Reasons Why YOU ROCK is a Great Holiday Gift!

October 26th, 2010

Do you have a lot of people on your holiday gift list? Do you buy for clients, teachers, friends, service providers and multiple relatives?

If you want a unique way to make these people feel appreciated, skip the gift card or the blanket with sleeves, and give them Reasons Why YOU ROCK! This book is not only an inspirational read filled with moving stories and quotes, it is a process, a guided journal that leads you to discover and celebrate your own unique greatness. When you give it as a gift, you can include your own special message about why the person rocks in any or all of the chapters. Best of all, the book is a permanent reminder to the recipient of why they are great, available to review any time a boost of confidence or inspiration is needed.

Each chapter of the book features a different way a person can “ROCK,” from your talents to your friendships to your work to the compliments you’ve received, and much more. Here is what best-selling authors have to say about Reasons Why YOU ROCK!:

“When you fully realize the unique greatness in you, you will give yourself permission to pursue your most treasured dreams. Kathy Light’s Reasons Why YOU ROCK! is an enriching and inspiring guide to lead you in the journey to realizing your greatness. Take the journey, and start dreaming BIG!”

Marcia Wieder, Founder and President of the world-renowned Dream University, Jack Canfield’s personal success coach, and best-selling author of Making Your Dreams Come True!

“A heart filled with gratitude brings life-changing blessings. And recognizing the beauty of our own gifts begins with a heart full of gratitude. Kathy Light has created an inspiring guide to help you realize your own greatness and begin to fully use those gifts for your own good and the good of others.”

Mary Jane Ryan, best-selling author, Attitudes of Gratitude and A Grateful Heart

“Kathy has given each of us a reason to look both within ourselves and outside to our friends/clients….and find all the reasons why "we rock." In a negative world, we all need ways to own our own worth. That’s what Kathy’s book does. It’s an easy and enjoyable read.”

Valerie Sokolosky, best-selling author of Monday Morning Leadership for Women

Special Holiday Pricing Promotion for Multiple Copies of Reasons Why YOU ROCK! At these prices, you can buy a copy for everyone on your list!

  • First book: Retail price of $20*
  • Second through fifth books: only $15 each!*
  • Sixth book and beyond: only $10 each!!*

*price does not include shipping and handling

To purchase, visit www.kathylight.com/products

Note: Book is also available on amazon.com, but discounts do not apply through amazon.

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The Power of Realizing the Reasons Why YOU ROCK!

September 26th, 2010

I had lunch with an amazing new friend this week. She shared with me that every year she keeps a journal of key reflections on the year. Up until now, she has started her journal with her goals for the year and then periodically recorded progress throughout the year. Her last journal entry of the year has been an overall assessment of how she did in reaching her goals during the year and what she wants to focus on for the next year.

While that process has been helpful to her and instrumental to her very successful career, she told me that this year she is starting a new kind of journal. Based on the inspiration she received when attending one of my Reasons Why YOU ROCK! sessions, she is now only recording Reasons Why She Rocks in her journal, and using her Reasons Why YOU ROCK! book as the journal. She shared that the power of this exercise has been tremendous. The Reasons Why She Rocks serve as a way to inspire her and give her courage when it’s needed. Like a very difficult message she had to deliver recently. Before the encounter, she reviewed her journal. Reminding herself of Why She Rocks gave her the courage to have the conversation in a  way that resulted in a positive outcome for both her and the person receiving the message.

One of the participants at my most recent Reasons Why YOU ROCK! workshop on September 18th had also attended my previous workshop in July. In July she brought her mom, and in September she brought a good friend of hers. When I saw her in September, she told me that the experience for her mom was life-changing, and that they are now having Reasons Why YOU ROCK! conversations every month, working through one chapter each month. The experience of focusing on what is great about her is giving the woman’s mom a whole new confidence she has never had before.

