Monday, July 25, 2016

Wisdom cultivated by age





As I sit back and take stock of what advice I 

consistently tell my kids, believe to be true, and 

are mantras to living the best life possible, I 

thought I would share them.  I have discovered

them to be true.



1) You are the company you keep


I'm fortunate to

have a wonderful

group of talented

people surrounding me. 


They push me harder to strive to be better.

I continue to work at being the best they believe 

in me to be.



2) Make others proud of you


I often think 

that my father

is looking down

from heaven and

cheering me on.


My father could offer advice, he could hold 

me accountable, but he never failed to show 

his unwavering support of me.  He would not

tell me what I wanted to hear when life was a

struggle, he would listen.  Then he would say: 

"what's the pay off?"





3) Life IS about choices


The choices we make are not always the best, 

and we can end up scarred or with a few bruises

but we have to believe that our reasoning for 

doing what we did, was because we thought it 

the best option at the time.



4) What did we learn?


By sticking to our path, doing what we think is 

right for us at the time we do it, we make mis- 

takes.  But from those mistakes do we reflect 

upon the life lesson? Do we avoid it the next 

around?  Does our vibe send a warning signal?



5) Failure happens 


How we react to failure becomes our legacy.  

Did we extrapolate from it the lessons that we

needed to learn?  Would we do it again exactly 

the same or would we do it differently.





6) Listen to others


Did we have the chance to get advice from 

others wiser and choose to ignore it? Why even 

bother to ask for an opinion if we're just going to

do what we want anyhow?



7) Bees and honey


You attract more bees with honey than vinegar: 

should resonate among my children's minds 

often.  I have said it so many times, they can 

finish it before I finish with "bees".  People will 

react more favorably when you frame it with 

niceness, politeness and manners.



8) Show gratitude


Never fail to find an opportunity to thank some-

one.  If you show appreciation, you will be 

rewarded as often as you express gratitude.



9) You are the company you keep


Be wary of those that want to tarnish your talents

or destroy your confidence or put you in harms 

way.  Misery may love company but you don't.






9) Please your soul


Play some music, paint or draw or write or cook 

a fabulous creation.  For it is something you 

enjoy. You aren't doing it to please others.  Do 

whatever sings to your heart and heals your 

inner self.



10) Trust your instincts


They could be telling you something that you did

not necessarily see but felt was wrong.  






11) Optimistic and positive


It isn't always possible to stay upbeat, positive

and optimistic.  Life has a way of pushing you 

when you step outside the boundaries.  It is

just that sometimes you need a reality check. 

Get over it.  Take a hot bath.  Reflect more on

what you should be thankful for.



12)  Recovery


How you recover from failure or disappoint-

ment or from being off track will determine how 

far you can  reach.  Did you fall to the bottom, or

did you catch yourself before you did a complete 

tumble?  Were their others there to help catch 

you?  Did you stop yourself or ask for help when

you needed to avoid self-destruction?





13) Goals and dreams


Goals are dreams with deadlines.  Do you have

a vision on where you would like to end up that

is not fueled by greed, envy or power?  Your

success will likely be determined by the value

it represents.





14) Believe in yourself


Often it is only oneself who can decide if we are

on the right path.



15) Discover your purpose


Allow that purpose to drive your passion, path,

and continual learning.  It is then you will likely 

discover what it is that you love to do.


I hope my kids read this and remember the 

times we had discussions around any of the

wisdom shared and reflect upon the situation

that caused it.  They know they have my 

permission to hold me accountable.  The worst

part of it is that I didn't always listen to myself.

The best part is when they toss my words back

at me.




















Thursday, July 21, 2016

it's a cool THING :: ... #bestofeverything



I've fallen in love
and I can't look up!

I've had this vision percolating for quite a while ::... to me, quite a while could be only a couple of months max.  Beyond that, it is stagnant, forgotten, filed away.

I have been saving stuff and bookmarking links here and there.  Even creating various personas or topic commentaries I represent.  It is tres coolio really.  I chose what I will write and pick things that register with me in a resonating and everlasting way.



