Amazing athletes warm up. They stretch their muscles before getting on the court or field. They time sprints, shoot a bunch of hoops and crack more than a few bats to get their bodies ready for practice. Athletes know there is a process in making their agencies ready for any game. 

We don't realize how critical a warm-up is for us to leap. A warm-up is choosing to unleash capacity but not formalize an idea. A doodle is essential to create a masterpiece. An idea jotted down on the back of a napkin is the start of an industry-changing company. Showing compassion in front of a child is the catalyst for kindness. One sentence to stranger begins a lifetime friendship. A quick sketch begins the buds of a new project.

The warm up is important. It makes us great by easing us into something great and the potential of more.

How will you warm-up today? 

Until tomorrow friends.

The illusion of perfection can be overwhelming. We can dream of a designer house, kids that don't have tantrums, a fit and trim body, a flourishing bank account, a rocket ship career and my personal favorite, well-styled hair. Our minds get hooked on the idea that if we could get to perfection, then everything in our lives would be seamless. We wouldn't worry anymore about getting sick, being kind or living a meaningful life. We would be happy with perfection.

Right?

What if we embraced the messy today? Let the house be a disaster. Allow the kids to wail all they want. Slide into work and just be ok. Does letting things get messy bring a different if not, better state of happiness to our lives?

I'm going to try summer hair don't care today. How about you?

Until tomorrow friends.

Getting away from it all is hard. We imagine our lives would be very different if we didn't keep up. Right now, everything in life seems important enough that it requires constant monitoring. The barrage of social media updates and critical texts demand our focus. The communication channels sing their siren song that we are missing out on something important. We can't feel or don't let ourselves feel success unless we check-in to our lives. 

However, what happens if we check-out? What if we turn off, turn down and delay what only seems important? What happens when we pay attention to the physical and real life around us?

This last week, I went far away. I turned off my phone, didn't look in and didn't catch up on anything. I ate a lot of shaved ice and played with my kids. At the end of my life when I look back on that week, I would label it a success. It is funny how in this ever constant world of now, checking-out turned into something so satisfying.

Today, let's all grab some shaved ice and check-out for a while. 

Until tomorrow friends.

The world can seem simple around us. We tend to label things to make life easier. A cup is a cup. A tree is a tree. A cactus is a cactus. We can find ourselves dismissing the woven wonder of life. When we stop to look at an object that is around us, we can learn it's far more complicated than it seems. Take a cactus for example. We might say it's green, prickly and lives in the desert.

However, on closer on inspection, we would find a cactus is incredibly complicated. It varies in colors ranging from blue to green. The needles on the cactus create a texture that looks soft and fuzzy. It has repetition and balance. The shape isn't simple at all. It has bumps and grooves. It can live for up to two years without water in an every changing diverse ecosystem. 

It's amazing what we learn when we just look closely at the world around us and how it can help us find a creative story in the every day.

Until tomorrow Creative Observationalist.

The kitchen. It's full of ways to make us more creative. It provides limitless tools and ingredients to combine and subtract our way to a new experience. Food can change us in so many ways. Emotionally it can bring comfort. Mentally it can expand our thinking. Most importantly it can make a creative leap in ourselves and the world around us.

Today, let's expand our creativity by being in the kitchen. Let's make something new and taste how getting uncomfortable develops a creative part of us.

Yesterday, was National Strawberry Shortcake day. After some research, I found a decidedly delicious looking recipe for vegan gluten-free strawberry shortcake on the blog Minimalist Baker.  I haven't attempted to make strawberry shortcake or vegan pastries, ever. However, today, I put on my apron and headed to the kitchen. In the first 5 minutes, I had to put my creative thinking to the test when it turned out I didn't have all the ingredients needed to follow the recipe. There I was in the kitchen with the oven ablaze, rummaging through my pantry looking for something to substitute for one of the key ingredients. 

Well, it turned out that I used the wrong ingredient and my strawberry shortcake was less than terrific. However, using my creative thinking to solve my recipe dilemma only strengthened my problem-solving skills.

So, let's get cooking and creating.

Until tomorrow Creative Cooks.

