So while this situation has not been an easy or pleasant one, it has taught me a lot over the past several days so I am grateful for the lessons that are unfolding as a result of this situation.

Have you been faced with a similar situation where you had to take the higher road, even thought you may not have wanted to, and how that benefited you in the end? I’d love to hear about it! Please share in the comments section below.

If this post has been helpful to you or if you know someone faced with a similar situation who may benefit from the information, please pass this along, I’d appreciate it. Take care!

In Celebration,

I do not have a relationship with my own father because he chose to deny me from birth. I grew up without any firsthand knowledge of what it meant to have a father’s unconditional love.

It wasn’t until the birth of my own children that I was able to witness and truly understand what a father’s love is through my husband.

Parenting is probably the hardest yet most rewarding job that can be given to a human being. It is filled with sacrifice, humor, regret, pride, humility and far too many other emotions to list. Yet despite the many ups and sometimes downs of parenting, I have witnessed my husband time and time again rise to the occasion to do what is necessary to be the best father possible.

My husband is genuinely committed to bringing out the very best in our children and he is willing to do what is necessary to ensure that their best interests are always met.

I am grateful and thankful to my husband for being the father that he is to my babies, and for giving me the experience of finally knowing what a father’s love truly means.

To my husband and all of the other amazing fathers out there who are active and present loving forces in their children’s lives, this is for you:

Happy Father’s Day!

In Celebration,

Bugs is pretty lighthearted about the little mix up and after closer examination of his map deduces that he “should’ve turned left at Albuquerque”. But if he’s accompanied by his cantankerous pal Daffy Duck, Daffy of course has plenty to say about the unexpected detour.

Unfortunately, someone forgot to tell Daffy that’s how life works. We set goals and plan for a great adventure, but things can, will and do happen along the way. That recent promotion to Executive Admin instead of Marketing Coordinator may not be what you had hoped for or make any sense right now, but perhaps it is a detour that has been placed in your life to prepare you for what is to come?

As an Executive Admin you may be responsible for overseeing a group of clerical staff. In this role you will undoubtedly sharpen your leadership skills and learn how to effectively manage people. These added responsibilities, that you probably would not have had as a Marketing Coordinator, will better equip and qualify you for eventually running an entire department as Marketing Director. So while the immediate detour may appear to take you off course, stop and evaluate how this temporary change in direction can truly be to your advantage.

In fact, I saw a great quote today on Facebook that really resonates with the message of this topic:

“When obstacles arise, you change your direction to reach your goal, you do not change your decision to get there.”

–Zig Ziglar

So yes, your carefully mapped out plan may get a little off course and perhaps you should’ve made that left at Albuquerque, but consider all of the wonderful opportunities that surely await you as you make your way back to your original route. Relish the journey along the way and you just may discover that your detour in life turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

Now here’s a little something to help you reminisce and enjoy some of those classic Bugs Bunny Albuquerque moments.

If  this post helped you in some way, I would appreciate you sharing with others who may be helped by it as well!

In Celebration,

CBS News Mobile Story Details.

Recently I’ve been actively reaching out to others who appear to have common interests and inviting them to be Facebook friends. Now, we’ve all seen people with swelling FB friend numbers, so many in fact that they have to stop accepting friends and create a fan page.

Well, I have a goal of reaching out to about 20-30 people per day in an effort to grow my network – nothing unusual there. Two days ago I made a connection with a woman that started off like all the others. She accepted my request so I replied by thanking her, telling her I’d met some great folks on FB and asked what she does.

She responded back and said she’s a real estate broker but that she’s on hiatus after an intrastate relocation over the winter months. In response, I asked her what is she doing during her hiatus. That’s where it all went south.

An innocent question I thought, curious if she perhaps is taking advantage of this time to pursue a hobby or life long dream, was interpreted as me prying into her personal affairs. She replied with…

“That’s kool but now I think you’re trying to dip into a grown woman’s personal business? What I do with my time while I’m on my hiatus, is my business don’t you think?” I apologized and told her no foul play was intended, just making conversation and curious if she was using her time to pursue other interests.

