Perfect Moment Monday: Pet Therapy Project Realization

Each week I hold the intention to participate in Perfect Moment Monday, sponsored by Weebles Wobblog. According to Weebles, “Perfect Moment Monday is about noticing a perfect moment rather than creating one. Perfect Moments can be momentous or ordinary or somewhere in between.” And so, here is my Perfect Moment for this week.

The experience which empowered me to step into creating Therapy in Transition was supporting my dog Tito through his bone cancer. During that time I worked with Providence Hospital for Medically Fragile Children to start a pet therapy program. Tito was able to make one visit before transitioning into the next level of his journey, but I continued to dedicate part of my life to having the many healing benefits of animals brought to those open to receiving it.

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Starting Your Own Business?

The idea of doing their own thing has seduced many men and women into chucking their jobs and trying their luck at entrepreneurship. Unfortunately, not all people have been able to succeed at running their own businesses. The problem more often than not lies in the fact that most people plunge into the deep waters of entrepreneurship unprepared. Ideally, before you start your own business you need to ask yourself the following questions. The easy step is asking; providing a truthful, honest answer is the difficult part.

Do you have enough capital and cash? Money attracts money. If you do not have enough capital and liquidity, it won’t be easy for you to sustain your business. Therefore, before you decide to start your own business you must be clear about your funding options. Do you want to borrow? Can you borrow money, and if so, from where? What are you willing to give in return for the investment? If the funds are not from a bank, then private investors are looking for ownership and a return on their investment.

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DIY Coaching

Life keeps throwing one challenge after the other at us, and to stay ahead and keep your focus intact you need to coach yourself to stay disciplined, set achievable goals and monitor your progress constantly. This, though, begs the one word question: How? When partnering with a life, business or personal wellness coach isn’t in your budget, there are a few things you can do for yourself that can kick start your way to achieving your desired goals and dreams.

A great place to begin is by asking yourself what goals you would like to achieve and by when. Your answers will help you in outlining your plan and formulating the steps you need take to get there. When writing down your answers, be sure to be very clear about what the end result will look like. The more specific you are, the easier putting the steps to get there in place will be. An example of one goal you might write down is, “By this time next year my client base will have increased by 50%.” This is a very clear goal: it provides a time frame in which you want to achieve it (year from now), establishes a measurable result (50%), and identifies with what you will be working (client base).

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Perfect Moment Monday: Father and Son

Father’s Day came without much to-do in our home yesterday. My husband’s day started off with golfing with three good friends—all of whom are fathers—before he came home to do a bit of yard play and was able to then spend an enjoyable five hours playing with our son. The picture I’m sharing was taken a few weeks ago on a camping trip with friends when the “boys” were playing lacrosse with my son’s first set of lacrosse sticks...

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Psychic Pets?

We’ve all heard stories about the psychic and even telepathic powers of pets. The most recent and well-known situation reported in The Register on July 26, 2007, by Lester Haines was the cat predicting the deaths of over 25 senior citizens in a nursing home. (Read about that here.) In most cases we hear through the web of conversations of the more common ones of pets having premonitions of accidents or illnesses involving their owners, knowing when their owners are on their way home, acting strangely before natural disasters, finding their way home despite getting lost miles away, etc. There has been a lot of debate whether such stories about pets are indicators of their psychic powers or are simply the result of their sensitivity and exaggerated claims by doting owners.

Skeptics explain pets’ telepathic connections with their owners by pointing to the sharp observation skills animals possess. The slightest twitch of a muscle or the subtle change of their owner’s body odor could alert pets to a sudden attack or fit. This argument, however, doesn’t explain stories of pets having premonitions about accidents or other untoward events involving their owners.

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Customer Service: What Entrepreneurs Need to Know

We’ve all heard the sayings, “A happy customer is a returning customer,” or “Word of mouth is the best form of advertisement.” Both of these philosophies or beliefs need to be taken to heart for those who are in business or looking to start their own business.

The success of any business depends on both of these ideologies. You need to make your customers happy! As important as this is for established businesses, for a new entrepreneur it is all that much more critical--and the following suggestions can help you ensure customer satisfaction and return clientele.