Some people will tell us that certain people are born creative. These individuals came out of the womb instantly coming up with well defined and successful ideas from the very beginning of their lives. Picasso picked up a paint brush and whipped up "The Old Guitarist" in a flash. Richard Branson developed his first business, and it was an overnight success. Steve Martin hopped on stage and got people laughing on his first try. The Dali Lama just knew how to lead people right into a compassionate existence. Right?

Yeah. No.

When we meet someone who is infinitely creative and successful, there is a secret they hold. These creative leaders worked their tail feathers off every day. They doodled, refined, wrote, sketched, refined their work over and over and over again. 

When it didn't work, they tried again. 

And again.

They had doubts and they wanted to give up but they didn't. The most important thing they did was sit down and work out ideas.

The ideas will be bad. 

There will be failures.

But they did the work anyway.

One day they create something that changes the world around them, shifts perspectives and redefines something bigger. That's creativity at work.

An Illustration Sketch. Next Step Refine and Define!

This One Was Sketched, Refined and Defined 4 times. It still needs work.

Until tomorrow Creative Friends.

In this ever hyper-changing world, things get busy. Chaos can take control. Sometimes we can find great creative ideas in the flurry of life, but most often it takes a moment of pause to make ideas grow. The moments of pure clarity and creative power most often appear when we aren't staring at the thing that needs our attention the most. Great creative work comes when we soften our gray matter.

Who out there hasn't had a light bulb moment in the shower? Or an ah ha flash when driving to work? How about a second of clarity when doing the dishes?

Pausing is powerful, and if we are looking to be more creative, it's important to cultivate our ability to pause. That's where meditation comes in handy. The benefits of meditation include focus, patience, clarity, calmness, insight, and perspective. More can be read here on 99U "What Daily Meditation Can Do For Your Creativity."

There are a ton of great resources to start a meditation habit. One of my personal favorites is the app Headspace. It offers a lovely guide to meditation. If you, however, are looking for a simple option, my beautiful friend Renne Gauthier offers a 10-minute Pause and Reset Meditation practice on her website.

Let's get our creative juices flowing by pushing our pause button today.

Until tomorrow friends.

Creative inspiration can come from anywhere. We can be staring directly at a beautiful object or have an experience that moves us, but we don't notice. These moments can include things we see every day. The beat of traffic speeding on the roads, the way the sun drenches a field of wheat or the taste of a perfectly pink ice cream cone. We can feel a fleeting shift inside us, or a murmur from a deep place that speaks up with "Well, that's something interesting and powerful."

The number one question people ask me is where I get my creative ideas. My response is "Right in front of me." It's been a long road to understanding that creativity doesn't mean a grand idea. I use to waste time searching for the perfect thing to make or do. I have spent years procrastinating and lost my youth wondering on perfect. Because I was unable to turn on and turn out perfect ideas, I didn't take action on what could have brought me meaning. Even today, I struggled to bring this post to life because I fell into the trap of perfect. I searched all day for the creative enlightenment that would transform words into a perfect story.

I'm here to tell you perfect doesn't exist. 

Trying to create the perfect recipe, short story, business idea or set of skills is as beneficial as searching for a Yeti. We will be out in the cold for a long time looking under every twig branch and rock only to find the search for the perfect creative muse is the story right in front of us.

Until tomorrow Creative Observationalists.

Great ideas are born from simple things. We often think the more complicated the idea, the more involved the endeavor, the more payoff we will feel in the end. Our brains tend to think big and expansive on great ideas, and before we know it, the idea seems too big to tackle. It seems intimidating and unachievable. We put the idea for our book, our new business venture or the idea that will bring meaningful work into our lives away. We tell ourselves there will be another time to take on a project of that magnitude.

Nope. Not today. Today we go.

The best time to start is now, and the best thing we can do is grab a Post-it® note.

Let's write down one action word that pertains to a specific goal on a Post-it® note. Place the note in a visually prominent location for seven days. Find a place where we can see the Post-It® note several times a day. 

Every day for seven days take action and create a mini step to reaching and creating the meaningful work in our lives. 

It will set us on a path called success.

Until tomorrow Sticky Ideas.

