Elizabeth Whitworth, Author at Shortform Books

How to Calculate Calories and Macros: Tips From Mike Matthews

Do you know how many calories (and calories for each macro) you should take in each day? What factors should you consider when calculating calories and macros? In Bigger Leaner Stronger, Michael Matthews recommends flexible dieting. This simply means managing your calorie intake and eating a healthy balance of macronutrients (macros). To do this, you need to know how to calculate calories and macros according to your diet goals. Continue reading to learn Matthews’s advice for calculating calories and macros.

How to Handle an Anxious Child: Address Their Vulnerability

How do kids express vulnerability? Why do some children pretend to cry? Most parenting advice sees children’s behavior as a problem to be fixed through time-outs, rewards, and serious conversations. But, Dr. Becky Kennedy argues that these strategies jeopardize your connection with your children. That’s a high price to pay for band-aid strategies. Read more to learn how to handle an anxious child by addressing the real issue behind their anxieties, fears, and tears.

How to Improve Your Focus: 3 Simple Steps to Do & Create More

Do you tend to work in fits and starts? Do you let notifications, emails, and squirrels grab your attention? Manage Your Day-to-Day is a collection of essays by some of today’s best-known creative minds. They advise that, to improve your focus, you must be intentional, manage distractions, and stop multitasking. While the advice is directed at creative professionals, it applies to anyone intent on boosting their focus. Continue reading to learn how to improve your focus with tips from several highly-successful people.

3 Career Conversations With Employees Every Manager Must Have

Do you know what your employees’ career goals are? Are you helping them reach those goals? If you’re a manager, career development should be an ongoing process with each of your team members. Employee experience expert Russ Laraway recommends having three career conversations with employees, each conversation with a specific focus. Continue reading to learn how to conduct these conversations and measure their effectiveness.

Finding Motivation for Getting Fit: Your Mindset Is Half the Battle

Does your enthusiasm for nutrition and exercise tend to wane over time? How clear are you on your reasons for wanting to be healthy? Inconsistency equals zero. If you’re going to make any meaningful, lasting change, you have to stick with it. When it comes to your fitness journey, your mindset is half the battle. Enthusiasm and willpower will help you keep the commitments you make to yourself. Find motivation for getting fit with the following tips from personal trainer Michael Matthews.

Reject Perfectionism in Art—Mistakes Are Part of the Process

Are you a creator and a perfectionist? Are you aware that perfectionism actually hinders creativity? One aspect of being an artist is cultivating a creative mindset. Such a mindset keeps you inspired and helps you work through challenges and creative blocks. Perfectionism isn’t part of a creative mindset; in fact, it gets in the way of the artistic process. Read more to understand why perfectionism in art is problematic.

How to Support a Shy Child: It’s Not About Confidence

Do you have a child who’s hesitant in social situations? What’s the best way to encourage them? In her book Good Inside, clinical psychologist and parent Dr. Becky Kennedy contends that hesitancy in a child isn’t about confidence. In fact, she argues, a shy child knows who they are and what makes them comfortable or uncomfortable. Keep reading to learn how social hesitancy is more about comfort than confidence and how this understanding can help you provide a shy child with the kind of support they need.

Manager Performance Survey: How to Rate What Truly Counts

Are you an effective manager? What would the people on your team say? What score would they give you? Employee engagement in the workforce is at an all-time low. Russ Laraway says the solution is better management. He argues that managers must focus on goals, coaching, and career development, and he says that employees should rate the manager’s effectiveness in each of these areas. Read more to get Laraway’s ideas for a manager performance survey that will help you know how you’re doing where it really counts.

Have a Frustrated Child? How to Build Their Frustration Tolerance

Is your child easily frustrated with themselves? Do they have perfectionistic tendencies? Parenting is hard. That doesn’t mean that you’re a bad parent or that you have a bad kid. Dr. Becky Kennedy provides strategies that help you get to the root of your child’s behaviors so that you can effect lasting change while keeping your relationship positive. Here’s her advice for building up frustration tolerance in an easily-frustrated child.

Manage Your Day-to-Day: Advice From Creative Professionals

Are you a creative professional or aspiring to be one? Do you need some help figuring out a work routine and staying focused and motivated? Manage Your Day-to-Day is a collection of essays edited and curated by 99U’s Jocelyn K. Glei. The essays help creative professionals learn how to develop a routine that supports creativity, how to improve their focus, and how to hone their creative mindset. Continue reading for an overview of this inspiring book that can take your creative work to the next level.