“Children will not remember you for the material things you provided but for the feeling that you cherished them.” ~ Richard L. Evans
In three days, I am returning to the Dominican Republic and am super excited!! Partly because the Canadian winter is harsh and I am ready to thaw but mostly because I can’t wait to see my students. I have volunteered for over a year teaching English at the top of a mountain in Santo Domingo.
Since being home in Canada, I have visited schools in the Windsor/Leamington area distributing over 300 letters written by these Dominican children. And this time when I return to the DR, I am bringing loads of letters written by some pretty wonderful children here in Canada (the letters above…) I want to say thank you to all of the teachers and children that have participated in this project in both countries.
Meeting and connecting the children through old fashioned letter writing has reinforced my belief that despite cultural and material differences in wealth – we are the same. We love our families, our pets, our friends, we like to laugh and play. Each group of children drew similar pictures, joked with each other and were excited about sharing their experiences with a new friend.
The intention of starting this pen pal program was to simply connect children, creating awareness of and to focus on our similarities despite where we live in the world. I am grateful for the new connections made and am so excited and inspired about continuing and developing other ideas for future programs.
Are you fulfilled? Happy? What are you searching for?
What is holding you back from pursuing your dream?
Do you know what you want? Does it require you to go back to school? Have found the perfect program or course? Why haven’t you signed up yet? Is it the price of tuition?
What is the real price you are paying for not following your dream?
Fast forward to graduation and one year into your dream – do you think that the investment was worth it? Where do you think you would be if you didn’t register? What has changed in your life because you followed your heart and pursued your dream?
What message are you sending to your loved ones by purusing your dream? Or not pursuing your dream?
Contact me anytime to talk about how to create a strategy and action plan to get you where you want to be. Best wishes to you! All is possible if you believe it!
I live between the Dominican Republic and Canada and right now I am in Canada working and to be completely honest, the frigid and grey weather is really getting to me!
So, when my partner (who is in the Dominican) told me that he was going to the beach today, I broke out in tears! I wanted to go to the beach today too 🙂
I knew my response was ridiculous and childish – so almost immediately, amidst my tears, I started to laugh and laugh. I had a real belly laugh and WOW did it feel great!
Little did I know the many benefits of laughter: reduced stress, boosting of the immune system and even is a form of exercise of your internal organs! From the same article, according to German Psychologist – Michael Titze, “In the 1950’s people used to laugh 18 minutes a-day; but today we laugh not more than 6 minutes per day despite the huge increase in the standard of living.” AND children laugh 300 to 400 times a day, but adults do not laugh more that fifteen times a day. What?!?!
So, it is obvious we need to lighten up and laugh more. If you love dogs, like I do, this picture will really crack you up! 🙂
Whether you are thinking of changing jobs or careers or if you are currently unemployed and looking for a job, the first step in finding a job you love – is to get to know yourself.
Knowing your strengths, what you want and what you can offer an employer is powerful information when job searching. Responding to endless job advertisements may get you a job but it will likely not move you toward your dream job.
When you are job searching and even when you aren’t, you are always making an impression on others, so why not take time to do the work to ensure the impression you make is aligned with who you are and what you want!
Develop Self-Awareness! In order to complete the following exercises, search the internet for lists of personal qualities and transferable skills.
Evaluate your personal qualities. List your top 5 and then prove it by identifying an experience from your past where you demonstrated these qualities, writing this out in sentence format. Evaluate your approach to life. Are you patient, loyal, hard working, adaptable, open minded? If this is a challenge for you think about ask yourself, how your manager or co-worker would describe you? And then narrow it down to your top 5 coming up with examples to support each quality. Identify your transferable skills. Transferable skills are those skills that can be used or transferred to different jobs. For all of your transferable skills, categorize the ones you like, the ones you are good at and the skills you would like to use in your next job, write out examples of when you demonstrated these skills and then narrow it down to your top 5. Are you surprised at all that you have done? Identify your achievements/accomplishments/special awards/recognition/talents. Create this list and provide examples to describe the benefit to the employer and how you achieved what you did, add measurable data if possible
By narrowing down your strengths, skills and qualities you will have material to develop your job searching tools including your resume and cover letter. You will have clear information to refer to when connecting with potential employers, networking contacts and in preparation for interviews. This information will help you clarify the direction you want your career to move and also provide a key word list to sort through job descriptions and work environments, which will help establish the company and job that is right for you.
