Monday, March 31, 2014

I’m running and I won’t touch ground!

Today I awoke to a new reality. Today I realized I am a free person. There was something different about today than any other day for the last 24 years. Approximately 24 years ago (in a few weeks from now) I conceived my first child. My free-spirited and fun-loving ways of my youth disappeared quickly as I learned of my pregnancy. I took immaculate care of myself during the 9 months that followed. I was obsessed with eating right, exercising and reading as many books as I could to prepare myself for motherhood. Looking back, I’m glad I cared so much, but now I know that no books will ever prepare you for motherhood. In fact, nothing except being a mother can prepare you for this job and journey. My life is transitioning fast. The last 25 years passed like an eclipse of the moon passing the sun. Levi is now engaged to be married in October and our second child, Sigourney graduated ahead of her class. She will be 18 this summer and is showing all the signs (just like Levi) that she wants immediate and complete independence from us. Our youngest child is now almost 15 and I have employed a legion of professionals to pick up the slack where I find myself tired and burned out. In fact, C.C. was the hardest child to raise so far….and I shouldn’t be surprised. I had so much confidence as a Mom (at one point when we decided to adopt her) that I thought I could take on one of the most severe cases of neglect and turn her life around. Working to raise C.C. has at times, nearly cost my health and my marriage too. As we round the bend of this chapter of our lives, I’m really glad we finally realized when to hold em and when to fold em! C.C. goes to a very strict charter school, has a daily para-pro helping her stay on track, and has weekly tutoring, weekly respite care, weekly religious training and a special senior citizen friend/sponsor who helps with the work load of managing a developmentally delayed child. H. has been responsible for taking C.C. to school for the last two years and I love it. The only ones who need me now are my two dogs! This new freedom is reminding me that I am still young and have a lot to give and the 25 year hiatus from dreaming (selfishly) can quickly be re-dreamed, re-engineered and re-built. This time, I have the gift of wisdom that guides me to stress less and wonder more, to resist doing too much and for false reasons, to linger in the moments that really count instead of always looking ahead to what’s next. What’s next? It’s me waking up each day with the same exact consistent optimism believing that everything that happens to me, happens in my best interest. What an amazing way to exist in the world. I expect this new chapter to be just as exciting (and challenging) as the last because I will not ever allow myself to be stalled or not allow myself to continually improve as a person. Right this very minute I hear nothing but the sound of the furnace blowing heat from the vent. Ahh…complete peace and quiet. So beautiful and so welcomed! Here I am, alone with my thoughts and dreams…alone with my challenges and procrastinations! Recalling my favorite song of youth by Matthew Wilder: Ain't nothin gonna break my stride, nobody’s gonna slow me down…oh no! I’ve got to keep on movin! Ain’t nothin gonna break my stride, I’m running and I won’t touch ground, oh no! I’ve got to keep on movin! Lisa Ekanger!

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Pitbull - Wild Wild Love (Audio) ft. G.R.L.



Lisa Ekanger Your Hometown Realtor!

Justin Timberlake - Not A Bad Thing (Official Audio) [The 20/20 Experie...



Lisa Ekanger Your Hometown Realtor!

Every woman is beautiful without make-up.

Lisa Ekanger!
Every woman is beautiful without make-up. Every woman is unique. Every woman is beautiful in their own way. "Consider the fact that maybe…just maybe…beauty and worth aren’t found in a makeup bottle, or a salon-fresh hairstyle, or a fabulous outfit. Maybe our sparkle comes from somewhere deeper inside, somewhere so pure and authentic and REAL, it doesn’t need gloss or polish or glitter to shine." -Mandy Hale If you are tagged you have 24 hours to post your no make up selfie! Good luck my beauties I took this selfie after I got out of the shower this morning ... Ok to ALL of my female friends... Lets see yours ...#nomakeupchallenge #cancer #awareness

To My Beautiful Daughter...Im so Proud of You! I Believe in You! I Love You! ~ Mom

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Happy 80th Birthday to Gloria Steinem...role model extraordinaire!

