Back to School Times

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Hi there.  I always want to start my posts like that.  Because I really am talking to you. I love that about this blog…I like how that makes me feel -I like how it hopefully makes you feel.  Today I have something to share with you that comes from my heart – a charity that I am personally very passionate about and involved with: Sojourner House.

For the past 18 months I’ve worked with Sojourner House as a volunteer, as a marketer and now as a Board Member (I’m seriously honored by this part) and I believe in the work that they do.

They support women and their children – it’s more complicated than that but at it’s heart it is that simple. They identify the needs – big and small and they find a way to offer these four things: shelter, structure, strength, and inspiration to everyone that passes through their doors and lives are changed because of it.

Why am I talking about this today? Because the part of my Sojourner work that motivates me the most is the kids. These kids need to know that they have hope – that someone else believes in them, in their potential, in their ability to do more, they need to know that the world is bigger and kinder and better then the sum of their experiences.  And they need to know that the start of all change is education.

This year we’re hoping to outfit 200 kids with backpacks and back to school gear so that they start out this school year excited, prepared and knowing that there is one person out there cheering them on as their world expands through learning.  So I’m asking you to donate $35 to Sojourner House for a backpack.  Comment back here for a note to be put in the backpack from you (THIS IS SO IMPORTANT – please do not miss this opportunity to share that you care) and for everyone that does I’ll personally match.

Go right here to make your donation.

The Waiting is the Hardest Part: 3 Ways to Wait Productively

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You’ve worked hard and gotten your project just where it needs to be. Machinery (real or figurative) is humming and good things are happening. The problem is that to get where you want to go, you have to wait for that machinery to work it’s magic and you’ve got some down time. How do you fill that time productively without messing with the nifty little system you’ve got running in the background?

  1. Check your list of important stuff. Is there anything you’ve been neglecting while you’ve been working intensely toward getting things up and running? Maybe it’s your social media presence. Maybe it’s your blog. Maybe there are clients you need to follow up with – check everything!
  2. Go through the potential scenarios and outcomes from the process you’re waiting on and make plans for next steps based on the possibilities. This will help you be ready for whatever comes next, even if it’s something you didn’t entirely anticipate.
  3. Make sure your work processes are streamlined and efficient. Take a close look at the way you approach your business and take out the extra stuff that you don’t need – or eliminate things that simply don’t need to be done.

And remember, you’ve worked hard to get to this point and have earned a breather. It is important to stay productive and use your time wisely, but it’s just as important to take a sanity break and relax a bit. What’s the use of hard work if you don’t get to enjoy the fruits of your labor?

 

It’s a dangerous game

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I’m a fan of the show The Newsroom.  That’s kind of an understatement. I binge watched it in the inside of 3 days and loved EVERY SINGLE SECOND of it.  Do I watch the news?  No. Not since Peter Jennings and the closest thing I get to watching anything like news now is 60 minutes. (I’m well informed I read the news – so no need to worry about my connectedness to the world.)

This morning hungover from watching Season 1 Finale I was googling when Season 2 starts and ran across this quote form show creator Aaron Sorkin:

“You’re playing a dangerous game if you write to try to change people’s minds.”

Something about it really resonated with me.  It is a dangerous game to write what you think, what you feel, what you know, what you don’t know – it is dangerous and vulnerable and scary.  And it matters.

Is your intent to change minds or simply to expand  a perspective?  For those of you that are out there writing. Why do you do what you do?

Can you keep it simple?

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The past few weeks have been complicated – maybe it’s human nature -maybe it’s me – maybe it’s the summer heat and humidity – no matter the reason for this complication my desire for this coming week is to keep it simple.

So here’s the plan for putting complicated AWAY – It goes like this….

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  • Do you want ice cream?  Have ice cream. Don’t have everything BUT the ice cream. Don’t avoid the ice cream.  Keep it simple.  Want something and have it.  Yup, just like that.
  • Is it unnecessarily complicated?  Simplify it.  Can’t?  Walk away.  Yup – do that.  Turn around.  Go in the other direction.  Wave if you think that’s polite.
  • If you find yourself looking into the ether (which is an actual place) trying to wrap your head around something that seems VERY VERY hard I want you to really take a break and watch this YouTube video and then after you’ve busted a move and fondly remembered your youth (simpler times yo) I want you to think about what your end game is here – and look at the most direct path to that goal.  Take the direct path.  Apologize for passing Go later (you’ll have time to play Monopoly – you lucky duck).
  • Wait wait wait you say – it can’t be done.  Well.  To you I say: Make it look easy.  Do complicated with ease – be freaking Fred Astaire around your complicated life with grace and fluidity.  Fake it if you must – you know what they say.

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You guys – lets keep it #simple this week.  Join Me?

 

 

 

The Secret that could change EVERYTHING.

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In the past week I’ve recommend Danielle Laporte’s The Desire Map to about five people – I had read it and done the work the moment I got my hands on this book many months ago but as I was recommending it to Heather & Jess and others I decided that enough has changed (read: Every single thing has changed in the last six months with the exception of Lexi, our house and the pets.) to warrant some re-do on my end.  You can’t ever get close enough to figuring out how you want to feel and what gets you there.  

One of the questions that Danielle requests that you ask is:

What I know to be true….

And as I’m reading my response I realized that maybe this one answer is why I float – why things have evolved so amazingly in the last six months – maybe this is the secret that I get to share with the world.  Although, it’s not much of a secret.

Here’s what I know to be true…. It’s never really over, I’ll figure it out. Because I can.  And until I do – I won’t stop. I might rest. I might pause. But I won’t stop. Not ever.

And.  I bet the same is true for you.

Things won’t always work. A lot of times they won’t. And you’ll be okay. At no one point are you going to be forced to just accept failure, roll over and die (thank God for Independence, Safety, Equality and for all the people that have fought for those AMAZING gifts). No one (not even the person in the mirror) can keep you down. So if this doesn’t work – you’ll pick up – move on and go after the next thing. Because you can. Because you are uniquely equipped to do so.

So your current state is temporary – be present with it – work to get closer to how you want to feel and recognize that you’ll figure it out. Because, you will. One way or another – you will. Because you’re just plain not capable of rolling over, throwing in the towel and giving up…not for very long anyway.  And it’s never really over.

**Photo credit goes to the amazing Erin Oveis Brant