Theme 2026

When I was a kid it was a thing to celebrate your "Golden Birthday" (you're the age of the day you were born). I was kinda bummed because I was born on the 26th so I would need to wait till I was an adult. But after the excitement of reaching 21 passed I thought oh what fun another birthday to look forward to 🥳

Well turned out that was the year my beloved Ted was sick and passed, so not as fun-filled and memorable for the right reasons. So I'm giving myself a do-over. It's the 26th year of this century so that is going to be this year's theme: Golden Year 

What golden nuggets can I look for in this chaos of our world. What golden opportunities can I take advantage of? What friendships can I treasure more (one is silver and the other gold)? 

Last year I was pretty freaked out when I saw a documentary on space and had to sit in my car for 15 minutes after to comprehend what I had just seen. If you haven't explored how vast the Universe is in the last few years you really need to see the Hubble pictures they have now and how insignificant our tiny tiny little planet is 🌍 🤯

So not that I need a reason to celebrate but after so much there is to drag us down in the world, we need to look for JOY wherever we can find it! 💃

I am also retaking a program I took years ago but felt I needed the inspiration and refresher so as part of that I started to gather some images to put in my Lifebook. So while I will of course be Creating My Year and ME Mapping out details, I decided to make a little vision board to accompany it:

Let me give you a quick couple examples of what I included: 

• Writing (top left): Book cover for a project I'm working on.
• Clouds: Playing off the Pantone Color of the Year with the background of Cloud Dancer and since I LOVE clouds it reminds me that they are beautiful, they pass and make us grow 🌧️
• Giving (top right): The first is an image of a gift I gave to a neighbor who helped bring in my mail when I had ankle surgery last year. The other is from my dear APhi sorority sister, Charito, who sent this handmade gift years ago that hangs above my bedroom doorway. Little generosities that are important from/to our new (silver) and old (gold) friendships in our lives. 
• Good Capitalism: Project about how ESG and our world is in need of a new way to explain how everything fits together: business, politics, our livelihoods, etc. 
• TIME: Coming soon...
• Hubble: It's a miracle we are alive let alone privileged enough to be able to see into space and over to our friends/family on phones that fit in the palm of our hands. 
• Lemon: My friend and I were talking about making lemons into lemonade and she told me this joke about if you didn't get lemons in life you'd have scurvy! 😂 So better lemons than that! 🍋
• Bath: The bath is my relaxing place so- me in mine 🛀  Hands aren't mine but a reminder beauty is simple, clean and to not get anxious and pick at my cuticles. 
  
• Art: Arianna Coroli is this fabulous artist I came across and I loved this pc she did which was then turned into material for other products for a fancy hotel. She's eccentric and cool and it's a reminder to do our own things and be the kooky one in the room. The other image is of Sharon Stone painting. Later in life she discovered even more of her talents. Keep growing and trying things on. 
• AI: Image of me for the year is natural, well other then having my phone in portrait mode and removing a few imperfections around my eyes (makeup smudge and  scar under my eye) that is what I look like at the right angle, in front of flattering sunlight and after about 100 tries. Zoom in you'll see my pores, agespots and wrinkles and I like it that way. Beach pic and the middle studio image are AI images that I was playing with. Yes, I am conflicted about using them but I also feel like it is imperative for us to learn and practice using AI. More about this in upcoming posts. Note: it wouldn't let me AI an image onto Diane (RIP) from a fav movie so that is me with an attempt to slap my face on the pic. Humor me people 🤷‍♀️
  

I'm not sure where 2026 is going to take me, but we are alive and after spending Christmas with my family after not being able to travel last year because of ankle surgery I am filled with gratitude to have been with them. Time away from my friends either through distance or timing has renewed my appreciation for them as well. 

Gold was a choice I thought twice about because of the gaudy use our current POTUS has plastered all over the White House and anything with his name on it. But I won't let him or anyone else ruin my year! It is our lives and our choice what inspires and brings happiness to our life. 