It could be
karma playing with
#bestofeverything
 hashtag tag

Past my 6th year of graduation from #socialmediaVERSITY has been quite a ride.  I recognize that my entire history of viewership can be clobbered in a day but the very big social media superstars or rock stars or divas reverberating across multi platforms, device brand or type (smartphone or desktop computer), beating to their own drum while making a path and a way to our future.



#socialmediaVERSITY 
should be born, created, gather, only the peers #bestofeverything who get to vote in the inductees.  The honored graduates of this elite communicators who have surpassed even the hardiest media outlet.



Where the
commenters
have a say
The first nominee, inductee and recipient is ...:: www.goop.com ::... an extremely innovator site that I have been percolating my own version for some time.  A truly, really, superbly shared and if not, should be.  

goop.com is
leading the way 
Well, go check em out ::... the Millennial version of Mashable who represented the voice of early social media adopters.  

Very astute,
savvy and classy
goop.com has everything this fabulous fashionista fighting her 50s could possible want:

    Career | Cooking | Fashion | Lifestyle | Contemporary


SHOP   GO   BE   DO   SEE   MAKE   GET


Apps


Art & Design

Books

Movies & Theater

Music 

Performance Art

Podcasts


Websites





Where every click
provides a nugget
I'm telling you ...:: or warning you that ::...
you WILL get lost in here for a long time.  The sophisticated, educated, liberated woman website and resource for the EVERY woman.  



Twists
and
turns
Around each and every corner.  You go to the top far left page, APPS, then cross-referenced across the top ...:: you ARE lost ::... and it may take you a while to escape.  Maybe you don't want to? One thing is for sure, you will likely circle back if you don't subscribe right away.



Do yourself
a favor and go
Take a look and see for yourself what I am identifying as the next phase under the brilliant leadership of goop.com who are visionaries really.  In beat with the movement, the people movement, and simply the #bestofeverything

goop.com
is now officially
a professor or
team of professors
of the social media
highest order
____________________

 #socialmediaVERSITY 
____________________


introduced,
nominated,
discussed,
passed,
unanimously 
voted
in
favour
YES!
____________________

     #bestofeverything
       ~M E M B E R~ 
____________________
















Ice cream bow
standing ovation
I took liberty with the fact that we're about smack dab in the middle of summer.  Nothing looks or tastes better than ice cream.  I like to support my commentaries with images that delight me and I
hope a few others too.  Since blogging is a "work in progress" I promise to come back to reveal the sources where these scrumptious creations come from.   If you can't wait, you can always wander over to goop.com where you will gather a lot of great ideas.  Maybe even inspire you to do something you've been thinking about for a while and put it into action.



Or, you can start trending the #bestofeverything for #icecream whether it is an image, art, a shop in your village or city, crafted by a grandparent, parent or creative genius.  Share it on Twitter and include me and I will try to arrange to get you some ice cream for free?  Perhaps.  


Sunday, July 17, 2016

It should be a woman THING!

Unrestraint commentary of the US Presidential Election
by a non-voting, Canadian, woman who represents the bleeding edge into the abyss of Baby Boomers who are starting to fade, lost a lot of their gumption, the only eye on the ball they have is when they're on the golf course or by all accounts the others are gun slinging hunters, card-carrying pistols n handguns owners, NRA card toting proud majority who fear more the threat of changing the constitution than upsetting bang bang shooting away the loss of gun wisdom.


Hillary Clinton by golly by gal
 SHOULD be leveraging the female, woman card!  She is an exceptionally smart woman who is breaking the bar and smashing the ceiling.  Who in her own right had a thriving career for many many years helping the downtrodden without any recognition back then.  As a young lawyer, her options back then would have been get married and have kids over climb a ladder to rise up among the guys and the boys clubs.  How can you even say she isn't amazing?


It must be an aging thing.
It has only been the last two elections in the US that I paid any attention to.  Not even a regular channel changing, I would have changed the channel is the news or broadcasts about the US Presidential elections, debates nor issues.

It could be sprouting from that training that I started in my early 20s when I went into the magazine field.  Yeah, Gail took a chance on me, but gruffly told me that all she needed was the right mindset, ability to learn and absorb new information quickly.   I don't really think I hesitated.  Because my first interview with Donna (the sales director) and Bob (the editor) was so relaxed, like a visit, not even like an interview.

