Life as a Daymaker

My sister-in-law, Ashley, was hired at Juut Salon in the Twin Cites back in February and to complete her training she needed to do a huge final presentation. The big day was last Tuesday! One day, four models, four looks; this was a big deal. To help her out, I arranged for my sister Kim and me to be two of her models. Who wouldn’t like a fun day of hair, makeup, and clothing?

A few days before the big event, while Ashley was prepping us she commented that David Wagner, the owner of Juut, was going to be at the Twin City’s Salon the same day as our visit. Not only is David Wagner the owner of Juut but he is also the author of one of my favorite books. Now, I was really excited!

About five years ago I stumbled across a book called, “Life as a Daymaker: How to Change the World by Making Someone’s Day”. I loved the concept so I purchased my very own copy without a second thought. As I read the book it soon became one of my favorites. Such an easy but powerful idea; we can actually change the world by making someone’s day. The author wasn’t talking about grandiose gifts or actions but more of just the simple day to day things. It all comes down to paying attention to the needs of people around you and meeting those needs whenever possible. Give a compliment, shake a hand, offer a hug, and exchange a smile. It’s these simple actions that can really change someone’s day for the better.

I decided to brush up on the content of the book before meeting David. What can I say? I like to be prepared for anything! While browsing through it, one sentence really stood out to me. In reference to focusing on your wild dreams he writes, “Working hard doesn’t cause burnout, not achieving your goals does.” Wow, that is so true. I just heard on the Dr. Oz Show last week that more and more people, especially women, are suffering from exhaustion. Most of us think that it’s just a busy schedule. But in actuality it’s more about what is in the schedule, than how full it is. If we aren’t being mentally inspired every day we just feel tired. So this is why it is so important for us to find our passion and live it every day! It affects every aspect of our life and those around us.

So what is your passion? What makes you feel more alive? Whatever it is, make sure you live it!

Tuesday morning I made sure I packed my copy of “Life as a Daymaker” to ask for an autograph. Not only did I get an autograph from David Wagner but he also posed for a picture with Kim and me. Needless to say, he definitely made my day!

Becky
Sister of Soul

Soulspiration of the Week:
Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does. ~William James

A Brick is usually not Small Stuff

I caught myself this week! All this talk about worry, fear, and anxiety this month . . . I should’ve seen it coming. I should have detected the signs . . . An upcoming deadline, and approaching meeting that I feared was going to have a bad outcome, friends having a disagreement, and a list of To-Do’s a mile long. I had developed a knot in my stomach and my shoulders felt a bit heavy; physical conditions that had it written all over them. And, my patience was wearing thin; I admit it, I was a tad bit crabby. It is all so clear now as I look back over the course of the last week; I was becoming consumed by worry and fear of not getting everything done, wanting to fix my friend’s relationship, and hoping for a certain outcome from the meeting.

Then, I got lucky and received “my brick”. I refer to it as “my brick” ever since this story was shared with me many years ago.

An executive was driving down a neighborhood street in his new expensive car. He was in a hurry talking on his cell phone. Suddenly, he saw children playing on the side of the road. He muttered something about “stupid kids” to himself as he slowed down.

Then, he heard a thud. Something had hit the side of his car. He slammed on brakes and jumped out of the car. He saw a dent in the car door and a brick lying on the street. The man turned toward the kids and shouted, “Who threw that brick?” Fixing that dent is going to be expensive!” He was furious.

A child, a young boy stepped forward. The child was shaking and he was crying. “I threw the brick. I needed you to stop. No one would stop to help me. My little bother rolled off the sidewalk and fell out of his wheel chair. He is hurt and I can’t lift him up. I need some help. Will you help me?”

Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat; he bent over, picked up the child, helped him back in the wheel chair, and wiped off his cuts and scrapes. As he watched the older boy push his brother down the sidewalk, the man slouched back towards his car. He looked at the dent – and made a promised to himself that he would leave that dent in the car as long as he owned it. The dent would remind him to slow down and not be consumed by all the demands of his life, to be on the lookout– and to listen - to listen to the voice of God. The man thought, sometimes God whispers to our souls, whispers to our hearts. But He sometimes needs to use a brick to get our attention.

This week “My brick” hit me in the form of my kids. They were discussing something that had happened that day at school. Middle school kid stuff that I remember was so very hard to process at that age. At that exact moment “my brick” struck me. . . My kids were struggling with this and I had to help them makes some sort of sense of it.

I quickly pulled something from my mental file cabinet that I remembered from the best-selling book “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff” by Richard Carlson. I asked the kids if this situation would be just as important a week from now, a month from now, or a year from now. As they were both chewing on what it was I just said . . . I caught a glimpse of myself in the rearview mirror and something told me that I hadn’t just said what I said just for my kids’ benefit. I took those words to heart myself and realized that I had gotten caught up in the worry of things that were either out of my control, or may possibly never happen. Not so surprisingly I noticed the pit in my stomach was gone and the weight was lifted off my shoulders a short time later.

Pay attention, listen, and watch out for flying bricks.

Jenny
Sister of Soul

Soulspiration of the Week:
If you want to test your memory, try to recall what you were worrying about one year ago today. ~ E. Joseph Cossman

How To Overcome Your Fear: Stop It!

We’re often asked about overcoming fear and that makes total sense when you consider that fear is the most common obstacle to be conquered when pursuing a passion, dream, or goal. Empowered women know that when we succumb to our fears that we give our power away. That makes facing our fears and overcoming them an important skill to learn.

This classic Mad TV-Bob Newhart video offers some tongue in cheek advice for overcoming your fears and personal shortcomings. Bob’s advice; Stop It!

Good for a laugh and admittedly simplistic, there are still some nuggets of wisdom amongst the humor. Bear with us as we break them down for you…

1. Fear is based in our imagination: While our fears can feel very real to us, often times we’ve never actually experienced what we’re most afraid of. Only eight percent of our fears are actually realized, making ninety-two percent of the energy spent on our fears wasted. We can be disappointed, regretful and unhappy of the things that have happened in our past. At this very moment we’re currently experiencing the present, which hopefully isn’t too scary. That brings us to the future, where our fears reside. It’s what we imagine might happen that makes us most afraid. Our fear hasn’t actually happened; making it essentially non-existent! That realization alone can lighten our fears and lead to an important shift in power.

2. Are we making things too complicated: Most of us believe that overcoming our fears means following a complicated self-help regimen or difficult course of therapy. What if we challenged that belief and instead adopted a simple and straight-forward approach to managing our fears? Is it possible that five minutes of personal straight-talk, and a conscious decision and desire to “feel” our fear but live our best life anyway, is all that’s really necessary? There’s only one way to find out and that’s to give it a try!

3. Don’t go there: Playing the “blame game” doesn’t serve us, and certainly doesn’t lead to overcoming our fears. Reclaim your power and instead make a choice. The decision is yours; will you live a fear-based life or a fear-less one?

4. We all have fears: Life in general is the great equalizer, and nobody comes out of it unscathed as they say. Regardless of our sex, race, creed or hair color, we all have fears, issues and problems to overcome.

5. Nobody likes change: When you boil it all down, what we really fear is change. Whether good or bad, we would rather stick with our current reality than risk the unknown. View change as an adventure and live the life you want, not the life you fear.

So there we have it, and just like Bob, in less than five minutes. Only have a twenty? Never fear, that was at no charge!

Kim
Sister of Soul

Soulspiration of the Week:

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do”. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt