Hat Day

 Last Thursday was “Hat Day” here at CTI. It’s pretty much what it sounds like. . .a designated day where everyone wears a hat. We had quite a parade last Thursday as you’ll notice in the photo. We had cowboy hats, garden hats, one Cat in the Hat and a hilarious “chicken hat” complete with feet.

We had great fun, showing off our hats for each other and laughing about it all. I noticed that productivity suffered not one bit. As a matter of fact, I think it improved. Hat Day was the brainchild of Anne Malcolm who works as a customer service representative for CTI. Wryly, I realize that I could have delivered any number of “messages from the CEO” to lift morale and not had anywhere NEAR as positive an impact on the morale of my staff.

We tend to get very, very serious about work, particularly here in the U.S. where there is a constant push for more. Perform! Produce! Work! It’s easy to forget that we are working FOR something and WITH someone or ones.

When that connection slips away, we begin to feel like we are just a cog in a giant wheel. . .insignificant and not really connected. Hat Days are important because they help us remember that we are a part of a larger whole.

There are an increasing number of studies demonstrating clearly that laughter improves heath, increases creativity and improves performance. I’m glad to see that there is data that being human and alive with each other has a positive impact on the bottom line. At the risk of sounding arrogant, it’s always been sort of a no brainer for me. Without fun and play, our workplaces become dry and soulless. Our aliveness dims and work becomes drudgery rather than a way to join with others in making something real.

I believe that work is sacred and that people are by far the most valuable resource of any organization. We need Hat Days and Pizza Days and Dress Down Friday or whatever so that we can remember we are human beings and we’re in it together. One of favorite authors Robert Fulgum says in his book It Was On Fire When I Lay Down On It, “When it comes to joy and celebration, let us be expansive always.” This expansiveness is the essence of what it means to be human: to work together, to laugh together, to face challenges together, to love. . .together.
KKH

The Saboteur and My Soundtrack

I’m not much of a list maker. I prefer to dance in the moment and engage with what is arising in the moment.

However, when I started running, it took me a while to find music that lit the way. For me, MOVING to music is about as good as it gets. For those of you who like to walk or run listening to the “sounds of silence”, go for it. Me? I need a SOUNDTRACK!

So, I thought I’d use this blog post to share my 16 favorite running songs. (I know. . .who has 16 top anything? I couldn’t stop at 10.)

I must admit that I have Saboteur voices chiming in about sharing this list. My musical tastes are both eclectic and also indicative of my “older generation” status. “Not hip!” shouts my Saboteur. “Too weird.” And “Enough already about running. Move on” the Saboteur proclaims. You probably recognize the territory if not the specific content.

Karen’s Top Sixteen Favorite Running Songs

1. It’s Raining Men: The Weather Girls
   Oh so dated, this has been my favorite go-to working out song for longer than I care to mention.
2. Explosive: Bond
   Classical sound with a rock beat. This SONG is explosive.
3. Alexander the Great: Bond
   This piece actually SAYS “Go!”. . .and so I do.?
4. Agolo: Angelique Kidjo
   When this comes up on the playlist, I have a hard time running in a straight line. It’s such a HAPPY, bopping along song that it’s challenging not to throw in a few dance steps.
5. Forever: Chris Brown
   I think of the wedding video and sort of sniffle while I’m putting one foot in front of the other.
6. Footloose: Kenny Loggins
   I’ve loved Kevin Bacon ever since.
7. Liberation: A.R. Rahman (from the movie 127 Hours)
   My sis turned me on to this piece. The movie was just incredible. Most of It takes place in a crevice and we all know how it ends. Danny Boyle and James Franco managed to be both captivating, moving and inspiring all at the same time.
8. Jai Ho: A.R. Rahman (from the movie Slumdog Millionaire)
   While we are on the subject of great movies. . .
9. Born to Run: Bruce Springsteen
   I know. Obvious. But The Boss is over 60 now and still bringing it. I saw him live in concert about 30 years ago. Never seen anything like it since.
10. Walk of Life: Dire Straits
    This song just gets me happy, no matter what.
11. Shoulda Known: Madeleine Peyroux and William Galison
    A fun little song about the froggy and the scorpion. Yes, we all know how that one ends too. Still, the song always makes me smile. That froggy. . .
12. Show Me How You Can Burlesque: Christine Aguilera (From the movie Burlesque)
    Now, I’ve not seen this movie, but this song makes me want to go.
13. Hips Don’t Lie: Shakira and Wyclef Jean
    This song tends to get stuck in my head and has me longing for the next run. And it starts off by saying “No fighting” several times.
14. Shut Up and Drive: Rihanna
    Sometimes it helps to get a BAD attitude.
15. Suddenly I See: KT Tunstall
    Great beat and besides, suddenly I DO see!
16. Conviction of the Heart: Kenny Loggins
    My all-time favorite “crossing the finish” line song. May we all live from the conviction of our hearts.

