One Intimate Question

This video spotlights a fascinating difference in perspective between children and adults.

Enjoy!
-Katie

Creating Extreme Makeovers: At Home or at Work?

House Beautiful

Many years ago, when I went to see a career coach myself to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, I grappled with two different worlds to pursue professionally. I deliberated between beautifying homes or helping people navigate the career world. Two totally different pursuits, no? 

Option One: The Home Makeover Route

I'll admit there's nothing that gets me more jazzed than good, innovative design, especially in the intimate setting of one's home. I considered going into interior design to be a part of that amazing process of helping others create an environment that energizes and nurtures them. 

I've always loved combing through shelter magazines and interior design books for ideas. I get giddy over colors, patterns and textures, and lose track of time when I start rearranging things in my home. And from the time I was a little kid, I've always loved to draw and create beautiful things, including my future home. In fact, when my sister and I were little, riding in the back seat of our old station wagon to see Grandma and Grandpa, we used to while away the hours by thumbing through the Sears Catalog, picking out items for our future home and putting them in notebooks.

Ah, the days before Pinterest...

Option Two: The Work Makeover Route 

On the other hand, helping people solve problems has always energized me. Enabling people to discover and reach their potential has always felt meaningful and satisfying. Most importantly, I've always had a knack for that kind of thing; people sought out my advice way before I called myself a career coach. 



And talk about a fascinating subject area! I could read and write about people's career journeys, life choices, behavior and psychology 'til the cows came home. 

So which was I supposed to choose? Designing or coaching?

Option Three: Both!

Thankfully my career coach- who eventually became my wonderful mentor- put an end to my dilemma and suggested that I didn't have to really choose. I could, in fact, bring the function of design into career coaching. He suggested that even if I took the coaching route, I would actually still be designing, just not in the artistic medium of velvet-upholstered chairs or sparkly light fixtures. 

(You can tell where my tastes fall on the decorating spectrum, can't you?)

He explained the many ways design is an integral part of career coaching. Coaches help people design their ideal careers, their goals and their visions. Coaches shine light on various bits and pieces of someone's life- pieces such as talents, passions and interests- and help the client create ways to integrate those disparate entities into something streamlined and, well, beautiful.


As soon as I chose to go the career coaching path I realized he was right. I discovered that even though I wasn't going to be an interior designer, I could still ensure that innovation, creativity and beauty were infused into my working life. Every day I'm increasingly convinced that pieces of the career puzzle are exquisite in their richness and complexity, even though they are more conceptual than physical.

Picture, for instance, the vibrancy of a talent that has been uncovered, engaged and honed. Consider the splendor of pursuing fascinations and passions, layering depths into our lives in a way few other things can. Remember how challenging work makes you feel alive and invigorated, especially in a physical environment that makes you feel at home with your talents. 

So what happens when all of these pieces- the talents, the interests, passions and environments- are designed to come together in unison? They infuse a brilliant spectrum of colors and textures into life. And you possess a living, breathing (and ever-evolving) work of art.

Naturally, I will always maintain a pure, aesthetic love of interior design, and I try to give it due time on a regular basis. I fully embrace my role as an interior design enthusiast vs. professional, and yes, you might call me an amateur. While this label might strike some as a bit pejorative and diminutive, I prefer to think of the word amateur as the French originally designed it to mean: "for the love of something." According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Amateur originates from the Latin, "amator" ("lover") and is derived from amare ("to love.") 

And, as a great woman once said,

"Even if one dost not make home design one's livelihood, 

one always has Pinterest."*

Designer's Guild

Indulge In Your Own "What If" Life Makeover



Ask yourself:

What if you were to take the time to create something innovative in your professional life? 

What if you were to add value to your work that might surprise (and delight) those that witnessed it? 

What if you were to incorporate some of your long-held interests into your personal life? 

What do you miss doing that could come back to you, that could enrich your life, filling it with new layers and meaning?


*Okay, that woman was me. I said that statement in a flash of insight.

What Now?

“What now is not just a panic-stricken question tossed out into a dark unknown. 

What now can also be our joy. It is a declaration of possibility, of promise, of chance. It acknowledges that our future is open, that we may well do more than anyone expected of us, that at every point in our development we are still striving to grow. 

There’s a time in our lives when we all crave the answers. It seems terrifying not to know what’s coming next. 

But there is a time, a better time, when we see our lives as a series of choices, and What now represents our excitement and our future, the very vitality of life. It’s up to you to choose a life that will keep expanding. It takes discipline to remain curious; it takes work to be open to the world- but oh my friends, what noble and glorious work it is.”

-Ann Patchett

What now?

The Happy Secret to Better Work

Check out this fantastic video my friend shared with me.

Enjoy!

-Katie

Invasion of the Candy Snatcher

"That's right, Little Ones. Bring your candy to me"

Here was the unfortunate situation Halloween Night: 

Cloey Margaret, our beloved Golden Retriever, goes out to greet the trick-or-treating family of four. They all pet her soft coat and squeal over her cute little bandana.

"Aww, she's so sweet," says the dad.

"And so good with kids!" adds the mom.

"She likes wishing everyone a Happy Halloween," I say with a grin. 

I love this night, I think to myself.

Just then, one daughter, dressed as Queen Elsa from Frozen, trips on her lovely satin gown. She is not hurt, thankfully, but she takes some time getting up and carelessly leaves her heavily laden pumpkin bucket filled with sugary loot on the ground.

