Tag Archives: opportunity

Happy 25th Anniversary, Chernoble

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“The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of
thinking…the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If
only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker.”

Albert Einstein

These beautiful paintings are done by my friend Tilly Strauss

http://www.tillystudio.blogspot.com/

They remind me of what we have and what we lose when the earth is threatened.

As far as the earth goes, I believe it will not be destroyed by our actions. It might be different but it will still be. But it might be just so different and not really hospitable to the life we have become used to living.

It’s up to each one of us to make a difference, then the collective can live up to its name.

April Is Poetry Month

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How many of you have listened to William Butler Yeats? Actually heard his voice? It’s so cool – he’s old, you can tell, but it’s him and that’s enough for me.

1-01 The Song Of The Old Mother

Yeats is in the sky too. He was an idol, a mentor, a mind I loved to attempt to grasp when I was in high school. I got to research and write about him when I was in college. That’s such a great time, a lucky time when you can delve into what you love. I used to love the library, holding all the books in my hands. I love technology. I love Google. Waking up at any hour and typing in whatever I can remember of a poem or person or anything and up it comes with ideas and commentary from all over the world. I love living here now. I love getting ideas from all over. Thank you all for being here.

This is a good day, how can I serve you?

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Have you ever thought about the difference between caring for and serving? Well, in my experience, if I care for you, I don’t get much – respect, money, or acknowledgment. But if I serve you, I give you something of value and I get more for it. Including your looking me in the face.

You don’t get as much either if I take care of you, I may be a faceless servant doing a job. If I serve you, you probably asked for it; went to a site, signed up. Went to a school, filled out a form, maybe even paid money.

I take care of many beings. I have rescued dogs, cats and horses. If I see an animal on the road, I help it. And while I am not a nameless, faceless entity to them while I am cleaning litter, picking poops, mopping up grass and throw-up, I am not using much of my skill set either. In my service of the animals I am fulfilling my need to be useful – of service. It comes from my heart and that makes a valuable contribution to my idea of how I want to be in the world and how I view myself.

By doing this service I am forwarding my sense of good in the world, I am participating in a higher vibration than just myself. It is not a job.

If I have a job, when I go to it, when I participate in living and working amongst/with other people, I feel a brightness, I come to them with a full complement of participation. I am not needy.

If people are nice to me – or not – I have a sense of myself within myself and the world within myself. I have done important (to me) work and what I receive from the world is the icing, I have eaten my cake and I don’t have to choose whether to eat it or have it.

Branding – your message is your name.

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Not your business name but the name people think of when they read your statement, your copy, your bio, your blog. The name they give you in their mind (nice person, want to know them – that kind of thing) the minute they see something you’ve put out into the world. Is it the logo you chose, the background of your Tweeter page? Is it the way you presented your ideas in Squidoo? Did you talk about yourself, what you like, trust, want and stop there? Did you include thoughts and facts about yourself in addition to trying on the needs and wants of others?

For me it’s the personable way you might explore yourself to me. A misspelling won’t turn me off too much but if there are too many txt’s and lites, I’m gone. I love dashes and I personally use too many parentheses – which I hope won’t be a problem for you, I know a little cuteness goes a long way! How you expose your life without too much information but enough to help me know I can trust (or not) your ideas, what thoughts come to you, how much we might share.

This last is crucial. What might we share? It’s a key in the deciding route we all take on the road to purchase. We are all looking for the Something that will make our next – career, baby quiet, dog lie down, smell go away, best cup of – there are no exceptions, we are going to contact someone for an issue we are dealing with. That Someone is going to fill our needs and make us feel good at the same time.

I’m a poet in one of my lives and when I send poems out for consideration I hope I have done my homework and looked at the magazine before I send and I hope the editor will actually look at my work before it’s sent back in the envelope provided. I was an editor once and I noticed that I wanted as much from the poet as they wanted from me. I had a problem to solve, an itch to scratch and I hoped that every piece of writing coming to my desk would be the one I’d be excited to read and want to publish.

There are no exceptions to this dance. We are all in the market for something. We all want to pay for some things and get some things free. We don’t want to pay for everything and we don’t want everything free.

This is a great time to be a small business in a big world. We are all looking for the niche where we will find comfort. The best places in my kids’ schools were the reading nooks where they could curl up and read or just look at books. They could be surrounded by comfort and get some cool information or a great story. Let your business be a nook, it’ll be on everyone’s list of things to do.

