Chicken Soup for the Soul Meets The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
In this innovative new book, Giovanna Pang Garcia, a highly successful entrepreneur and inspirational speaker, shares a unique perspective on achieving success in business and in life through a series of interviews with 100 trailblazing Chinese American women. Part Chinese core values, part American ingenuity, Why Chinese Women Are Not Broke is an inspiring blueprint for pursuing one’s dreams with determination, focus, and faith. A must-read for anyone seeking success, happiness, and wisdom!
In story after story of Chinese American women forging a path for themselves against all odds, readers will discover proven keys to unlock the success they envision—no matter what challenges they face. Drawing from her own expertise, gained through tenacity and perseverance, Giovanna provides practical advice and communicates a clear call to action for those serious about improving their lives.
Giovanna Pang Garcia is well-qualified to write this book. She herself came to the United States as a young girl, not knowing how to speak English, alone in the American culture. Although there were mistakes and obstacles along the way, her determination to forge ahead, however imperfectly, led her to financial success and personal fulfillment. She started her own corporation in a male-dominated industry, building it into a successful enterprise before selling it and retiring in her thirties. After finding the love of her life and beginning a family, Giovanna launched a new career, inspiring and motivating others as a speaker. Visit her Web site to find out more about the resources and services she offers.
“This amazingly insightful book is full of wisdom and commonsense ideas
for achieving financial independence in today’s world.” Brian Tracy,author of The Way to Wealth
Every day is Christmas
when you have the kind of mind,
That stores up all the goodness
and the sweetness it can find
When you don’t need an occasion,
to spread a bit of cheer,
But just keep on a-giving,
of yourself throughout the year
Every day is Christmas,
with a gaily wrapped surprise,
When you to see the friendship,
in someone else’s eyes.
When you try a little harder,
and complain a little less,
Holding fast to all the fervor
of the faith that you possess
Every day is Christmas,
when you’ve found that you can be
More concerned with words like “you”
and less with “I” and “me”.
When it’s fun to do a favor,
and to lend a helping a hand,
When being understood means less,
than when you understand
Every day is Christmas,
with a beauty deeply cast,
When you find it doesn’t matter,
if you’re first or if you’re last
When you can face your conscience,
and be glad of what you are,
Then every day is Christmas,
with a stable and star.
By Anonymous
Happy Holidays! From me to you.
Giovanna Garcia
Imperfect Action is better than No Action
Can we end hate and discrimination? And can we all learn to have acceptance for one another?
That is what Yvonne and Rich Dutra-St. John, co-Founders of Challenge Day and the Be the Change Movement; have dedicated over 20 years of their lives to do. Their vision is to create a world where everyone feels safe, loved, and celebrated. Yvonne and Rich believe this vision is completely attainable if we all have the courage to learn to love and accept ourselves, look through the eyes of compassion and respect, and to live our lives in service to others.
Through thought-provoking games, activities, and discussions, Challenge Day provides participants with tools to break down the walls of separation and isolation and build new levels of respect and communication. Students and adults leave Challenge Day inspired and empowered to become leaders in their schools and communities and to Be the Change they wish to see in the world.
Borrowing the words of Mahatma Gandhi, the Be the Change Movement challenges everyone to, “be the change we wish to see in the world.” Yvonne and Rick’s mission is to inspire people to be the change they wish to see in the world, starting with ourselves, through compassion and service using the formula for change – NOTICE, CHOOSE, and ACT.
NOTICE what’s happening in the world around us
CHOOSE how we want things to be and to find our passion and purpose for living
ACT by committing to do at least one intentional positive act of change each day with the goal of contributing to betterment of the planet and its people
Watch this This Emmy Award winning Documentary, hosted by Leeza Gibbons, and features Challenge Day’s founders Rich and Yvonne St. John-Dutra. It will inspire you and it can change you.
Cross the line and you will see that we all the same….
When I was 11 years old my daily routine was to go to school, come home for two hours by myself to do homework, and then go work at my family’s business before coming home late at night with my parents to finish up whatever homework I had left. During those two hours when I was home alone, the last thing I wanted to do was homework! To me it was more fun to play and I could always do my homework that night. If I had to stay up extra late to do homework and was tired the next day, it didn’t hurt anyone but myself, so I figured it was okay. When my parents asked me if I did my homework during my two hours off, I’d lie and say, “Yes, of course!”
