Today, keep your standards beyond reproach.

• Serve the Lord by serving others.

• Avoid self-preoccupation.  There are many others who need the assistance that only you can offer.

• Develop more patience and value: the calm that can be yours.

• Look for good in people, places and happenings.

• Let your wardrobe incline a bright, pleasant expression. A ready smile makes a fashionable accessory.

The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases. ~ Carl Jung

 

Say What?

Say What?
“Huh?” “What was that?” “Yeah, yeah.” Sound familiar? I said, does it sound familiar? Listen up! Empathetic listening is key to successful relationships. When you sincerely strive to understand people, you try to view the world as they do. You don’t have to agree with them, but rather emotionally and intellectually understand them. It involves the ears, eyes, and heart.

• Repeat. This is the first-stage skill in empathetic listening. By repeating what someone says, you at least show you’re paying attention.
• Rephrase. At this more effective stage, you rephrase what was said in your own words. Now you’re thinking about the other person’s agenda.
• Reflect. This stage focuses on the feeling behind the words, not just what is being said. You reflect back what you are sensing.
• Rephrase and reflect. This is where trust is built. When you both rephrase content and reflect feeling, others will sense your desire to really listen and understand.

These skills are only the beginning. Empathetic listening also requires a pure desire and an investment of time. Hey, are you listening?

 

Running in Circles

Running in Circles
Personal health. Global warming. Career advancement. With so many different concerns, life can really have you running in circles. ‘Round and ’round you go. When will you stop? We know-when you pass out, that’s when! This is what I refer to as “Chasing my tail”.  See if these tips can help you unwind and effectively focus your time and energy.

• Control Freak. Since many things involve you mentally and emotionally on a daily basis, it’s vital to determine which ones you really can do something about. It’s all about control.
• Concern. Your Area of Concern is comprised of things over which you have no real control-things like environmental or international problems. Focusing your efforts in this area increases feelings of inadequacy and helplessness. You empower things and others to control you.
• Influence. This area is made up of things you can do something about, like relationships and skills. The positive energy you focus here helps you feel accomplished and in control. You’ll even have time and energy left over to periodically visit your Area of Concern.

Focused control–another spin on personal effectiveness!

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“You will never find time for anything. If you want time, you must make it.”
-Charles Buxton

 

 

 

Top Time-Wasters

1. Trying to do too much @ once. Learn to prioritize your tasks.
2. Failing to plan. Successful time managers look at the big picture in order to make a plan and set priorities.
3. Being unable to say no. Learning to say no helps you maintain balance among your personal, family, and work time.
4. Putting things off. Wasting time agonizing over an unpleasant chore-either do it right away, hire it done, or forget it.
5. Doing everything yourself. You must learn to delegate certain tasks. You can’t do it all.

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Don’t complain about anything… Be Happy!

 

Standards

So this is what they mean by the soft bigotry of low expectations… avoid self-preoccupation. There are many others who need the assistance that only you can offer. Develop more patience and value: the calm that can be yours. Look for good in people, places and happenings. Let your wardrobe incline a bright, pleasant expression. A ready smile makes a fashionable accessory. Today, keep your standards beyond reproach.

 

 

Serve the Lord by serving others.

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A goal is nothing but a” dream with a deadline.”

 

Six Tips to reduce holiday stress

Six Tips to reduce holiday stress

 

1)  Avoid the stress and exhaustion of holiday shopping by ordering your gifts from catalogs and TV shopping channels. An added benefit is that out-of-town gifts can be sent directly to the recipients, saving you the hassle of finding a box, packaging the gifts and waiting in line at the post office. 

2)  Use gift bags instead of traditional wrapping.  (Dollar-type stores, catalogs and TV shopping channels often offer low-cost assortments of gift bags.)

3)  Each year, between busy schedules and increased postage costs, fewer and fewer people send holiday cards. If you still feel you must send some cards, be selective. Only send them to close friends and family whom you seldom see. I strongly recommend eCards and eVites!

4) When everyone is coming to your house for dinner, ask each one to bring one or two dishes, leaving yourself only one or two simple items to prepare.

5) If you are going out of town to visit relatives for the holidays, consider staying at a hotel for at least part of the time.  Having a separate haven will reduce your stress by giving you a sense of control over your own space and activities for at least a portion of each day.

6)  If the demands of your extended family are more than you can handle each year, consider making an annual holiday vacation a new family tradition. (Try a western dude ranch, a chalet in the Tennessee Mountains, or a warm tropical beach.) This can be a special bonding time for you and your immediate family. You will not feel compelled to cook, and you will probably reduce the size of your gift list because everything will have to fit in a car or on a plane.

 

 

“Work like you don’t need money, love like you’ve never been hurt, sing as if no one can hear you, and dance like no one’s watching.” -Anonymous