Hi there.
This issue of Palm trees and margaritas is a little late this month. The plan, normally, is to give you five minutes of reflection time on the last Friday of each month. Missed by…that much!
I have been distracted somewhat by the enormous drama that is getting a book to the printer. It is a time of nerves and re-reads and overlapping deadlines. My second book, about public relations, was due at the printers yesterday and well, missed by…that much! Tomorrow!
A project as big as a book (in this case, seven years of my life) is a palm trees and margaritas project in itself. While R and R for me certainly involves beaches and cocktails, the palm trees and margaritas philosophy is about making time for the things you most value, and these can be work, home, family or recreational projects. As long as you are in the driver’s seat of your life, then it doesn’t matter how you are filling your days. The thing to watch out for is that days become weeks, then months then years. Quickly.
How was your July? Did you make time for ‘palm trees and margaritas’* however you define them?
I love to hear (and publish) your stories of how you are living your life. Please get in touch and share yours.
Karen Morath
karen@mpowercct.com
www.palmtreesandmargaritas.com
July 2008
* Life can’t be all palm trees and margaritas, but there are worse game plans.
The book Palm Trees and Margaritas - Finding Your Oasis in a Busy World is out now, go to www.palmtreesandmargaritas.com to buy your copy.
TIPS
No list of tips this month, just one. Think about what you like doing and who you like doing it with and make some plans to increase the time you allocate to those things and those people. No one else can do it for you.
TO ENJOY LIST
Here are some things readers and I have recommended for others ‘to enjoy’.
1. Borders has a subscription based deal whereby they send you an email of special weekend offers every Friday.
2. There’s a great new magazine on the stands called ‘Empower’. Great name and great stories that empower women.
3. Another of those plugs I sneak in. This is for a wonderful book written by a friend of mine, Pam Galli. It is the story of her late husband’s life. And what a life it was. It’s a romance, a business success story, an inspirational page turner. It’s called From the stable to the stars. The life of Lorenzo Galli. Buy it for yourself or a gift, especially for the hard-to-buy-for men in your life. Click here to purchase or for more info. Profits go to Peter McCallum Cancer Centre.
4. Vanuatu. I hear it’s lovely this time of year. Simon...Vanuatu.
5. Bird Baths. I have one outside my office window and it is lovely to watch the birds bounce around in it.
6. Our friends at trendRAP have a special gift for our readers. They liked our mention of Tim Ferriss’ book The four hour work week and sent us their ‘rap’ of it for you ‘to enjoy’. Contact me if you'd like a copy.
Please send your tips for things for others ‘to enjoy’ to me here.
STORIES
The family celebrators
There is a tip in the book version of Palm trees and margaritas that suggests unless we celebrate life’s moments – anniversaries, birthdays, promotions, achievements of any kind...- then every day is the same. Celebrations punctuate life. So I loved this story from Reader Tom whose parents live in Malaysia. To mark the extraordinary achievement of their fiftieth wedding anniversary, Tom and his wife and kids and all three of his siblings and their families were travelling to Malaysia to spend a week together at a resort there. All 16 of them! We may not all be able to celebrate at that level but we can all gather in honour.
Reader Roger’s family didn’t wait for a round number birthday to have a family reunion to mark it. They held a 54th birthday party (he was 54 and he was born in ’54 – cute, eh) that saw his mum get on a plane for the first time in 15 years to be there. These are the things people only ever regret not doing.
If you are looking for a speaker for an event this year, click here to talk to me about a ‘Palm trees and margaritas’ presentation. I have formats that are ideal for business women’s networks and motivation or work/life balance aspects of conferences or training days. Or let’s discuss tailoring something especially for your needs.
REFLECTIONS
1. My greatest lesson ever about different people’s point of view came in an unlikely package. The Sex and the City movie. 20 somethings see the male leads as the bad guys and 40 somethings see them as ones you’d want to keep. 20 somethings see the female leads as fabulous and poorly treated and 40 somethings see them as childish and selfish. And these are just the female perspectives. Men aren’t seeing it in large numbers. I am looking forward to asking older women what they thought. It’s a fascinating look at priorities and how they change with life and love. Did you, like me, think it should be subtitled ‘women behaving badly’? Click here to email me and let me know your point of view.
2. Does the list of things you don’t understand seem to be growing? Mine includes shelving books according to their colour, why people go on Today Tonight, food courts, Starbucks (might be onto something there though), primary school homework, people responding to missed calls…(love to hear yours).