A Cup of Caroll

January 1, 2024

“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.” – Winston Churchill

I hope you have been enjoying a happy and festive Holiday Season!  I was going to skip the blog this weekend, but when I came across the short post below, I thought it would be a great way for us to create our own individual mindset for success to prepare for whatever 2024 brings.

This post was originally published by BodyWise International and I quote it in its entirety. I hope you enjoy it!

The New Year

By Debbie Powers, Assistant Professor Emerita of Wellness at Ball State University.

“A new year can bring resolutions, new commitments, hopes, and dreams. Many of these resolutions involve personal habits that are controllable. Some people will concentrate on ways to improve their physical health with exercise and diet. Others want to improve relationships, mental outlook, or financial status. There are tons of articles on making and keeping New Year’s resolutions. Most articles cover planning specifics like goal-setting and daily strategies. Regardless of whether your resolutions involve physical, relationship, financial, or daily habit changes, setting goals, developing strategies, and avoiding setbacks should always be detailed in your plan. Rather than expanding on these behavior-change techniques this week (though I may in future articles), I’d like to share something I read. It is a clever and more global approach to the New Year. I wish I knew who the author is, so I could give credit.

FLIGHT 2024 INSTRUCTIONS

Good morning and welcome to Flight 2024. We are preparing to take off into the New Year. Please make sure your positive attitude and gratitude are secured and locked in the upright position. All self-destructive devices: pity, anger, selfishness, pride, and resentment should be turned off at this time. All negativity, hurt, and discouragement should be stowed away. You are now cleared for take-off with the destination being GREATNESS. Enjoy the journey.

Realize that a new year is like a blank book. It has 12 chapters and 365 pages. You are the author. Go forth and write the most beautiful story for yourself.

Happy and Healthy 2024!”

All the Best,

Coach Caroll

December 17, 2023

“Somehow, not only for Christmas but all the long year through, the joy you give to others is the joy that comes back to you.” – John Greenleaf Whittier, Poet

My heart is filled with comfort and joy as I write this final blog of 2023.  In the eight years we have been doing the Pay It Forward Challenge, I have consistently been amazed at the outpouring of lovely stories from my clients and readers about creative and generous deeds they have done for others during this season, which we know can be both joyous and challenging. You may never know just how much a simple smile, kind word or little random act of kindness you do for someone will mean to them.

The Pay It Forward Challenge, where I ask my readers to do at least one random act of kindness for someone during the Holiday Season as a way of demonstrating our gratitude for our own blessings, has taken on special meaning for me this year. I notice little acts of kindness every day by people all around me, in the grocery store, my neighborhood and Starbucks – everywhere I go. I decided to start the PIF Challenge eight years ago, when my grumpy day was completely transformed by a stranger in line ahead of me at Starbucks paying for my drink. See what his one little act of kindness has done for all of us?

The last blog detailed some recent acts of gratitude-in-action by my clients and readers.  As we wrap up the 2023 Pay It Forward Challenge with this blog, I wanted to share one more round of inspiring stories of generosity and kindness. Remember, it is not too late for you to create your own random act of kindness (or a second or third)!

Here are a few recent favorites:

• A client bought several $10 gift cards to various stores and gave them to the checkers at her local grocery store, whom she has gotten to know since she moved to a new part of the country last summer. They were all surprised and touched that a customer would go out of her way to show appreciation for their hard work.
• A reader ordered an artificial Xmas tree on Amazon, but when it arrived, she just didn’t feel like decorating a tree this year. So, she gave it to a delighted neighbor.
• One of my Women’s Manifesting Mastermind members hosted a craft activity for the residents at her mother-in-law’s senior apartment complex. She said she’s done different craft activities each of the prior three years and the residents always enjoy them. This year, they are making Christmas cards.
• One of my clients gave his last $1 bill to his co-worker who unexpectedly had to take the bus to work and didn’t have enough change for a ticket home. Now, he makes sure to keep a few $1 bills in his wallet in case someone needs it again.
• My friend is a manager for a company that provides medical and personal assistance to help their clients continue to live independently at home. The administrators were originally planning to host a Holiday party for the staff and clients, but when they realized a number of their clients just weren’t physically able to travel, the staff decided to take Christmas to their clients instead. Over the past several weeks, the caregivers have hand delivered goody baskets to all of their clients at their homes.
• You will recall in the last blog, I prayed for a “Christmas Miracle” for Lupin, one of the dogs I walk daily for The Little Red Dog rescue organization. I wanted him to have a Home for the Holidays inside a real family home, instead of the garage he was housed in for the last year.  Lupin hasn’t yet found his “forever family,” but a week ago, a generous foster family took him into their home, and he is doubtless ecstatic over the new level of attention, play and extra exercise they are providing for him. Now, Lupin has “paid it forward” in his own way: Because his leaving created some extra time for me, I decided to take on walking a pair of little pups, Chihuahua-mixes named Max and Ollie.  They are being fostered together by a kind older gentleman whose physical limitations prevent him from walking them.  I alternate days with another volunteer so Max and Ollie are now getting walks five days a week. They are super excited every time we go out, and their foster dad says they have been much calmer inside the house since our walks began.