Are you Tweeting me or Am I tweeting you?

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Seth Godin writes, “The presenter who loves his [sic] audience the most, wins.”

In the business of internet networking, in the daily communication of all of us with all of us, there is some confusion as to who is the presenter and who is the audience. When I tweet, am I tweeting you or me? If a tree falls in a forest with no one there is there a sound? Are we listening to each other? Do we have anything to say? Where is our focus? Is the goal of the market simply to perpetuate itself?

In the confusion of who is presenter and who is audience lies for each of us an opportunity. For business, for personal growth, probably for both. You really can’t have one without the other. Mindset is key, focus is key and the value we place on ourselves is the outstanding balance in the middle. I could say that the person who loves his or her audience is loved and respected in turn. If I love myself chances are that I will love you because there won’t be much of a commute between us. That’s where we get the value of all the communication strategies that are open to us. We can exchange and change in bits and bytes, in leaps and bounds.

Once upon a time it seemed to matter whether a tree fell and could be heard. With our communication portals it is almost certain someone somewhere will hear. What matters to us as entrepreneurs is that they care enough to keep going, to click, perchance to buy.

We are powerful when we take the communication possibilities offered and focus ourselves, our hearts, our truths to such a degree that we are presenters who love ourselves, our audience, our product and its persuasions to inspire the click. For us to be successful we have to inspire and delight. We need to create lightness in ourselves and each other. Is that why it seems so important to talk about every plane trip, every line we wait in every movie we see, song we hear. It’s shared experience, the trip of Life. We get to be with each other on every journey we choose to share. How cool is that? Lucky us. Let’s make it work, let’s give ourselves value. Believe in yourself, share your opportunities, make work together and play. And, don’t forget, breathe, always breathe.

And click on http://www.pamwhiteccpro.com/

Little Fish/Big Fish

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I was listening to NPR the other Fri and heard a clip about the oceans being overfished. Ok I knew that. But it wasn’t just that. It was about the fishing of the Big Fish. Everyone goes after the big fish. So if big fish are being overfished what does that leave? Little fish. And little fish breed more little fish and more little fish choose each other as mates. So you have the evolution of the little fish.

Ok. So the science guy was saying that Darwinian selection is happening – by humans and the world of little fish is being made bigger.

So I extrapolated that to our current economic situation. The “big fish” are being taken out of the equation. Big companies are down sizing, ceo’s are loosing their jobs as well as the employees. It used to be if you worked for a big company you were fairly safe. But some of the oldest, biggest companies are going and lots are gone.

So what does that leave? Little companies, small business. This is a great time to be an entrepreneur. A great time to start your own business, make your own policy, be independent. This is the time of the little fish in the business world.

Be a little fish and be success. Low overhead, you work at your own pace, commute time is radically shortened ( more low
overhead),time with what you care about. Coaching kids, volunteering, building something in the shop you put in your garage or basement and then didn’t have the time to use it. Writing poetry for yourself, your kids, your grandchildren. Telling someone you love that you love them. It’s all easier when you’re physically closer to them and not on some freeway stuck in traffic and hating everyone and everything when you get home.

Be a little fish, see an opportunity – grab it! Be big yourself in yourself for yourself, let the big companies go.

Here’s An Opportunity

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Research has shown that people tend to go along with the majority view, even if that view is incorrect. A study targeting neurons in the brain shows that when people hold an opinion differing from others in their immediate group, their brains produce an error signal. The “group” could be a jury, a classroom, a board meeting, any meeting, or a party. In other words, in any human gathering a person with a “different” idea or perception will feel “wrong” or “too different.”

This study that I just read about on CNN brings to mind how amazing it is when someone like Harvey Milk – the movie is a must see – consistently goes against the flow of opinion. We can thank Harvey, Martin Luther King whose birthday we celebrate, Barney Frank and all the thousands of people historic and among us who change our lives everyday because they are able to override their feelings of needing to be with the pack.

Those independent thinkers and doers among us who blow the whistle, who stop an act of aggression, who see a need and step in are our most valued citizens.

There are independent thinkers, entrepreneurs, some we know in our lives and some we read about. People who make a difference, who have a focus of adding to the good in the world, who override their need to be quiet when they see injustice make a lasting impression. You can do that anywhere. No job or task is too insignificant to be a platform for just action. We can all participate.

