The power of the written word ~ Make your bucket list!!

There is something AMAZING that occurs when your thoughts and intentions aline in perfect harmony.  Your world changes.  It changes in ways you'd never imagine.  You begin living a life you never dreamed you could have.  When that begins to happen, you start dreaming ~ dreaming BIG ~ and pretty soon you have a "bucket list" of dreams that start becoming realities.

The KEY to unlock the ability to aline your thoughts and intentions and bucket list dreams is GRATITUDE.  You must, in everything you do, be sincerely GRATEFUL for all that surrounds you.  Taking time in every moment to find the little things in life that most people don't even take the time to notice.  

The way the dew shines on the grass under the morning sun.

The sound of laughter in the early morning.

Working appliances and indoor plumbing.

Dogs who wake up happy to see you and eager to play.

Finding gratitude in every day moments brings a source of positivity into your life and when you are grateful, more things to be grateful for follow.  As you begin to think about your future and where you would like to see yourself in life, where you would like to travel, what purposes you'd like to fulfill, you will start seeing all of your thoughts turn to reality.

Having a bucket list can help you reach some of your biggest dreams.  There is power in the written word.  That is why I am a HUGE believer in bucket listing!  I dream BIG, I am consciously GRATEFUL and I have seen my bucket list last year come true.  

Get out a piece of paper ~  Start with 10 things you would like to see/do before you die ~  Or if you are more visual, go to Pinterest and start finding photos and create your bucket list on there.   I have my "Travel Bucket List" on Pinterest and every time I find a photo of some place I'd like to visit I add it to that board.

I also have my bucket list for the year of places I'd like to see/things I'd like to do ~

Bucket List 2012
1. Finish Upstairs Bedroom Remodel (3/4 of the way done)
2. * DONE Go on a train ride
3. * DONE Murder Mystery Dinner
4. Visit Yosemite National Park (booked for September)
5. Visit Yellowstone National Park (booking for August)
6. Try Paddle Boarding
7. Take a college course
8. Become a “Secret Santa” all year long with Pay it Forward Fridays (so far so good!)
9. Host an exchange student (one is coming on Mother’s Day and another coming in August for the year)
10. Habitat for Humanity
11. *DONE Feed the Homeless in Portland, Oregon with Under the Bridge Ministries
12. Watch someone’s children for 1 week who doesn’t have the luxury of family close by to help them.
13. *DONE Meet a Veteran and hear their story

Take the time today to write your bucket list and dream BIG.  Watch your dreams come true and live the life you never thought you could.  Come on, join us ~  What's on your bucket list?

Making an emotional connection ~ What's your story?

Life Lesson ~ Make EMOTIONAL CONNECTIONS in both your personal and business relationships

A little over a year ago, my cousin invited my family over for dinner.  He had just moved to the area, and was transitioning from being a pastor, to helping out with his father's company.  Over the course of dinner, he was sharing about his passions as a pastor and about a mission trip he'd gone on.  He said during the mission trip, in which they were building a structure for the locals, they had to bring in a "local" to teach them how to seal the windows on the structure.  At one point there was a discussion about how the group of people had come on a mission which was quite costly and how a local had to be brought in to "teach them" how to perform the job they had come to do.  Wouldn't it have been better to have just sent the money to the  local who knew how to perform the work.  The end answer was "absolutely not".  The reason ~ On a mission trip, you are there to serve the community, but MORE than that, you are there to form an emotional connection with those you meet.  You are there to hear their stories and to share your own.  It isn't at all about the structure...it is about the relationships and the emotional connections with one another.

In today's world, life gets busy.  You have families and jobs and chores and errands and more and more time is spent SAVING time by staying connected via social media, emails and texts.  With that we are losing our emotional connections with one another in the process.  It might not seem like such a big deal, but truly it is a life lesson that we don't want to lose.  Time invested in others emotionally is what makes a difference.

This week my husband went to a business convention where they had a keynote speaker.  At the convention, nobody was told who the speaker was until they were seated for the event.  They then announced that the keynote speaker was Joseph Michelli. You can find several videos of his various speeches on YouTube, and several of his books on Amazon.com as well.  My husband said Joseph Michelli's presentation made the whole trip worthwhile and what he walked away with most was that companies who make "that emotional connection -- Ritz Carlton, Starbucks, etc." are  the most successful.

I picked my husband up from the airport yesterday and on our way back home, we decided to stop to shop for a mattress.  In the area we stopped, there were several mattress stores all within walking distance of each other.  At the first mattress store I met "Mike" ~ he was looking forward to going on a fishing trip, his wife and him have a tempurpedic because she has some health issues, and learned she now writes down her dreams and is sure she can make them into movies one day etc.  He showed us several mattresses and before we left the store to check out the other mattresses in the area, he had dropped the price of the mattress $60.  At the next store, we met a guy...don't know his name, but he immediately told us he would sell us the comparable mattress they stocked for 5% less than "Mike" had quoted in writing for us.  "Come on over to the register I'll ring you up".  Not so fast we told him.  We want to head across the street to the other mattress store.  There we met John who sells "the best mattresses in the nation" (funny...that is what the Serta guy, and then the Sealy guy told us as well) and proceeded to show us his mattress and about how he created, designed them himself.  He told us we can go online and check the reviews and we'll see that it is worth the deal he is about to offer.  He told us the price (lowered from the sticker price of course) and shared what it cost for him to make the mattress ~ $160, so he is making $40 on the price.  We left and googled his mattress...couldn't find any reviews on them at all.  So, that was out.  Then we had decide between the other two mattresses....Serta and Sealy reviews came up comparable to one another.  So the decision time....we went and bought a mattress...... Serta for $160 or Sealy for 5% less.  I chose the Serta.

When we had the mattress loaded and were heading home my husband asked "So, I liked the Sealy better.  Why did you choose the Serta?"  My response, "I liked Mike!"  My husband said, "Exactly!!!  He made the emotional connection!  That is the lesson!  In life ~ personal and business ~ it is about making the emotional connection."

Yesterday also happened to be my birthday!!!  I had an absolutely wonderful day.  From being woken up by my 16 year old with a Milky Way mocha from my favorite coffee shop, breakfast in bed delivered by my 7 year old, to the doorbell ringing at 8am and finding one of my dearest friends that lives almost an hour away with a huge smile on her face ~ Starbucks, fresh flowers, groceries for a breakfast she planned to prepare and gift bags to, picking up my husband at the airport and spending the day going to a Food cart in Portland Oregon that includes seating in a Double Decker bus  (a shout out to The Grilled Cheese Grill), to mattress shopping and then heading to my daughter's T-ball game where I had great conversation and a birthday hug from a new friend, to coming home and finding chocolates on my doorstep from another friend, Facebook posts, texts galore and phone messages from  family and friends, and ending the night with a card from my kids with a gift card and roses from my hubby.

The best part of the day was the emotional connection with each and every one of these people.  It was knowing that there were so many people who cared enough to take a portion of their time and share it with me to make my day the best it could be.  It wasn't the gifts (although I love them, and now have enough coffee gift cards to get me through the YEAR), it was the time they invested in me that mattered most.

I am grateful, thankful, and blessed beyond measure, and wish that for everyone else out there.  To be able to live a life where  you feel loved unconditionally, and cherished, and that you can spread that feeling to the people in your lives.  Making those emotional connections ~ it is one of life's greatest lessons and makes the world a much better place.  So, the next time you have the opportunity, please take the time when meeting others and ask "What's your story?" and be sure to share your story to!