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Monthly archive
May 31, 2012
The Rope Trick: Stop Getting Let Down and Start Building Up Great Relationships at Work and Home
It’s a three-headed monster. It’s a work-killer, relationship-killer and buzz-killer. The “it” is the awful letdown that occurs when you think you can depend on someone and they leave you hanging.
It happens at work, in volunteering and at home. A business partner denies they were going to do something. Or your spouse said they’d get home early so you could work late and then they don’t. Or your teenager assures you they will help their little brother with homework...but it never happens.
In each case you get left with more work and more stress – and rotten feelings towards those you need and love. So much of this is avoidable.
In my new video below, I share a simple technique that works like magic. I have used it with – and taught it to – clients; I practice it with my wife; and I find it most valuable with my kids. They don’t always like it, because I pin them down and I invite them to be responsible adults – and that’s not always easy.
Take a look and share your comments or questions about what I call “the rope trick.”
May 30, 2012
Everything You Want is on the Other Side of Fear
Photo credit: OneTrueTree Creations
Most of us are spending way too much time in our comfort zone. We cling to the familiar, the commonplace; what we already know.
Anything of value, anything worth doing that’s going to make a real impact, often brings up fear. If you want to make a dent in the universe, you need to get out of your comfort zone.
If you’re not feeling fear in some area of your life, you’re probably not challenging yourself, let alone, going to change the world.
After a decade of running my own PR and marketing firm, I founded SheBrand because I want to help other women find their voice and step into their power.
Philanthropically, I had been working with underserved women and girls for more than 12 years and loved seeing them have light bulb moments.
May 28, 2012
How Families Can Remain Calm and Carry on After their Team Loses
Today in the United States, sports has become a year-round activity, involving families not only on the sports field but also off the field.
In the past, the majority of sports fans were men, but that has gradually changed. Today both men and women are arm chair quarterbacks, watching college and professional games.
In fact, according to a Neilson Media Research poll, over 14 million people watching major sporting events like the NBA finals, Daytona 500, or World Series are females. On Super Bowl Sunday 2011, almost half of the 111 million viewers were women.
Families enjoy the camaraderie of watching sports and agonize over the "Win/Loss" records of their hometown professional sports team. They join together on the day of the big games, wearing their team jerseys, t-shirts and team baseball caps; and being sports enthusiasts, they scream and yell at the television or from the stands during the big game.
May 25, 2012
A Race Against Time to Stop Alzheimer's
In December of 2010, Sandra Day O'Connor and I co-authored an OpEd in the Washington Post - Our new national goal: Defeating Alzheimer's in 10 years - that called on our country's leaders to make fighting Alzheimer's a national priority by setting a deadline for defeating this devastating disease.
That call to action was heard and our country has responded. We now have our first National Alzheimer's Plan. Recently announced by the Department of Health and Human Services, the plan commits the United States to stopping Alzheimer's by 2025.
This is an important moment in our fight against Alzheimer’s. We are entering an extraordinary era of hope -- hope for a world without Alzheimer's.
To mark this moment and spur momentum as our leaders work to implement the plan, Sandra Day O'Connor and I teamed up on a new column for USAToday.com, A race against time to stop Alzheimer's.
May 25, 2012
My Short List
Maybe I’m just slow, but it’s taken me a long time to get life’s priorities down to a short list.
Just how long? Let’s begin with two divorces, three career changes, four cross country moves, five, if I count the time I followed a guy to Miami, then got sunstroke and changed my mind. All this over four plus decades.
I have made progress. Long gone are the notebooks listing all the exotic places in the world I wanted to see. It turns out the Travel Channel is cheaper, and no one pats me down at security.
Shredded is the file folder, with the ripped out magazine articles: recipes to try, books to read, and a “must buy” post-it note next to a picture of a mini hose that sprays cool water on you when you exercise. I never bought it. Or I bought it, and never used it. I can’t remember.
Gone off my list are the hot, trendy restaurants in town, where you spend too much money to be seen by people who don’t care about you, and I regret to tell you, never will. I tend to plan our dinner outings at establishments that allow dogs on the patio.