I am so grateful for the opportunity to do this work. Each time I deliver a presentation or a workshop many women tell me how much they needed to hear the message. We ALL need to hear the message, over and over again. When we know why we rock, we deliver our greatness to the world with no holding back, and that is a very generous gift!

 

I’m really looking forward to all the speaking engagements I have in October and November, and especially looking forward to my Reasons Why YOU ROCK! retreat for women November 5th – 7th. www.kathylight.com/retreats

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Lessons from My Dog

July 31st, 2010

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We got our first family dog yesterday. That’s her in the photo. Her name is Charlie, and we’re certain she’s the best dog ever. She’s beautiful, she’s gentle, she’s happy, she’s calm inside the house and playful in the yard, and she doesn’t bark. Yes, you read that right. A rescued animal we adopted from the shelter, and she doesn’t bark. Best dog ever.

Getting a dog was a big step for our family, especially for me. Our son is 14 and our daughter is 10, and they’ve been asking for a dog for years. “Come on, Mom, your clients won’t care if they hear a dog barking. Come on, Mom, we promise we’ll take care of her. Come on, Mom, we really want a dog!” So this summer I finally started warming up to the idea, and we promised them that if they would show good responsibility for 8 weeks in a row, we would start looking. For a female dog, about 2 years old, with a calm disposition, not too big, and not a barker. So last week was our week to start looking, and suddenly I found myself not just eager to find the perfect dog, but missing her before we found her, like she’d been on a vacation or something and we were ready for her to come home.

Friday afternoon about 5:00 we visited the local animal shelter. Our son had been hoping to talk us into a puppy, since they are so cute, but then he saw Charlie. He fell in love first, and the rest of us quickly followed.

We’ve had Charlie 24 hours, and already she’s a beloved member of the family, and a very wise teacher. Here are the lessons she has taught me so far:

Lesson #1: Trust your heart, not your nose. When we got our time alone with Charlie in the visitation room, she was dirty and smelled awful. She’d only been rescued a week ago, and with 60 dogs to provide for and a small staff, the shelter could only take care of the absolute necessities. And that left no time for a bath. But she looked at us with loving eyes, and offered her belly to rub, and our hearts told us she was the one. The longer we spent with her, the less we noticed the dirt and the smell, and the wider our hearts opened.

Lesson #2: Take a nap when you’re tired. If you do, you wake up feeling happy and refreshed and energetic. Need I say more?

Lesson #3: Only bark when your most important priority is at stake. We found out today that Charlie can bark. Not when the doorbell rang or another dog walked by. Not because someone tried to pull her to the left when she wanted to go to the right. Not because she was hungry or needed to go outside – she cries softly when she needs those things. It was her new rawhide bone. Joe tried to take it from her, and she let out a loud “WOOF!” that startled and amused us all. We can make a lot of requests of her, like asking her to “Sit!” and “Shake!” about a hundred times in one day, and she’s as calm and happy as ever. But try to take her bone, and she barks. She’s got her priorities straight. The girl knows what she wants, and she doesn’t worry about anything else.

These lessons are great reminders for me. Maybe for you, too.

Best wishes,

Kathy

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Live Your Values, Live Your Dreams

July 19th, 2010

It’s Sunday evening. I’m looking back on the past week and planning for the next one. I’m feeling really good about last week from the perspective of living my values and the values of our family. And it’s good to reflect on this, since I don’t always feel that way at the end of the week! My top five core values are Family Happiness, Personal Development, Spirituality, Passion and Helpfulness. Each of them was honored this week in ways I am proud of.

