shine a light on that part of yourself that may have been ignored or take for granted, perhaps for years, by you: Your INNER you.  Take a moment to put aside all distractions and focus on yourself. This personal focus “turns on” your inner light. It offers you a moment to discover where your personal power and potential really comes from. It comes from the daily actions you are willing to take to maintain or strengthen your health. If you’ve ever traveled by air, you know that every air traveler is reminded to: “Put your own face mask first before helping others.” This basic safety rule can also be applied to today’s challenge: Stay healthy! As a starting point, discover the power of sending tiny messages of encouragement to yourself. It’s like an “inner email” from you to yourself. Your spoken or whispered messages of thanks, gratitude and love can be as simple as: “Hello my heart. I love you.” “Good morning my miracle brain.” “Good GUT, how are you feeling today?” What you are displaying here is your natural leadership qualities of nurturing and compassion  If you’re interested, here is how I have turned a focus on health and healthy habits into a 1-minute list of daily affirmations. They are now part of a mini-exercise routine – inspired by my partner Dr. Joel – that begins with: I’m constantly growing every day, I’m constantly learning every...

Countdown: A 50-Day Personal Leadership Challenge

DAY 50: Today’s challenge is to stay mindful, stay sane, and stay healthy. What steps will you take to achieve this goal?  Start by setting a goal to think GOOD thoughts. Did you know that up to 70% of the thoughts that most people think are negative. And, of all the thoughts we think each day, research suggests that up to 95% are the same thoughts we thought yesterday.  How is this possible? It may be built-in to your job description. For example, when I recently mentioned this 95% figure to a bright young sales clerk at an office equipment store he looked at me in disbelief. Then I explained that the sales pitch he had just given me was probably the same one that he had delivered to a 100 people before me. Knowing this was true, he smiled at me and nodded his head in agreement. To boost the number of good thoughts you think each day, try this simple exercise: say to yourself “Be Mindful” each time you take an action. The more mindful you are, the more present you become. While staying fully present in every moment may not be possible, it’s a worthy goal. It means that you are taking full responsibility for what happens in your life.  Learning how to lead from the INSIDE out is a leadership practice. You recognize that every thought, words or action is the result of a choice you have made. Chose well. Others may be watching, and following your lead. Alexia Parks is president of 10TRAITS Leadership Institute: Offering 1-Minute conflict resolution tools, research, and trait-based training...

G.E.T. Smarter Faster: Express Your Full Potential

G.E.T. Smarter Faster is based on the synergy of 10 powerful feminine traits that are the complementary opposite of 10 equally powerful masculine traits. When these traits are placed in a dynamic synergy, they unlock untapped potential that has been suppressed and polarized in both men and women. Alexia Parks GET Smarter Faster talk and workshop includes an experiential session with the 1-Minute Evaluation Tool. Everyone in the room experiences it at the same time. Everyone gains benefits. Use it to strengthen relationships, reduce conflict, shed hidden bias and improve decision-making. Good relationships, of course, give us more freedom to focus on our goals and opportunities because we are spending less time and energy overcoming the problems associated with negative relationships. 10TRAITS structural framework for decision-makers leverages-natural trait-based differences in order to strengthen relationships and reduce conflict, sustainably. Facilitators are trained at the  10TRAITS Leadership Institute to help use this framework to create trait-balanced organizations TAKE ACTION: Bring this event to your K-14, college, organization or corporation in 2019. BIO: Alexia Parks is founder of 10TRAITS Leadership Institute, inventor of the Gender Equality Tool,-and a UN Mentor. Alexia was called “One of 50 people who matter most on the NET,” by Newsweek magazine for her launch of Votelink, one of the first electronic democracy systems on the Internet “ She formerly wrote for the national desk of The Washington Post. Alexia’s science-based work lies at the interface of technology, biochemistry, and human...

