In the early morning when you wake up, let the first thoughts be ones of gratitude.
What are you thankful for?
At the end of the day, let the same attitude of gratefulness complete your day.
Do this, and you’ll begin and end each day with an amazing lightness in your heart.
Lately, my bio reads like a gal off in too many directions. One week, I’m in Vancouver doing a presentation for Hands & Voices. Then I’m off in another direction doing a workshop for parents of deaf and hard of hearing kids or “Beyond the Limits” for deaf and hard of hearing students. Yet another week, I’ll be at the World Barefoot Center (Thanks to my sponsors, ZVRS, Phonak and Tommie Copper) learning how to get up backwards behind the boat or working as a Blog Manager for the site.
Then there’s BookHands discussions every six weeks, Mentoring with families. I’m a Manager with SendOutCards so I share that resource everywhere I go. I’m a Passion Coach and a Certified Passion Test Facilitator–I help people unwrap their top five passions. I’m an author of three books with several more on the way. When I have a free day, I substitute teach. I’m also a mom of three teens and a wife.
Someone recently asked me, “How the heck do you do all that?”
The answer is pretty simple: when you do what you love to do, you can do so much more in a day. You let the insignificant stuff fall to the wayside because you’re deeply immersed in your passion.
My friend, Sutton Parks, whom I met at Dan Miller’s Coaching with Excellence (affiliate link to some great stuff!) workshop recently posted a great quote by Kix Brooks on Facebook which pretty much sums it up perfectly:
“I am definitely working more now,” he says, “but the word ‘work’ is the confusing part of that. People ask me all the time how do you fit all this stuff in, how do you schedule it? The secret is everything I’m doing is something that I really want to do. It’s just like if you go to the beach for the weekend, you’re gonna fit it all in. I want to go here, I want to go to my favorite place to eat, I want to ride go-karts, I want to rent wave runners, and I’m gonna sit here and put my legs up and read a book. You get all that stuff in because you want to. That’s how my life is. It’s like I’m running from place to place and I can’t wait to get to the next one because when I show up, I — for the most part — kind of know what I’m doing. [laughs] It’s all interesting and fun to me, and I just can’t wait to do it all.”
I probably will narrow all of this down at some point, but right now, I have a lot of overlap. For example, I write when I’m on the plane, I network for SendOutCards/my books/future gigs when I travel, and I’m home the rest of the time hanging with the family.
How can you do more of what you love in your life? First and foremost, you have to identify what it is you enjoy doing most. What brings you joy? Set your intention–what do you want to intend in your life today/tomorrow/this year? With every action, you are either moving closer to your passion or further away. Choose wisely.
For two exhausting/exhilarating days, the Hinsdale South Team answered question after question during the 2013 Deaf Academic Bowl competition held at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C.
The team landed in 5th place among 20 teams. Both of my kids, Steven and Lauren, were on the team.
I had a proud mommy moment when Lauren was selected for the All-Star team. It was especially poignant because she had been attending two high schools this year, one which is a 30-40 minute ride away.
A big, huge thank you goes to the coaches, Jamie Nick and Kathy Craig, who have tirelessly practiced with the students.
The competition is conducted in American Sign Language, and deaf and hard of hearing kids from various educational settings compete in math, social studies, art, deaf studies and science.
Get up. Go to work. Come home. Eat dinner. Watch TV. Repeat.
Is this your life?
Are you at the point where you’re sick and tired of being sick and tired about life? When you look back five years, do you see the same five years ahead of you?
“I’m Fine, Thanks” explores the topics of mediocrity and complacency and features interviews with people from all over the United States and Canada. To read more about the movie:
17,354.
That’s how many days I’ve lived so far. I never really thought about that number until I sat down last night to read 20,000 Days and Counting by Robert D. Smith. The book was from Keith St. Onge, who received it from Andy Andrews.
I first came across Robert via his guest post on Andy Andrew’s blog and I shared my thoughts on 48days.net:
What Did You Have for Breakfast? How About a Couple of No’s
Robert’s post gave me a whole different approach to facing rejection and he expands on this outlook in his book.
Yes, there’s some talk of death in this book, but it serves the purpose of waking us up to examine our lives and understand how we can leave a legacy of difference during our time here on earth. The message is clear: live with intensity.
Robert asks in the book, “Are you getting so bogged down in the day-to-day minutiae of your life that you overlook the power of each moment?” And there’s more: “Do not wait for impending death to light the fire of action inside yourself. Act today. Start small. There are opportunities hiding in the ‘day-to-day.’” We definitely have to be mindful of the power of each moment because that is all we really have– the here and now. This reminds me of a line in one of John Denver’s songs: “The moment at hand is the only thing we really own.”
Last night, before I sat down with the book, I was experiencing a high level of crankiness about small things. I was lamenting about my weight gain, grumbling about the frustration of learning how to barefoot backwards and just generally in a very rotten mood. An hour and half later, I closed the book and reflected on several key points. The first thing was to switch to an attitude of gratitude– after all, here I was down in Florida getting to barefoot water ski with some great people. I took each of the negatives and switched them around to positives. Life is too short to give in to the grumbling.
