Category Archives: Keep your chin up

My Recap of SHRM’s #WorkFlex12 Conference – and how it affected me, personally

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I had known for about 7 months that I would be attending SHRM’s WorkFlex 2012 Conference here in Chicago that commenced yesterday because they had asked me to be one of their session speakers. And I knew that they were having a roll-out of some fabulous speakers, but I had no idea how much it would change me personally.

Sometimes we find ourselves in a funk, especially when we’re trying to juggle (Work and Life) the very things we are preparing to discuss in some sort of public seminar or speaking engagement. This used to happen quite frequently when I traveled and spoke across our nation many years ago. I never thought it would happen to me this time.

I’ve been doing this juggling act with work and life now through so many life-changes; the loss of a job, the loss of my husband’s career and trying to help him navigate his next move, car issues, home issues, family issues. Add all this to your current work-load and starting a new business is sometimes very challenging. Who am I kidding? It’s sometimes overwhelming and keeps me up at night (and not in a good way).

I headed to the conference on Wednesday, not making Tuesday because of many of the issues I stated above. I had been up all night the night before heading in and was running on about 2 hours of sleep. I knew it was going to be a long day and I would need to somehow dig down deep for some kind of supernatural strength to be able to make it till the end of my session, not to mention blogging and sitting through numerous sessions and a few keynoters that I wanted to be in on.

I will admit that I have been on an emotional roller-coaster and a bucket of nerves for several weeks now. And I was starting to feel sorry for myself and I could sense myself chewing on a bitter weed of discontent. Even my close friends were kind enough to point it out. I had indeed become a Debbie Downer to be around. One of those very people I can’t stand to hang with, I had become.

And guess what? Something happened.

I had sat in on a couple of fabulous sessions back to back in the morning and was able to live-tweet several nuggets. And then I went in to hear JR Martinez speak.

As he began we found ourselves laughing at his humorous jabs at the audience and then so many of the things he shared began hitting very close to home and I kind of had an epiphany. Something started shifting inside me. A paradigm shift, for lack of a better explanation.

If you haven’t heard his story I highly recommend it. Having come through so many challenges (which seems like an inappropriate word) and finding the strength to go on is his mantra and was what I needed to hear to get me outta my funk.

Here are a few things he shared that struck me:

  • Everybody has a story. (This is something to always keep in the back of our minds, especially when we’re dealing with people. It tends to make us more sympathetic).
  • Being flexible is MUST! Plans change, either by our choices or the fact that life is unpredictable. But even the high rise buildings around us are created to be flexible to be able to stand the atmospheric conditions.
  • Adapt and Overcome! No matter what comes your way.
  • Every single person has strengths and weaknesses. When we find ourselves in a crossroads of life, we need to find our strengths. Dig deep!
  • There comes a point in life when there’s nothing else you can do but simply throw your hands up and laugh! Even in the midst of difficulty.
  • Your life can completely change in one moment. How are you going to respond to it? Are you going to quit or fight?
  • In his darkest of times he made the decision to forget about his long-term plans he had created and focus on the short-term. How could he remain positive – today? Tomorrow will take care of itself.

In the end, he started talking of how he made it out of his “funky time” because he started thinking of how he could give back. He started volunteering his time, through his darkest of moments, and visiting others who had gone through horrible experiences of their own. This drew him out of himself and his own pity party, and once again, created purpose.

Sometimes we need reminders that cause us to think differently, whether it’s how to incorporate new ideas in the workplace, juggling our own work and life initiatives, or simply seeing that inside each and every one of us is a hidden strength that if found can pull us out of the deepest and darkest of places. They cause us to once again help us re-focus, re-group and find our purpose.

Thank you SHRM, for bringing this conference to my city and allowing me to have been a part of something life-changing.

Just because Lance Armstrong quit, doesn’t mean you have to!

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Today we awake to the news that “Lance Armstrong finally quits.” He’s been battling allegations of misuse of drugs for performance for a while and one reporter even states, “In the end Armstrong quits, and by quitting, he admits his guilt.”

Whether that’s true or not, I’m sure we’ll never know – we can only speculate. Perhaps he was just.plain.tired. of fighting this losing battle.

