Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

Thinking, writing, business ideas … You’re only a stranger once.

Rules, Negative Data, and Incurable Idealists

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What If Everything We Believed In Isn’t True?

Change the World!

I’m no computer. My operating system was developed at home, versioned at school, and beat up some through the decades and detours I’ve experienced.

Don’t run in the house. Use your indoor voice. Do your work before you play. Color inside the lines. Sit up straight. Be polite. Each basic command was entered in my head. If I do these things, I will operate properly — so they told me.

I also captured information about family and fairy tales, heroes and angels, creativity and planets, inventors and imagination, and artists, and poetry, fairness and ideals. In my life I’ve talked about and witnessed awe-inspiring and wonder-full things. These concepts are in my hidden system files — read-only, undeletable files.

I’m bombarded daily with data. But she is supposed to be your friend. Data. He lost his job. Data. There have been more bombings. Data. Want to make $4000/day online? Data miner. Still data. That’s all it is — data. I don’t have unlimited memory, so unnecessary negative data doesn’t get saved —period.

Some days the data causes my mind to fragment in unfamiliar and unproductive ways.

Bits and bytes of negative data chip away at my world view and therefore at me. The Tigger in me finds myself quoting Eeyore. “Pathetic, that’s what it is. Pathetic.”

What if the world is the awful place that keeps presenting itself to me?

But try as I might, I can’t—still won’t—give up on the world. I still believe in family, and fairy tales, and heroes, and angels, and creativity, and planets, and fairness, and inventors, and imagination, and artists, and poetry, and ideals, and so many awe-inspiring and wonder-full things. They were written on my soul as a child. I can’t delete them, lucky for me. I might have wanted to once, but not now, not again, not ever.

The world needs incurable idealists. We balance out the hardcore cynics. It has to do with joy, and hope, and possibility.

The world needs people who believe in it as much as we need people who believe in us.

As we believe so we become.

Are you willing to believe in a world that works?

We can change the world just like that.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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Beach Art Gallery: Sculpture from the Sea

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by Guest Writers Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh

On Tuesday this week we saw something that at first looked like a piece of machinery. When we looked closer we saw that it was part of a tree that had been sculpted by the sea and washed up on the beach.

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On Wednesday “the sea sculpture” was still there and as you can see from the picture it had changed position.

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On Thursday “the sea sculpture” was gone. Taken by the tide on it’s journey to another beach.

Just imagine if this “sea sculpture” could speak, the stories it could tell of the beaches it had rested on.

What would you ask?

Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

Why the Brave and Smart Will Survive …

Filed Under Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog | 10 Comments

I've been thinking . . .

about fear . . . a lot.

I know it seems that we’ve all lost our manners. Our humanity and compassion seems to be scatter shot, when it’s there. Some of us seem to care more about plants and animals than the people nearest us.

Have we really all gone bad . . . or are we afraid to admit we’re afraid?

For most of us, it’s not the most fun time to be living. We see ourselves and our friends in truly precarious positions. Clients go south. Jobs go with them. Healthcare shrivels up and stress makes that an issue.

Do we think it’s brave to deny that it’s scary? We can’t fix a problem, we’re pretending isn’t there.

It’s braver and smarter to admit where we are and act on it. Here’s how to do to be brave and smart about what scare us …

From “Oh F#@&” to OK Speed Drill

“Oh F#@&” — Reaction
Identify and acknowledge your feelings.

“I’m scared. I could lose my job. I could lose my home soon.”

Go somewhere that you can say it out loud. The act of exhaling while you talk will calm you physically. Close your eyes for a minute or two. Hearing the thought will lessen it’s power over you.

“Oh God” — Release
Regain your balance. Keep your eyes closed and breathe deeply through your nose, until you feel the thought let go of it’s hold on you.

“Oh Jeez” — Recenter
Keep breathing deeply and if it helps, keep repeating through these phrases as you breathe:
“Oh F#@&” “Oh God” “Oh Jeez” “Oh Well”

“Oh Well” — Refocusing
Now you can start to think about damage control and making the best of the situation. If you find yourself negative again, go back a step or two.

“OK” — Re-engaging
Plan what you need to do and get moving.
–Just Listen: Discover the Secret to Getting Through to Absolutely Anyone

So you’re stranded in a situation you never expected. We all are.
We can all push aside the fear and get to how brave we are.

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The brave and smart survive because we turn fear into action. We don’t allow another option.

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Beach Notes: Getting The Catch In

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by Guest Writers Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh

Last week we saw the fishermen watching and waiting for their next catch.
This week we saw the fishermen working together to bring in their catch. It was fascinating to see the way they moved together, with speed and precision, to empty the net and get the fish into the large, blue ice-filled containers on their truck.

team


Like ballet on the beach.

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Is your team focused on getting the “catch in” ?

Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

One, Alone, but not Lonely … in the real world

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I've been thinking . . .

about the number one, about being alone and being lonely.

I’ve been thinking about how separate we are for almost as long as I’ve known me.

One. I was born one.
One of my friends — a twin — said that he so didn’t like being lonely that he was even born with someone else. But you know, I don’t even think being born with someone else closes the gap … between selves.

No matter how close two people get, we are never each other.
We will always be one.

It’s why I like this picture.

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The minute we try to blend with another … be it a friend or a lover … hopefully we learn that alone is not the same as lonely.

One, alone, but not lonely is a proud and powerful word in the real world.

Have you felt the difference between alone and lonely?

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