June 2006

I’ve been thinking alot about Boldness lately, so I hunted up some great quotes.  They’ve motivated me and I hope they do the same for you.

“Put a grain of boldness into everything you do.”  ~Baltasar Gracian

“Few novels or plays could exist without at least one troublemaker in the group, and perhaps life couldn’t either.”  ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic’s Notebook, 1966

“Most of our obstacles would melt away if, instead of cowering before them, we should make up our minds to walk boldly through them.”  ~Orison Swett Marden

“Be bold. If you are going to make an error, make a doozy, and don’t be afraid to hit the ball.”  ~Billie Jean King

“You must play boldly to win.”  ~Arnold Palmer

“When you cannot make up your mind which of two evenly balanced courses of action you should take - choose the bolder.”  ~William Joseph Slim

“The mind, ever the willing servant, will respond to boldness, for boldness, in effect, is a command to deliver mental resources.”  ~Norman Vincent Peale

I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to make something happen!

Joi

“Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”  ~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

I was flipping back and forth last night between my beloved St. Louis Cardinals and the equally beloved Food Network.  A show on the latter was doing a story about pancakes (which I’m now dying for) and the host was interviewing one of the founders of ”The Original Pancake House,” Ron Heighet.  Mr. Heighet struck me as a very smart and conscientious man.  

I have a habit of keeping a notebook and pen nearby whenever I’m reading or watching tv - in case someone drops a little brilliance in front of me.  I don’t really trust myself to remember the brilliance on my own, so I document it.  I’m  used to writing down cooking tips and recipes from Food TV (for my cooking website and blog) - but last night it was a quote that I scribbled.  There was not only a lot of wisdom in Mr. Heighet’s words, but the solution to a lot of problems and near-problems.

When asked what separated his restaurants from the rest, he spoke of their attention to detail and of their dedication to providing the best food they could - because, ”Every order reflects upon us.” 

Can you imagine if every individual within every business could really latch onto that philosophy?   That, not only does every order, transaction, and/or service reflect upon them personally - each of their workers do as well.

It just struck me as a novel approach to business that should be more common.  It’s something that we should all keep in the forefront of our minds, whether or not we’re in business.  Everything we do reflects upon us - either positively or negatively.  Everything makes an impact and everything leaves an impression.

 Between the pancakes they featured and their founder’s insight, I’d love to check out one of their 100 restaurants - but there aren’t any in Kentucky!  The closest ones to me, judging from their website, would be in Indiana (Indianapolis) and St. Louis.

Oh, well, I think I’ll just make a big stack of buttermilk pancakes tonight.  Beats the long ride!

Joi

Do you watch The View regularly? I’ve only watched a handful of times, and each time the only one of the bunch I really liked was Star Jones.  The rest?  Sandpaper.

That’s why I was so surprised to read that creator Barbara Walters and the rest of the big wigs have chased off their brightest Star.  They said that viewers were “turned off” by her dramatic weight loss and by her costly wedding.  Yeah, nothing turns me off like romance, weight loss and money.

A few things struck me as kind of interesting - the announcement was set to be made on Thursday, but Star (who feels old enough to make her own decisions) made a surprise announcement Tuesday….making Queen Sandpaper freakin’ mad.

A couple of quotes from this whole thing intrigue me.  First of all, Barbara Walters said, ““I would have loved for Star to have left and not said ‘I was fired,’ and not make it look like the program was somehow being cruel to her.” 

Why should she have gone out of her way to make a show that ditched her look good?! Star was an original member of the group and they turned their back on her.  The program is being cruel, Babs!

The quote I like the best, however, is from Star Jones:  “I’m not sure what the future holds.  But I’m absolutely sure who holds the future.”

If there’s any justice in the world, a year from now this lady will have her own show.  Her, I’d watch.  I like her style!

Joi

A report from the University of Minnesota says that coffee, especially decaffeinated, seems to offer protection against adult-onset diabetes. The experts believe that minerals and chemicals found in the coffee bean favorably affects blood-sugar levels and protect the pancreas from stress.

An earlier study done in Finland, which has the highest coffee consumption in the world, found that men and women who drank 10 or more cups of coffee per day had the lowest risk of adult onset diabetes.  However, it seems to set at odds with their assertion that decaf is more favorable, because in Finland decaffeinated coffee is not widely consumed. Smart people!

So coffee can help guard against one of the meanest diseases there is?  I’ll drink to that.

Joi

Did you happen to catch 20/20 last night?  I don’t often venture away from the Food Network, Cardinal’s baseball, or the Discovery Channel - but I’d seen what was on two of them and the third one’s sucking gravedigger knees lately (Never leave us again, Mr. Pujols!) 