Honoring and celebrating Gloria Steinem today on her 80th birthday for her tireless work as an activist, leader, and champion of equality and human rights around the world!

Gloria Steinem was born March 25, 1934, in Toledo, Ohio. She became a freelance writer after college and grew more and more engaged in the women's movement and feminism. She helped create both New York and Ms. magazines, helped form the National Women's Political Caucus, and is the author of many books and essays. A breast cancer survivor, Steinem celebrated her 75th birthday in 2009.

 

"The art of acting morally is behaving as if everything we do matters."
– Gloria Steinem
"Some of us are becoming the men we wanted to marry."
– Gloria Steinem

Early Life

Social activist, writer, editor, and lecturer. Born on March 25, 1934, in Toledo, Ohio. Since the late 1960s, Gloria Steinem has been an outspoken champion of women's rights. She had an unusual upbringing, spending part of the year in Michigan and the winters in Florida or California. With all this traveling, Steinem did not attend school on a regular basis until she was 11.
Around this time, Steinem's parents divorced and she ended up caring for her mother, Ruth, who suffered from mental illness. Steinem spent six years living with her mother in a rundown home in Toledo before leaving to go to college. At Smith College, she studied government, an non-traditional choice for a woman at that time. It was clear early on that she did not want to follow the most common life path for women in those days—marriage and motherhood. "In the 1950s, once you married you became what your husband was, so it seemed like the last choice you'd ever have…I'd already been the very small parent of a very big child—my mother. I didn't want to end up taking care of someone else," she later told People magazine.

Pioneering Feminist

After finishing her degree in 1956, Steinem received a fellowship to study in India. She first worked for Independent Research Service and then established a career for herself as a freelance writer. One of her most famous articles from the time was a 1963 expose on New York City's Playboy Club for Show magazine. Steinem went undercover for the piece, working as a waitress, or a scantily clad "bunny" as they called them, at the club. In the late 1960s, she helped create New York magazine, and wrote a column on politics for the publication. Steinem became more engaged in the women's movement after reporting on an abortion hearing given by the radical feminist group known as the Redstockings. She expressed her feminist views in such essays as "After Black Power, Women's Liberation."
In 1971 Steinem joined other prominent feminists, such as Bella Abzug and Betty Friedan, in forming the National Women's Political Caucus, which worked on behalf of women's issues. She also took the lead in launching the pioneering, feminist Ms magazine. It began as an insert in New York magazine in December 1971; its first independent issue appeared in January 1972. Under her direction, the magazine tackled important topics, including domestic violence. Ms. became the first national publication to feature the subject on its cover in 1976.

Lisa Ekanger!

That is exactly what the majority of men do...

“Before success comes in any man’s life, he is sure to meet with much temporary defeat, and, perhaps, some failure. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and most logical thing to do is to quit. That is exactly what the majority of men do. More than five hundred of the most successful men this country has ever known told the author their greatest success came just one step beyond the point at which defeat had overtaken them.”
Napoleon Hill

Lisa Ekanger Your Hometown Realtor!

Monday, March 24, 2014

Saturday, March 22, 2014

It's easy to say not my child, not my community...

Lisa Ekanger!

To Have Succeeded.

To Have Succeeded

To laugh often and love much:
To win respect of intelligent people
And the affection of children;
To earn the approbation of honest critics
And endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty;
To find the best in others;
To give one's self;
To leave the world a little better,
Whether by a healthy child,
A garden patch,
Or redeemed social condition;
To have played and laughed with enthusiasm
And sung with exultation;
To know even one life has breathed easier
Because you have lived...
This is to have succeeded.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Lisa Ekanger Your Hometown Realtor!

Friday, March 21, 2014

Set worthy goals. Don’t drift along as a wandering generality.

