"On a tous une raison d'aimer...

... de croire, d'espérer" (merci, Roch Voisine pour ces belles paroles!).

J'ai cette chanson dans ma tête; ça m'arrive souvent d'avoir une chanson qui se répète dans ma tête toute la journée. Des fois je me réveille avec une chanson, des fois c'est quelque chose qui joue sur la radio dans l'auto ou bien je vois des mots qui me font penser à des paroles.

C'est vendredi et j'ai la tête dans la brume. J'ai mal dormi et je ne suis pas très alerte. Un peu comme le temps, gris, maussade, sombre. Non, je ne suis pas déprimée ni en humeur noire. Je profite de ma journée dans la brume pour reposer ma tête. Nous avons parlé dans un blogue la semaine passée de l'importance de regénérer notre énergie. Bien, je crois que c'est aussi important de fermer la machine de temps en temps pour la laisser se reposer, pour mieux la repartir demain. Comme un ordinateur qui doit être fermé de temps en temps pour clairer la mémoire (je m'excuse auprès de mes lecteurs qui connaissent les ordis plus que moi, peut-être on a pas besoin de faire ça?).

Alors, que faire avec une journée comme celle-ci? Même si notre esprit conscient est un peu endormi, nous sommes toujours en train d'absorber, de contempler, de travailler, de faire des liens, de créer. C'est tout simplement que nous ne réagissons pas autant que normal. Et ça fait du bien. Honnêtement, nous réagissons trop normalement, et certainement trop vite.

Alors, aujourd'hui j'écoute et j'observe. J'écoute tous les messages que je manque quand je suis en mode "action". Les droles de coincidences, les choses que je ne considère pas quand je suis trop occupée, les messages qui sont passés entre deux phrases ou par un regard inattendu. Un sourire, un appel, une chanson qui répète des paroles que j'ai tant besoin d'entendre... et je sais que tous ces messages contribuent au processus créatifs qui travaillent continuellement à l'intérieur de moi.

Donnez-vous une journée de vrai repos. Ne réveillez pas votre cerveau demain (ou dimanche si vous êtes trop occupés demain). Fermez la partie réaction et observez...absorbez.

J'ai hâte à voir ce qui m'attend demain...peut-être une nouvelle idée pour un projet, un modèle à suivre pour vendre mes livres, une manière d'organiser mon bureau pour qu'il reste propre pour plus que deux jours, des mots à partager avec quelqu'un qui cherche un peu d'encouragement! Mais je sais que demain sera une journée extraordinaire, comme si ma tête était complètement renouvellée.

Je vous reviens en début de semaine avec les résultats!

Bonne fin-de-semaine!

What's right with the world

Lately I've been noticing that I've been saying "what's wrong with the world" a lot. I guess that's not very hard. What with the drama created by the H1N1 virus scare, crooked politicians and even more crooked business people, appalling customer service wherever you turn, companies downsizing to stay afloat in these challenging economic times and airline pilots overshooting their destination, it's no wonder that we easily find a lot of "wrong" things.

But what we forget is that the "right" things are all still there, they are just hiding. Hiding behind people's craving for dramatic news stories and our natural ability to remember negative things more easily than positive things. "Right" things are often more subtle, closer to home and easily forgotten because they make our lives easier, not harder.

Last week I wrote a blog about turning around a difficult day. I didn't hesitate to mention all the things that had gone wrong that day. Well, today I'm going to mention a bunch of things that have gone right since then:

• a friend who really needed to sell his house to fund his life purpose posted a message on Facebook last night: two offers on the house, one was accepted and pending a home inspection on the weekend, the house is sold!
• the ever elusive perfect bookcase that I mentioned in my blog last week has been found, bought (at a great price!), delivered and installed; as a bonus, the books it was meant to house fit perfectly; (in honour of my sister Jackie, I arranged them "a la Martha Stewart")!
• I received the long-awaited proof of my book; it actually looks like a real book with my name on the front cover!
• I learned how to make spring rolls and Chinese dumplings...and they were fabulous!
• we managed to close our pool for the season before the weather turns very cold and snowy!
• an opportunity to turn theoretical increased value into real money has presented itself at a very propitious moment!
• three interesting people from my past have reconnected with me!

