Hello for the weekly rendez-vous on Friday.  TGIF – Trust, Gratitude, Inspiration, and Fun.

Trust

I am trusting that less is more.

Period.

Gratitude

I am thankful for chance encounters.

Two weeks ago, at a networking event, I sat down next to a stranger and introduced myself.  It so happens we share a vision for an entrepreneurial project and come at the concept from different yet complementary angles. We decided to collaborate and are both growing through the contact.  It is invigorating to have one’s ideas both acknowledged and challenged simultaneously. 

One clients described this kind of exchange as the epitome of benevolence at work:  to be demanding of your team member because you want the best for them and therefore to kindly yet firmly push the limits to have them recognize how well they perform and that they can go further.

I am thankful for those people who see your and my potential and help us reach it.

Inspiration

This week’s inspiration is like a conversation between sages.

Someone confides,

“Hell is other people.”  – Jean Paul Sartre

Another answers,

“Ask not what your country (or company or friend…) can do for you—ask what you can do for your country (or company or friend…).
– John Fitzgerald Kennedy from his inaugural address.

A third concludes,

“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
– Mahatma Gandhi

And I am inspired by Brian Morton of the New York Times who verifies references and corrects us.

” The closest verifiable remark we have from Gandhi is this: ‘If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. … We need not wait to see what others do.’ ”

Fun

Yesterday was July 4.  How did you celebrate the US Independence Day?

The funny thing is…I forgot! 

Amazingly, on the other side of the ocean, Happy Birthday USA is not top of mind.  It is a regular workday here.  I realized the date upon sending an email to an American company and receiving the automatic reply message:

“I shall be out of the office on July 4 due to a national holiday.”

Aghhh!

(FYI, I will be celebrating 14^th of July, the French national holiday and ooh-ing and ah-ing over the fireworks.)

This is definitely a time when more is welcome!

Wishing you a great week.

Sincerely, Denise

 

What’s YOUR Focus Word?

We are featuring this article again (did it last week too) because of the comments from several of you.  Glad you liked it.

This afternoon, my focus phrase is “Make it to the school on time.”  Our youngest son is graduating from high school.  Read on..