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Welcome to the latest issue of Write for You
News & Notes, our monthly newsletter.
Here you will find tips on
writing, business, and life. If you have any
writing
questions or if you'd like to
share any books or favorite links with our
readers,
send me an
e-mail. And be sure to check
our web site for ways that we can help you
with your
business.
Interested in
trying Constant Contact for
your business? Click
here to learn more. If you open a
Constant Contact account, using my referral
link, we can both receive credits to our
accounts.
Nancy Passow
| Thank You! |
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Thank you for a wonderful year. It had
its ups and downs, but you
have been there for me, whether you knew it
or not.
Thank you for being a client (or thinking
about being a client); thank
you for being a supplier; thank you
for being a friend; thank you for serving on
a board with me; thank you
for supporting my causes (ALS, breast cancer,
literacy).
And thank you
for just being you!
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| Decision Paralysis |
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In the November 2007, issue of Fast
Company, Dan and Chip
Heath (authors of Made to Stick: Why
Some Ideas Survive and Others Die)
discuss "decision
paralysis". The more choices you're
faced with, the harder it is
to choose. Remember when Howard
Johnson's was famous for their 28
flavors of ice cream? And then
Baskin-Robbins came along with 31
flavors? And there would be someone
agonizing over all of the
choices and finally picking . . . .
vanilla! Too many
choices.
The Heaths mention a
company
working on its mission and
goals. To their surprise, the company
was looking at eleven core
values. Their response, ". . . values
are supposed to guide
behavior, and you can't even remember 11
values, much less use them to
make decisions. . . Practically speaking,
having 11 values is
equivalent to having no values." When
you're presenting new ideas
to a client, keep it simple. The more
choices you provide, the harder it's going to
be for the client to pick
one.
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| Perspective |
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On the new Alicia Keys CD, "As I Am", (which
my son was nice enough to
buy
for me), there's a lovely song called "Like
You'll Never See Me Again",
in which she sings about "kiss
me like you'll never see me again", "hold me
like you'll never see me
again". It's a beautiful, romantic song
-- but tinged with
sadness, because it's really a good bye
kiss. How much better it
would
be to say "kiss me like it's the first time"
-- with all the
anticipation and happiness associated with
doing something for the
first time.
So, my words of wisdom are:
treat things like it's
the first time -- savor and enjoy the moment.
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Book of the Month . . . Alexander and the Wonderful, Marvelous, Excellent, Terrific Ninety Days |
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Somewhere along the way you've read Alexander
and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad
Day by Judith
Viorst. Would you believe that not only
is Alexander grown-up,
he's married and has three children of his
own? In this
delightful book, Judith treats us to "an
almost completely honest
account of what happened to our family when
our youngest son, his wife,
their baby, their toddler, and their
five-year old came to live with us
for three months." We learn how she
coped when chaos competed
with her love of order, neatness, and
schedules. With that
hectic time of year approaching, read this
little book, and be
reminded how humor will get you through
almost anything.
Quote of the Month: "What is not
started will never get finished."
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