RIsing to the occasion!

"We become more adept at rising to the occasion each time we see ourselves doing it. Every time we cope well with whatever real life throws our way, it's another deposit of confidence, creativity, and courage in our self-esteem account... When you need to rise to the occasion, do it with style. Do it with a knowing smile. Confound them. Astound yourself. Make it look easy, and it will become so." ~Sarah Breathnach

I found this quote and thought about how true it is. Every time we make a deposit of the 3 C's ( CONFIDENCE, CREATIVITY AND COURAGE ) it really does build up our self esteem and that has to be a good thing.

It is late and I think that I am just going to leave this quote with you, it's a bit deep but...I love it, it makes me want to take that challenge, to face whatever life throws at me. Thanks for supporting me, when I was too weak and scared to support myself. That's what friends are for right?    Night!

Leaders vs. Followers

 

I have always been amazed at the impact that parents have on their children's lives. That responsibility weighed heavy on me as a new mom. I wanted my children to have certain things I didn't have ( not material things ), I wanted them to have things like self -esteem, self- worth and confidence. I wanted them to be better and stronger in life's decisions than I was. I wanted them to be safe and have a wonderful childhood. There were days that I felt like I failed miserably at it and other days that I felt maybe I had made a positive difference in their lives. It was a lot of trial and error, since none of them come with instructions. I look at them now all together and mostly grown up and I am very proud of who they are and the positive impact they are making in the world. Then last night around dinner I heard them talking to each other and they were saying things like...."remember the time when mom came in and spanked me for no reason" or "remember the time she made us apologize to our neighbors for something we didn't even do", I guess maybe I remembered only the good things but I had to smile as I watched these neat young adults who I love dearly, tell one horror story after another about me! Oh well, and I thought I didn't do that bad of a job! :)

I wish I could personally tell each new parent how vital their example is to their children. They need to realize that every decision that they make or don't make will heavily effect their kids for good or bad. I worry about parents who are stuck with the issues of their own and are blinded to the fact of how it is effecting their kids, no matter how old or young their are. These little ones are smarter than we might think and they can feel the love or contention in our home and in our relationships.

Maybe because of my abuse, I have this never ending desire to help young parents to get their wake up call...sooner than later, when it comes to addressing the issues that they struggle with in their lives. We have always told our kids that it is ok to get stuck in life, every one does. But it is NOT ok to stay there, that is why it is vital to get help, counseling or something that teaches you the skills on how to get UNSTUCK! Life is hard but those tough lessons (if learned) are what make us stronger and better.

I found this poem about leading and following, maybe it is something we all can read and see which comments we usually say more often. Look at your little ones, if you think you can't change your life because it is just too hard. Please remember them and be determined to be better and stronger and more confident in healthy choices because they are our kids and they are depending on us to show them the way. The right way, a better way!

Leaders vs. Followers

When leaders make a mistake, they say, "I was wrong."
When followers make mistakes, they say, "It wasn't my fault."

A leader works harder than a follower and has more time;
a follower is always "too busy" to do what is necessary.

A leader goes through a problem;
a follower goes around it and never gets past it.

A leader makes and keeps commitments;
a follower makes and forgets promises.

A leader says, "I'm good, but not as good as I ought to be;"
a follower says, "I'm not as bad as a lot of other people."

Leaders listen;
followers just wait until it's their turn to talk.

Leaders respect those who are superior to them and tries to learn something from them;
followers resent those who are superior to them and try to find chinks in their armor.

Leaders feel responsible for more than their job;
followers say, "I only work here."

A leader says, "There ought to be a better way to do this;"
followers say, "That's the way it's always been done here."

 

"Your children need your presence more than your presents."  ~Jesse Jackson

"It's not only children who grow.  Parents do too.  As much as we watch to see what our children do with their lives, they are watching us to see what we do with ours.  I can't tell my children to reach for the sun.  All I can do is reach for it, myself."  ~Joyce Maynard

"Don't worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you."  ~Robert Fulghum

How to start a business?/ How to start a Life?

As you know I am seriously trying to figure out how to get this business( with my recnac (cancer) gifts) out there and more available? I was studying about where to really begin. I guess we have begun some, we are already selling from our home and the hospital, but we are slowly coming to a division in the road on how and where to take it from here?
As I was looking up strategies, I found this one... and I have to admit, I believe if we followed these suggestions that not only will we have a thriving business but we will have a thriving life too! 

The first one is to know where  you are. Concerning life I would add, where did I come from?.

Next is you need to know where you want to be. Concerning life I would add, why am I here and what type of life do I want?

The last is to figure out how to get there. Concerning life I would add, what type of life do I have and where am I going with that type of life?  

Strategy is very simple:

• You need to know where you are

• You need to know where you want to be

• You than need to figure out how to get there.

"The starting point is easy, you are about to start or have just started a business. The problem with a lot of start up companies is a very poor definition of where they want to be. So you need to define where you want to be and be as specific as possible in the form of targets and milestones.

