"Who Is It Really For?"

As the mom of a kid cook who doesn't only cook at home, he cooks on television and in live cooking demos at special events, I often get asked, "Who is this really for, you or him?" Hmmm, that's a loaded question and honestly, not completely unwarranted. Let me give you a little history; I am a trained commercial actor and someone who loves to create with food. At Christmas time, I make amazing decorated cookies, artisan breads and cakes and any number of amazing culinary delights. Is it any surprise that my son would find a place in my culinary wonderland? I don't think so.

With all that said, it just made sense to me that since I have the knowledge and know-how to help him foster a love of cooking and performing, why wouldn't I? Especially in light of his origination that he wanted to do a live cooking demo - all by himself. The real answer to the question is, it's for both of us. Mason has a You Tube channel with over 100 videos with everything from safety with knives, how to make gravy, and fun craft ideas. You can also find some of his television performances and live cooking demos there. He loves doing the live stuff! As a family, we all enter recipe contests and we often place and sometimes we win. While I am working with Mason to help him build a foundation to have some fun and possibly make a bit of money, I am doing things for myself, too. Again, I am always working on new and unusual recipes for contests, and recently I entered a contest to go to a cooking class to learn how to make my recipes healthier and then, the group of 6 contestants will come together to compete with their revamped dish. Yeah, I am not just teaching Mason what I know, I am showing him how I use my skills as well - for me, and for him. So ask me again, "Who are you really doing this for?" and I will say, "Everything I do is hopefully for the well being of my whole family. Teaching and inspiring them to take chances, embrace opportunities, and set great examples for our family and friends who are living vicariously though all of us."

Oh, and about that contest I entered, it looks like I get to be one of the six contestants! I'll post more as soon as my information is verified and I can share some details. Stay tuned, I think this is going to be really fun - and not just for me!

Don't Let "Likes" Define You

I suppose if we all want to be in the world of social media (and really, how can we not?), we need to accept that there are people who will assign nearly all of their personal value and self worth to who "Likes" or doesn't "Like" enough of their content. Not just their sense of self is involved, they will assign how you feel about them based on what you "Like" or don't "Like' enough of. Ironically, these are the same people who will not pick up a phone to call and say, "I miss you, how can we connect more often?" or make any real human-kind of contact to let you know they are feeling somehow shunned by your lack of activity on their content. 

When will people understand that Facebook does not show us everything our "Friends" or even our "Family" post? If you are simply reposting the content of others (memes, recipes, jokes, etc), I don't feel the need to acknowledge it - unless it really speaks to me. I've spent my entire life being told I talk too much, it would serve me to learn when it really contributes to the communication to chime in. Now that I've potentially learned that, the rules to the communication game have changed and my not acknowledging every post on my feed has people hurt and in turn, being hurtful to others. Sure, we can agree, "It's their problem" but the fact remains, this is how our kids are growing up and if you are not teaching your kids how to have a strong sense of self outside of the social media platform, you are not serving them as their parent(s). 

Are you guilty of this? Do you feel miffed if select people don't interact with you enough on Facebook? How do you handle those feelings? 

What Is Intentional Winning In Life?

Intentional Winning In Life - IWIL is the process of bringing your dreams to life right now by thinking about them differently.

So many of us had dreams when we were younger that for this reason or that, we let go of pursuing. Even as adults, things come up that seem exciting or worthwhile, but we believe we aren't qualified, don't have time to learn, don't have the money, or simply don't feel we can reach the goal. Whatever you think, you're right! So if you don't think you can do it, maybe you could think about it in a way that does seem doable to you. Just maybe, there is another way to bring that dream into reality.

Here's an example (reference the photo above): Let's say your dream is to go from San Francisco, CA to New York, NY. Most would agree that the fastest, most direct route would be to travel eastbound on highway 80 in one strait shot - the pink road. You'll see a little piece of green on the pink route which is a planned detour where there's a break in highway 80. As we do this, plug in life goals and normal activities that come along the way such as going away to college, getting married, having kids, changing jobs, etc. If you think about each of the events in your life that stop your progress to your dream destination, it's easy to see how we get stalled and eventually "settle down" in Anytown USA along the way. If you look closely at a United States map, you will see that there are hundreds of other roads to get you to New York from San Francisco - the orange roads. Will it take longer? Yes. Will it cost more? Possibly. Will the journey be full of surprises? Absolutely! When you realize that all those other roads can get you where you want to go, you can see that not only can you make your dream come true, but you may also find other things that make you happy and bring you joy along the way.

I'm going to define IWIL a whole lot more as we continue through this year. I'm also going to show you many things you can do to restart the engine on your dream and start feeling it's joy this very minute! Let's get this show on the road and start discovering what the orange roads have to offer.

After a Hiatus

It's been two years since I've posted here, two years! It even amazes me that it's been that long, but looking back it's all very clear. It was two years ago that I quit pursuing ZipperBack Gloves, a product I sincerely believed in and started plugging back in to my family again. In the last two years so much has happened, my son Mason has become a performing kid cook, we've been on several vacations, I graduated (with honors!) from college with a communications degree, I jumped into a real estate career and we moved again. This is certainly not everything, but it illustrates me living my real, physical life, versus the virtual life so many writers fall into when they are writing all the time. I don't know how often I will be here, but Intentional Winning is such a true part of who I am, I will always come back!