The Importance of Balancing Spoons

Mother’s Day is a very difficult time for me. On one hand, I relish the opportunity to be a mom and raise what I hope will be two fantastic children (they are now 5 and half and 2 and a half). On the other hand, I realize how much I miss my own mom (who passed away 3 years ago), not only because I just miss her, but I also miss the joy she would have had in seeing me be a mom and watching her grandchildren grow into wonderful individuals.

When I think back to all the great lessons she taught me, I am constantly thinking about how I can honor her legacy and pass them onto my own children. So here is some advice that I learned from my own mom that I wanted to share with you:

Show them the gift of laughter. My mom had one of the best senses of humor of anyone I know. She could laugh at herself and wasn’t afraid to be silly. In high school, walking through the mall with her was always an adventure—I remember her urging me to “Walk this way” swinging her arms like a monkey as we wandered through the department stores. Another great memory is of her finding “Mr. Yuk” stickers and sticking them on my dad’s forehead when he was in a particularly bad mood, singing “I’m Mr. Yuk, Mr. Yuk, and Mr. Yuk.”

If there is one topic that most people tend to universally complain about (besides taxes, of course), it’s TIME. Or more specifically, a lack thereof. In today’s go-go-go environment, most adults would say that they are feeling the effects of being time starved. And with the constant pull of smartphones, email, social media and other technology, it seems like none of us ever really get a break to just pause and take a breath. Fortunately, nature gives us a break every four years with some extra time.

As we all learned in elementary school, it actually takes a little bit more than 365 days for the earth to orbit around the sun. And humans, in their infinite wisdom, found a way to “correct” nature’s “mistake” by adding a day to February once every four years, known as Leap Day. A full 24 hours added on to all of our calendars. As kids, it seemed like it was a big deal. But nowadays, it seems like it is just another thing that we all take for granted. I haven’t seen any ads for “Leap Year” parties, sales or special events in school. Aside from a recent episode of 30 Rock spoofing the holiday, it has quickly become just another ordinary day, easily forgotten.

So I did a little bit of research around my office. No one really seemed to even remember that this year was Leap Year and that we get an extra day. Even when I prodded (as I can do pretty well), people were a little stumped on how to answer the simple question, “What are you going to do with your extra day?”
Truthfully, I am a little confused as well. The day has kind of snuck up on me. But it has given me the opportunity to think about it and decide what I am going to do with my extra day in 2012. While I may not use it in February, I hope to bank it for another month during the year. Jelmar also recently conducted a survey to see how America would prefer to use their extra day – you can check out some of those surprising results here.

But what if instead spending the extra time on ourselves, we all spent that day thinking about others in our community. What if we spent that day volunteering our time? Working at a food bank, animal shelter, or even giving blood? Just think of how a few extra hours could help someone or something other than ourselves.

SO, my challenge to you this “Leap Year” is to answer the question: What are you going to do with your extra 24 hours? I think I will split up the time, using a little bit for myself and spend a few hours with my family helping out someone who needs it. I’ll let you know how it transpires during the year. Happy Leap Year everyone!

Like many of you, I was watching the Golden Globes on Sunday as the stars of small and silver screens were honored for their work. In particular, I was moved by Meryl Steep’s speech as she accepted the award for her role in The Iron Lady. She was incredibly graceful, genuine and sincere, and gave great kudos to all of the other women who were nominated, as well as the people who supported her in creating such a riveting character and performance.
She also made note of the recent string of great performances by actresses that weren’t being honored. In her mind, all of those performances were worthy of winning the award.
It struck a chord with me because I, too, will be receiving an award; I’ve just been named one of Enterprising Women’s Women of the Year. The award recognizes women entrepreneurs in North America and beyond, and is widely considered one of the most prestigious recognition programs for women business owners. The magazine focuses on the issues that are important to women and give them the tools, knowledge and network they need to succeed.