Earl Nightingale
1. “If the grass is greener on the other side it’s probably getting better care.”
2. “Each of us creates his or her own life largely by our attitude.”
3. “You can control your attitude. Set it each morning.”
4. “It is our attitude toward life that determines life’s attitude toward us.
5. “Others react to us. They only give us back a reflection of our own attitude.”
6. “Most people begin their day in neutral. They will simply react to whatever confronts them.”
7. “Gratitude and expectancy are the best attitude.”
8. “The world we experience is a reflection of our attitude.”
9. “Don’t take the attitude of waiting for people to be nice to you – be nice to them.”
10. “Be positive, cheerful, grateful and expectant.”
11. “Always keep that happy attitude. Pretend that you are holding a beautiful fragrant bouquet.”
12. “Don’t wait for change. You change.”
13. “Develop and project an attitude that says ‘yes’ to life.”
14. “You must radiate success before it’ll come to you.”
15. “Treat every person as the most important on earth. To them, they are the most important person.”
16. “People don’t have great attitudes because of great success, they have great success largely because of great attitudes.”Our outlook on life is a kind of paint brush and with it we paint our world. It can be bright and filled with hope and satisfaction or it can be dark and gloomy.
17. “Don’t catch the bad and infectious attitudes of others.”
18. “Before you can achieve the kind of life you want you must think, act, talk, and conduct yourself in all of your affairs as would the person you wish to become.”
19. “Ask yourself every morning, ‘how can I increase my service today?’”
20. “Goals reflect your choice of destination.”
21. “Most people don’t know what they want. Do you?”
22. “Set worthy goals. Don’t drift along as a wandering generality. Be a meaningful specific.”
23. “Success is not a destination but a journey. Anyone who is on course toward a worthy goal is successful. Success does not lie in the achievement of a goal but in its pursuit. Success is a journey!”
24. “One thing a goal must do is fill us with positive emotion when we think about it. The more intensely we feel about a goal the more progressively we’ll move toward it.”
25. “Control your thoughts. Decide about that which you will think and concentrate upon. You are in charge of your life to the degree you take charge of your thoughts.”
26. “Spend one hour every day thinking about your goal and how to get there.”
27. “Don’t waste time thinking about needless things.”
28. “Whatever it is you seek in the form of rewards, you must first earn in the form of service. Each of us serves a portion of humanity, all those with whom you come in contact.”
29. “Every-time we use a product or service, someone is serving us.”
30. “Think not about future rewards but about present service.”
31. “Find what you can do best that renders service to others and do it with all your might.”
32. “Make the best use of what you have and what you are in the time you’ve been granted.”
33. “We are at our very best, and we are happiest, when we are fully engaged in work we enjoy on the journey toward the goal we’ve established for ourselves.”
34. “Put in motion the right cause and the right effect will take care of itself.”
35. “Life can only return to you that which you sow. What do you have to sow? You have great wealth; you can think, you have talent, and you have time.”
36. “Money is the harvest of our production and service. We in turn use it to obtain the production and service of others.”
37. “Money is an effect. It is the result of a cause, and the cause is valuable service.”
38. “We will receive not what we idly wish for but what we justly earn. Our rewards will always be in exact proportion to our service.”
39. “Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal.”
40. “Failures . . . believe that their lives are shaped by circumstances … by things that happen to them … by exterior forces.”
41. “Think of a ship with the complete voyage mapped out and planned. The captain and crew know exactly where the ship is going and how long it will take — it has a definite goal. And 9,999 times out of 10,000, it will get there.”
42. “The human mind is much like a farmer’s land. The land gives the farmer a choice. He may plant in that land whatever he chooses. The land doesn’t care what is planted. It’s up to the farmer to make the decision. The mind, like the land, will return what you plant, but it doesn’t care what you plant.”
43. “Everything that’s really worthwhile in life came to us free — our minds, our souls, our bodies, our hopes, our dreams, our ambitions, our intelligence, our love of family and children and friends and country. All these priceless possessions are free.”
44. “Success is not the result of making money; earning money is the result of success — and success is in direct proportion to our service.”
45. “Your world is a living expression of how you are using and have used your mind.”
We are all self made whether a self made success or  self made failure.
Lisa Ekanger Your Hometown Realtor!

Seek situations that lift your mood! There is a science to Happiness! Woot Woot!

