Hi there.
‘Palm trees and margaritas’ is about living big and making plans. Some people call it work/life balance. I call it living your life your way rather than at the behest of someone else’s values or expectations. None of us knows how our life will unfold so as much as we are in control, why not make sure there is time in our lives for palm trees and margaritas*, however we define them?
The plan for this newsletter is to give you five minutes of reflection time on the last Friday of each month (Thursday this month due to tomorrow's public holiday). How was your April? Did you make time for ‘palm trees and margaritas’? Or what about some plans for some? What? I’d love to hear (and publish) your stories of how you are living your life. Please get in touch and share yours here.
If you are looking for a speaker for an event this year, click here to talk to me about a ‘Palm trees and margaritas’ presentation.
The book Palm Trees and Margaritas - Finding Your Oasis in a Busy World is out now. Order before Mothers' Day and you can buy two copies for $35 (usually $40) - one for your mum, one for your mother-in-law (or give one away and keep one yourself). Click here for details.
Karen Morath
karen@mpowercct.com
www.palmtreesandmargaritas.com
April 2008
* Life can’t be all palm trees and margaritas, but there are worse game plans.
TIPS
1. “I can decide how I spend my time, whom I interact with, whom I share my body and life and money and energy with. I can select what I eat and read and study. I can choose how I’m going to regard unfortunate circumstances in my life – whether I will see them as curses or opportunities (and on the occasions when I can’t rise to the most optimistic viewpoint, because I’m feeling too damn sorry for myself, I can choose to keep trying to change my outlook). I can choose my words and the tone of voice in which I speak to others. And most of all, I can choose my thoughts.” Elizabeth Gilbert, in her book – a modern masterpiece I think - ‘Eat, Pray, Love. One woman’s search for everything.’
2. If you feel like you should be reading more books but don’t have the time then check out new Australian concept Book Rapper. They read the books for you and share the main highlights and key ideas so you get the knowledge from reading the book, without actually reading the book. Book Rapper has offered Palm Trees and Margaritas readers a free three month trial subscription. Click here for details.
3. Take a minute. Ask yourself how things are going. Ask yourself if you are feeling on top of things. Ask yourself what you would need to do to feel calmer. Ask yourself what you would like to get done this month. Ask yourself if there is anything you could do differently this month that would make you calmer, happier, feel more fulfilled. Ask yourself what you will do to make at least some of it happen.
To enjoy list
Here are some things readers and I have recommended for others ‘to enjoy’.
1. Mart 130, a café at a tram stop in Canterbury Road, Middle Park, Victoria (mart is tram backwards!)
2. Restaurants that serve steak to the table for you to cook yourself over a hot rock.
3. OK so this one’s a plug. My friend and colleague Leah Bryan’s first book, Horror Mothers-In-Law... and you thought yours was bad! is a hoot and really does make you feel better about your own. It’s a great pick-me-up for yourself or a cute gift for a friend. Only $20 including postage at www.nuhousepress.com
4. Autumn, just because, or maybe in combination with a drive through regional Victoria. I don’t know anyone who has done it but I love the idea of the Alpine Book Trail
5. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip on DVD. A TV series about the making of a TV series made by the best person at it in the world – Aaron Sorkin of The West Wing fame. For whatever (dumb) reason, it’s not being shown here so if you like wordy, character-based TV shows in the spirit of The West Wing and Picket Fences (you have to go back to find great TV drama), track it down online.
Please send your tips for things for others ‘to enjoy’ to me here.
STORIES
1. The question asker
I got an email from a young woman who was a second year public relations and journalism student at Monash University last year when I taught her there. She was just back from three months in Paris and keeping in touch.
Before I tell you her story, it is important to know that this girl has the capacity to ask more questions in one two hour class than you would think she could find the oxygen for… and then some.
Anyway, she had been in Paris doing an internship in the press office of UNESCO and I was intrigued to find out how she was able to set up such an incredible experience. It was straightforward really. When she went overseas last year on Monash’s journalism school international study tour (!!), one of the places they visited was the press office of UNESCO in Paris. It happens to be run by an Australian woman.
At the end of the tour, having likely asked her usual many questions throughout, she took the manager aside and asked her another question. Does UNESCO offer internships? Yes, it does, you apply on line and cross your fingers they’ll call.
Apart from creating opportunities for yourself, the other amazing thing about asking questions is you are more likely to be remembered, especially if you ask good questions (and whether or not you ask good questions).
She was remembered.
2. The participant
My niece Ella is 17 months old. She is one of those creatures that remind me what being alive looks like. Sometimes I feel that I don’t have the energy to engage fully and am starting to look like a spectator not a participant. Ella’s a participant, if not a ringleader.
When she laughs, she laughs hard and loud as if she has just had the most incredible experience. When she cries, you are sure the spinning of the earth must be braking to a stop. When she sleeps, there’s no waking her and when she wakes she’s up and at ‘em and ready for action. There is a rawness and an enormity about people like Ella however old they are. They don’t commentate on life as it passes them by.
REFLECTIONS
1. If most people profess to not believe in astrology, why are there horoscopes in most newspapers and magazines? (and why do so many non-believers read them?)
2. Have you seen the new TV show ' The Moment of Truth' where people have to answer all sorts of potentially embarrassing questions on TV and in front of their friends and family to win money?
Would you put a price on your secrets? Do you have any secrets to sell, er, tell?
3. What good are goal-setting skills if you don’t know what you want?