Mission Accomplished or Mission Forgotten?
It’s the end of September. The END of September – how did that happen? If it’s true that time flies when we’re having fun, we must be having a LOT of fun, right?
The Presidential election is in six weeks. Thanksgiving is in two months. The first night of Hanukkah and Christmas Day are the same date this year, and they’re just three months away. It seems like day before yesterday that 2024 was dawning and it feels like it’ll be 2025 day after tomorrow.
The feeling of time passing is relative. When you’re focused or busy or engaged in something you love doing, time flashes by. When you’re bored or sad or depressed, time is a caterpillar trying to organize all those feet to get moving.
If this year has flown by for you, too, then that means you’ve been busily productive and hopefully having fun while doing all that you’ve been doing. If you’ve felt like you’ve been spinning your wheels, that means you’ve had...
United was How This All Started
Two hundred thirty seven years ago, in a document with forty-five hundred words, thirty-nine men took their lives in their hands, put quill pen to parchment paper, and defined a new way to look at governance. Today is Constitution Day, a celebration of the definition of the United States. For eleven years, men whose very lives were at stake because of their leadership in the American revolution, wrestled, argued, wheedled, cajoled, bargained, and finally committed to paper the definition of their new government.
It's a good thing political ads hadn’t been invented yet, right?
As Americans slog through another season of divisiveness and blatantly misleading advertisements, lets take a moment to remember what brings us together. At the dawning of America there was a desire for freedom from a monarchy that simply wanted tribute and control. There was a desire for shared risk balanced with autonomy. There was a feeling that something new and wonderful was possible, and that a new...
Want to Let Go of Feeling Overwhelmed?
Hi {{ first_name }},
I don’t want to overwhelm you with this, but do you feel overwhelmed a lot? If I gave you an exhaustive list of what creates feelings of overwhelm in people, just reading the list could overwhelm you!
So…let’s not do that, shall we?
Feeling overwhelmed is very common. Each day brings with it a new set of potentially adverse events, missed timings, and piling on of responsibilities and tasks that anyone is at risk of overwhelm several times in the day. Everyone, especially those with anxiety or depression, can take a deep emotional dive when overwhelm hits.
Does it help you, even just a little bit, to know that it’s common, human, and normal to feel overwhelmed? Would it help you, even just a little bit, to know what’s happening in your brain that makes you feel so stuck? Because you’re not stuck, your brain is just blind to the possibilities at hand that can help tame the overwhelming feelings.
First, the...
Easing the Weight of Responsibility
Responsibility. That word can cause feelings of dread, perseverance, or pride. It can make your heart sing or sink. It can make you feel very grown-up or like you want to ditch adulting forever. How can so many emotions be wrapped in one simple word?
The answer – because it’s not simple.
Responsibility could feel like doing a hard thing anyway.
Responsibility could feel like doing something others expect you to do or need you to do, whether you want to or not.
Responsibility could feel like owning up to your mistakes or shortcomings.
As children, many of us were taught that we must earn the right to be responsible for certain things. If I wanted to have a dog, I had to prove to my parents that I could be trusted to do assigned tasks without prompting and without too much whining. Not all the responsibilities of the dog fell to me, but a couple did. They were boring and sometimes annoying, yet those feelings paled in comparison to the fun and joy Pixie brought to our...
Doggedly Determined to Succeed
Do you love dogs? Yeah, me, too. We’re in good company – a third of the world’s households have at least one dog, and most people consider their dog (or dogs) to be part of the family.
That describes my family – we had a dog as soon as Mom thought my youngest brother was old enough to understand the difference between a stuffed toy dog and a real live one and behave accordingly. One day Dad brought home a little black and tan ball of cuteness – big brown eyes, ears that aaaaaaalmost stood up, and a long tail that never stopped wagging. It was love at first sight, a love story that lasted nearly 16 years.
Pixie was an accident. Dad worked with a guy who had a Pekingese, and his next-door neighbors had a Chihuahua. Things happened and 63 days later there were 5 little oopsies looking for homes. Pixie landed in ours. Let’s just say Dad was a sucker for big brown eyes – Mom had them, too.
