Friday's Gratitude

“ If you miss the present moment, you miss your appointment with life.”
Thich Nhat Hanh (1926 – )

Take pen in hand and list ten things, large or small, you are grateful for today.

My list:

• Good health
• A warm house
• My husband - who just brought me a vanilla latte!
• My two daughters, their wonderful husbands and beautiful children
• Close friends
• Etc....

“Each day unfolds as a gift. We build daily on a solid foundation of appreciation. Comparing ourselves to ourselves alone, we track a gentle and steady improvement.” Julia Cameron

Photo credit: http://www.istockphoto.com/

Yes, Life is Good....

I am not afraid of tomorrow, for I have seen yesterday and I love today. William Allen White

Every once in a while someone will comment to me on how wonderful my life must be and I have to admit, yes, I love everything I’m doing now, and that said, I appreciate all that has gone before....

Now in saying this, make no mistake, I have had my share of heartaches and I, like everyone else, have a long list of worries, wishes, sorrows, hurts, regrets, aches and pains. Life is what it is and I’m convinced that there is no way around those sometimes nagging worries or real/unreal fears we all experience.

I remember years ago going through an incredibly difficult time. For some reason (um–stress) I landed flat-on-my-back in bed for three weeks, and then spent at least two years struggling to even go to the grocery store by myself. This inability to get out and about was irrational, frustrating, and scary as I had absolutely no idea what was “wrong” with me.

During this period of time most of my days were filled with fears within, and fears without. Every day was an uphill struggle. So yes, I am well acquainted with these demons.

Honestly, this irrational fear was a huge shock to my system. Not only to my private and independent nature, but let’s face it, to my ego. Sometimes I would get so angry and frustrated with myself. During those lonely days one lesson I learned was that anger can work for you, especially in overcoming fears. Get mad enough and you’ll be able to use the adrenaline and mental willpower to successfully accomplish what needs to be done.

Slowly, and many times tearfully, I learned that although I may be uncomfortable in a given situation, I can make it through. Small victory built upon small victory, and slowly the story changed. Learning to trust and reach out to others for support and becoming “human” in my struggles was a humbling task. Over time I’ve learned another of life’s most valuable lessons: I can, with the help of God and friends, turn my weakness into strengths.

And so, today as I jet around the globe following my children to places far and wide, know that I have my ups and downs, joys and sorrows, struggles and victories, and that through it all, life is very good!

 

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do. Eleanor Roosevelt

Friday's Gratitude

Aging is at times emotionally and physically challenging.....

On the other hand, I would not trade all that I have now,

the people, experiences and maturity,

to go back.

What is Facebook Good For?

I cautiously joined Facebook about four-and-a-half years ago after receiving numerous invites, but in the beginning I was too afraid to drink the social media Kool-Aid. In fact, after opening my account, I wound up not using it for eight months. It was pretty intimidating and I didn’t feel a need to rush into this new-fangled form of communication. Besides, I’m a fairly private person and pushing myself into learning social media networking skills was pretty daunting... And most important, what if I looked dumb?

So, to make my entry into cyber networking doable, I decided I needed a goal, something to make Facebook a means to an end...a reason to give it my time and energy.

In my line of work, I’m in constant contact with clients and colleagues via the phone and / or e-mail; my question was: Could I use Facebook to help build up my communication skills and present my thoughts in a clearer, more concise manner?

I’ve found that over the past few years my answer to this question is: “Yes!”

I have both a “personal friends” account and a “professional friends” account. You might wonder, what’s the purpose of two accounts? And I’ll tell you; this is my solution to the different types of people I communicate with on a regular basis. I don’t want to bore my family and friends with posts around leadership development, hiring, HR and other areas they would have absolutely no interest in and vice versa.

For me, Facebook has met my original goal of upping my communication skills and stretching myself out of my comfort zone. I think I have made almost every dumb Facebook mistake a person can make, and you know what? I survived!

Facebook serves me now as a wonderful connection to friends, family, clients, and colleagues all around the world.

How are you managing Facebook or the other social media sites?

Friday’s Gratitude

I love waking up in the morning, checking my iPhone, and seeing new photos of my grandsons walking to school on a snowy London morning (via Instagram):

…and a blog post about Alpha, who lives in NYC: The Ones 2 Watch

To have instant access to all my “people” who live half a world away is simply amazing! I’m so grateful for the technology of our age, and how close those far away can feel. I don’t know what I would have done had I been born 100-plus years ago!

And then, a little later, sitting at Starbucks I receive a Face-Time call on my iPhone, and I’m able to enjoy my latte while chatting with “London”— in real time. How cool is that?

What are you grateful for at the end of your week?

The Benefit of Tracking Time

Of late, I’ve had the feeling that my mornings or afternoons have been swallowed up. I don’t have a clue about what has been accomplished or completed. I’m not sure whether this is from being too busy or not busy enough, but no matter, I’ve got to get a handle on it!

In the past I’ve always turned to paper time sheets etc., but this time I’ve decided to go “cyber” and so I searched for an iPhone app that would track tasks, and more importantly in “real” time. The reason for using an iPhone app versus a web-based system is mobility. During the day, I may go from point A to point B and I don’t want to have to constantly login, logout, go to a different room or computer to enter my data. I want my system to move with me and be quick and fairly easy to learn.

What I found was a cool little tool appropriately called the Time Tracker by Nonlinear Ideas, Inc. I originally downloaded the “free” version, but today I upgraded because the pie charts are pretty nice plus it offers more control overall.

Today is day two and I’m already getting a visual of how the hours in my day have been spent: coaching, assisting clients, prospecting and then there are those peripheral little things like changing the laundry or checking social media accounts.

I probably won’t use this tracker every day or for every task. In fact, I forgot to enter “writing” to start the tracker when I began this post, so I’m flying untracked at present – uh-oh  ;-). What I do know, I feel like I have a great start to clearing my mind and helping me see exactly where all those hours in my day go. That’s an excellent start to my week!

A Perfect Monday Morning—Ha!

I was actually pretty proud of myself this morning…

• Walk completed
• Starbucks latte purchased
• All the monthly income and expense data entered into Excel by 8:30 a.m.; not bad for a Monday morning.

Suddenly, and God as my witness I don’t know how, my Starbucks latte tipped over and instead of simply dripping out the little sippy hole (which would have been wonderful), the entire single/grande/vanilla latte flowed, yes, that is what it did—flowed—all over my desk!

Okay, there are a couple of options here: scream, cuss, cry, rant and rave, I could have even “blamed” someone, except I work by myself, or remain somewhat composed and get something / anything to stop the increasing flow of coffee—quickly!

In my many years on this earth, I’ve learned that typically the best course of action is to remain composed and move quickly. And so, hand towel, paper towels, and wet paper towels were my arsenal to mop up the mess quickly and silently (followed by lemon scented Pledge to help cut the coffee smell).

Really the worst moment in this entire episode was watching the coffee spread unchecked across my desk and hearing the drip, drip, drip, onto the plastic floor mat below (thank goodness for plastic floor mats!).

Here are my takeaways:

1. Remain calm—even when you feel like screaming.
2. Remain composed which helps keep blood pressure down and actually lets you think and move  quickly. Rants take time.
3. Slowly and methodically clean up the mess.
4. Pay attention to what needs to be cleaned, what simply needs to be moved, and thankfully what hasn’t been affected at all.

If you think about it, those solutions work in a lot of life’s little unexpected, stress-filled situations.

Off to get another latte—have a great Monday!