Columns – Page 69 – FindYourBuriedTreasure

A hope for healing comes from an Oprah episode

The column "Find Your Buried Treasure" appears weekly in the Chanhassen (MN) Villager. This column was published on November 11, 2010. A friend of mine was on Oprah last Friday. He wasn’t one of the people up on stage being interviewed, but he was one of two hundred men flown in to Chicago by the show’s producers to be part of the studio audience in an episode about male sexual assault. Everyone in the audience had been molested as a child, and the Oprah episode opened with a powerful image of the men holding up photos of themselves at the age when their abuse took place or began...

By bettyliedtke|November 14th, 2010|Columns|Comments Off

Multiple incentives increase success for many

The column "Find Your Buried Treasure" appears weekly in the Chanhassen (MN) Villager. This column was published on November 4, 2010. Although newspapers are often filled with bad news, I saw two items recently – totally unrelated to each other but with a few things in common – that really got me excited. They gave me hope and faith in what people can accomplish when they set their minds on positive achievements, when they’re working toward something that benefits others as well as themselves, and when they have the right motivation...

By bettyliedtke|November 7th, 2010|Accountability, Columns|Comments Off

A question to ask – for then and now

The column "Find Your Buried Treasure" appears weekly in the Chanhassen (MN) Villager. This column was published on October 28, 2010. If you knew then what you know now, what would you have done differently? That’s the question that was given during the Table Topics Contest at the Toastmasters Conference I attended last weekend. In Table Topics, the contestants are brought into the room one at a time. They are asked the question, and must immediately give a one-to-two-minute answer. The judges are looking at technical elements such as speech development, language and delivery. The audience members are looking for a thoughtful, entertaining and memorable response. And some, like me, can’t help but think about how we would respond if we were up on stage answering the question...

By bettyliedtke|October 30th, 2010|Columns, Toastmasters|Comments Off

Simple advice makes a powerful impact

The column "Find Your Buried Treasure" appears weekly in the Chanhassen (MN) Villager. This column was published on October 21, 2010. Every so often I come across some deceptively-simple advice. It is condensed to just a few simple words, but could replace volumes that have been written on the subject. One example is the five-word directive to “Eat less, exercise more, repeat,” which could replace thousands of books about how to lose weight. Last week I heard another five-word piece of advice that could benefit many people, myself included. It came from a client who was working through an “assignment” I had given him that was designed to process, complete, and eliminate the type of excess baggage, clutter, and unfinished business that many of us carry around with us. It can be physical, mental, or emotional, and consists of things that haunt us or nag at us, and that take up space in our homes and our heads. And because it can weigh us down or keep us anchored to the past, it also keeps us from moving forward on our dreams and goals. At the very least, it slows us down more than we realize...

By bettyliedtke|October 22nd, 2010|Accountability, Coaching, Columns|Comments Off

Family events form a smooth, seamless weekend

The column "Find Your Buried Treasure" appears weekly in the Chanhassen (MN) Villager. This column was published on October 14, 2010. I drove down to Chicago with my sister last Friday, so we could drive up to Milwaukee on Saturday for a family wedding. After the wedding and luncheon, we drove back to Chicago so my sister could attend her high school reunion and I could spend some time with my dad. On Sunday, we had a birthday party for our nephew – who turned 13 this week – and for three other relatives whose birthdays have already passed, but recently enough that we could still get away with having a party for them as long as we were in the area. Then on Monday we drove back home to Minneapolis...

By bettyliedtke|October 15th, 2010|Columns, Family, Uncategorized|Comments Off

Focused fundraising highlights many needs

The column "Find Your Buried Treasure" appears weekly in the Chanhassen (MN) Villager. This column was published on October 7, 2010. I read an article in the StarTribune last week about foundations and corporations that have started to redirect more of their resources to one specific issue, rather than giving lesser amounts to a greater number of causes. This is good news, certainly, for the issues and conditions that are receiving greater attention and more resources. But it’s disastrous for those that will now be losing out on the funding they would otherwise have received...

By bettyliedtke|October 8th, 2010|Columns, Values|Comments Off

Peace and power come from silence and solitude

The column “Find Your Buried Treasure” appears weekly in the Chanhassen (MN) Villager. This column was published on September 30, 2010. A friend of ours is an avid outdoorsman. He hunts, hikes, and takes several trips each year in which he goes off – way off – into the woods, the wilderness, or to a secluded island. Sometimes others go with him, and sometimes he goes alone, occasionally spending a few weeks at a time in total solitude with no other human contact. He is always in awe of how powerful and rejuvenating it is to be alone and silent for long periods of time. He recently told me about a time when he once took a chair down to the water’s edge, brought a cooler with drinks and snacks, and spent the day there. Literally, the entire day...

By bettyliedtke|October 2nd, 2010|Columns, Values|Comments Off

A funny smell brings out some serious thoughts

The column “Find Your Buried Treasure” appears weekly in the Chanhassen (MN) Villager. This column was published on September 23, 2010. Insights, observations, and life lessons sometimes come from the strangest places. Like my refrigerator. Not long ago, I noticed a funny smell coming from the fridge. Although it doesn’t happen very often anymore – not since the days when both of my kids were living at home and the refrigerator regularly held way more food than it does now – every once in a while some little bit of fruit or leftovers will get pushed to the back and hidden behind a larger container. There it will sit, quiet and forgotten, until it turns into a “science experiment” and makes itself known...

By bettyliedtke|September 25th, 2010|Columns|Comments Off

Book project offers new challenges and opportunities

The column “Find Your Buried Treasure” appears weekly in the Chanhassen (MN) Villager. This column was published on September 16, 2010. I got a phone call recently from someone asking if I would be interested in contributing a chapter to a book about networking. My first reaction was the temptation to ask, “What mailing list did you get my name from, and what are you trying to sell me?” But as she explained the project to me, I started getting more and more interested in it...

By bettyliedtke|September 17th, 2010|Buried Treasure, Columns, Writing|1 Comment

A soft voice carries a powerful message

The column “Find Your Buried Treasure” appears weekly in the Chanhassen (MN) Villager. This column was published on September 9, 2010. She’s quiet, low-key, and soft-spoken. That didn’t surprise me. Quite often, the ones who speak the most eloquently and powerfully are also the ones with the softest voices. Her name is Tabitha, and she was a guest at our Toastmasters club about a month ago. I was giving a speech that day, and she told me after the meeting how inspired she was by what I had said. As she told me a little more about herself and about the dreams she had, I was the one who was becoming more and more inspired by her...

By bettyliedtke|September 10th, 2010|Columns, Toastmasters, Values|Comments Off

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