Oh my! Summer is almost here. Are you ready to change your winter clothes for shorts, tank tops, a bathing suit? Maybe you have been hiding inside the heavier winter clothing and the thought of revealing what is underneath those layers is daunting….scary…downright depressing.
Let’s do it together!! Watch for two more blog articles with tips on revealing our best bodies!
Our good friend, Dave, sent me this picture of him and his wife riding on an elephant while on a wonderful vacation. Dave said the ride was a bit bumpy!! I have never traveled abroad or ridden an elephant, but I became intrigued to learn more about these giant creatures, elephants.
Did you know elephants can be as tall as 13 feet and weigh up to 15,000 pounds!! Wow! They have pillar like legs to hold up this great weight. I have been trying to lose a few pounds—thankfully I don’t have that much to worry about!! An adult elephant can eat 300-400 pounds of food a day.
Many people dream of a vacation to Florida. Other’s think it must be so wonderful to live in Florida, where it is almost always warm, and spend days on the beaches, in the resorts and theme parks. I am a Floridian—born here and lived all my life in Florida. I can’t imagine living anywhere else. When my northern friends are freezing in the winters…and having huge heating bills…we are often using little to no heat. Some winter days we will even use our air conditioning during the middle of the day. My husband and daughter have been known to go in our pool on Christmas Day!
We’ve all heard the hype about “making money in your underwear”, right? Well, here’s what happened to me…
I’ve done the whole office thing–big conference room with a huge table and lots of chairs around it, fancy furniture, offices full of staff–the whole 9 yards. Been there, done that for MANY years. Now I work from home. We still have an office and we also have team members working remotely from their homes.
But that’s not what this story is about. It was this last Saturday. I don’t work on weekends but something came up and I needed to make a quick tweak to one of our websites. No big deal. Like I said, I work from home.
Except my “office” isn’t in my house.I live on 10 acres and I’ve got a couple offices on the property (in separate buildings) PLUS a really cool treehouse (with AC, electric, etc). My office is down a little stone path about 30 steps from the back deck entrance off my bedroom. It’s a really big property– the house is found down a tree lined driveway, far from the road. My point is, it’s very private.
So, when I realized I needed to run out to my office to make a few quick tweaks I grabbed my keys and headed out the door…Yep, you guessed it…IN MY UNDERWEAR. Long boxers– not tighty whiteys 😉
Like I said– it’s very private here.
Anyway, I got the work done quickly and back to the weekend. No sweat.
Then came Monday morning. I was headed outside to start my day and opened my drawer to find…NO KEYS.
Continue reading Is A Locked Door Keeping You From Your Dreams?
Albert Einsteins’ definition of INSANITY makes sense— doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Do you have dreams and goals for your life that you have not achieved or are not actively working towards? Are you doing the same things over and over thinking the results will change? How is that working for you?
Have you ever watched a baby crawling? I used to watch Kenna when she visited our office. She would see something she wanted–she loved balls- -and begin crawling toward it. Crawling is definitely slower than walking or running…and it’s hard on the knees. Sometimes she would sit back and take a break and then start toward that ball again. We could offer her other toys, but she knew what she wanted and no amount of distraction could deter her. No matter how long it took, she would get to the ball!
Do you want to be a successful in your personal life, in your work life and in your interactions with others?? Probably one of the most important things you can do is to know yourself—your strengths and your weaknesses. Learn to appreciate your strengths and overcome your weaknesses. This will help you to be more successful in all areas of your life.
I knew nothing of Personality Tests until about fifteen years ago. When beginning a new job, I was asked to take this test and was told I am a Beaver. What in the world did that mean? As I studied the characteristics of the different personality types, I learned about Lions, Otters, Beavers and Golden Retrievers. Sounds silly, doesn’t it?
Are you a Lion? You are very fast paced and goal oriented….you are direct…you want to lead….you love challenges…you are a problem solver….you like authority and are bold. You are a natural born leader!! You will boldly and courageously go into your business!
Lions, be careful because in the process of taking authority and leading, you might dominate a situation when you should allow others to contribute. Remember to be sympathetic to those around you. Consider others (your customers, co-workers) –work with them at their level, which might not be the fast paced, take charge tendency of the Lion.
Just when I am feeling like the weight of the world is crashing down on me, I get a reminder that things aren’t really so bad after all!! I know that many of you are dealing with personal/family problems and over shadowing many people is the economy. It’s easy to focus our attention on only these things and forget to see the bigger picture.
I was reminded twice recently about this. We have very good friends, Jim and Debora, who are missionaries in Africa. Let me tell you—if I had to face the hardships and dangers those dear friends face all the time, I would probably have run home as fast as I could long ago. I notice that when they are in the states, their hearts and minds are back in Africa with the children in the orphanage they run. Those children have all lost their parents due to AIDS.
I read some words on a sign recently and had to go back and read them again. It is a simple statement:
“If you want to feel really rich,
think about all the good things in your life
that money cannot buy!”
We all get discouraged, upset and overwhelmed with ‘life’! Through the years, I try to be ready with my PERSONAL AMMUNITION of positive words, thoughts, prayers. I have also been reminded many times of how blessed I really am in spite of the difficult circumstances.
workers, and our family members. But most of the time, we don’t listen as well as we could or sometimes should. We’re often distracted by other things in the environment, such as the television, the Internet, our cell phones, or something else. We think we’re listening to the other person, but we’re really not giving them our full attention.Are you as good a listener as you think you are?
13 Steps to Better Active Listening Skills
Below you will find 13 different skills that help people be better active listeners. You do not have to become adept at each of these skills to be a good active listener, but the more you do, the better you’ll be. If you even just use 3 or 4 of these skills, you will find yourself listening and hearing more of what another person is saying to you.
1. Restating
To show you are listening, repeat every so often what you think the person said — not by parroting, but by paraphrasing what you heard in your own words. For example, “Let’s see if I’m clear about this. . .”
Sometimes it is easy to see the rainbow…the good in every situation. Other times, it is hard to see past the storm clouds, wind and rain. It does take effort and determination to realize that these less than wonderful situations will pass–that there is a rainbow just waiting for us.
I have a friend who (as a joke) used to sing the song from the old television show Hee-Haw. Do you remember it?
Gloom, despair and agony on me
Deep dark depression, excessive misery
If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all
Gloom, despair and agony on me