Christmas is NOT just another ordinary day.
Luke 2: 8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came
Have you ever noticed what happens in a post-game interview when an athlete is asked to discuss what made the difference between winning and losing? Often, and particularly in tightly contested or come-from-behind victories, the answer is something like
Athletes often credit self-confidence, the ability to overcome adversity, handling failure and never giving up as key components of their success. All of these factors influence an athlete’s way of thinking. The athlete’s state of mind is a positive, growth-oriented environment. The good news: it’s not just for athletes.
Whatever your goals are, the mindset you cultivate has the power to sabotage your success or propel you toward it. A peak performance coach helps clients learn to flex their mental muscles the way world-class athletes, titans of business, entrepreneurs, inventors and other highly successful and happy, personally fulfilled people do. Much like a personal trainer works with you to train you body toward improving your physical fitness, a peak performance coach works with you to train your brain toward improving your mindset.
The constructs of behavioral science and applied positive psychology are the foundation of my coaching process. Dr. Martin Seligman, who is widely regarded as the father of applied positive psychology, has spent decades researching human potential. His work has led to understanding the emotions we experience and the actions we take are determined by our mindset. Handling life’s ups and downs with a positive mindset improves relationships and increases confidence, motivation and clarity, which improves overall performance and productivity. Most importantly, a positive mindset renders decreased levels of stress and anxiety which boost immunity, health, well-being, happiness and increased life expectancy. In contrast, when we default to a negative or fixed mindset, we function from a place of pessimism and helplessness. We lack motivation, energy and the ability to cope with stress, anxiety and adversity. Our relationships suffer and we are unlikely to fulfill our human potential. A peak performance coach facilitates the client’s shift from a negative, fixed mindset to a positive, growth mindset.
Bottom line: You’ve got to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative.
As your mental performance coach I will guide you. Together we will unlock the resources you need to discover and maximize your intrinsic strengths, develop new ones, identify obstacles which inhibit you and create strategies to mitigate them. Like personal training, peak performance training is a collaborative process, but ultimately you are the person responsible for making change. Some of the skills you will acquire are
One of the things we do here at Just Another Ordinary Day is raise awareness of obscure, unofficial holidays that otherwise might be misconstrued as just another ordinary day. We’ve helped you celebrate National Make Your Bed Day, National Dog Day, National Chocolate Day, National Talk Like a Pirate Day and, for obvious reasons, one of my favorites National Hug a Newsperson Day. As the mother of a saxophone-playing newsperson, National Saxophone Day also holds a special place in my heart. It’s a day that honors saxophones and saxophonists, most notably Adolphe Sax, the musician who invented it. .
National Saxophone Day is commemorated every year on November 6 (the day on which Adolphe Sax was born back in 1814) which gives me the rare quasi-viable excuse to call my saxophone-playing White House Correspondent. Don’t misunderstand me. We’re not estranged or anything like that, we text frequently, but every once in a while I want need to hear his voice (so I know he is alive and/or it is actually him I’m texting and not some psychopath holding him hostage) so I call… just to say hi or… I love you. Anyhoo, evidently, I am uniquely gifted at calling him at the WORST possible moments…
…so I’ve learned to stifle the impulse to call when it strikes.
I wish National Saxophone Day presented more than a thinly-veiled excuse to interrupt his work day, but since it doesn’t I’ll settle for reminiscing…
Here’s to the $150 Rascher mouthpieces (3 of them to be exact) left in various places around the house so the family dog could chew them. Here’s to one lovely fall afternoon, more than twenty-five years ago, when he decided to practice outside on the deck, prompting a frantic phone call from our next-door neighbor who thought there was some sick or injured animal – possibly a stork or wild boar- running around in our back yard. Here’s to the sweet image of him tapping his left foot…always the left foot… during band concerts or while practicing in the living room. Here’s to impromptu kitchen jazz solos…You Say Potat-oh, I Say Potato-ah – while I cooked dinner. Finally, here’s to my favorite saxophone-playing White House Correspondent and thanks for the memories.
Originally posted October 28, 2015
Today is my youngest son’s wedding and I couldn’t be happier because it’s also National Chocolate Day, y’all!
As if Halloween isn’t reason enough to buy 10 pounds of miniature Snickers bars, consume 30 or so at warp speed in a single sitting, stuff the wrappers between the sofa cushions so nobody finds out and then feel guilty about it, October 28 is National Chocolate Day. The banks aren’t closed or anything, but it’s totally legit. I checked. So there’s no need to closet binge. You might as well celebrate… I mean it would be rude not to partake, right? So… Let’s. Eat. Some. Chocolate.
National Chocolate Day is dedicated to eating, I mean celebrating, everything chocolate… with no limitations, no guilt, no shame and certainly no skinny-botox-injected salad-eaters getting in your face with their high and mighty you might as well just skip the chewing and swallowing and rub it directly onto your dimpled butt attitudes.
For your information, chocolate is actually GOOD for you. It’s healthy. Seriously. It’s chock full of mono-unsaturated fatty acids, plus it comes from cocoa which grows on cacao trees which are plants (green). So technically eating chocolate is like eating a vegetable.
Anyway, the National Confectioners Association (like candy needs a congressional lobby) is responsible for proclaiming National Chocolate Day, along with over 20 other chocolate-related national holidays. If you don’t believe me you can check out the complete list of official candy celebrations here. Now go eat some chocolate and Happy National Chocolate Day!
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© 2023 The Dancing Housewife republished with permission