Welcome to the latest issue of Write for You
News & Notes
with some words of wisdom on
writing, business, and life. If you'd like to
share any books or favorite links with our
readers,
send us an
e-mail. And be sure to check
our web site
for ways that we can help you
with your
business.
Nancy Passow
"Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On" |
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Are you familiar with the Serenity Prayer?
"God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change; courage
to change the things I
can; and wisdom to know the difference." Why
do we waste so much energy
on the things we can't do anything about? I
keep reminding myself to,
as Jimmy Buffet puts it, "breathe in, breathe
out, move on." Only I
don't always follow through.
The ladies at LeadStar (Courtney and Angie,
authors of Leading from
the Front), in their
latest "Leadership Moment" e-mail called
"Let It Go", offer their own advice for
letting go. Start by making a
list of all those things that
are driving you crazy. Look at your list and
divide it into the things
you can change and the
things you can't. Now, take the list of
things that you have no control
over, tear it up, and throw it away. It may
only be symbolic, but those
things are gone and you can now move on. If
you prefer to save paper,
type the list on your computer, send it to
Trash, and then hit the
"empty trash button" -- make sure your
speakers are turned up -- and
listen to that satisfying "crunch" as the
Trash is emptied.
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Giving Back |
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Giving back is an important part of my life
and my business -- I
consider it part of my values, part of what
makes me who I am. There
are
various charities and special causes that I
support either through my
work or my personal life -- sometimes a mix
of both. And although I
give to them -- I certainly get something
back. I'd like to share these
causes with you -- and also ask for your
help.
First are the
various professional organizations I belong
to (you can find links to
these organizations to the right), where I
have served on the boards
(or will serve on the board) and
provided my expertise in writing and
marketing. It is never enough to
just belong to an organization -- if you want
to meet people and get
known, you have to work for the organization.
And if the work you do
showcases your talents, all the better.
Next is the YWCA
of Bergen
County. Six years ago I was elected to the
YW's Board of Directors. For the past three
years I've been board
secretary (serving on the executive
committee) and recently added
chairing the PR & Marketing Committee and
the Advocacy Committee.
Serving on the board has been a true
eye-opening experience; instead of
just managing my small business, I am helping
to manage a multi-million
dollar business. To learn much more about
what the YWCA of Bergen
County does (besides
running the county's Rape Crisis Center and
being the largest provider
of child care), please visit my Blog.
There is another non-profit organization that
my business helps. This
is the Northern
Virginia EMS
Council, which coordinates emergency
medical services in northern
Virginia. For the past several years, I have
provided public relations
and marketing services for the Council. It's
a very worthwhile organization (and yes, my
daughter the paramedic got me involved with
them).
My personal charity is the ALS Association
which works to support those
affected by ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral
Sclerosis) or Lou Gehrig's Disease
(a fatal neuromuscular disease) and to spread
awareness of the
urgency to find treatment and a cure.
As some of you know, I lost a close friend,
Laurie Speight, to this
awful disease in December, 2006. Every year I
participate in one of the
The ALS New York Chapter's Walks to Defeat
ALS -- We Walk Because We
Can. This year I will be walking on Sunday,
May 23, 2010, in Long
Branch, NJ. If you would like to learn more
about ALS and the walk and
help by donating, please visit my Walk
Page.
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Book of the Month . . . The Power of a Positive No |
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This month's book is by William Ury,
co-founder of Harvard's Program on
Negotiation. Here's how Mr. Ury explains his
first two books:
"Twenty-five years ago, Roger Fisher and I
co-authored a book called Getting to Yes:
Negotiating Agreement
Without Giving In, which focuses on
how to reach an agreement
that is beneficial for both sides. . . . A
decade later, I wrote Getting Past No:
Negotiating with
Difficult People in response to the
most common question I
received from readers of the first book: how
do you negotiate
cooperatively when the other side is not
interested?" The most recent
book is The
Power of a Positive No:
How to Say No
and Still Get to Yes. What Mr. Ury
realized was that sometimes
the problem wasn't getting to yes, it was how
to say no while still
maintaining respect and keeping the door open
for a future yes.
Quote of the Month: "The true
measure of a man is how he treats someone who
can do him absolutely no good." -- Samuel Johnson
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