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Stay tuned for tips on living joy from the book, LIVE YOUR JOY and behind the scenes pics and video!
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How Strong Women Lead

We were all excited about going to meet Condoleezza Rice this week--thanks for all the supportive words and encouragement we received. We had researched her life, prepped opur questions, and loaded up our recording equipment!
However, bad news struck: her best friend's husband died. We were notified en route that Dr Rice would have to change her schedule. She felt awful about it and tried to fit us in but it was not to be.
We did get to see her office and it turns out she is a huge football fan. Since we were there at Stanford, we decided to make the best of it and turned it into a college visit. We attended an admissions office presentation, toured the campus, and visited the departments of most interest to Darcy: linguistics and anthropology. In the bookstore I offered her a sweatshirt, but she preferred to go home with a four inch tome classifying all the languages in the world by family and type.  Not my kind of reading, but she loves it.
NEXT STOPS: We will be interviewing Eileen Fisher (CEO of her own chain of clothing stores) on Feb 1st in NYC. After that we will watch the Chairman of Deloitte speak at the UN and interview her also in NYC on Feb 22. Fortunately these are shorter trips!

January 2010 | Blog Comments
Categories: Inspiration

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Searching for "She-roes" in Nicaragua

Our trip to Nicaragua, through Darcy's eyes:

Yesterday was life-changing. I could write a book about this one part of my visit to Nicaragua, so describing it in a few paragraphs is going to be a challenge. I'll start at the beginning. The main reason for our visit to Nicaragua: to interview a woman for the book my mom and I are writing together. The book, "How Strong Women Lead," which will come out in 2011, will feature women of all backgrounds - famous, unheard of, and everything in-between- who are leaders of their community or even the known world! We have already interviewed the President of Liberia and are setting up interviews with the Chairman of Deloitte and the CEO of Eileen Fisher Clothing (namely, Eileen Fisher).

The woman we wanted to interview in Nicaragua is Noemi Vivas Ocana who promised to be a shining example of how women lead everywhere, at all levels.  She had received a micro-finance loan through Opportunity International when her life was on the edge and now she worked full time empowering other women to improve their lives.  Opportunity International had graciously agreed to introduce us and help us meet and interview her co-workers and family to get the full story.

We took a taxi from Granada (where we were staying) to Managua where we met up with the rest of gang before heading down to Masachapa. The cast of characters:

Veronique - our professional photographer, with beautiful, curly black hair as thick as her French accent.

Raquel - our Spanish translator. We would have been completely lost not only without her translations, but her warmth and wisdom, as well. Ruth - an Opportunity International employee from Chicago who took far more notes as we went along than even I did.

Although most of us were complete strangers to one another at the start, by the end of the day we were closer than some become in a lifetime.

December 2009 | Blog Comments
Categories: Women

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FOX and Faith and Nicaragua

 Just wanted to let you know that I will be appearing on the Dave Ramsey
Show Friday, November 20th (today) and talking about "Live Your Joy". 
They are doing a series of shows on people who have
overcome obstacles and my piece is the "dessert" of the series. I get to
talk about my life, but also my life's work of teaching others to
overcome their obstacles.

The show airs on the FOX Business Network (not FOX or FOX News) at 8PM
Eastern time, 5PM Pacific.  You need to check your local listings for
the channel number in your area, as these are different depending on
your cable carrier.  I hope youll tune inor TIVO or DVR!!

In other exciting news: Darcy and I are heading to Nicaragua on Saturday
with Opportunity International to interview a local woman for our book,
"How Strong Women Lead." We will be using many of the great questions we
received about leadership from friends when we interviewed the President
of Liberia. Also looking forward to ziplining the rainforest canopy with
the monkeys!

If youre interested, here's a Faith-Based update: Ill be in California
next week to appear on The Hour of Power TV show from the Crystal
Cathedral with Robert H. Schuller.  I dont have the specific airdate for
this show, but as soon as I know Ill send that information along. It's
easy to watch on TV or online.