Some of us would love to live a fuller more creative life. A long time ago we might have dreamed or experimented with moments that fed the human part of us. When we were little the slate was clear and the doors open. It seemed as if the horizon held a particular secret where we could sprint. Then life happens. We realize the things that fed our being won't feed our bellies. We take the job we never thought we would take. We settle in and rationalize our choices. It can seem as if the doors that were once open in our youth become locked as we age. The older we become life whispers to us the things behind those doors have vanished to a forbidden and lost space.

It is important to know we all hold the key.

The things that fill us are still there behind those doors. They are a bit dusty but waiting for us.

This week each day a new creative step will be presented to help us all brush up on our creativity. It might just unlock the door to something new and help us get our human back.

Until tomorrow Dream Makers.

It's important to note that sometimes it's critical just to go. When we have paralysis of analysis, we miss out on the joy of being spontaneous. To move quickly can feel wrong as there is safety in a plan. There is control knowing what should come next. 

However what if we just went, did, lived and experienced? What if we put down the phones, the books and the turned off the gurus.

What does life look like when we move quickly and from our gut?

I'm not going to think too much today and find gratitude in living a quick presence.

How about you?

Until tomorrow friends.

Like a pile of dirty laundry, Monday just keeps showing before our eyes. Monday always greets us with a shout of "GOOD MORNING IT'S MONDAY!" like a positive and upbeat super mom, it hits us with a thunderbolt. 

The good news is even if it is Monday, there is safety in numbers.

Let's huddle around, have a cup of coffee or two and discuss how we are grateful to have a day to kick around.

Nothing takes more lip and complaining than a Monday, together.

Until tomorrow friends.

We get stuck in the negative chatter that resides in our heads. The talk can chip away at us from the inside. Like kindling on a forest floor, these thoughts will slowly build and layer over time. Once the conditions are right, a lighting strike can burn our dreams until they are smoky black dust. The grove of hope built over our lifetime can seem like forgotten ash.

Until you realize, there are always Titians.

They live life large, full and wide. Their years of continual growth contain stories layered over hundreds of thousands of hours. Even in the harshest conditions, they bend and sway to their purpose. They can magically grow tall even after a blazing forest fire. Their bark, black, and chard from the fire will remain for hundreds of years. They are strong, they are epic, and they teach us we can be Titans if we just keep growing.

With gratitude and until tomorrow Titan Trees.

We can feel it in the air. She is coming just around the corner. The excitement to meet her builds like an encounter with an old friend. This last weekend she may have graced us briefly with a smile and a warm touch. Teasing us with her short stay, the scent of fresh cut grass drifts lightly through the air. We may have noticed the screen door could remain open even into dusk and the pop of soft blush peonies adorn our front yard. She may have gifted us with a big bunch of cherries, strawberries or peaches to overflow our pie tins. We may soon find ourselves thanking her for the dollops of soft serve, a cascade of fireworks, sand between our toes, beads of sweat from long bike rides, watermelon slices and lazy days.

She's summer, and she's here to bring us sunny, happy time memories.

It's hard not to find gratitude in her so let's just say thank you, make our summer bucket list, throw on our flip flops and slip on our sunnies

What is on your summer bucket list? Where will you find gratitude and joy in the months ahead?

Here is mine.

Until tomorrow Summer Lovers!

There is no other way to say this. Parenting is a beautiful but brutal endeavor.  Sure, there are the great moments. The moments we all share with the world. Photos go up on social media for all to admire. They show the profound love we feel for our offspring. There are heart moving milestones such as birthdays, times of success like graduations and seconds of just living in joy like a first bike ride. These moments carry us to tomorrow, but as parents, we all know these snapshots are like shooting stars. They are brief and momentary. Most of our parenting is spent tinkering and working just to keep our stars shining brightly in the sky.

I want to be clear about the love I have for my children. It is intertwined with my being. Like strands of rope braided together, my kids make up the strength that lives inside of me. It keeps me going in this crazy world. I would never say my little beings are my everything. That statement would imply my children are somehow separate from me. They are a part of me at every turn, and I am a part of them. Our spirit, being, souls, whatever we call it, are bound together for eternity.

That must be why they drive me mad.

That must be why they make me yell at them after asking them twenty times to place shoes on their feet.

That must be why they challenge my patience and understanding every day.

That must be why they leave the sink running, so it overflows and damages the floor.

That must be why they fed the dog a whole plate of lemon bars when I was in the shower.