The most important aspect of completing self- awareness exercises is that you will uncover your unique talents and skill set, strengthening your confidence and hope for the future.
This is a very condensed, impromptu talk about facing unemployment. You can tell I am deeply passionate about this issue.. so much I wanted to say in only 4 minutes! 🙂
One thing that I didn’t touch on that I think is so important – is developing a routine that includes exercise and healthy eating – soooo important when navigating the emotional rollercoaster of transitioning through unemployment!!
If you have any questions or want to talk more on this topic, contact me anytime!
“Women need real moments of solitude and self-reflection to balance out how much of ourselves we give away.” — Barbara De Angelis
We all know that the better you look after yourself the more energy you have to share with others, so how do we balance all of the roles and responsibilities? Here are brief tips on how to create work/life balance:
1. Be in the moment: Avoid thinking of what you have to do or need to do by giving 100% of your attention to the moment. Create to-do lists and clear your mind through deep breathing so that you can focus in the moment.
2. Clarify Expectations: Ask your family what they need from you – you may be surprised and be placing unrealistic and even untrue demands on yourself. Ask for objective feedback from your manager or review your job description to clarify that you are working on task and within or exceeding the expectations at work.
3. Create Intentions: Focus your behaviour be clarifying what it is that you are trying to create or achieve each day.
4. Get clear on how you spend your time: Write out a list of activities in typical and ideal day and week and then compare. Make a list of things that bring positive energy into your life and a list of things that take energy away from you. Prioritize and develop a new schedule based on the outcome of this comparson.
5. Pencil yourself in with some YOU time. By making yourself a priority will send out the message to yourself and others that your time is important. And don’t be too hard on yourself if this takes a while, have fun with it and it will become easier 🙂
6. Establish Boundaries: Talk with your family about your work and explain what you need. If necessary, talk with your manager and review your job. Consider accessing employee assistance programs or if you could create something to assist in solving the work/life balance issue in your workplace. You are likely not alone..
Other options: consider reducing your workload by researching whether job sharing, flex time or part time work is available or soliciting help from friends, family or hire help for home issues.
“Just as your car runs more smoothly and requires less energy to go faster and farther when the wheels are in perfect alignment, you perfomr better when your thoughts, feelings, emotions, goals, and values are in balance.” — Brian Tracy
“When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others.” –Peace Pilgrim
Wow! I don’t know about you but every time I read something in a magazine or paper or tune into the news, the message I keep hearing is that I need to eat better, take a course, exercise more, be happy… While I absolutely agree and am completely passionate about people developing their potential and aligning with their ideal lives, I think there is a step that has to happen before the change process can really stick.
In order for change to be meaningful and truly transforming you need to get quiet and listen to what you really need or want.
Surrendering to the circumstances in your life, accepting, getting honest and really embracing your life exactly as it is, is where I think the change process really begins and continues.
You may only have brief moments of insight but there is something so peaceful about embracing exactly where you are in this moment.
While you keep an eye on what your goals are, making choices aligned with how you want to express yourself ideally in the world, instead of fighting with yourself about what isn’t, ask yourself what is?
* What is going well in your life? * What do you love? * Who do you love? * What is going on in your life that brings you joy?
I have considered these questions personally, and in the spirit of aligning with your ideal life and that which brings happiness and joy (and love of hot weather!), I have amended the length of the Follow Your Heart Goals group from 6 weeks to 4 and am heading back early to my home in the sunny south.
I look forward and am excited about connecting with those of you who are participating in the workshop beginning next week and to those who are still on the fence, space is still available – contact me soon for more information.
Wishing you a wonderful and peaceful day today!
I hope that you enjoy the quotes:
“There is a calmness to a life lived in gratitude, a quiet joy.” –Ralph H. Blum
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