May 2013
6 posts
1 tag
The Samovar Experience in San Francisco :... →
56th Annual San Francisco International Film... →
Jump In
Throughout the last four months, I’ve had a new morning routine. I’d wake up and walk to the bay to meditate and watch people swim. Meditating by the water became my enjoyable (not to mention healthy) ritual. On some days it got cold, so I needed to bring a blanket with me. On those days, I’d think to myself, “ how can these people swim in the freezing water, while I can’t even sit here...
Ask the Right Question →
As a former recruiter that has worked at one of the world’s largest staffing firms, people are always asking me for interview tips. And no matter what interview questions they struggle with, I always say the same thing: the best thing you can do in an interview is be yourself.
12 Life Lessons I Learned from Dancing -... →
Delivering Happiness - 12 Life Lessons I Learned from Dancing delivering happiness, book, happiness, delivering, at work, zappos, Tony Hsieh, business, corporate culture, entrepreneur
April 2013
6 posts
Somewhere Between
The other day, I had a nice chat with a friend. We were talking about life, about professional fulfillment, and about everyday challenges. I, being a 27 year old female involved in multiple projects and professional endeavors, and who has yet to decide on one concrete path, and my friend; an extremely successful male CEO in his late thirties have so much in common, and yet we are in such...
From Experience
I used to be searching for happiness.Then I woke up to the fact that happiness lies within me. It no longer made sense to run around searching for it, because I knew that wherever I ran to, no matter how beautiful or exotic the place, I would still be there carrying with me the same issues, problems and questions. Whatever it was that seemed missing, would be missing in Rome, Sydney or San...
My Tribute To Roger Ebert →
Thank you for your inspiration!
Coffee, for here
Even knowing that I’ll mostly likely spend an entire day at a coffee shop, I have this consistent thing I do: I make a joke about my fear of commitment and then I order my coffee to go. Just in case…
Being the constant observer that I am, I have realized two things about this little habit I’ve developed. First, I am the girl who says that 50% of every joke is true, thus I...
March 2013
7 posts
We Have Arrived
While sailing this past weekend, I found myself staring out onto the horizon and breathing in an incredible sense of calm. How I ended up on this sailboat didn’t matter anymore; what did matter, was that here I was really enjoying the spectacular view and being aware of how lucky I felt at that present moment. I looked over at my friend who leaned back and calmly said, “ we’re living the dream...
Company Culture in 20 Minutes →
Published on 3/14/2013 on the Great Places To Work Institute’s Blog. Enjoy!
Uninspired →
Published on 3/13/2013 on the Delivering Happiness Blog. Enjoy!
13 Inspiring Notions for 2013 →
Published on 2/13/2013 on the Delivering Happiness Blog. Enjoy!
Own It
I’m biking to my office this AM ( and when I say my office, I mean The Brew coffee shop in Russian Hill) when I notice that I have a run in my green tights. I smile as I think, ” ha! I can rock that! ” as I decide to really own this tear and to wear it proudly. Why not? I’ve always said that you can pull of anything that you think you can.
This mentality of owning it,...
Shut Up And Write
It was a happy day.
“Reunited and it feels so good” he sings as we sit down at a coffee shop by the water. Even though it’s been two years, I feel like I just saw him yesterday. There is nothing like the feeling of reuniting with an old friend and feeling like no time at all has passed.
While catching up by the beautifully calm river, a man came over to us and invited us to a book reading down...
One Long Day
What is life, if not one long day, with many naps…
As someone who spends so much time trying to understand happiness and inspiration, I have realized that I am the source of pretty much all of my own unhappiness and lack of inspiration. I constantly find myself feeling like I should be better already! Wiser already? More successful already? Like I’ve already learned these lessons...
February 2013
1 post
Entrepreneur
There is so much to do, and most of us are either too busy talking about it, or too busy looking for a shortcut. Yet nothing worthwhile comes from taking a shortcut, at least not in my book. For years I have said, ” you become a Entrepreneur when you learn how to spell the word” in order to motivate myself to not only speak words, but to really live them, know the meaning of them and...
January 2013
3 posts
Dear Friend
Dear Friend,
Trust me, I find your “normal” just as odd as you find my “weird.” The difference is, I don’t hide who I am and I don’t judge you for being you.
I know that by judging you, all I am doing is judging myself and well, I’m opting out of that, thank you very much. Sometimes I put my computer on my stove when I work in the kitchen and dance...
Fear & Inspiration
The subject of fear has fascinated me for longer than I can remember, and my sensitivity towards using fear as a motivator was heightened at the age of 22, when my boss took away my chair as punishment for not completing a task assigned at work. It was my first job in Corporate America, and by most standards I was doing great. I was 22 years old, not so much climbing but flying up the...
Beauty in Darkness
The bag says, ” help the world one banana at a time”
I bet it’s just as sweet on the ground…
Great advice, right below my feet…
It was obvious that I had caught his attention. Or maybe it was my camera? Either way, as the last click of my Nikon went off and I continued my walk, the tattooed stranger stopped me and asked me why I was photographing the sewer. “ To...