I got a video e-mail from Michelle Obama this week asking all of us to participate in volunteering next Monday, doing something of benefit to others. Today is Martin’s actual birthday, January 15, but we celebrate the holiday next Monday.

For me to know that president-elect Obama and Michelle will be reaching out and focusing on problems other than their own is a long-dreamed of hope to have such effective role models in leadership.

May the Force be with each one of us as we step into our lives, our roles, our hopes and dreams. We can all be role models, we can start by looking up to ourselves.

Are You Liberated?

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Do you even know what that means? Not the word, but the feeling.Do you have moments of just Being? Can you take a leap of faith? Can you bring a new idea to your mind without restructuring its contents to fit what you think will work or what you think someone won’t laugh at? What I’m getting at is can you let yourself dream and brainstorm – literally wind whipping in, through, and around the passages in your mind – without judging anything. Could you put it in writing? Do you keep a notebook that you can access anytime? If you do, you’re set. Congratulations!

For the rest of us – and I include myself in this learning curve – or circle sometimes I think it feels like that – matters of freedom, the importance of nurturing our own thoughts, the light that we alone bring to the world needs to be allowed breathing room in all the rush to judgement that is our daily life.

How often are you with your peers, your coworkers, your family and you let one of your helpful thoughts go by? Or how often do you cast it in a different light, one that you feel will have more weight in your world? Are you cranky and willful when you want to say something else? Are you easy-going and will do whatever everyone else wants? How often do you just state your truth and listen? You’ve been trained like the rest of us to go along, to compromise, to restrain yourself. My father used to tell me all the time how much easier it was when he was the only one making the decisions. He was right, of course, it was easier, although it ruled out (and ruled!) the lives of quite a few people!

When you’re young, you need to go along and do what adults say but as we become our own adults our needs must be met. We must love and respect ourselves, give ourselves the benefit of a doubt, not look in the mirror with the scorn that may be a past story. It may seem antithetical to say the more we love and respect ourselves, the more loveable and respectable we are, but it is true.  Look in the mirror and you will see the only person who can really support and protect you. Love and support that person and you will have peace within yourself. Treat that person badly and you will never know love.

When you let others’ lives and truths and words take yours over, you are living a very complicated life, fooling yourself that you actually know them or they are really telling you the truth themselves. The build up is exponential and it starts the minute you don’t give yourself space to breath and know yourself. Mostly we say words to control or for our own security – will they love me etc. It takes courage to know who you are, to accept and love who you are, to show yourself without being overbearing, whiny or giving up.

The steps to liberation are not easy but they are simple. Meditation, acceptance and compassion when focused on yourself and those around you – everyone, no exceptions! – will take you a long way toward your liberation. From there your job, your spouse, your children, grandchildren, teachers and coworkers all look better. Even the person behind the counter telling you you can’t do what you want – get on the flight, see the movie, rent the car – will seem to have a job to do, just a job. They are human just like you, you might even be them and be the one in a position to tell them they can’t do something, have something.

Be the person you want to be with. You’ll have the time of your life!

Who is your best friend?

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Everyday I get hundreds of e-mails about saving something, making something better, calling someone to support some cause somewhere. Books. I have books about giving, books about serving somewhere, something, somehow. I have books and tapes, magazines and flyers, videos and cd’s. They are all good. Every single one of them is necessary and provides great value to our collective life on this planet.

Don’t get me wrong, these are good things. I ask for them. I take the opportunity to do a lot of the good deeds offered to me.

But, here’s the rub. Do I include myself? I better because if I don’t I’m not going to be able to do too many more good deeds. That’s a fact. Without applying the principles of the deed throwers to myself, my ability to do the good stuff I want to do diminishes with time. Am I exhausting myself? Good question.

OK Now, apply all that stuff to you. I didn’t want to start off with that because I didn’t want to scare you. BUT, if you aren’t replenishing yourself as you go along in your day, you are taking from all the causes you want to support.

So, get with the program. Get started on yourself. Love yourself. Live with yourself. Be yourself. Which means you need to believe in yourself. Take a break, a walk, study a course, watch a bird, a squirrel, a horse. What are they doing? What are you doing? What’s the difference between you? Ask yourself how you feel right now. Where are you going, what are you doing? Is it necessary? Is what you’re doing supporting what you’re doing? No, that’s not a typo. Rule #1: “Do what you’re doing. Don’t do what you’re not doing.” (Thank you Hale Dwoskin)