I could go on and on; and, in fact, you should too. I challenge you to spend 5 minutes writing out all the good things going on in your world. Did you run out of paper? Let's take the challenge of ignoring all the bad things in our world today. For 24 hours, every time bad news comes up (that isn't a personal emergency that needs to be addressed), let's simply ignore it. Of course, that means not talking about most of the things we talk about, probably not reading the newspaper, not tuning on our favorite high-drama TV show, not posting our latest whine on Facebook, etc.

I bet that we'll find that we are saying "how did all this good stuff end up in my life" far more often than what we were saying before this exercise.

Regénérer notre énergie

J'ai donné beaucoup d'énergie cette semaine. Soit que c'était lors d'un évènement de réseautage où j'aidais les gens à se rencontrer et à réseauter d'une façon plus "humaine", ou que c'était pour accompagner un client lors d'une rencontre avec la banque, ou d'animer une séance de "brainstorming", ou simplement d'encourager un ami qui commence à manquer de confiance dans son cheminement.

Cependant, j'ai reçu de l'énergie aussi. De mon conjoint qui m'a aidé à passer à travers une nuit d'inquiétude, de mon grand ami Serge qui m'encourage à travailler mon côté plus créatif, d'un collègue qui m'a raconté une expérience semblable à la mienne et qui a bien tourné. Et puis, je me donne la permission aujourd'hui, vendredi, de prendre du temps pour regénérer de l'énergie pour la fin-de-semaine et la semaine qui s'en vient.

C'est très important de comprendre que nous ne sommes pas des sources infinies d'énergie. Il faut trouver les moyens de regénérer cette énergie que nous donnons sans cesse à notre environnement. Pour moi, c'est un peu de temps toute seule, peut-être de la musique, de la réflexion, et une série d'activités énergisantes : la rédaction de mon prochain info-lettre, un tour dans le spa, un peu de jardinage, un bon souper de "comfort food" (mmm, la lasagne de Serge est très bonne!), une soirée de lecture, me coucher quand je suis fatiguée (et non quand l'horloge dit que c'est le temps).

Aujourd'hui, prenez quelques minutes pour identifier les activités qui vous redonnent de l'énergie. Peut-être c'est aller courir, prendre une marche dans les feuilles qui tombent, jaser avec un(e) ami(e), lire un chapitre d'un livre inspirant, résoudre un problème au travail... ça peut être n'importe quoi. Ensuite, donnez-vous la permission de faire une de ces activités. Vous verrez que c'est beaucoup plus facile de combler les besoins des autres et de donner de l'énergie quand vous en avez regénérer.

Bonne fin-de-semaine!

I'm trendy! (I think)

Ok, this is just weird. I've never been a really trendy person. Don't bother too much with fashion trends (except when I was in high school -- how can a girl not follow fashion trends in high school?)...never been one to watch trendy TV shows (I have NEVER watched an episode of 24)...voted left of centre in Alberta (I don't think I have to explain that one)...I don't have the latest gadgets...I just replaced my old stove with a plain black one (gasp, not stainless steel???).

I had a few moments to spare today before a meeting and stopped in at a magazine shop. And there was Oprah staring out at me (her magazine, not her!). Oprah epitomizes trendy. She creates trends. She recommends books and they immediately become best sellers. She invites experts from The Secret on her show and they become huge stars. Tom Cruise freaks out on her show and everyone starts to wonder about him. Oprah = Trend.

So, I figured, might as well see what she has to say. The biggest headline on the front cover was about finding your life purpose. Huh! Those of you who are familiar with the book I am writing will remember that this will be the topic of my next chapter summary (due to come out this week). Ok, I say, interesting coincidence. Then I leaf through the first few pages (skipping the fashion ads) and notice that one of the contributors on this same subject is Alain de Botton, which normally would mean nothing to me, except that I happen to be reading one of his books (the Architecture of Happiness), which I bought for recreational reading and not reading associated with my book. Go figure!

I don't believe in coincidences. I believe that everything happens for a reason, in fact a good reason. All the events in our lives occur to either inspire us, to move us into action or to reward us. So, these references to my book and my reading are not just random. They mean something. The tricky part is that we don't always figure out what they mean, but we are still supposed to use them. So, this could be encouraging me to continue writing; it could be a sign that once my book is finished, I may indeed get that spot on Oprah's TV show; it could suggest that the way I have changed my thinking is starting to line up with a trend; it could simply be reinforcement that I am supposed to trust, to believe that the universe is working along with me to help me accomplish my goals.

