Growing the Write Way

Motivational networking

Sherri Henkin — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 06:08:00 +0000

Last week I searched for networking events in Greater LA. I figured it’s time to get out a meet more folks. I wanted something energizing and inspiring – and a convenient time and in a comfortable place. I came across an announcement that Chellie Campbell would speak on a Sunday afternoon (today) at a hair salon about 20 minutes away! My favorite business/finance motivational speaker and author … presenting on a convenient day … at a comfortable place. JACKPOT!

I’ll admit I’ve never been to a hair salon for a networking event. What a great relaxing venue! Chula, the salon’s owner, was a terrific, friendly, and a gracious hostess. I felt at home in the comfy salon chairs, surrounded by upbeat people. As Chellie says, “My People.”

Chellie shared her story of how she published The Wealthy Spirit. Although I’ve heard the story before, I enjoy her bubbly presentation of challenges she faced. And I heard something new this time … believe in your goal. Her smile is infectious – I smiled and laughed along with her. My face got an aerobic workout! (I wonder how many calories we burn doing “facial aerobics”!)

In her signature gold sneakers (now she has a pair with leopard spots – one of her favorite designs), Chellie energized the room and reminded us to:

Swim with dolphins (they communicate, swim in schools, and protect each other)
Say your affirmations daily (“I am a marvelous, creative person, and wonderful opportunities await me!”)
Send out ships (affirmations are great and we need to back them up with actions)
Focus on your goal, yet enjoy life along the way
Be grateful for everything in your life

And if someone rejects your book, article, or idea, repeat this catchy four-letter word…NEXT! (Chellie thanks Jack Canfield for that tip!)

As I walked out, I wondered, Can I really dust off that article draft and revise it?

Sure I can…just need to find some dolphins to help me focus on my goal.

“Something wonderful is happening to me today – I can feel it!” (Chellie Campbell, The Wealthy Spirit).

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

More about Chellie on this blog:

Jan. 6, 2011

July 22, 2009

I can…

Sherri Henkin — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 05:52:20 +0000

A friend of mine will begin to play The Career Search Game. Given the new rules of this Game, she’s not quite sure which direction to take (and definitely wants to pass go and collect $200). My friend decided that before rolling the dice, she would create her “I can” list.

“Your what list?” I asked incredulously.

“I can list – a list of any and all activities I can do to make a healthy livelihood. You know, things like, ‘I can tell stories. I can teach. I can walk dogs.’ …”

A positive free-form list! What a creative way to begin The Career Search.

“Well, what happens after you have that list? Are you really going to look for dog-walking jobs?”

“Ha! Not exactly! Then I review the list and decide which tasks I really could do and which I absolutely won’t do. The goal is to get the list down to some jobs that I’d really like to do. Then I start looking.”

“So you’re looking to expand the type of work you could look for?”

“That’s one possibility. The free-form list may reveal some type of activity I’ve never thought about but have the skills. And who knows? Maybe dog walking is a clue that might lead me to Veterinarian Assistant (doubtful, but it could)!”

Here are some items my friend has on her list:

I can organize work flow and materials.
I can listen to people with empathy.
I can walk dogs and care for cats.
I can supervise and motivate teams of people.
I can be a storyteller.
I can do and teach arts and crafts.
I can drive and use maps or a GPS.

It’s 2012. The rules of The Career Search Game have changed – even in the last year. Why not begin the game with an “I can” list?

I can write lists.

I can edit.
I can write a blog.
I can pass go and collect $200!
I can…

What’s on your “I can” list?

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Advice from the Woodland:

Find your path…Start from the ground up…Stretch your limbs…Branch out…Root for others…Make room for new growth

From Your True Nature calendar.

Computer Gremlins

Sherri Henkin — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 00:31:27 +0000

While editing a document recently, I noticed spaces missing between periods and the next sentence and between end parenthesis and the next word. I thought my eyes were tired and I simply wasn’t seeing clearly. Then again, there were too many errors to ignore. So I compared the current version with a previous version of the same document – spaces were not an issue in the previous version.

To quote Alice (Alice in Wonderland): “Curiouser and curiouser.”