Here’s the deal. I LOVE running to these songs and I LOVE the idea of sharing them. AND. . .while I’m at it, I’d love to UPDATE my playlist. Got any good recommendations for me?
KKH

Becoming a Runner

 This past Sunday, I ran in the Arizona Rock and Roll Half Marathon. This is the first time I’ve been able to say I RAN. In the past, I’ve felt the need to qualify. . .“I ran SLOWLY” or “I walked some and ran some.” And on this day, I BECAME a runner. Cool eh?

So what’s different? Well, I did RUN about three fourths of the 13.1 miles. I shaved about 15 minutes off last year’s time. In the world of running, that’s a big deal. I finished strong with some minimal soreness in my legs. I plan on continuing to run regularly and am already planning a few 5Ks and another half marathon in a few months.

Karen at the right, with her running peeps.

Most importantly, however, I decided. Somewhere along the way, I decided I was a runner. . .beyond “sort of training for this or that” or holding myself as someone who was exercising to get in shape or someone who was really slow and glad to just finish or happy to be at the back of the pack, I decided that I LIKE to run and I want to get stronger and be able to run MORE. This is something that I want to practice so that I can be good at it.

I also like runners. . .I like the energy and enthusiasm that was just everywhere you looked on Sunday. I was surrounded by love and celebration all DAY today. . .There was the sheer delight of sharing this experience with my sister, nephew, his girlfriend. All the way, people on the sidelines were yelling and cheering for folks they didn’t even know. . .hollering like their life depended on it. Cute high school cheerleaders and bands and families and oh my goodness people of all different sizes, shapes, colors, levels of fitness, running styles. Talk about diversity. Man!

On the train on the way to the start, we ran into a grandpa doing the half with his family. It was his SEVENTIETH birthday. They all had matching t-shirts. The old guy’s said “Sexy”. A younger fella (son in law maybe?) wore a matching shirt that said “Sexy’s Trainer”. Another family member (a woman): “Sexy’s Stylist”. Another shirt said “Sexy’s PR Agent” and a big burly guy was of course wearing a t-shirt that said. . .you guessed it. . .“Sexy’s Security.” Evidently, “Sexy” had decided that for his seventieth birthday, he wanted to run in the Arizona Rock and Roll Half Marathon. And his family had decided that if SEXY was doing it, well, he for sure wasn’t going to do it ALONE. I didn’t see Sexy and his crew once the race started and I hope he had a great day out there with his family, bringin’ it on his 70th birthday.

In one part of the run I saw a daughter and her father. She was clearly a runner. He was clearly NOT. They were holding hands and she was talking him through. . .encouraging him every step of the way. It was completely inspiring. If you ever feel in doubt about people’s generosity or ability to love each other, go hang out at a half marathon. . .it’s transformative, it really is.

I can feel tears welling up as I write this post. . .tears of gratitude for this incredible day, for the chance to be amongst people who were out just loving each other and loving life. And gratitude for the incredible gift of this strong body and the capacity, at age fifty-seven, to move my butt 13.1 miles down the road. With the passage of time, may I grow stronger and more filled with love. May I follow Sexy’s example and be MORE alive and robust at 70 than I am today.
KKH

A Puttering Practice

Ahhhh. . .Sunday. What is it that is so completely magical about Sundays?

