Archive for the Category »Just Thinking «

07
Dec
What Can Be Said In 140 Or Less
Denyse

When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand.  The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.  ~Henri Nouwen

This is a small thank you to those of you that have touched me through my Twitter stream.  Today I reached 50,000 followers.  It is with a very humble heart that I share this with you.  13 months ago when I started writing my profile and signing up on Twitter I thought, who is going to follow me and what will I ever say to them?  What I have found in Twitter can only be understood if you connect to others on Twitter yourself.

Who would think that someone you do not even know, that might even live a world apart from you, would ever have really touch you in any way that really mattered.  The followers in my stream on Twitter do that each and every day.  There is never a day that goes by that someone does not ask me how I am doing, and really is waiting for a genuine answer.  They are not saying that just because they need something to tweet.  They are saying it because we have connected!

Within 140 characters we connect in such a way that I never would have thought possible.  We have shared the joys and pains of our lives.  We have cheered at achievements and listened when an ear is all that we can give.  We have reached across the miles, across borders, stretching into countries we will never see, and we have connected in such a way that lives have actually been changed just by tweeting.

I saw the love and caring working at it’s fullest in Twitter when I lost my mother this past summer.  People from my stream that I had never connected with followed her health progress with me.  They prayed and told others and people that were not even following me were praying.  It is not only your followers that touch you, but they ReTweet to people following them, and some of those people in turn also reach out to you to offer you hope and comfort.

When Mom passed on, many of my followers listened to me and offered me love and comfort and encouragement.  Some even shared loss of their own parents with me.  It was a process of healing and these people helped so much.  As in the quote above these people chose to share my pain with me and reached out and touched me with the viral hand of 140 characters.  Often they only gave me a place to share my grief, but they were always there.

Besides, the sorrow they also share in the joy!  Many connect and ask how business is going, how the projects are going, and are interested in what is going on in our lives.  Yes, we even laugh and joke and play tricks on each other, make fun of our funny hats, or dance in the rain, or a number of crazy other things like the week we had a virtual pillow fight!

My Twitter stream is filled with new friends.  A year ago these people were strangers to me.  Today, right now, I could send out a tweet and someone would be there to answer a question or smile with me, or share a moment of my day.  Twitter changes daily, so people will come and go, but the spirit of the people of my Twitter stream will be always with me.  Many people have touched my life just by connecting.

When you follow someone, you actually do yourself a great disservice to not try to connect.  You just never know what kind spirit you may find that will touch your lives as so many have touched mine.

To my followers, I thank you for the wonderful opportunity you have given me to connect with you, to learn from you, to laugh with you and to share moments of our lives.

Follow me on twitter if you don’t already

http://www.twitter.com/denyseduhaime


Category: About Life, Just Thinking, My Twitter Family, Reflecting, To Tweet Or Not To Tweet, What's It All About  Tags: , , , ,  Leave a Comment
08
Nov
Leave Your Regrets Behind
Denyse

For many of us we often say “I really regret that I did not do that”.  I think that his one thing really can eat away at you and take a chunk out of the happiness that you deserve.  We just can’t live in the past.  We can’t start sweating and being upset over the things that are long past.  We cannot change those things at all.  So if we feel we have made a mistake, then we have to take a hard look at it, then put it behind us and learn from it.

When you make a mistake it gives you a real opportunity to learn.  This is true in all aspects of our lives.  You can take a life’s lesson from just one mistake and then try to avoid a similar problem in the future.  This can be in your personal life or in your business life.

What one of us has not said, “I wish I did that instead”.  Now you have learned something.  To make a mistake is to grow.  If you fear making a mistake, you will never see that growth.  You will become very wise, if you continue to make mistakes, because you are then learning more than you knew the day before.

I never really looked at mistakes like that.  I looked at them as failures.  It took a friend to point out to me that now I know something that does not work and I can find something that does.  I am glad that he made me aware of this, because it has really been a good tool in my business.

I have tried many new things this year, and I do not regret any of them.  I have learned from everything I have done.  I learned a ton from the “Internet gurus”, but not what they were trying to sell me.  I learned a lot about believing in and trusting myself when I thought a product was bogus.  My own instinct has saved me from making even more mistakes than I would have.

Each mistake has been a lesson learned for me.  It is growth.  I have so much more knowledge than I did over a year ago when I started this.  I have learned lessons that no money can buy, but mostly I learned them from mistakes I made.

I look at this as positive growth.  My own business and my own life will be better for this.

In our personal lives we may also regret things, but those too we must leave behind.  Your happiness, all of our happiness, depends on being able to move forward.  Doing this you will find positive things to build on.  Will you still make mistakes, and still say I regret not doing that?  Of course you will.  I will as well.  I know that each day is a challenge, and I will admit to my mistakes and try to see what lesson I can learn from them.

I really like this quote:  “Mistakes are the usual bridge between inexperience and wisdom.”  ~Phyllis Theroux, Night Lights

Leave your regrets behind you.  Put them in a box on the shelf in the closet.  You can always take them down again and look at them, but do not dwell on them, do not let them zap your happiness.  Full your spirit with the knowledge that you learned.

Category: About Life, Just Thinking  Tags: , , , , ,  One Comment
05
Nov
Looking at Value
Denyse

Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are. ~Malcolm S. Forbes

I tweeted this today and I really got thinking about this.  How many of us really do that?  I know if you have a really healthy ego, then you think you see yourself as being important and having real value to yourself, your family and those around you.

So many really do not think like that.  I believe that it is something that is developed as a child and carried forward into adulthood.  I was just talking to a friend about this.  If as a child you were not made to feel that you were important to your family, then you may possibly carry that into today.  You could possibly see yourself as not having value and worth.

In order to be happy or to be successful in your own business and many other things in life you have to start to really look at yourself and stop undervaluing your worth.  You can not put a high value on the traits that you see as negative things.  You need to start looking at all of the positive things that you can do.

You might be a great mom or a great dad, you may excel in a sport, or you are a great cook, an awesome listener.  These are all positive traits that often we discount as not being important.  They are important, they are things that create your make up, the person you are.

It takes a lot to look at yourself and find things that are of value.  You might think that your friend is smarter, or that the “internet guru” can be successful but you can’t, or that someone has more than you.  None of that is true really.  You are what you make yourself feel that you are.  You are smart, you are talented.  You just need to put a higher value on the wonderful traits that you do have instead of the finding faults in things that you do.

Never forget, that all of us are important.  We are creatures of God’s creation and he would not have created something that was not imporant to him and important to others.

Be Free to Be Yourself!  Value yourself as others value you!  You are so unique and so special.

Category: About Life, Just Thinking  Tags: , , ,  Leave a Comment