Blog Tour : Author Guest Post/Giveaway – Ruth Kaiser (The Smiley Book of Colors)

In every moment,
All the day through:
Smile or frown?
It’s up to you.
From A child’s book of Optimism, A SMILEY BOOK OF COLORS


www.tinyurl.com/3c2qyd6


You Deserve a Pep Talk!
Who’s Your Go To for this Important Role?
Today I was kind of floundering through a bunch of tasks and not really feeling like much was getting accomplished. Procrastination was getting in my way.

I know, I’ll bake some SMILEY COOKIES instead of getting back to work.

While I’m waiting for those cookies to bake,
how about a little snack with the SMILEY BROTHERS, RAY AND ZIN?!
As one of a long list of tasks I was doing instead of settling into work, I called my mom. Surely, a pep talk from mom will get me motivated. But, when my mom answered she seemed pooped out and in need of her own pep talk. So no pep talk from mom . . . What to do?

ME IN THE MIRROR SMILEY
This got me thinking. Maybe I should be able to give myself a pep talk. Don’t worry. I didn’t go into the bathroom and start talking to myself (Cute, little Jessica with her daily affirmations YouTube video* can pull it off. Me, not so much!). Instead, I whipped out a letter of encouragement to myself. Just sitting there at my desk, fingers flying over the keys, and 5 minutes later I was focused and back to work.

Writing my pep talk, even a BROKEN KEYBOARD is a reason to SMILE!
Sure, maybe this started out as just another manifestation of procrastination. And, yeah, I was kind of just goofing around. But what I discovered is that it worked. I gave myself permission to say to myself all the encouraging and pump myself up things my mom would have said. AND in that same vein, I did not allow myself to say all of the beat-myself-up stuff that my mom would not have put up with. In fact each time I started being negative about having spent the day spinning my wheels, I imagined saying those criticisms into the phone and my mom saying, “Now, Ruthie, you stop that!!”

CELL PHONE SMILEY
This was a cool exercise. I think I’ll use it in the future. We don’t all have a mom or friend to call for a pep talk, but we do all have ourselves.
Smile. Be happy! Be happier!
Ruth
P.S.: If you can give yourself a pep talk, then you can also write yourself a Report Card: http://blog.spontaneoussmiley.com/?p=8586
P.S.S.: Just F.Y.I.: Petting your kitties never qualifies as procrastination!

KITTIES SMILEY
* Jessica’s in the mirror affirmations video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR3rK0kZFkg


About the Author:

Ruth is proud to be a self-proclaimed, happy-go-lucky, cockeyed optimist. Also known as a Pollyanna, a goofball, and little Miss Sunshine, Ruth is an easy breezy, cup runneth over, top of the world, outgoing, people loving, fun seeking gal. This perky gregarious, cracking herself up child at heart is filled with gratitude every minute of every day!

She is mom to three of the greatest kids ever who, even though they are all out in the world pretending to be grown-ups, will always be her babies. To pay for all those kids’ college tuitions, Ruth owns a small chain of preschools called TOT DROP where for 18 years she has been known and loved as “Teacher Ruth” by hundreds of preschoolers and their parents. To quote one of her mommies, “Everyone should have a ‘Teacher Ruth’ in their life!”

Although completely allergic to cats, she is also completely enamored with them. So Philbert, Noodle, Rooster, and Mr. Simon have the run of the house and Ruth sits on a plastic chair and washes her hands a hundred times a day.

Ruth studied art at the University of California at Berkeley, but really believes that everyone is an artist. With excitement she proclaims, “How cool is it that the Internet has given us all an avenue to share our art!”




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