Congratulations Pope Francis!

Yesterday's news that Time magazine selected Pope Francis as their Person Of The Year surprised me just as much as when the College of Cardinals elected him to become Pope.

 

I didn't think it would really happen but I am ecstatic that it did!

 

I knew Pope Francis was a finalist for the annual honor but I really thought that Time magazine was going to go with former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who this year released hundreds of thousands of classified government documents revealing the depth of the U.S. government's surveillance on phone and internet communications.

 

But spiritual won out.  Congratulations Pope Francis!

 

 

You are the real deal!!  You not only talk about the need to help the poor but you roll up your sleeves and get your own papal hands dirty trying to make the lives of the poor better yourself.

 

People love you and are excited about your humble leadership because you are inclusive.  You are a healer.  You have come along at a time when the world at large and the Catholic community desperately needs you and your gentle guidance.

 

Recently you invited nearly 200 homeless people to join you for dinner at the Vatican and there also were news stories about you sneaking out at night dressed as a regular priest to meet with homeless men and women to give comfort and listen to their concerns.

 

You are quickly shifting the priorities of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church from abortion, contraception, gay marriage and the nuns to more Christian issues such as poverty, materialism and the inequity of the world's economy.

 

Equally as important, you are opening the doors on the Vatican bank and calling for transparency.  I say it's about time someone threw some light on the decades of secretive Vatican Bank transactions and I must add there are times when I pray for you because I worry about you.

 

But then I remember that you are a Jesuit and Jesuits are always in a class by themselves!

Diane Von Furstenberg

You probably know of Diane Von Furstenberg from her infamous dress designs for women, especially her iconic wrap dress.  Her dresses have been worn by First Lady Michelle Obama, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow.  Today, Diane Von Furstenberg masterfully runs a global company, tastefully designing women's fashions, along with fragrances, cosmetics and home collections.

Diane Von Furstenberg

But Diane Von Furstenberg is more than a fashionista.  She is also a passionate and generous person who spends a lot of time mentoring women and distributing her grant and philanthropic money to community building, education and environmental causes, among others.

 

And if that isn't enough, she also offers support by reaching out and communicating through a column that she writes for The Cut, the high-end fashion section in New York Magazine (http://nymag.com/thecut/). 

 

Today, Diane takes a question about negative energy.  The very thing that I try extra hard to keep out of myself and my life.  Negative energy can waste time, money, talent and hurt your outlook on life.  I know it when I am with it, no matter how attractively packaged it is.  What's a person to do?  Walk away?  Feign indifference?

Here is Diane's sage advice:

Dear Diane: As someone who places a lot of focus on inner peace and happiness, how do you deal with the negative energy of others? -- Athena

The most important relationship is the one you have with yourself.  You have to build from within and you will have control.  Be honest with yourself, accept who you are.  Once you do that, you can improve yourself and like yourself.  YOU are the solution!  Look for the light and build around it.  You have the keys to your happiness.  Let others be negative, your light will shine on them!  It also helps to surround yourself with amazing women.  I am so thrilled to be in the fourth year of the DVF Awards, where we award five extraordinary women who have had the courage to fight, the power to survive, and the leadership to inspire.  I have met so many incredible women that make it easy to focus on the positive because they have so often turned hardship into opportunity.  That is the definition of grace.

And that my friends, is also positive energy!

Keep it Simple -- John Wooden

I have no shame.  I look for inspiration any place I can get it.  This time I found it in a sports book.

A guy in my office had this book sitting on his desk titled, "Wooden."  Hmmm, I thought, this name sounds familiar but I couldn't place it.  I opened the book and started reading about Coach John Wooden and his historic UCLA basketball dynasty winning 10 NCAA championships in 12 years, including 88 straight games.

I sortof remember hearing my Dad talk about John Wooden and as I paged through the book I realized this is a guy who definitely knows something about motivation, so I decided to find out more about John Wooden and how he was able to get all these big guys to listen to him and win so many games.

John Wooden, who was 99 when he died in 2010, was raised on a small farm in south-central Indiana and he says in the book that the lessons he learned from his parents served him extremely well on and off the basketball court.  His priorities were steadfast: family, faith and friends.

John Wooden's book is now a go-to source of strength for me.  Yes, he was a basketball coach and many of his thoughts are directed to male athletes, but I still draw from the essence of what he is saying.  He is definitely an old school straight shooter but that's not easy to find these days and you can't argue with the results of his philosophy. 

Here is one of my favorites in a book that is chock full of John Wooden's wise observations about life.  I find this one in particular helps me keep things in perspective and move forward when I find that I am dealing with a particularly stressful situation:

Make Each Day Your Masterpiece

When I was teaching basketball, I urged my players to try their hardest to improve on that very day, to make that practice a masterpiece.

Too often we get distracted by what is outside our control.  You can't do anything about yesterday.  The door to the past has been shut and the key thrown away.  You can do nothing about tomorrow.  It is yet to come.  However, tomorrow is in large part determined by what you do today.  So make today a masterpiece.  You have control over that.

This rule is even more important in life than basketball.  You have to apply yourself each day to become a little better.  By applying yourself to the task of becoming a little better each and every day over a period of time, you will become a lot better.  Only then will you be able to approach being the best you can be.  It begins by trying to make every day count and knowing you can never make up for a lost day.

If a player appeared to be taking it easy in practice, I told him, "Don't think you can make up for it by working twice as hard tomorrow.  If you have it within your power to work twice as hard, why aren't you doing it now?"

If you sincerely try to do your best to make each day a masterpiece, angels can do no better.