Ms. News Goat

I was miserable in my college speech class. I was fairly confident I’d never need any of that stuff. After all, why would I take a job that required speaking in front of others?

Ten years later, I still haven’t had a job that required prepared presentations, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t needed those speech class lessons.

I have had plenty of situations where I’ve been in meetings and needed to give a quick answer to an unexpected question. Or where I needed to speak up during a conference call. Or when I’ve been in an important discussion with just a few other people. And in several of those situations I found myself hesitant to speak up—or if I did speak up, I was nervous and shaky. I often came out of those situations thinking I could have done a better job. That feeling—plus the concern that this weakness would limit me more and more going forward—made me decide I needed to do something. (more…)

The first Toastmasters meeting I went to wasn’t a real meeting at all. It was a demonstration meeting that various local clubs coordinated at a local library. I had no idea what to expect. I was nervous about going in the first place (I dragged my husband along to be my safety net)—but I was especially nervous that they’d call on me to say something. (more…)

We all know Thanksgiving is a great time to remember the things we’re thankful for. But why wait for a once-a-year holiday… especially when that day’s meaning can get overwhelmed by family gatherings, football, and pumpkin pie?

In the past 6 months or so, I’ve started listing things I’m thankful for every morning. I’ve made a couple of rules for myself:

• Each thing I list should be specific, preferably something new that occurred (or that I became aware of) in the last 24 hours.
• I list 1-2 things I’m thankful for in each of 7 categories:
  • Physical
  • Social/Community
  • Mental/Self-Improvement
  • Fun & Relaxation
  • Home Life
  • Home Business
  • Work
• If I really can’t think of something for a category, I can instead concentrate on a positive expectation I have for the current day. For example, I am thankful that tonight’s spa appointment will give me an opportunity to relax.

It’s a simple exercise, but it’s very powerful. If I’ve started the day in a bad mood, this is a great way to turn my mood around. Focusing on the positive instead of the negative helps me be happier in the short term.

But it also seems to shift my focus in the longer term. If I know I’m going to have to make a list tomorrow morning of things I’m thankful for, I am more likely to look for things throughout my day to add to that list. And it goes beyond just observing the positive things around me. I think I’m more likely to make those positive things happen.

I hope your Thanksgiving holiday is wonderful. But I also hope that this year, you’ll celebrate Thanks-giving on a daily basis.

Just go easy on that pumpkin pie…

At long last, I’ve compiled the numbers from our Wal-Mart experiment, and they were a little surprising. But before I share them, let me tell you a little more about the experiment.

The Setup

Our experiment was to avoid shopping at Wal-Mart for 1 month (we later expanded it to 3 months). For us, avoiding Wal-Mart also meant avoiding Sam’s Club. Since it’s the same company, we assume shopping there has basically the same implications as shopping at Wal-Mart. The Sam’s Club part turned out to be harder than the Wal-Mart part of the experiment. But more about that later…

To-Done! recently talked about keeping things clean for less stress. I really like two of his tips:

• Be cleaning constantly.
• Don’t pile.

One of my 43 Things is keeping a clean home. I decided that if my in-laws or the repairman or whoever called to say they were dropping by in half an hour, I didn’t want to worry about what kind of shape the house would be in. (more…)