WordFood

WordFood - how we feed or starve our realtionships

- Julia Hubbel

Julia’s ability to get this group of type-A executives to engage in true networking was incredible. She is truly skilled at motivating the group to engage and interact with each other, and her openness and honesty really come through.

— Shelley Stewart, Jr.,
Senior Vice President of Operational Excellence and Chief Procurement Officer, Tyco

April 19, 2012

Junk Food

Junk Food, a negative form of WordFood, has a lot of forms. Gossip, rumors, backtalk. But it’s also a negative thought that the imagination places in our heads. The imagination, such a powerful ally when we’re in a creative vein, can be devastating when we’re in a fearful state, and this is where Junk Food is harmful.
When we feed ourselves Junk Food in the form of negative images about our immediate future, our imagination, which just loves negativity, leaps on this and boils it up happily into a stew. The stew boils up worse and worse images to feed our feverish brain until it boils over. In the meantime we have spread our fear and story of imminent doom (all fueled by our vivid imagination) to anyone who will listen. This if course isn’t based on any facts. No matter that our fears have rarely been borne out in the past although we’ve suffered for them. That’s why it’s Junk Food.
A small cold becomes pneumonia. A lost contract becomes bankruptcy. You get the picture. And while sometimes a situation really can be dire or tragic, it serves to pull in the reins on the Junk Food, which will exaggerate a situation all out of proportion.
If Junk Food has crept into your mental diet, feed your hungry heart the WordFood of calm courage. Challenge the imagination’s Junk Food Diet and replace it with WordFood of love and respect. You’ll discover two truths: things aren’t as bad as they seem and you have the resources to deal with them.

April 9, 2012

Tough Times make for Tough Customers

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , — Julia Hubbel @ 12:08 pm

These are tough times for all of us, especially in small business. Many of us are facing cutbacks, causing us to look with consternation at 2012 and ask what happened? We’ve had to let people go, tug in our belts, look at our shrinking lead sheets for clues to what’s next. We’ve called in the cavalry and the cavalry is out to pasture. This is a time for many of us to reinvent ourselves to respond to the times.
My friend Jill, who is a master of reinvention, is in the middle of reinventing herself again at 64. An artist, successful potter, Arabian horse breeder, specialty food salesperson and international food expert, Jill has taken on so many ventures that it boggles the mind. What is unique about Jill is her indomitable spirit. She shifts with the times, and doesn’t waste a moment complaining about what was. She deals with what is and what’s coming. “These days it’s all about the Internet,” this feisty grandmother emphasizes. “I spend a lot of time watching the best blogging sites, what people are watching and reading, what intrigues them. I notice what people are most drawn to, and why.” That’s her education. This highly creative, constantly evolving grandmother of two, horsewoman, writer and foodie is about to jump into a new Internet venture. She is feeding herself a daily diet of information, ideas, inspiration and wow-isms from the Net so that when she starts her own new company she is inspired by the best that’s already out there.
What are you feeding yourself when times get tough? Do you crawl in your cave and engage in a pity party? Do you get with the same friends and talk about how times were better “back then?” Do you worry yourself sick with cyclical thoughts that have doomsday endings? This is bad food for thought. It’s time to seek out new healthy sources of WordFood- people and idea sources that can infuse you and your business with a makeover, a new direction, perhaps a different market, a way to reinvent yourself for the new world we live in. How are you feeding yourself every day? If my friend Jill can reinvent herself for tough times at 64 with verve and energy and enthusiasm, then we all can. Tough times call for a new diet- WordFood of a different sort.
Think carefully about what you say to yourself in the mirror every day, and then what you choose to partake of from others. Feed yourself with healthy information all day long and then see what begins to grow in you. It’s how we come through tough times that matters most. Choose your diet of WordFood wisely.

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