She replied back by saying “Gotcha. But I had answered previously already. I’m a real estate broker, currently taking a hiatus to ‘settle my home from my very arduous relocation over the winter months’” I then simply replied back and said “I hope this time is proving to be fruitful and beneficial for you.” She replied back yesterday morning with…

“I cannot see why it would not be- I aspire to be able to walk freely about my home and enjoy the summer as much as I can as would anybody else vs. living out of boxes and seeing my things misplace. Just a bit common sense that it would be, don’t you think?”

I removed her as a FB friend.

I don’t have time in my life for negative people. I am in a place where I am surrounding myself with positive people and experiences. I am bringing abundance and prosperity into my life. My actions and interactions not only affect me but my family. I cannot allow anyone and their negativity, whether they realize they are negative or not, to stand in the way of the abundant good that is my birthright.

So yes, while having a large network of friends on FB and other social media platforms increases your sphere of influence, I am more concerned with the quality of folks I let into my circle. I’d rather have 10 positive people with joy in their hearts as my friend, vs. 1,000 negative, bitter, jealous and angry people who don’t know how to love themselves or anyone else.

There is no need to remain in association with negative people. It doesn’t matter if they are on FB, at your job or live next door. You are in control! Decide what kind of people you want to surround yourself with and seek out those types of people. The more positive people you are around, the more positive people you will attract. You will radiate such an air of confidence and joy that you will not be able to help but to attract the right kind of people to you.

Now of course, in knowing that, I’ve had to ask myself how on earth I attracted her into my life because I am a kind and positive person. Well, the simple answer is that she was placed in my life to teach me a lesson…the very lesson I am passing on to you.

But what I think is the more complex answer is that perhaps this woman needs to be blessed. She may be gong through a difficult time in her life. She may suffer from insecurities and low self-esteem. She may be unhappy and the only way she knows how to feel good about herself is to attempt to make others feel small. I don’t know what her situation is to be honest, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that there is something deeper going on with this woman that has absolutely nothing to do with me.

My communication with her from start to finish remained friendly and positive, yet she felt the need to attack and try to belittle me. There’s a deeper reason for that, and whatever it is has been brewing long before I sent her a friend request.

Of course initially my conscious mind responded immediately with the thought “This #itch is crazy.” But once I got still for a minute and allowed my spiritual mind to come into play, those less than loving thoughts in my conscious mind fell away and I saw a woman in need, a woman who may be looking for love and joy in all the wrong places. So I did the only thing that I have the power to do to help her, I prayed for her. The rest is between her and the Creator.

So while expanding my network to be able to connect with and help as many people as I can who want and need my help is my goal, having a large network for the sake of numbers is not. I realize that everyone I connect with may not materialize into a lifelong friend, but if  I only ever max out at 500 friends and I am able to help those 500 even in some small way, the value in that alone is worth far more than a fan page with 10,000 people who for whatever reason I am not able to help.

I will take quality over quantity any day. Lesson learned.

In Celebration,

In Celebration,

‘The Lost Girls’ of New York learn to embrace the journey – USATODAY.com.

Enjoy the two videos below!

In Celebration,

The Law of Reflection : christywhitman.com.

One of our favorites is Dig a Little Deeper by Mama Odie (voiced by Jenifer Lewis). Mama Odie is a 197-year-old spunky voodoo lady who lives in an old boat in a tree deep in the Bayou. When Tiana and Prince Naveen seek her out to turn them human again, Mama Odie tries to teach them an important lesson that what they wanted was not the same as what they needed. When the message doesn’t quite sink in, she breaks into her musical number.

