Over 20 years ago I visited Paris France for the first time and had a marvelous time with my mom. I translated for her with my memories of 7th and 8th grade French. I had a long way to go that’s for sure. Although I didn’t speak their language fluently, I fell in love with their culture. There was something about Paris that sparked something in me - and pictures of the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe were then always on my goal boards as a place to return to. Then when I was writing my now famous list (all the traits I wanted in a mate) of 356 traits, the man I was to be with had to speak fluent French! In fact - it made the top ten list of traits I desired! Fast forward to today - my dreams are about to come true and I can hardly contain myself! 18 years after my first visit to Paris - I am now married to Yves de Boisredon who just happens to be from France. In 3 short hours I will be on a plane with him to visit all the places that mean so much to him. We are going for a funeral mass for Uncle Henry and Tante Rolande - so the trip will have some bitter sweet moments, but Uncle Henry wanted us to be there for his final resting place. My dreams are coming true - and I am the happiest girl in the world! Take the time today to think about your dreams - and then have a ball!
A bientot!
The world lost a very good man this morning. Henry van der Voort was my husband Yves’ uncle. Yves often referred to Uncle Henry as “My second dad”. I never knew Yves dad, so in the beginning of our relationship I often said “your dad called” and quickly caught myself saying “I mean, Uncle Henry called”.
Yves and Uncle Henry were very close… so very close. I believe Uncle Henry helped shape Yves into the man he is today. So I love Uncle Henry and thank him for his unending positive influence on the man I married.
Uncle Henry died peacefully early this morning surrounded by his two daughters and Yves. It was a very moving passing of a very special man. He lived a very full life and turned 92 this past December. He was a gem, a rare find in this day and age. In a world where marriages have a 50% success rate, he is survived by his wife Rolande who he has been married to for 62 years. His two sons and one of his daughters have been married for over 20 and 30 years. Uncle Henry was an example of kindness, generosity, warmth, faith and love. He showed affection to “My Rolande” even as she suffered from Alzheimer’s.
Uncle Henry had very special friends, and one of his closest friends was his sister Thérese. I never met her, Yves mother, either. I loved to learn more about her through stories from Uncle Henry. He always had a sparkle in his eye when he talked of his sister. Then again, he was a charming man and he almost always had that sparkle in his eye.
I often told Uncle Henry that if I had a fraction of his wisdom, I would be very wise indeed. I can‘t remember his exact words, but his message to me was ‘it’s all about love’.
I am glad I got to see him last night, kiss him and tell him thank you. He has opened his family to me which I am a part of now. He has enriched my life. Thank you Uncle Henry…Au revoir.
I just returned from speaking at Toastmaster’s International convention in Washington DC and I had a blast! I gave my keynote presentation “Why Settle for the Balcony? How to get a Front-Row Seat in Life” and something happened that has never happened before. Someone took action. Now, my whole goal is to have people take action on their goals and their dreams…moving their chairs of life closer to the front-row. However, this crowd was different. Most people call me or write me about the steps they have taken AFTER my speech. On this day, someone took action DURING my speech!
If you haven’t seen my keynote, I have seven strategies on getting a front-row seat in life. I start my speech with seven chairs randomly scattered toward the back of the stage. Each chair has a T-Shirt on it with a strategy written in bold letters. As I speak of each strategy, I literally move that chair toward the front of the stage. At the end of the speech, I have created a front-row. My message both in my words and in my visual demonstration, is that if you don’t like your seat in life, move! You can create your own front-row. And, you can take action today to move you toward the front-row of your life, however you define a front-row for yourself. Like I said, most people take action after my speech and I hear their inspiring stories and examples. But, on Saturday, while I was talking about investing in your own personal and professional development to get ahead in life, someone from the audience came up on stage and literally took a seat in one of the chairs! The audience (as well as me) was stunned! I actually thought that it was great because I had just finished talking about taking action on your vision, and this man did take some action, and he wasn’t going to wait until the end of the speech to do it!
He didn’t stay long, but he could have, I didn’t mind. It’s funny too because the chair he sat in was the “Be Gutsy” chair! He certainly displayed being gutsy and it was a really wonderful, unplanned moment of my speech.
I made a call to a man who had purchased a couple of my books. I like to surprise people with a call to thank them for attending my speech and thank them for buying something or referring me for a speaking engagement. Much to my surprise, he told me he had already used what he learned from me. He had taken his son to the emergency room yesterday and felt overwhelmed and lost. Then he remembered something I said and went directly to someone in charge and said “I need to see someone immediately about my son, and if you can’t help me I need to see someone who can.” And, he was immediately helped. I didn’t ask, but I’m sure he acknowledged and appreciated that person for helping him right away.
It always makes me feel good to know something I have said has inspired someone to step out of their comfort zone and take action on getting a front-row seat in life. What action have you taken? What have you done lately to get yourself a well-deserved seat in the front-row? Post a comment here, or write me an e-mail at Marilyn@MarilynSherman.com. Thanks for reading, and as always, I’ll see you in the Front-Row!