Our trip to the Texas coast and the time Roger and I both spent in play and conversation with the kids were great ways to live the Family Happiness value. Personal Development earned lots of points for me this week because I attended the eWomen Conference here in Dallas. Amazing experience, and absolutely phenomenal speakers, including Lisa Nichols, Marcia Weider, and Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos. I made lots of new friends and business contacts, and I have dozens of ideas I would like to implement that I picked up through the experience. I’m organizing a couple of group calls with some of the women who also attended so we can  hold each other accountable to the action steps from the conference. Spirituality felt good this week, too, because of meditation and church and a lovely solo I got to sing this morning, and gazing at the ocean for two days. My Passion was honored this week through my interactions with others at the eWomen conference. I spoke passionately about my work, my book, and my Reasons Why YOU ROCK! workshop coming up on Saturday. Without even trying, I sold several books to women who, through informal conversation, were drawn to the story I shared about how the book was created and my vision for the book and its message. My Helpfulness value was pretty well aligned, too, through time scheduled to provide feedback to others, books purchased as gifts that I know will help others, and offering to help hold other women accountable to our conference follow-up through scheduling the group calls I mentioned.

All in all, a great week, and one I’ll want to remember the next time I have a tough one. Like I say in Reasons Why YOU ROCK!, it’s really important to remind ourselves of all the good we do, because we all have a tendency to beat ourselves up for our perceived mistakes and failings. I’m glad I’ve recorded the successes of this week here in my blog because it will be easier for me to review them and get back into this positive feeling when I read about them later.

How about you? What can you feel proud about this week? In what ways did you live your core values?

Speaking of living your values, check out this YouTube video clip from a recent webinar presentation I led called “Live Your Values, Live Your Dreams.”  The webinar was part of series called Reaping Professional Success. Other speakers included best-selling authors Dan Ariely and Susan Fowler, and five other very impressive experts. It was an honor to be part of this expert panel. Let me know what you think of the clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow8RLnHC73c

Here’s wishing you a week of living your values!

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Two Days at the Beach

July 16th, 2010

This week we took the kids to the Texas coast for a few days to play at the beach with their cousins. It was perfect beach weather – 92 and sunny, with lots of wind to make good-sized waves in the shallow water. No panicked parents worrying the kids would drift too far out to sea, because they had plenty to do near the shore.

The cousins are triplets – two boys and a girl, age 10, the same age as our daughter and four years younger than our son. They idolize their teenaged cousin, and loved his piggy back rides and wave jumping tricks. I don’t think any of the kids appreciate yet the miraculous vastness of the ocean. But they do appreciate its capacity to thrill, and they took full advantage of it.

The two girls spent hours making sand castles. Each day the boys challenged them to a best sand castle contest, but quickly lost interest and opted to wrestle in the waves instead. The girls built complicated sand walls and moats and turrets and swimming pools and play areas, and invited a few Polly Pocket dolls to try out the fun. The best part for the boys was castle demolition at the end of the day.

Just a few hours and just a few days, but great summer memories, and stories they’ll be telling for a long time.

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Reasons Why YOU ROCK!

July 16th, 2010

One of my favorite quotes is from Marianne Williamson who wrote A Return to Love. She said, “You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that others don’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is in us. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fears, our presence automatically liberates others.”

This quote is the fundamental philosophy behind my new book, Reasons Why YOU ROCK! and my workshops of the same name. Most people spend a great deal of time focused on their mistakes and shortcomings rather than what they’ve done right and what is great about them, and 75% of the self-talk of most people is negative. All this self-doubt and negative thinking keeps us from being who we were born to be, and from shining our light to brighten the world around us.

To make a difference, to live our purpose, and to truly be happy, we must focus on what’s right – what we are grateful for, what is good about our lives and the world around us, and yes, what is great about us personally, or as my book title suggests, why we ROCK!

Focusing on your greatness leads you to act in truly great ways, and to help others see the greatness in them, too. It’s not selfish or egotistical to do this, it’s absolutely essential for the betterment of humankind. What better gift to give to the world than to be so clear about why you rock that you can give 100% of who you are to the world every day, unencumbered by fear and self-doubt?

So go ahead and give yourself permission to answer the question: Why do YOU ROCK? I’d love to know your answers!