I sure got the love of magazines back then.  In fact, really close friends of our family, my parents, then like an older sister to me said:  "Jeannette, you should be on TV doing the news" and I thought "yeaaaaahhhh right, as if that's going to happen" and "she must be really biased"

SIDEBAR
Amazing how 15 to 20 years later I say the same thing to
my daughters and the one just smiles and looks "aw
shucks" the other is ranting almost the identical words to
me.  It is amazing the life 
lessons that pop out in your 
50s.  Like all those failures
or painful experiences uncork
when you hit the ripe old age
or the young age of 50.  That
depends on your attitude.  I 
do recall hearing those words
not realizing that after multiple
times of hearing it from my 
daughter aggravated me.  Now I know
 why. I'd heard them before, they were just
displaced.  Coming forth at a time when you think
 wisdom is such a curse. If you are wise or said to
 have wisdom, it usually means that you overcame
 some unsurmountable odds of succeeding at something.
At the time you were in achievement mode, you were more likely
 in DOING mode.  They didn't always mean there wouldn't be bruises.
  Just filed away and pop out when you hit 50 and take it as wisdom.  Wishing or swear if given the day again, you'd probably do things exactly the same again.  Absurd?  Crazy you say?  Hardly, I say. 
 Think about it, you are ONLY in your 50s, not your 60s.
  Now is the wise time to burst forth.


The Wild Card
Donald Trump can't be called anything else.  Oh goodness me, can you imagine the book after this if he were to win:  "The Deal of the Century".  As a Canadian, I can only embrace, then recoil in horror, then lean in a little closer to watch the deal play out.  What deal you ask?  It's surely obvious by me, a mere Canadian gal, more preoccupied with her kids, her husband, her career spin around to see them climb high and then feel low.  I just really used to be into sales.  


Firing on all cylinders
The American Presidential Election is mesmerizing if you look at it like a deal:  two (fierce) competitors with their eye on the prize pulling out all the stops to win.  How can that not be sales-like?  Both (and I will call them this) competitors are trying to boost their own value while minimize the other contender to ashes.  In the best sales deals, both opposing parties have a undisclosed amount of respect for their competition.  They may have won one and lost one to this other entity.  Or they just knew about the other in a sphere to which neither traveled in at the same time.



Putting it all in perspective
I really admired Hillary Clinton during her quest to beat President Obama in his march to the White House.  I was rooting for Hillary, even bought the Biography which still sits on my bookshelf, back in those days.  Then she looked far from stellar a few times when dumb blondeness erruptitis struck her on the side of the head:: you forgot that the "rules don't apply" only when it's men.  I mean seriously US citizens, you don't think that any one spouse (always a woman at the Capital) hasn't blipped the security screen?  Or even worse turned a blind eye when they knew that icon of state cheated on him or mumbled top secret information after imbibing in a dozen too many?  The digital world we live in, in its ever-increasing pace, is open to mistakes.    


Where white is white
Were she not a woman would she even have the "woman card" to play?  I'd say 1000 percent NOT!  (Although rumour has it that politicians always have leanings towards cross-dressing and being dominated -- portrayed aptly in the TV hit series BILLIONS -- I can't wait until it airs again) {side note to look up next season's start date and time HERE}  


and Black is BLACK
In a country where a black man can be President
why wouldn't it by now have had a woman president? I hate to be the one to tell ya, if you don't know by now, that the UK just got its next aka 2nd Prime Minister.  


Social revolution
In a time when black and white hatred is the most unrest exploding south of my border, even ahead of terrorism attacks in far away lands.  What a hotbed of disgruntled citizens, electorate in turmoil, political virtues cynical, the big proud America is now.  You guys really have to get a handle on things.  I wrote to you on my optioneersJM blog right after the Wall Street calamity was exposed, and the financial climate going around the world was cold to icing off like an iceberg appears in the ocean.  I suggested of all things that maybe you needed some mediating, and why not from a Canadian, to get your house in order, get advice from the one country that seemed to barely shake from the earthquakes in country capital.  That was Canada.