It actually doesn't matter what it means. What matters is that I use these "coincidences" as inspiration to keep on doing what I am doing, to learn from people who also think the way I think, and to profit from the great exposure Oprah has to move my message forward.

Have you noticed any interesting coincidences today? Are there messages that you have received that are inspiring, motivating you to act on your goals, rewarding you for doing "the right thing"? Once you start looking, trust me, these messages are everywhere!

Positive Energy

It's all nice and fine to promote and write a blog about positive energy. On good days, I write about stuff I hope can help people live well and bring positivity into their world. But I wonder how many of you might have read my blog on a day when things just weren't going all that well, and you said to yourself: "sure, it's easy for her, she didn't experience the day I did!".

Well, you have a point. Because I'm having that kind of day today. First of all, I learned something at a business breakfast this morning that I SHOULD have known; in fact, I suspect the person that told me probably thought I was incredibly naive and inexperienced not to have known this fact. So, strike 1: embarrassment.

Then I got home to find an extremely long insurance form I needed to fill out with some questions that I simply didn't understand. Legal terminology in any language is already a challenge, and given that two thirds of my business life has been in an English environment, I have to admit to not being able to figure the French form out. Strike 2: feelings of inadequacy.

And then, I've been looking for a bookcase for a friend of mine and just can't find the right one at the right price that isn't already sold. Strike 3: frustration.

By now, I should just give up and climb back into bed (did I mention it is raining?). But I can't. Why? Because you are out there, having the same kind of days as I am, and it would be terribly hypocritical for me to give up when I'm telling you not to. And, when I give myself 5 minutes to calm down and reconsider the situations I'm living today, I actually can imagine resetting my energy. Like they say in The Secret (the part where they show the woman stubbing her toe as she gets out of bed and then ripping her pantyhose), you can turn your energy around. It is a matter of CHOICE.

So, how to do this. First of all, what I am grateful for in all this mess? Well, at least I found out the important information that caused strike 1 now and not 10 years from now. The woman who told me was polite enough not to laugh at me, so she allowed me to be embarrassed in the privacy of my own car. Insurance form: maybe my frustration will serve as an encouragement for the insurance business to accept a trend that has started in business, which is to develop legal documents in "plain language", you know, words that the rest of us can understand. In fact, I will suggest this to them when I fax back the incomplete form. As for the bookcase, at least I don't have to drive across town in rainy weather today and can catch up on other work; the right bookcase is out there, it just hasn't found us yet.

Ok, gratitude helps me see the situation as not so bad. Now to complete the shift to good (and even great), I'm going to do something positive, something that uses what I've learned this morning, that moves me forward on my path. Of all the selling points I use in promotion of my business, the one I believe most in is the fact that I am just like you; I'm not the ultra-successful star, the one that was featured in CEO Magazine or The Secret; I'm not super rich, driving a Mercedes to meetings and checking the time on my $1000 watch; I'm not especially calm or in a Zen state 24 hours a day, like the monks from Tibet. I think being a normal person with normal challenges gives me credibility. It allows me to suggest tools and techniques to try to be more positive. It permits me to recommend solutions to my clients, because I live what they are living.

So the positive thing that I am doing is to write this blog; and then I will work on my next newsletter presenting a new chapter of the book I'm writing. My book, for those of you who don't know, is about surfing above the waves of daily life, instead of drowning under them. So, I'm pulling out my surf board, grabbing another coffee (decaf) and setting out to make the most of this day.

Oh, and the best part? My friend of the bookcase is a great chef and made us Beef Barley Soup: supper will be fabulous!

Expérience

Les sociétés anciennes vénéraient leurs membres plus âgés, ceux qui avaient plus d'expérience de vie. Les raisons étaient nombreuses : les aînés avaient vécu toutes sortes de situations, avaient vu des temps de guerre et de paix, de prospérité et de difficulté, de bonheur et de tristesse. Ils avaient pris beaucoup de décisions, et avaient vu les conséquences de leurs choix. Ils avaient rencontrer toutes sortes de personnes et savaient à qui faire confiance et de qui se méfier.

