One week ago, I was sitting at the table with my brother and sister-in-law talking about their upcoming move to Houston. Just weeks before, they were scheduled to move when Dennis had a heart attack and landed in the hospital. He ended up having bypass surgery and was in the middle of a painful recovery. Their son was going to drive with them but he had the possibility of starting work at a construction site. They were trying to figure out Plan B.

Suddenly, I was overcome by a strong urge to go with them. At first, I tried to ignore the urge. I was in the middle of finishing a book and preparing three presentations for the end of the month. The gnawing feeling inside would not stop. I had long ago learned to listen within. God often guided me in powerful ways with those internal nudges.

“I’ll drive you guys down,” I said. Instantly, I wondered how I was going to justify it with Joe and the kids– because I had been traveling so much with the launch of my speaking and SendOutCards business this year. Thankfully, they were all supportive.

Less than a year ago, I made a commitment in my journey back to God and found a church that I feel very much at home in. I felt as if I had lost my way over the years and I needed to find my way back to a faith which I actually knew little about.

One day, Joe brought home a box of books from my mother-in-law. In the box was Joel Osteen’s book, “Live Your Best Life Now.” I had just started watching Joel on Sundays and I loved his uplifting messages and lessons. More than once, the same thought popped into my mind: I would love to attend a service at Lakewood and meet Joel. I wrote it down in my Dream book.

That’s exactly where I found myself on Sunday morning/Mother’s Day. I arrived at Lakewood church early and walked around. A man in a business suit approached me. “Would you like to meet Joel?” I could hardly believe my lip reading eyes! He walked me over to a roped off section. “Joel will be coming off the elevator here,” he said. “No pictures, though. Do you have something you want signed?”

Instantly, I wished I had bought a book at the bookstore. Then I remembered my Dream journal– I would have him sign that!

Just seconds before it was my turn, my hearing aid gave the warning sound of a battery about to die. (Ok, God, your sense of timing is funny!I have never changed a battery so fast in my life.) Not that it would have mattered much– but I wanted to make sure I could moderate my voice.

It was an amazing moment to shake the hand of a man who inspires many and makes a difference with his gifts. I enjoyed the lessons he shared at the service. The interpreters, Sally and Debbie, did a wonderful job translating. Sally took notes and gave out copies– I was SO grateful for that!

This morning, my brother and I were sitting in his new family room and reflecting on how everything worked out–and how everything magically unfolded beautifully. My brother was in no shape for this move, but the trip went well and we managed to unpack everything in one day so they could move in that evening.

What a blessing!

I recently had the wonderful opportunity to attend the “Born to Win” workshop with Tom Ziglar (author of Born to Win with his father, Zig Ziglar) and Howard Partridge (Seven Secrets to a Phenomenal Life). I met both of them last fall at a Business Expo– what a dynamic duo!

Tom was kind enough to read “Gliding Soles, Lessons from a Life on Water” which I co-authored with Keith St. Onge and he gave an endorsement.

Although I’m a solepreneur with my speaking and writing business, I found lots of business gems from this workshop which applies to my work with Hands & Voices and SendOutCards Speaking of SendOutCards, this service received a mention from Howard as a valuable business tool to keep in touch with others and to spread gratitude.

If you are considering attending a “Born to Win” workshop, i highly recommend it! Both guys truly live the Ziglar legacy: “You can have everything you want in life if you will help others get what they want.”

In the early morning when you wake up, let the first thoughts be ones of gratitude.

What are you thankful for?

At the end of the day, let the same attitude of gratefulness complete your day.

Do this, and you’ll begin and end each day with an amazing lightness in your heart.

Lately, my bio reads like a gal off in too many directions. One week, I’m in Vancouver doing a presentation for Hands & Voices. Then I’m off in another direction doing a workshop for parents of deaf and hard of hearing kids or “Beyond the Limits” for deaf and hard of hearing students.  Yet another week, I’ll be at the World Barefoot Center (Thanks to my sponsors, ZVRS, Phonak and Tommie Copper) learning how to get up backwards behind the boat or working as a Blog Manager for the site.