At some point, I realized I could have a few friends come over while I was home alone and no one would know as long as we cleaned up the house after we were done playing. So I did this several times and everything seemed great. That is until my mother came home one night and found that her favorite watch was missing. The watch was a gift my father had given to her when they were young, and it had cost him very much to buy it at the time. I knew how much it meant to my mother and I was mortified when I realized that one of my little friends must have stolen it earlier that day while we were playing hide and go seek.
My mother started asking me questions and my father joined in. I’d already trapped myself with my little white lies and I began to cover up everything with even more white lies by saying I didn’t know where the watch was. My parents knew something was up, though, and before long the jig was up. I had to tell my parents that I had been having friends over. I had to tell them I was lying about doing my homework every day. More and more little white lies came to the surface, and when I told my parents that one of my friends must have stolen the watch, they didn’t believe me. They figured that I had been playing with the watch and carelessly lost it, or that I had given it to one of my friends. They didn’t believe me because I had been caught in a lie, and that was the first time I learned the importance of integrity.
My father has always said, a person’s word is their worth. I heard him say it, even as a little girl, but it had never struck me as the absolute truth before. I realized then, when you’re a person who lies, no one will believe you, even when you are telling the truth.
So, I stood there, trying to figure out how I could get the watch back, but my parents wouldn’t help because they didn’t believe me. I felt horrible about the watch being gone, but I felt even worse realizing that my word was worthless. On that very day I decided I would always make sure there was meaning in my word. I knew if I lied, I was worthless.
Giovanna Garcia
Imperfect Action is better than No Action.
It’s called the Peanut Butter Plan. Once a month a dozen of Strangers get together, make peanut butter sandwiches and immediately pass them out to homeless people. No federal subsidy, no foundation, no vouchers. No official sanction from anybody. Just strangers, good will and peanut butter.
Jory John, a San Francisco children’s book writer, got the idea for the PBJ stealth campaign this spring. John put forth the idea on Facebook and, over the past few months, PBJ handouts have taken place in Los Angeles; Berkeley; Phoenix; Little Rock, Ark.; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Austin, Texas; and London.
“People are joining from all over the place,” John said. “I thought it was about time to use a social networking site to do some good.”
The monthly gathering took place the other evening around a conference table inside a publishing house that had donated its office for the cause. There was barely time for introductions before jars were pulled out and sleeves were rolled up.
“There’s something nostalgic about peanut butter and jelly,” said Ryan Lewis, organizer of the gathering. “It’s comforting. Everybody ate peanut butter and jelly as a kid. It’s an old friend.”
Some people make one sandwich at a time, slowly. Some make a dozen sandwiches at a time, lickety-split.
If there is anything complicated about a PBJ, it’s getting the proper ratio of PB to J. Put too much peanut butter and it’s too dry. Put too much jelly and it’s too soggy.
“I started out 50-50,” said volunteer Efrat Lelkes, a San Francisco pediatrician. “But that’s too much jelly. I think the proper ratio is 3-to-1, in favor of peanut butter.”
And then, when the last glob was spread and the conference table was scrubbed clean, Lewis dispatched some sandwich-laden volunteers to the Tenderloin and some others to the Haight and South of Market. He led a small group through the Mission District and there was no shortage of people who found the idea of a complimentary peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich to be just the thing.
The sandwich distribution is best done in pairs, Lewis said, because you never can tell. On Valencia Street, one homeless fellow began screaming that he didn’t want any “poison sandwiches” and started shoving the young woman who was seeking to give him one. But the buddy system worked and the fellow was persuaded to shuffle off.
“No good turn goes unpunished,” his would-be benefactor said.
Outside the BART station at 16th and Mission streets, a dozen folks accepted sandwiches. Robin Holmberg took one sandwich for herself and one for Ben, a black Lab.
Holmberg, an auto mechanic who hasn’t had any cars to work on for a while, said she had not eaten all day. She said she was waiting for a check, although she wasn’t sure which check.
“I’m at the lowest of the low, but why be depressed about it?” she said, chewing thoughtfully on her sandwich. “It’s not me, it’s the economy. I’ll be all right.”
When the sandwiches were gone, Lewis and his fellow sandwich makers retired to a nearby tavern for a beer. The camaraderie of doing something nice, along with the beers, made everyone feel pretty good and some of the strangers exchanged phone numbers. The peanut butter and jelly sandwich, Jory John said, is everyone’s friend.