Tomorrow is day 17,355. It’s gonna be good.
With nine wins and no losses, the Hinsdale South team claimed the Regional title at the 2013 Midwest Academic Bowl held at the Illinois School for the Deaf in Jacksonville, Illinois.
Both Lauren and Lauren Holtz were selected for the All-Star Team:
Kyle Adams from Hersey High School clowns around with Hinsdale South’s winning trophy:
It was fun watching Lauren and Steven play together on the same team. They were like twins–with their own unspoken language between them.
What a team!
Lauren and Steven with Gallaudet president, T. Alan Hurwitz:
Two great coaches who spent hours and hours with the students. Jamie Nick and Kathy Craig:
At five o’clock this morning I woke up drenched in sweat. The open jaws of a very large alligator startled me awake.
It’s not the first time I’ve had that kind of dream. Here’s how they started:
You’ll note that this was written back in November of 2010. For awhile there I was doing great. Then one morning last year, Joann O’Connor and I were walking from the guest house to the ski school and we encountered an alligator lounging in the grass. My heart pretty much leapt out of my chest. I was just glad I wasn’t alone. My first instinct was to run, but then I remembered a little tidbit I had read somewhere on the web– that alligators can run as fast as 35 mph (not true as I later found out, it’s more like 8 or 9 mph–huge difference!).
To top it off, last fall, I barefoot water skied right by what I can only assume was a very large alligator, judging by the ripples left on the water as I skied by. The boat crew confirmed it.
So for all the bravado I declared back in 2010, I’ve discovered that the fear of alligators is not something I can merely outrun in my mind. There’s no way to control the dreams except after they’ve occurred, and by then, I wake up in a cold sweat and can’t go back to sleep for a long while, even after mentally changing the end of the dream.
Several people have suggested that I face the fears head on by petting an alligator or even wrestling one under supervision. I don’t think that will do anything to alleviate the fears, because the fear stems from the idea of being attacked in the water, and that’s beyond my control.
So unless someone has a solution for me, I’m going to invest stock in a company that develops alligator repellent.
I think videophones are the greatest invention since dark chocolate peanut butter cups, but today, I’ve had it.
I had an interview set up this afternoon for my next book. The person called me using an ntouch by Sorenson. I used a Z-20 by ZVRS. We could not see each other.
This is actually old news in the videophone industry and I’ve been aware of it for a while now. But today, I became rip-roaring mad. If you know me, it takes a lot to set me off. When I can’t run my business because of videophone incompatibility, it makes for one cranky entrepreneur.
So I’ve had it. I’ve filed a complaint with the FCC, but my complaint is just one of many, many, many complaints that were filed with the FCC. It will take up to two weeks to submit my complaint to Sorenson and they have 30 days to address an answer to me.
A call to the FCC confirmed that they’re aware of the issue and working to ensure that all videophones are compatible, but the slow pace of this fix is frustrating. The ntouch was released ONE YEAR ago this month. Prior to this, I could call a Sorenson videophone, but since the ntouch was released, it’s been a real problem. I still can’t leave an answering machine message when I call a Sorenson videophone. A call to Sorenson provided no answers as to when this compatibility issue will be fixed, just that they’re “aware of the problem and working to fix it.”
Today, I couldn’t conduct business and we ended up turning to an alternative way to connect. That is totally uncalled for. Can you imagine Verizon and Sprint pulling this kind of thing off? If they so much as went one day where someone couldn’t make a call because of cell phone incompatibility, the media would be all over it. Can you imagine an AT & T customer calling a T-mobile customer and not being able to access voice mail because of “incompatibility?”
For crying out loud, (and we can’t even hear it) let’s get this incompatibility issue FIXED so we can go about the business of connecting with one another.
Every year, Chris Brogan selects three words to guide him and keep him focused throughout the year. The three words are a “shorthand representation of your bigger story,” Chris explains. Chris shares his three words for 2013 in his post, My 3 Words for 2013.
What a cool way to start off a brand new year.
I didn’t do a lot of thinking on this one, I just went right for the words that felt right. These are the words I want to live, breathe and embrace for 2013:
This year, I want to dream bigger and bolder. In the past, I’ve set goals which were “realistic” and not always something my heart wanted. I want to let my mind go wild with visions, dreams and ideas, no matter how big or scary they seem. I want to capture the stuff in my head on paper, in a place I can find it time and time again– and put that stuff into action.
Do you remember what it was like as a kid, swinging on a swinging way up so high without a care in the world? A time when you were so deep into the moment that time literally stood still and your heart was so full it was going to burst.
2013 will be about moments like that.
This is the biggie for me. I LOVE this word. It’s a word which gets me so excited I just want to share it with everyone. Like a little kid with presents, I’ve been tearing off the wrapping paper of my passions and enjoying the gifts I find. 2013 is the year I want to help others unwrap their passions.
So how about you? What are your three words? Take a moment to pick out the three words of 2013 to shape your year. What will they be? Share them in the comments below or hop on over to Chris’ site and share them here: Chris Brogan’s 3 Words.