Article by Make The Days Count Contributor Marie Monroe

Out of the mouths of babes…

A friend recently told me a story about a little boy who, in the spirit of this holiday season, declared that he was making his New Year’s Revolutions.  I loved that and resolved to take that meaning and intent as my own in the New Year.  Ever since hearing that story I have thought about what a personal revolution would mean in my own life.  Even more, what would multiple personal revolutions mean?!

It’s been only a couple of weeks, but this story has become a touchstone of sorts in my thinking.  I find myself turning it over in my mind from time to time, trying to understand it more.  It’s become a sort of holiday meditation for me that I do anywhere:  in traffic, at work, standing in check-out lines.

New Year’s Revolutions…

Re-Inventing Ourselves

As I’ve meditated on this little boy’s understanding of what one does in the New Year, I’ve returned again and again to the idea of re-inventing myself and my life.  I think of revolution, personal revolution, as a way of turning things upside down in order to create a new and better life, be a new and better version of who I want to be.  It has been an exciting and interesting way to think of what I want and how I might grow. Read More »

Article by Make The Days Count Contributor Derrick Torrens

Scrolling through the channels trying to find something to watch I have discovered that, among other things, I am morbidly obese and my sense of fashion is terribly outdated.  Everything I watch seems to be about something I need to do differently.

But I have come to realize it is not just me.  It’s a trend that the media is gearing towards us all.  You got acne?  Use this product.  You want to wow him in the bedroom?  Buy this.  You want to know where the wealthy shop?  Then go here and buy these items when you get there … because “you need them.”

I like to watch the show “What Not to Wear.”  On the show someone close to you decides you don’t have a clue what you look like in your day-to-day life and that you need a makeover.  So now your friends secretly videotape your wears and send it in to the show.  Hopefully it convinces the producers to come and throw away everything in your closet.  It’s supposed to be funny because evidently everyone but you hates your orange parachute pants and your rhinestone covered leather jacket. 

So there you are … living your life feeling carefree in your tennis shoes … and all the while you are being examined and told how and what you need to change. Read More »

Article by Make The Days Count Contributor Jennifer Snelling

Christmas is the season of giving, love and miracles.  We all need all three in our lives.  The question is, are you a miracle worker to someone? 

Helen Keller was a child lost in darkness and silence when Anne Sullivan became her teacher, and did the seemingly impossible by communicating with her in the language of people who could see and hear.  For the rest of her life, whatever obstacles or opportunities arose, Anne Sullivan was with Helen Keller as a teacher and a friend.  When Helen Keller went to college, Anne Sullivan sat with her in class, busily scribbling the words of the professors into Helen Keller’s hands so that she could learn the same lessons as everyone else.  Anne Sullivan appeared in shows with Helen Keller, showing the world her abilities and proving to everyone that she could be a star, too.  Helen Keller became an inspiration to not only the disabled, but all people; and Anne Sullivan was named a “Miracle Worker.”

When Helen Keller was given an honorary degree at Temple University in Philadelphia, she said, Read More »

Article by Make The Days Count Contributor Stefanie Johnson

Creativity.

It makes every aspect of life richer, more fulfilling, and fun.  There are very few projects that can’t be improved without it.  Whether you’re required to be creative for your profession or you have a hobby you’re passionate about, creativity has to flow.  It can’t be forced.

Creativity tends to slow down and even stop up entirely when we’re stressed out or under pressure.  So, what can you do to get things flowing again? Read More »

This is the First in a Series of Articles on Motivation

By Make The Days Count Contributor Philip Wood

Midway through my final year at DePaul University, a recruiting banquet was held at the Chicago Athletic Club for the survivors in the honors accounting program.  For those of us not headed immediately to graduate school, the fete was the culmination of our academic careers. 

Four years prior, dozens of students entered the program.  A brutal attrition rate, however, reduced our number ninety percent by the time the recruiting banquet was held.  The survivors were the guests of honor at the banquet, there to be wined and dined by recruiters from the then Big 8 public accounting firms and other major local corporations. 

Attending the University on an academic scholarship and achieving near perfect grades to date, I believed myself to be at the top of the program.  Blindly arrogant, I expected that I would be the center of attention. Read More »