Wednesday Wisdom

Seed tomorrow with wise celebrating today!

Although Cinco de Mayo is not widely celebrated in Mexico, it is observed in the state of Puebla, in honor of General Zaragoza’s unlikely victory over the French forces of Napoleon II in 1862. However, today, people all over The States will be taking the opportunity to eat great Mexican cuisine and drink cervaza, margaritas, or tequila in some creative form. In our celebrations, let’s not forget the words of Joe Baca:

Cinco de Mayo has come to represent a celebration of the contributions that Mexican Americans and all Hispanics have made to America.   

To that, I raise my glass!  Thank you for adding to the rich texture of our culture.

Life is calling . . .  Today’s the day!

Visit http://www.The Success Studio.com . . . Learn Lavishly. Live Significantly. Leave a Legacy.

www.marilynnsemonick.com

To read archived Wednesday Wisdoms visit http://www.thesuccessstudio.wordpress.com

Marilynn Semonick, CEO (Chief Exploration Officer)

Educator, Consultant, Coach, Facilitator, Professional Speaker

Marilynn@marilynnsemonick.com

Wednesday Wisdom

Seed tomorrow with wise thinking today!

Vanna, my dear “soul sister” shared a bumper sticker she saw that made her smile and think:

Don’t believe everything you think

In case you hadn’t previously pondered it, each of us is addicted to our own thoughts.

Author Santosh Kalwar: We cannot change anything if we cannot change our thinking.

And, Christopher Hitchens writes in Letters to a Young Contrarian:

The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks.

To challenge our thinking, Vera Nazarian shares this quick test:

If you have never changed your mind about some fundamental tenet of your belief, if you have never questioned the basics, and if you have no wish to do so, then you are likely ignorant.
Before it is too late, go out there and find someone who, in your opinion, believes, assumes, or considers certain things very strongly and very differently from you, and just have a basic honest conversation.  It will do both of you good.

This is not a call to change a mind for the sake of changing a mind.  Rather to explore your own unknowns. New information, perspective, or evaluation helps us to understand the how of our thinking and to sincerely listen with a welcoming mind. Then, life offers endless conversation opportunities to learn.

Things change when we change how we see things.     ~ Dr. Wayne Dyer

Life is calling . . .  Today’s the day!

Visit http://www.The Success Studio.com . . . Learn Lavishly. Live Significantly. Leave a Legacy.

www.marilynnsemonick.com

To read archived Wednesday Wisdoms visit http://www.thesuccessstudio.wordpress.com

Marilynn Semonick, CEO (Chief Exploration Officer)

Educator, Consultant, Coach, Facilitator, Professional Speaker

Marilynn@marilynnsemonick.com

Wednesday Wisdom

Seed tomorrow with wise verses today!

Our recent national struggles have motivated me to revisit our nation’s history and dig deeper into how we got here. It’s also ruffled my curiosity about Americans who are less empathically supportive of our Black, Brown, Asian, Native and all other marginalized fellow citizens, who, for centuries, have been pleading to be seen, heard, respected, and understood by those who possess the power. 

Our past tapestries are too tightly woven with global stories of bigotry, discrimination, disenfranchisement, inequity, and hate so fierce it has led to genocide. Unfortunately, one can pick up a newspaper and read equally brutal stories today, around the world, and in this nation we love. History repeating itself?

History doesn’t always repeat itself, but it usually rhymes.  ~ Seth Godin

Pain, tears, and agony of ancestors echo in our halls of justice. So I wonder what verses we’ll choose to compose now. Will our prose of humanity continue to be a refrain of discord, dissonance, and dissension? Or, can and will we rise above, work to understand, and abstain from such stuff of our past? We have the opportunity to create couplets of compassion, sonatas of sustainable harmony, and cantos of coherence. But, will we?

In solo, one struggles to have their voice heard and their past understood as an extension of today’s reality. However, a voluminous concert of humanity, united in vision, voices, and action toward the pursuit of a more perfect union increases the chances of rhythms of historic change, of hope, and an opportunity to step safety into tomorrow.

Together, let’s shift from might and fight to what is right, left behind to being kind, injustice to justice, disparity to equity, disjointed into united, and disproportion into forward motion. We hold the conductor’s baton in our own life as well as the invitation to harmonize with humanity in the call for collective morality. Our choice. 

Life is calling . . .  Today’s the day!

