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Spreading Contagious Enthusiasm™ |
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In This Issue:
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October 2009
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Where in the World Is Barbara?
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News at Barbara Glanz Communications
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Idea of the Month --Send Thanksgiving Cards
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The Power of Appreciation and Gratitude
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Recent Books That Have Impacted My Life
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"You are today what you'll be five years from now, except for the people you meet and the books you read."
-- Charlie Tremendous Jones
"A man who buys a book is not just buying a few ounces of paper, glue, and printer's ink; he may be buying a whole new life."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson
"I still find this day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see."
--John Burroughs
"You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive."
--James Baldwin
Books are not lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on the shelves. From each of them goes out its own voice . . . and just as the touch of a button on your stereo fills the room with music, so by taking down one of these volumes and opening it, you can call into range the voice of a mind far distant in time and space, and hear that person speaking to us, mind to mind, heart to heart.
--Gilbert Highet, literary critic
My earliest memories are of the library when I sat at the tiny children's table and looked at picture books. I heard the voices in the books. All the greatest minds of history waiting to talk to me. My friends of the mind.
--Dottie Walters
Books and ideas are the most effective weapons against intolerance and ignorance.
-Lyndon B. Johnson
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"When darkness seems overwhelming, light a candle in someone's life and see how it makes the darkness in your own and the other person's life flee."
Rabbi Harold S. Kujshner, "When Bad Things Happen to Good People"
i have included below two of the recently published pieces from my blog in case you have not seen them. They happened in the last few weeks and powerfully reinforce the importance of everyday appreciation just as I have written about in my book, "The Simple Truths of Appreciation -- How Each of Us Can Choose to Make a Difference."
THE POWER OF A "THANK YOU"
My daughter, Gretchen, has been a "stay-at-home" Mom for nearly six years. Recently, for financial reasons, she decided she needed to get a part time job in the evenings. I suggested to her that she make a list of all the places she thought it would be fun to work. One of them was Ikea, the new rage, especially with young people, for furniture and household goods.
She sent in her resume' since they had just recently opened a new store in Portland, Oregon, where they live, and two weeks ago she was called for an interview, the first one she has had in six years since graduating from college.
After it was over, I called her to see how it had gone. She said, "Mom, it did not go very well. I did develop a good relationship with the person who interviewed me, but I did not do well in expressing my skills." (At that point, I felt terrible because I had neglected to coach her on interview skills and do some role playing with her since she had not done this for such a long time.)
"Well," I told her, "Regard it as a learning experience and now you'll be better prepared for the next time." Then I suggested she send them a thank you note and a copy of my book, "The Simple Truths of Service Inspired by Johnny the Bagger®." Since the unemployment rate in Portland is the highest in the nation, just getting an interview was a gift, I told her, so this was a way for her to demonstrate her gratitude.
Just a few days later, she got a call to come into the store that very afternoon, and guess what? She GOT the job! The person who had interviewed her told her that in four years of hiring for this new store, she was only the SECOND person who had ever written a "thank you" note, and she was very impressed. Gretchen thinks that is one of the main reasons she got the job.
What a lesson for all of us! It is little things that make a huge difference, and one of the easiest and best ways to differentiate yourself is to become a more grateful person and then to SHOW it. We are all celebrating Gretchen's success!
SHARE YOUR APPRECIATION
Several weeks ago I was the opening keynote speaker for the Joint Commission in Illinois, which is a regulatory association in the Healthcare Industry. I had a wonderful experience, thanks in good part to the meeting planner who was so efficient in caring for all the details.
I spoke on "Spreading Contagious Enthusiasm™ -- Creating Workplaces of Passion, Purpose, and Productivity," and in that presentation I use the acronym "CARE" as the elements of a joyful, fully engaged workplace:
C= Creative Communication
A = Atmosphere and Appreciation for All
R = Respect and Reason for Being
E = Empathy and Enthusiasm
I also use the metaphor of "sending" a "CARE Package" when we make a human level connection with someone. In Adult Learning theory, both the acronym and the metaphor are called "Anchors" to help internalize the learning.
When I returned home from this engagement, as usual I sent the meeting planner a thank you note and a lovely, small, handblown ceramic package as a memory of the "CARE Package" theme.
Yesterday, I received this note from her:
Dear Barbara,
Just a quick note to thank you for the beautiful "gift/present" figurine. In all my 13 years working here, I have never received any gift from past faculty. The best part? It came just a few days before my birthday! I SO enjoyed working with you. Thanks again,
Sincerely,
Susan
We never know when a little appreciation can deeply impact a life. And guess what - this organization has already talked about booking me to speak at their conference next year!
