Word-Of-the-Week #1073: Advice
March 13, 2025 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word-Of-the-Week #1073: Advice
Advice – an opinion that someone gives you about what you should do.
How receptive are you to getting advice? Do you trust your own gut instincts?
This is a follow up to last week’s Opinion. I think there are people who mistake an opinion for advice. When someone offers their opinion that’s all it is. If they’re telling you that you should do something or act differently that becomes advice.
“The trouble with advice is that it’s usually something you don’t want to hear.”
– CHARLES DE LINT, The Onion Girl
In pondering this I realized I prefer advice when I have asked for it. How many times have you gotten unsolicited advice? How did it make you feel? Basically for me it brings up feelings of “I know better than you do” and superiority. Does it seem like the one’s giving unsolicited advice a lot of the time are those people closest to you?
I like to share and receive information, reviews, etc. Sharing information is not giving advice but actually a way to receive advice or validation. It really comes down to how that information is presented and perceived.
“Before you give advice, that is to say advice which you have not been asked to give, it is well to put to yourself two questions–namely, what is your motive for giving it, and what is it likely to be worth? If these questions were always asked, and honestly answered, there would be less advice given.”
– JOHN WILLIAM MACKAIL, “On Giving Advice”
When I travel I have always asked people their advice on places I haven’t been to and it has served me well! That being said, it is my gut feeling that ultimately decides whether to use the advice or not. I can’t explain why I believe some people and not others.
“I only do what my gut tells me to. I think it’s smart to listen to other people’s advice, but at the end of the day, you’re the only one who can tell you what’s right for you”
– JENNIFER LOPEZ, Woman’s Day Magazine, Nov. 13, 2007
This week is all about advice. Do you have a tendency to give it more than you take it? How about your friends or family members? This is a reminder that they may be just giving their opinion and not advice! Or they are! My good friend Carol says she responds by saying, “That is very interesting.”
And my neighbor says, “I think you’re unfiltered, passionate and opinionated.” I didn’t find that insulting, I actually found it very helpful. My opinions are just that! And everyone is entitled to hear them.
PS – I write about that which I need to be reminded of or that resonates with me. And things that I would like to or will say to someone I love and care deeply about. I try to keep my emotions out of my WOW’s but they have a way of creeping in! Pretty much like my life 😊
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Word-Of-the-Week #1072: Opinion
March 6, 2025 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word-Of-the-Week #1072: Opinion
Opinion – a judgment or belief not founded on certainty or proof.
Do you trust your own judgment? Are you bothered when others what to share their opinion? Have you ever questioned why that is?
Steve Strauss, author of STEVE’S 3-MINUTE COACHING, once again has great insight to share.
Quote: The Opinions of Others
(Quotes are capsules of information, reinforcement or enlightenment.)
“Don’t let the opinions of the average man sway you.
Dream, and he thinks you’re crazy.
Succeed, and he thinks you’re lucky.
Acquire wealth, and he thinks you’re greedy.
Pay no attention. He simply doesn’t understand.”
– Robert Allen
Coaching Point: What is so compelling about the opinions of others? Why do we let them affect us so much? Can’t we trust ourselves?
See all past issues and subscribe here Steve’s 3-Minute Coaching
Copyright © 2025 Steve Straus, All rights reserved.
This week is all about understanding what an opinion is. It’s just someone else’s belief. It doesn’t make it right or wrong. How would it feel to listen without being emotional? And vice versa, how would it feel to express your opinion without getting emotional? How it easy would it be for you to say, “It’s just their opinion”?
And if you want more, check out Opinions Are Like Belly Buttons.
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Word-Of-the-Week #1071: Nothingness
February 27, 2025 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word-Of-the-Week #1071: Nothingness
Nothingness – that pleasant experience of enjoying time going by, letting your thoughts take over.
How comfortable are you spending time doing nothing? How often have you just sat in silence watching and listening to what was going on around you?
This week longtime friend and comrade Bill Marvin, The Restaurant Doctor, shares his perspective on spending time in Italy.
“The Italians have a philosophy of “dolce far niente” (dolce = sweet || far(e) = do || niente = nothing), literally: the sweet essence of doing nothing and enjoying it.
Nothingness is that pleasant experience of enjoying time going by, letting your thoughts take over. It’s very much in the mentality of Italians. They are lucky enough to have the natural beauty of amazing landscapes, from the coasts and sea sides to the highest mountains along with a profound sense of history.
Dolce far niente is at its best where all that matters is living the moment. No stress, no pressure, nothing matters; just live in the moment, a ‘doing nothing’ moment.
Italians work hard, but they live to celebrate with good wine and a plate of pasta, no matter whether it is a normal everyday lunch or the most important holiday in the country. Dolce far niente is a way of thinking always fixed to the moment, in which you can finally ‘do nothing’ and enjoy it.
It’s the sensation when you sit at a bar in an Italian village while you drink coffee and watch the passersby. Time slows and for half a second you admire life in its simplicity, and you only want to smile.
Spending time in Italy always reminds me of the importance of slowing down to the speed of life and just enjoying the moment. I recommend it highly.
Have the courage to Do the Work! … even when that work is the bliss of doing nothing at all!”
This week’s focus is on nothingness. When was the last time you did absolutely nothing? Did it make you smile? How often do you allow yourself to just “be in the moment?”
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Word-Of-the-Week #1070: Nature
February 20, 2025 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word-Of-the-Week #1070: Nature
Nature – the natural world as it exists without human beings or civilization.
When was the last time you spent time outside with nature? How long did it last? How did it make you feel?