I emailed my colleague, “Have you noticed that spaces are missing in this document?”

“Yes – I noticed that. I don’t know what happened.”

“Maybe Computer Gremlins* got into the document and ate the spaces,” I emailed back.

“Haha! I kind of like the idea of Computer Gremlins. Not their actions though,” my colleague responded.

What are Computer Gremlins anyway?

Way back in the dark ages, when desktop computers first came out, they were really glorified word processors. There were always glitches with these “technological wonders!” We’d log off at the end of the day, shut the machine down and leave. In the morning, we’d turn the machine on, log on, try to open the file we’d saved so carefully the night before and couldn’t access the file. Or we’d be typing into the document, save it, and suddenly it would disappear. Stuff like that. We had no idea what caused these glitches or how things happened. So we all figured Computer Gremlins snuck in to the computers and wreaked havoc with our work (this was before any of us non-techies knew about hackers)!

Maybe Computer Gremlins still exist … and now they are “outer space” eaters!”

Thanks to my colleague for inspiring this story!

*Gremlin – “An imaginary mischievous sprite regarded as responsible for an unexplained problem or fault, esp. a mechanical or electronic one.”

Second Anniversary

Sherri Henkin — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 06:25:46 +0000

Anniversaries. The word conjures up joy and excitement, images of flowers and balloons – in short, a fun day celebrating a happy event.

Not always.

Thursday, 5 Kislev 5772 (in the Hebrew calendar) is the second anniversary of my husband’s passing. It’s not a fun day; there’s no joy, and I’m not excited.

Quite the opposite.

This type of anniversary is sobering as it marks the finality of life in this world. There’s no more potential for growth. There’s no more potential for what life together may have been.

We’re on our separate paths.

Anniversaries. Often they are fun-filled, exciting days. Sometimes they mark difficult events. Regardless of the tone of the day, we always move forward.

On the path that’s set for us.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

This past fall, Israel Bookshop published Riding the Waves, ed. by Tamar Ansh. I merited to have the story of how Herschel and I met appear in that book (“Midwest Meets West”). May the story inspire others and may it be a merit for the elevation of Herschel Avraham ben Simcha Yosef’s soul.

Darkness

Sherri Henkin — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 05:01:58 +0000

We’re in Fall, past Daylight Savings Time, and headed toward Winter. It’s dark. The nights are long (they start around 5PM). What can we learn from the dark, long nights?

→Maybe it’s time to hunker down, stay warm, and rest up – like the bears.

→Maybe there’s more family time – for games, and sitting by the fire (gas-lit or otherwise).

→Maybe it’s a time to regroup after an active Spring and Summer.

→Maybe we can focus inward and explore what is really important to us.

What do you learn from the dark, long nights?

Connect with long-time friends

Sherri Henkin — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 23:31:23 +0000

Telephone technology is great! The timing is exquisite! I’ve spent the day connecting with long-time friends in different parts of the U.S. I haven’t spoken with some of these friends in six months or a year – we had a lot of material to cover! I enjoyed laughing, giggling, and sometimes sighing with them. Even though some parts of the conversations revealed serious challenges, we were able to encourage and strengthen each other. I’m grateful I have friends who see sunlight through gray clouds!

Another lesson learned… call a friend to dispel the grayness!

Fall Beach Day

Sherri Henkin — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 04:38:10 +0000

In Connecticut, it was clearly fall when the trees were full of red, orange and yellow leaves lined the streets and nearby highways – like the Merritt Parkway. Crisp, sunny days conjure up memories of crunchy Macintosh apples, sweet, thick apple cider, hot chocolate, and football games.

We have crisp sunny days in Los Angeles – and I still have Macintosh apples. However, I’ve replaced the football games with … time at the beach! A bit too chilly for swimming (even for this former member of the Polar Bear Club), yet the day was perfect for walking. It was …

As soon as the sea salt reached my nose, I was about eight years old and walking along the beach, looking at Long Island Sound. Not as dramatic as the Pacific Ocean but just as pretty. Refreshed – and back in the present – I continued walking along the bike path, watching the sailboats maneuver up the Pacific coast. I welcomed the warmth from the sun as I zippered up my jacket to protect me from the wind.