Whether or not you share your home and life with a...
Are You in Love With Broadcast Radio, Too?
Have you ever listened to the radio?
Since it’s 2024, I need to tighten up that question a bit: have you ever listened to terrestrial radio on a device that was picking up the signal out of thin air? Today is National Radio Day, and today, terrestrial radio is getting kind of quaint as people choose satellite radio services, streaming music services, and apps designed to play any kind of radio - terrestrial included – anywhere you are, on whatever device you choose.
127 years ago, radio was born, and about 45 years ago, my career in terrestrial radio began. No one person is credited with the invention of radio – three inventors working independently followed and built upon the emerging science of wireless electricity and voila! A radio signal was first broadcast by Guglielmo Marconi in 1897 using discoveries made by Nicola Tesla and Heinrich Hertz.
Broadcast radio made the world feel smaller and more like a community. Two decades after the very first successful...
How Far Left are You?
How far left are you?
Wait…I’m not asking about your politics, I’m asking about your handedness. Today is all about being a leftie (not leftist) and what that means to you. If you’re right-handed, like 87% of Earth’s human residents, this newsletter is for you, too, because you’re farther left than you may know!
If you have a leftie in your family, or if you are a leftie, that’s genetics at work. There is a familial link for left-handers, and researchers think that they’ve identified the gene that makes it possible for a person to produce a left-handed child. Being a leftie is so rare that even if two left-handers meet, fall in love, and produce a boatload of children, 70 to 80 percent of their kids will be right-handed.
Famous left-handers include:
Leaders: Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama
Innovators: Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg
Business Heroes: David Rockefeller, Oprah Winfrey, and Steve Forbes
...
Policing Your Idea of Police
There’s a 40th anniversary today that you might not know about. Have you ever been part of one of the “first Tuesday in August” neighborhood festivals? Maybe your neighborhood or town had a cookout, or a little parade? Chances are, police officers were everywhere at the festival.
Not only were they there, they were the guests of honor. The first Tuesday in August has been the National Night Out since 1984. What began as a way for neighborhood watch volunteers to share information and best practices with each other quickly turned into a celebration of community policing and became a way for people to see the human side of our often-misunderstood law enforcement officers.
Let’s face it, we have trust issues where police officers are concerned. The police. The FBI. The Secret Service. The Gestapo. The KGB. When you read those words, you don’t think of individuals, do you? It’s more likely that you think of an amorphous, powerful entity. You might...
Do You Have a Best Friend or a Beast Friend?
Do you have friends? Then today is your day! Today is the International Day of Friendship and this issue of the weekly newsletter explores the mysteries of our friendships.
There are two sides to friendship – the positives and the not-so-positives. Because every single person is human, we bring both sides of ourselves to all our friendships, and so do our friends. That means that each friendship has the potential to be a rollercoaster, with the size of the hills and valleys in the hands of both people. That’s what makes friendships so complicated!
Humans are hard-wired to form communities, and friends are the non-family community we create. Like family, friends can provide emotional support, validation, companionship, and strong pathways to happiness through shared experiences. Friends are often our sounding boards, exercise partners, and mastermind partners, helping each other create strength, growth, and resilience. Friends give us a sense of belonging, feedback and...
Leading Through a Turbulent Political Season
Every four years, we Americans forget who we are. We forget that we have power. We forget how to use that power. We forget to be civil as we use our voices and our fingertips, and sadly, sometimes fists and other weapons, in our attempts to move hearts and minds to our way of thinking.
You can make a leadership decision and make your corner of the world more peaceful – will you step into your leadership role this political season? The more people who choose to gently, quietly lead, the more civil this season will be.
It’s easy to blame social media, broadcast media, political ads, and journalists for the negativity and belligerence of the narrative, but the truth is, since the inception of our country, elections have been contentious, political advertising has been negative, and conversations have degenerated into heated arguments when politics was the topic.
Where does leadership come into play? It comes from you, not to you. In these next 105 days, will you step up and...