Cheers to your 2026! 🥂 🎊  

May you find peace, love and whatever else that colors your world JOYful! 💛

Theme 2025

If you know me, you know I love a theme! I mean I've been doing this start of the year ritual since 2009. But for 2025 all I could think of was I see nothing! Meaning I can't see or even get a feeling what the year ahead is to hold or even what I want to create for it.

I had sort of checked out the end of 2024 after the election and was numb after so many of our fellow citizens voted him back in. And then just before Thanksgiving I had fallen down my stairs and fractured my ankle so bad I need surgery. So I missed Christmas with my family in Florida and with my friends to ring in the new year. I've been just sitting around healing my heel.

Having several more weeks off my feet I have been trying to embrace the quiet and calm. And when I said I think NOTHING is going to be my theme for 2025 my bestie Vickie reminded me of her husband Bill's favorite Landmark teaching of: coming from nothing. It rang so true I knew that was what I wanted for myself and for you if you'd like to join me as well.

NOTHING: intentionally setting aside all pre-existing beliefs, identities and limitations to create a space for transformation, essentially starting fresh and taking full responsibility for shaping your life without relying on past narratives or self-imposed restrictions. 

So imagine you have all your past experiences, traumas, opinions and stories all filling a chalkboard and instead of working with them to build a narrative of how you want the year to go you erase everything and start with a blank slate and create possibilities from scratch.

No have-tos, obligations, needs, upsets, anger, disappointments. Basically, creating from a place of anything is possible!  And, nothing is already determined!

I would enjoy being employed so I don't deplete my savings but I have enough to sustain me if I'm not. I would enjoy being healthy and well but this injury has reminded me how lucky I am to be in even a casted leg. I would enjoy finding love but maybe they're not ready for me yet so better to wait. Who knows?!

I have NOTHING to stress and worry about, nothing to force, nothing to drag me down. 
I can create anything that is possible for me when I feel ready for it and on my own terms. 

What do I have to lose? NOTHING! 

Happy New Year! I wish you nothing but NOTHING & JOY 💗

GAME PLAN: Good Guys Guide to Getting Laid & Loved

I believe in love and humanity ♥️

A friend called me recently to tell me about a great date she had and I could tell in her voice she was hopeful. And sure that's not all there is to life but come on that's a great reason we must not give up on love. Because certainly we can all live without a romantic connection but it makes our lives so much sweeter if we can experience that joy!

In the last few years, since Covid, I had begun my own search for my next love and it's been rough. I have matched and at a minimum texted with over 200 men. And let me share that it has been to say the least: underwhelming. When my dating adventures began I would share the dates with my friend Vickie and she would say: oh you must keep a journal of these stories - they're too good! I didn't know what I would do with this information but then I decided she was right, let me put on my curiosity cap 🕵️‍♀️ and see if I could figure out what's happening in this new world I was exploring.

Cookie Theory 🍪

First let me share the theory I have on how we as a society got to the point where men and women are not connecting like we yearn for. It starts with cookies...

When I was in my 20's and thrilled to be working at a job I loved I remember making cookies a few times a year as goodies to bring into the office. I'd make my cookies and put them in a decorative tin and then be delighted if they went before I came to collect it. Now things were different back then- only the women in the office brought in snacks and we would set them up then clean up the mess when the day was done. The men would be the first in line and some would voice appreciation for the buffet of deliciousness in front of them but that was about it. 

I hadn't thought about this for a long time until recently when I was trying to explain how I never really knew how ingrained the patriarchy was until I got it on the cookie level. See most women love to nurture people in their lives. And lots of women around my age and older won't even get why the above story is related to dating. But today it is a subtle but real example of how women treat* men but haven't had the reciprocal-replenishment we need to keep that going. 

                                                                                                                                                  * (pun intended) 

Picking A Path

Now as I see it we have two paths into our new awakening of mens' roles in our world. 

