Columns – Page 51 – FindYourBuriedTreasure

Learning to juggle leads to multiple successes

Sometimes the lessons we learn aren’t just the ones that are actually being taught. What we get out of them can go way beyond what was intended. That happened to me last weekend, during one of the sessions at a “Lead Like Jesus” Reconnect in Chicago. The session was about leadership, but the lesson was about juggling. Each of us was placed in one of four groups, based on our level of competence and enthusiasm for juggling. Then we were given a partner, a set [...]

By bettyliedtke|May 2nd, 2014|Columns, Faith, Success|Comments Off

The source of bravery is in us all

What makes you brave? The date was October 27, 2011. Four people walked down a narrow pathway between two rundown buildings. When they came out on the other side, they were in a different world. Sounds like something out of a Harry Potter book, doesn’t it? But I can assure you that the place these four people were traveling to was not a magical one. It was a muddy and garbage-strewn slum not far from Kampala, the capital of Uganda. Of the four people there [...]

By bettyliedtke|April 25th, 2014|Columns, Making a Difference, Uganda, Values|Comments Off

A weekend in Connecticut brought wealth and abundance home

I spent last weekend at a business retreat in Connecticut. The leader of the retreat is someone I met a few months ago, and I knew she was exactly the right person to help me with some areas of my business in which I still needed some guidance and support. She works almost exclusively with women entrepreneurs, and she focuses on both the spiritual and the business aspects of our work. One of the practices she insists we do every morning is to incorporate [...]

By bettyliedtke|April 18th, 2014|Buried Treasure, Columns|2 Comments

Retiring women? I don’t think so!

I got a lot of feedback on the column I wrote last week – much of it from women who are roughly my age and who are living a life that is anything but “retiring.” In case you missed it, the column was inspired by the George Eliot quote, “It’s never too late to be who you might have been,” and was about women – myself included – who discovered a new talent or calling, and who pursued new dreams and adventures in what might [...]

By bettyliedtke|April 11th, 2014|Columns, Quotes and Sayings|6 Comments

If life’s a journey – where are you going?

“It’s never too late to be who you might have been.” I have a bookmark that has this George Eliot quote on it, and I smile every time I look at it. It makes me think of people like Grandma Moses, who was in her late 70s when she first started painting, after arthritis forced her to give up the embroidery she had enjoyed for most of her life. She, of course, could be the poster child for it never being “too late.” But Grandma [...]

By bettyliedtke|April 4th, 2014|Columns, Quotes and Sayings|6 Comments

Tall tales can make life more fun

I gave a speech at my Toastmasters Club last week, and during the feedback session following the speech, one of the members in the audience said my speech almost made her sick. I took it as a compliment, which is exactly how she meant it. The speech was for a Tall Tales Contest, which is something I love taking part in. It gives me a chance to stretch my imagination, to improve my vocal variety and pacing, and to spend a little time being just [...]

By bettyliedtke|March 28th, 2014|Columns, Toastmasters|Comments Off

A new title brings a clearer vision

“The Title Whisperer.” That’s the name someone gave me at a recent meeting of our WOW group, after I came up with book titles for three of the members who were there. WOW stands for Women of Words, and it’s a monthly writers group I belong to. We don’t meet to get feedback on our writing, but to share publishing and marketing advice and resources, and to support and celebrate each other’s work. Many of the women in the group are already published authors and [...]

By bettyliedtke|March 21st, 2014|Coaching, Columns, Writing|Comments Off

No longer bound by an age-old tradition

It happened again last week. And, just as it has in the past, it caught me completely off-guard. I was at 5:15 Mass on Ash Wednesday, and hoping that my stomach wouldn’t start growling during the quiet parts of the Mass. This was a possibility not only because it was getting close to dinner time, but because I had followed the Lenten restrictions for Ash Wednesday, which are to abstain from eating meat, to refrain from eating between meals, and to have only one full [...]

By bettyliedtke|March 14th, 2014|Accountability, Columns, Faith, Health and Well-being, Holidays|2 Comments

Making a long story short

“For sale: Baby shoes, never worn.” Legend has it that Ernest Hemingway, who was a master of the short story and of tight, spare writing, once made a bet that he could write an entire story in six words. With the above “ad,” he won the bet. This story – both the one by Hemingway and the one about him – has inspired a number of literary organizations and publications over the years to sponsor writing contests challenging participants to write stories consisting of a [...]

By bettyliedtke|March 7th, 2014|Buried Treasure, Columns, Family, Gifts and Talents, Writing|4 Comments

Letting go helps us to hold on

I spent last weekend at my dad’s house – the house that we moved into when I was nine years old, and that for me defines the word “home” when you talk about going home for the holidays. The main reason for the visit was to help celebrate my nephew’s 13th birthday on Saturday, and to attend the rock concert he was performing in that same day. He’s been taking guitar lessons for about four years, and every three or four months, the school arranges [...]

By bettyliedtke|February 28th, 2014|Columns, Family, Values|Comments Off

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