I was watching the Academy awards on Sunday and thoroughly enjoyed it. Not because Jon Stewart was particularly funny, or because of what people were wearing. I could really care less what people are wearing on the red carpet. But I enjoyed watching the faces of the winners, because in that moment, their life changed. George Clooney even said it in his acceptance speech; ‘Forever I will be known as Oscar winner, George Clooney’. And, it’s true. You don’t hear people in the entertainment industry being introduced as ‘People’s Choice Award winner’ or ‘Golden Globe winner’, but you will hear ‘Oscar winner…’ attached to their name for rest if their life. And, in that moment on Sunday, I witnessed it over and over again; the excitement, the shock, and the realization that they have reached the pinnacle of their career.
Then I got to thinking.
When was the last time I had a life-changing moment? When was the last time I felt that excitement? Was there ever one moment, when time felt as if it had stopped, and my life would never be the same? I did have one recently in my personal life. On November 19th, 2005, I was married to Yves de Boisredon. The wedding was a beautiful traditional catholic wedding and Yves surprised me during the ceremony. At the moment when we both said ‘yes’ during our vows, Yves took out his new watch that I had given him as a wedding present. It didn’t fit him, so he had it in his pocket. Later after the ceremony, I asked him what he was doing when he pulled out his new watch from his pocket, and he said “I wanted to know exactly what time it was when we became husband and wife.” I think that counts as a moment that changed my life.
What about you? Have you had anything in your life that you can remember as being a moment that changed you forever? When I published my latest motivational book “Why Settle for the Balcony? How to get a Front-Row Seat in Life”, I included stories of people who shared what their front row seats were. Lou Heckler wrote that his favorite front-row seat was watching the birth of his only son. Beatrice van der Voort wrote that she was driving a stick shift to a clients house on the famous crooked street in San Francisco and she was paralyzed with fear. However, she overcame her fear, successfully navigated the street and from that day forward she felt as if she could do anything.
I love to hear stories of life-changing moments. Feel free to write a comment to this blog and share your moments of inspiration and hope. If you can’t think of a life-changing moment, then it’s time to start creating them. What would it mean to be at the pinnacle of your career? What connection do you need to make in order realize you are living your life in the front-row?
If you can’t think of what it would take to be in front-row, if you can’t imagine what a life-changing moment would be for you, then let me help you right now. I learned this from Mark Victor Hansen, the co-author of the New York Times best selling book series ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul’. He told me to take 20 minutes and write down 101 goals for myself. Now, whenever I am speaking on goal setting and getting out of a comfort zone, I always tell my audiences to do this exercise. Here’s what happens. After about 15 seconds, people are already done with their ’standards’. Those are the 4 most common goals people have every year for new year’s resolutions. Lose weight, stop smoking, exercise more, and earn/save more money. Then it gets a little harder. People now have to think about things that they really want in their life, and 101 is a big number! Then people start to get creative, and they really start to get crazy around nubers 65-70 on the list of 101! That’s the whole point of doing this exercise. That creativity stimulates energy which stimulates action, and action is what motivates people. Especially, action that helps you move toward your goals.
Try it! Create a list of 101 goals, go through your list and focus on the one’s that are most important to you. Organize them by priority, and then set a time table for action. Get excited about the possibility of creating your own life-changing moments! Then, when that goal becomes your reality, you have your own ‘Oscar’ moment!
Have fun with this, let me know how you are doing by commenting on this blog and pretty soon I’ll see you in the front-row!
Marilyn Sherman
UpFront Presentations - Helping people get a front-row seat in life!www.MarilynSherman.com Info@Marilynsherman.com
Ah, this could be a great day…or simply depressing. This day, today in particular, is a great day for me. Trust me, I have suffered through plenty of Valentine’s days as a single women. Watching TV commercials for diamonds, flowers, and candy simply made me sick. That’s because I was alone and longed for someone to share this special day of love. However, today is different. This is my first Valentine’s day as a married woman! My new husband is from France and when he started to see the plethora of commercials for this romantic holiday, I had to educate him how important it was for reservations. Yes, reservations. Anytime a man makes reservations for his woman on Valentine’s day, it’s big. I told him I didn’t care where, just reservations.
Ah, the man is good. Did he make reservations for some romantic dinner down on the strip? We have plenty of wonderful restaurants here in Las Vegas. In fact, he proposed to me on my birthday this last July at a wonderful restaurant at the new Wynn hotel and casino. But, “Monsieur new-to-the-customs-of-this-holiday” here in the states, did not make reservations.
He surprised me with flowers.
Now, I know that doesn’t sound worthy of a mention on my new blog, but he surprised me with a dozen red roses in the family room with a beautiful card mentioning that this was our first Valentine’s day as a married couple.
Then, I went into the living room and was surprised to see yet another dozen of roses, this time pink, waiting for me with another card! We laughed at the wonderful surprise, and hugged. But then I went upstairs to our room and a beautiful plant of mini-roses awaited me. And, when I woke up this morning, the actual day of Valentine’s, there were two more plants, and two more cards. One in my office and one in the kitchen!
He surprised me with Valentine’s Day Eve, and this morning on Valentine’s day, he surprised me again. What a guy! C’est Magnifique! By the way, I have to go get ready - we’re going out to his favorite sushi restaurant for dinner…I made reservations!
Hope you’re living in the front-row! This year on Valentine’s day, for once I am!