The UK pays attention
Yet how I have no idea.  Do I have such an instinctive recollection of all that knowledge I gained from Gail, selling magazines and even publishing one?  Now that our very own Canadian Treasurer glided over the ocean to the UK, and is trying to save that country from financial devastation after the collapse of its citizenship split over a far reaching decision.  Mr. Carney is getting noticed now.  So typical of Canadians.  Immensely talented, seemingly quiet compared to so many others, absorbing, taking it all in, observing and learning from a great many avenues.  



UK's 2nd Woman Prime Minister
The US can't afford to lose its position of leader in the free world.  They are recovering, while lagging behind the UK economically.  {INSERT/FIND graph that had been published on the net on mere hours as the citizenship turned, the UK pound dropped while the US dollar climbed.



1st Woman President of the United States
It really should be Hillary Clinton.  Who comes from a dynasty that led two generations and possibly another one in the works?  Yes, Donald Trump has led two empires:  his holdings/companies and his celebrity from The Apprentice.  Both pretty competitive odds on what could be favored don't you think.


The World Revolves Around Money. 
 Yet this election is not so much about money as it is about wits.  Who is smarter, planning better strategies, on point in front of the media or rallies?  They both are.  We went from watching a number of tennis matches, the ones long before recent Wimbledon :: between Hillary and Bernie, between Donald Trump and that Bush guy (yeah, lol, I know Jebb :: but that about sums it up).  Then Donald and Mario, then Donald and Cruz (my hometown boy who denounced his citizenship and denying his roots here in Calgary).



It's Show Time
Plenty of warm up has been taken and given from either side.  They've been training and practicing against some pretty worthy opponents (not Ted-grudge-MAN).


The McCoys :: SOURCE :: GOOGLE images

Families Stacking Up on Either Side
like the Hatfields and McCoy.  Except this time they're not hillbillies in the mountains, lost touch with reality and in love with their guns.  These two BIG contenders have heavyweight family support.  Their children are successful in their own right:: with their careers, their own life partner and families, uphold strong family values.  And .... taDA ~ their kids represent the Millennial generation.  It hardly gives a much better scene than that.



The Plot Thickens
A Former First Lady versus a Wealthy Businessman.
Last time we watched anything like it, we were enraptured by Dallas and the show that Joan Collins dominated in {INSERT ... or don't bother ... let readers go on a scavenger hunt, and the first one back to comment with the right answer gets to write a blog for all THREE of my blogs as a guest}.  Seriously, since when has their been any plot nearly as good?  



Bernie Sanders, Guest Starring Role
Who certainly wins supporting cast member in a leading role.  The guy who turns things right around when you think you have figured out the climax to only be proven wrong because of the curveballs this contender brang.  A character who will never be forgotten and perhaps even remembered long after folks will remember who was against who in this election.  

Time For a New Twist
There isn't better a time to elect the United States first woman President.  For anything, one needs to examine the skillset and then the attitude.  Both hand in hand, yet independent of each other.  One always more important of the other.  

Resume resumation
Hillary Clinton has some pretty impressive credentials.  That, even compared favorably over Donald Trump.

Side Bar
Just like I did with Hillary Clinton
the last election, I let President Obama
step in.  Definitely charismatic with the
right image:  family, values with a sprinkle
of controversy that forced you to pick sides
and not dwell in the middle.

Sleeping Beauty
At the start, like I would imagine many
of us, we were captured by the Cinderella
Story of Donald Trump.  He seemed to say
more things about what people were thinking
than the usual political rhetoric.  Then it went
to his head and it went from unusual philosophy
to objectionable opinions. Where slander, slurs, shocking statements percolated the public opinion.
So I slowly and hesitantly started to turn my head
towards the other party ~ Hillary Clinton.  I started
to warm up to her when I saw her with her daughter.  Just once.  I can't even remember when.  Like Sleeping Beauty, I was kissed by that amazing moment.  I started to let her win.  Let people truly believe that a WOMAN can become anything.  Just like a black man could become President. :: or a Canadian could become the head of the largest financial institution in the world.



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