I looked up at the cliff across from me to find the steps that would lead me back to the parking lot above.

Ooohh…that’s so high up! How will I climb back up, I thought.

Well, you should have thought about that on the way down! The Other Voice said.

I did and decided I’d just do it.

Good luck, dear! The Other Voice responded. (This is the negative Voice.)

Well, I showed The Other Voice up! I climbed those steps, slowly, but just fine! Quite the workout!

Fall in Los Angeles

Sherri Henkin — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 05:38:31 +0000

The air is cool and it’s actually deliciously crisp in the mornings. We have colorful leaves on the trees here in Los Angeles – the trees that still have leaves. Sunset is before 6:00PM. There were deep oranges and reds in the sunset this evening. I had the urge to go apple picking today! The best I could do was call my “apple-picking” buddy in Ohio and chat about that!

Welcome to Fall in Los Angeles!

My battle with the negative voice

Sherri Henkin — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 17:32:45 +0000

Did you ever fight that negative voice? I’ve fought it many times, but recently I waged a full-blown battle.

It was an overcast, cool morning and I was on vacation. No pressing reason to jump out of bed. Yet, there was no reason to stay supine. I felt rested and had energy. That’s when the battle began. First, it was a small voice, “You’re tired. You’ve worked hard. Stay in bed and relax.”

I countered, “I’m rested. It’s a nice cool day. It’s time to get up and greet it.”

“Why,” the voice asked, raising itself a few notches. “You’ve been saying how tired you are. Relax.”

“I can relax after I’m up and moving,” I responded. “It’s nice a cool – a great time of day for a walk.”

“What?!! A walk!” the voice yelled. “But your foot hurts. How are you going to walk? Stay in and rest up!”

“I’ll walk slowly,” I calmly and firmly responded. “I want to move around. And if I’m tired, or my foot hurts too much, I can rest it later.”

I started to sit up and something pushed me down.

“Don’t you push me!” I retorted. And I quickly, deftly dodged the next push as I jumped out of bed.

And you know what? My foot didn’t hurt any more. The walk was lovely. I enjoyed crunching some of the early colorful leaves on the ground and breathing the cool, crisp air.

And I wasn’t tired. One battle won!

Destroy so we can build

Sherri Henkin — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 02:30:52 +0000

Early one morning I heard a thunderous crash outside my kitchen window. A noisy motor pierced the (formerly) quiet morning. Then I heard another deafening crash that shook my building – a mixture of feeling an earthquake and hearing ear-splitting thunder. Tentatively, I peeked through the curtain. The sun was just rising and so was this huge, yellow/orange arm of a crane! I saw the crane move up and then its mouth – complete with oversized jagged teeth – came toward my window.

“YIKES! That mouth is going to eat my building!”

And just as the mouth was about to bite, the arm attached to it swerved carefully toward the building next door. Chomp! Crash! Boom! The wall of the school building next door crumbled noisily to the ground. This mouth wasn’t satisfied though. It wanted more. It deftly and hungrily chomped through the rest of the building.

The long-awaited (for the school, that is) destruction was in process. The school was destroying one of their old structures and will build a new, modern facility. And I had a front row seat!

“Well,” I thought, “If I have a front row seat, there is a reason. What does this mean for me? What can I learn from this scene?”

The obvious: In order to build a new structure, we have to completely destroy an old structure. Then we move the rubble away.

The not-so-hidden: In order to build up my character traits and good habits, I need to destroy those traits that hold me down, keep me from making progress. If I want to grow, I may need to destroy some old, rotting structure.

The hidden (and thanks to the friend who revealed this): In order to build any building, the construction workers dig a sturdy foundation. And if you want to build a tall building, there must be a proportionately deep foundation. So too with spiritual growth (or self-improvement): If I want to grow to great heights, I need to dig down deep, uproot the character traits that no longer serve me. Only then can I begin the building process.

Chomp at those habits and negative character traits. Toss them in the dumpster and have them hauled away. Destroy so we can build.

I wish the school much success in this process! And thanks for the lesson!