Hooyah! 5 LIFE Lessons from the THAI Cave Rescue

Over history there have been numerous examples of the power of collective human compassion to lift humanity up and bring us closer together. The dramatic Thai Cave Rescue of all 12 Wild Boar soccer team members perhaps offers us the most powerful example yet.. What stands out most, I believe, is the remarkable ability of the entire group to overcome what seemed like unsurmountable odds With LIFE lessons in mind, here are some of my thoughts on what has been called “a miracle” that may provide some personal insights and inspiration for you. The CONTEXT: The mission the international team of divers and volunteers set out to accomplish was accomplished! Their personal focus became a global focus thanks to the 24/7 coverage by global news media and social media shares. Sharing live updates, the news media became a powerful force for GOOD by keeping the world focused on the same goal: Everyone safe. The most important lesson we learned is this: Stay connected! Live by the rule “one for all and all for one.” No one is safe until ALL are safe.We are all part of a larger ecology of life. Everyone and everything is connected. Like the soccer team, each of us will be tested. An old truth is still true today: “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” We are each on a hero’s journey. This is the time of our rapid transformation. Stay strong! Through our thoughts, words and actions each one of us can become the change we want to see in the world. While many news reporters are speculating on the long term mental...

Three TECH Savvy Solutions That Could Reunite Migrant Families

If you, like me, wake up every day wondering what single action you can take to help solve the problem of the 2,400 migrant children separated from their parent(s), here are three ideas I came up with that are starting to attract attention: IDEA #1: The 3-Meter Tech Solution: Lawyers in collaborate with tech smart what3words and Google Earth, could identify the specific location of each child within 3 meters and give them a wrist band with their own unique three words embossed on it. Take a photo of each child showing their three-word wrist band, then do the same with their parent(s). IDEA #2: The StartUp Village Project: If a safe return to their home country is possible –  where poverty, not violence, was the reason for leaving – migrant families could be provided with a 5-year-guaranteed income to live in a new *startup village.* This would require an agreement by the government of the country and skills training. For example, THIS location in Guatemala. The cost would be in the millions, not billions, and recognize America’s role in creating an unnecessary humanitarian crisis and PTSD and separation anxiety that could last a lifetime for these migrant families. IDEA #3: CANADA’S new immigration program. This easy to implement program could also work in America. In the U.S.  a reunited family would be released from custody await legal determination in the U.S. if they are able to secure five sponsors, using Matchmaking technology. Alexia Parks, inventor of the Gender Equality Tool and G.E.T. Smarter Together 1-Minute Learning Tool, is Founder and CEO of 10TRAITS Leadership...

$4,000-per-Minute-Facebook-Fundraiser Has Everyone Talking

It’s time to restore TRUST in our common humanity. It took the collective horror of images of toddlers ripped from the arms of their parents, of caged children sobbing, some even drugged into compliance…, for one tech savvy couple from the San Francisco Bay Area to say BASTA! Enough! The one simple action they took to raise $1,500 to help one family post bond and be reunited with their children has now gone viral. In less than five days, the $4,000-per-minute-Facebook-fundraiser set up by former Facebook employees Charlotte and Dave Willner (who now work at Pininterest and Airbnb, respectively) is about to reach their new goal of $20 million. They money will be given to RAICESTEXAS.org a Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services in Texas. Felix Salmon a regular Slate contributor and host of the Slate Money podcast, can vouch for the organization’s capabilities. Salmon says that he donated money to RAICES before the campaign even started and “it’s been amazing to watch as this formerly obscure nonprofit has achieved a level of visibility that thousands of much older and more established organizations can only dream of.” America is good at throwing massive amounts of money away: This year, the federal government gave the Austin-based non-profit Southwest Key Programs almost $500 million to operate its shelters, according to The Dallas Morning News. Could Congress tell the Appropriations Committee to un-fund it? Yes. Should the almost $500 million now directed to Southwest Key Programs be redirected instead toward RAICES? RAICES staff say the money will “provide legal representation to every child” and “ensure every parent has representation and legal counsel.”...