Written by Karen D. Swim

Be the Hero: Three Powerful Ways to Overcome Challenges in Work and Life is a new book by Noah Blumenthal. The book is essentially about overcoming self-inflicted victimization.  It inspires us to change the stories we tell ourselves, rise above and be the hero.

The book made the Top 20 in all books this week and it’s close to making the New York Times bestseller list for the week. Here’s the really cool part, all sales through Saturday, August 8th will count toward New York Times bestseller status. If When the book makes it Noah will donate  100% of his royalties from this bestselling week to the Miami Children’s Hospital.

Not a bad deal, you get a life changing book, and the chance to change the life of a child.

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Written by Karen D.  Swim

I watched the little girls draw the crooked squares in colored chalk on the sidewalk. I smiled remembering my own childhood games of hopscotch. Hop, hop, hop. The first round was always easy because you knew what to expect. Hop, hop, hop, land, hop, land hop. You knew just how long you needed to balance on one leg before landing on two feet again.

Life sometimes feels like a game of hopscotch. Sometimes you maneuver a tiny square on one leg and in other places both feet are firmly planted on the ground. Along the way you pick up your marker as you progress from square to square. Unlike hopscotch, the squares are not neatly drawn in brightly colored chalk. You may find yourself balancing longer than is reasonably comfortable on one leg praying to reach the spot when you can put down both feet and steady yourself. Hop, hop, hop, hop, hop, land, hop.

In hopscotch and life  the game grows in complexity as you add more people. No longer jumping from square to square, you also have to jump over the obstacles that others have placed in your path. Hop, jump, jump, hop, hop, land, jump, hop.

As I sat musing, the little girls giggled, ponytails bobbing up and down as they each took turns, hopping, landing, and picking up their marker. Hop, land, hop, bend,  jump, turn to do it again. I watched as the smaller little girl took her turn, eyes on the pattern, with determination in her eyes – hop, hop, hop, jump, hop, bend, stumble. Rather than become discouraged they collapsed into giggles, declared a winner and started a new game, hop, hop, hop, land, hop, land, hop.

I rose from the chair with a smile determined to go and start my own new game, no colored chalk required.

How’s your game these days? Are you jumping on one foot or two? Do you start a new game when you stumble or just go to the end of the line?

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Written by Karen D.  Swim

Have you ever spent a day or two fighting off an illness? You feel sort of lousy but solider on at half speed not wanting to give in to being sick?  Finally, you decide that it would be better to admit defeat and spend a day or two in bed. You realize that you could fight for a week and operate at reduced capacity or simply give in for a day or two and emerge recovered.

Sometimes holding back negative emotions is exactly like those days you waste pretending you’re not really sick. You exert your energy pretending that you’re not hurting, sad or angry – energy that could be directed at solving your problem.

There are times when bucking up is truly the smart thing to do, but at other times you really need to be kind enough to yourself to break down. In those times, to ignore what you feel can actually prevent you from taking positive action. So go ahead and cry, scream, rant, and eat a big fat bowl of ice-cream if that is what you need to get it out of your system. When you’re done, you can then focus completely on taking action to change your situation.

Are there times in your own life when you should have chosen to break down or vice versa? How do you decide when to cry “uncle” and when to tough it out?

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