Visit http://www.The Success Studio.com . . . Learn Lavishly. Live Significantly. Leave a Legacy.

www.marilynnsemonick.com

To read archived Wednesday Wisdoms visit http://www.thesuccessstudio.wordpress.com

Marilynn Semonick, CEO (Chief Exploration Officer)

Educator, Consultant, Coach, Facilitator, Professional Speaker

Marilynn@marilynnsemonick.com

Wednesday Wisdom

Seed tomorrow with wise normal today!

The last year has taught us a lot about what it is to be human. Do you hear people talking about our “new normal” or wanting to “return to normal?”  And, have you ever tried to fit into being “normal.” Well, “normal” itself has changed.

I’ve recently learned that Unilever has decided to remove the word ‘normal’ on their personal care product labels. Why? Because when it comes to people, normal is an artificial construct. Normal is the center of a statistical bell curve, not a standard that we ought to seek to achieve, even if we could.

Normal is a distribution, not a person.

Yay us! Freedom to explore, discover, and be you rather than striving to be normal . . . whatever that was!

Life is calling . . .  Today’s the day!

Visit http://www.The Success Studio.com . . . Learn Lavishly. Live Significantly. Leave a Legacy.

www.marilynnsemonick.com

To read archived Wednesday Wisdoms visit http://www.thesuccessstudio.wordpress.com

Marilynn Semonick, CEO (Chief Exploration Officer)

Educator, Consultant, Coach, Facilitator, Professional Speaker

Marilynn@marilynnsemonick.com

Wednesday Wisdom

Seed tomorrow with wise kindness today!

Out of nowhere I received an email about the benefits of being kind. Hey, why not? The recent reduction of generously extending consideration, compassion, and charity inspire me to find the notion of Random Acts of Kindness intriguing.  There’s something compelling about giving to others without any request, expectation, or promise of anything in return. Contained in the email were benefits of kindness:

1. Can increase the feeling of strength & energy.
2. Generates endorphins, the body’s natural pain killer.  
3. Can become less depressed 
4. Can make one feel calmer 
5. It has been shown that people that are more kind have 23% less cortisol (the stress hormone) and age slower than the average population. 

Offering kindness makes a difference to the giver and everyone who receives. Perhaps today we can begin or continue a habit of expanding humanity in our everyday moments, starting with easy things like:

..  Increase attention to what’s happening around you to know when the need for kindness calls

..  Find opportunities to compliment someone you encounter during the day

..  Hold the door open for someone, or the elevator.

..  Smile genuinely at 5 strangers you pass throughout the day

..  Clean out your house and make a donation to your local charity

..  Allow someone to merge in traffic (as hard as that might be!)

..  And, the list goes on

As I practice, I suspect extending kindness will become easier over time and am convinced it will benefit the giver, perhaps more than the receiver. 

Life is calling . . .  Today’s the day!

Visit http://www.The Success Studio.com . . . Learn Lavishly. Live Significantly. Leave a Legacy.

www.marilynnsemonick.com

To read archived Wednesday Wisdoms visit http://www.thesuccessstudio.wordpress.com

Marilynn Semonick, CEO (Chief Exploration Officer)

Educator, Consultant, Coach, Facilitator, Professional Speaker

Marilynn@marilynnsemonick.com

Wednesday Wisdom

Seed tomorrow with wise authenticity today!

For years, I’ve heard and read people expressing the importance of being our “authentic self.” Who is that? What is it to be authentic? How do we know when we’re being true to ourselves? Recently, Seth Godin recently wrote:

Perhaps our considered self, the one that shows up when we’re doing our best to be consistent, generous and professional–that’s our authentic self. And the voice that slips out when we’re tired, stressed or busy is simply an incomplete and lesser version of who we actually are.

Yep, my cranky, judgmental, lesser-self feels free and justified to be noisy when I’m fatigued, weary, and not paying attention. As we become the accumulation of the interactions in which we partake and the contributions we make, it makes sense to do so with intentional kindness, generosity, and sincere engagement.

Life is calling . . .  Today’s the day!

Visit http://www.The Success Studio.com . . . Learn Lavishly. Live Significantly. Leave a Legacy.

www.marilynnsemonick.com

To read archived Wednesday Wisdoms visit http://www.thesuccessstudio.wordpress.com

Marilynn Semonick, CEO (Chief Exploration Officer)

Educator, Consultant, Coach, Facilitator, Professional Speaker

Marilynn@marilynnsemonick.com

Wednesday Wisdom

Seed tomorrow with wise self-compassion today!

