Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  Hope this year isall you want it to be.  I've heard of two great ideas to start the year off right that I wanted to share with all  of you on this first day of 2014.

1) Pick a word that will guide you for the year.  Think about what you most want this year to be...and let your imagination help you come up with the word that's perfect. Then put that word
everywhere - on your phone, computer, bathroom mirror.  I haven't completely decided on mine yet but I'm leaning towards "unstoppable". 

Here's some suggestions to help you get started:

- confidence
- commitment
- sparkle
- believe
- smile
- shine
- trust
- harmony
- fearless
- hope
- patience
- joy

What will your word be?

2) Do the 365 Gratitude challenge. Use your cell phone to take a picture a day of one think you're grateful for.  The act of looking and noticing gratitude will shift the way you live your life. I've got lots more of these that I will be sharing this Saturday as part of my Positively Saturday Winter Series in Warren, RI.  This week is all about how to make the resolutions you make today last past the typical January 17 or Valentine's Day. A year from now you'll be proud of yourself for making the changes you always wanted.

Looks like the weather will be good too...grateful for that...I think I'll take a picture of the plowed road for my 365! :)

More info at http://PositivelySaturday.com



Happy 2014!  Keep shining!

What We Can Learn from the 2013 Boston Red Sox

There are some great stories and lessons coming out of the recent Red Sox win of the World Series.  Full disclosure - I’m a long time Red Sox fan which is why I’m listening and reading about the team.  But I’m also someone who teaches success strategies and there are plenty here for all of us.

 I heard a former player say today that when they come up to the plate to bat, they’re to put all the other times they failed that day behind them.  It’s a new opportunity and that one at bat might be the one that wins the game.  That happened throughout the playoff series with a variety of players who had not at any hits at all.  If they had given up, if they had thought of themselves as failures, they would not have gotten the hits they got that ultimately won that game.  Goes back to my ‘pearl’ theory – that we’re only given this moment and we should treat it like the pearl it is.  It doesn’t matter what you did yesterday, last week, last year – as long as the things you didn’t do well taught you something.  Move on – who knows what incredibly experience is right ahead.

We often think we have to be perfect in everything.  A good batter is over .300 which means they hit 3 out of every 10 times they’re at the plate.  Yet we’re so hard on ourselves when we make a mistake or mess something up.  Of course if you only pick your kids up 3 out of 10 times, that’s a problem but you understand the story.

I find this to be true when I’m going through a down time.  It seems like it will never end.  Then it does - because that’s how life evolves - some of my best times follow.  That was definitely true for the Red Sox who had a pitiful year last year.  But as they say now – from worst to first!  You don’t have to be a ball player to experience that.

The other point today was about team.  That former player was asked what he’d remember about the 2013 Red Sox years later.  They weren’t a bunch of big stars like the 2004 Red Sox – they were a true team that cared about the game (their job), their own place in it and each other.  When some were down, the others stepped up.  And they never quit – on themselves, with each other, with the city of Boston who needed the lift, and with the rest of their fans.  Some great lessons indeed.

Is your life like a beautiful strandof pearls?

The other day I was trying to explain the concept of creating moments to my mom (who patiently listens to me test out new ways of teaching the strategies I learn and teach to others).  If you want a happy life, create lots of happy moments because all we have is this moment and it's up to us what to do with it.

I wanted to create a visual to go with the idea for my next seminar. Here's what popped into my head:

Each moment is like a pearl, precious and unique. For the most part, we get to create that pearl by how we decide to process what's happening around us.  Even if what's going on is annoying or hurtful, we get to choose how we're going to take it in.  Remember even a pearl is formed in an oyster by covering up an irritation. Beauty from pain, how great is that?

We get to create moment after moment of wonderful 'pearls' and we get to string them together to make our life.  What does your strand look like? Is it so full of beautiful moments that you have to wrap the string of pearls around a couple of times to wear it? Beautiful to wear, beautiful to give as a gift?

Or are you creating overly dramatic moments, full of complaining, blaming, justifying, negativity and stress?  That unhealthy set of pearls will literally choke the joy right out of you - a choker if you will.

What kind of pearls do you choose?  I know which ones I want. I originally wrote this sitting by the Cape Cod Canal in the fog (it was supposed to be a sunny day!) with a twisted knee and a close to dead cell phone.  But it was my moment so I chose to be happy, healthy and positive because it's my life, my pearl.  

Good news is it works - for me, for the thousands of teens who have been through the Stragegies for Success program, and for the many others who choose to embrace this way of thinking.  It can work for you too!

Keep shining!
Marianne

PS...Having trouble staying in the positive, keeping the stress at bay?  I'll be sharing the strategies I use myself including some of the newest I just learned at my next seminar coming up in October.  Stay tuned!