Thank You
2012 was the year of perspective. At the beginning of the year, I dealt with the loss of my best friend and my boyfriend, with whom I had created a wonderful life. Letting go of that life and moving on to the next chapter was an intricately beautiful yet difficult process through which I discovered my own strength. I can still see myself on a dark and stormy Friday evening sitting at my favorite...
November 2012
2 posts
The Cast
Imagine seven damp wooden logs stacked on top of one another in the forest. What would those wooden logs need in order to burn? Just one spark! One spark that would ignite a flame and fire that would keep you warm, that would feed you and entertain you for a moment, for a reason, or maybe even for a lifetime?
I was once told that I was that spark that could ignite those logs. Without me, my...
Patience
While I have always believed that we are all same ( and by “we” I mean human beings), it appears to me that there are three main flavors of people in this world. There are those that have not tapped into their emotional self and who for a multitude of reasons are incapable of feeling. These individuals are mostly stuck in their own head, and have not even considered that it is the...
Teachers
There are truly remarkable people in this world. I want to learn from them. At this moment, as I think of incredible people whom I want to teach me the way, I am teleported to a few days ago when I was skipping down the street singing, “ living in the moment” by my mentor and teacher Jason Mraz. Amidst a skip, I looked up at the clouds, as they moved fearlessly in the bright blue sky. I was...
October 2012
2 posts
6 tags
8 year old me
Years ago, my first ever manager in Corporate America said something to me that I have never quite forgotten. She said, “ slow and steady wins the race.” It was difficult for me (a person who tend to do things fast) to accept that there might be another way. I could not comprehend how it was, that moving slower, could lead to a win. As someone who always prided myself on my ability to grasp...
September 2012
6 posts
7 tags
9 tags
yes and no
About a month ago, my dear friend and mentor Catherine gave me a piece of advice that I did not fully comprehend at the time. She said: “ You need to walk naked in the street”.
I heard this and I thought, ok well, I do not think she actually means that I should walk naked outside (despite the fact that living in San Francisco, this is certainly not out of the question…)
Might she have been...
4 tags
6 tags
6 tags
August 2012
8 posts
Mind Over Matter
You manifest your destiny. This is not the secret. This is not a secret. This is the simple truth. If you believe this, you will see it manifest itself in your life and it’s pretty incredible when you realize that it is within YOU to control your own destiny. Mind over matter. Here’s my truth: I stand on the shoulders of giant heros. My parents are the reason I have this mindset. Growing up,...
July 2012
3 posts
Detours
We all seem to have a plan. Well, some of us do.
Whether or not you enjoy the planning process, or even need the planning process in your life as a way to stay stable and balanced, sometimes in life you stumble upon a detour. It’s not a choice, it’s just what is. And here is the interesting part: the detours are what make the story. At least that is what I have discovered and keep...
7 tags
Nostalgia
For as long as I can remember, nostalgia has been my greatest weakness. I am either dreaming of my past or hypothesizing about my future and somehow, I’m finding myself time and time again being only semi present in the story of my life; a life that has been full of so many magical moments. Some of these moments have lasted but a few seconds and others, they’ve spanned days or even...
4 tags
Revolving Door
The simple things are the most difficult things to understand.
While this may or may not be true for you, this has certainly been the case for me. Complex formulas, mathematical problems or even philosophical conundrums; their complexity makes sense. But why I cannot seem to be able to deal with the “small stuff” sometimes, well, that continues to baffle me almost every single day. I...
June 2012
3 posts
2 tags
Balance
Bikram says, ” It takes courage and intelligence, you know, to do the stages of yoga right, and to start with this Hatha Yoga…It’s just you and nothing but you, standing in one spot frozen like a statue with no place to go for help or excuse or scapegoat except inward.”
They say that when you are smiling on the phone, the person on the other end of the line can feel it. About three...
11 tags
Gratitude
July 4th, 2007: Paris, France. Sitting on the curb of Champs-Elysées and crying, I felt like my whole world was crumbling beneath my feet. I can still taste the tears, as they flowed like a raging river down my cheeks as the realization that I had lost my journal, my book and my biggest accomplishment to date set in. I had been traveling for months and for the first time in a long time, I was...
10 tags
Venus
Sometimes you get so busy with life that you forget to live.
Yesterday, I spent some time on my roof staring at the clouds shifting in the wind. An elephant appeared, and then a little dog. After a while, I could swear that I saw a gigantic penis in the sky, and then I laughed out loud as I realized that nature has a funny sense of humor. Every single time I saw another animal, I tried to hold...
April 2012
3 posts
Do Yourself A Favor
Smile at a stranger And at yourself- once a day Take a yoga class And a vacation alone Be a vegetarian for a week Buy yourself something you cannot afford Lose something that you love and get over it Take a photo at least once a day Learn to meditate and breath properly Befriend foreigners Drink Italian coffee Eat nutella Fall in love over and over again Be single as an adult for a while Travel...
3 tags
love.
I am certain of two things. First: I am in love with the idea of love. And second: I am still figuring out the meaning of this most powerful and inspiring word.
I desire to spend my life romancing the world and falling in love, and I’m thinking that it might be important to actually figure out what all this love stuff actually means.
I used to watch Sex And The City every week along with...