Nobody doesn’t want one. They’re cheap, easy, and they hold up for a couple of days, if you don’t overdo the jelly.
“The smallest actions make the biggest difference,” he said. “There are some cynics who say it’s not really curing hunger, and it isn’t curing hunger. But it’s curing one person’s hunger. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
To volunteer
Information on the Peanut Butter Plan, including upcoming Bay Area sandwich-making parties, is available at www.peanutbutterplan.org
Last weekend I attended the Bravehearts women Global Event in Los Angeles. It was an amazing 3 days of empowerment that was good for the souls and great for hearts. I had a wonderful time meeting so many great people. One of the most impressive people I met was the Hollywood Legend Ms. Carol Channing.
She is a three time Tony Awards winner (including one for lifetime achievement), a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination. Ms. Channing is best remembered for originating, on Broadway, the musical-comedy roles of bombshell Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and matchmaking widow Dolly Gallagher Levi in Hello, Dolly!
Ms. Channing is 88 years young and she sings and dances just the same way she did as I remembered. Over 60 years in entertainment from Broadway to television (She was in many popular game shows such as What’s My Line, I’ve Got a Secret and Password. Carol’s variety shows encompass The Dean Martin Show, The Red Skelton Show, The Milton Berle Show, Rowen & Martin’s Laugh-In, The Carol Burnett Show, The Muppet Show, The Rosie O’Donnell Show, Hollywood Squares, as well as many Tony and Grammy broadcasts. A partial list of Carol’s Episodic work consist of Playhouse 90’s Three Men on a Horse, The Love Boat, Magnum, P.I., The Nanny, Touched by an Angel and The Drew Carey Show) Carol Channing has always able to find new ways to grow and continue to push the limits.
Today, Carol’s passion is The Channing-Kullijian Foundation, founded by her husband Harry and her. The foundation’s purpose is to return arts to School by launching a statewide awareness campaign heralding the benefits of Arts back into the curriculum of public schools of California and to provide musical instruments for low income school districts and the funding of scholarships for students and teachers in the Arts.
We’ve all heard the term “Age gracefully,” and I have to admit it sounds good at first glance. Unfortunately, too many people interpret “gracefully” to mean “passively.” We’ve all heard the saying, “It’s a young man’s world.” I could not disagree more. Our world is a world for anyone who is willing to grow and learn. If you’re young and inexperienced, you have a lot of work and growing to do. But even if you’re older and have lots of experience, it’s still not time to lie down and be content. Every day is the right day to choose to do something good in the world regardless of your age.
Carol Channing has the exact right spirit. You are NEVER too old to make an impact. In fact, the older you are, the more capacity you have to make a difference. You have all the wisdom and knowledge from years of experience to build upon. You have a huge capacity to learn and grow and give some of that wisdom back to the world. You can think at multiple-levels and comprehend things you never would have understood when you were younger. So always be like that excited little kid. Run around and stay active both mentally and physically. Always be growing, because the day you quit growing is the day you begin slowly dying.
Don’t age gracefully. Age Actively!
Don’t fear change. Embrace your growing pains and learn from them.
Don’t think of growth like a job. Make learning and growing fun. Do it in style.
And always remember, we can’t relive our days past. Live in the now and constantly challenge yourself. Take the attitude that you want the world to know you were here when you’re gone, that you made some noise and left a mark. If you make some mistakes along the way, no big deal, as long you learned and grew from the mistakes—that’s part of the process.
Let go of the past and move forward, because the future belongs to those who welcome change and make the effort to grow.
Cheers to an amazing lady, Carol Channing a woman who age actively.
I have been here a little less than usual. As most of you know I have been working on my book. Recently, after finishing the first draft. I begin the process of rewriting, then came making the final decision of the title for the book.
A title for the book, sounds simply enough…why does it keeps me up at night for the last 3 weeks? How do you summarize: 100 women’s life, the stories, wisdom and the golden lessons; all into merely 3 to 4 words that embodies the essence of the 200 pages.
Let’s see what Award winning Australian Author Cheryl Wright from Cheryl-wright.com have to say about book title:
Titles are extremely important to your story. So important, they will often mean the difference between selling or not.
