I remember the days when flying was fun; an adventure, and it wasn’t that long ago. The flight attendants were friendly, the other travelers seemed to be happy to be going someplace, rather than grimly trying to endure a miserable experience. But boy-howdy, how that has changed.

This trip (to New Orleans, by the way!) really brought home to me how much attitudes have changed. (Except for a three year old traveling with her mom across the aisle from me. She was giggling and going “Whee!” and kicking her legs like a little kid on a carnival ride. It made everyone in the area around her smile.) The flight attendants were close to surly, and well not exactly rude, they certainly didn’t go out of their way to make anyone feel welcome. In fact, prison guards are more pleasant. (I’ve given workshops at a woman’s penitentiary, so I know first hand.)

Is it that hard to smile? To say please and thank you? To at least pretend that you are happy to have people flying on your airline? After all, if we didn’t, you’d be out of a job.

To my way of thinking, as the airlines struggle to come up with ways to decrease costs (which means decreasing services), it’s more important than ever to have flight attendants step up their friendliness in order to make travel less of an ordeal. Attitude is everything, and it’s contagious. Flight attendants have a fabulous opportunity to influence a whole plane-load of people for better or for worse. I’ve seen it happen both ways. And it makes me wonder why more of them don’t step up to that challenge, and try to make what has become a trying experience as pleasant as possible.

For that matter, we all have the opportunity to influence the attitudes and moods of others every day. How can we all step up to the challenge and make our influence a postive one?

OK, my dear hubby almost blew it. He asked me if I wanted to know where we were going. I, of course, said “No!!” and quite indignantly, too. Don’t spoil the surprise! And don’t offer to, either. If I don’t know where I’m going, or what’s going on (at least in this situation), I don’t have to worry about taking charge, making decisions, and being responsible for absolutely everything, which is my default mode.

He reminded me that I’d find out tomorrow anyway, when we got to the airport. Well, that’s soon enough for me!

Well, it’s Saturday, and tomorrow we leave for someplace. I’m trying to pack, a task I hate (how do I know what I’m going to feel like wearing in three days?), and although I really don’t want to know where we’re going (I love surprises), it does make this chore a bit more challenging.

I think it’s because I’m so right-brained; I can see multiple possibilities even when I know what’s going on, and when I don’t, well, the opportunities are endless.  Add to this the fact that I haven’t bought any new clothes in six months, and what I do have isn’t city-chic; it’s Colorado casual. And then, it’s snowing here. It’s hard to pack for warm weather when your mind (and body) is crying for thick, fuzzy sweaters. Finally, come to think of it, this is the first time I haven’t bought new clothes before a trip. Good for me! (We’re taking my parents to Ireland in September, and I’m really trying to save.)

Anyway, my right-brainedness means that I’ve become a famous over-packer. To try and keep things under control (especiallly with the airlines cracking down on how much luggage you can take), I’ve made a few rules for myself–and mostly, I follow them: 

1. Choose a color and stick to it. I often choose black; it’s easy to match, and then I toss in one or two colorful accents.
2. Every top must be able to be worn with every bottom. I aim for 2 to 3 bottoms and 2-3 tops with a jacket.
3. Use accessories (scarves, jewelry) to change the way an outfit looks.
4. Everything must be comfortable–and fit well.
5. I take only well-broken-in, comfortable shoes, and again, all in one color. I try to limit myself to only two (or three) pair: a dress pair and a walking pair. (But I break this rule most of the time; how can a woman get by with only two pair of shoes?

So I guess I’d better get back to it and see how well I can follow my rules. After all, we’re only going for 4 days; how hard can it be?

Wow, what a crazy couple of weeks! I have been keeping notes, but not writing and posting (something to do with a romantic 20th honeymoon, then being crazy busy), so here’s my chance to really catch up.

 I’m going to go ahead and date these posts as they happened, not as I am posting them, so you won’t have to read miles and miles of text as I get caught up! So even though this is dated March 14th, I actually wrote it on March 31st. Are you confused now?

It’s the week to celebrate yourself. To honor your abilities and talents, your passions and desires, your quirks and foibles. To appreciate your strengths and your weaknesses, your energy and your weariness, your smarts and those times you feel dumber than dirt.

It’s time to celebrate all you are, in all your splender and all your ordinariness. Because all of you is worth celebrating. So please, this week, make time every day to celebrate all of who you are.

I hate DST–the whole concept of it. It makes no sense; we don’t get any extra daylight, it’s miserable, expensive, un-ecological, and dangerous. Here’s why. 

Daylight saving time (and that’s the correct spelling; it’s saving, not savings; like man-eating tiger, it’s daylight-saving time), actually increases energy consumption. A recent study done in Indiana, which decided to adopt DST state-wide in 2006, (prior to that, DST had been on a confusing, county-by-county basis) showed clearly that moving the clocks forward resulted in a 4% increase in electical consumption, at a cost of 8.4 million dollars for the state. If we extrapolated that across the country, that would be the equivalent of two additional coal-fired power plants running full time.

Why? Well, we may not have our lights on, but by leaving for work and coming home earlier, we run our furnaces more in the mornings, and then, by summer, our air conditioners more in the evenings.

Another economic study, involving what is called “opportunity cost” (see http://www.mcall.com/news/opinion/anotherview/all-right_col-a.6301625mar07,0,6005316.story) suggests that the simple physical act of changing our clocks by an hour twice a year costs about $1.7 billion annually. Now this is calculation is rather contrived and artificial, but it does have some merit, if only in making us more aware of the hidden costs of  this bit of foolishness.

Other studies have documented a significant decrease in productivity for the first week after switching to DST, as well as an increase in auto accidents, especially those involving pedestrians. During the first three weeks of DST, a pedestrian is three times more likely to be hit by a car than in the month prior to the switch.

