The Holidays are here again. Can you believe it? December already. The weather is turning cold, and it seems that everyone is getting ready to wind down 2016 pretty soon. Too soon for me. Here are a few ideas to keep us from allowing the hectic pace and people’s “peopling”to trigger us to react with stress, anger and frustration.
Here are 3 tips to not get triggered and enjoy your holidays.
Understand that events are neutral. People are neutral. Nothing has meaning… good or bad until we superimpose our meaning onto it. So when you feel triggered, take a breath and realize that what is happening has no meaning… and then choose to give it the meaning that will serve YOU. If something is horribly triggering, breathe and find a way to separate yourself from it for a few minutes to give yourself perspective.
People are constantly “peopling”. What is that? It is that people with all of their personality components, their life situations and their history bring that into the room with them. Understand that you do not have to take it on. Any of it. Even with family, you can choose to objectively look at the behavior and language that is coming at you, and stand back, observe and then choose to engage or not. My Dad always said, you NEVER go wrong keeping your mouth shut.
And…. you can choose to or not to engage in the holiday ritual of shopping, and gift giving. If you have enough “stuff”, as I do, you can make the request of family and friends and co-workers, to make a small donation to a charity of your/ their choice. You can also ask someone to be specific as to what would be the best gift for them if they were to get a gift from you. Then you can choose consciously to create a holiday season that works for everyone.
Should you like to give the gift of coaching or voice dialogue facilitation to someone in your life or your organization, feel free to reach out to me and we can get it scheduled. My gift to you is that I’m here to help whenever you feel it will be a benefit, a joy or a gift.
I hope to speak for your organization or see you at an event in 2017.
With Peace and Blessings for a beautiful holiday season. – Carolyn
“It’s Halloween again the time of year that’s filled with candy and strangers
It’s a time to be “fake” scared from creepy ghouls, zombies and other dangers.
As for costumes some are creative and designed and expertly made by hand
And for others going to the store to choose creates huge retail demand
For queens and ghostbusters and storm troupers and politicos, the choices this year have no end
You can use Halloween as this month’s intention to spend an evening with friends.
So it’s time to go out and enjoy a wonderful weekend of tricks or treats
Remember it’s okay once in awhile to indulge in handful of sweets.”
Happy Halloween Everyone. By Carolyn Strauss (your friendly neighborhood witch)
Click image above to watch this content in action.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then video is worth much more. Everyone needs great video and not everyone is an expert at making it happen. Here are my top 10 tips for creating great video.
Lighting. Make sure your lighting highlights you or your subject.
Sound. Make sure the ambient sound is to a minimum, and that you can be clearly heard.
Wardrobe. I could do a whole hour on how important it is to dress not only to flatter you, your figure and your coloring, but to also dress for the impact you intend to have on your audience.
Hair and Make-up. This is where so many people experience a challenge. Men: be sure to be well groomed (to the extent that it fits your brand) and do something to be less shiny if possible. Women, styles and make-up formulations change and evolve. If you have not had your make-up professionally done at least once for a video/ photo shoot, please treat yourself to that, and you’ll be amazed at how different you’ll look when you are professionally styled.
Frame your shot. Be sure that the focus is on the subject, and that it is as centered as possible.
For a steady shot, use a tripod. They can be as inexpensive at $13 or as costly as you’d like. I got mine on Amazon for not much more than that and it works great. Be sure to get one that will hold your camera and/ or your phone to shoot video that way.
Write an outline, so you can stay on point and not ramble. (If you have a teleprompter…. Even better, however, please check to be sure your eyes are connecting with the camera lens to best connect with your viewers.
Whenever possible, speak in sound bites. That way your content is easily consumed, and can be re-tweeted or repurposed easier.
Before you make your video public, check for content, mistakes, hair and makeup mishaps (something in your teeth, on your face, or a clothing wrinkle that is distracting is what we are looking for). I’m NOT saying that a video has to be perfect, or that you can’t be human, clearly I stumbled a few times, but be sure what you post matches your brand.
Include your contact information on your video.
Finally, should you or your organization want help in this area… call me!
This week we get to witness and enjoy the Summer 2016 Olympics. As they approach, an opportunity presents itself. We get to watch as brilliant, dedicated athletes, culminate in mere moments, the 16, 20, 25 years they have spent to become the best in the world at one thing, to shine on the global stage, if only for 17 days… or 15 seconds as the case may be.
Their next opportunity to prove to themselves and to the world that they’re the best, will come four long years from now.
As I look at that timing, what I see is an opportunity for us, as regular people, to set a vision of goals for ourselves, something that we can focus our energies to become genius at, something we can excel at, something we can share with the world beginning now, culminating by being great at it four years from now.
Maybe it’s to be the absolute best mother and get a gold medal from your children for being the best mom. Maybe it’s being the best CEO and having everyone in your company want to stay and play in your world, in your company, in your vision. Maybe it’s to achieve a body that allows you to painlessly and effortlessly get through your days with joy and wellness. Or perhaps maybe it’s to learn something, to know something so well that you become the expert that people go to when they need information, advice, influence, or help.
So as we watch these athletes culminate years of dedication and training this month, and we get to appreciate all of their sacrifice and hard work, I invite you to really think about who you can be, how you will use your time, and how you can be in a better, more uplifted place in 2020. If you want, let’s check in in 2018 at the Winter Olympics and use that as the 1/2 way point of getting there. Go team USA!
I got to work with gold medalist Missy Franklin on a Minute Maid commercial in Spring 16. She is lovely, smart, humble and a fabulous representative of the USA.