That must be why when I say,  "Hurry up we are late for school!"; they become slow as sloths.

That must be why I am exhausted all the time.

That must be why they make me question if I am a good parent but more importantly a great human being.

It doesn't matter how much we love our children. At every turn, someone tells us we are doing this parenting thing wrong. Someone is pushing back and showing us we are not enough. We don't have the right skills, expertise or education to grow our children into productive members of society.

Just ask our kids.

In their actions, they silently writing us notes in the margins: 

"I'm not going to pick up my room EVER!" Margin note: You just haven't told me in the RIGHT way how to pick up my room.

"I can't stop screaming and throwing a tantrum inside this store!" Margin note: You apparently should be reading yet another book on parenting.

"Grandma is way more fun than you, Mom." Margin note: You should talk to Grandma about how to love me. She does it right.

As parents, we feel our kids challenge our abilities. More than anyone, the doubt kids provide begins to fray the strand of us. The line that ties us together becomes weak, and the rope starts to fall apart. We then begin to see the challenge of parenting is that it requires an extensive examination into the human condition. In this process, we realize we might be flawed and lack the power needed to make our kids whole. We come to the realization we are not superhuman.

Or are we?

I was talking to my friend and fellow alumni from the altMBA program, Dr. Robert Zeitlin. Beside his warm, generous, positivity personality, Dr. Robert wrote a thoughtful and short book called "Laugh More, Yell Less: A Guide to Raising Kick-Ass Kid." As Positive Psychologist he believes that each of us contains a unique set of superpowers. As parents, if we take some time to recognize these powers, we can use them as a tool box for parenting. It's an interesting idea. 

"You bring a lifetime of valuable experiences to your job as a parent. You may think that all the mistakes you made are worthless, but you’re wrong. Everything that happened in your life made you who you are. Every success, failure, and misstep has value in this mission."

- Dr. Robert Zeitlin

What if as parents, we are enough including our flaws? In fact, what if we contain all the superpowers needed to make our kids superpowered too? 

I'm going to throw on my cape and read more up on my superpowers. How about all you Super Parents out there? What are your superpowers?

With gratitude Super Humans of today and tomorrow.

The week can carry on at an unbearable speed like a sloth running a marathon. It's blurry, exhaustingly slow and feels like the finish line is twenty-six miles too long. We can pick up our heads on Wednesday only to realize we have so many miles to go before we can plop down and have a break. However, when we make it to the day of the week that calls for a celebration, Friday, we should party.

Pull out a glass of wine, put on the Netflix and take some time to find gratitude in the day that was made to help us give up on the week.

Let's say thank goodness it's Friday.

Until tomorrow Weekend Warriors.

We all know food is good but what makes food taste amazing? A corndog baked in our oven at home doesn't hold a candle to a corndog consumed at the county fair. We can munch on store bought cookies that are like cardboard in comparison to mama's fresh baked chocolate chip delights. The fresh loaf of baguette from the grocery store pales in comparison to the warm buttery goodness stuffed in our mouths on the cobblestone streets of Paris. 

When my husband was in high school, he took a class in home economics. When his friend Tony and him made a recipe as part of their homework, they listed "love" as one of the ingredients. Consequently, a deduction of points was taken from their final grade because "love isn't an ingredient."

But teacher Ms. Grumpy Pants was wrong.

Love is an ingredient.

Love is what turns food from good to "let's make this recipe forever."

Food holds memories together in every culture and space. It is a substantial atom of humanity and recipes are the scrumptious bond that unites us all. Babcia's handcrafted mushroom soup is a perfect mountain song as it calls families together. Warm braided challah bread is magnetic in its appeal to draw neighbors over for a slice. The BBQ that Uncle Horacio slowly smokes over 4th of July weekend makes friends appear out of the woodwork. 

Recipes are biographies of people and places where we share our gratitude for each other. We often wait for just the right time or holiday to make that ever special dish. However, what if today we picked a recipe, the beloved one, and just made it? 

Today, I searched through my recipes trying to locate just the right one to try. Growing up in Midwest, most of the recipes collected over the years contain either strawberry jello or a healthy cup of thigh growing mayonnaise, sometimes both. There was the chocolate Texas sheet cake recipe that a co-worker passed on to me years ago and a rhubarb coffee cake recipe artfully handwritten by my grandmother. Digging deeper and deeper into the family cookbooks and recipe boxes didn't turn up anything interesting.