Also, Im currently appearing on the cover of HomeLife magazine AND
Significant Living magazine, along with lovely articles that Im really
proud of.  Here are links so that you can share them with others, too:
(One link is the cover and the other is the article)
http://bonniestjohn.com/bonniestjohn-homelifecover.gif
http://www.bonniestjohn.com/homelife.pdf

http://www.sl50.org/
http://www.bonniestjohn.com/bonnie-v7.pdf

Thanks again for sharing my joy!
Email me and tell me something that is bringing you joy lately...
bonnie@bonniestjohn.com

November 2009 | Blog Comments
Categories: Live Your Joy

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Are you smarter than a 14 year old? (Part I)

It all started one Saturday morning when Darcy’s cousin in New Zealand emailed this note asking her for advice:

Dear Darcy,

What is your secret to being so happy? I don't mean to sound blunt, but I don't really know any other way of putting it. When you come round to my place you always seem to be so happy about everything.  You even like doing some of your homework and you even seem to enjoy school. I’m wondering how to be that happy because I've noticed a lot that I’m not a very happy person and I want to be a happier person :)  Do you think you could give me some advice?

Thank you
From your cousin Andrew


Still in her pajamas and leaning over her Mac book, Darcy pounded out the following response in fifteen minutes:

To be totally honest, Andrew, I'm not always happy - especially as happy I am to be with you guys when I am visiting in NZ. I have my ups and downs just like everyone else.

Just last night I had a good cry and a good heart-to-heart conversation with my mom. It didn't solve all my problems, but it feels good to just let things rise to the surface and talk about them like that every once in awhile and let go of some of the stuff that's been building up. Honestly, I'll do that about every other month or so. It's not perfect, but for me it's almost like emotional spring cleaning - part of a process.

I don't think its possible to be happy 24/7, 365 days a year. It's healthy for human beings get upset, angry, grief ridden, guilty, jealous, and incredibly sad. I think the important thing is that having BOTH positive and negative emotions on a regular basis is "normal", "good", "healthy", etc. (it won't always be balanced, either).

It would be a BAD idea to try and appear happy all the time to vanquish your negative emotions, because its a better idea to listen to what they are telling you about yourself and then let go of them through constructive expression instead. At the same time, it is a GOOD idea to look for ways to make yourself happier on a regular basis.

Why do I enjoy homework?
Well, I don't always enjoy homework... it depends on what it is. Most of the time though, I think the key is making it fun, not pretending that it's fun.

Here's what I mean: say your assignment is to write a ten-page long research paper. One part of this is training your focus and your response. If your focus is on TEN PAGES, WRITTEN PAPER you're not going to have fun with this assignment at all!!! Who wants to write a ten-page research paper? That involves hours of writing and less gaming and hitting my head against a wall and research... wait a second.

Why is that so annoying? The writing (aside from other things): you're probably writing about something boring. The research: you're spending time and effort looking for facts that are ridiculously uninteresting.

Hmmm... Solution to problem? Pick something you are interested in writing about:
-    The cultural effect of computer Role Playing Games on New Zealand youth prior to the 21st century.
-     The relationship between the saxophone and the oboe in modern music.
-    How the evolution of the Elder Scrolls series reflects dramatically changing interests in the global gaming community. (I know you could write more than ten interesting pages about that Andrew.)

And when you don't have that choice, look for aspects or parts of your topic that are interesting. Become interested in whatever you're doing. Granted, this may not always be possible (i.e. quadratic equations may never hold any intrigue for you whatsoever, no matter what). But the point is to make an effort to enjoy your homework. Sometimes you will and sometimes you won't, but I think you will find over time that as you try to do it more and more, the more and more you will find yourself enjoying assignments.

Extra tips: 
Avoid the group mentality of schoolmates who hate the assignments.
Look deeper than your first reactions or responses.

I guess the bottom line is, Andrew:

Choosing to be happy IS NOT ALWAYS AN EASY TASK. Sometimes, it's actually easier to complain, moan, be bummed out, irritated, and annoyed than it is to be happy. Even though it doesn't feel good, a lot of people choose to be negative 80% of time because they would rather feel that why than do the things that would make them happy.

And in some ways, that's a very selfish and very sad choice. For one, those people are giving up on their own well being. Also, choosing not to try to be happy takes a toll on the people around you.

(Continued in t

June 2009 | Blog Comments
Categories: Live Your Joy

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