When is the last time you heard—and I mean REALLY heard—a compliment?

It feels as though this society, in its false guise of praising modesty, has turned us blind and deaf to our own accomplishments and to the honest praise that they earn. But if we don’t appreciate our accomplishments, and don’t hear the tributes that they earn, pretty soon we end up wondering what we are working for. We lose our motivation, our desire. All we have left is self-discipline. And discipline without desire gets stale and old very, very quickly. And eventually, it fails.

I challenge you, this week, to open your eyes and ears and heart and soul and mind to compliments. Compliment yourself. Compliment others, and notice whether they are accepted or not. As uncomfortable as it may be, let yourself take it in. Feel how good it is.

The way you react to failure has an impact on how successful you are. People who are afraid of failure, or see it as a terrible, hideous thing, tend not to take on new projects, learn new skills, or take advantage of opportunities. They play it safe, and stagnate.

Successful people, on the other hand, see failure as simply a result of an experiment. Something didn’t work. So, what will? And then they try something else.

The truth is, failure isn’t bad. It’s the messages you send to yourself that can be a problem.

This week, notice how you consider the possibility of failure as you go through your life. Do you accept it, or do you avoid it? What are the messages you’re telling yourself about failure?

As you go through your life, you–and, of course, your priorities–change. Remember back in high school how important some things were? Things like having a date for the prom, making good grades, or going out for a team. Those things don’t matter quite so much any more. In fact, I haven’t worried about being asked to the prom in decades!

So when you worry and fuss about things that feel important now, ask yourself: will they matter in five or ten years? And if they probably won’t, what are you fussing about?

So often we consider our self-worth and self-esteem to be bound up in how much we accomplish each day. And then when we have one of those inevitable, frustrating days where we just can’t get much done, we feel as though we personally are diminished. And this just makes us feel worse.

The truth is, what we are is not bound up in what we do. And our worth is not based on what we do, but on who we are, and on how we show up in the world. (And I don’t mean appearance-wise, either.)

This week, try to do a bit less, and be a bit more. And enjoy!

Summer has always been a special time of year - a time that brings, or at least seems to, fewer responsibilities, a sense of holiday. Summer, that season of growth and blossoming, is a great time to start something new.

What would you like to start this summer? How would you like to grow and blossom between now and autumn? And as you ponder this question, get out of your head. Ponder this with your heart - and the heart of the creative child within.

Once I wrote in the Weekly Challengers, “If you think you’re too small to make a difference, then you’ve never been in a bedroom with a mosquito.”

Well, I am in my office with a very loud and persistent fly - and it won’t land long enough for me to swat it with my flyswatter.

It’s such a little thing, and yet terribly annoying, wearing, and disruptive. I’m trying to write, here! I can feel that buzzing eroding away at my concentration and focus. It’s easier to put aside big challenges and concerns than it is to ignore that fly.

We all have buzzing flies in our lives, dragging our attention from what is really important, picking away at our peace of mind, tugging at our attention like a cranky three year old. Some coaching schools call them tolerations. This week, take a look at what little things in your life are sapping your focus, your energy, your fun. How can you get rid of some of them?

There’s a lot of information in your emotions. If something makes you really upset, it’s usually because a value of yours has been violated or a need of yours has been ignored. If something makes you happy, it’s often because a value of yours has been honored or a need met.

This week, explore what lies behind the emotions you feel. What really made you so upset? What value is represented there? And how do you honor that value in your life?

And conversely, what really made you happy? What’s that value? Where else does it show up?

Last week, I asked you to become aware of the emotions you normally repress. Whether you acknowledge them or not, they are there. If you don’t deal with them, they’ll never go away. They’ll hang around in your subconscious, and in your body, and then, sooner or later (and usually at the most inconvenient time) they’ll pop up and bite you in the you-know-where.

This week, continue to tune into your feelings. And figure out a positive, healthy way to express them.

I bet you’ll sleep better!

How often do you honor your feelings? So often we stifle them—even the good ones—and hide behind our day-to-day tasks instead of accepting our feelings as part of life.

We have learned, it seems, to not express joy or sorrow, anger or pleasure, grief or happiness. It’s almost as if we’ve evened out the hills and the valleys of our emotional life and turned it into one flat plain.

And that’s sad. We miss out on so much of life’s experiences when we don’t allow ourselves the full range of our emotions.

So this week, start noticing the feelings you are trying to repress. You don’t have to express them—yet—but become aware of them. The richness of your life will increase significantly!

Happy Memorial Day - and Victoria Day, to my Canadian readers.

I must confess, I’m not an Excel user. Whenever Charlotte sends me a spread sheet, I cringe. But recently, (while planning my first catering job, to be exact), I discovered that a spread sheet was the way to go. So I’ve started to learn how to use one - only baby steps, but at least I’m not cringing any more. And frankly, it’s made part of my life easier.

So what new knowledge or skill would make some part of your life easier? Maybe it’s learning all the functions of your cell phone or PDA. Maybe it’s a new computer program or how to use your food processor. The time and energy you invest in learning that skill will save you time and energy for the rest of your life.

P.S. Did you know there are search engines that donate money to charity with every search you perform? And it costs you nothing. They get revenue from the ads on their sites and donate anywhere from 50% to all of the money they make to charity. For a list of the top 15 charity search engines, check out www.doshdosh.com/13-charity-search-engines-that-help-you-give-money-to-charity-for-free.