[sharonpdx]

{success}

a collection of quotes pushing me forward today:

Your biggest challenge isn't someone else. It's the ache in your lungs and the burning in your legs, and the voice inside you that yells 'CAN'T", but you don't listen. You just push harder. And then you hear the voice whisper 'can'. And you discover that the person you thought you were is no match for the one you really are.
---Unknown

The first step toward getting somewhere is to decide that you're not going to stay where you are.  You make the world you live in and shape your own environment.  Avoid people that try to belittle your ambition.  Small people always seem to do that.  Place yourself in the presence of successful people for they will make you feel that you, too, can become successful.  Your environment is the mental feeding ground from which the food that goes into your mind is
extracted.  Choose your environment with care, one that is positive, one that lifts you up and empowers you to achieve your goals.  First we shape our buildings, thereafter they shape us.
---Unknown

People who soar are those who refuse to sit back, sigh and wish things would change. They neither complain of their lot nor passively dream of some distant ship coming in. Rather, they visualize in their minds that they are not quitters; they will not allow life's circumstances to push them down and hold them under.
---Charles R. Swindoll

Sticking to it is the genius! Any other bright-minded fellow can accomplish just as much [as I did] if he will stick like hell and remember nothing that's any good works by itself. You got to make the damn thing work. I'll never give up, for I may have a streak of luck before I die.
---Thomas Edison (worth more than $2 billion by the end of his life)

Don't let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use.
---Earl Nightingale

Set some new goals for myself today, then went looking for some inspiration and motivation.   They say that it takes 21 days to develop a habit.   I'm about to find out just how big a difference fourteen weeks  can make.  Sending thank you vibes to Lesley today for being one of those successful people in my environment.

Also, today's the day:  Suzanne and Paul have moved to Omaha.  Thinking of you two as you begin this new chapter of your lives, and wishing you much success and happiness. 

quote for today

Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater.
{Gail Godwin}

I've suspected this for a while now... that as a trainers we are inherently part actor.  That is not to say I'd win a lifetime achievement award for my contributions on the silver screen or that it should have been me firing bullets at Brad Pitt and not Angelina Jolie in Mr & Mrs Smith - though that's a gig I wouldn't have turned down, either.  As a trainer it is my duty to persuade, to convince, to invite you, the participant, to enter a world I've created for you by my words, my presence, my tone & inflection, and my material (content).  And even if I'm presenting on a content I've never seen before, or material I find particularly dry - you'll never know it.  Because my job is to act as if.  To act as if I'm a superb manager of time and stress so that you are persuaded to take these new tools back and try them with confidence.  To act as if I've been presenting on this material for years - as if I even invented the concept.  To engage you so completely that you forget that you're in training and feel a part of this process.  That's my job.  I'm told I do it reasonably well, too... and I'm lucky to have talented trainers - actors & actresses - in my life who push me to do it even incrementally better every day. 

baby, it's cold outside

ok, not really - the winter-that-was-more-like-fall is still upon us here in Colorado, but it was cold when we were up in Breck for the 2006 International Snow Sculpting Championships - 18 degrees cold, in fact!  It was a fantastic day - the sky was a brilliant blue and the runs looked gorgeous!  We stumbled upon the event for the first time in 2002 when we were scoping out b&b's for our honeymoon - was fun to finally get back there for it again.

Our top favorites this year in the Championships:  #1 {Coming Home}: After traveling all over the world to find your beloved. Team Germany, and #2: {Discovery}: The eyes see not itself but by reflection: William Shakespeare. Team Breckenridge, Colorado, USA.

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We spent a wonderful morning there - stopping in to the Blue Sky Bistro for lunch when we got too cold to even make it back to the car... is it just me, or does food just taste better when you're at 9600 feet?!  Browsed some shops and picked up a super cute new hat - you can't see it well from the photo Jerod snapped when we sat down to lunch, but it's embroidered in white with a flower, the Roxy logo and a sprinkling of sequins!   