Like a tiger sensing weakness, and as we parents are distracted by caring for the small child, Cloey goes in for the kill, rapidly digging her long snoot into the little girl's pumpkin bucket.

Child: (Still on the ground) Ahhhhhhhh! She's eating my candy!!!

Me: Oh my Lord! Cloey! Stop that!!!!

I grabbed the bucket away from Cloey, who has managed to score a small (fun size!) bag of M & M's. I successfully wrestle the bag from her jaws. It is now covered with slobber.

The Mom: (forcing a smile and reaching for the soggy bag) I'll take that, thank you.

Me: Oh no no no! I'll get her a fresh bag- really. And my sincere apologies about that ummm ... incident.

Child: (who stops crying immediately when I give her a fistful of M & M bags) Thanks!

After that, Miss Cloey Margaret was banished from Trick-or-Treating Land and sent to the basement to think about what she'd done. (But mostly she just barked in protest.)

Hope you all had a Happy Halloween!

Cracking the Moronic Code

I've decided that my husband and I should not be allowed to put children to bed, due to the fact that we essentially turn into morons after 7pm. Sometimes it takes us so long to put each child to bed that we find ourselves eating breakfast once they finally get to sleep, since it's practically dawn anyway.

While this last part might be a bit of an exaggeration, our children's nighttime routines were indeed stretching into the precious hours of our parent-only time, making us wonder if this bedtime behavior was normal.  I therefore began asking fellow parents what time they put their kids to bed. Unfortunately, I received answers that shook me to my mother-lovin' core.

"7:30" was the first answer given.

Hmmm. I asked them to repeat that answer because surely they misunderstood me.  I was certain they thought I'd asked what time they ate dinner.

Nope, it turned out they heard me just fine.  All of their children- even the oldest, age 9, is in bed by 7 freakin' 30.

I was shaken because I'd been expecting a validating response like, "Oh, Lord, bedtime???!!!! It takes us FOREVER to get Precious Georgina and Little Lukey to bed. We are sooooo exhausted every single night!"

So, since I was not getting the validation I was looking for, I decided to do the right thing and ask someone else. Someone who might be more, you know, normal, like us.

And wouldn't you know it, the next parent I asked said the same thing: 7:30. Seriously people!

Not backing down for one minute, I asked yet another two parents and the answers were only slightly better: lights out at 8. Maybe 8:30. One said 9:00, but only on a special occasion, like Halloween, when candy consumption has them dancing on the ceiling.

That's when I began to get the suspicious feeling that we were doing something terribly wrong. Why couldn't we get our children to sleep at a decent hour? Were we complete imbeciles when it came to the night time rituals?

I consulted several pediatric sleep books with titles such as Bedtime Made Easy! Twenty Simple Strategies Even Morons Like You Can Do , but they all contradicted one another, which is why I always dread reading books on raising children: every author professes her method is the only way to successfully guide children to adulthood without failing miserably.

So at my son's annual check-up my husband and I decided to ask the pediatrician what sleep times the children should be getting. The doctor's answer confirmed that while our kids weren't really too far off on their ideal sleeping times, it was enough that they did need more than they were getting. And, most importantly, we learned that we were being majorly played by our offspring. She gently explained to my husband and I that our children were basically taking advantage of our soft spot for together time at the end of the day: reading stories, telling stories, cuddling, asking questions, etc. etc. etc., so on and so forth.

Now, lest you, the reader, think this comportment is sweet and endearing, please understand that it does, in fact, mimic the behavior of ravenous lions preying on helpless, unsuspecting gazelles.

"Oh what a lovely day, Boris,
perfect for meandering through the meadow..."

"That was almost too easy, Sis."

My husband and I have since cracked down on the bedtime nonsense; however, the lions are persistent. Every night we have to keep things moving, otherwise everything will drag out and mom and dad will get frustrated and frazzled and the children will get crabby and ugly everyone will be a big ole mess.

I only mention this ongoing battle in my own little suburban animal kingdom because I'm trying to point out the following:

It's human nature to want things we do not, in any way, need. 

We stay up too late watching TV. Or reading. Or, as The Artist Formally Known As Prince would say, partying like it's 1999. Then the next morning go to work feeling like we've been hit by a semi.

Or perhaps we drink too much coffee or throw down one too many donuts, skip the exercise and treat our bodies like they are mere transporters of our brains.

Then we wonder why they won't work the way they're supposed to.

Everyone has a vice (or five) because we often want what we don't need. But while we can never expect ourselves to behave perfectly, (and nor should we, right? We gotta enjoy life!) there is something to be said for tuning in and recognizing when our minds and bodies are telling us to slow down, or rest, or to rethink how we work and live. We can divert our focus to an activity or food that will nourish us. We can do things in moderation. We can adjust our way of handling stress and stressful people and we can ask for help when we need it. We can make choices, every single day that allow us to push ourselves to do better.

Not necessarily flawless, but at least better.

So now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go share these sentiments with the lions. 'Cause in 12 hours it'll be bedtime and I know they'll be hungry for stalling tactics.

Photos: Creative Commons, Wikipedia, Edupic

Courage is Easier Than Fear

Courage is more exhilarating than fear and in the long run it is easier. We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just a step at a time, meeting each thing that comes up, seeing it is not as dreadful as it appeared, discovering we have the strength to stare it down.

You Learn By Living (1960), 41

Eleanor Roosevelt