Happiness is so interesting, because we all have different ideas about what it is and how to get it.
I would love to be happier, as I'm sure most people would, so I thought it would be interesting to find some ways to become a happier person that are actually backed up by science.
Here are ten of the best ones I found.
1. Exercise more - 7 minutes might be enough
You might have seen some talk recently about the scientific 7 minute workout mentioned in The New York Times. So if you thought exercise was something you didn't have time for, maybe you can fit it in after all.
Exercise has such a profound effect on our happiness and well-being that it's actually been proven to be an effective strategy for overcoming depression. In a study cited in Shawn Achor's book, The Happiness Advantage, three groups of patients treated their depression with either medication, exercise, or a combination of the two. The results of this study really surprised me. Although all three groups experienced similar improvements in their happiness levels to begin with, the follow up assessments proved to be radically different:
The groups were then tested six months later to assess their relapse rate. Of those who had taken the medication alone, 38 percent had slipped back into depression. Those in the combination group were doing only slightly better, with a 31 percent relapse rate. The biggest shock, though, came from the exercise group: Their relapse rate was only 9 percent!

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Happy International Happiness Day! #choosethelight

When we decide to be happy we accept the responsibility to bring happiness to someone else. Some decide that happiness and glee are the same thing, they are not. When we choose happiness we accept the responsibility to lighten the load of someone else and to be a light on the path to another who may be walking in darkness. ~Maya Angelou
Lisa Ekanger!

We are attracted to what is already ours in secret.

"Our desires presage the capacities within us; they are harbingers of what we shall be able to accomplish. What we can do and want to do is projected in our imagination, quite outside ourselves, and into the future. We are attracted to what is already ours in secret. Thus passionate anticipation transforms what is indeed possible into dreamt-for reality."
 
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Lisa Ekanger!

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Things we keep...By Paul Harvey



We tried so hard to make things better for our kids that we made them worse. For my grandchildren, I'd like better.

I'd really like for them to know about hand me down clothes and homemade ice cream and leftover meat loaf sandwiches.. I really would.

I hope you learn humility by being humiliated, and that you learn honesty by being cheated.

I hope you learn to make your own bed and mow the lawn and wash the car.

And I really hope nobody gives you a brand new car when you are sixteen.

It will be good if at least one time you can see puppies born and your old dog put to sleep.

I hope you get a black eye fighting for something you believe in.

I hope you have to share a bedroom with your younger brother/sister. And it's all right if you have to draw a line down the middle of the room, but when he wants to crawl under the covers with you because he's scared, I hope you let him.

When you want to see a movie and your little brother/sister wants to tag along, I hope you'll let him/her.

I hope you have to walk uphill to school with your friends and that you live in a town where you can do it safely.

On rainy days when you have to catch a ride, I hope you don't ask your driver to drop you two blocks away so you won't be seen riding with someone as uncool as your Mom.

If you want a slingshot, I hope your Dad teaches you how to make one instead of buying one.

I hope you learn to dig in the dirt and read books.

When you learn to use computers, I hope you also learn to add and subtract in your head.

I hope you get teased by your friends when you have your first crush on a boy / girl, and when you talk back to your mother that you learn what ivory soap tastes like.

May you skin your knee climbing a mountain, burn your hand on a stove and stick your tongue on a frozen flagpole.

I don't care if you try a beer once, but I hope you don't like it... And if a friend offers you dope or a joint, I hope you realize he/she is not your friend.

I sure hope you make time to sit on a porch with your Grandma/Grandpa and go fishing with your Uncle.

May you feel sorrow at a funeral and joy during the holidays.

I hope your mother punishes you when you throw a baseball through your neighbour's window and that she hugs you and kisses you at Christmas time when you give her a plaster mold of your hand.

These things I wish for you - tough times and disappointment, hard work and happiness. To me, it's the only way to appreciate life.

Lisa Ekanger!

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

There will be those who tell you that you are foolish; that your judgment is faulty...


“Rely upon your own judgment; be true to your own conscience; follow the light that is within you; all outward lights are so many will-o’-the-wisps. There will be those who tell you that you are foolish; that your judgment is faulty; that your conscience is all awry, and that the light within you is darkness; but heed them not. If what they say is true, the sooner you, as a searcher of wisdom, find it out the better, and you can only make that discovery by bringing your powers to the test. Therefore, pursue your course bravely.”

