First Word

About the 10th time the cat's paw reached up and grabbed my hand on the mouse, I thought, "I'm going to come unglued." Then the paw reached up and scratched me, "That's it! I AM coming unglued." Ever feel that about work and life? Americans are a bunch of unglued workaholics ... well, not all but many. My friend the other day said to me, "You're CEO. You don't get to give your 100 percent; you always have to give your 110 percent every single day." He's right. I know all you CEOs and entrepreneurs out there are nodding. It's not enough to give only a 100 percent and call it a day. The demands of the business, including the ongoing financial demands to keep the framework and walls all in place take a lot of effort. As owner of the company I am responsible for it all. I have to keep the "glue" going. But some days I just feel unglued, especially when the obnoxious cat won't stop clawing my busy typing fingers. BUT ...

Most people are familiar with the word Reiki but I still meet a lot of people who don't really know what it is. Simply put, it's manipulating energy. Okay, okay, I see that you are looking at me with "huh?" still written on your face. Let me try to explain a little further. Energy cannot be destroyed or created, it can only be moved, manipulated and transformed. According to Reiki.org “Reiki is administered by "laying on hands" and is based on the idea that an unseen "life force energy" flows through us and is what causes us to be alive. If one's "life force energy" is low, then we are more likely to get sick or feel stress, and if it is high, we are more capable of being happy and healthy.” We drain our life energy when we only give and give and give and do not take care of ourselves. Without personal practices in place to replenish ourselves we become energetically depleted. Reiki is a Japanese technique for stress reduction...

It's Friday so it's time for ... Friday morning musings, which means I'm going to blog about something completely useless almost in the vein of Andy Rooney. But wait! Usually when I "muse" over something you end up reading about something meaningful ... sometimes. I think I'll coin a new phrase, "Life is like a box of Cracker Jacks, you never know what is the toy surprise." Reminds me of Forrest Gump, "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never what you're gonna get." I can hear Tom Hanks' voice as Forest in my head right now. Well, I think life is more like a meandering trail with lots of pretty bushes and flowers on the road side and every now and again, a rattlesnake that if you're either smart you stay away from or you get too curious and get a poisonous bite. Ouch! Here is my recommendation for the best snake-bite kit ever ... E-V-E-R :). Use a Life Coach and in particular, I recommend Bo Bradley, who among her many roles...

Bo Bradley, operations manager Bo Bradley, operations manager, 3L Publishing , and I went to Disneyland mid-week to enjoy a respite from the daily grind and to unleash our inner children. A dear friend of mine suggested that if we were truly to unleash the kid beneath, eat ice cream! Of course on a hot summer day, the suggestion sounded perfectly apropos, so eat ice cream we did. And since any true girl would choose chocolate and strawberry, I obliged my spirit of youth and added those flavor to my sundae. What better way to start our Disney sojourn then naturally to eat ice cream and ride the Pirates of the Caribbean. And that my friends is how we work around here. Come eat ice cream with us ... you're always invited. Send us an email at info@3LPublishing.com .

This post comes on the hinges of a deeply personal conversation I had with a dear and trusted family member. She has recently gone through some humps in the road called life. The themes in the conversation resonated not only as important to one's personal life and how they conduct that life, but also in business, and I thought I would share some of the insight. You can take away from this what resonates with you, but the real theme is personal responsibility and boundaries. In this person's case, she was faced with some of the usual corporate politics, and she did not like them. She was also faced with some personal difficulties, as she was ending a relationship. First, what she realized is that she needed to take responsibility for what she had done in the past that put her where she was today. We live in a culture that typically makes the blame game permissible. Something happens, not my fault. I didn't do anything. It's the other person's fault. We even seek perm...