I guess it is the one day of the week that I give myself full permission to LOAF. I sleep in. I eat whatever sounds yummy. . .I dawdle along at everything from brushing my teeth to making my morning cup of tea. Best of all, I PUTTER.

I LOVE to putter. It’s nourishing. It’s soothing. It’s JOYFUL. Puttering is an extremely individualized and highly personal activity which involves messing about with stuff you, well, love to mess about with. It’s important to have on creamy, expansive music and move fairly slowly so that you can enjoy and appreciate. So that you can SAVOR.

My favorite putter place is at home. I water my house plants and have a little conversation with each one. I check to make sure that the soil isn’t getting too crusty. I pull off any dead leaves and turn the pots so that the plants are growing evenly.

Then I move on to. . .oh. . .maybe the kitchen (I love my kitchen). Maybe I re-arrange things that are on the cabinet tops. Or I gently put away the clutter that has collected. Or maybe I putter around in my closet, refolding sweaters and hanging Henry’s shirts in color groupings.

The most important thing about puttering is that there is no particular destination in mind.  No “to do” list or objective. It’s about being in the moment and playing. Sometimes, I just move about the house, touching things; a nudge here, a fluff there. It feels like I am dancing with my house, saying both hello and thank you. Hello dear house. Thank you for doing such a good job of giving me shelter and solace. I’m very grateful for you.

Puttering is a very different energy than aerobic cleaning, which involves rock and roll music and a git-er-done kind of focus. Or the “whoops the plants are drooping. . .better get them watered before I’m off to work” kind of movement.

Puttering is about peace and ease and LOVE.

I highly recommend puttering. I think that everyone should develop their own “putter practice.” Actually, you probably already have one and just haven’t claimed it fully. What IS your putter practice?
KKH

Murder at Mystery Manor

This holiday, I participated in “Murder of a Millionaire” at Mystery Manor, aka my mother-in-law Margo’s house. Have you ever done one of these things? It’s really fun!

You purchase the story (complete with characters) online at http://www.nightofmystery.com. There’s a whole list to choose from: Murder at the Juice Joint (Roaring 20s). Murder at the Deadwood Saloon (Wild West). You can choose your event based on the people involved and also on what costume stuff you might have lying about.

Karen as the Widow Worthers

Everyone has a different role to play and gets all dressed up in costumes of their own design. The first part of the evening consists of kibitzing, showing off your costume, checking out everyone else’s, seriously overacting your character and having a whee of a time. After that goes on for a bit the lights go out and there is a shot. When the lights come up, someone (you don’t know who until it happens) is lying on the floor, playing dead. On this occasion the victim was the none too bright maid, Josephine, ably played by Helen House.

After the murder everyone continues to mingle, asking each other questions and trying to figure out who committed the murder. Everyone has a motive and there are both lots of good clues and lots of red herrings. Should you be concerned that the fun of the “victim” gets cut short by their death, rest assured that they continue to participate as a ghost through the remainder of the evening. They even participate in guessing who might be the murderer. Doesn’t get any more inclusive than that!

What I loved about the evening was that it gave everyone a chance to get outside the box a little and camp it up. My mother-in-law was hilarious as Jean Thoughtful the family physiologist (she does tarot and also reads runes). It was a delight to see my somewhat introverted nephew blossom in the role of Bob Bucks the family accountant. And of course I had a blast playing Josephine Worthers the grieving widow. I wore enough bling to sink a battleship and flirted shamelessly with on-the-side squeeze Fabio Fabulous the pool boy who was played by Alex, my niece’s boyfriend.

You can tell by the names that the cornball level is quite high. Those of you who know me well understand why I LOVED the evening. It was great to do something different and play a little and it was also fun to get to know each other in a new way.

More on Goals

 My last post about setting transformative goals continues to nudge at me and, during my run today I started thinking about the topic. I’ve set a goal to run the Arizona Rock-N-Roll Half Marathon in under 2 hours and 40 minutes. Not a breathtaking time by any measure and yet, something of a reach for ME.

