Category Archives: Inspiration

Good News: Young Entrepreneurs

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“Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal.” Pamela Vaull Starr

The good news is the world still has its share of young people who have heads for business. In fact,  digital tools are facilitating entrepreneurship at a younger age than ever! Want to know how? Here is an article.

There are many youngsters who find their passion and their talents at very young ages. Whether they have a head for science, mathematics, technology or inspire others through their unique creative talents, there are ways you can to encourage your child. There are even schools which help nuture entrepreneurial spirit and innovation in children by helping them set up micro-businesses.

lightbulbHow do you raise self-motivated children? Here is an excellent article. I like many of the tips in this article but my top pick is “to give a child a rich array of experiences.” In other words, expand their world and let them know why that is important. In my opinion, too many children are not given enough opportunity to see what’s beyond their home city and state, which can be limiting. Children learn so much when they see an variety of geographical landscape, a diversity of people, different cultures and ways of living.

The five young entrepreneurs cited in this article came from families whose backgrounds included business and finance. The whizzes have learned about all facets of their business from concept to marketing and have even planned for their future educational needs. Impressive, since a number of them are not even teenagers yet.

Do you have a child who is showing young talent at a very young age? If so, what are you doing to nuture it without providing performance pressure or providing too much stress by being an over-bearing helicopter parent? It is a very delicate balance.

This blog is brought to you by award-winning author Sue Batton Leonard. For information on her award-winning memoir, click here.

 

 

 

 

Reading: A Vintage Idea

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Anyone who says they have only one life to live must not know how to read a book. –Author Unknown

It’s not pop-psychology or new age thinking that a love of reading has many fulfilling advantages. Books stimulate the mind, they transport us to different places, we get to meet interesting characters with diverse personalities and learn something about different cultures. Literature broadens our world and exposes us to new concepts and ideas. Here is what some influential writers say about the magic of reading.

Today, I thought we’d take a trip down memory lane and see some of the vintage signs that indicate “reading is good for you.” These placards and posters have decorated libraries, reading rooms, bookstores and other platforms over the decades.

Come along and think back to when you obtained your first library card. What did it feel like? A priviledge? Freedom? A passport into a new world?

I heard one man, my father say “the day he got his first library card, it was like the best gift he had ever been given.”  My reply to that was “Oh, and then came the wife and the children….” Just kiddin’ Dad. We know you’d be lost without your books!

Seriously, if you have young children, one of the best things you can do is let them catch you reading, frequently! Happy Reading, everyone!

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This blog is brought to you by award-winning author Sue Batton Leonard. For information on the award-winning Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected, click here. And for Lessons of Heart & Soul, click here.

Reading and Happiness

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“Surrounded by darkness yet enfolded in light.” ~― Alan Brennert

There is an interesting article in the New Yorker Magazine about the connection between reading and happiness.  Researchers say when we read that there is a neurological process that takes place in our brain that transports us away from our everyday life to feeling as if we are in the place in the story, right along with the characters.

Bibliotherapy (reading books to make people feel happier) can be traced back to 1916 when the term was used in an article in the Atlantic Monthly. “Books,” the article said, can be used as a “stimulant or a sedative or an irritant or a soporific. The point is that it must do something to you, and you ought to know what it is. A book may be of the nature of a soothing syrup or it may be of the nature of a mustard plaster.”

palisades parkI had to laugh when I read that quote because I am currently reading a novel called Palisades Park by Alan Brennert. Through the story I have been transported to the famed amusement park in New Jersey and I have been eating hotdogs with mustard and sugary cotton candy in my imagination from the Midway. My mind has been spinning in circles as I’ve imagined the Cyclone roller coaster and the tilt-a-whirl and all the other rides. Every bit of the book has heightened my senses, as it’s stirred nostalgic memories of my youthful visits to the amusement park at Hershey Pennsylvania and Gwynn Oak Park in Baltimore.

Brennert’s book has done well in taking me to Palisades Park during the height of it’s popularity, in the 1930s. He has helped me understand the value of such entertainment in uplifting the American spirit during war times. All four of my senses have been fulfilled through his rich descriptive writing of tastes, sounds, smells and site of the historical times and events in his novel. You’ll hear the cacophony of calliope and shrieks. A sensational nostalgic summertime read!   Highly recommended.

If you are looking for other good reads that will transport you back to another historical time Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected and short stories Lessons of Heart & Soul, will remind you of the times when life was much simpler. This blog is brought to you by award-winning author Sue Batton Leonard.

 

Summertime. The Way it Ought to Be.