- James Allen 

Lisa Ekanger!

Friday, March 14, 2014

If there is anyone in your life that you must forgive...

 
"The only way to learn forgiveness is to be betrayed. You might understand the intellectual concept of forgiveness, but you will only learn how to truly forgive when someone has done something that requires you to love them and let it go. Life demands these hurtful experiences for you to learn how forgiveness feels, it could be no other way. If there is anyone in your life that you must forgive, instead of seeing them as someone who has hurt you, try to see them as someone who was sent to teach you forgiveness and thank them for this precious gift - then forgive them, and let it go."
 
- Jackson Kiddard

Lisa Ekanger !

Thursday, March 13, 2014

It was a way of life, and sometimes it made me crazy. I wanted just once to be wasteful. Waste meant affluence.

I grew up in the 40s/50s with practical parents. Mother, God love her, washed aluminum foil after she cooked in it, then reused it. She was the original recycle queen before they had a name for it. Father was happier getting old shoes fixed than buying new ones.

Their marriage was good and their dreams focused. Their best friends lived barely a wave away. I can see them now, Dad in trousers, t-shirt and a hat and Mom in a house dress, lawn mower in one hand and dish-towel in the other.

It was the time for fixing things. A curtain rod, the kitchen radio, a screen door, the oven door, the hem in a dress. Things we keep.

It was a way of life, and sometimes it made me crazy. All that re-fixing, eating, renewing. I wanted just once to be wasteful. Waste meant affluence. Throwing things away meant you knew there'd always be more.

But then my mother died, and on that clear summer's night, in the warmth of the hospital room, I was struck with the pain of learning that sometimes there isn't any more.

Sometimes, what we care about most gets all used up and goes away, never to return. So while we have it, it's best we love it, care for it, fix it when it's broken, and heal it when it's sick.

This is true for marriage, old cars, children with bad report cards, dogs with bad hips, aging parents, and grandparents. We keep them because they are worth it, because we are worth it.

Some things we keep, like a best friend that moved away or a classmate we grew up with.

There are just some things that make life important, like people we know who are special, and so we keep them close!
By Paul Harvey
Lisa Ekanger !

Perfection doesnt exist sweetheart.

Just saw the courtroom video of the teen who sued her parents...as the parents were sobbing, the teen sat stoically across the room. If I could speak with her, I would tell her that some day she will realize that her parents are just people like everyone else. They are not the source of good and evil and certainly hold no power over your intentions, your words nor your actions. Its time to grow ...up and start making a life for yourself, independent of them. They are just human beings who had the dream of a family... to have a child and give them a great life. Perfection doesn't exist and its not fair to expect that your parents would ever be able to produce this for you. They are merely mortal. #honoryourmotherandyourfather

Lisa Ekanger !

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

If you truly want to change your life, you must first change your mind.

50 Quotes That Will Free Your Mind
We are our thoughts. We cannot change anything
if we cannot change our thinking.
You have a train of thought on which you ride when you are alone and quietly thinking. 

The self-worth you feel, as well as the happiness your life brings, depends upon the direction in which this train is moving, the baggage it carries and the emotional space through which it travels. 

Between life’s stimulus and your reaction is where this space exists; within it is your power to choose how you react, and in your reaction lies your growth, freedom and happiness.

If you truly want to change your life, you must first change your mind. 
You must free it from the restrictive thinking that holds you back.