I am spending more time this week in nature, and I hope you make time to do the same. “Are you suffering from nature deficit disorder?” I have seen several articles in the past month and am including excerpts from them this week.
“Our increasingly urban lifestyles are denying us the benefits of the great outdoors, says bestselling author Richard Louv. His new book “Vitamin N: The Essential Guide To A Nature-Rich Life” is all about tempting us back outside. He focuses on 500 ways people can boost their engagement with nature.
Oh yes, we love watching wildlife, but the problem seems to be leaving the sofa and immersing ourselves in the real thing.
It’s been more than a decade since author Richard Louv wrote his best-selling book, Last Child in the Woods, and introduced the world to the concept of ‘Nature Deficit Disorder’. His phrase referred to the growing trend of human alienation from nature resulting in “diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illness.”
Put simply, he stated that humans aren’t meant to be surrounded by concrete and metal all day. Moving from home to car to office or school and back again isn’t healthy – we need time in the wild.
As far as he’s concerned, we shouldn’t be glossing over the crucial link between time outdoors and well-being, particularly when it comes to children. New evidence strongly suggests that interaction with the natural world increases our ability to think clearly, heighten the senses when it comes to perception and increase creativity.
“And this from “Are You Nature Deprived?” A girl under 5-years-old was throwing regular weekend temper tantrums, and her parents complained to Dr. Robert Zarr, a pediatrician at Unity Health Care in the District of Columbia. When he probed about the family’s routine, he learned they were spending the majority of their weekends inside. The fits didn’t happen at school, where the girl had recess.
So instead of labeling the child with a behavioral problem or shrugging and saying, “She’ll grow out of it,” he wrote a prescription advising the family to spend a couple hours each weekend day at a nearby park.
“It sounded like she was starved for some nature,” says Zarr, who in 2013 helped launch DC Park Rx, an initiative encouraging physicians to prescribe time outside to patients and families. He may have been right: When the family returned for a follow-up appointment, the tantrums had stopped.
So far, his team has written 829 park prescriptions for a range of issues, including to prevent and treat chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and asthma. “I don’t get a lot of rolling of the eyes,” he adds. “Most people understand that there’s something lacking in their daily schedule.”
That something is nature. A lack of outdoor time for kids contributes to conditions such as childhood obesity, attention disorders and depression. In 2012, he wrote another book, “The Nature Principle,” showing that adults aren’t immune from the ill-effects of too much time indoors either. “The more high-tech our lives become, the more nature we need,” he tells U.S. News. “It’s an equation. It’s true of families, it’s true for children, it’s true for adults.”
Well, all I can say is that when I took my first real trip where I was “totally immersed in nature” back in 2009 it forever changed my life and the way we travel. Spending time in nature is incredible and I literally crave it if I don’t get enough!
This week’s focus is on being in nature. Is there something missing from your life? Are you and/or your children starved for some nature? When was the last time you experienced and outdoor adventure? Interestingly I have had more friends taking RV trips, camping and communing in nature during the last six months!
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Word-Of-the-Week #1069: Adventurous
February 13, 2025 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word-Of-the-Week #1069: Adventurous
Adventurous – willing to undertake new and daring enterprises.
At this stage of your life how willing are you to undertake new and daring enterprises? Does that feel scary or intimidating? Or do you get a feeling of excitement?
I’m on vacation for the next 3 weeks and definitely plan on being adventurous! So, I will be re-running some of my favorite travel WOW’s.
New York times writer Carl Richards aka SKETCH GUY is this week’s contribution. His latest article “Adventurous Quests Sharpen Everyday Skills” states, “I was telling a friend about some projects that really excited me – a new book I’m working on, an article I’m writing and a new hobby, motorcycling in the desert.
He asked, “How do you stay so motivated and so excited about things?”
It caught me off guard. I hadn’t really considered the “why” behind my activities. But I realized that the common thread was the feeling of being in over my head, just a little. In other words, doing things despite the fact that that, as the marketing guru Seth Godin likes to say, “this might not work.”
Now, that may sound counterintuitive. It’s easy to wonder how doing stuff that makes you uncomfortable, and might not even work, is a source of motivation. I’ve been thinking a lot about this paradox. I wondered whether I’m wired differently. But there’s something about a sink-or-swim environment that excites me.
My friend Dallas Hartwig told me about this concept call hormesis, a phenomenon by which something that could impair or even kill you in high doses can make you stronger in low doses.
Of course, I thought. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. It’s well documented that the way to grow muscle is to rip the muscle tissue, and then give it time to regrow. It comes back stronger than before. It makes sense that the business equivalent of building muscle is trying new things. When you throw yourself into the deep end of something new, you face a steep learning curve. That forces you to grow, adapt and develop your skill set. It’s almost irrelevant if the project succeeds. The very act of taking on something new helps you become better at your work over all.
You cannot spend your whole life in the deep end. Muscles get tired. Just like physical exercise, you have to calibrate the stress and rest cycle of any sort of entrepreneurial or creative work. The more I thought about it, the more I began to see these experiences for what they really were –adventures. After all, isn’t the definition of adventure to set off into the unknown, endure hardships, come back and then rest?
I know that adventures can feel scary and intimidating. But making a habit of seeking adventure may be the secret to staying motivated about the things you do.
And that confers a key economic benefit to anyone who experiences it. Even if we set aside all the tangible benefits that come from stepping outside our comfort zone, it is obvious that being more excited about your work is a surefire way to improve your performance, and turn your various ventures into adventures.
This week’s focus is on being more adventurous. How motivated are you at this point of your life? How would it feel to step outside your comfort zone? Is there anything you have been putting off that would bring you excitement?
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