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Making the Most of Your Time

July 14th, 2010

Last week I delivered a presentation called “Making the Most of Your Time” to a group of about 40 people, mostly women, from the Women’s Business Council Southwest in Dallas. This was a delightful group of people who were most appreciative of the opportunity to slow down a bit and take an hour to think about how they want to spend their time. I shared these opening quotes:

  • From Henry David Thoreau: “It’s not enough to just be busy. So are the ants. The question is ‘What are we busy about?’
  • From Stephen Covey: “The key is not in spending your time but in investing your time.”
  • From Lee Iaocca: “If you want to be truly effective at managing your time, find out what’s most important and give that all you’ve got.”

We spent the hour discussing simple, but powerful concepts, like how to be sure you are spending your time on what is truly important. The best method I have found for doing this on a daily basis is this: At the end of each day, write down the top 3-6 most important things you need to do the following day, then number them in order of priority. The following morning, begin work on the first one, and before you do anything else, especially before checking email and voice mail or tuning in to any kind of electronic media, complete your first item. Proceed with the others, in order. Even if you only get a few of them done, or even just one, you will know you are focused on what is most important. And any time you catch yourself losing focus, just ask yourself, “What’s the most important thing I should be doing right now?”

Try it. You’ll be amazed at how much more productive you can be in a day!

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Mindfulness and Gratitude

June 26th, 2010

I just returned from a most amazing experience: a four-hour Spiritual Yoga retreat led by a lovely woman named Shelly Niebuhr. I really needed it, and I’m very glad I went. The past month has been pretty intense, with publishing my book, speaking at a conference, leading a women’s workshop, and continuing to provide coaching and training to my clients (not to mention being a mom and wife, too!) Needless to say, I’ve had little time lately for relaxation and “me” time, so when a dear friend invited me to join her for the retreat, I jumped at the chance.

Shelly is a marvelous yoga instructor, but the retreat was hardly just about yoga. It was about mindfulness. Mindfulness means shutting off the constant chatter of our mind so we can truly pay attention to the seemingly little things all around us and appreciate them for what they are. Shelly asked us to remain silent as best we could for the entire four-hour session, and willingly, we did. Fifteen adults, both men and women, hardly made a sound for four solid hours. Only Shelly’s soft voice was heard throughout the session, gently leading us through yoga poses, breathing exercises, a walking meditation, a sitting meditation, and a short talk about the inevitability of impermanence and the beauty of embracing it.

When it came time for lunch, Shelly told us of the delicious meal that had been prepared for us, lovingly and consciously, by a wonderful chef and good friend of hers named Craig. She asked that we remain silent during the meal, feeling gratitude for the food, and thinking about all the amazing things that had had to happen for it to be possible for us to eat the meal – the sun, soil and water to grow the vegetables, the farmer to harvest and sell the vegetables, the chef to develop a tasty recipe and cook the stew, and then all of us to come together in this way to eat it.

On occasion, I have considered the idea of eating more mindfully, but when I placed the food down in front of me, I forgot the intention and wolfed it down as usual. But today was different. No voices or other noises to distract me, and a special request from Shelly to truly appreciate the food that was in front of me. I don’t know if you have ever eaten a meal slowly and mindfully as we did today, but I highly recommend it. It’s very difficult to put into words how different the experience was, and how enjoyable the meal was. Our lunch was a simple salad and a hot vegan stew, made with what appeared to be squash, tomatoes, peas, carrots, potatoes, rice, tofu, and what tasted like just a touch of saffron or curry. I can honestly say I have never eaten anything more delicious. Because for once, I was really tasting my food.

Last week I listened to a National Public Radio interview with a woman from Haiti who survived the earthquake and is now trying to survive every day. She is living under a tarp with her two very young children, fighting the blazing heat. They often go days at a time with little or no food. I thought of her while I was eating my meal, and that made me even more grateful.

Perhaps the best part of today’s experience is that it is staying with me, at least for now, and I will have the memory of those peaceful and grateful feelings to draw on whenever I need them. My intention is to remember especially to be mindful at the table, and to try my best to appreciate my future meals in a spirit similar to the one we shared at the retreat today. I’ll let you know how I do. Namaste.

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