Vote for Your Favorite
Weekly Challenger!
Welcome, Weekly Challenger Readers! Thank you for making me a part of your Mondays for the last five years.
Here are six of my favorite Weekly Challengers from 2003-2007. And it was a real challenge to narrow them down! There are easily thirty or forty that I really like.
Now it's your turn to narrow the choices down even further. Read through the six Weekly Challengers on this page and vote for your favorite in the form below.
I'll be publishing the winning Weekly Challenger in April, so be sure to watch for it!
June 30, 2003
Catch Yourself Doing Something Right
We sure spend a lot of time ragging on ourselves. We find fault with almost everything we do. We'd never be that hard on our friends, and if our friends were that hard on us, well, they wouldn't be our friends very long! This week, instead of finding yourself doing something wrong all the time, find yourself doing something right. Ten times a day. Because the truth is, we're right a lot more often than we're wrong. We just don't let ourselves know about it.
January 5, 2004
Ask, Ask, Ask
Asking for what you want is a very powerful skill that doesn't need to be saved for "big" things. It's also a skill that few of us are good at. Since childhood, we've been taught that it's rude to ask. Yet human beings aren't evolved enough (yet) to be able to read other people's minds, so how are others going to know what we need or want if we don't ask? However, there is a responsibility in asking for what we want. We need to be willing and able to accept a "No" without getting upset, taking it personally (even if it is), or making others feel guilty for having their own wants and needs. In other words, we need to be unattached to the result.
You can ask for anything, from lower interest on your bank loan, to seconds
on dessert, to appreciation and approval for a job well done. They might
say "No," but if you don't ask, you are saying "No"
for them. So stop wishing and start asking
January 31, 2005
Change the World
If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be? An end to world hunger? To prejudice? to war? Pollution? Maybe you'd like to make sure everyone had a decent education or a roof over their head. Figure out what you'd really like to change, and do something about it. Join a group. Found a group. Send a donation. Start a website. But do something.
And if you think you can't make a difference, consider this quotation
from Betty Reese: "If you think you're too smart to be effective
you have never been in bed with a mosquito."
August 7, 2006
The Week of Possibilities.
My husband and I have declared this summer to be "The Summer of Possibilities." What might we do, where might we go, how might we change our lives to make them more of what we want them to be? Anything is up for consideration–the knee-jerk "We can't do that!" response is not allowed. To remind us of that, I made a sign for our kitchen bulletin board that says: "Let's move to Mars and start a hydrogen farm."
And what's come up has been fascinating. We haven't made any decisions, but we are discovering that things we once thought were vitally important aren't. Time together is more valuable than money. A quiet evening on our back balcony is as wonderful as a luxury vacation, if not more so. (No reservations, no packing, no traveling, no security issues, and we can get there any time we want.)
I invite you to join us, and to turn this week into "The Week of Possibilities." IF anything were possible, what changes would you make in your life? How would you recreate your life to honor your values, your dreams more fully?
And hey, if you want to keep going beyond one week–go for it!
October 2, 2006
What Are You Capable Of?
"We are all capable of everything." ~ Virgil
Are we, really?
I once told my daughter (who at that time weighed maybe 85 pounds soaking wet) that she could be anything she wanted to be, expect perhaps a defensive linesman on a football team. The next fall, she was playing powderpuff football–as a defensive linesman. (lineswoman?) I've never told her she couldn't do anything ever again.
It taught me a lesson, too. What was I not doing because I thought I couldn't? How could I change things so that I could do what I wanted? Sometimes I had to alter my definition of the goal, or be willing to bring it down a notch, but I've discovered over my life time that, in general, I am capable of everything. (Except perhaps the splits, although I'm working on that.)
So what are you capable of? What do you wish you could do that you think
you can't? How can you change the circumstances, the conditions, even
the goal to make it possible for you?
March 26, 2007
Listen. Do You Hear Me?
When is the last time you listened, really listened to someone, without figuring out how to help, advise, correct, or prove your point at the next chance you get to speak?
Don't get down on yourself; listening is hard work. I'm a life coach, and the most important part of my job is listening. I know that it can be challenging to really hear what the other person is saying without figuring out what I'm going to say next. I love to appear witty and wise, and when I go that route, I'm rarely either.