I then thought about my husband's grandma who had recently returned to Warsaw Poland after living in the United States for forty plus years. My husband often would reminisce about how she was the best blueberry pierogi, maker. He would often talk nostalgically about summertime and how he would pick a pint of fresh blueberries. He would then beg her to slave for hours in the kitchen to make him a few little pierogi gems. 

I did a little internet research and made a blueberry batch today. When my husband took the first bite, the room filled with joy as the pierogi transported him back to summertime when he was eight-years-old. My daughter then got to take her first bite and melted with delight. We added a new recipe to our immediate family's cookbook, and the joy and gratitude felt on a humdrum Tuesday united a generation before us and behind us.

The recipe for blueberry pierogi can be found here on "My Polish Kitchen."

With Gratitude. Until tomorrow friends.

Great friends are pillars in our lives. They carry us across the finish line when we can't take another step in this hard race called life. They are the first to hold our hands when parents go, and partners leave. They call us when we lose our job, and our bank account is empty. They go out of the way to make us feel like we are important and worthy of feeling loved in this world. 

The older I get, the more I realize friends come and go in our lives. The friends that hold our hands today might be traveling the world tomorrow. The friends that call us to check in might find themselves with families in which to tend. Friends that once slept on our couch are now deeply entrenched in their career. Many think of friendship as a wooden door. The door is either open or closed. Best friends forever is a permanent law that rules the universe. Friends must always remain as close as the skin on our bones. We want friendships to be as tight as the knit on a fisherman's sweater.  

However, as life moves along, it has become apparent that being lucky enough to encounter friendship is like floating in a warm summer pool. Good people drift by, and we soak in the summer rays together. One day the wind pushes us apart, and we begin to float. As the winds become bigger, they push us further away. It's important to note that we never say goodbye. We explore different parts of the pool. Sometimes we drift closer and sometimes further away.

Some might think this idea is sad. We might think friendship should be the act of clinging to each other until the end. A different perspective might be, open ourselves up to whoever drifts by as it will bring on so much more joy. Letting go of friends as they drift away will bring on so much more compassion. As the pool gets larger, the connections become greater, and we can then resign ourselves to the brevity of it all. Only then will we find gratitude in the fact that nothing is concrete and that friendship like a warm summer day isn't endless but as wide as life itself.

With gratitude friends.

We work on things that have significant meaning to us. We strive to get to the end to taste the sweetness of victory. Whether it's running a marathon, raising children, getting a degree, or selling a start-up, there is a tremendous pull to get things complete and done. We look forward to the end as it is the point where we can eat the pudding and savory each bite. It is the moment we cross the finish line, ship our kids off to a life of their own, get our diploma or sell or business for an enormous profit that brings joy to our lives.

Or is it?

Perhaps just like life, waiting to enjoy something until the end only brings us pain.

The idea of finding joy, in the method, holds true for anything in our lives. The harder the process, the more we grow. It's the journey that fills us up and makes life delicious. It's the people we meet along the way, and the moments leading up to the finally where true gratitude resides. Perhaps, stopping to savor the moments before we sit down to eat our pudding will ensure gratitude and joy even in the end?

I'm going to try. How about you?

Until tomorrow friends.

Some of us fixate on perfect bodies. The media mesmerizes us with things to buy and things to make us look better, younger and more perfect. Society tells us joy can be purchased with a new handbag, going to the gym at 4 am or applying a $140 anti-aging cream. However, who sells things to help our soul? No one because we love ourselves and all our imperfections.

Wait, do we?

Well, we should because we are all beautiful works of art. We are stunning, masterful, breathing, self-healing, sculptures that sprint around every day with the power to change things. We have the ability to sculpt the art around us, but that requires loving ourselves. It compels us to find gratitude for ourselves and every single one of us who walk the planet.

For me, that's a hard pill to swallow. I am the first person to pick on myself in the morning and the last person to tell myself I'm not good enough at night. What if 15 times today, we simply repeat "I shine."

Does the day end more joyful? Do we feel gratitude for ourselves?

Let's try.

Until tomorrow friends.