It’s okay to have a weak or unrelated ‘working title’ but that’s as far as it should go. The minute you have an appropriate catchy title, change it. Not only on your ms, but also in your mind. When I wrote “Saving Emma,” it had a horrid working title. “Undercover Love” was never a favorite of mine, but it would do until I could find something better. As I wrote the second last chapter, part of the dialogue talked about the main protagonist ’saving Emma’ from certain death. In that unforgettable moment, the title jumped off the pages and into my brain.
Not only did my whole outlook on this book change, but it also changed in the minds of editors and publishers.
As “Undercover Love” I’d submitted the book to several publishers and had nothing but rejections. And not even personal rejections; I got form letter ‘dear writer’ rejections.
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When the title changed, the responses also changed. I began to get bites and requests. Despite the fact that the story itself was unaltered, editors became interested.
All this because of a title change?
Well, yes. Titles are extremely important.
To get an idea of how much difference a title really can make, take a look at these examples of title changes:
§Tomorrow is Another Day – Gone with the Wind
§John Thomas & Lady Jane – Lady Chatterly’s Lover
§Something that Happened – Of Mice and Men
§Blossom and the Flower – Peyton Place
Sometimes it’s just a matter of tweaking your title slightly. For instance, one of my works-in-progress was called “Into the Arms of a Stranger.” I hated the title, despised it in fact, until I shortened it. “Arms of a Stranger” is a much better title, and has more appeal than the longer version.
Following are just a handful of titles I’ve started with, and then changed for the better:
§Poison Ivy - The Rubber Ducky Killer
§The Flight – The First Flight
§The Gym – Mystery at Joe’s Gym
§First Person Point of View – Me, Myself & I: Writing First Person POV
One of the most amazing story of perseverance I learned is from a woman I interviewed. I only have her permission to release her detail information in the book. So for this post, I will just call her Ms. Betty.
Ms. Betty is a professor who grew up in Washington DC to Chinese immigrant parents during the Chinese Exclusion period, a time when Chinese were not allowed to immigrate to the United States. She faced first-hand discrimination and exclusion from American life. Her father expected her to get married to a man he chose for her, but she amazingly went out and hustled up a scholarship at the University of Illinois. She worked her way through college by washing dishes and cleaning restrooms.
After graduating she got a job with the Voice of America, writing scripts on Chinese Americans that were broadcast back to China. While doing research for her stories, she discovered that Chinese immigrants were horribly vilified in American culture and politics. She was inspired to write a book son the history and experiences of Chinese Americans, showing all the contributions that Chinese immigrants had given to this country. After ten years of writing (This was before computers and the internet)—all the while raising her four children—she finished it and got it published, only to have her husband abandon her out of envy! She told herself, “You’re not going to let this conquer you. You have to think about your children.”
Ms. Betty continued raising the children on her own and her book, came out at the opportune time of the budding Asian American movement. It was the first book of its kind. The book’s success led to her being invited to start an Asian American Studies program at City College in New York. Ms. Betty taught there for 22 years, rising to become chair of the department, and she wrote six more books on Chinese American communities and cultural problems.
She also helped expand the US Census to include Asians as a category in the 1980 census, and she has even convinced the US Library of Congress to start a collection on Chinese Americans from the historical documents and materials she’s collected for over 50 years.
Ms. Betty’s work has been groundbreaking and it paved the way for Chinese Americans and other minorities to achieve the freedoms and success they’ve found today. Ms. Betty remains as humble as anyone, though. Through all the difficulties she experienced—the Depression, bombings during the Sino-Japanese War, World War II, cultural traditions that favored males, abandonment, and single motherhood—quitting was never a choice for her. “If you’ve gone through hardships, if you’ve gone through difficulties, then it hardens you like steel,” she says.
Listening to Ms. Betty, I couldn’t help but wonder what if more people can embraces hardship like Ms. Betty did. What will we become? She raised 4 kids on her own in a time when there are no social service help. A time when her country is trying to exclude her. A time without disposable diaper or formula. Her spirit is like steel,she is a woman who is un breakable. Her books had impacted millions of Chinese Americans and she went on to become the role model of countless Chinese American leaders of our time.
When you are facing hardship, think of Ms. Betty, it might just be your time to becoming strong like steel!
