Well done!

Praise is good, and if you have praised someone today, encouraging them to excel in something they have been trying to do, you are to be praised.

But always make sure your praise is sincere. Make sure you have identified something the person has done well. It might be just one of ten steps in a process, but make sure to identify specifically what they have done well.

False praise for things they have not done well will not help. If they believe it, they will continue doing substandard work instead of trying harder to do better. If they don’t believe it, they will feel uneasy that you are calling attention to something they know was not good enough.

Praise and praise sincerely. You do it for your kids; now do it for others.

Who are Friends?

Who are your friends? In this day and age, people have hundreds of “friends” on MySpace and FaceBook (many of whom we actually have no idea who they are), where we “know” dozens of parents of our kids’ classmates, where we go to conferences and see faces we have met before, where we follow celebrities on blogs and twitter and read their books and feel like we know them.

But who really are your friends?

Your friends are the people you will go out of your way to help. And those who will go out of their way to help you.

Refresh your Friendships...

Friendship is one of those intangibles that cannot be measured and often goes unnoticed. Yet it is one that requires as much nurturing as our own bodies. It is so easy to lose track of friends in our busy world, and the loss of a friend is like a loss of part of ourselves.

If you don’t make time for your friends, how do you expect them to make time for you. How can a friendship remain alive if the very things that created the friendship – the bonding, the interaction, the connectivity – are no longer there.

I was contacted by an old friend a week ago. She invited me to join her forum and in this process I came into contact with loads of old friends that I kinda "misplaced" over the past two years.

Yes, now is the time for each of us to call up an old friend and rekindle lost friendships.

Ideas...

There is a very thin line between life and death. A thin, white line. Or maybe it’s yellow. It runs down the middle of the road. Cross that line and you crash into another car. If the other car crosses the line, it crashes into you.

What’s the only thing keeping both cars from crashing?

Hint – it’s not a line. No line ever stopped a car trying to cross it. No, it’s an idea. The idea that the car should keep on one side of the line. The idea of obeying the rules of the road for everybody’s safety. The idea.

Even for something a simple and basic as steering a vehicle, and idea is a powerful thing. Do you have an idea? Are you willing to ride the idea? If so, you have power.

Wisdom...

Peace is more than the absence of war...
Peace is a world filled with love,
light and joy and it starts with you!

Resolutions?

Have you started your New Years resolutions yet? Yes! And this time I'll keep them! Okay, stay strong and keep on track as the days go by. Never stop using your will-power!

No? Well, it’s never too early and never too late. New Year’s Day is a totally arbitrary day. Feel free to use it if that helps motivate you – a fresh start to a new year. Or the start of summer vacation. Or the return to work or school after summer/winter vacation. Or the day you read an article that really makes you think.

You see, while resolutions for the New Year give us a wonderful sense of positive intent, they are extremely hard to stick with unless we turn them into clear, well-defined goals. Whenever you are moved to action, make the resolution. Make the plan. Take action! Make the changes you need to create the life you want.