Palm trees and margaritas
(empowered living)

Hi there. How was your month?

‘Palm trees and margaritas’ continues to be about life, the universe and what really matters. Empowered living means making sure there is time in your life for palm trees and margaritas, whatever your version of them may be.

I hope you enjoy it and thanks for your continued interest and support.

I am not going to publish in December – there is enough for you to do already – so the next issue of ‘Palm trees and margaritas’ will be out on the last Friday of January.

I wish you a happy and safe festive season.

*** Life can’t be all palm trees and margaritas, but there are worse game plans.

Karen Morath
karen@mpowercct.com
November 2006

Published on the last Friday of each month

TIPS

1. It would be reasonable to say I am not especially religious, but nonetheless still loved this blessing I came across – ‘May your body be blessed. May you realise that your body is a faithful and beautiful friend of your soul.’

2. The following tips for creating a bit of balance in your life are from a great book called ‘Get a life – setting your life compass for success’ by Nicholas Bate:

Learn a language; take a Pareto approach. What about 100 useful words of Italian?

Deliberately read outside of your mainstream area. Read about past British Prime Ministers. Read about the science of tackling AIDS.

Take a different route to or from work.

Take up watercolours.

Read to children, even if they are teenagers.

STORIES

1. My computer printer stopped functioning properly. It was still printing, just unfortunately not what I asked it to print. It was printing its own version of my words – Sanskrit meets Japanese. The computer man’s explanation was sometimes there is too much in the print queue for it to handle and it gets confused and spews forth a lot of gobbledygook.

He started part B of his analysis, but I already understood. Sometimes that’s exactly how I feel and mostly my version of gobbledygook is more intelligible than my trusty printer’s so it’s less obvious. I don’t ‘break down’ completely! My printer self-medicates better than I have historically though. It just gives itself a rest. It took me a long time to realise that a proactive rest in the form of very regular holidays is better than spewing forth gobbledygook in the face of despair.

READER STORIES

Here’s another reader’s story in response to my question – how do you make sure you have enough fun?

1. Did you know the only place in the world where you can scuba dive with baby whales is Niue near Tonga? I didn’t either but reader Emma was delighted that that was where her husband was while she was at home with their toddler. Her right of reply ‘palm trees and margaritas’ moment may come in the future in the form of a trip for her to see the orangutans in Borneo, but for now she is happy to be at home cherishing the little time we all have with our children, or ‘our little margarita’ as she described her daughter.

REFLECTIONS

1. Why do you usually feel bad when you dare to challenge the status quo?

2. Why do our schools want to ‘fix’ the (perceived) weaknesses of our children not build on their (obvious and enviable) strengths?

3. Will what will be, really be what will be?

Karen Morath is a consultant, speaker and writer. Her company M Power works with individuals and organisations to devise communication strategies that empower themselves and their organisations. Visit www.communicationempowers.com

To book Karen to speak on ‘Life can’t be all palm trees and margaritas, but there are worse game plans’ at your next event, you can email her at karen@mpowercct.com or telephone in Australia 03 9817 4111.

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