Mais aujourd'hui tout a changé. La plupart des sociétés du monde développé mettent leurs aînés de côté, font semblant qu'ils ont rien à dire et évitent leurs conseils. Nous valorisons les jeunes, avec leurs connaissances technologiques, leur capacité d'être "multi-tasker", leur amour des nouvelles idées, leur désir de saisir les nouvelles tendances. Les médias cherchent à les captiver, les marketeurs essayent de les intéresser à leurs produits, les employeurs cherchent à les embaucher...

Cependant, il faut penser : avons-nous vraiment raison de passer à côté de toute l'expérience qu'une génération de personnes pourrait nous offrir? Prenons un exemple : hier j'ai finalement accepté que mon four ne fonctionne pas; ça fait depuis l'été passé qu'il ne veut pas allumer quand c'est humide (c'est toujours humide à Montréal!). Quoi faire? devrais-je appeler quelqu'un pour essayer de le réparer? Ou bien investir dans une nouvelle cuisinière? Et comment savoir si ma décision est la bonne? Et puis, l'idée m'est venue : je vais appeler ma mère. Elle a beaucoup plus d'expérience dans l'achat des électroménagers et dans leur réparation. Et puis, suite à quelques questions, elle m'a conseillé avec confiance : achète une nouvelle cuisinière, tu ne vas pas le regretter!

Pourquoi donc ne pas utiliser l'outil de l'expérience plus souvent? Pourquoi ne pas avoir des mentors dans toutes les domaines : l'industrie, la gestion de nos villes, notre province et notre pays (n'est-ce pas ça, le Sénat au Canada?), l'éducation de nos jeunes, la santé? Pourquoi ne pas mettre nos "aînés" au travail, pour nous aider à ne pas faire les mêmes erreurs, à réagir avec sagesse, à comprendre comment communiquer?

Je vous laisse avec cette pensée : comment pourrons-nous incorporer nos "sages" dans notre quotidien? Je vous encourage de partager vos pensées dans ce blogue.

You can't push rain

What do I mean by not being able to push rain? I mean that you can't push it back up into the sky when you want the ground to stay dry (or when you don't want to ruin a good hair day!), and you can't push it down harder when you want more moisture to seep into the ground. Being from the prairies (even though I'm a city girl), we talked a lot about weather when I was young. It comes from having a major part of your economy driven by agriculture. I guess the analogy stuck with me.

So, what does pushing (or not pushing) rain have to do with life? Quite simply, there are times when we just have to let things happen when and where they do. Because they are going to happen no matter what you try to do to stop them. Here's an example: municipal elections are coming up in November in the province of Quebec. The director of the elections process put out a video on YouTube last week to try to get people to go out and vote. The video was apparently a parody of a well-known TV personality. It was very well done and quite funny. Unfortunately, the TV personality and his network didn't think it was such a great idea and demanded that the video be pulled from YouTube. Now, I'm not the most techno-aware person, but even I know that once something is on YouTube, and you let people know that you want it pulled, it is going to spread like wildfire! "Oh," people say, "you don't want us to watch this? Hmm, must be a good reason...I'm going to check it out and then get all of my friends to watch too!"

You see, you just cannot stop people from doing things you don't want them to do. And you can't get them to do the other things that you really want them to do. All you can do is catch the wave and ride it to your advantage. This is so true in our everyday lives. Of course, there are times when things go exactly the way we planned them. But for all the other times, we can turn them into situations that go our way by altering our plan, by shifting the current situation to our advantage, and by being a bit creative. When things aren't quite following your plan, ask yourself: ok, so how do I make this work for me? What can I take from this situation that will move me along my path? What new ideas and thoughts come out of this that I hadn't considered before? Has this situation actually been put in front of me so that I can learn something I would have missed otherwise?

This is part of the message of being aware that so many personal growth gurus talk about. Be aware of where you want to be going, then be aware of the signs along the way that can take you there. Ride the wave that others set in front of you. Take advantage of weird and unusual situations.

Oh, and never think that you can remove something from YouTube. Even if it is physically possible, someone is bound to have created a copy and will re-post just when you have your back turned. Instead, embrace this great new way of getting info "out there" -- the possibilities of using it to your advantage are endless!