As I was running, I was imagining the blog post I might write after the event was over and I realized with astonishment that the post would read pretty much the same whether I accomplished my “goal” or not. Only one sentence would be different. Either my time WAS under 2 hours and 40 minutes (Yay!) or it was not. . .um. . .Yay!.

I don’t really CARE about my time. I just like running, and training for an event helps me focus. Setting a time goal keeps my butt moving on my training runs. I have this cool gizmo called a Garmin which has something called a “virtual training partner.” I set my gizmo for a certain time and the watch face reflects two people running, me and this virtual guy. If I lollygag about, then the virtual guy gets ahead and I don’t LIKE that, so I go faster. I get very invested in beating my little friend.

Once the event happens though, I don’t think I’ll be caring much about my virtual friend. I’ll be (or at least I aim to be) IN the event. . .in the experience. And yet, I notice that people (including myself) are sometimes so much in the accomplishment of something that they aren’t IN the experience. I see this all the time at racing events. . .people so focused on their time that they don’t experience the JOY of it.

I think the win of a goal isn’t really the accomplishment. It’s all the time that leads up to the accomplishment. That was what I was trying to express in my earlier post about goal setting. Running the half marathon in under 2hr/40min doesn’t make me a better person. It doesn’t make me happier, more well-adjusted or more useful to the planet. The importance of the goal is lived in all those many Sundays when putting on my running shoes seemed like a decidedly unattractive option. It served me on those mornings when I would have much rather stayed in bed. The goal actually got me TO the experience and allowed for a particular kind of experience that was not previously available to me.

I guess Jim Rohn did have it right all those many years ago: “Set goals not for the goal itself but for who you will become in the process of achieving it.” Thanks Jim!
KKH

Setting a Transformative Goal

The New Year is upon us. . .that time of new beginnings, new intentions, New Year’s Resolutions. Enrollment at health clubs soar. People clean up, clean out, shape up and get down.

On the airplane ride home from Christmas with the Houses, I read two different articles about goal setting in the New Year. Goals should be specific and measurable. Who knew?

In my experience all this huffing and puffing usually peters out before the earth dries from the winter rain and snow.

What then does make a “goal” stick? What turns a goal from a good idea into something truly transformational and life changing? Here are a few of my “top tips” for setting transformative goals:

1. Begin from inside yourself. A long time ago, I heard a motivational speaker Jim Rhon say, “Set goals not for the goal itself but for who you will become in the process of achieving it.” Every goal holds the potential to evolve and grow our consciousness. What needs brightening in your consciousness? Set goals that will allow you to nourish and grow that part of your inner garden.
2. Use emotion to fuel passion and intention. Our emotions are like the coal in the engine of our intention. They fuel and focus our vision and our desire to express ourselves in the world. What is the emotion or energy that will source and power your goal? Is it love? Fierceness? Determination? Is it Lust? Emotions are energy in motion and carry great power. How will you harness the power of your emotion to fuel your vision of your goal?
3. Do your homework. WHY do you want to accomplish a certain something? What’s important about it? What is the experience it will bring you? What are the limiting beliefs that you will need to overcome? The self identity you will need to change? In order to accomplish a significant goal, you’ll need to become someone new. In order to become someone new, you’ll need to generate a different image of yourself BEFORE you start.
4. Create a structure to carry you through. In the noise of the day to day, it’s easy to forget our desire and longing. Bills, phone calls, work things are loud and demanding. Our own heart’s desire to change and grow. . .not so much. What are structures that will help you remember what is most important? Perhaps it will help you to create a vision board or share your goal with a partner.
5. Remember that the goal is about YOU. A goal is only useful in so much as it points your intention and desire and provides an arena for your own evolution and growth. Where do you need to put your attention during the process so that you win whether you accomplish the goal or not?

In this whole life changing goal accomplishing domain, it’s easy to get focused on the outcome: “Beat the pattern! Take the hill!” While changing an existing pattern does require a certain “git-er-done” energy, it is the RIDE that is most alive, most nourishing and most transformative.
KKH