On last night’s episode, they were exploring health myths - it was pretty interesting stuff. If you missed it, here’s a link that’ll give you a quick look inside the stories. >>> 20/20 Busts 10 Body Myths.

I’ve been thinking about one story in particular. It was about stress and NUTS - Nagging, unfinished tasks.  Scientists say that these NUTS add about 8 years to our lives.  The more we have, and the longer we allow them to linger, the worse they are on our health.

Time to whip out the NUT cracker!  I’m looking around inside my own world and uncovering things that I’ve been “meaning” to get to, “wanting” to take care of, and “wishing” would go away. Frankly, I have more NUTS than I ever knew.   Er, I’m not real comfortable with that. 

So I’m making a June 24 Resolution.  This week I go all medieval on theses lingering annoyances and crack each one wide open.  I just might need those 8 years!

Have an amazing weekend,

~Joi

At the top of my gotta do list is buying a few new rose bushes.   I’ve planted my beloved gladiola and calla lily bulbs, planted the perennials, and have the herbs ready to get me through the year - now I want a few new rose bushes.  I’m thinking of grabbing one of these beauties - to go along with the MUST HAVES: Mr. Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Tropicana, 49er, and Queen Elizabeth. 

The rose above is the Knock Out Rose and has become pretty popular in its own right.  It’s said to be taking the gardening world by storm.  Apparently it’s maintenance free and resistant to black spot, beetles, mildew and drought.  I’ve read that Knock Out even blooms on into winter in some places.  It also has 10 times more flowers per shrub than other rosebushes.

Joi

A strong case could be made for a lack of Self Esteem being at the root of every evil a young person gets into.  I’ve watched enough young people to know that the ones who like themselves the most do the least amount of harm to themselves or to others.
In an issue of Homelife Magazine, Christy Heitger-Casbon gave these tips for instilling self esteem in children:

1. When you watch your child in an athletic event, do you criticize and condemn afterwards?  Or do you talk about how proud you were of the effort?
2. When your child brings home a school assignment, do you only talk about the questions that they missed, or do you pat them on the back for the ones they got right?
3. When your child helps with household chores, do you only point out what should have been done better or do you thank them and emphasize what they did well?

Granted, a child that lives with only praise and is given the proverbial thumb’s up 24/7 isn’t going to amount to much.  Then again, neither will the one that lives only with criticism and a constant thumb’s down.  As is true of most things in life:  It’s all about balance. Young people need discipline and they certainly need to be shown when they mess up.  BUT, they also need encouragement and praise.  We all do! Accomplishments need to be reinforced - if they aren’t, how long do you think it’ll be before a child wonders why he/she should even try?
Can you imagine working for a boss that criticized every move you made but never even noticed the good things you did?  Would you want to get as far away from him as possible or what?!
Every now and then just give yourself a gut check by asking, “Do I cause my children to feel like they are never quite good enough; that they never quite measure up?”  If you’re up for it, ask them - only if you’re equipped to handle whatever their answer may be.

Have a week that’s so incredible you want to write about it!

Joi

Let others lead small lives,
but not you.
Let others argue over small things,
but not you.
Let others cry over small hurts,
but not you.
Let others leave their future
in someone else’s hands,
but not you.
-Jim Rohn

Between 4 and 6 years ago there was a young actor on the daytime drama, One Life to Live, who stood out in the crowd.  Not for the right reasons, mind you….for the wrong reasons.  HE STINK, STANK, STUNK.  The boy was dreadful.

An addiction since childhood (the show, not the boy), I saw the young man’s first episode, his last episode and all the ones in between.  I’m nothing if not a softie, and I HATE to see anyone lose their job, but even I was hoping the show would axe this kid because he was so bad.

Not only did he have trouble with his lines, he was wooden and emotionless. He was fodder for the online forums as well as the soap mags.  No one dared to fast forward through him though, because it was too funny.

I remember one of his most agonizing scenes.  He was in a cave with his character Seth’s girlfriend (Yes, yes a cave) and he was supposed to simply say, “I’ll start a fire.”  He stumbled all over the place - “I’ll start a fire, make a fire, start a fire, make a…”  The poor actress just looked at him, then the place where he should’ve been starting…making…starting that fire.  He stood there looking blankly at her.

It was one of his last scenes.

On daytime, anyway.

The young man didn’t let the stinking or the firing get the best of him.  He let them get the best from him instead.  He continued to work on his craft, kept dreaming, and believed that he could make it all happen.

Whatever became of this actor?  Something super, actually. His name is Brandon Routh, and on June 28 he has the lead role in a little movie that’ll be coming out.   He’s being called the “next big thing” and the “hottest new star.”

It’s the start of something big…the making of something big….the start of something big…

Joi