Then there’s BookHands discussions every six weeks, Mentoring with families. I’m a Manager with SendOutCards so I share that resource everywhere I go. I’m a Passion Coach and a Certified Passion Test Facilitator–I help people unwrap their top five passions. I’m an author of three books with several more on the way. When I have a free day, I substitute teach.  I’m also a mom of three teens and a wife.

Someone recently asked me, “How the heck do you do all that?”

The answer is pretty simple: when you do what you love to do, you can do so much more in a day. You let the insignificant stuff fall to the wayside because you’re deeply immersed in your passion.

My friend, Sutton Parks, whom I met at Dan Miller’s Coaching with Excellence (affiliate link to some great stuff!) workshop recently posted a great quote by Kix Brooks on Facebook which pretty much sums it up perfectly:

“I am definitely working more now,” he says, “but the word ‘work’ is the confusing part of that. People ask me all the time how do you fit all this stuff in, how do you schedule it? The secret is everything I’m doing is something that I really want to do. It’s just like if you go to the beach for the weekend, you’re gonna fit it all in. I want to go here, I want to go to my favorite place to eat, I want to ride go-karts, I want to rent wave runners, and I’m gonna sit here and put my legs up and read a book. You get all that stuff in because you want to. That’s how my life is. It’s like I’m running from place to place and I can’t wait to get to the next one because when I show up, I — for the most part — kind of know what I’m doing. [laughs] It’s all interesting and fun to me, and I just can’t wait to do it all.”

I probably will narrow all of this down at some point, but right now, I have a lot of overlap. For example, I write when I’m on the plane, I network for SendOutCards/my books/future gigs when I travel, and I’m home the rest of the time hanging with the family.

How can you do more of what you love in your life? First and foremost, you have to identify what it is you enjoy doing most. What brings you joy? Set your intention–what do you want to intend in your life today/tomorrow/this year? With every action, you are either moving closer to your passion or further away. Choose wisely.

The team landed in 5th place among 20 teams. Both of my kids, Steven and Lauren, were on the team.

I had a proud mommy moment when Lauren was selected for the All-Star team. It was especially poignant because she had been attending two high schools this year, one which is a 30-40 minute ride away.

A big, huge thank you goes to the coaches, Jamie Nick and Kathy Craig, who have tirelessly practiced with the students.

The competition is conducted in American Sign Language, and deaf and hard of hearing kids from various educational settings compete in math, social studies, art, deaf studies and science.

Get up. Go to work. Come home. Eat dinner. Watch TV. Repeat.

Is this your life?

Are you at the point where you’re sick and tired of being sick and tired about life? When you look back five years, do you see the same five years ahead of you?

“I’m Fine, Thanks” explores the topics of mediocrity and complacency and features interviews with people from all over the United States and Canada. To read more about the movie:

I’m Fine, Thanks — Karen Putz

Come and join me on Tuesday, March 5 at 2 – 4 p.m. at Waubonsee Community College at the Sugar Grove campus.  You’ll get to see the movie and join in on a discussion about living a passionate life. I’ll be sharing the Seven Principles for Living a Life of Passion. For more info or to join in:

I’m Fine, Thanks — I’ll Be There

17,354.

That’s how many days I’ve lived so far. I never really thought about that number until I sat down last night to read 20,000 Days and Counting by Robert D. Smith. The book was from Keith St. Onge, who received it from Andy Andrews.

I first came across Robert via his guest post on Andy Andrew’s blog and I shared my thoughts on 48days.net:

What Did You Have for Breakfast? How About a Couple of No’s

Robert’s post gave me a whole different approach to facing rejection and he expands on this outlook in his book.

Yes, there’s some talk of death in this book, but it serves the purpose of waking us up to examine our lives and understand how we can leave a legacy of difference during our time here on earth. The message is clear: live with intensity.

Robert asks in the book, “Are you getting so bogged down in the day-to-day minutiae of your life that you overlook the power of each moment?” And there’s more: “Do not wait for impending death to light the fire of action inside yourself.  Act today. Start small. There are opportunities hiding in the ‘day-to-day.’”  We definitely have to be mindful of the power of each moment because that is all we really have– the here and now. This reminds me of a line in one of John Denver’s songs: “The moment at hand is the only thing we really own.”