Here are 50 thought-provoking quotes gathered from our sister site, Everyday Life Lessons, and from our blog archive that will help tweak your thinking and set your mind free.
  1. You are only destined to become one person – the person you decide to be.
  2. Do good and feel good.  Do bad and feel bad.  It’s that simple.
  3. You are what you do today, not what you say you’ll do tomorrow.
  4. We all make choices, but in the end our choices make us.
  5. Ultimately, it’s not what you do every once in a while; it’s what you dedicate yourself to on a regular basis that makes the difference.
  6. Stay true to yourself.  Never be ashamed of doing what feels right.  Decide what you think is right and stick to it.
  7. If you don’t stand for anything, you will remain forever on your knees.
  8. No amount of money will make you happy if you aren’t happy with yourself.
  9. You know you’ve made the right decision when there is peace in your heart.
  10. Don’t worry if your goals seem crazy to other people; oftentimes the crazy ideas are the ones that have the greatest impact.
  11. If you’re thinking like everyone else, then you aren’t thinking.  (Read Thinking, Fast and Slow.)
  12. Control your own destiny or someone else will try for you.
  13. Sometimes standing up to your friends can be just as difficult as standing up to your enemies.
  14. The unhappiest people in this world are the people who care the most about what everyone else thinks.
  15. When people undermine your dreams, predict your doom, or criticize you, remember, they’re telling you their story, not yours.
  16. There is a huge amount of freedom that comes to you when you take nothing personally.
  17. No one in the world was ever you before, with your particular gifts and abilities and possibilities.
  18. Your greatest task isn’t to find love, but to discover and destroy all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.
  19. A loving, happy person lives in a loving, happy world.  A hateful, miserable person lives in a hateful, miserable world.  The world around you reflects YOU.
  20. Worry gives small things a big shadow.
  21. Focus your conscious mind on things you desire not things you fear.  Doing so brings dreams to life.
  22. It’s not the mistakes and failures you have to worry about, it’s the opportunities you miss when you don’t even try that hurt the most.
  23. It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one over and over again.
  24. To get something you’ve never had, you must do something you’ve never done.
  25. The harder thing to do and the right thing to do are usually the same thing.
  26. Our problems are really our blessings if we use them to grow stronger.  (Read 1,000 Little Things Happy, Successful People Do Differently.)
  27. Anyone can run away; it’s super easy.  Facing problems and working through them, that’s what makes you strong.
  28. When you have two good options, always go with the one that scares you the most, because that’s the one that’s going to help you grow.
  29. Courage is being scared to death, and then taking the next step anyway.
  30. Sometimes our greatest insight comes from our failure, not from our accomplishments.
  31. You need to screw up to learn.  You need to experience it all to create greatness.
  32. Just because you don’t understand something now doesn’t mean the explanation doesn’t exist.
  33. Not knowing everything about your future is a good thing.
  34. Don’t worry about what you can’t control and you may liberate yourself.
  35. People of average ability often achieve outstanding success because they don’t know when to quit.  Most people succeed simply because they are determined to.
  36. Temporary happiness isn’t worth long-term pain.
  37. Patience can be bitter, but the seeds you plant now will bear sweet fruit.
  38. The less you expect, the more pleasant life gets.
  39. The more you are in a state of gratitude, the more you will attract things to be grateful for.
  40. The things you take for granted, someone else is praying for.
  41. It usually isn’t what you have or where you are or what you’re doing that makes you happy.  It’s how you think about it all.
  42. Do not dwell so much on creating your perfect life that you forget to live.
  43. You are not in competition with anybody except yourself; plan to outdo your past not other people.
  44. To admit that you were wrong is to declare that you are wiser now than you were before.
  45. Humans see what they want to see.
  46. If you spend too much time judging yourself, you won’t have any time to love yourself or anyone else.  (Read The Mastery of Love.)
  47. At the end of the day, you can either focus on what’s tearing you apart or what’s holding you together.
  48. Look through the front windshield and not the rearview mirror.
  49. You don’t get to choose how you are going to die, or when.  But you can choose how you are going to live, right now.
  50. Be done with regrets; they are an excuse for people who have failed.  You still have a chance.

Lisa Ekanger !

Monday, March 10, 2014

I Have the Coolest Boss in the World!

Along with his cadre of outstanding trainers, Floyd has graduated nearly 300,000 sales professionals from The Floyd Wickman Program. His unique method of training has earned him the title of “change agent” has become the most emulated style of training. Floyd created the original, longest running, most copied spaced training program in the country. He has a track record of creating a permanent and positive change in people who complete his program. What makes his methods effective are both his philosophies & the extraordinary components of a FWT training experience.

