October 2011 – Page 3

Are you addicted to the negative?

2011/10/11 Gayle 1

I barely know who Miley Cyrus is but a few days again I encountered this quote from her ‘You can’t live a positive life with a negative mind’. A mind becomes negative because we feed it negative. From the daily news to our personal encounters, we focus on the negative. I attended a street fair over the weekend. Like any public event, people watching opportunities abound. After several hours of being entertained by my people watching adventure, I realized that it was those people where I had a negative comment that attracted most of my attention. It often seems that we are genetically predisposed to be negative toward others and to crave negative from others. What I have learned in my research is that pain and negative The rest of the story

Action v Reaction

2011/10/10 Gayle 0

Yesterday morning it was early, I was tired. I didn’t want to be awake much less up and moving. Sitting at a red light I was engrossed in listening to my spouse relate a story about something, or another. Suddenly the car next to me started to go, and I, naturally, also started. Only after I had released my break and hit the gas did I realize that my light was still red and only the ‘leading green’ turn light had turned green. I reacted to a perception (that my light was green) rather than taking informed action (confirming that my light was green BEFORE hitting the gas). How often in our lives and careers, do we react without all the necessary information? We go The rest of the story

Time is limited – Don’t waste it

2011/10/06 Gayle 0

How often do you think, ‘I’ll do that when…..’ We have ever intention of practicing a musical instrument, or reading a book, or going for a run or even walking the dog but we end up waiting for some magical burst of motivation to make it happen. Perhaps, we are just so confident that there will be more time in our lives soon. Maybe we just live in perpetual procrastination. How do we snap out of it? How do we do the things we want to do? I was pondering these questions yesterday when I received my breaking news text informing the world that Steve Jobs had died. I don’t think this news was particularly surprising to most people but it was somewhat disconcerting. You The rest of the story

Just Do It

2011/10/04 Gayle 0

I am a part of the ‘Just Do It’ generation. In 1988, when Nike came out with the famous slogan, I was a young adult struggling to transition from the world of academia to the ‘real world’. Just do it seemed a fitting mantra for those times. Except do we ever just do something? What exactly do we mean when we say ‘Just Do It”? We must remember that thoughts precede actions, which precede change. I know of not one person who ever set out to reach a goal and just did it. First they thought of the goal. Then they planned how to reach the goal. Lastly they put themselves where the rubber meets the road and they just did it. Are you trying The rest of the story

Take a Step in the Right Direction

2011/10/03 Gayle 1

Today I am sharing with you a post I wrote last September. I hope it will mean as much to you today as it did last year. My friend Mary is an avid paddler. She holds a professional job and cares for her elderly parents but every weekend, you will find Mary in her canoe or kayak on some river or waterway paddling away her frustrations. This past weekend, Mary paddled a marathon (that is 26 miles for those of us who are not marathoners) on flat water (i.e. no current to carry you). The day after the marathon event, I sat down with Mary to hear all about her adventure. She described her adventure as perfect because there were natural intermittent goals along the The rest of the story