Goodbye famous people eating fancy food, and hello, Benny Rosen, my extremely cute puppy who munches on gourmet kibble while sitting in my lap. As you can see, Benny Rosen is definitely on my short list.
When I got really serious about making my short list even shorter, my husband and children set the bar. They’ve taught me that love intuitively guides you as to how to keep it simple; how to keep it real.
May 24, 2012
Find Your Hummingbird Hotel
Hummingbirds used to be a rare occurrence in my life. But then, something happened.
Maybe it had to do with climate change or migratory patterns. But I like to think it’s my Dad.
You see, my sweet, lovable father (such a softie that I nicknamed him “Mr. Marshmallow”), died a year ago after a long, debilitating illness. We were extremely close.
The first morning after he passed away, a beautiful little hummingbird fluttered onto my mother’s cement patio. There were no flowers around. Just me.
I believe that happy little creature came to tell me that my father was finally free and only a hummingbird away.
May 23, 2012
Flexing My Mom Muscles
My fitness writing may imply that my main concerns are about squeezing into single-digit clothing, calculating the calorie content in the glue on an envelope, loose waistbands and sculpted abs.
But that is just my day job. My highest calling for the last 18 years has been my 24/7 Mom Job. And today, as my youngest children, my twins, finished their last day of high school, I was pink-slipped.
They are my my babies, and now they are turning the last few pages in the final chapter of my book of their childhood.
Although today I should write about the acute temporary failure and fatigue of muscles (otherwise known as exercise), my heart is just not strong enough.
In my head, I know that parenthood is just a scaffolding, a temporary support during our childrens' construction of the actual building of their adult lives. But inwardly, I am beginning the uneasy process of squaring my heart with their growing up and leaving.
For almost two decades, my daily life has expanded and contracted according to my three kids' happiness level. The main part of me is excited for them. That part of me welcomes and invites their growing up.
May 22, 2012
The Never-Ending Journey of Being a Parent
My book, Broken Open, is a collection of stories about lessons learned in my own life and in the lives of those I have met during my years of work at Omega Institute, the learning and retreat center I co-founded 35 years ago.
The book’s thesis is that difficult times offer us a choice—to be broken down or to be broken open.
Any challenge—from the most painful loss, to the most ordinary annoyance—can become an opportunity to rise from the ashes, wiser and stronger. I call that opportunity a “phoenix process.”
If you want to pursue a phoenix process of the highest order, I would recommend raising children. Parenthood is a clumsy yet majestic dance in the flames.
May 21, 2012
Keeping A Father's Memory Alive
My dad, Pete Pihos, passed away in August 2011 after a twelve year battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
My dad meant the world to me. He was my hero and I always looked up to him. He was one of the most positive persons I have ever known -- larger than life -- and he has inspired me in ways that I continue to discover.
His life accomplishments are extraordinary. He is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame because of his tremendous football talent with Indiana University in the 1940’s and the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1940’s and 1950’s. Of the thousands who have been honored to play in the NFL, only a select few are immortalized in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Along with being a gridiron football player, he fought for his country in WWII in the D-Day campaign, putting his college football career on hold to serve his country.
He had four wives and five children, four from his second wife, Cecile, and me from his fourth and final wife, Donna.
May 18, 2012
Pioneers of the Possible: Visionary Women Entrepreneurs Share Keys to Success
Photo caption: Photo taken at Milken Institutes's Global Conference on May 3, 2012
Recently at the Milken Global Conference in Los Angeles, I had the privilege of interviewing three visionary women entrepreneurs who have made tremendous contributions in their fields.
These, like the visionary women in my book Pioneers of the Possible: Celebrating Visionary Women of the World, have learned valuable lessons about success that we can all benefit from.
Here I've compiled a short list of the lessons learned from these powerhouses…but first, let me introduce my three panelists.
Georgette Moschbacher is the CEO president of Borghese, a worldwide cosmetic company, who has now partnered with the Costco brand Kirkland retailing nationwide. She is also the author of two books Feminine Force and It Takes Money Honey.
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