Here are some images from my speaking event earlier this month. On March 10, 2009, Erin Gruwell and I spoke to the Long Beach Chamber’s Women’s Business Council on the topic of Embracing Brick Walls: A Motivating and Inspiring Evening on Overcoming Adversity.

Anne Miller, Me, Erin Gruwell, Joen Garnica

 Me and My Famous Sock                 

          Me, Pam, Dr. Mike Lyde, Tyler      

The evening turned out to be a great success. I really enjoyed meeting Erin and spending time with the wonderful members of the Long Beach Chamber’s Women’s Business Council. I’ll be posting the highlights of my speech in a couple of days, so stay tuned!

Warmest Regards,

Coach Paul
www.lifechangingcoaching.com

“And if your home is just another place where you’re a stranger, and far away is just somewhere you’ve never been. I hope that you’ll remember, I am your friend.” – Rich Mullins

 

Life-Changing Coaching by Paul Edward is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivative Works 3.0 License. .
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at Ozmo

Last night I watched an interesting program sponsored by the Miller Center of Public Affairs on the topic of infrastructure. I highly recommend that everyone watch this program, which you can do by visiting this link. The panelists for this discussion included California’s Governor Schwarzenegger, Pennsylvania’s Governor Rendell, Ms. Heceker from the Bipartisan Policy Center, and Doug Foy from Serrafix.

As I mentioned the topic was infrastructure, which in itself is a bit of a misnomer, because when most of us think of infrastructure, we think of bridges and roads. But, as the panelists pointed out, infrastructure is more than just bridges and roads, it’s safe walking trails, close community access, and eco-friendly and efficient means of transportation. And it’s extremely important to our state’s and our nation’s future growth.

So, please take some time to watch the discussion and let me know what you think about it. Also, if you come up with a better word for infrastructure, please send it to me. I’ll put together a list of the best responses and send them to Governor Schwarzenegger (I’ll make sure to give you the credit).

I think that Governor Schwarzenegger made one of the most important statements of the discussion: “We are a developed nation with a developing infrastructure.”

What do you think?

Coach Paul
www.lifechangingcoaching.com

“And if your home is just another place where you’re a stranger, and far away is just somewhere you’ve never been. I hope that you’ll remember, I am your friend.” – Rich Mullins

As most of you know, I am not a big fan of the news media. Most of what passes for news these days has less to do with solid journalism and more to do with thinly disguised entertainment. Sensationalism and fear seem to be the main ingredients in most contemporary news stories, further decreasing their credibility and my interest.

In normal times, I would rather watch the CW’s Smallville than any news program. But these are not normal times. So I have been paying a bit more attention to the national news stations to see what solutions our politicians are proffering to resolve the big challenges that we are all facing.

But this morning, thanks to Marc Cendella, Founder and CEO of the Ladders.com, I was reminded of a fundamental fact of personal and professional development. (By the way, it’s kind of embarrassing as a coach to be reminded of something that I am always reminding my clients, but that’s why we need the input of other people to make sustained progress in life.) In his weekly email he wrote about a conversation that he had with US Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl. Marc asked the Senator what can we Americans do to help resolve the crisis our nation is facing? And the senator’s reply was right on the money. He said, “Don’t wait for Washington.”

Don’t wait for Washington indeed. If I were honest, I would have to admit that I have been waiting for Washington (and in my case, Sacramento) to come up with solutions to this economic crisis. But waiting for someone else to solve a problem that affects me is a pretty passive way to go through life and not something that I recommend.

So let me join the Senator in urging all of us to stop waiting for Washington to solve our economic crisis. I know you, you are some of the smartest people on this planet. Surely you have ideas that need to be heard. Take some time to write those ideas down and then send them to your elected officials, community organizations, local news media outlets, and anyone else who will listen. America is a government of the people and we are those people. So forward this blog to everyone you know. Let’s stop waiting for Washington and start taking an active role in solving the problems that affect our lives.

What do you think?

Coach Paul
www.lifechangingcoaching.com

“And if your home is just another place where you’re a stranger, and far away is just somewhere you’ve never been. I hope that you’ll remember, I am your friend.” – Rich Mullins

 

Life-Changing Coaching by Paul Edward is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivative Works 3.0 License. .
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at Ozmo