Against All Odds
My father had just been operated on to remove a cancerous tumor in his hip so he was still in the hospital recovering. He knew he had to gain weight to stay strong. When I was visiting him one of many days there, I accompanied him as he made his way down the hallway. He gripped the handrail with his right hand while navigating the wheelchair with his left. Though there were footrests on the chair, the heel of his right leg dragged stubbornly along the floor making enough of a muffling sound to be heard but not to interrupt the slow, steady...
read moreRunning a Business is Like a Marathon: Training Tips That’ll Make You a Pro!
By Monique MacKinnon & Kita Szpak, Co-authors of Tipping Point to Happiness (From Monique’s Financial and lifestyle Freedom for Executives enewsletter, March 14, 2014) So you want to be the CEO of your own company? It depends on many factors, including and not limited to: stage of life you’re in, and your age, preferred business model, reason for running a business, and personality type. If you want to obtain ‘pro’ status (in business) sooner than later, then you need to know this: the essence of running a business or...
read moreLife’s Unpredictability Has a Silver Gold Lining
There’s a certain dread in running into someone or something unpredictable. Not knowing what they’re going to do or what’s going to happen makes us uneasy even afraid of what the consequences might be. Our mind prevents us from venturing too close to something unknown because it is literally protecting us from what it perceives/labels as dangerous to our survival. Now let’s flip this the other way. Can unpredictability be viewed from a positive perspective? Sure can. And the Winter Olympics at Sochi are a perfect example. The favorite in the...
read moreMonday, February 17, 2014
Kita visits Marty Dickinson at http://www.herenextyear.com with her blog “Write More Thank You Notes than Parking Tickets” http://herenextyear.com/write-more-thank-you-notes-than-parking-tickets.php
read moreSure You’re Finished With It?
I was going through my bookshelf and spotted “The Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren. Haven’t looked at it in years – but isn’t that the way? Once you finish reading the book, watching the movie, painting the picture, you move on, right? Generally, once something is finished, it’s put away, thrown away maybe, given to someone else, even forgotten about – forever. But in picking up and glancing through the pages of Rick’s book, I realized I remember little of the details and could easily reread it without causing myself any harm in the...
read moreYour Best Teacher May Be Somebody You Don’t Like
We’ve all come across people in our life that rub us the wrong way. The neighbor who’s irritated by the fact that your dog’s relieving itself on their lawn. The clerk who’s more interested in talking to her colleague than helping you with your store purchase. The couple who keep talking through the movie even though you’ve already turned around twice and given them a couple of dirty looks – although how they would see your face in a darkened theatre is up for question. The lover who took advantage of your generosity… you get the picture. It’s...
read moreShut Up & Listen
You’re on the phone with your girlfriend and she’s going on and on about last weekend. “She won’t even let me talk,” you say to yourself. “Talk about a one-sided conversation…I might as well hang up.” Well don’t! Could be she’s on a rant but it could also mean that she needs to have someone listen to her “story”, and who better than a close friend who won’t judge or criticize her? We all have stories. Problems, unhappy situations, disappointments, dashed expectations, dramas – all that we need to share with someone we trust. When we’re the...
read moreGetting Rid Of The “Yuckies”
I was straightening up the linen closet and found a baby blanket that my mom had given to me years ago. It’s a blanket that my twin brother and I had in London, UK where we were born. I teared up as I unfolded it, and let a few more tears fall as I thought of dad, who probably held Robert (everyone else calls him Bob) in it. Funny, how emotions get stirred up by such simple, little things. Call me sentimental, yes I cry at movies too. But there’s a reason for these tears… They do evoke past thoughts of sadness and pain sometimes as happened...
read moreMy “Four Weddings And A Funeral”
Sometimes life loads you up with a flurry of events so packed together and so important to you that you can barely stop for a breath lest you miss the “this is life” intensity of it all. This weekend I’m attending my daughter-in-law’s baby shower in the afternoon. It’s her first – a boy, and the family is over the moon about it. My son is incredibly happy, and I am bursting with pride and joy for them both. Later that same afternoon, I’m going to my co-worker’s wedding. She’s thrilled to be marrying the man she’s been with for a number of...
read moreWhat I Do Today Is Important
What are you doing with your life today? Such a loaded question… and courtesy of my reading Roy Williams’ “Monday Morning Memo”, where he aims that question at the reader. Well, I’m writing this and that’s something important I am doing today. So I’ve covered one hour or so of 24. Big deal, Kita. However, what I don’t want this to be for you and me is some veiled threat about how we are such ungrateful creatures and are completely wasting our lives. On the contrary, “What are you doing with your life today?” is an enthusiastic call to...
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Wherever You Are
One In A Million Dragon