Category Archives: motivation

Reaching the Young People

Sitting late on Saturday afternoon thinking…

I am going to be assistant coach for 3-4 year olds.  Squirrel Girl is going to be coaching.  We have “the Force” team.  9 kiddos that might range in age from later 2 years old to nearly 5… kind of a wide range of ages and abilities to pair to a team… but we will see where the next few weeks take us.

Our first practice is this coming Friday. We will meet the kiddos and meet the parents and get our groove on.  The most important thing we will be teaching these kids is that they can.  They are there to have fun… they are there to boogy and wiggle and laugh in the late Friday afternoons and Saturdays (game days).

Today, we had our coach’s meeting.  We did a mock practice with Coach Dan (who is an awesome man who has been in sports for just about his entire life) and it was hard to not become addicted to the “up” personality.  Now… to can that personality and start to emulate it!!!

Songs and games are going to be key.

The thing that struck me most was the most important thing to remember, we are there to have fun and to be silly and get them engaged and excited about moving and being outside.

I think we can do this.  I think I can do this.  I don’t have to know much about Soccer… all I have to remember is to try to make sure the kids don’t ever doubt that they can do anything that they put their minds to… that they are good enough.  This is where the self confidence starts to get built… now… to build it… to maybe have an impact on the lives of our future future leaders…

It sounds way less like herding cats than I thought it would.  It sounds a lot more like what kids need.  It isn’t about making everyone a winner, it is about giving every one the self impression that maybe they aren’t just a loser.

🙂

On Making A Difference

Today, I feel really really good.  I realized that I can make a difference… even if it is a small difference… it is a difference and it feels really good.

I was walking back to my little hovel from the break room.  The janitor (ALWAYS such a chipper man) stopped me and asked me if I was the motivational one in my team’s office who has been putting up the motivational sayings on the cube walls on post-it notes.

I looked a little sheepish… I have gotten in a little bit of unofficial trouble by posting them in the “wrong” places before… and admitted they were mine.

He teared up and thanked me for the ones that are there today.  The one in particular really struck him hard and made him think and made him smile.

Blessed are the cracked for they shall let in the light.
-Groucho Marx

He said that I need to keep that up and start putting them in other places because everyone needs a little sunshine in their lives, a little motivation a little smile to make them feel a little less sucky.

It made me smile.  It made me realize that maybe I do make a difference for the people I work with and around.  Maybe, just maybe, the people who make fun of me all the time are a little bit wrong…

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People Watching

Okay… so here I am again.  I’m not at my (Squirrel Girl’s) favorite bench (picnic table) because THAT one was taken… but I’m only one table away, so that isn’t bad.  It is still shady and quiet.  I’m listening to … Continue reading

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Watching the Younger Generation

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So… I’m sitting under a tree, feeling the breeze on my face and in my hair (what there is of it) and watching the kids who are my daughter’s classmates in some form or another pass me by.  I’m listening … Continue reading

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Squeezing in a ‘run’ with company

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So, my determined little Dassie Girl (who has taken to liking Dassie girl more than squirrel girl all of a sudden… I think because it sounds neat, and we know what a Dassie is and they are cute) crept slowly … Continue reading

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Fear Bites

So… here I am, faced with my ultimate dilema. I’m starting to feel human again. I can make decent tme on my walk. I can feel like getting out and pushing again. I am looking forward (deranged individual that I … Continue reading

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Long Week

So… here we are again fair reader… (yeah yeah… it is a weird morning… give me a break)… It has been a long week… and my body is reminding me that it has been a long week. This week… Adam … Continue reading

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A Bright Shiny New Year

So, here I sit, January 2, 2012 looking back and looking forward. I’m trying, this morning as I wait for coffee to finish so I can warm my cold achy hands around the cup, to decide if there is anything … Continue reading

Sticky Notes… Day 2… demoralizing

 

I apparently irritated someone yesterday with my annoying little positive affirmation notes.

I was told (by my HR friend) that I needed to make sure that, if I put them up, they were on the bulletin boards in the break rooms.  Company policy.  So I did.

These ones were on the bulletin board wall in the small break room on my floor at work.  I stopped in to get tea water and there they were… all piled together, in the garbage.

I want to spread this to the people I work with, too, but if this is the response I get, maybe it really isn’t worth the bother.  Maybe it is just better to post these where other people will see them and not worry about anyone I work with and hope that other people get something out of it.

No, I will keep putting them up at work.  I’m nothing if not stupidly tenacious.  I will try not to get bent about who I figure took them down.  Onward and Upwards!!!

Maybe one of the others I put up will have brought a smile to someone.

Random Acts of Operation Beautiful

Okay… so… I’m a little odd.  I’ll admit it.  If you have read many of my entries, you will have gathered that already.  Over the last couple days I have been haunting a website (Operation Beautiful).  Along the same lines, I have been talking to an awesome person in Cape Town South Africa (Human Kind is the facebook name) who is trying to decide if being a little different is worth taking the chance… if putting yourself out there to be kind to people, even if you don’t know the people, is really worth the risk… the risk of being ridiculed… the risk of never knowing what the change is that you are bringing to the world.. if it is worth it.

So today I embarked on a new adventure.

I started writing motivational stuff on sticky notes and posting them in random places.

 

 

For the first three, I actually did what the basic original idea suggested… I placed them in the women’s bathrooms to bring a boost to women’s self esteem. These three pictures are my first three tentative attempts.

Later, I put a few more in the women’s bathroom, on the backs of the stall doors.
All of them disappeared.
I don’t really know if anyone took them or if the cleaning lady took them down.
I did go later to talk to my friend the HR lady to make sure I wasn’t going to get into trouble for putting them around the office floor. She said that she saw the ones in the bathroom, decided to go to the website, and didn’t think it was a bad thing. No one had complained and no one could take them as offensive so I should be okay.
So I made a few more and dropped them off on the way out. I put one by the elevator button in the office. I put one in the elevator of the parking garage and one on the computerized parking meter thing where it would be unobtrusive.
My adventure is going… now… to see where this adventure takes me.
Tomorrow I buy the Operation Beautiful book (electronic version) online.

The saga continues.