Some of Floyd’s Training Philosophies:
  • People perform as 'good' or as 'bad' as you train or allow them to be.
  • Give people the option to fail, 70% take that option every time.
  • Frustration comes from know what you need to do but not knowing how to do it.
  • People working together toward a common cause can far out produce the same number working as individuals. T.E.A.M. (Together Everyone Achieves More!)
  • Education without application is worse than worthless.
The Unique Components of Floyd Wickman’s Method of Training:
  • SPACED TRAINING: Each weekly session will allow the student to absorb and apply the lessons and avoid the ‘too much-too soon’ syndrome.
  • MANDATORY ACTIVITY: This takes away the option to fail.
  • ACCOUNTABILITY: Reports and strikes may seem silly but remember people are more apt to do what we INSPECT than what we EXPECT.
  • ROLE-PLAY: Role-playing each and every skill taught can insure a student more clearly understands thus they are more apt to apply. The old adage. “I HEAR and I forget. I SEE and I remember. I DO and I understand” can be proven just through the production results and long term retention of the sales professional.
  • TEAMS: People working together as a team create synergy. Synergy produces the results people only dream of. Thus, TEAMWORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK!
 
Please contact me for more information on how your company can benefit from becoming   'Wickmanized!'



Lisa Ekanger Your Preferred Trainer! 810-357-8404

Thursday, March 6, 2014

A very bright star appeared in our lives.



It was 24 years ago today that a very bright star appeared in our lives.  Levi was born at 5:10 a.m. on March 7th 1990…he weighed 9lbs and 11.5 oz.  I’ll never forget what one of the maternity shift nurses said to me during the 12 hour labor. She asked, “Is this your first baby?” To which I replied, “Yes.” She said with a chuckle, “Your life will never be the same again!” I’m not sure that’s the most reassuring thing you can say to an almost newly anointed first time mom.  I’m not going to lie, that comment did plant a tiny bit of worry in my mind.  I started to worry about whether I was really equipped to do the job.  After all, I was only 23 and had very little experience with babies. Against all my irrational fears, he proved to be an easy going and fun baby to care for. Hallelujah! The job was easy!  Levi Alexander Ekanger was a big beautiful baby with bright green eyes and thick red curly hair. He was healthy and as soon as he could crawl, he was active! Our days together were filled with a lot of joy J  I referred to him as my little curious and funny man that I first lovingly nicknamed Boo and then Buddy…we went on two walks a day and I was so eager to do everything right!  I read all of the parenting magazines and hung the recommended black and white mobile above his crib to make sure to stimulate his brain. The years rolled on and I enjoyed every minute of my stay-at-home years with my little shadow.  I brought him everywhere with me!  One of the most memorable events together was when he was about 5 months old and I carried him in a huge aluminum hiking back pack baby carrier.  Things were OK in the beginning of the night when we first arrived at the Esther Bubly photography exhibit at MCAD, but by the end of the night and just when I had earned the place in line to meet Esther Bubly (Celebrated Life Photographer) Levi fell asleep!  He weighed about 25 lbs!  If you’ve ever carried a sleeping child, you know what they mean by the description dead weight!  It felt as though my back was aching and breaking, but we (Esther & Me) both carried on as if nothing was out of the ordinary.  She answered my questions and admired the beautiful sleeping cherub on my back.  Later that evening my friend Julie helped me take the painful contraption off, and my back revealed dents from the pressure of the back pack. Levi just slept through the whole thing! The memories are too numerous to recall and this little star became a bigger star and now he is the most amazing 24 year old I know.  OK granted, I am biased (and of course I don’t know many 24 year olds) but for a multitude of reasons he is already a leader to many. Our hearts pour over with pride as he is just a couple of years away from earning his PHd in chemistry. The most important thing about our blazing star of a son is that he is conscientious, thoughtful, forward thinking, totally plugged into life and SERIOUSLY FUNNY! I love you Buddy!
Happy Birthday! We are so proud of you Levi, our cool and wonderful son J

 Lisa Ekanger