Other side effects? How about increased insomnia, increased stress, and decreased sex drive (I thought that one would get you!). Most people will suffer from a minimum of two to three nights of lousy sleep.

So DST doesn’t make sense, on so many levels. And I’m sure I could find even more evidence against the practice if I looked a little bit more.

Oh, by the way, contrary to popular belief, Benjamin Franklin did not propose daylight saving time in 1784 in Paris. He did make a satirical and anonymous proposal to that effect however. The Germans and their allies were the first to put the idea  into practice during World War I.

As many of you know, I recently hired a professional organizer to help me figure out how to deal with my piles and stuff. She came up with a very nice, neat system, that worked for about six weeks: a small apparatus that holds hanging Pendaflex-type files. The idea being that everything that I’m currently working on will hang in this apparatus. It’s nice. But . . .

 Reality struck. Also as many of you know, I’m giving my Non-Linear Time Management telecourse next week. Since it had been a couple of years since I’ve taught the course, I decided to review it, which, of course, meant rewriting it to bring it more up to date. And that means that right now there are six very fat file folders,  three binders, and seven (yes, seven) books on my desk. All of which are research materials. How are they supposed to fit in one hanging file?

Plus I’ve had another great idea about inspiration and quotations etc. for this blog. That project has three additional books on my desk.

Plus there’s this short piece I wrote on handling rejection-dejection that I want to rewrite and send to a client, and there’s the research material for that in a third pile.

Oh well. I’m right-brained, and I’ll never, ever be able to fit everything I’m currently working on into one 10 X 12 hanging file-folder system. Plus, if I put it away, it’s as lost as if it fell into a black hole. I guess I just need to learn how to stack piles neatly.

But at least I can still see my desk!

I don’t remember if I told you; my DH is “kidnapping” me for our 20th anniversary. This means I know I’m going somewhere; but that’s all. (I kidnapped him to San Diego last year for his birthday.) Well, he gave me a couple of hints and here they are:

Weather report: Pack for highs in the 70’s (74-78 forecast at this time) and lows in the 55-65 range. Very good chance of rain next week but usually sunny. Moderate to high humidity.Major activities: At least 2 nice dinners out (”Business Casual”) and at least one nice lunch (I’m paying, have been saving up.). You’ll be surprised and amazed (hard reservation, great food, famous chef)!!!!

Location: Medium sized city, not coastal. Four star historic hotel. Mostly walking distance to attractions.

Travel: Leaving DIA at 1040 on Sunday, returning at (theoretically) 1505 on Thursday. About a 4-5 hour flight (including one connection, sorry).

Hmm. I’m stumped. Napa (where I thought we might be going) is closer than 4 - 5 hours. Hawaii is too far away. It’s not coastal. There are attractions. I don’t think Las Vegas would be an option; anyway, it’s closer than 4 - 5 hours. New Orleans, hmm. Maybe, but the weather forcast isn’t right. It’s someplace with really good food, and it’s not New York, given the weather. Any place in Texas is closer than 4 to 5 hours, even with layovers.

 So what’s your guess?

I’ve chosen this word for March because I’m celebrating two momentous anniversaries this month: my 20th wedding anniversary and the 5th anniversary of the very first Weekly Challenger.

That’s right, every Monday for five full years, a Weekly Challenger has arrived in the in email inboxes of brilliant and discerning readers everywhere. Who’d a thunk it?

Anyway, this month is about celebration. So what do you celebrate in your life? When do you celebrate things, and with whom? How important is celebration to you?

Teleclasses can be a real pain. There’s no way of knowing if anyone will show up, and giving a class for just one or two people can be, frankly, a bit embarassing. I used to give two or three classes a month, until I just had enough of having seven or eight people sign up and only one or two show up–and often, no one would show up! So about two years ago, I stopped giving them for a while.

 Finally this year I had enough interest in my Non-Linear Time Management Teleclass that I decided to offer it again. And guess what? Over 58 people, so far, have signed up for it. That’s enough to justify offering two classes, back to back, on March 13th, and possibly another one in April. I’ve also, all of a sudden, had requests for my other teleclasses: Six Steps to Changing a Habit, Courageous Creativity, and You CAN Get What You Really Want. Hurray, but how come, all of a sudden, everyone wants a teleclass?

 I’m happy to give them; I love teaching, but where were you two years ago? I think what I need to do is play the scarcity card. Offer only one class a month, on a different topic each month, with at least six months between topics. But I hate to do that–if someone wants a class, they should have it. On the other hand, I do offer free sample coaching sessions. So if someone really wants the material from a class, they can request a free sample session and tell me they want the course material. I don’t mind giving a teleclass to just one person if that’s how it’s been set up.

I think the bottom line here is that I really don’t like being stood up, whether by seven people for a teleclass or by one person for a sample session. So friends and readers out there, do me (and every other teleclass instructor) a big favor. If you can’t make it, just drop us an e-mail and let us know. We won’t mind–in fact, we’ll be happy to know.

The Internet is such an impersonal place. I’m sure some people think that I’m equally impersonal–some kind of cyber-guru-wunderkind, when really I’m just an ordinary, hard-working woman with a coaching practice. I don’t have an organization of hundreds of people (or even ten). I have two cats, a marketing consultant I meet with 2 hours a month, and (most importantly) I have Charlotte, my VA, who works with me about 20 hours a month. That’s month, folks, not week. Everything else I do myself.

So when you send an e-mail to me, I get it–and respond. When you call, I answer the phone. When you sign up for a teleclass, I get the notice. And when you don’t show up, well, I get that notice too.

Like the majority of people in cyberland, I’m a real person. And a little courtesy goes a long way.

Hey, thanks for listening.