Giovanna Garcia
Imperfect Action is better than No Action
Today I was at the post office and the line was much longer than usual. I stood in line behind a 2 people who were displeased about the wait and they took it out on the postal worker behind the counter. The postal worker maintains her professionalism and handled the 2 unhappy customers with grace. As the two of them was walking away, they were being very loud and were making jokes about postal workers. I went up to the counter and the same clerk helped me with my packages. When she finished with the packages, I said to her, “Did you read the PEOPLE magazine in August, the one that featured the hero postal employees?” She looked at me with the brightest smile and answered proudly, “Yes!” I said to her, “Thank you for serving America.”
What was inside the August 14th issue of PEOPLE was a special feature of eight postal employees and their heroic deeds. I was not able to find that article from People’s website; however, at FedSmith they have the following information about the special 8 postal workers.
William Bland of Lebanon, KY, rescued a pregnant woman and child after they were involved in an auto accident. While the rural carrier was delivering his route, he noticed an overturned SUV in a creek. Stopping to investigate, he heard a woman screaming for help from inside the vehicle.
Bland waded into the waist-deep water to find the woman and her infant hanging upside down, barely above water, restrained by their seatbelts. When he couldn’t release the buckles, he ran to his vehicle, called 911, and returned with a letter opener to cut the seatbelts. As other motorists stopped to assist, Bland finally was able to get the woman and child out of the vehicle.
When rescue units arrived, Bland — soaking wet — resumed delivering his route.
Walter Hayes of St. Louis, MO, protected and comforted a child hit by a car. While delivering mail near an elementary school, the letter carrier saw a speeding driver strike a student who was crossing the street.
Hayes immediately ran to the student’s aid, lying next to the child to keep the student warm and to help calm him. When paramedics arrived to treat and transport the boy to the hospital, Hayes returned to his route.
In Bakersfield, CA, it was Letter Carrier Melissa Kelley who saved a customer from two attacking pit bulls. She ran to the man, who was knocked to the ground by the dogs, and chased them away using her satchel and dog spray.
The man had been bitten on his arms and face and had his front teeth knocked out. Kelley stayed with him until paramedics arrived. Later, he thanked Kelley, calling her his “angel.”
Oakland, CA, Letter Carriers Alan Girard, Rick Quinonez, Gilbert Rangel, Tanya Joseph and Karen Hill played a crucial role in rescuing 100 residents from an apartment fire.
In a letter to Postmaster General Jack Potter, the apartment manager Kathy Walsh from Baywood Apartments wrote that the Oakland letter carriers displayed “extraordinary courage.” She added, “It’s not often that you find people of such character and willingness who go above and beyond the call of duty, and for this we are thankful.”
Every day postal employees across the nation touch the lives of millions of people, and sometimes those same employees and their heroic efforts make the difference between loss of life and property.
Show your appreciation to your public services man and woman, they work very hard for us day in and day out.
Giovanna Garcia
Imperfect Action is better than No Action
Last weekend was a friend’s big birthday bash. The birthday man is a very good dancer. In his younger days he was a part of a dances team.
As you can imagine this birthday party was filled with great dancers. The night went on what started to happen on the dance floor was, a circle of people were formed. One by one everyone was being pulled and got put in the center to dance solo.
Of course, for dancers each one of them did some super cool tricks, while dancing inside the circle.
Next, we have the sexy girls, they each do their sexy dance in the center.
Then, we have the ‘No WAY, No How’ people. These people will go dodging away from being pull into the center of the circle. A few times some of them got caught and were placed inside the circle. They refused to dance and some of them even got a little angry.
I was watching all that was going on and found the whole thing was interesting. Then suddenly it happened… I felt a tuck and next thing I knew I was placed in the center.
So, I just start dancing. I don’t know how to do any dance tricks and I am NO Sexy dancer, I just did my own thing.
Later that evening a beautiful woman came up to me and she said, ” You are a little nutty! Most woman would try to dance sexy on the dance floor, but you looked like you are just having fun. Do you not care about what people think?” I replied, ” It is a good thing to be a little nutty… and no, I don’t worry about what people think.”
Her name is Dee Dee and she started to open up to me. As it turns out Dee Dee spend her whole life trying to be picture perfect. She married the perfect guy after college, only to find that he is the wrong guy. She stay married because they look to be the perfect couple and they are living the perfect life according to their social circle.
