Hindsight Is 2020

Hindsight certainly is 2020. There is nothing that gives us more clarity than looking back in the rearview mirror to see hoe far we’ve come. Or not. Looking back on 2020, I don’t think anyone is sorry to say farewell to a very challenging year. Instead, most of us are more than happy to say good riddance. However, it is interesting to reflect back on it and recognize some of the good things that came out of the Year of the Rat. Yep, according to the Chinese Zodiac calendar, 2020 was the Year of the Rat. I remember sitting in a networking meeting last January. You remember networking meetings, don’t you? Of course you do–we all do. That’s where we met in person, gave each other hugs, We all remember those. You know, where we gave each other hugs, love, handshakes,...

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Declaration of Celebration

Have you ever made a Declaration of Celebration? If you haven’t, I highly recommend trying it. It gives you the chance to focus on the positive things in your life, helping them get bigger and more powerful until they run the negative thoughts into the ground. Trust me, I know. When I turned 50, I was determined to turn my life around. I must confess, my 30s were a nightmare. My 40s were even worse. I wasn’t even sure I would make it to 50, and neither did many of my friends. But I kept thinking to myself, “If I can only make it to 50, maybe things will get better.” So, as I found myself crawling toward 50, I started planning my life after fifty and what it would look like. I started by making a Declaration of Celebration. I promised myself that my gift to myself...

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Reality Check and Taking Action

We all need a reality check sometimes, and that can result in taking action. I got one of those reality checks last week when I went to the doctor. After having my temperature checked twice (just in case it spiked from my brief walk down the hallway), I was asked to step on the scale. Everyone’s favorite step. I wasn’t worried. Even with all the talk about the “Covid-15,” which is another unexpected consequence of the pandemic and a reference to the significant weight gain many of us experienced, I felt pretty safe. After all, even though I was stuck at home for over 3 months I felt like I was still getting enough exercise and watching my diet. More or less. Before I stepped on the scale I asked the nurse if I should take my shoes off. She replied, “It’s...

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Patience, Perseverance, and Incomparable Stubbornness

Patience and perseverance are two traits of the Ninja that I was taught in my martial arts training. Notice I said that I was taught, not necessarily that I learned it. Patience may be a virtue, but it was something I was never very good at. However, I killed it when it came to perseverance. I attribute it to my incomparable stubbornness, which I am incredibly proud of, especially since it usually seems to pay off. Usually. I am thrilled to say that it has certainly payed off when it applies to my book, which was published exactly 4 years ago this month. As a newly published author, I was naive enough to think that everyone would want my book and it would fly off the shelves. I scoffed at the marketing experts who claimed that the “real” work in writing a book came after it was...

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Born On the Fourth of July

I love the Fourth of July. As a kid, it was always all about the fun, the games, the cook-outs, the swimming pool, and the fireworks. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I realized the Fourth of July was more than just a holiday. It is a way of life, and something to be celebrated every day of the year, not just on July 4th. I want to tell you a story about why I love the 4th of July. And the story begins with a little boy. The little boy was born on a small farm in Czechoslovakia in 1927. One year later, he and his parents left their farm and traveled across the Atlantic to begin a new life in a small steel town in Western Pennsylvania and pursue the American Dream. That dream turned into a nightmare one year later when the little boy pulled a pot of scalding chicken soup over him,...

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Swimming With Sharks and Taking a Risk

When the movie Jaws was released in June of 1975, everyone was terrified to go in the water. It wasn’t safe. So, instead of going for a refreshing swim in the ocean, beach goers sat immobilized in the sand and sweltered in the hot sun, dreaming of the day when it would be safe to go in the water. If ever. The following summer, people began to dip their toes in the water. After all, you can only be immobilized for so long before the desire to return to normal becomes overwhelming, and you’re willing to take a risk. Eventually, swimmers went deeper into the water, and they survived. The water was filled with happy swimmers, bobbing in the surf. But, just when we finally forgot the horrors that lurked just below the water’s surface and began swimming again, Jaws 2 was released....

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The Eyes Have it

Making eye contact with another person is crucial to the human connection and establishing a relationship. Averting one’s eyes makes you appear suspicious, furtive, unapproachable, and even dangerous. Or it can communicate to strangers that you are insecure, vulnerable, and an easy target for perpetrators. However, when you look someone in the eye, there is an immediate connection, and an exchange of information. Your brain processes this information, sending electrical, chemical, and hormonal signals through your body how to react. Eye contact gives you an instantaneous respond as to whether this person is a friend or foe, safe or threatening. That’s why it is so dangerous to walk around in public with your head buried in your cell phone. First of all, it’s not safe. Second,...

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Patience, Perseverance, and Number #1 Best Seller

Patience and perseverance are two valuable principles I learned in my martial arts training. It means that our focus is on the journey, rather than the end result. And it explains why the students that come to our dojo with their primary goal of becoming a black belt are usually gone in just a few months. Because everything takes time and effort. The same applies to every aspect of life. Focus on the journey, put in the time, the effort, and see what unfolds. That’s exactly what happened when I published my first book. I just focused on the journey, even though it was incredibly labor intensive. When I heard that the “real work” in writing a book begins after it’s published, I found it hard to believe. After all, it took me two and a half years to write it. In reality,...

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Groundhog Day–Again

It’s Groundhog Day. Again. It always reminds me of the movie with Bill Murray where he finds himself living the same day over and over again. Repeating the same day and the same patterns drives him bonkers, until he sees a way of turning the situation to his advantage. Quite simply, he changes his patterns, and magic happens. We all get stuck in habits and patterns that aren’t serving us well, and we end up getting stuck in a rut. The good news is that we can crawl out of that rut with just a few simple changes. Here are a few tips that sound really easy and downright silly, but trust me, they work. 1). Sleep on the “wrong” side of the bed. It might sound strange, but it can give you an entirely different perspective on bedtime. You might even sleep better. 2). Change...

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Writer’s Block

Writer’s block. Two words that can strike fear in the heart of every writer. And, like every writer, I have experienced it before, but nothing like I did over the past few months. It was so bad that I couldn’t write anything, not even my grocery list. I would sit at my kitchen table, pen and paper in hand (yes, I am that old-fashioned), and stare off into space. I even tried to get some inspiration by flipping through a few of my favorite cookbooks. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. The blank paper seemed to mock me as I tapped the pen to my head trying to get some creative synapses firing. And still, I had nothing. Great. My Red Booth Writer’s Group was getting ready to rally and come up with another four new articles to submit to The Pueblo Chieftain, and I couldn’t even come...

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