1-28-2022

 

Mary’s Minute

I am a big fan of romantic comedies.  I love a light-hearted movie that makes me laugh and has a happy ending.  I not only love happy endings, but I also am enough of an optimistic that I believe in happy endings!  Dramas take too much energy for me, and I despise horror movies.

I realized that life is not always tied up with a pretty bow at the end of a set amount of time, like rom-coms.  I do believe that when we see the good in what we do and in others, that things work out. 

The fictional philosopher Ted Lasso said that rom-coms remind us that it will work out.  It may not be the way we wanted it to work out or occur in the way that we thought it would work out, but it will work out.  Our job is to let it go!

I know that I can’t totally treat my life with the carefree spirit that is allowable in a 1 hour and 50 minute fictional love story interspersed with some laughs.  I still need to plan.  I need to put in the work.  I need to spend time thinking about hard topics and devote my energy to being productive. 

I do love treating life -- at least my philosophy of life -- like that of a romantic comedy, where I believe that good things will happen, and that laughing is good for the soul.

We all have our favorite movie genre, but if you want to choose a philosophy from a movie type, I encourage you to choose to see the good, choose to laugh, and choose to let it go, with a good rom-com! 

                                                                    Have a great week!

                                                                                                 Mary

1-21-2022

 

Mary’s Minute

 “Recognition is a reward in itself. Any form of appreciation, even a small word, is important.”

                                                                                                      ~ Vikrant Massey

Last week to start the weekend, I received an unexpected text from a teacher, expressing appreciation.  It meant a lot – it really meant a lot.  (I won’t say the name of who texted me, but I hope the person reads this!)

When you ask employees what they crave, they almost always list being appreciated at the top of the list. 

We all like to be tough at times and say that it doesn’t matter what other people think, or being truly altruistic, we may say that we do what we do for the right reasons and not for the recognition.  Still, we all like to be appreciated. 

As employers, as friends, as teachers, as family members, showing appreciation is an easy way to make others more satisfied.  Speaking from personal experience, I know it should be easy to do because in my heart I have tremendous gratitude, but I don’t do the job I should in expressing that appreciation.  Life goals!  I want to write more notes, send more texts, say more kind words of appreciation. 

Showing appreciation is indeed important!  I want to do better in letting the people in my work and personal life know that they are indeed appreciated.  If you are reading this, please know you are appreciated!  (Honestly, just you taking time to read MM is so appreciated and humbling.)

                                                                              Have a great week!

                                                                                          Mary

1-14-2022

Mary’s Minute

Fill in the blank:  Life is too short to __________________

Be unhappy, hold grudges, sleep on a bad mattress, sweat the small stuff, be miserable, not eat cake, and the list of serious and silly goes on and on.

Thinking about the brevity of life can feel depressing, but it also motivating and invigorating.  If you think analytically, you probably occasionally do the math based on longevity statistics and think that each day or year represents x% of your life remaining.  The reality is that there are many variables, even the keenest mathematician cannot fill in. 

Ultimately, whether life is cut way too short with the heart-wrenching death of a young person or a person has the honor of living into a second century, life is short. 

All we have is each day to live our best life, fulfilling whatever our personal purpose of life may be – to be happy, to make the world a better place, to help others, to leave a legacy, to have a good time. 

Every day counts.  Every day we have a chance to fulfill our purpose – being happy, helping others, leaving things a little better than we found them.  It is a big responsibility, but also a bit liberating in that we have the chance to fulfill this great opportunity.  Because of life’s briefness, even the smallest things matter.  Waiting a single day to fulfill your purpose is a very long time.

                                                                     Have a great week!

                                                                                     Mary

1-7-2022

Mary’s Minute

“Every problem has a solution; it may sometimes just need another perspective.” 

― Katherine Russell

I pride myself in being a problem solver.  We all have problems and use different strategies to solve them.  I am drawing blank about a solution for my challenge du jour, so I decided to focus first on problem solving methods that are helpful to me:

Flux capacitor – In the movie Back to the Future, Doc came up with the idea of the flux capacitor after hitting his head.  It was an “aha” moment.  Sometimes the solution just comes to us.

Synergy – Two (or more) heads are better than one.  As we bounce ideas off of each other, new ideas emerge.

Forest for the Trees – Sometimes we need to take a step back to look at the big picture in order to see a solution.

Trees for the Forest – Other times we need to dig deeper and look closely at the situation, looking very closely at the data for a solution.

Sleep on it – I have been amazed at the times that an answer comes to me in my sleep or at least after I have stepped away from a problem.

I hope this doesn’t sound like a lecture on problem solving methodologies.  I appreciate the chance to step back and think about how an answer is possible.  For now, I definitely am choosing the last approach!

                                                                         Have a great week!

                                                                                    Mary