I went to school with Nikki Nanos and almost 50 years later bumped into her at our profession’s annual convention. Turns out she’s a brilliant professional speaker, author, and stage coach, sharing strategies for living a mindful life. Some of her wise words:

When you open the squeaky door of self-judgement and spray it with the oil of self-compassion . . . that’s mindful living.

Think about how easy it is to list all your flaws, those things you want to change. Is it more challenging to identify, acknowledge, and grow the best parts of you?

Humility is not thinking less of yourself. It’s more about being honest with yourself and your relationships with others. A few tips to practice humility include: Spending time sincerely listening to others, practicing mindfulness and focusing on the present moment, being grateful for what you have, asking for help when you need it, seeking feedback from others, reviewing your actions against the language of pride, and ensuring that you don’t always need to be right over being empathic.

It was wonderful to see Nikki again and equally as lovely to see her words in print as I browsed research sites. May we regularly take moments to pick up the oil can and more than mist our self-care skills. Doing so will help more than our own lives.

Life is calling . . .  Today’s the day!

Visit http://www.The Success Studio.com . . . Learn Lavishly. Live Significantly. Leave a Legacy.

www.marilynnsemonick.com

To read archived Wednesday Wisdoms visit http://www.thesuccessstudio.wordpress.com

Marilynn Semonick, CEO (Chief Exploration Officer)

Educator, Consultant, Coach, Facilitator, Professional Speaker

Marilynn@marilynnsemonick.com

Wednesday Wisdom

Seed tomorrow with St Patrick wisdom today!

One of the many St. Patrick quotes I contemplate on this green-beer drinking Irish day:

Be still and know that I am God.

Be still and know that I am.

Be still and know.

Be still.

Be.

Stillness and being. A profound combination.

Life is calling . . .  Today’s the day!

Visit http://www.The Success Studio.com . . . Learn Lavishly. Live Significantly. Leave a Legacy.

www.marilynnsemonick.com

To read archived Wednesday Wisdoms visit http://www.thesuccessstudio.wordpress.com

Marilynn Semonick, CEO (Chief Exploration Officer)

Educator, Consultant, Coach, Facilitator, Professional Speaker

Marilynn@marilynnsemonick.com

Wednesday Wisdom

Seed tomorrow with wise hope and peace today!

I’ve always been intrigued by the macro / micro concepts of the universe. And, as above, so below adds another layer for me. Last week, Pope Francis made the first ever papal visit to Iraq, which was his first visit outside of the Vatican since the pandemic began.  Leading prayer, surrounded by the rubble of the city of Mosul, he said:

Hope is more powerful than hatred and peace more powerful than war.

Obviously, not words that apply only to Iraq. As in one part of the world, as in all. In this nation that we love, will we remember that peace and hope are worthy of attention, resources, and action to replace animosity, hostility, and combat?

It has been said that one cannot expect world peace when s/he battles with neighbor next door.

What one thing can I do today to expand hope and peace, right here in my small fragment of the universe?

Life is calling . . .  Today’s the day!

Visit http://www.The Success Studio.com . . . Learn Lavishly. Live Significantly. Leave a Legacy.

www.marilynnsemonick.com

To read archived Wednesday Wisdoms visit http://www.thesuccessstudio.wordpress.com

Marilynn Semonick, CEO (Chief Exploration Officer)

Educator, Consultant, Coach, Facilitator, Professional Speaker

Marilynn@marilynnsemonick.com

Wednesday Wisdom

Seed tomorrow with wise intentionality today!

The Seven Social Sins, attributed to Mahatma Gandhi:

Wealth without work.

Pleasure without conscience.

Knowledge without character.

Commerce without morality.

Science without humanity.

Worship without sacrifice.

Politics without principle.

As a nation, as humankind, we appear to be drifting deeply into depravity, cavorting with corruption, endorsing inequity, and sanctioning insignificance. If we’re wondering where to begin to turn things around, the list above may be a good start.

Life is calling . . .  Today’s the day!

Visit http://www.The Success Studio.com . . . Learn Lavishly. Live Significantly. Leave a Legacy.

www.marilynnsemonick.com

To read archived Wednesday Wisdoms visit http://www.thesuccessstudio.wordpress.com

Marilynn Semonick, CEO (Chief Exploration Officer)

Educator, Consultant, Coach, Facilitator, Professional Speaker

Marilynn@marilynnsemonick.com