Sunday, May 16, 2010





ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHER ENCOURAGED COMMUNICATION
For eight months, I lived in a different state where I worked on a major project. My goal was to see if my networking skills could be transferred to a city where I knew only one person. The event was a success so the skills obviously worked. Now readjusting to life in my hometown.
A fascinating trend has been revealed. People who have interacted with me over the years greet me with huge smiles. The conversation than continues on to how they missed my positive attitude and ideas. Hmmmm…..
While watching Good Morning America the question was asked, “Who inspired you?” That was easy, my elementary school teacher of six years. Yes, I went to a one-room schoolhouse with 27 students, three of whom were in my class. By the way, it was located eleven miles outside the town of Tomah, Wisconsin.
Imagine teaching eight grades, 27 students on all subjects needed to make students proficient in high school. Needless to say, I was one fortunate student to have Mrs. Jensen for six years. Most of the time she smiled broadly and she always encouraged us to do more than necessary. She stretched me and often had me work with other classes to run through their exercises to reinforce her teachings in the classes.
Mrs. Jensen believed in me. She admired the fact that I wanted to read everything in our small library and my penmanship. (Of course, anyone who knows me now cannot image I actually got As in penmanship. I blame the bad handwriting now on medicine I use to take for migraine headaches that affected my right hand. Hey, it works for me)
Each day, I learned in an environment that looked at the good in things. When tragedy would strike one of the families of the students, Mrs. Jensen was there to help all of us work through the issues. She revealed how she thought we could help.
When a student excelled, she showed us how to celebrate! So now as my acquaintance comment on my positive attitude, I smile and say that I had a great upbringing. A teacher who believed me and parents that supported growth and learning.
PS  About three years ago, I visited Mrs. Jensen at the age of 90. When she greeted me at the door, she had the same big smile. How grateful I am that I took the time to seek her out and thank her for what she did for my positive attitude.
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Wednesday, May 12, 2010


LEARNING NEW THINGS SO YOU CAN SHARE WAYS TO IMPROVE COMMUNICATION

This week I had the opportunity to go a Chapter Meeting of the Oregon National Speakers Association http://www.nsaoregon.net. It was of particular interest since Rebecca L. Morgan http://www.rebeccamorgan.com was the speaker. 

I admired Rebecca from afar because of her newsletter SpeakerNet News http://speakernetnews.com. The newsletter requests readers to send in their helpful hints and Rebecca and her business partner sort through them and send the newsletter out each Friday. More than once, an “aha” surfaced that would solve an issue that had been bothering me.

What is interesting, that my preconceived idea of Rebecca was that she was home in her jammies producing the newsletter. The interesting fact is that her theme for the night was “How to make money in your Jammies. While Rebecca talked about working from home, she talked about working from Dubai, places in Asia and Hawaii.  Hmmmm…now why hadn’t I thought of that?

As I sat there, I realized I had many products that could just be packed and printed in hard copy or transferred to EBooks. I have written my Ezine “Weekly Wisdom” for about seven years. How many more people have to tell me they would be delighted to buy a copy of book containing Weekly Wisdom? 

Then there is my blog. Surely, I can go through them and put them into a series of articles that pertain to communication. Now let’s see, do I make an EBook first or print the hardcopy first?

The issue of posting one’s articles on sites that accept articles with the understanding others could use the them for free. Now how come I never thought--to contact the place that posted my article and asked if I could be a regular contributing author? (If you go to http://www.ezinearticles.com and put in Kathy Condon you can read my articles posted there)

Finally, there was the point….write something every day. Hmmm…that is easy enough for me and since I write swiftly, imagine what I could be producing in a short time?

Oh yes, if you want to sign up for “Weekly Wisdom” go to my website http://www.kathycondon.info    (For those of you are surprised to see my old website….keep the faith—a major glitch occurred and for the time being my old website is up. To tell you the truth……I’d rather talk to you in person anyway. (360) 695-4313.)

Monday, May 10, 2010



IMPROVING COMMUNICATION SKILLS WITH YOURSELF

After years of no tennis, I decided to go back to taking lessons. I have always enjoyed the sport and realized that I had a knack for it. Took action and signed up for lessons two weeks before the first class.

Eagerly awaited the class and dug my tennis racket out of the back of the closet. At the appointed time, I showed up for“Beginners and Intermediate Class”. Twelve other people were in the class so two courts were used.

It soon became apparent that I was the new kid on the block. Others knew the drill, where to start, when they were expected to pick up the balls, when they were to moved to the next court. With no direction, whatsoever, I found myself working to figure out the procedures-often going in the wrong direction.

We were hitting balls when the instructor came up to me and said “Kathy, how would feel about going into the Beginners Class”. I stood there in amazement; we were only fifteen minutes into the 1.25 hour class.

I said, “These folks have been together all season correct?” She replied “Yes.” She said they are going to run all over you. To which, I replied, “You haven’t even given me a chance”. (I knew I have always been killer at Serving and we hadn’t done a drill with that component.)

Humiliated, I found myself walking off the court. Went to my car and cried all the way home. Then got a grip once I entered my home. Called the club back and said “I just got kicked out of the “Beginners and Intermediate Class”, when are you beginners classes? He said, “I have one tomorrow night at 7:15 p.m. I said, “Great, sign me up.” He said, “I don’t think you are going to get bored because this Beginners Class has been going all winter.

The following night went through the same procedure. Arrived and there were only six people in the class….four of them had been playing all year. The instructor explained the process, smiled and said “I’m mean with a huge smile”, and said, “Let’s get started”.

Before long, I noted how much fun I was having. At one point, the man across the net said after I served well upon each attempt, he said, “She’s good.”
The time flew and I could tell that I had gotten a terrific workout. I walked to the car and thought to myself “What if I had given up last night?”

This lesson in my life needed to be shared. There are times when we want to give up—the interesting fact is that we never know when such a challenge will appear to help us grown.

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