I also found two heartwarming stories in the news that I wanted to share with you:

Ken Hudson Campbell, who played Santa in the classic Christmas movie Home Alone, recently underwent a 10-hour procedure to remove a cancerous tumor in his mouth and rebuild a portion of his jaw. Because he had been ill and out of work for some time, Ken lost his insurance through SAG-AFTRA. So, his family launched a GoFundMe campaign to pay for his cancer surgery.  Famous pals like Steve Carell, Jeff Garlin, Tim Meadows and lots of regular folks contributed and sent heartfelt messages of support. His daughter Michaela reports that Ken is doing well and that all the cancer was removed so he will not need chemotherapy.

She said her father has been “overwhelmed” by the response that has surpassed the goal of raising $100,000. “The first day we posted it, every time he read something, he would just burst into tears,” she said. “It was the first time he really got emotional about the whole situation. It was kind of a shock to him to feel so loved….It really means the world.  My family’s been struggling for a long time financially. So just having my dad’s friends come together, this is just very overwhelming and it really takes a lot of stress off of my family’s shoulders.”

Night janitor Ian Greenarch found a letter in the trash in a fifth-grade classroom written by student Daniel Gambrill, who has been struggling a lot with being bullied. Daniel wrote the letter to his class, in which he was open and vulnerable about what he’s been going through. Ultimately, though, he chose to throw the letter away. When janitor Ian read the letter that was lying open on the top of the trash and caught his eye, he decided to write the boy a letter back.

Ian wrote to Daniel, “I want you to know that I am thinking about you, buddy. Feeling alone is a very scary thing to deal with, and it’s something I’ve dealt with, bud….I know most have trouble feeling like they don’t fit in with other classmates, but in all honesty, being yourself and being kind to others in any situation you’ll experience will take you very far!” He also left Daniel some cash to “treat yourself. Be happy, you deserve it.”

When Daniel shared the letter with his mom, he had tears of joy in his eyes and his mom cried too. Since then, Daniel’s whole family have met Ian and plan to have him over to their home for Christmas dinner. Together, they have started a Facebook group for others to share kind words with those who feel bullied or excluded. “I’m so humbled to see what just one act can do for a boy, a community – it was really special,” Ian said.

If you love reading stories of life-changing kindness as much as I do, a great book that will inspire you is HumanKind: Changing the World One Small Act At a Time by Brad Aronson.  During his wife Mia’s grueling multi-year battle with leukemia (which was ultimately successful), their family were met with an outpouring of kindness from friends and strangers that inspired Brad so much, he began writing about those people and collecting more and more stories about other acts of kindness that transformed a life.

Gabrielle Bernstein’s testimonial about his book sums up for me what our annual Pay It Forward Challenge is all about: “I believe we’re all connected, and our purpose here on Earth is to help one another. In HumanKind, Brad Aronson shows us how to do this. The stories he shares will inspire you and, thanks to his practical tips, you’ll feel empowered to act on that feeling and put kindness into action every day, in ways big and small.”

Well, that wraps up another wonderful Season of Pay It Forward Challenge inspiration!  I hope you will make it a practice year-round, not just during the Holidays.

PLEASE NOTE: The blog is taking the rest of the year off to enjoy the Holidays. In the New Year, we will lay the groundwork for what needs to be emotionally and mentally prepared in order to create an even happier and more successful 2024.  Look for your next Cup of Caroll on Sunday January 7.  My heartfelt wishes go out to you and your loved ones for peace, health and prosperity now and in the New Year! 

*************** Give Yourself the Gift of Dreams Fulfilled! ******************

To schedule a no-obligation, F*R*E*E* HOUR of Success Breakthrough Coaching by phone that will help clarify your 2024 Big Goals and get you into ACTION to make them a reality, please email me at caroll@practicalprosperitycoach.com.

December 10, 2023

“The willingness to share does not make one charitable; it makes one free.” – Robert Brault

I hope you enjoyed all the wonderful stories in the last blog about the variety of creative ways many of my readers found to participate in my annual Pay it Forward Challenge. (See “You Brought the Joy” – Blog 488). 

I hope to share many more such stories to make you smile in my final blog for the year. So, if you have done a big or small kindness for someone this Holiday Season (or are planning to), please email me your story ASAP so I can include it in next Sunday’s blog.

My goal in sharing readers’ PIF stories is to inspire others to do something kind or generous for someone else – even just putting a smile on their face. This is how we can each demonstrate our own personal gratitude for all the blessings that we have experienced this year.  Paying it Forward is more than just feeling “thankful.” It puts your gratitude into ACTION that can change lives in ways you may not imagine.

I recently came across a post that highlights how expressing your gratitude can benefit YOU in concrete ways, too. I quote verbatim from it here:

How to practice gratitude this holiday season

By The Salvation Army of Orange County (usw.salvationarmy.org)

“Have you ever noticed how grateful people tend to be the happiest people?  Practicing gratitude focuses your attention on what you have as opposed to what you don’t and helps to remind you of all the good in your life. Therefore, learning how to practice gratitude is one of the best things you can do for yourself and one of the easiest ways to increase your happiness. By slowing down and making space for gratitude, you will become more attuned to the Lord’s loving provision in your life.