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Perfect Moment Monday: Hidden Blessings

Looking back over this past week, I began to realize there are many perfect moments; now the hard part is choosing which one to share! The one that stands out was from Tuesday evening when I went to a seminar that was going to introduce me to three different topics. The topic on labyrinths is what caught my attention. The presentation definitely wasn’t long enough, but it did its job—and that left me wanting more.

My perfect moment was having the surprise of a friend whom I hadn’t seen since last fall show up. During the last hour, which was supposed to be for interacting with the presenters and learning a little bit more...

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Five Ways to Achieve Business Goals

All of us set goals with the intention of achieving them; however, not everyone is able to actually reach that elusive finish line. Why? The reasons for failure are usually poor goal setting, faulty attitude--or both! I wanted to share with you my five ways to achieve your business goals, and you just might be able to apply them to person goals, too!

The following suggestions will help you eliminate the old patterns or reasons that have been holding you back and set you on the path that will lead to achieving your goals.

Prioritize, Prioritize and Prioritize
If you try to achieve everything, you will end up accomplishing very little. The key to success lies in prioritizing your goals; i.e., you need to decide which goals deserve greater attention. In business goals are often interlinked; therefore, you must figure out which goals you need to achieve first in order to meet your larger objective.

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Fear of Intimacy

During our lives we journey through many different experiences: some good and some not so much. All these experiences impact how we interpret or receive attention from other individuals. This can be heightened when we begin to have a closer relationship with another person. A friendship flourishes into a romantic partnership and takes the leap of unbridled love for a life commitment. But what happens if the “not so good” interactions have impacted greater than we once thought? When we begin to notice pulling away from another when romantic affection is offered or reduce our availability to receiving this type of love, then we need to ask ourselves why these deeply rooted hurts or traumas actually created the situation we’ve heard of and know of as a “Fear of Intimacy.”

In addition to the experiences, if a recognizable personality trait within us is a lack of self-confidence and low self-worth, then these can be considered important contributing factors, thus increasing this fear.

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Perfect Moment Monday: A Dog Gone Delight

Each week Sheri Fisher, one of our expert panel members, posts a “Perfect Moment Monday”—and I have decided to jump on board and follow her amazing lead. It is my intention to participate in Perfect Moment Monday, sponsored by Weebles Wobblog. According to Weebles, “Perfect Moment Monday is about noticing a perfect moment rather than creating one. Perfect Moments can be momentous or ordinary or somewhere in between.” And so, here is my Perfect Moment for this week.

I have two large dogs—both weighing in above 80 pounds—and one toddler weighing in at a mere 30 pounds, so I have often wondered how they will play together. The answer came when we finally enjoyed a full day of warm weather here Oregon this past Saturday.

Our one dog Aine, named after the Celtic Goddess Aine, loves water. The chasing of the hose started when she was a pup chasing the sprinklers as they rotated; this transitioned into chasing the garden hose while we held it and sprayed the water for her to chase. Saturday was finally warm enough to get the Whale Water Sprinkler out for our son...

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Got Allergies?

I don’t know about you, but this spring has been not so bad as previous years for allegergies for my family. I love spring and summer, and as wonderful as these two seasons are, they often bring with them several allergic reactions such as Itchy eyes, runny nose, headaches, fatigue, etc. These allergies occur when the body reacts negatively to pollens, grass, weeds, etc., and can be alleviated and possibly eliminated naturally by using the following tried and tested remedies.

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Energy Zappers and Suckers

Do you ever feel depressed, low on energy or lethargic after spending time with someone? If yes, then that someone can be categorized as an “Energy Zapper” or toxic person! Toxic people have a habit of passing on their negativity to others; they thrive on others’ empathy and prefer to spread their misery instead of seeking ways to get out of it. The following is a list of the most common types of toxic people and suggestions about how to protect yourself and preserve your energy levels.

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Paulo Coelho

An author who seems to continuously inspire me and so many others was born on the August 24, 1947, in the city of Rio de Janeiro and would grow up to write books that would touch millions of lives. His name was Paulo Coelho. Even as a youngster this child was different. He was fascinated with the spiritual world starting at a very early age. In fact, this quest led his to travel extensively, and he learned about secret societies, Oriental religions, and just about anything else he could put within his grasp.

Coelho’s first book, Hell Archives, published when he was 35, went completely unnoticed. But the very next year came The Alchemist, and with this book a bright young star had broken across the horizon.

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