Dee Dee said her parents are CPAs and naturally she became a CPA. She is very successful in her work and she is the CFO for a major corporation. However, Dee Dee’s dream was never to be in the financial. As a young girl Dee Dee knew that her passion was in a different path than her parents. But Dee Dee didn’t want to want to create any wave, so she just follow her education path that her family have planned for her. Than before she knew it, Dee Dee had made her family very proud of her.
Dee Dee told me that she have a strong urge to start her life all over again. She wish to walk away from her empty marriage, her so called perfect life and her perfect career.I recognized at this moment that I am looking at a desperate woman. A woman who is desperate to re claim her life… to feel alive. I asked Dee Dee, ” What is stopping you?” She said, ” Everyone will think I went Nuts…”
I was almost speechless, all that I could say to her was, ” So, you are a normal person, living a perfect life. All of that is great, if it is working for you…”
I wonder how many people are living a life like Dee Dee’s? At what cost are we willing to pay to be normal and perfect?
My personal opinion is that, being normal is overrated! I would rather be call a little Nuts any day.
Giovanna Garcia
Imperfect Action is better than No Action
Georgia Morgan is a eight-year little girl who spent TWO YEARS battling leukaemia, had a stroke, shingles, E coli and paralysis.
Her parents Lorna and Darren watched their daughter Georgia handled the past 2 years with grace and bravery. Lorna and Darren never dared dream Georgia’s ill health would one day be a thing of the past.
The couple first feared losing Georgia to leukaemia. Then came the stroke which doctors warned may have damaged her brain so badly that she would not recognize them.
Back in March 2007, the Morgans took Georgia for a blood test. This was after Georgia was often feeling exhausted and many people commented how pale Georgia looked.
The doctor told the Morgans that their daughter was anaemic and needed a blood transfusion and that the underlying cause could be leukaemia.
Lorna said, “The rest is a bit of a blur. But in the ambulance to Addenbrooke’s while I was having heart failure, Georgia was asking the staff to put on the sirens and the flashing lights. Thankfully no matter what has been thrown at her, she has responded with that bright attitude.”
Georgia began chemotherapy straight away and doctors appeared confident that the acute lymphoblastic leukaemia could be treated.
But three weeks later, medics delivered more bad news. Georgia’s steroids and chemotherapy clashed, resulting in a blood clot. They can occur anywhere in the body, but Georgia’s formed on the brain, causing a stroke.
Lorna said, “I had slept with her on the ward and woke at 5am to find her making a funny noise. I couldn’t wake her even though her eyes were open, and her body started jolting. A team of doctors rushed in and she was put on life support in intensive care.”
A doctor eventually told the Morgans the stroke had left Georgia severely brain damaged. She will not recognize her family and would be paralyzed from the neck down. It was devastating.
Three days later, with Georgia back in a normal ward, Darren and Lorna began washing the youngster’s hair at her bedside.
Then what seemed like a miracle happened.
Lorna recalls: “The strands were coming away in our hands because of the chemotherapy. That was so upsetting - but then Georgia lifted her arm and wiped a drop of water from her ear. We couldn’t believe it. She wasn’t paralyzed after all.”
Georgia suffered no long-term damage from the stroke but she needed physiotherapy to help her walk again.
And when she later came down with an E coli infection and shingles in close succession, she took it all in her stride.
Lorna says: “I’m so proud of her. Even when full of drugs for shingles and E coli she remained as bright as a button. She hasn’t dropped behind at school either and will be returning to the same year group this autumn.
Georgia’s bravery earned her a Cancer Research UK-TK Maxx Little Star Award. The scheme recognizes the courage of children undergoing cancer treatment.
And at a recent Little Star party in London there wasn’t a dry eye in the house when Georgia joined X Factor stars Same Difference to sing a song from High School Musical.
Later this month the family fly to Florida for a well-earned holiday to celebrate Georgia’s recovery.
And the inspirational youngster says: “I can’t wait to go as I hope to swim with dolphins.
They’re my favorite animal so it would be a dream come true.”
Georgia now tells her five-year-old brother Jamie that her long illness was just a “big adventure”.
Georgia Morgan is a little fighter with the best attitude and she is an inspirational to people young and old all over the world.
A lot of people think that if you are meant to be great at something, everything should just fall into place—it should be easy. When a job, a relationship, or a skill doesn’t come easy to us, we get discouraged. At the first sign of an obstacle, some of us move on to something else and find ourselves constantly hopping from one situation to the next, while others give up altogether and settle for just making ends meet, thinking, “Maybe I’m not meant to be ….”