FROM DR. NORMAN VINCENT PEALE
Finally, I serve on the National Advisory Council for Guideposts, and this was an excerpt from Dr. Norman Vincent Peale's booklet, "Hope: Opens the Way Where There Seems No Way" to help us find renewal in our lives:
1. Make an inventory of your joys. Sit down with pencil and paper and write them down, not forgetting the commonplace -- a comfortable chair, the house or apartment that shelters you, faces that are dear to you. (I have done this for many years in what I call my "Blessings Journal." It is simply a spiral notebook in which I write the blessings that have occurred that day. I find that even on the darkest day, I can find one or two blessings!)
2. Step outside and take five deep breaths of good, fresh air. Note every beautiful thing around you: sunlight dappling through trees onto a well-kept green lawn, a lighted train rushing through the night, moonlight's silvery radiance lighting up a church steeple, the crunch of snow under your foot on a crisp winter day. (I just stopped as I was writing this and noticed that the vast expanse of the ocean today is sparkling with millions of tiny crystals of light, and I can hear the children laughing in the pool. How blessed we are to simply be alive!)
3. Do an unexpected favor for someone and note the look of happy surprise and gratitude it causes. It will fill you with joy. (Last night I took a Mum plant down to a 90 year old lady who lives in my building. The look on her face brought tears to my eyes. She is no longer able to read or to walk by herself, so my visit was the highlight of her week, she said. She talked and talked, and I was filled with joy that so iilttle of my time could mean so much to someone.)
I hope you will find ways this very day to appreciate someone in your home or office or simply someone you interact with as you go through your day. It will add to your joy and theirs and to the total amount of goodness in the world.
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WHERE IN THE WORLD IS BARBARA?
SEPTEMBER
1- 2 US Travel Association, incline Village, Lake Tahoe, NV
11-14 Ken Blanchard Board Meeting, Cornell Club, NYC
15-16 Joint Commission, Rosemont, IL, Premiere Speakers
18 - 19 Kentucky Society for Human Resource Management, Lexington, KY
30 - October 1 Sacramento Human Resources Association, Sacramento, CA
OCTOBER
6- 7 University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN
8 - 9 Hold, Dick's Sporting Goods, Pittsburgh, PA, Premiere Speakers
16 Hold, VASHHRA
21 Photo shoot for "West Coast Woman"
NOVEMBER
4 UMB Bank, Kansas City, MO
5 - 8 Emcee, Guideposts National Meeting, Dana Point, CA
11 Carolinas Healthcare System, Charlotte, NC
14 Iowa Clinics, Des Moines, IA
18-19 Hold Terrabonna Medical Center
20-22 National Speaker's Association Winter Workshop, Presentation Nov. 21
22 - 25 Portland, OR
25 - 29 Seattle, WA
29 - December 4 Grand Junction, CO
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This idea is excerpted from Barbara's book, "CARE Packages for the Home -- Dozens of Little Things You Can Do to Regenerate Spirit Where You Live." However, it is an idea that applies to your workplace as well.
SEND THANKSGIVING CARDS
THE IDEA:
Everyone receives so many beautiful cards at Christmas that one of the ways to really get people's attention as well as to send a very special message is to send Thanksgiving cards.
THE IDEA IN ACTION:
Laurie Trice of Kenosha, Wisconsin, tells about how she got started sending Thanksgiving cards :
The first year after leaving the company where I had worked for 15 years, I had many wonderful friends to keep in touch with. I decided to send Thanksgiving cards that year, and with each card I wrote how that person was special to me and what reasons I was thankful for their friendship. I included our company caterer, the cleaning staff, everyone who had been a part of my life. At the time my notes were simply an outpouring of my feelings because I missed them. One by one, I realized that these notes were very precious to these people. I came to realize that perhaps we don't get specific enough with our usual holiday cards. I was impressed with how much my friends treasured my feelings when they were put into writing.
This year I decided to send "year end" cards, and I included my new friends at my new job. I decided to tell them specifically how much my new acquaintance with them meant to me. Again, to my surprise, these cards were received with great enthusiasm, too. Almost everyone thanked me in a very sincere way for the card. I encourage everyone to send Thanksgiving cards and to be very specific in them and tell the person why they are special to you. They will be a blessing to you both!
TIPS:
I have saved cards like Laurie's for many years, and I read and reread them, especially when I need a boost. It is a wonderful surprise to receive a Thanksgiving card, no matter what time of year it is!
