Katherine Eitel

Last Wednesday, I went out on my favorite cycling route through the wine country of the Temecula Valley which is 25 miles and includes a long, 12% grade hill. I have only done this twice before, and that was several years and a couple dozen pounds ago. It was a gorgeous summer morning with hardly any traffic, and I had a new Jason Mraz album to devour on my iPod. As I pushed off on my bike and entered the first intersection, it occurred to me that it was only four short years ago that the thought of being clipped into a road bike was outrageous, but after a couple of skinned knees I had made friends with it. At that time the thought of going out alone without Tom, a much more experienced rider, was out of the question until one day when he couldn't meet me for a ride as we had planned, and then I made friends with that idea.

Last week, clipping in, setting off alone, and cycling for 22 miles was a piece of cake. As I paused in the shade to hydrate and munch on my favorite "bonk breaker" bar, I noticed I was at the bottom of the afore-mentioned hill. As I considered taking the flatter, longer route or possibly this shorter, steeper one, it looked menacing, daunting, and yet in some way... beaconing and friendly. I decided to do it, but within seconds of the ascent I was worried. It was hot, and I was already struggling. It was then I remembered the value and instant attitude-adjuster of making friends with the challenges which are right in front of you.

Making friends with challenges and fears just means stopping the current mind chatter about how hard, bad, or scary it is while simultaneously not denying the pain, fear, or difficulty. For me, it involves seeing the challenge itself welcoming me, embracing me, and rooting for me. I see it cheering me on to what it already knows is victory, advancing my confidence, courage, skills, and health while expanding my view of what is possible. We shake hands, become friends, and the challenge itself helps me up.

This week, make friends with your hills. Make friends with your age, your body, your relationships, your goals. See them as benevolent supporters of you proving to yourself what is massively possible in your life and your experience.

More About Katherine Eitel and Associates

Curve Dental is a definitely a leader when it comes to the cloud. We do get our share of darts and arrows from mean people who would rather see us go away. In response, I'm presenting the top ten things mean people say about the cloud.

The third one: Curve Dental is New

Here's a fact: Curve Dental has been developing dental software for the cloud since 2005. Not so new. Perhaps "newer" than some; definitely newer than the fossil-fuel software sold by the old establishment. But "new" in the sense we don't know what we're doing? Not even.

We have ten years of development experience for the cloud. In technology years, ten years is a lifetime proven expertise. Sometime soon our fossil-fuel software competitors are going to figure out that the cloud is the current technology standard. When they start developing for the cloud, I'm going to feel sorry for them. I'm thinking about all the errors they're going to make, all the testing they have to do, and all the ups and downs.

On the other hand, We've already gone through the alpha tests and the beta tests. Our service is tried and tested. More than 3,000 dental professionals use our software every day to manage the oral health of more than 3,000,000 patients.

But here's one last thought on being new: Sometimes the "newer" companies deliver better products and services because we have something to prove. We don't take our customers for granted; every customer is a VIP customer. We listen closely to our customers and we strive to exceed their expectations because every customer counts.

In a survey, 60% of the respondents indicated they were unaware that a sore jaw, when combined with chest pain, can signal a heart attack, especially for women.