Every time a person makes a commitment,three things happen to them.
First, the person rounded up the courage to commit, that’s the easiest part.
Second, the person begin to experience resistance. The difficulty of a keeping the commitment begin.
Third, is where the rubber meets the road, the individual have to make a choice .
Have you ever quit smoking or start a new fitness program? Have you ever made any New Year’s resolutions? You might say to yourselves, ” I’m going to quit smoking this year. I’m going to take better care of my body this year.” Whatever the goal is, it’s so easy to make that commitment. That’s why many people make New Year’s resolution, yet so few of those resolutions stuck around aftera few months.
Resistance is the toughest challenge for most people. Sometime it feels as if after a person make a commitment, their brain begin to think up all the reasons in the world why they can’t follow through with that promised.
A personmay say they are going to start a workout program, then come, “My wife and I are having a hard time,” or, “My boyfriend and I are not doing so well,” or, “Things are tough, I’m really stressing, so this is not a good time to start this new fitness program.”
For these people, the moment they make a commitment, all of the reasons in the world to avoid that commitment come out of the woodwork to cling onto them and holding them back. This resistance we are speaking of, it can come from internal—self-doubt , stuck in the comfort zone or fear. It can also be an external thing—family, friends or other people telling you, “you can’t.”
To give yourself a chance to achieve all of the wonderful things in life. You must choose to overcome resistance, such as fear, self-doubt and the un-enlightens.They are the causes that cripple most people, don’t let that happen to you.
Get yourselves into the right frame of mind, have a good attitude and stay focus on your goal. At time it might feel scary, the feeling of out of control…like a free fall. And you may wish to go back to what was familiar. However, you must remember that if you turn back you will stay the same. This little bit of un-comfortableness is what it is going to take to push you over the top.
Allow yourselves to do some free falling and trust that you will always land on your feet. Some things in life you can only find out the result by diving in. Go give free falling a try, or you will never know what you can become?
Giovanna Garcia Imperfect Action is better than No Action
Looking back on my own life, there are several stages that stand out as being big growth spurts. With those growth spurts came a lot of growing pains. In fact, many of the periods of growth weren’t very fun at the time. Moving to the United States without knowing how to speak English was a big risk and it was difficult. I had a hard time learning to speak English, but it sure was worth it.
My first marriage was a mistake, but luckily I had the strength to change and learn. It certainly would have been easier to just stay in my abusive relationship—that’s what everyone else wanted me to do and I easily could have settled and accepted that as my fate. I didn’t, though. I left my marriage and it was very painful.
Before I started my own business I was working at a dentist’s office. It paid the bills and again I easily could have settled, but I knew I wasn’t going to achieve the success I desired working at the dentist’s office. So I took a big risk and started my own business. It was twelve years of hard work, and there were a lot of growing pains along the way, but I wouldn’t trade in the skills and knowledge I gained going through those pains for anything.
What all these moments of change and growth have done for me is create a habit of always growing and expanding. Even now that I’m retired from my computer business, I’m not content to sit around.
Being an inspirational speaker was the new path I set out for myself to grow, and perhaps my biggest growth spurt in recent years has been writing my first inspirational book. What started out as a modest goal of reaching more people with my message has turned into something much bigger!
I’ve gotten to interview 100 unbelievable Chinese American women that I’ve grown as a person. I have learned from their stories and experiences, and the process of researching, interviewing, and writing has tested my patience, determination, and integrity. I have grown, not only because of these tests, but because of the knowledge and wisdom I’ve learned, and because of the relationships I’ve made. All of that has benefited me more than anything money could buy.
Today, I finished my first draft of the book and it is an unbelievable feeling to have my own manual scrip in hand. In this journey I interviewed and examined the lives of 100 trailblazing successful Chinese American women in order to discover the 7 Lessons for Success.
I wish for everyone to Getting out of their Comfort Zone. Try something new, if there is one thing you have been thinking about do, today is the day.
Your Time Is Now!
Giovanna Garcia
Imperfect Action is better than No Action
The follow poem was send to me from one of our reader Robin.
Friends
Friend And Acquaintance
There is a difference between being an acquaintance and being a friend. An acquaintance is someone whose name you know, who you see every now and then, who you probably have something in common with and who you feel comfortable around.
