My friend Nancy posted all of this on Facebook:
“I have learned that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
–Henry David Thoreau
Today, stand in your power, achieve your dreams, and enjoy your day!”
I learned this one the hard way: just buy the stupid travel insurance, the kind that lets you cancel for any reason.
I think of myself as a person who does not cancel or change trips. But the evidence, and my experience, is to the contrary.
From now on, I’m going with the flexibility.
I already fly Southwest whenever at all possible, because none of this matters for those flights – they are all completely transferable to other dates.
How many times does THIS need to be learned? A colleague got it right today. Not the part in which she spilled the water on the laptop. But the part about how she only lost part of a day’s work, because she is smart enough to back up ALL of her work data on common servers, not her own hard drive.
Elaine Fong, our amazing Taiko teacher, taught the WSS drummers this in our last rehearsal (it’s big):
“If you are going to be wrong, do it with energy!”
She was telling us that we need to stop being tentative on the big drums – to go for it – and look like we know what we’re doing.
The result is here. Advance to 4:30 to see the windup to the big finish by the group. Maybe not exactly the same moment, but with great energy!!!
Barbara and I figured this out: instead of imagining all the people who might criticize you gathered in one place (it seemed like a model of efficiency at the time), it is much more fun to imagine your own personal fan club: a collection of the people who think you’re great, no matter what you do. Those people rock! Just picturing them made us happy. BTW they weren’t all people. At least one was a cat.
Who are the people in your personal fan club?
Michelle learned this when she lost her job last week:
“You are easily replaced and people at work might care about you for a moment but then they move on because they’re glad it’s not them. The people who really care about you are the ones you choose to have in your life.”
OK so I tried to get the deal from Eddie Bauer: 25% off and free shipping if you use your card. And I had just remembered that I even had a card, so why not. Worth one more check or a few payment clicks for those kinds of savings, right? But then the website didn’t like my card. And neither did the nice lady on the phone. I asked for the 25% with my own card. She said no but she could still give me the free shipping with another card. OK, whatever.
THEN she changed her mind and said what the heck and gave me the free shipping AND the 25% off!
The year is not over, but “ask” is definitely a trend that will be showing up in the summary! Sometimes it’s little stuff, sometimes big, but there is world of difference between asking and not, I have learned.
If there is one practical thing that I have learned (or am learning) this year of blogging, it’s got to be: confirm meetings before making the 5-6 hour commute!
This week we were in the middle of switching meeting schedules for two ongoing project meetings. I thought that they both started the new schedule next week, but no, one change was this week and the other starts next week.
The lesson is that I should have double checked and/or been crisper in my questions, because I ended up coming in on the “wrong” day for my objective, which is to have as many customer meetings face-to-face as possible, within my commute schedule.
I have learned that it doesn’t really matter how you are rated by anyone outside of your own soul. Unless it’s your friend who she gives you a 5 for being a friend. On a scale of 1 to 5. Where 5 is good.
I learned this from Yoga Journal (BTW I love Yoga Journal):
“Cultivating gratitude is less an act of creating something that isn’t there and more of a practice of realizing what is. It’s about reminding yourself of the miracles embedded in every second of every day—from the largest blessings to the smallest moments. By practicing shifting your attention to what is real (and not clinging to an idea of what you think should happen), you become more appreciative of even the most mundane moments in life, and for the richness all around.”
Jane's Lessons Learned 