It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I have a friend who says he knows it's the holiday season when he sees that M&M's commercial where the M&M's see Santa Claus and he sees them and they both realize the other is "real".  I know it's back to school time when I see that Staples commercial with the exuberant father and the not so exuberant kids making their way down the aisle to the sound of the Christmas song "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year".  Funny thing is, I haven't seen that commercial this year.

Despite the lack of my visual indicator of this annual event, the new school year has indeed starting for millions of children and adults.  And with this new school year, many students and their parents are also beginning to concern themselves with if this year will be successful.  One of the variables in student success will be determining how a student learns and when there are challenges to the learning process, how can the parents and educators help.

I had a great talk with Tanya Mitchell of LearningRx.  We talked about how we learn and what we can do to never stop learning and developing our brains.

I hope you enjoy it.

For more information about LearningRx, click your way to their website at http://www.learningrx.com/.

Happy Anniversary, Happy Anniversary, Happy Anniversary, Haaaaap-py Anniversary!

Today is my 10 year wedding annniversary.  Happy Anniversary to my Tin Man!  Who does have a heart.

I love you honey!



The 10th Anniversary is tin or aluminum by the way.

Interview with Jeffrey Fox

Here's another interview I really enjoyed.

Are you fierce?!?

Author Jeffrey J. Fox has written a new book --  "How To Be A Fierce Competitor".   I had an opportunity to talk to him about some of the things he feels are necessary to be and remain successful in our society; to be not just a competitor, but to be a fierce competitor.

I hope you enjoy our talk as much as we did.

For more information about Jeffrey J. Fox and his latest book, please visit his website.

http://www.foxandcompany.com/

Interview with Scott Harris

Summertime is usually a time for tv re-runs.  I've been so busy I decided to re-run a few of my favorite interview and articles from the spring.  Here is one I really enjoyed I hope you do too.

Anything worth doing is worth doing well. Doing it well requires you to put forth some effort. To make the choice to be in goal mode and think and act strategically. This is so true when it comes to developing and implementing your marketing plan for your business or project.

I had a great talk with Scott Harris of Mustang Marketing, a full service marketing agency serving the San Fernando Valley and Ventura County, California.

If you want more information about Scott and Mustang Marketing, visit their website at www.mustangmktg.com

Happiness Is A Choice!

"Happiness is a choice."  This is a line I keep telling my son. Basically he’s a really cool kid with a great sense of humor, when he is so inclined. The trouble is sometimes he can, as we say in my house, fall into the martyr role. When he does, he takes on a “life is so hard” attitude.

The fact is I have been the victim of the Parent’s Curse. I have given birth to a child so much like myself -- only worse. Almost every exasperated parent has placed this curse on their own child at one time: “May you have a child just like you when you are a parent.” I am sure when I was in one of my moody moments; my mother put this curse on me.

And so, umpteen years later, I was blessed with a handsome, intelligent, creative young man, who puts my self confessed moodiness to shame. He can be the happiest child one moment and then one little thing that does not go his way and his whole day is ruined. And it is at these moments that I start the diatribe of platitudes and clichés many parents pull out:

“Do you know how lucky you are?”

“You should be grateful for all that you have!”

“You have two parents who love you, clothes on your back, and a roof over your head…”

“Do you know how many starving children there are in __________?”

And in the midst of this I also remind him that “happiness is a choice” and that he needs to choose to be happy. And guess what? There are countless adults who need to take this advice too. Are you one of them? Hey, I just admitted to you I am moody. And in recognizing this about myself, I also can choose to counteract this behavior and choose to be happy.

If you’ve been here before, you know I believe all of life – especially relationships – are a balancing act between “because of” and “in spite of” and you have to make the choice of how life’s obstacles will impact and effect your attitudes and efforts. This is no less true then when it comes to your happiness. Now don’t get it twisted. I’m not talking about people who are clinically depressed. And I’m not talking about the temporary sadness or anger that we all have a right to from time to time. This is different.

There are some people who just cannot be happy. They relish in the attention they think they are receiving by being habitually miserable and wallowing in self pity. They have so much wonderfulness that they could focus on, but they choose only to see the negative. I have a family member like this. This person does not seem to realize that they would have much better relationships if they would just tone down the negativity and try to be happy in stead of complaining all of the time. Do you know someone like this?

By contrast, I love being around those persons who can be honest about the trials they might be going through, but can see the positive things in their life too. Can you be happy in spite of the fact that your business is not doing as well as you would have hoped? Can you be happy in spite of the fact that you loss your job? Can you be happy in spite of the fact that things are not going as you planned? Of course you can. By choosing to appreciate what you do have that is good.

You can choose to wallow in your temporary misery for a few moments then – as a friend would say – you pull up your big boy britches or your big girl panties, you give yourself an attitude adjustment and you make it your goal to be happy. You make the choice to not remain in “gripe mode” but move to “goal mode” and, if it is within your power to do so, you do something about changing the circumstances.

Every day at the dinner table, I ask my son, “What was the best part of your day and the not so best part of your day?” Through this exercise we develop the habit of communication, but it also helps us illustrate a point.

Throughout any day, you may have countless things happen with you, or for you, or against you. You cannot control everything that happens to you. You can only control how you react or respond to it; how you chose to perceive it. You could have eight hours of wonderful and the last five minutes of terrible and chose to say your day was ruined based on those five minutes. Or you can decide that the best part of your day was those miserable five minutes because they made you appreciate the eight hours even more.

Happiness is a choice. What are you going to choose?


TGIF Everyone!  Have a great weekend!