The targets are specific and measurable, the milestone are the key things you need to achieve in the first and second year and illustrate the highlights in the “story” of your business. "

I couldn't help but think life is a lot like a new adventure or investment. You will get exactly what you put into it, effort and time. I think no one can start over... but we can make a whole new beginning, that's important to realize so that you don't feel stuck and without a vision. With this simple exercise for our business, I realized that we should all do these same exercises with our lives. We need to have targets and goals that are specific and measurable. We need to accomplish certain MILESTONES in our lives, in order to progress.

Remember "HOME IS WHERE OUR STORY BEGINS"

Hopefully we can all take a minute to evaluate our life, and see if we know where we are? See if we know what we want in life? And last but not least, study, pray, search to know exactly how to obtain the life that we want. I personally know, it can make all the difference in the world to find the answers to all 3 of those questions.

Now many of you have asked when my blog or web site will be up and running ...with photos?  Well, I do appreciate you patience, computers are not quite my thing and so I have to rely on dear friends and family to help me and guess what? They have lives too, so I have to wait my turn.

I did however include photos of 2 of our gifts. The first one is our tea/coasters. Many times with cancer you are encouraged to drink more tea. This package comes with two and the coaster has a cute pocket in it, that holds the tea and you just flip it over and magic...you have a coaster too. It's a neat gift and of course my favorite part is the inspirational quote that comes with it ...

"A woman is like a tea bag. You never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water."  ~Eleanor Roosevelt

The next gift is one of my favorites and one that I still use...the Seat Belt Covers. I couldn't believe how much it hurt to have the pressure of the seat belt against me after my biopsy and it got even worse, after surgery and radiation. These are important too, not just cute. I asked many woman in the hospital waiting room with me (remember you are there every day for 7 weeks) what they did to find comfort while wearing a seat belt? I was shocked, one woman said that she uses a blanket shoved in under the seat belt, another lady said she shoved her coat or a pillow under there. But the worst was, many of the woman just flat out said... they don't wear their seat belts at all, it hurts too much. I felt sad that a woman would survive cancer and then get seriously hurt in a a car accident. So these were created.

 

Thanks for your constant help and support, I couldn't make it without it!

 

"My path has not been determined. I shall have more experiences and pass many more milestones"
Agnetha Faltskog

"It's when ordinary people rise above the expectations and seize the opportunity that milestones truly are reached."
Mike Huckabee

"I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination."  ~Jimmy Dean

"A goal without a plan is just a wish"    ~ Larry Elder

 

 

 

How to keep our business growing?

Many of you know that since my cancer I have developed a line of gifts (with a dear friend of mine) that have helped me be more comfortable, heal or just make me feel better. They started out as just a way to survive my mastectomy and radiation side effects. Then one night I thought, why couldn't these gifts be available to other survivors. They must have some of the same hurdles that I am having in my healing process. Then of course as you know, I LOVE QUOTES...they inspire me, and so we decided to put an inspiration quote on each gift. With each process in my healing, I seemed to think of something else that I needed or could use that would make the process more comfortable.

One long and painful night, I realized that I was only thinking of Breast Cancer patients, because that is the fight I was battling. But what about other cancers (there are so many different ones out there), what about children that have to fight this terrible battle? What could we do to help ease their pain or at least take them to a place in their imaginations... that would help them be more brave? The ideas started really clicking, and I could hardly wait till morning to call my dear friend who was helping me with this dream.

I first started showing the gifts and selling them to the nurses and workers at the hospital. It was such a success that I decided to take them to the Gift Store, to see if they would start carrying them. They chose 6 out of 21 of our gifts and we were thrilled. Then with them being in the gift store we had a better chance of the cancer patients being able to get them. We had our BIG introduction of our products on June 4th at Evergreen Hospital. It went really well and we sold quite a bit. More important we were able to share our thoughts and hopes for the products and the patients that they could help. We were able to explain the name RECNAC to everyone and introduce our LOGO that my son designed. It was a neat experience and one that we hope will continue to grow.

My question to all of you is this.... Do any of you have any tips on beginning a business? Do any of you know how I find someone to help invest in a business?  I have very limited resources and energy, but I don't want to give up this dream. If you have the time or information, will you email me and let me know your suggestions? My email address is

 learningfromlynn@gmail.com

I realize that I also need to do my homework ...like know how far I want to go with this business. The hard part is my energy and remembering, to do the things that feed me good energy! When I think about the business part, papers, money that isn't the best energy! But when I think about the patient (survivor), the selling, the designing and making it available and affordable to everyone that is battling with this terrible disease of cancer then ...........that is GOOD (GREAT) ENERGY for me! But I don't do the sewing, which is how each gift gets made and I have to respect that my dear friend can only do so much. Yet,the business has been great for her and her family. That is where we are, a little bit in limbo but... remember I will take ANY IDEAS or SUGGESTIONS.

Thanks for your support, hopefully I will have photos for you soon on my web site, so you can actually see what I am talking about  www.recnacgifts.com 

"Whatever we expect with confidence becomes our own self-fulfilling prophecy"  ~ Brian Tracy

"The victory of success is half won when one gains the habit of setting goals and achieving them. Even the most tedious chore will become endurable as you parade through each day convinced that every task, no matter how menial or boring, brings you closer to fulfilling your dreams."   ~Og Mandino

 

 

ARE WE NAVIGATING LIFE OR ARE WE LOST ?

