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advice

Letter To My Children

January 18, 2009 By Michele Woodward Leave a Comment


Dear Munroe and Grace, I saw that President-elect Obama has written a letter to his daughters, expressing his hopes for their lives, and for the lives of all American children.

So, I thought I’d take a minute to write you and tell you what I hope for your lives, too.

First, I wish you a long and healthy life. Fortunately, you’ve got great genes going for you — but there are things you need to do to help yourself along. Pay attention to your nutrition, because what you put into your body fuels what you’re able to do in your life. Consciously taking in things that are good for you is a huge step toward taking loving care of yourself. When you take in good food, you set the tone for other good things in your life. And always move your body. Feel your muscles move under your skin. Dance, walk, hike, run, swim. It feels good, sure, but it also intimately reminds you of your own inherent strength and power.

Which brings me to my second wish for you — I wish you happy and healthy partnerships and friendships. I once read this piece of advice: “If you wouldn’t say it to your daughter, don’t say it to your son.” So, let me tell both of you the same thing: becoming intimately involved with anyone — allowing them access to your mind and your body — is the greatest gift you can give. Make sure the people you choose deserve your gift. And pay attention, too, to the friends you bring closest to you — find people whose honor and integrity match yours. Finally, remember that neediness often masquerades as love, but it’s not love — it’s just a false mask of love. Serving someone else’s chronic neediness is not what’s best for your life. Plus, it’s downright exhausting.

What’s best for you is love. As you know, I like Henri Nouwen’s definition of love. “Making a safe place for another person to be fully themselves.” And my third wish for you is that you have a life full of love. To get that, though, you first have to make a safe place for you to be yourself. That means not beating yourself up every minute of every day. It means loving yourself when you make a mistake, or say something incredibly stupid, or act really thoughtlessly. It means making space for an apology, and making up for your shortcomings.

When you love yourself first, you are able to fully love others.

And let me clarify — I’m not suggesting overweening, narcissistic self love. Narcissists see people as objects, not individuals, and lack the ability to empathize with others. That’s the opposite of my wish for you! To love yourself, it’s vital to see people clearly for who they are, with all their human frailties and strengths, and to appreciate their human struggles — and share their burdens and joys where you can.

You’ve already faced challenges in your young lives and I hope you look back on those experiences with a sense of pride and accomplishment in your own resilience. You will face hard times in your life — it’s a fact of life. But you can make the hard times easier by looking back at past challenges and realizing you made it through before… and you will again. Every single time.

When you’re forty years old, I hope you’re a good partner, and a good parent. I hope you’re a good friend, and a good neighbor. I hope you have a job you like and that helps you pay your bills, and that you put some money away for a rainy day. I hope you vote in every election, and that you work to make your community a better place. When you’re forty, I hope you make time to read books that excite you and to have conversations that inspire you.

But most of all, I hope you’re happy. And my best advice on how to be happy is this: Live fully in the knowledge that, in each moment, you are going to make the best possible decisions you can possibly make — so you can live with few regrets.

Your lives are infinitely precious to me, but your futures are yours to craft. Create them with care, and with love.

Just as you were created. Just as you were raised. Just as you are loved. Now, and always.

— Love, Mom

Filed Under: Happier Living Tagged With: advice, barack obama, hope, kids, letter to my children, life coach

Enough Advice Already

November 2, 2008 By Michele Woodward Leave a Comment


Aren’t you weary of all the people out there giving advice? I am.

Pundits proclaim that this candidate is up, or that one is. Polls are accurate, polls lie. He’s five points up, seven points up, thirteen points down; there’s a bounce, no-bounce. He should attack, he’s too nice; he makes sense, he doesn’t make sense. Vote for him, vote for her, vote against him, vote against her.

Aaaargh.

Then there’s our financial situation.

One guy says, “Pay only cash!” and another says, “Use your credit or you’ll lose it!”

One woman, the one with those oddly transfixing eyes (you know who I mean), says, “Make an extra mortgage payment to lower your principal” and the other female financial advisor says, “Don’t make that extra mortgage payment — put it in savings in case you lose your job.”

