Wake Up and Dream Catalyst: Short inspirational thoughts for the day. Raising questions & hopefully opening a dialogue with people interested in learning how to turn their dreams into plans and start navigating their way towards them.
Thought for the Day: Over the last month, I have been celebrating the blog's 2nd birthday. I've posted the Reader's choices of the Top 10 posts in the various categories based on the number of page views. Today is the last of the Top Posts in #FF Friday's Fabulous Finds from 3013. Don't miss the #1 post if you did not see it before, the Stem Cell Rapper is well worth viewing! When 2014 began there were almost 80,000 page views over the course of 2 years. Today there are 85,600 page views. Thank you for reading, sharing & commenting on the blog!
I had intended to just post the Top 5 #FF Posts today, but yesterday decided to run my first Voting Contest to have you help choose the best image from this blog last year (from 20 top images). One lucky participant will win a free 1/2 hour phone consult with me and a paperback version of my best selling Kindle book, The Wake Up and Dream Challenge. Click this link to enter from now till February 12th. It is easy and will only take a couple minutes of your time.
I was also interviewed on SportsPsych101. Now you can listen to the podcast at your convenience. Ep.052 - Sports Psych 101 feat. Dr. Barbara Lavi Hear: How are sports good for children?; How parents influence their kids sports aspirations; Overbearing parents in sports; Team vs Individual sports as confidence builders for kids; How baby boomers changed physical fitness; How advertising affects our diets & how to counter those effects; How to achieve your goals in sports & life; The difference between DQ and IQ; & How Dream Positioning can help overcome roadblocks.
Thought for the Day: “We read to know that we are not alone.” William Nicholson
Nicholson surely knows how to write books & screenplays, like Gladiator & Les Miserables, that draw the reader or viewer of the movie in, share the full spectrum of human emotions & let them know they are not alone. You cannot view a film like the recent screen version of Les Miserables & not feel the emotions of the characters so powerfully performed by Anne Hathaway & Hugh Jackman.
William Nicholson is a British playwright & novelist born in 1948. He has been nominated for two Academy Awards. His plays for television which include Shadowlands & Life Story, both won the BAFTA Best Television Drama award. His first play, an adaptation of Shadowlands for the stage, was Evening Standard Best Play of 1990, & went on to a Tony Award winning run on Broadway. He was nominated for an Oscar for the screenplay of the film version, which was directed by Richard Attenborough. The movie Gladiator, starring Joachim Phoenix & Russell Crowe, based on Nicholson's screenplay, won the Oscar for Best Movie in 2000. In 2012, the movie adaptation of the musical Les Miserable was nominated for 8 Academy Awarrds. Anne Hathaway won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
Thought for the Day: TGIF! It's time for my Friday's Fabulous Finds. I am loving the wide array of topics I can cover in one post on Fridays & hope you like my selections, too. Today, I bring you a wonderful post by a beautiful teenager who went out of her way to try to help all the students in her school; a working mother who shares her frustration with the bickering that arises at the end of her "professsional" work day and the beginning of her private work day with her children bickering on the way home; recognition and call for support of a great nonprofit organization that helps create jobs, and the film Les Miserables. Let me know your thoughts & have a great weekend!
1) This week's first #FF Friday's Fabulous Find was written by a sixteen year old, Ashley Monroe, from Massachussetts. Her post is featured in a blog on the Huffington Post Teen. Ashley was upset last year when she kept hearing her peers put themselves down & decided to do something about it. She "wrote out 1,986 sticky notes. Each said, "You're beautiful," and (she) stuck one to every locker in (her) entire school." I applaud Ashley for taking the time to help her peers feel better about themselves, in a world filled with stories of bullying and prejudice, this post is a breath of fresh air, a innovative positive psychology experiment by a teen! Take a look & see the reactions to her efforts.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ashley-monroe/my-message-to-everyone-at_b_2563941.html
2) The 2nd Fabulous find of the week is a post from a blog called Stickers, Stars & Smiles by Helen Neale who describes her job as "professional juggling - well sort of." She is the "mum of two minis who inspired her business, PT analyst helper, FT chaos avoider... (who) runs the printable reward charts and chore charts business from home in her *spare* time." This post describes the witching hour when tired working mothers leave work and pick up their kids who start to bicker. I commented that, "I love this post, since it is so brazenly honest." The trials &
tribulations of working parents trying to transition from “work” to
their second job, parenting, are also spelled out clear as day. I also like the way that the font, even on the comments has the look & feel of writing in a daily journal. If you are a working parent & want to feel understood & get some tips from parents in the same boat, take a look at Helen's blog. http://www.stickersstarsandsmiles.com/child-behaviour/its-all-bickering-and-no-chocolate-cake-sniff/#comment-855
3) My third Fabulous Find is about an issue that our nation needs all the help it can get: job creation. The news came to me an e-mail from Martha Rollins, founder of Boaz & Ruth, a nonprofit organizations featured in my book. (I have written about & posted a video (see above) of one of the graduates of their program in previous blog posts.) Martha told me that Boaz & Ruth, based in Richmond VA, has been noticed nationally and has been selected as a finalist in the JobRaising Challenge, "an innovative competition to help job-creating nonprofits raise money and publicity. The Skoll Foundation, The Huffington Post, and knowledge partner McKinsey & Company have selected the most innovative, feasible, and scalable candidates of the 210 applicants representing 31 states and 110 cities across America." Boaz & Ruth has been invited to share in a national 'harvest." The organization that raises the most will receive an additional $150,000. I hope you will read more & help Boaz & Ruth win that prize. http://www.crowdrise.com/boazandruth-jr/fundraiser/martharollins
4) I'm adding a fourth Fabulous Find today. Yesterday, I went to see Les Miserables. I had seen the musical years ago and although I love to see Broadway musicals, I often do not like the movie versions. I had heard good things about Anne Hathaway's performance & like to see films that have been nominated for the Oscars before the awards are doled out. If you have been reluctant to see this film, do not miss it. The first scene was the only one that did not work well for me, from then on in, it was amazing. I have a feeling that it will not only have a long run in theaters, but will become one of the greatest classic films ever made. The acting is superb and hard to believe given that the characters are singing, not speaking. I have not seen all the nominees, but I believe there will be several Oscars given to this film.
