Leading with Gratitude

Through our life it's important to know,

The people and events that have helped us grow.

These events have challenged us, sometimes taken us to task,

And to get through them, of leadership, we have often been asked.

They maybe simple, or entirely complex,

They maybe fleeting, or a lifetime of events.

Whatever the case there's a gift to be had,

Whether we view the situation as terrific or bad.


For being called to lead is a gift in itself,

We can lead through the challenge or put it on the back shelf.

Authenticity, courage, engagement and play,

These are things that can help us everyday.

Gratitude, conviction, honesty and trust,

These are more of the qualities, an absolute must.

For in leadership, the situations and people that challenge us most,

Are the one's that bring the greatest gifts, and ask us to get close -

"Close" to our awareness, strengths, heart and courage,

"Close" to hanging in there and "staying" even when discouraged.

And gratitude is that special gift that helps us step up to the test,

Lead with gratitude, appreciate the challenge, and give "it's hard" a rest.

The power is in thanking the challenge for coming into your life, - and then finding the learning.

And you can rest assured, that whatever the case,

it will be more powerful then churning.

Thank the people who are in your life, for all the gifts they bring,

No matter who they are to you, gratitude will make both spirits sing.

Be it a colleague or a confidante, a brother or a sister,

a parent or an in-law, a friend or a great listener,

a team mate or a direct report, a mentor or a "boss",

When you lead with gratitude, you will never be at a loss.

So when the going gets tough, work your stuff,

Discover what's true for you.

And when in doubt, step on out,

and lead with gratitude.


Anese Cavanaugh.

Incredible True Bond of Love

This is a true love story about 2 men and a lion Christian.

John Rendall and Ace Berg (two friends) saw a lion cub for sale at a department store called Harrods. Seeing the cub so cramped and lonely in a small cage they decided to bring it their London home.

Christian, as they called him weighed 35 pounds but within a year he had grown to 185 pounds, too big to keep at their home.

At this point, they got Christian back to Africa so he could be reintroduced to the wild, rehabilitated and released.
Several years later, both Rendall and Berg made a decision to visit Christian. Being told that he was now a wild animal it would be doubtful if Christian would ever be found they decided never the less to go to Africa.

You absolutely must check out the rest of this amazing love story at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiGKWoJi5qM&NR=1

The amazing video demonstrates how powerful the bond of love really is….
“Love knows no limits and true friendships last a lifetime”

Let me know your thoughts about this video... click on the comment link below and share them.
Frances

Taking Time For Sunsets

Ever take for granted what is before our eyes?

Hearing my son describe the amazing sunset yesterday, made me think how many of us, actually appreciate this amazing event.

In our fast praced world, there never seems to be enough time to just relax and enjoy the stuff that really matters.

Sunsets are one of those amazing moments in life, that occur reguarly, yet are often overlooked in our world of mortgage payments, appointments, jobs, family responsibilities, ecomomy (wow) no wonder we are a stressed out society.

While these responsibilities are important, taking time for ourselves is equally important and enjoy what nature has to offer, for free, for a few minutes.

I suggest that each of us take the time to slow down and appreciate the memorizing beauty of the changing colors and the calmness left after the sun sets.
Just watch an excited tourist capturing perfection, excitement of the children, parents laughing,couples holding hands all sharing in the magic long after the sun sets.

Sunsets like clockwork, occur daily and can be found wherever you are in the world.
When life seems overwhelming and you see the sunset take time to ground yourself with what really matters in our world. You will feel better for it.

20 Tips-Working at Home with Children

My career life experienced working outside the home, being an entrepreneur and working from home. There were challenges with juggling career and family, specifically dealing with children and working. For me, the best possible choice is choosing to stay at home with your children and work at home doing something that you love. Accomplishing this you have the best of both worlds. So, how do you organize yourself to make this work?