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Since a good part of this newsletter is being devoted to reading, I thought I would share with you some of the books which have touched me deeply in the last few weeks. I would love to hear about what you are reading as well. You can email me, join me on Facebook, Twitter, Plaxo or Linked-in, or respond on my blog where I will post this writing.
"Three Cups of Tea -- One Man's Mission to Promote Peace....One School at a Time"--Greg Mortenson and David Relin
Greg Mortenson should have won the Nobel Peace Prize! He single-handedly has done more to bring peace and counteract terrorism than any government person or group. The minute I finished this touching true story, I ordered 15 more copies and wrote a check to help his mission of building schools in the remote mountain villages of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Check out his nonprofit organization, Central Asia Institute, www.ikat.org. It costs $1 per month for one child's education, a penny to buy a pencil, and a teacher's salary averages $1 a day. I was deeply touched by this one man's commitment, perseverance, and sacrifice to help the neediest of people get an education, having currently brought education to over 24,000 children in the most needy villages in the mountains of Pakistan and Afghanistan. You will love his story and the hope it brings that one person can make a difference.
Here is a description of the book:
In 1993 a mountaineer names Greg Mortenson drifted into an impoverished Pakistan village in the Karakoram mountains after a failed attempt to climb K2. Moved by the inhabitants' kindness, he promised to return and build a school. "Three Cups of Tea" is the story of that promise and its extraordinary outcome. Over the next decade Mortenson built not just one but fifty-five schools, especially for girls--in the forbidding terrain that gave birth to the Taliban, His story is at once a riveting adventure and a testament to the power of the humanitarian spirit.
"How Full Is Your Bucket--Positive Strategies for Work and Life" -- Tom Rath and Donald O. Clifton
This simple little book uses the analogy of a bucket: Everyone has an invisible bucket. We are at our best when our buckets are overflowing--and at our worst when they are empty. Everyone also has an invisible dipper. In each interaction, we can use our dipper either to fill or to dip from others' buckets. Whenever we choose to fill other's buckets, we in turn fill our own. (This is exactly the same message I share but in a slightly different way.)
I loved this thought: If you thank two people each day for the next ten days and they, in turn, thank two people, at the end of ten days, 1000 people will have received some form of appreciation. Then, if you thank five people a day for ten days and each of them, in turn, thanks 5 people, at the end of the then days 19 MILLION people will have received affirmation. How about giving that a try in your life? Think of the difference we could make!
"I am the Messenger" -- Markus Zusak
An American Library Association Honor Book, this heartwarming novel is a must-read if you enjoy fiction. Ed Kennedy is an underage cabdriver without much of a future. He's pathetic at playing cards, hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey, and utterly devoted to his coffee-drinking dog, the Doorman. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery. That's when the first ace arrives in the mail. That's when Ed becomes the messenger. Chosen because he cares, he makes his way through town helping and hurting (when necessary) until only one question remains: Who's behind Ed's mission? You will not want to put this book down!
"Stillness Speaks" -- Eckhart Tolle
This book has ten chapters with short, almost devotional kinds of entries all based on this premise: " When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself. When you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world." One interesting idea: "Don't take your thoughts too seriously. How easy it is for people to become trapped in their conceptual prisons!" I took many notes from this little book, and it really challenged me to live more fully in the present.
"Talk Before Sleep"--Elizabeth Berg
This beautifully written novel was tender and irreverent by turns, bringing both laughter and tears to my eyes. It is the story of a deep friendship between two very different women and how they together face a crisis that redefines the meaning of unconditional love. Ruth is dying and Ann, who has been her friend and soul mate in an intimacy that few of us will ever know, explore the question we all wonder -- what would we say and do if we knew we didn't have forever.
" The Girls from Ames -- A Story of Women & a Forty Year Friendship"--Jeffrey Laslow
Written by the co-author of "The Last Lecture," this is the inspiring story of eleven girls who grew up together in Ames, Iowa, and how this friendship survived through crises and blessings over 40 years. I loved this quot:, "Sometimes the only thing keeping a woman from falling over is the girlfriend right beside her." And of course, being a native Iowan, I could relate deeply to this book, especially thinking of my friend, Mary, whom I met in Harlan, Iowa, when I was three years old, and who still is an important part of my life.
Books I am in the process of reading:
"The Lost Symbol" -- Dan Brown
"Outliers--The Story of Success" -- Malcolm Gladwell
"Traveling with Pomegranates-- A Mother-Daughter Story" -- Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor
"Reaching for the Invisible God -- What Can We Expect to Find" -- Philip Yancey
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© Barbara Glanz Communications, Inc. 2009. All Rights Reserved.
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