It’s a person that you can invite to your home and share things with. But they are people who you don’t share your life with, whose actions sometimes you don’t understand because you don’t know enough about them.
On the other hand, a friend is someone you love. Not that you are “in love” with them, but you care about them and you think about them when they are not there. The people you are reminded of when you see something they might like, and you know this because you know them so well. They are the people whose pictures you have and whose faces are in your head regardless.
Friends are the people you feel safe around because you know they care about you. They call just to see how you are doing, because a friend doesn’t need an excuse. They tell you the truth, the first time, and you do the same. You know that if you have a problem, they are there to listen.
Friends are the people who won’t laugh at you or hurt you, and if they do hurt you they try hard to make it up to you. They are the people you love, regardless of whether you realize it.
Friends are the people you cried with when you got rejected from colleges and during the last song at the prom and at graduation. They are the people that when you hug them, you don’t think about how long to hug and who’s going to be the first one to let go.
Maybe they are the people that hold the rings at your wedding, or maybe they are the people who give you away at your wedding, or maybe they are the people you marry. Maybe they are the people who cry at your wedding because they are happy or because they are proud.
They are the people who stop you from making mistakes and help you when you do. They are the people whose hand you can hold, or you can hug or give them a kiss and not have it be awkward because they understand the things you do and they love you for them.
They stick with you and stand by you. They hold your hand. They watch you live and you watch them live and you learn from them. Your life is not the same without them.
Thank you, Robin for the Poem and your friendship.
Cherish your friends!
You will meet new acquaintances everyday of your life, but true friends are hard to come by.
Giovanna Garcia
Imperfect Action is better than No Action
When you stop growing, life becomes stagnant and dull. However, if you keep growing as a person, life is exciting just like when you were a kid. When you open yourself to new experiences, when you actively seek to learn something new every day, you’ll be living life on your toes. You’ll make discoveries that open your eyes to new passions and opportunities. You’ll learn from your new experiences, even the hard experiences, and you’ll always be growing. You will be developing and improving your personality, your integrity, your trade, and your character.
The truth of the matter is you can never stand still in life. You either move in the right direction or push yourself to grow and improve; or, you can sit back, do nothing and move in the other direction, down the path of stagnation towards a slow and mind-numbing end while the world moves on around you. It seems like an easy choice, right?
When you stop growing, you lose the spunk for life. You stop being happy and excited, and that is not the right attitude for success. The world is continually growing around us, so it’s essential that we grow too. In our age of microprocessors, computers, and satellites, technology doubles every year. The workforce is getting more educated around us. The competition is getting better and better. For us to be successful, we have to be up to speed with the current times. We need to know the current customs of business and ways of interacting with people. We need to arm ourselves with new knowledge and skills. Otherwise, the world will grow without us and we’ll become disconnected. We’ll become a dinosaur, and we all know what happened to the dinosaurs: they became extinct.
Obviously, no one wakes up in the morning and says, “Today, I’m going to quit growing. I want to slowly fade out, become irrelevant, and become a miserable observer in life.” And yet, that’s exactly what becomes of so many people in our world. They quit growing, the get stuck in a rut, and become stagnant. So what happened?
There are two paths that lead to becoming stagnant. The first is the least common, and it’s the path you travel by not being humble enough. Some people reach a point in their life where they think they know everything they need to know. They feel like they’re good enough and they don’t need to grow anymore. Yikes! This is the exact wrong attitude to have. I know it’s a cliché, but it’s true: the more we learn, the more we should realize how much more there is to learn. If you consciously quit growing because you think you’re good enough, then your ego has gotten in the way. Push it aside and be more humble. Realize you’ve got a lot more learning to do, a lot more growing to do, because if you don’t, the world is going to blow right by you.
The second path to stagnation is the more common one. It’s the one that sneaks up on us. Many people do their job day in and day out, they get caught up into a pattern, and suddenly they stop expanding, they stop growing. This is how life becomes stale and leads to a slow death.
Even the best of us can get stuck in a rut. We must not allow excuses to prevent us from growing. Always be open-minded, willing to try something new, and eager to learn. When you have that kind of mind set, you’ll have a new lease on life, newfound freedom, and a fire inside of you that keeps you young, keeps you moving, and keeps you motivated.
Don’t get stuck in a rut! Never stop growing, life is fun and exciting.
Giovanna Garcia
Imperfect Action is better than No Action
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