Here are some tips that I have experienced to work for me:
•Support from your family is important when working at home with children
•Explain to children why you work from home, what are the benefits to them.
•Get children involved; create art for office, vacation wishes, sign for door
•Create your own office space, preferably one with a door
•Organize your office space helps stay focused, less distracting, saves time.
•Organize your time by working in manageable time chunks that work for you
•To do list is best reviewed each morning for planning your day
•Set daily goals and reward yourself when their accomplished
•Calendar- using only 1 helps to eliminate missed appointments
•Head sets that keep noise down, if someone else is babysitting
•Communicate with e-mails as much as possible, spouse, friends- huge time saver, keeps you up to date, reference and backup to confirm appointments
•Friend that will lift your spirits when you’re overwhelmed
•Take a few minutes for yourself each day; often forgotten but very effective
•Lunch time with children- isn’t that why you’re working from home
•Mealtime planning- take out is still okay a couple of times a week
•Start when your most productive (4am for me, meant more time spent during the day for with the children)
•Stop working at a scheduled time, take time to play and if you really have a project to finish, do it after the children go to bed
•Hire help for the times you’re overwhelmed or phone calls
•Gratitude- list 5 things you are grateful for each day
•Law Of Attraction- what you think about you bring about

Then when you get a tap on the shoulder, stop for a few minutes and give the child your attention. Pick them up, listen to them, watch their smiles and their excitement when they talk. Both of you will be happy to carry on with the tasks at hand; this is an important part of working at home with children.

Take the time to enjoy the child, you’re not trying to solve a world crisis, your working from home, enjoy the journey, someday your child may be working from home, give them memories they can enjoy with their children.

What are your tips to working at home with children?

How to make the Law of Attraction more effective

Using Gratitude When Organizing

Witnessing an amazing scene this morning, I felt so much gratitude to an amazing start to the day. Grabbing my early morning coffee, taking a sip and looking out the window I experienced the amazing world of robins forging for food. The scene was quite exciting with chirping, running, pecking and shadows from the trees and sun streaming.

How often do we really stop to enjoy the moment? In our fast paced world it is easy to miss the joy of the moment and feel gratitude for the simple things, especially when things go wrong.

Now when I want to be in a state of gratitude I grab a coffee and join the robins and enjoy the serenity of the moment.

It is so important to be in a state of gratitude, enjoying each moment as much as possible so that the Law of Attraction can bring more things into our lives that we can be grateful for.

List of 10 things to be grateful for that can inspire the organizing process

-Having the items to organize in the first place
-For the time, people, products and services that can help
-Organizing itself will provide peace of mind
-The moment to enjoy the beautiful things in your life
-Items that you will “give” to make someone’s life richer
-Organizing makes room for new items to enrich your life
-Forgiveness to yourself for doing the best job you can
-Freedom to items that add value to your life, not deter
-Cause and effect universe,giving and receiving possible
-Life changing event from unorganized to organize

Being in a state of gratitude connects us with the universe to become who we want to be, and give our attention to, attracting the Law of Attraction.

Having a grateful mind when organizing, focuses on what we want, putting out higher powerful positive energy and seeing our goal as already accomplished.

Honoring Child's Art

One of the greatest joys about being parents & grandparents are all the wonderful art and paperwork created by our little geniuses.
I am always fascinated with how their little minds interpret things, always changing as they grow and since our family considers every little piece of paperwork & art invaluable, I have devised a simple system that works for us.

Once the “art” has been prominently displayed and as new art is introduced, it’s either scanned or larger pieces are digitally photographed. These are stored in folders on the computer and later burned onto CD’s for the whole family to share.

Tips to make this a fun Project
 Create 2 folders for each child-
1 for school year & 1 or other art projects.
 Include child to scan, organize and take photos
 Use the art on T-shirt Transfer projects
 Use art to create birthday cards, etc.
 Special pieces get framed for display

By storing all the artwork on a CD (easy to view) their own unique t-shirts and even the framed artwork, we honor our children’s hard work rather than storing a stack of papers that get hidden away and turn musty in boxes that as years go by, never get looked at.
I have taken my own childhood art (torn/tattered/discolored) which is now scanned and stored on a CD.

Tip: Good to make backup copies for family members, this serves as a backup in case the original gets lost or destroyed. If storing on a computer, save to ftp site in case of computer crashing.

I must confess that I do have a hard time tossing out anything that my children have made, with this system it makes it easier for me.

Whatever process you choose in saving your child’s art, make it fun, easy and stress free.
If storing it in a box, works for you, then just do it.

Just organize your child’s art to honor their hard work.