Kathzoofus

We are ALL guilty of this. Each and every one of us can stand up, raise our hand and say "YUP. I've done that." The question is...for how LONG will we do it? Do what you ask? - TOLERATE - We tolerate different things in our lives at different times in our lives. Some are big, life changing things like tolerating a bad marriage. Others are less significant like tolerating a messy closet. But all of these tolerations - big and small - add up over time. They grow into these unmanageable beasts that we work hard to avoid. We become Masters of Distractions. We read books on how to get organized. We read books on how to deal with our crappy marriage. We spend hours talking to counselors and friends and neighbors looking for the right advice. Here is my advice: Put down the books. Stop the distractions. DO SOMETHING. Most things that we tolerate start out as these tiny little things - no big deal right? But we ignore them because there is so...

Quote of the Day: Habit 3 - Put First Things First "The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities." ~Stephen R. Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, founder of Covey Leadership Center.

I am a big believer in the power of positive thinking. List five things that are great about your day. My list: 1. Traffic was a breeze this morning. 2. The kids were up early - and cheerful about it! 3. I get free windshield wiper fluid refills anytime I need them from the place that changes my oil. Guess who is happy as can be that she doesn't have to figure out how to lift the hood on The Notrious SUV this afternoon!?!?! 4. The temperature is above freezing. CAR WASH!!!!!!!!! 5. Blueberry bread for breakfast.

What does it take to make a romantic relationship work long term? If people are always changing how do two people change in the same direction so that the relationship can survive? What do you think is the number one reason why relationships fail? Why do some people get bored in their relationships? What can be done about it? Is the idea that Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus real? Are gender differences really to blame for our inability to relate to one another? Discuss...

I am a big believer in choosing battles wisely. Mostly because I really hate confrontation but also because some things are simply not worth my time, energy or frustration. I also believe that avoiding issues that are important to us can be a big, big mistake. It is sometimes a fine line though, between choosing your battles wisely and avoiding them all together. How do you decide what issues to confront and what ones are best left alone?

So Ms. Howe asked me to write about my opinions on happiness and contentment. "Sure, I'd be HAPPY to do it." I replied. DAMN... there was that word happy again. And so, I went on a mission to understand my own opinions on the subject. Below is my random thoughts.... Happiness is a temporary state. Something that is outside my control and is triggered by an event or an item or a place. Contentment is something within my control based off myself. An example, you want an example, fine.... here it goes. I was HAPPY watching Garrett and his friend riding around in the Birthday Hummer. It was fun and exciting to watch the boy's face light up in excitement. The planning and the entire event was fun. I was quite happy doing it. I was content to just be able to spend Garrett's birthday with him. I was HAPPY painting ceramics with Kenzie today. I was content knowing that we were together spending time. To be content, to me, is being at peace with WHATEVER is happenin...

What is the difference between prejudice and opinion? Is one better than the other? Is one more socially acceptable than the other? Can you give any examples of a prejudice and an opinion?

Describe happiness. What makes you happy? How do you know when you are happy? How do you make yourself happy? How much do you rely on others for happiness? The dictionary definition of happiness says that happiness is characterized by good luck. Do you think happiness is directly connected to how lucky you are?

"Our dilemma is that we hate change and love it at the same time; what we really want is for things to remain the same but get better." -Sydney J. Harris

Today my daily appreciation is my organizational skills! There is NOTHING worst than feeling like your life is somehow chaotically out of control and I am so glad that mine is NOT! Clean closets and never being late for meetings makes me giddy!

WOW! My passion was active today! I had a tremendous personal victory today - a phone conversation alerted me to huge success in an area I have been spending a lot of time, money and energy on. I was giddy on the phone and didn't try to conceal or downplay my excitement. I WON DAMMIT! Victories are to be CELEBRATED so I made several calls to share my excitement - my passion!! I am so thrilled that my passion was touched today in such a monumental way. This has been a long time coming.

I love being passionate! Things that I care about usually impact me emotionally and I love that I can take my passion for things and turn it into the energy that is needed to create change - change that makes improvements and brings me and those around me into a better space. I love that I laugh and cry and feel the way I do - and while at times I wish I could do a better job of hiding my emotion - I acknowledge that this passion that I have - the emotion that I show - this is ME. It is a part of who I am and I love that.

Have you ever woke up and after a few hours realized that while you don't feel entirely sick, you don't feel entirely well either? That is how I felt this morning by the time I got to the office at 7:30am. Sluggish, maybe a cold coming on. Clearly not feeling well. I wrote "I love my red hair" half heartedly on a post-it note and stuck it up on my monitor and just stared at it in a morning daze when I thought, wow...you know I really DO love having red hair. If I could change it I don't know what I would change it to. Red really suits me - it works great with my green eyes and red for sure is a great match for my firey personality. I focused all day on how much I truly LOVE my red hair and I just now realized that I don't feel like I'm getting sick anymore. I feel GREAT!

I LOVE my red hair!!

Appreciation 1: I have created for myself a tremendous circle of friends – bright, funny, intelligent and supportive – there is no shortage of big hearts and brilliant minds in my world. Benefit 1: I wrote Appreciation 1 in a moment of absolute madness. It was the day that my 2 month old laptop became infected with spyware. I had been banging my head against my desk trying to beat the spyware and I was getting my ass kicked. I took a break to read the email from Babs which challenged me to this 30 day game. I was instantly excited about the idea and without thought wrote my first appreciation about the great people I know. I don't remember if I emailed Yvonne before or after reading the email from Babs but it was later on in the day when Yvonne helped me resolve my spyware issue. I was sooooooooooo relieved. Words cannot express how completely stressed out I had felt all day. Thanks to Yvonne, my computer is virus-free and my appreciation has been validated. There ...

I appreciate my ability to find the lesson…the bright side…in the things that come my way. Optimism is powerful.

"Up for a game?" That was the subject line of an email that I recently received. The person that sent it to me is a friend, mentor and business partner: Barbara Van Deinse, EverBetter Coaching This was the rest of her email: I've been reading this book called " Excuse me, your life is waiting " and one of the key concepts that I like talks about how much of our day is spent in negative (or even neutral) thought and how difficult it is to be in a positive state. To demonstrate, the author encourages you to notice how many times in one single day you catch yourself even just thinking or perhaps saying out loud what it is you DO NOT like, or DO NOT want, or DO NOT have, or criticizing yourself or others, even if in jest. I consider myself to be a very positive person and yet I when I took this on for one single day, I was stunned! Until you make yourself conscious of it, you really have NO idea! So, I took her suggestion and every time I ca...

More people would learn from their mistakes if they weren't so busy denying them. - Harold J. Smith

Deal with one minute at a time. Minutes lead to hours and hours lead to days...time heals. What helps you get through tough and stressful times?

I think that failure is a state of mind. If you see failure - then there is failure. If you believe in failure...it believes in you. If you think you've experienced it...you have. If you think you are surrounded by it...you are. Change your perspective from 'failure' to 'experience' and it is impossible to fail. *jumps off soapbox*