Below are the lyrics and coming up is a link to the video of this scene. I apologize that I’m not able to place the video in the post but the best clips I found on YouTube all disabled the embedding feature so all I can give ya is the link. Still worth hopping over to a new window to see.  Check it out here  and then come back and tell me whatchathink…

Mama Odie: Don’t matter what you look like
Don’t matter what you wear
How many rings you got on your finger
We don’t care
Choir: (No we don’t care)

Don’t matter where you come from
Don’t even matter what you are
A dog, a pig, a cow, a goat
Had ‘em all in here (we had ‘em all in here)

And they all knew what they wanted
What they wanted me to do
I told ‘em what they needed
Just like I be telling you

You got to dig a little deeper
Find out who you are
You got to dig a little deeper
It really ain’t that far

When you find out who you are
You’ll find out what you need
Blue skies and sunshine guaranteed
You got to dig (dig)
You got to dig (dig)

Prince Froggy is a rich little boy
You wanna be rich again
That ain’t gonna make you happy now
Did it make you happy then? No!
Money ain’t got no soul
Money ain’t got no heart
All you need is some self-control
Make yourself a brand new start

You got to dig a little deeper
Don’t have far to go
You got to dig a little deeper
Tell the people Mama told you so

Can’t tell you what you’ll find
Maybe love will grant you peace of mind
Dig a little deeper and you’ll know

Miss Froggy, might I have a word?
You’s a hard one, that’s what I heard
Your daddy was a loving man
Family through and through
You your daddy’s daughter
What he had in him you got in you

You got to dig a little deeper
For you it’s gonna be tough
You got to dig a little deeper
You ain’t dug near far enough

Dig down deep inside yourself
You’ll find out what you need
Blue skies and sunshine guaranteed
Open up the windows
Let in the light children
(Blue skies and sunshine)
(Blue skies and sunshine)

Tiana: Blue skies and sunshine
Mama Odie: Guaranteed
Choir: (Ahhh…)

So did you enjoy it? Mama Odie teaches a very important lesson that we all have the ability inside of us to be have and do whatever we desire so long as it is congruent with what we need. When we are aligned with who we truly are and what we need, things flow effortlessly. But when we are out of alignment, that’s when things are tough. I know from experience that when I’ve tried to force a thing it is never a simple process. But when I just say yes to what is for my highest and greatest good, even if it doesn’t look like what my ego self wants, I am always blown away by how effortless things fall into place.

So when you are faced with challenges be they big or small, reach inside and ask yourself is this current situation based on a want or a need. If it’s based on a want, dig a little deeper and ask yourself what you truly need to bring peace to the situation. At first blush the answer that comes may not look like what you thought you wanted, but in the end if it is best for you you’ll find without a doubt that it is exactly what you needed!

I hope you enjoyed one of our current family favs. Let me know your thoughts and if it moves you, please pass along to your friends.  Take care!

In Celebration,

Turns out this guy is a laid back surfer dad who has created a nice little name for himself in the world of internet marketing. And I learned that it was his product Stompernet, that I heard so much buzz about awhile back that first introduced me to him.

I admit, I did not buy into his Stompernet program and completely ignored all the hoopla and anything related to him. I was quite honestly intimidated by how much money I didn’t have at the time to buy into yet another program, it had nothing to do with him. But now after watching his video, I’m pleasantly surprised.

It doesn’t matter if you’re an online marketer or you have a brick and mortar setup, if you’ve got customers, Kern shares something that is valuable to all business owners.

He shares his story of becoming successful, losing it all after being sued by the government, how he gained it all back, was rich and miserable (he shares the story of how there was a conflict in his family over which mansion to purchase!)  and then how he completed a simple yet profound exercise that turned his world around and completely changed his life for the better.

He shares the exercise in his video that changed his life, but goes one step further to explain how you can take things up a notch to learn how to identify with your customer base on an authentic level. What he shares goes beyond just business best practices, but really digs deep into understanding who you are as well as your customer. Check it out absolutely FREE here.

After watching I’d love to hear your thoughts. Have you done this exercise before and was it life changing for you, or is this your first time being introduced to it? If you’re new to this exercise, are you going to complete it…or were you so excited that you completed it as soon as you finished watching the video? I’m working on mine right now!

Can’t wait to hear your feedback, and if you think this information can help someone else, please pay it forward and pass it on. Thanks!