All of life is a work in progress and mine is no different. This week has produced some calming in my life as I look at options and realize the world is full of them. In my last post about paralysis by analysis, I talked about how we sometimes get stuck. I have to thank my husband for reminding me, as he said it, “from day one of when we met, God has always worked things out for the good and this time in our lives will be no different.” That simple realization has taken that paralysis away and allowed for some excitement in figuring out what life will bring.

The new site will talk about leadership development, features some of my favorite books and products, and will soon release a new fun ebook for medical transcriptionists called “Bloopers, Typos and Speech Wreck.” I hope you will join me there.

You can find this at Kathy Nicholls and I hope you will come along in this journey, subscribe, and share your thoughts along the way! I’ll see you there.

As I began to think more on this over my morning coffee, I found myself drawn back to the book “The Traveler’s Gift” by Andy Andrews. One of the seven decisions in the book is “I am a person of action.” This goes quite well with the next one which says “I have a decided heart.”

It is only by making a decision and moving forward that we truly have any momentum in our lives. Someone once said “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” And it really is that simple, one step at a time.

What decisions are you not making today that you need to? How fan you have a decided heart and become a person of action?

I ran across this video in the last week or so about telling our story in one minute or less. I would not have titled it sad, but touching. I think it’s worth sharing.

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What about your story? Could you tell a story in a minute?

I’ve been playing with this for about a month and am having a ball making lenses. A lens is basically a web page and the Squidoo community shares all kinds of things. It’s a community, a place where people come together to share ideas. I love that. And although, I’m a novice, I thought I’d share a few of my lenses with you here.

One of the first ones I made, I made about Lessons From my Dog. I was missing Turbo since he lives in Colorado and this was a fun reminder of him.

My niece helped me with the lens about Bobby Jack. She is a HUGE Bobby Jack fan and we have had fun with that one.

Then I did a bucket list lens. It’s all about ideas of things to put on a bucket list of things to do before you die.

Today I’ve just been in a holiday mood so I did two holiday lenses. I did one on Christmas cookies showing some of my favorite things to make at the holidays. The other is about holiday movies.

If you haven’t checked out Squidoo, it’s a great community. Learning all of the new things I’ve had to learn to get started has been a great stimulation of my mind and I am having a ball.

Have you done anything with Squidoo? If so, I’d love to have your user name so I can follow your lenses!

For today, it’s simply enough to say I am thankful. I spent the day on the waters of the Caribbean Sea with friends. They are all awesome and I am so thankful to have each one of them in my life.

I came home tonight and my wonderful husband is cooking dinner. He is an awesome man and God sent him to me at just the time that I was ready to be open to that. I am truly blessed.

I am reminded as I write this that I also have a great family. I’ve been working on my Squidoo lenses today and doing ones about Christmas. That is always a reminder of family. And mine is pretty darned good.

In the hard times of life it is so easy to get lost in it and forget what we have to be thankful for. I am grateful for that reminder today.

In today’s world, sometimes it feels as if our integrity is dictated by others. The actions of another may mean we can’t always do what we say we would. Yet, nothing in the definition says adhere to that code as long as others don’t interfere with it. It simply is what it is. We make choices every single day that impact us and the world around us.

In the last few days, I’ve been forced to really take a look at these things. There are times when it doesn’t seem easy. I have finally learned today to simply acknowledge that I have to honor those things I value. Some personal health things have made me stop and look at what I truly value in life. As I went back and read my earlier post on values I realized it really is pretty simple, even when we make it difficult. As long as you focus on your true values in life, it’s not tough to maintain your own integrity. It IS a choice and one we each have to make for ourselves. It’s really only tough when we forget that we do have a choice and CAN choose to remain true to those things that are truly important.

I love Lucado’s personal writing style. This book came into my life at a time when indeed I was facing some personal challenges and where fear was quickly creeping in. It provided a reminder for me that when you live in faith, fear has no place. I found the discussion guide in the book quite helpful in leading me to make practical application to my own life. Perhaps one of my favorite nonscriptural quotes from this book comes from one of Lucado’s friends, who says, “Everything will work out in the end. If it’s not worked out yet, it’s not the end.” Our world is in a constant state of flux, the economy is bad, unemployment is rising, and many things are uncertain. I recommend this book as a great reminder of a way to handle all of the uncertainty.

The points made are so true and give so much for thought. What is it that you do each and every day that is replicated? We see it in children, we see it in our coworkers, and you know, we even see it in ourselves as we watch someone we admire.

The world is a stressful place these days. Work needs to be done faster, with fewer people, and yet the workload doesn’t decrease. It is so easy to find ourselves becoming that proverbial “workaholic” and little time is left for anything else.

I had a conversation with a friend this past week. She spoke of a desire to not let her job consume her such that she had no time for her family. Even those habits get replicated in those around us. If your children see it, they believe that’s how it should be. It also sends the message that work is most important. If your team that you lead sees it, they come to believe that is what is expected of them and try to do the same. And at some point, with our teams, they burn out and move on because they have had the revelation that work, while important, is not the most important thing in life. As it said, no one, on their death bed, will say they wish they had spent more time at work.

I had a team member once who talked to me about the time we spend at work. In explaining to her that I had no expectation that she work 7 days a week, she disagreed with me. She said, “You always send emails in the middle of the weekend and I have to check because I want you to have the answers you need from me.” What an eye opener. I wish I could say I have stopped sending emails on the weekend to my team. Some weekends I do better than others. It is a work in progress. As a leader, Michael Hyatt’s post today has reminded me of the responsibility I have to be sure I am providing something great to replicate. I am sure glad he wrote it.

“The Noticer Project is a worldwide movement to “notice” the five most influential people in your life! Noticing those five people can be as private (just a letter or email) or as public (posting to your Facebook page or joining The Noticer Project Facebook group) as you choose, but the movement is meant to encourage us to step outside our busy schedules and avoid waiting until a wedding, graduation or even a funeral to take notice of the special, influential people in our lives. By noticing those who have made a difference for you, you not only acknowledge their contribution, but you may gain a new perspective on your own journey. If you are noticed, you are encouraged to continue the movement by ‘noticing’ five people in your life!”

I hope each and every one of you will stop and do this. The Noticer Project has a Facebook page as well as its own website. Now is the time to notice those people who make a difference in our lives. Don’t wait until it’s too late! I will be actively participating in this and hope you will too.

It turns out, the modem upgrade I knew I needed to do and hadn’t gotten around to yet was now urgent, because the old one no longer worked. On top of that, Fridays in the Caribbean means things close up around 4, so there was no way this one was getting resolution until Monday. How in the world could I go all weekend with no internet? On top of that, my internet is connected to my phone service so that also knocked out all contact with my family in the States. I do have a Blackberry so I had access to emails, just nothing else. And yes, I know those things come with internet browsing, but it’s just not how I use mine. Today, the guy came to replace the modem. He had to take it to the office and “see how long the line is” and said he’d be back. I finally got reconnected around 12:30. Almost three whole days without my connections.

What I realized is that first, I CAN go without that! It’s possible. It made me a little crazy all weekend at first, but then I just said it is what it is and moved on. I read a great book (more on that in a future post), watched some movies, and spent most of the day with a friend. Connections, once again.

Not too long ago, I read Seth Godin’s book “Tribes” and so the important of being connected to things has been on my mind a lot these days. When we don’t have our connections, we miss them, life is not the same, and life is not okay. They are what brings life together for us.

I am glad that today my connections are all back in place and life is back to normal (at least as normal as is possible).