Mid-Point Evaluation

Have I mentioned I'm enrolled in a 10-week Dale Carnegie class? I had a friend who went through the training. His speaking ability was already strong before he entered the class but he just zoomed to a new level after the training.  So much so that I decided to sign up myself.

We're halfway through the training and I have to say, I'm not getting so much out of it. But to be fair, I know I'm not putting much in it. In hindsight, I shouldn't have signed up for this training period. Life is just crazy and the course has become less of a learning experience and more of just another "to do" to cross off my list.  I'm sure I'd be taking much more away if I approached it with a more positive, inquisitive, open attitude. (The first night we were encouraged to not "condemn, complain, or criticize." I'm sitting in class thinking, "Uh-huh. I'm going to need some new friends.")

I do think the course has value. There are several people in my class who are just blossoming--coming out of their shell, gaining confidence, and really putting forth effort. One big guy came in and reported that people at his work told him "charm school is working." So now we all refer to the training as charm school.

Two things I've really gotten out of the experience:

1) The reading. Surprisingly, I find the D.C. books to be engaging and well written. Lots of great real-life examples and even though a lot of the information is stuff most of us already know, it's a gentle nudge to put the theory into practice.

2) We were asked to name one area or task in our life that we could commit to with 10x more enthusiasm. Many people chose exercising, for example. I chose the phone. I loath the phone. I'd rather type out a 10-minute e-mail or drive 40 minutes for a 10-minute face-to-face meeting than I would pick up the phone and call someone. So I've committed to using the phone with 10x more enthusiasm and I have to say, it's made a huge difference. I make a call and get the information I need or knock out a task that normally would have me waiting for an e-mail response.  I've also had a huge project this month that requires over 30 phone interviews and this commitment has made me approach the work with a positive vs. "I dread doing this" attitude.

Is the course worth the money? I'll wait until week 10 to make that call.  Until then, this is me--not condemning, criticizing, or complaining.

Peace out.

Unexpected Gifts

I had a whole slew of things to blog about today but those have all been cast aside in favor of blogging about an entirely unexpected and extremely welcome gift.

A new friend, Lisa Wynn, runs a unique loose tea flavoring company called Artisans Cup.  The company's trademarked tag line (which I love) is: "it's ok to be loose..." Lisa's tea has been featured in Southern Living and samples were included in the gift bags for the 2005 Oscar awards.  When I found out about Artisan Cup, I was amazed that this prolific company that hobnobs with the stars was located not 45 minutes away from me. And Lisa is an amazing person. Very smart and funny and a terrific writer.

But I digress. The point here being, Lisa's teas are very cool and she does custom blends. So,  I come home today loaded down with laptop, projects, materials, etc. I've had a good day but I'm running low on fumes. I gather the mail and see an envelope with the Artisan Blend logo on the outside. I open it and guess what's in it? "Dena's Writer Blend" tea!  She made me my very own customized blend of tea!

It was just such an unexpected and fun gift. It made my day. My tea is black tea infused with orange and clove. I am brewing water as we speak so that I might see what a Dena Writer's tea tastes like. 

I always think gifts "just because" are the best gifts. Birthdays and holidays are fine, but when someone sends you something just because they were thinking of you and thought you might like it, that says good things about the person and makes the gift that much more special.

So, thank you Ms. Wynn.  I am now going to go relax--and write--with some mighty fine tea. 

8-mile run

Today marks the day when I ran the furthest I've ever run.  8 miles in 75 minutes.  I felt good enough to do another mile or two but stopped as I've read you shouldn't jump ahead to far too fast in a training routine as you're likely to do yourself  more harm then good.  But eight miles is  a good 3-4 miles more than a typical run so I'm thrilled.

Part of the reason for the ease of the run was different terrain. Royce, Marguarita and I drove into Greensboro this morning at 7:30 and met a friend of Royce's. (This friend is over 60 and averages 50 miles a week. He's in incredible shape.) But instead of running over traffic bridges and through scenic K-mart parking lots as we do in Madison, today we ran a hiking trail with trees creating a canopy shelter, wooden bridges that crossed lakes and beautiful scenery to look at.  It's so much easier to run when you're focused on how pretty the world is versus "I can't breath."

My challenge now is to increase not only time but the number of days I run each week. Right now, Tuesday and Thursday are running days along with one weekend day. I probably need to start doing Saturday and Sunday (one hard run, one easy) and maybe one more day during the week. Finding time is always a challenge but even if I just hopped on the treadmill for 3-4 miles one evening, that would help.

There's a 10k in Winston next weekend I might sign up for. See what I can do about increasing my time.

I hope everyone reading this is experiencing as beautiful a day as we are here in NC. It doesn't get much better than what's outside my window today.

What's Your Word?

 A few weeks ago a friend sent me an e-mail that asked me describe her in one word.

One word... I sat and mulled it over for almost 10 minutes, trying to pick the word I thought best encapsulated who she is. Part of the challenge was that I really don't know this person well but I wanted to give an answer to the best of my ability.

Naturally (me being me) I became curious what words I would get back if I sent out the same request. So out went the e-mail to family and friends. I'm flattered by the words I got back although being that I sent the e-mail to friends I didn't really expect to get "annoying," "psycho" or "opinionated" back in return (well--maybe "opinionated').

Here are some of the words I got back: Fabulous, smiling, inspiring, genuine, frenzied, shiny,  dynamic, motivated, balanced, controversial, and funny.

My favorite out of the group is "frenzied" as I think it comes closest to describing me and I appreciate the person's honesty who sent it. She even said in her reply that "Frenzied implies energetic with a dose of frazzled thrown in."  Mmmm... shows she's been paying attention. =)

The interesting part of doing this was less what words were used to describe and more about which words specific people chose. It's fascinating to see what word your mom, sister, best friend, or friend you only see now and again ascribes to you.

Now that I think about it, I note no one came back with "Kick-ass-writer." (The dashes make it one word). Well. You're all in for it now. The new Dena word for the day is "huffy."

Have a good one.