After lunch, we headed down the mountain toward warmer climate - and the warmth of friends!  We met up for dinner with Jess, Andie & Shaun, Suz and Suz's friend Jeff at - where else? - PF Chang's - I'm in love with that place...

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Valentine's Day approaches ... and in the spirit of snuggling together for warmth, I put together this layout of photos from our Dec 28th trip to Breck with my family - thanks, Erica, for the shot of Jerod and I together, it's a favorite of mine now!

Journaling reads: No matter how cold it gets in out there... I'm always warm in your arms.  you & me.  breckenridge dec 28, 2006.   

May you & yours stay warm, wherever you are. 

the early bird gets... to wait

Prompt is not a word people use to describe me.

But here I sit at PDX, more than two hours early for my flight - I've already eaten breakfast, visited my favorite paper store and caught up on email... Why did I think my flight left at 10:00 this morning?  Sigh.  It, in fact, departs at 10:50 a.m., so I still have plenty of time to kill.  Thank God for free wireless...

This mistake offers me a chance to update you on all the latest happenings - I realize it has been too long.  I am flying home from Portland where I spent the last three days presenting the sales & service initiative training to the District Managers.  The past few months have been an intense time.  In December, the initiative team (made up of senior-level operations managers and trainers from the Education & Training Dept) met for the first time, learned the sales & service material (from Adele Carter - who is, beyond a doubt, the best in the business) and conducted short teach-backs in front of our peers as Adele observed and wrote feedback.  Two weeks ago in mid-January, we met again, this time presenting hour-long teach-backs in tandem with our training partner  (team teaching is truly an art form.  I'm not kidding.)  and learning the coaching material.  Those teach-backs were evaluated not only by Adele but by our peers, too - I literally took from that experience more than 30 separate sheets of paper listing the strengths of my facilitation skills, and my areas of opportunity.  Wow.  It was at that meeting that decisions were made about which training pairs would present at this week's District Manager meeting - it should come as no suprise that I was thrilled when my partner Angie and I were chosen.

Last week was one of intense preparation as Angie and I practiced our separate sections of material and met for two full days to practice together.  Our hard work paid off - the meeting was a success, we connected with our training participants and pulled off an effective, fun, motivating week of learning.  Last night, the company honored our DMs with a graduation ceremony and a carnival - complete with karaoke - I'm actually hoarse from three days of speaking and more than three hours of singing and dancing! 

And so the journey has just begun - rolling this out to the District Managers was only the first step.  As a training group we'll meet again next week for more teach-backs and feedback - and the first week of March, we begin the Center Director roll out - three months of training to get everyone moving in the same direction - with Angie and I moving all over Colorado & Arizona to get it done...

Being a part of this initiative training team has impacted my life professionally and personally.  One of the biggest blessings to come out of this is having met and befriended Adele Carter.  Her skills as a faciliatator cannot be overstated - when the training team first learned of her theatre background, it made perfect sense - seriously, she's amazing.  I have grown by leaps and bounds as a presenter, and a listener, since having met her, watched her and been evaluated by her.  It was truly a new experience for me to get this kind of feedback: tangible feedback I can use and control to improve my skills.  I wanted to know how to get even more.  I approached her, we connected, agreed to meet for dinner (she also lives in Colorado) and long story short: she's become a mentor to me in every sense of the word.  Our dinner meeting last week was encouraging and fun, and we had a chance to further some of the discussions that began during our trainings.  In a past life, Adele worked with Ned Hermann, creator of the Hermann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI) and author of The Creative Brain - we had an interesting (and for me, affirming) discussion on whole-brain thinking, and she started me on The Artist's Way: A spiritual path to higher creativity, by Julia Cameron.  I am at once thrilled and amazed that Adele has become my mentor and friend. 

And with that, just an hour remains until boarding - and Powell's Books is calling my name from the row of shops across from my gate.