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“Summertime is always the best of what might be.” ~ Charles Bowden
There is an article circulating over the internet that makes me feel as if the person who wrote it, an Italian teacher, really gets what living an inspired life is all about. He understands the way summer is supposed to be and the feelings of adolescence that seem to go along hand and hand with the season. Many of the youthful feelings of summer that are cited in this article return to me year after year, no matter what stage of my life I am in.

Read this article about the summer assignment the italian teacher gave to his students.
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How about you? Do you have certain youthful feelings that return this time of year? What do you think causes a stirring of these dreamy and magical emotions that don’t come any other time of year?

Is it the more laid-back approach that comes with summertime? Is it because we shed much of our clothing and live less bundled up, which leads to freer feelings? Is it the memorable sights, sounds and tastes of summer that come only one season of the year? What is it? I’d like to hear from you!

This blog is brought to you by Sue Batton Leonard. Award-winning author of Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected and short stories Lessons of Heart & Soul.

Good News: It’s All There

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“In a knowledge economy natural selection favors organizations that can most effectively harness and coordinate collective intellectual energy and creative capacity. ~ Justin Rosenstein

There is a new website, just launched on Tuesday called Guardian Sustainable Business. It is organized by some of America’s top companies such as Google and Coca Cola. The  mission behind GSB is to “rethink the prosperity hub.” It’s target audience will be 18 to 30 year olds who will be our next generation of business leaders. It’s hoped they will do things with an eye on sustainability.

sustainable world“The aim is to provide a dynamic showcase of technologies, campaigns and entrepreneurs for young people to participate in, celebrate, share and draw on to change their own lives and the lives of others.” According to this article, the good news is “everything we need to co-create a sustainable world is already out there.”

The human creative spirit will be relied on to bring about much change in the way people live. I must ask, is that not what brought America to its prosperous rankings the world in the first place?

Interested in learning more about Guardian Sustainable Business? Click on this link. Sign up to get mailings and become informed about how as a nation we can harness everything we’ve got and move into a more sustainable place as a nation.

Next Thirsty Thursday, the day of the week devoted to good news, we will follow up this story with another about children entrepreneurs who are climbing the corporate ladder with their digital knowledge.

This blog is brought to you by award-winning author Sue Batton Leonard. See you tomorrow on All Things Fulfilling.com.

Developing Wiser Ways

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Individually, people are finding that a simpler lifestyle provides greater satisfaction than relentless pursuit of materialism. ~ Laurance Rockefeller

Millennials who were wise, learned something from seeing their parents go through difficult financial times when the “crash” came in 2008.

Many have become more creatively economical in their way of living than the previous generation. They are designing lifestyles that are more sustainable rather than acquiring massive debt just to “keep up with Joneses.”  I found this article interesting.

What do we really need to personally fulfill us? That’s the big question. I recently was a guest on a radio blog talk show called a Living a Richer Life voicing my opinion about this very subject. You can listen in by following this link.

It’s been evidenced time and time again by people who have obsessive buying habits that after they go on a buying binge, the feelings of fulfillment lasts only for a little while. In order to be satisfied once again, they need to go on another buying fling. It becomes a vicious cycle.

Here is a great article from the wellnessbucket.com that states five daily habits that contribute to feelings of satisfaction and personal fulfillment.

mistakes as stepping stonesFor those who have done research on the topic of finding joy, many say emptying the bucket of materialistic things and replacing it with these five daily habits can start your journey toward personal fulfillment and happiness.

This blog is brought to you the award-winning author of Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected and short stories Lessons of Heart & Soul.

 

 

 

Strength Comes with Setbacks

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“The beautiful thing about setbacks is they introduce us to our strengths.” ~ Robin Sharma

A large population of the  American people were thrown into an unexpected financial “dither” when the economy came to a nearly screeching halt some eight years ago or so. “The crash” forced the American people to look at sustainability in different industries. Economists and “the think tank” has been studying how to creatively deal with a whole new economy and how best to survive it ever since.

The publishing industry looked long and hard at environmental issues associated with books in print. More sustainable ways of publishing, such as e-books and print-on-demand have been developed. The way music and audio books is now distributed is also more sustainable. Downloading digital files rather than shipping product has brought new ways of doing business to the industry.

Thankfully hardback and paperback books have not completely disappeared from the planet. I like reading from a paperback book as much as my neighbor. But with print-on-demand, huge warehouses full of large inventories of  books have been reduced, as have the numbers of books being discarded in landfills. Thats good news!

Living Well, Spending Less: 12 Secrets of the Good Life is a great read for those who doubt that living with less is the key to happiness. The book may help you to adjust your thinking and put balance back in your life.

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As the economy rebounds, it will be interesting to see whether the American citizens will return to their old ways of being or whether a true “renaissance” has taken place. Have people fully realized that in order to live a fulfilling life, we can do it with less stuff? Will we continue to put our energies into finding sustainable ways of doing business? If so, there were great gifts in the downturn of the economy.

