Know-How Exchange : Just for Fun

Hi,
I lost 14 kilos since new year 2006.
On the way, in achieving this, I have inspired some family and friends and other interested persons, (This is where my success lies) to do something about their condition too.
I read a book (and lots of articles on the same matter on the internet) and studied all of it, it talks about how bad our food intake is nowadays and what we can do about it. Through my application on my own body have I also reduced the bad fats in my blood and have made my body and mind very, very fit!
Now, the success in this, is that not only have I had an impact on my own body and mind but also on that of others.
I have namely been asked to write a column in a local magazine about the subject.
I'm sharing this knowledge with others so they too can steer themselves away from heart attacks, auto immune diseases and pre mature dementia etc...
In my own kitchens have we changed certain oils and I have designed menus and dishes in the a la carte restaurants that are very balanced and healthy.
Out of a combination of different studies, books and reports, articles and medical information I have now made up my own view of what good eating habits are or should/could be.
I personally think this is only the beginning of something bigger. As for now, I will only influence my closest relationships.
Regards,
W

Woutkok,
When I read this i was going to write about my own business success... but your answer is better.

After seeing a person just a couple of years older than me suffer a heart attack in line at the Chicago O'Hare airport, I started thinking.

When we are laying on the hard, cold tile floor with a whole lot of strangers gawking at us struggling for air, will be be thinking business or will we be thinking about the fun stuff we did with our wives, friends, family and other loved ones.
Frank Hurtte

Wherever you go, whatever you do, you quietly establish and reinforce your brand. Intentional or not, people intuitively take all this in, and in time, you leave an impression about who you are, what you do, and what you stand for.

Their perception goes beyond who you are as a marketing professional. More than anything the four P’s could execute, your personal brand, can speak through years of silence to bring back life’s episodes once considered lost.

I was recently reminded of this; and hope my story helps you ponder your own personal brand, and how it affects life, love, and memories.

I spent the better part of Mother’s Day delivering flowers to a group I thought could use some encouragement on the one day set aside to make them feel special, but can often times cause feelings of under appreciation and neglect, single moms.

One such family lived out of town. The mother, let’s just call her Jessica, I kept in touch with by phone. Sometimes Jessica and I would catch an unexpected ‘hello’ at the store while going about our busy lives. Her two daughters, Cindy and Amy, on the other hand, I haven’t seen in years.

Will the girls remember me after a four year hiatus?

As pulled up to their house, I could sense how correct I was about the unintended consequences of Mother’s Day. Jessica was surprised that anyone cared to call, much less visit. With rose in hand, I assured her she was important, and so were her girls.

Amy, now twelve, remembers me, though vaguely. It must be the myriad of slumber parties and homework assignments clouding her memory. She remained on the couch, nose buried back in her rats of Nimh homework assignment.

Jessica’s youngest daughter, Cindy, now nine, stops making noises, and cowers into the shadows behind a wall, out of sight as I stood in the entryway.

Cindy has no recollection of me at all, her spirited nature repressed at seeing this complete stranger waltz into her little home unannounced, and seemingly, uninvited.

“Cindy, it’s your teacher. Don’t you remember? Come out and say ‘hello.’ It’s been so long,” Jessica said.

Her apprehension pushes forward her inner child. Cindy comes out, head tilted down, legs bowed in, arms to her side. Who is this person my typically protective mother is telling me to hug? What are these feelings I have inside, but am not sure of?

“Don’t you remember your favorite teacher?” Jessica asked.

“No” said a timid voice.

I assured her it was me; I have not changed. I’m still her teacher, though not in Sunday school anymore. I’ll always be her teacher in life, to care for and encourage her. No number of years can change that. And no amount of growing, or moving away could do it either, much to her fear five years ago...



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“Cindy, I want you to remember your verses, so you can be smart and go to big people’s school, called college, some day, OK?”

“I don’t want to go to big people school,” said a four year old Cindy.

“Why not? School will make you smart, and you will have lots of friends.”

“But that means I have to leave. And I will miss you,” Cindy said.

“Cindy, we’ll always be friends. Even if you go to grown up school. I’ll always be your teacher.”

-----------------------



That short trip down memory lane reminded me how unusually bright and outspoken little Cindy was. But will this quiet grown up girl remember me now? Is it even important to jostle up memories of the past? Or is it better to start new ones without building on the old?

Jessica and I catch up with conversations long past due on the couch, while the girls play next to us. Eventually, Cindy settles down and sits next to me, and shows me her ring finger, with a gray band where once, a child’s ring had obviously been.

I asked how the band got there.

“A cheap ring, you know, it probably was thinly coated with silver. And when it wore off, it left a stain.” Jessica said. “Where did you get that cheap thing, anyway?”

“I bought it.” Cindy said.

With her hand now in my own, the tape recorders in my brain start to roll. I remember now, a game the children and I used to play all the time.

Prompted by my new found memories, I take Cindy’s arm as I had done many times before, and proceeded to play “Plant Red Roses,” while her mom and sister watched curiously.

This is a children’s game, much like patty cake, where one person, the “planter,” mimics the process of planting a bed of roses, while reciting the process he’s performing on the “victim’s” arm. All the while, the planter is using his fingers to illustrate the plowing of the soil, the spreading of seeds, the covering of dirt, and the ensuing weather such as rain and wind on the agonizing victim’s arm.

A skilled planter can cause the victim to experience extremes, from tickling to pounding to soothing – much to everyone’s – including the victim’s, delight.

The victim, of course, has the ability at any time to retract their arm, and abruptly end the game. But no amount of abuse ever convinces the willing victim to disallow the planter to reach the climatic end, with the planter announcing, “And now it’s time to pick the red roses.”

Whereby he pinches the victim’s skin over and over again, ceremoniously harvesting the roses now very evident as red “sores.” The victim, and observers, in turn scream and laugh in hysteria.

Never underestimate the power of a child’s memory, or the impact of children’s games.

The bed of roses was enough to bump the girls’ memories, and after a full minute of mom, girls and me laughing uncontrollably at the silliness of it all, the girls blurted, “We remember you now!”

“I remember you!” cries Cindy.

“Oh, my turn! My turn! I want red roses” yells Amy.

The rest of the day was sprinkled with more talk, laughs, hugs, and of course, more planting of red roses.

As I left that day, amazed at how much the girls have grown, and how much things have changed, I was also overcome with gratitude how some things have not.

Sitting in my car, as I spot Cindy running out as she always had to wave her goodbyes, I realize the power and richness of a silly game, and a personal brand.