Last night, before I sat down with the book, I was experiencing a high level of crankiness about small things. I was lamenting about my weight gain, grumbling about the frustration of learning how to barefoot backwards and just generally in a very rotten mood. An hour and half later, I closed the book and reflected on several key points. The first thing was to switch to an attitude of gratitude– after all, here I was down in Florida getting to barefoot water ski with some great people. I took each of the negatives and switched them around to positives. Life is too short to give in to the grumbling.

Tomorrow is day 17,355. It’s gonna be good.

Both Lauren and Lauren Holtz were selected for the All-Star Team:

Kyle Adams from Hersey High School clowns around with Hinsdale South’s winning trophy:

It was fun watching Lauren and Steven play together on the same team.  They were like twins–with their own unspoken language between them.

What a team!

Lauren and Steven with Gallaudet president, T. Alan Hurwitz:

Two great coaches who spent hours and hours with the students. Jamie Nick and Kathy Craig:

At five o’clock this morning I woke up drenched in sweat. The open jaws of a very large alligator startled me awake.

It’s not the first time I’ve had that kind of dream. Here’s how they started:

Alligator Dreams

You’ll note that this was written back in November of 2010. For awhile there I was doing great. Then one morning last year, Joann O’Connor and I were walking from the guest house to the ski school and we encountered an alligator lounging in the grass. My heart pretty much leapt out of my chest. I was just glad I wasn’t alone.  My first instinct was to run, but then I remembered a little tidbit I had read somewhere on the web– that alligators can run as fast as 35 mph (not true as I later found out, it’s more like 8 or 9 mph–huge difference!).

To top it off, last fall, I barefoot water skied right by what I can only assume was a very large alligator, judging by the ripples left on the water as I skied by. The boat crew confirmed it.

So for all the bravado I declared back in 2010, I’ve discovered that the fear of alligators is not something I can merely outrun in my mind. There’s no way to control the dreams except after they’ve occurred, and by then, I wake up in a cold sweat and can’t go back to sleep for a long while, even after mentally changing the end of the dream.

Several people have suggested that I face the fears head on by petting an alligator or even wrestling one under supervision. I don’t think that will do anything to alleviate the fears, because the fear stems from the idea of being attacked in the water, and that’s beyond my control.

So unless someone has a solution for me, I’m going to invest stock in a company that develops alligator repellent.

I think videophones are the greatest invention since dark chocolate peanut butter cups, but today, I’ve had it.

I had an interview set up this afternoon for my next book. The person called me using an ntouch by Sorenson. I used a Z-20 by ZVRS. We could not see each other.

This is actually old news in the videophone industry and I’ve been aware of it for a while now. But today, I became rip-roaring mad. If you know me, it takes a lot to set me off. When I can’t run my business because of videophone incompatibility, it makes for one cranky entrepreneur.

So I’ve had it. I’ve filed a complaint with the FCC, but my complaint is just one of many, many, many complaints that were filed with the FCC. It will take up to two weeks to submit my complaint to Sorenson and they have 30 days to address an answer to me.

A call to the FCC confirmed that they’re aware of the issue and working to ensure that all videophones are compatible, but the slow pace of this fix is frustrating. The ntouch was released ONE YEAR ago this month. Prior to this, I could call a Sorenson videophone, but since the ntouch was released, it’s been a real problem. I still can’t leave an answering machine message when I call a Sorenson videophone. A call to Sorenson provided no answers as to when this compatibility issue will be fixed, just that they’re “aware of the problem and working to fix it.”

Today, I couldn’t conduct business and we ended up turning to an alternative way to connect. That is totally uncalled for. Can you imagine Verizon and Sprint pulling this kind of thing off? If they so much as went one day where someone couldn’t make a call because of cell phone incompatibility, the media would be all over it.  Can you imagine an AT & T customer calling a T-mobile customer and not being able to access voice mail because of “incompatibility?”

For crying out loud, (and we can’t even hear it) let’s get this incompatibility issue FIXED so we can go about the business of connecting with one another.