Palm trees and margaritas
(empowered living)

Hi there.

My natural tendency to the glass being half full means my view on the weather day to day is that every day is a blessing and we get what we get. Gee it annoys people! The Melbourne winter sees people talking about the cold and the rain as if it’s a bad thing. For me, it’s as it should be – Melbourne in winter! – but that doesn’t stop me daydreaming about a hammock tied between, you guessed it, palm trees and contemplating the day’s first margarita…..

‘Palm trees and margaritas’, the newsletter, is about life, the universe and what really matters. If we were to seek to categorise it, ‘Palm trees and margaritas’ is about work/life balance. None of us knows how our life will unfold so as much as we are in control, empowered living means making sure there is time in our lives for palm trees and margaritas*, however we define them.

It aims to give you five minutes of reflective reading time on the last Friday of each month.

How was your month?

 

 

 

Karen Morath
karen@mpowercct.com
www.palmtreesandmargaritas.com
July 2007

 

 

TIPS

  1. “Daily portions of encouragement are the fuel that keep hope alive and well.” Zig Ziglar.

  2. Dr Tim Sharp, director of the Happiness Institute in Sydney, says to be happier “focus on life goals, improve relationships, try healthy living, employ positive but realistic thinking …and enjoy the moment.”

  3. “Action is what counts. Otherwise Nike’s slogan would be ‘Just say it’.” (anon)

  4.  

    Pick up free from your local coffee shop (and send) some Thank you Project postcards to acknowledge the people around you who matter.

     

STORIES

  1. My family is lucky enough to regularly visit the Great Ocean Road, but unlucky enough to have to endure me saying EVERY single time we drive along it “have a look at that view. People come from around the world to see that you know.” It is part of our family folklore. My children’s eyes all roll in sync. Everyone we know mocks me. But I persist. It is not such a bad thing to pinch yourself and remind yourself of how lucky you are.

  2. “Over and over I hear people describing what they would like to do when… or how they would be living if only…I hear that from other people and sometimes I hear it from myself. Yet the truth is, if we are postponing something that genuinely matters to us, if we are living superficially because we believe we have no time to think or live at any depth, if we are not daring to take the risks that will increase our happiness or the wellbeing of the people around us, if we are remaining stuck in a situation that feels like a living death, then we are betraying life.” Stephanie Dowrick, ‘Love life now', Good Weekend, The Age, May 26, 2007.

  3. I was – unfortunately – privy recently to a conversation about Eddie McGuire. It took place in one of Melbourne’s most lifeless eastern suburbs and was a box around the ears change of perspective for me. A couple of confessions. I’m a card carrying Eddie fan - I am the same age as him and I marvel at what he has been able to accomplish. Also, I now live near to the aforesaid lifeless suburb, having moved from Melbourne’s north a couple of years ago (for children reasons). The conversation between two people was about how “Eddie isn’t anything. He is just someone from BROADMEADOWS who got somewhere.” I grew up near there and we always thought we could get wherever we wanted, because we could. Most of the ‘Eddie stories’ I had heard before I moved were celebratory and this one was disparaging. I could think of nothing positive at the time that would come of me asking the anti-Eddie-from-Broadmeadows woman if Eddie was from Balwyn whether that would have made some difference to her judgment of him. So I ask it here. What planet are we on?

REFLECTIONS

 

  1. I see myself firstly and before and after anything else as a parent. I wonder how that affects the way I engage with the world. What defines you and how does it affect the way you engage with the world?

  2. If you did it, what is the worst thing that could happen?

 

Copyright 2007.  Karen Morath

 

Karen Morath is a consultant, speaker and writer.  Her company M Power works with individuals and organisations to devise empowering communication strategies.  Visit http://www.communicationempowers.com/ or there’s something to see at www.palmtreesandmargaritas.com

To book Karen to speak on ‘Life can’t be all palm trees and margaritas, but there are worse game plans’ at your next event, you can email her at karen@mpowercct.com or telephone in Australia 03 9817 4111.

Please forward Palm trees and margaritas to anyone you think may enjoy it.

 

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