Lance was one of those who went through major stuff and his message was basically. “Don’t let anything get in your way. You can make it through anything, if you persevere and have determination.” Another writer states this about him:

Lance beat everything that came his way. He didn’t relent. If there was a fight to still fight, he would have fought it. Now we’re burned by another fraud masquerading as a hero.

In a matter of months we have learned that college football’s winningest coach enabled a pedophile, the MVP of baseball’s All-Star Game used testosterone and cycling’s biggest star chose to no longer hold back the mountain of doping allegations against him. It’s a sad few weeks when Joe Paterno’s statue goes into storage and Melky Cabrera disappears from the pennant race and Lance Armstrong says “no mas.” Suddenly, nothing seems sacred anymore.

Each brought hope and joy to a lot of people’s worlds. Paterno inspired generations of football players to be better men. Cabrera gave San Francisco four wonderful months of baseball, and Armstrong made millions believe they could do anything.

Seriously? Nothing is sacred anymore because our heroes fall? What a crock!

Listen, all are created equal when it comes to temptation. We are all tempted in one aspect or another – throughout our lifetime. And no one is immune. Perhaps we place these folks on too high a pedestal – and then when they screw up we’re like, “See there! I knew it.”

Don’t be one of those waiting for others to fail just to prove your theory.

The thing is, whether someone walks a chalk line, doesn’t give into the temptation buzzing around them, or whether they take the bait and fall flat on their face – THE MESSAGE IS STILL THE SAME. The message of hope, of perseverance, of fighting till the finish, of beating cancer till the death, – doesn’t change. It doesn’t change just because someone failed.

It’s just like religion.

Just because you have extremists, and all kinds of people who are cray-cray, it doesn’t change the message. It may affect the organization or the team, but it doesn’t change the message. I cannot stress that enough.

Put your trust in people and there’s a chance they may fail. We take that risk when we put our trust out there. But we don’t pack our bags and say, “I’m never watching sports again because someone’s going to ruin it for me. They’re going to screw up.”

No! We keep on keepin’ on and we hope that someone will have the balls to walk the talk.

There’s still hope that you or your loved one will fight cancer and win. My dad did. There’s still truth that you can fulfill life-long dreams. We see this everyday, in everyday people around us.

We don’t quit, just because someone else did.

Photo Credit: theamazing39stonecyclist

Who doesn’t like a little Brown Sugar?

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I love brown sugar. And when I say that, I mean REAL brown sugar. It’s not a metaphor ;)

Not too long ago I was getting out the brown sugar in my kitchen pantry and noticed it was hard as a rock! I then of course, went to my husband who is one of those people that is constantly going through the cabinets and refrigerator checking expiration dates (You know those OCD obsessed kind), and asked him should I throw it out. Of course he agreed that I should because it was old.

I knew I had just bought this brown sugar goodness only a few weeks prior. How could something so delicious go bad so quickly? I knew something was up.

I quickly turned to my BFF and foodie Lorrie, and asked her “Don’t they make something to put in the brown sugar to keep it soft?” And to my amazement, she told me about the Brown Sugar Bear. She immediately came and picked me up and said, “We’re going right now to Bed, Bath and Behind (that’s what my husband calls it) and get you one.

So off we go to purchase one to stick in my hard bag of brown sugar. 

I’ll let you read about it on their site and how it works. I don’t know how it keeps the sugar soft, I just know that after a few days, my bag of brown sugar was just as soft and fresh as when I first purchased it. And it remained there until just this morning when I made oatmeal for breakfast. I will wash it off and save it for my next bag.

What does this have to do with anything?

When I was washing off my bear, I couldn’t help but wish that there was such a simple solution to life that all we had to do is keep a little clay bear nearby, to keep us from getting so hard and calloused.

Life is messy, people. Day in and day out we come against so many people and situations that can take its toll on us if we don’t keep our perspective. In fact, yesterday I was dealing with someone online that had been stealing from me, rejected proposals, and so forth. And I found myself starting to get into that funky place.

I was so gently reminded today, that we need to remain pliable and not sweat the small stuff. In the grand scheme of things, what does it really matter?

I’d thought I’d share with you in reminding you and I hope you’ll remember that story. And go get you a Brown Sugar Bear. It’s amazing!