They can’t fool us: they put in mondo time becoming successful all while making it look easy.
Pearl One
Muggles – such as you and I — don’t just happen to find ourselves working at Vogue as the main assistant to Anna Wintour. In the movies maybe, but that’s not how real life works.
Real life takes nothing less than blood, sweat and tears; an ability to slay the boredom-dragon on a hour by hour basis; and a deep understanding of how planning for each minute, week and month gets us where we want to go. Whomever is working with Wintour in real life have paid their dues over and over and over.
Let’s look at someone who knew from the get-go that swimming for the Olympics would take major sacrifice.
Do you remember Summer Sanders? She got up at four o’clock every morning — for years – to be in the pool by six o’clock training for the biggest prize in sports: Olympic gold.
Now if you were watching the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, you’d have seen a young woman slicing through the water making it look, well, kind of easy.
We couldn’t have seen the years of getting up at the crack of dawn for her first practice of the day, the second practice being after school. Six days a week of four o’clock wake ups. And most of the workouts themselves were meant to challenge her. Every single day except Sunday.
When you see a successful person – like a famous actress, a NICU nurse, or a super successful veterinary practice owner remember that anything they make look easy, took at least a million hours of diligent practice.
They came to understand that the harder they trained, the easier it looked to other people,
Yes, what I’m doing is really hard. Give yourself the gift of honesty: of course losing weight after age 50 is hard. And in those moments, living on the Smart Eating Path, just got a tad easier. ♥
Pearl Two
A story from my past.
In life, it’s what you make it mean. True story. I was in a meeting in a large conference room with a group of cops and city managers. Mid-meeting, an officer showed up with a K-9 officer, a black German shepherd named Bennie.
We took a small break, and I used my time to go bananas over the furry sweetheart and throwing a Kong toy for him again and again. A wonderful boy.
Another woman was in the meeting. When Bennie arrived she was acting uncomfortable. At the break, a flurry ensued. She was obviously terrified and repeated “no, no, no” (as officers were trying to reassure her that Bennie was friendly) and bolted out of the room never to be seen again.
Same large conference room. Same meeting. Same dog. Two totally different reactions. In slowing down the film here’s what happened:
Door opens and in walks an officer and Officer Bennie.
- This woman sees the dog and thinks, monster! From her thought, she feels scared.
- I see Bennie and think, furry baby! From this thought, I feel delighted.
- Her action: she leaves the room.
- My action: love-bomb the puppy!
This woman wasn’t being “silly.” I have a good friend who grew up in the same culture as this woman. In their world small dogs are fine, but big dogs are vicious and dangerous.
My point: a circumstance unfolds, we have a thought and from the thought we have a feeling. And it’s within our power to choose the thought that will will impact our feeling.
The sequence goes: “situation” then ” our thought” then our “feeling.” Give this concept a lot of your time, because every situation in life boils down to this sequence. ♥
Pearl Three
Sequencing is taken directly from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). The purpose of sequences is to help us move from reacting to circumstances to responding. I encourage you to do a sequence a day in your journal. Powerful stuff.
Automatic Sequence
- Automatic Situation (be very concrete): My alarm goes off every morning at nine.
- Automatic Thought: I’ve been dealing with this problem of wanting to get up earlier like at six o‘clock for years now.
- Feeling: Irritated.
- Action: I try to go to bed earlier.
- Result: End up going to bed at night at the same time as I always have. Nothing changes.
Thoughtful Sequence
- Situation (be very concrete): My alarm goes off every morning at nine each morning.
- Chosen thought: If I want real change to occur, I need to forge a new plan for myself.
- Feeling becomes: Excited because I really do want to wake up earlier.
- Action: I write up an evening plan (includes room for insomnia).
- Result: My plan sees me making change slowly and tells me to go to bed (with a book-dessert) at 7 o’clock pm each night. ♥
Pearl Four
Books love us and want us to be happy
- Yesteryear Book-Dessert: The Accidental Tourist (1985)
- Pulitzer Prize Winning Book-Dessert: Breathing Lessons (1988)
- Anne Tyler’s Current Book-Desert: Three Days in June (2025)
Anne Tyler is in her early eighties and has given our world twenty-five novels. The Accidental Tourist, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant and Breathing Lessons were all finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, but Breathing Lessons took home the gold in 1989. Anne’s work is known for her incredible detail to the characters in her books and her love of putting three generations together and allow them to get bristly with each other. And somehow it always works out. Her books zig and zag. Have fun! ♥
Pearl Five
“Stay away from those people who try to disparage your ambitions. Small minds will always do that, but great minds will give you a feeling that you can become great too.” ♥
Mark Twain
Hope you have a phenomenal week. Me, I’ll be calling . . . a dozen doctors for a zillion appointments like my GP for follow-up blood-work, my optometrist for my an eye exam, the mammogram place, the OB office and the dermo. I’ll schedule the appointments throughout May and June. Good times.
Let’s agree to agree to having the best week of 2025 this week!!
♥, Wendy
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