This blog is brought to you by the award-winning author of Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected and Short Stories: Lessons of Heart & Soul.

 

Rise and Meet the Moment

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Whoever wants to reach a distant goal must take many small steps. – Helmut Schmidt

I’ve had memoir writing on my mind lately since I gave a presentation on the topic on Monday. When you think about it, our whole life is comprised of stories we tell.

The internet has changed the way we tell our stories. Words and images are now so easily shared through digital platforms, such as by publishing e-books. If you know how to use social media effectively, marketing e-books is made easy.  If properly “indexed,” finding your target market is no longer like taking a shot in the dark.

To further explore my path of thinking, the other day I was looking in our kitchen cabinets for something portable to put in my backpack to stuff my mouth with. I came across a box of Blueberry Crisp Clif ® Bars that I didn’t know we even had.

Hiking ArtistI noticed the verbiage on the packaging “No. 14 Adventure Challenge ‘Embrace the Uphill’ then followed the words “Share Your Adventure #MeettheMoment.”

The point is, we all have dreams, adventures and challenges in life and careers. If you are working on an  independent publishing project and don’t know how to use digital platforms effectively to draw people who are truly qualified leads, social media can be a big time waster.

There are companies who specialize in e-commerce and e-marketing for independent publishers. “Embrace the Uphill,” as Clif ® Bar suggests. Don’t shirk away from challenges. Get help if you need it in order to finish your writing and publishing project. There is no shame in that!

I can tell you as a published author that the feelings of accomplishment that come with having a published book far, far exceeds what having unfinished manuscript feels like. Every step, big and small, was well worth the effort in feelings of personal fulfillment.

This blog is brought to you by Sue Batton Leonard. For more information on her book Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected and short stories Lessons of Heart & Soul.

 

 

Windows into a Life

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“Memoir isn’t the summary of a life; it’s a window into a life” ~ William Zinsser

It was a good turnout on Monday when I spoke with the Routt County Council on Aging about memoir writing. We discussed how to begin writing, ways to stir the memory pot and shorter forms of beginning to create a picture of one’s life.

During the Q & A period, at the end of my presentation, there were a number of very thoughtful questions asked.

One woman wanted to know whether you can start your life story in the here and now and work backwards. “Yes”, I told her, “lots of people do that.” In order to handle it well, it helps to have good developmental editing and perhaps a more skilled author. Flashbacks and the use of various scenes are helpful in writing backwards. We also discussed the importance of selecting only those significant life vignettes that have contributed to forming you as the person you are, rather than including an entire lifetime from beginning to end.

Common-Threads-Logo-300x155 (1)The same woman then followed up with another thoughtful question inquiring whether individual stories can be used as a memoir. I suggested she stitch the stories together with a common thread. Then I went on to mention the common themes that run throughout my award-winning memoir, Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected, a collection of short stories(anthology).

After the presentation was wrapped up a number of individuals mentioned they are currently working on or have dreams of writing children’s books or novels. Others wish to write their memoirs or tales about other family members. I hope they all actively pursue their writing interests because the good news is  

See you tomorrow on All Things Fulfilling. Have a great day everybody! This blog is brought to you by award-winning author Sue Batton Leonard. For information on Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected  or short stories Lessons of Heart & Soul.

 

From Sweet to Savory

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“There is no real ending. It’s just the place where you stop the story.” ― Frank Herbert

“What was your favorite?” someone asked me the other evening when I attended a Girl Scout fundraiser at the Catamount Ranch and Club.

Without a doubt, the Tai concoction and the coconut shrimp,” I said referring to the recipes that most satisfyingly fulfilled my palate.

It was a challenging and interesting concept in fundraising – turning sweet Girl Scout cookies into savory appetizers. All and all, I liked these two recipes the best:

Do-Si-Dos: Chef Ben Hunt from Catamount Ranch & Club prepared Short Rib Do-Si-Do Pad Thai

Samoas: Chef Jacob Jaime from Catamount Ranch & Club prepared Samoa Coconut Shrimp with Mango Salsa

I could have eaten entrée-sized portions of either one of them. They were that yummy! Here are some photos from the evening:

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tai photo from steamboat radio

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Here is more about what the other chefs cooked up.  Each year of this fundraiser the chefs have come from different restaurants in Steamboat Colorado.

Toward the end of the night, a friend approached me and said “Did you see what you won?”

“What? Where?” I replied.

“Go over to the raffle table, not the silent auction area, and there is something with your name on it. You are going to LOVE it, “she said, “it’s meant for you from beginning to end!”

Come back tomorrow, and I will show you on All Things Fulfilling what I won in the raffle drawing. It’s thrilled me to no end!