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Guess who’s coming to your holiday dinner?

If you were having a dinner party and could invite four people from anywhere and anytime in history, who would be on your guest list, and where would you hold the dinner? Every once in a while, I’ve had to answer questions similar to this – usually in a Toastmasters Table Topics session or contest. But this time, it was during a Holiday Happy Hour with a writing group I belong to. There are actually two separate groups, because the first one was growing too [...]

By |December 14th, 2012|Columns, Holidays, Quotes and Sayings, Toastmasters, Writing|6 Comments

Betty’s Beliefs: A few more guidelines for life

I got an email from my sister-in-law after she read last week’s column about some of the sayings and quotes that I live by and repeat – often. She mentioned one that she’s heard many, many times in the thirty years we’ve known each other. And she added that she enjoyed the column, even without her favorite “Betty Belief.” She knows me very well, and the quote she mentioned was actually the next one on my “Top Five” list. Betty’s Belief #4: This too shall [...]

By |February 3rd, 2012|Coaching, Columns, Quotes and Sayings, Values|Comments Off on Betty’s Beliefs: A few more guidelines for life

Betty’s Beliefs: Sharing a few of her guidelines for life

“What have we learned from this?” My husband used to say that to our kids every so often as they were growing up. They hated hearing it at the time, but since then it’s become somewhat of a family joke. And it’s something we all still say to each other from time to time. It occurred to me recently that there are several other pearls of wisdom and advice that I treasure. I believe in them, I try to live by them, and I regularly [...]

By |January 27th, 2012|Columns, Family, Quotes and Sayings, Respect, Values|Comments Off on Betty’s Beliefs: Sharing a few of her guidelines for life

A strong step keeps you moving toward your dreams

The column "Find Your Buried Treasure" appears weekly in the Chanhassen (MN) Villager. This column was published on January 27, 2011. “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” This is a new mantra that several friends and I are using to remind and inspire ourselves whenever our energy or our resolve starts to weaken or fade. Actually, the words come from the Bible – John 5:8 – so they’re not exactly new. But they’re new in how we’re using them in our lives...

By |January 28th, 2011|Coaching, Columns, Quotes and Sayings, Values|Comments Off on A strong step keeps you moving toward your dreams

Quotes and Sayings I Love

“She wasn’t where she had been. She wasn’t where she was going. But she was on her way.” I haven’t been able to trace the origin of that quote, but it’s on a refrigerator magnet I keep on the bulletin board in my office (since I don’t have a refrigerator in my office). I get energized every time I read it. It reminds me—especially when I get frustrated or exhausted, or when things I’m trying to do don’t go as planned and I start to feel as though they never will—that I have come a long way, and I’ve accomplished a great deal. Even if the big prize or the big picture is still way beyond the horizon...

By |July 22nd, 2010|Buried Treasure, Coaching, Quotes and Sayings|4 Comments