“Here are some things you can do to feel great by being grateful:

• Start by keeping a notebook and writing down three things you are grateful for each day. Journaling is one of the best ways to keep track of all of life’s blessings.
• Say what you are grateful for out loud because hearing yourself say it helps cement it to memory.
• Try to thank someone each day since showing appreciation for others will add joy to both their day and yours.”

These are all great suggestions for putting more gratitude into your life.  And, in keeping with The Law of Attraction (“energy attracts like energy”), it’s said that gratitude is the #1 positive emotion for attracting MORE good things into your life.

But with a Pay it Forward act of kindness or generosity toward someone else, I believe you are doing even MORE to put the power of gratitude into action for yourself, as well as for the recipient.

By all means, we should establish a regular personal practice of expressing our appreciation for all the good things that come to us. AND I hope you also will choose to spread that GOOD further by bestowing some on others.

As I mentioned in the last blog, one of the ways my wonderful husband Rick and I like to put our gratitude into action is helping deserving dogs in need of a good home through volunteering with The Little Red Dog, our favorite local grassroots rescue organization (that recently started also rescuing kitties).  I help by walking rescued dogs five days a week, and Rick helps with transporting the pups to adoption events, vet appointments, and meet-and-greets with potential adoptive families. We also donate as much as we can to them because the need is so great, especially right now, with animal shelters overflowing with surrendered and abandoned pets.

In the last blog, I wrote about “Lupin,” a wonderful young pup being fostered near me that I walk regularly. He is a handsome husky-mix with beautiful blue eyes and the most winning combination of enthusiasm and obedience I have ever seen in a rescue. Rick and I drove Lupin 45 minutes each way to participate in a virtual adoption event a few weeks ago. Our hope was that spotlighting him on The Little Red Dog’s YouTube channel would catch the attention of a potential adoptive family.

The Little Red Dog currently cares for over 100 rescues with a very small staff and a few dozen volunteers, so it was easy for Lupin to be overlooked, especially since he was housed away from their new facility where the pups get regularly showcased in daily videos posted to social media.

For the better part of a year, Lupin has been housed in his own large pen in a heated/cooled garage, along with two other rescue pups. While the accommodations, vet care, food and regular daily walks provided for him were 100% better than what he would get at a shelter, it was not the same as being inside a family home, with all the attention, love, exercise and socialization he deserves. For weeks, I had been telling him on our walks that I was SURE that God was working on finding him the perfect adoptive family so he could be “Home for the Holidays.”  He seemed to understand.

After the adoption event was posted on YouTube, nothing happened immediately for him.  But this is the Season for Miracles, so I kept praying daily and turning the “How” details over to God. The more I told Lupin that I had absolute faith he was going to be inside a real family home by Christmas, the stronger my own belief became.

This past Tuesday, after I walked Lupin in the morning, telling him once again that I was SO happy he was going to be “home for the Holidays,” I got a text in the afternoon from the woman who generously has turned her family’s garage into his makeshift kennel.  It said simply, “Lupin went to a foster home today.” I was stunned.

When I checked with PJ Rosch, the co-founder of The Little Red Dog, she told me that the family who took him in were seasoned fosters for them. Their last foster pup had been adopted, so they contacted TLRD asking for a new foster pup that is housetrained, good with other dogs and well-behaved.  That’s Lupin!

I had promised him he would be inside a real home before Christmas with a family to play with him and give him love and exercise.  Just like that, out of the blue, my prayer for Lupin was answered. And, as often happens when we turn the How over to God/The Universe, our heartfelt desire gets fulfilled, but in a different way than we had envisioned.

PJ reminded me, “When a dog gets taken into a real home, their temperament shifts for the positive. Often, soon after they are fostered, they get adopted.  This is the power of fostering.”

As I said, when you put your gratitude to work by helping another being (two-footed or four-footed), it changes lives in ways you cannot imagine.  I will certainly continue to pray for Lupin to have a forever home, but in the meantime, I am SO grateful to know that he really is Home for the Holidays!

Speaking of “Home for the Holidays,” that is the name of the current fundraising campaign for The Little Red Dog. Their goal is to raise “$100,000 by the end of December, which will enable them to rescue 100 more deserving pups (and kitties).  It costs a lot to house and feed them, provide vet care, spay/neuter them etc.  They are currently one third of the way to their goal. So, if you are an animal lover, looking for one more good deed to do to Pay it Forward, you couldn’t find a more worthy 501 C-3 registered non-profit organization than The Little Red Dog.  Here’s their website with all the details.  A donation of ANY size is very welcome and will make a huge difference in a deserving four-footed life this winter: www.thelittlereddog.org

Watch for my final blog of the year next Sunday. I hope to hear from you ASAP with your story of a good deed you have done or are planning to do to participate in our Pay it Forward Challenge. I am sure it will inspire others to participate too. Please email it to  caroll@practicalprosperitycoach.com

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