Honestly, I have advice fatigue.

So, I’m not going to give you advice on the economy or the campaign or building a business or even home decorating.

I’m going to remind you that life is short. You have been through difficulties before and you’ve done OK. Maybe even done very well. You’re resilient. We’re all resilient.

Do you know your own personal situation? If you’re in trouble, you’re going to figure out a way to deal with it. And if you need help, you’ll be able to find it.

I want to remind you that this, too, shall pass.

It always has.

So, love, live, enjoy. Gather around your friends, family and the things that make you stronger.

Because the truth — regardless of elections or recessions or rising waves of uncertainty — is this: If you’re doing the right thing, the right thing will always happen. I said “the right thing” — not the expedient thing, or the easy thing, or the most comfortable thing. You always know what the right thing is. Just keep doing it. And you’ll find that the right things will happen for you.

Filed Under: Happier Living, Managing Change Tagged With: advice, coping with financial stress, election, family, fatigue, life coach

Caps & Gowns

June 7, 2008 By Michele Woodward Leave a Comment


It’s the time of year. Caps and gowns on parade. Young men and women on the threshold of the rest of their lives. Awesome. Inspiring. Scary as hell.

I was recently asked to contribute to an article called something like, “Best Advice for Graduates That You Never Received.” Started me thinking. And since I am now writing an advice column, I’m all smug about my advice-giving abilities.

So here’s my six best pieces of advice to graduates:

1. Have integrity in all that you do. Integrity means that you operate from a place of honor. You say what you mean, and mean what you say. You’re reliable. You’re consistent. You can be counted on. Coming from a place of integrity creates a sterling reputation. And a sterling reputation delivers a sterling career, and a happy life.

2. Take the time to connect with others. Get to know the people you work with, the people who live next door, the people at the local homeless shelter. Because by connecting with others, you’ll deepen your connection with yourself. You’ll know yourself more intimately, and allow others to know you fully, too. And you’ll be richer for the experience.

3. Live a life full of risks. Maybe that means something as big as BASE jumping to you (please wear a helmet and pay your insurance premiums, dear) but small risks — like speaking up, or saying no — can be even more powerful (and don’t usually require helmets). Do something that feels like a risk to you every single day, and you will never feel stuck in a too small life.

4. Have passion — for your work, for your loves, for your life. When there’s at least one thing you are absolutely on fire about, the focused joy that results will draw fabulous people and experiences to you. Just a word of caution: don’t confuse passion with drama. If it feels even slightly icky or squidgy, it’s probably drama. Passion always brings something positive to the world, while drama generally dwells in the negative. Live with passion and you live in a positive place.

5. Define your own idea of success. I have known people who have gone to all the right schools and got the right jobs… and are miserable. Why? Because they were marching to the beat of somebody else’s drummer. Money is just a tool that allows you to do what you want to do. Status is a function of ego and ultimately means nothing. [See Integrity above] What means something is who you are and what you bring. Decide on that, and do it. Tap out your own beat.

6. Get out of your own way. Allow great things to happen for you. Because when you’re living with integrity, passion, connection and risks, you have created an environment where your best self can come out to play. When that happens, your life will unfold in amazing and inspiring ways. Let it. Be open and accepting and aware of the great stuff — and more will pour into your life.

Someone said to me this week, “Your twenties are all about figuring stuff out.” To which I said, “Honey, LIFE is about figuring stuff out.” Life’s not like a research project where you line up all your sources, exhaust all lines of inquiry and write up a whopping conclusion where everything is laid out all reasoned and deduced. No, in my experience, it’s precisely those times when you think you have it all figured out that — wham! — everything changes.

So my final piece of advice is this: be constantly curious, and continue to find and shape who you are and what you stand for. Take it all in, and savor it. Continue to grow. Live a full and dynamic, changing life.

Why? Because it’s a really, really fabulous way to live. That’s why.

Filed Under: Happier Living, Managing Change Tagged With: advice, caps, gowns, graduate, graduation, integrity, passion

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