Celebrate successes with your loved ones

As I wrapped up this very productive long weekend, my wife stopped by the desk in my home office and asked about the "Best Speaker" trophy on my desk. I explained that I won the trophy at CIGNA After Hours Toastmaster Club where I am a member. She asked why I did not mention it to her.

Good point. I explained that it is not big deal because I frequently win Best Speaker and Best Evaluator awards at Toasmaster clubs.

With our busy lives, this trophy did not make it onto the list of priorities to discuss. I did not think to mention it to her as it is less important than making sure bills are paid, etc. This situation makes both of us wonder if our current crazy schedules are worth the financial returns when we are at the point of not celebrating each other's successes. Did someone say work/life balance? What's that?

Are you sometimes in a similar situation? Are you so busy working and reaching goals that you forget to celebrate your successes with the most important people in your life?

I reached most of my goals for the weekend. We relaxed as a family, made breakfasts together and I cleared the backlog of "To Do" items off my desk. We made Boerewors on Saturday morning and we are binging on the fresh sausage. "Watertand Lekker wors" we call it. Grocery stores that boast "fresh food" cannot compete with this freshness in their sausages. :) If you wonder why we make our own sausage - it is because South African sausage is not available in Connecticut and being from South Africa we quickly figured out that a "'n Boer maak 'n plan".

I have a light schedule this week, with only one Toastmaster Meeting, namely the CIGNA Afterhours Club Table Topics contest on 9/4. I will enjoy the light schedule because next week the killer schedule starts again. The bulk of Area B2 District 53 Toastmasters contests will be held over the next few weeks and I will attend most of them. It will be a blast. If you are not currently signed up to compete in your club's Fall 2007 Contest, then sign up. Remember that somebody has to win, and you cannot win if you are not in the contest!

One of my weekend goals was to select my next product to develop. Dodging the Bullet Points is selling beyond expectations. I am getting feedback that indicates a need for a publication that guides a newbie PowerPoint user through the steps to create slides. Dodging the Bullet Points assumes that presenters are already proficient in PowerPoint, which appears to be an oversight on my part. Stay tuned as I develop a publication to fill this need and help presenter get started to use PowerPoint and develop Pow'Rful Presentations.

As a bonus, on top of the long weekend, this is a short work week. Only four days until Saturday. Yipee!! Enjoy your short week...