Many of you probably have heard me say that I have no sense of direction and mostly that is true. But I was thinking about that comment the other day and realized that it isn't completely true. I have no sense of direction in the car or sometimes even when I am just going down a street, should I go left or right? But I was studying an article (can you tell that I am a reader?) and it was about how we navigate our lives ( by Jose Teixeira). It mentioned that a GPS receiver is tuned to frequencies transmitted by satellites high about the earth; which help us from getting lost while driving. Much like that, we an internal GPS that allows us to know at all times what is right and what is wrong, as well as assisting us in making correct decisions...we call it our CONSCIENCE! How ever if we don't listen to it and follow those gut feelings, then after a while we become desensitized and may not be able to receive the signal that we need to guide our footsteps.

As a child I remember those feelings of my conscience. I have always had a strong feeling of right and wrong. But I was abused by my grandfather for years and it became confusing for me to listen to that GPS inside. I knew what kind of a man he was. But it seemed to everyone around me, that he was a good neighbor,friend and someone that everyone could trust. The longer the abuse went on, the more confused I was about my feeling inside. How could everyone be fooled? Maybe I was wrong, maybe this is what grandfathers just do? It was a time that I truly ...felt LOST!

I tried to tell someone when I was 5 years old but I was reprimanded and told that he was a wonderful man and that he would never hurt anyone. Talk about confusing. I was young but remember feeling like I had done something wrong, how could I think feel such bad feelings, for such a wonderful man. YUCK, is all my stomach kept telling me and now I was beginning to think that I was the bad person.

Throughout my teen years, I was very confused and really began questioning why I was even here on earth. If my purpose was to be abused, surely I had fulfilled that and so I remember praying that I would just be able to leave. No, I never considered suicide, I just wanted God to take me away. I couldn't see much of a future with the lie that I was living with, the shame too. Many times it seemed more than I could bear. I had lots of friends but that isn't the sorta thing that you tell anyone. What would they think of me? I could only imagine.

Being raised in a religious home was my life saver. I was taught that I had a Heavenly Father and that I could go to Him anytime and ask for help, strength and comfort. I was reminded that I did have a conscience and that I needed to trust that, it is a gift...given to all of us, so we need never be truly lost.

To make a long story short, I learned how to pray and to listen. I learned how to fine tune my own GPS! I received a strength beyond my own. I confronted my grandfather and for once, I was the one that was doing all the threatening. It was empowering and freeing. The emotional abuse still continued for years, he and my grandmother lived on our farm. But the physical abuse stopped that moment.

I was still a very messed up teenager and since I was always in survivor mode all those years, school was never a top priority and so I had a lot of challenges from that. I some how graduated from High School ( a miracle within itself )and went on with life. I dated too many guys, always trying to find the one true love and best friend that I could share my life with and this awful secret with too.

On June 9th, 31 years ago yesterday, I went on my first date with this terribly handsome guy named... Jeff Woodard. I knew by the end of the date that he was a true gentleman and someone that I could completely trust. My internal GPS told me exactly where I should go. And from that day on I have never looked back. I had a choice, I had finally learned to trust my gut again, I realized that I had never done anything that would have made me deserve the abuse that I got. It is just called LIFE, people make all type of decisions and sometimes the decisions of others effect our lives. Don't let anyone tell you that this is your life, your choices don't effect others, because they do! My grandfather's decisions were bad ones, and many people suffered from it. But when I finally started trusting my navigating system again, everything looked brighter. I do know that we all have the ability to make choices, that's our freedom and our gift. But I also know that choosing good always leads to happiness and just the opposite with wrong decisions.

So where do I go from here? I know exactly who I am and where I am to go. It's a great feeling, not to be lost. I know my purpose and I have my best friend to travel this road with me. Life is hard, it is work... but it is good. My sense of direction (in the car) still might be lacking, but not my sense of right or wrong. That signal has never been stronger! I feel blessed... to know exactly where I am!

I truly hope that you are listening to that gut feeling, your own personal GPS, your conscience. Then I hope you are following it's direction. Isn't it great to know that we are not alone in our journey? Thanks for the friendship and guidance you have given me along the way.

"OUR LIVES WILL DEPEND UPON THE DECISIONS WHICH WE MAKE- FOR DECISIONS DETERMINE DESTINY" ~ Thomas Monson

"IF ONE ADVANCES CONFIDENTLY IN THE DIRECTION OF ONE'S DREAMS, AND ENDEAVORS TO LIVE THE LIFE WHICH ONE HAS IMAGINED, ONE WILL MEET WITH A SUCCESS UNEXPECTED IN COMMON HOURS." ~Henry David Thoreau

" I CAN'T CHANGE THE DIRECTION OF THE WIND, BUT I CAN ADJUST MY SAILS TO ALWAYS REACH MY DESTINATION" ~Jimmy Dean