PS22 Chorus Sings Over the Rainbow at the 2011 Oscars
Thought of the Day: The video above epitomizes how dreams can come true. The story began in a school located in the Graniteville section of Staten Island NY. The student body is composed of 78% black, Hispanic & Asian students. A chorus teacher, Gregg Breinberg, who the kids call Mr. B, started streaming videos of his chorus made up of mostly 5th graders on YouTube which went viral. The power of their energy, enthusiasm (which you can see in their animated faces) & amazing voices carried them all the way to the 2011 Oscars. A new documentary "Once in a Lullaby" will premiere at the prestigious Tribecca Film Festival in NYC. Most dreams don't come true when we are in 5th grade, but practice, perseverance & passion can pay off over time. Next weekend, I will be attending a reunion at a camp, deep in the heart of Texas, where I & thousands of others had our "Over the Rainbow" lessons in believing in our dreams & our ability to make a difference in the world. Who inspired you as a child to believe in your ability to accomplish your dreams? Was it a teacher, a camp, a parent, a song that helped you keep aiming towards your dreams? I'd love to hear what gave & gives you the strength to continue dreaming as an adult.
As I prepare to go home to Texas, I have been thinking about my second home when I was a child. I lived year round in Houston. I saw a bumper sticker once which said, "You can take the girl out of Texas, but you can't take Texas out of the girl." I was not what most people think of as the typical Texan. I did not grow up on a ranch. I never rode a horse to school. My family did not own an oil well. The closest I came to any of those things was to buy a cowboy hat & tell kids I did those things as a joke, when I went to camp in NY state as a teenager. I was amazed that kids would believe me when I told them those tall tales & quickly set them straight!
I grew up in the middle of a suburban neighborhood in Houston. I have pictures of myself as a small child on a pony dressed up as a cowgirl in a photo taken by a photographer who would go house to house with the pony. Probably every child who grew up in Houston has a photo like that one. You cannot, however, grow up in Texas & not become proud to be a Texan. The history of 6 flags over Texas is rich & inspiring. I was not, however, a typical Texan. Growing up Jewish in Texas was not easy. In elementary school at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School, my family was the only Jewish family. When I was in 6th grade my best friend, Cory Stiles, told me I had ruined Christmas for her in 1st grade when I told her that Santa Clauses in department stores were not really Santa Claus. I was a good student, won the school's spelling bee contest, got lead parts in musicals, but also remember discriminatory remarks. During the year, I was different from all my classmates, I didn't go to CCD or celebrate Christmas or Easter.
In the summers, I was lucky to have a place where my "Over the Rainbow" experiences happened. At the time my home away from home was at Camp Young Judaea in Kerrville, TX (or CYJ). At CYJ, I was able to learn to believe in myself, my heritage, & my ability to make a difference in the world. Every child should have a CYJ in their lives. I remember the excitement I felt every year from the age of 8 till I was 17 & came as a counselor to camp. When the bus arrived, I would run from building to building. It was as if I was making sure it was all still there waiting for the magic to occur inside the bunks, dining room, swimming pool & assembly hall. After running around, unpacking & settling in with a new bunk with old & new friends, I also remember sharing personal stories with bunk mates. It did not take long before there were tears, laughter & bonding. It was all right to share your worries from home & then just be yourself. I excelled at everything I did at camp & tried new things. I was a leader in ways I never allowed myself back home. Somehow, the counselors & friends brought out the best in all the kids at camp. I was not the only one who felt this way at camp, we all did. There was one song that has stuck with me throughout my life called "You and I Will Change the World." We learned to respect differences, to fight for justice & to be proud that our Jewish heritage includes the responsibility to take social action.
CYJ is now located deep in the heart of Texas, in Wimberley TX, & is celebrating it's 60th Anniversary. Alumni are doctors, lawyers, musicians, film makers, psychologists, educators & are strong supporters of the camp that helped them believe in themselves & their dreams. When one of my friends (who I met at camp when we were 8 years old) & fellow psychologist, Amelia Samet Kornfeld, zl., lost her battle with brain cancer a little over a year ago, I asked her husband what charity he would like me to feature in & support with my book in her memory. When he suggested CYJ, I was thrilled to include my "Over the Rainbow" place that did so much to strengthen my dream potential. (To purchase the book & donate 1/2 of the proceeds to CYJ click here.)
Did you have an "Over the Rainbow" place like CYJ as a child? Was it a camp, a drama club, or a chorus, like the one at PS 22? Did you have a teacher, coach or mentor who believed in you & helped you learn to believe in your dreams? Do you have one now? I'd love to hear about them.
