I had the pleasure of attending a lovely netweaving event at a cool place called Roam Atlanta (www.roamatlanta.com) last Tuesday night. In case you don’t know, netweaving is a concept developed by Bob Littell that means approaching any networking opportunity with the frame of mind that you will “be a 'connector' OF others, as well as a no-strings-attached 'resource-provider' FOR others, and doing both simply because you genuinely believe that, what goes around, does come back around.” It’s a ‘pay it forward’ approach. Check out Bob at www.netweaving.com. We each had thirty seconds to introduce ourselves to the entire group of fifty people and promote our unique product or service. Then we broke into table groups of six to discuss a book summary for thirty minutes, took a break and had round two with a different table group. It was very evident that, while people were interested in the subject of the book, successful branding, they were more interested in learning about each other and how they might offer support, connections, and resources. Each person’s dream was shared and nurtured by ten people that they had never met before. Between rounds I happened to go to the ladies room and see this message on the wall. In case you can’t read the words, it says, “It’ll cost nothing to dream & everything not to”. I was struck by how everyone I had just met had the courage, energy, drive, and tenacity to go to a meeting where they may not have known another soul and dare to share their dream out loud. And, of course, they had to dare to dream in the first place. Here are my reflection questions for you: 1. What is your dream? (Have you dared to dream one?) 2. When is the last time you shared it out loud publicly? 3. What would it cost you to do that? 4. What will it cost you not too?

Did you know that a good belly laugh dumps enough endorphins into your system to enable you to have greater clarity of thought, raise your immune response, and increase your creativity tenfold?  Norman Cousins’ wonderful book, The Healing Force: How laughter, love and positive thinking can save your life, poignantly describes his successful battle against cancer and the major role that laughter played.  In the book he shares his strategy to deliberately bring laughter into his day—every day.  Laughter truly is the elixir of life and my guess is that none of us really get enough.  C’mon—how many belly laughs have you had today? This week? This month? “Before” Questions: 1. What is your current mood? 2. To what degree is stress affecting you right now? 3. What is the level of clarity of your thinking? (1-10) 4. What is your level of creativity right now? (1-10) Now, watch this hilarious video of new exercise workout (click on the little screen in the lower right hand corner for a full screen view).  I hope it makes you laugh yourself silly. If this is not your kind of humor, find something else that makes you belly laugh and then answer the following questions. “After” Questions: 1. What is your mood now? 2. To what degree is stress affecting you right now? 3. What is the level of clarity of your thinking now? (1-10) 4. What is your level of creativity right now? (1-10) Final Questions: 1. What could you do to have more belly laughs every day? 2. Why do people say, “I laughed my ass off”?