We can shame them for not being evolved, "woke" or feminist-supporting-enough ... or... 

we can share with them the recipe of how to create that for themselves and those they engage with and then reward and rejoice in the ones who get things cooking 🔥

Yes, of course not all men are stuck in the good ol' days but a not-small percentage of single ones are or a new version of it; look at the work of NYU professor Scott Galloway and his warnings of the crisis of isolated young men. And sure some still won't meet up with the times but I'd like to at least invite them all to join in. 

Afterall, we as a collective society trained men to show up and grab cookies and we would be happy to make more and of course clean up after them. Women made things comfy and now we expect them to catch up and pick up on all the nuance and clues in social and dating situations and shame them when they don’t. Not at all our fault per se, but we (their mothers, sisters, coworkers and friends) did contribute to feeding into that dynamic. 

Keys and Porn 

This is in addition to other big changes in the last few decades- we went from latchkey kids to helicopter parenting. Participation trophies and micro-parenting took over. I assure you my Dad had no idea who my teacher was or even where my schools were located. Nor did most dads make doctors appointments or keep track of fieldtrip slips. There was a reason Mr. Mom was such a hysterical and timely movie when it came out. 

Fast forward to today and we went from modest homes to McMansions, to curated childhoods shown off on social media. Don't do without because we have easy-put-it-on-credit-lifestyles. Teens now are bombarded with images of filtered perfection on their phone of their own classmates, where we would have to wait to see models in the monthly copy of Seventeen magazine to judge ourselves. Needless to say we've ALL had a spin-y change in expectations and societal pressures. 

And that's before we even get to the most monumental transformation in dating and mating: 

online-on-demand porn! 

Sure they had nudie magazines years ago and if you were an adult you could go behind the velevet curtain at the video store and rent a porno. But most teens saw a first glimpse of it through the squiggly scrambled lines of cable's naughty channels. There was not porn coming into our home without our approval and a high price tag. 

Today porn is free and not just flowing into young people's pockets but it's the most diverse graphic degrading porn there has ever been. Seeing a pair of boobs in Playboy was enough of a thrill but now many men have so numbed themselves that.. well you know how far it's gotten. In the olden days of 800-lines you would at least still need to use your imagination but now you can Only-fans your way into a woman performing fantasies in front of your very eyes.  

Men don't need to get to the gym, go meet people, ask women out and shine their shoes to go on actual dates. They can get pseudo-gratification 24-hours a day from their La-Z-boys with no limit on what they can search for. 

It's not good! It's made a big chunk of men unmotivated and apathetic to dating let alone proper romantic courting. It's made them turn to porn instead of real life women. That and their exes and bad experiences have often wounded and hurt them making them give up on the search for true intimacy at all.

If you're a male who has lived through #MeToo, a woman boss, and hopefully the first female president*, you've experienced the most dramatic male expectations transformation ever!

GAME PLAN

This all leads back to my project. I had gotten so annoyed with the poor app profiles and ghosting and sucky communication with possible matches and just in general the apathy coming at me daily that I was disheartened! Then a wave of empathy hit me and I realized men have whiplash 🫨 They went from being handed cookies to being expected to evolve into a new non-toxic-masculinity way of being without much guidance or many role-models.

So I could either continue to be deeply disappointed or I could share what I thought might help. This is my attempt at a solution with what I know and mapped out (you know that's my gift) before sex-robots are readily available and we stop getting together as a species at all 😜

With deep sincerity I leave this as an offering because I love men and I still have hope that LOVE & JOY finds us all 🥰

Theme 2024

For the last 15 years I've been posting my Theme for the Year on here, and I never worry about coming up with a word or phrase that will capture what I want to focus on but this year had me stumped until it came to me: ME

A few months ago I was in the middle of worrying about two friends at a time that both were going through upset. And I tried to be there for both of them and I think I was a good friend but later during some conversations about each issue they were dealing with - open heart surgery for one's spouse, heartbreak over a relationship for the other- I realized I had been exhausted by situations that turned out fine and there was nothing I could have done about either. 

I'm not a people-pleaser but I am a huge people-helper; not consciously and also not always helpfully. When someone shares a problem with me I take a piece of it and try and "help" them with their burden. This comes from trying to make things OK when my folks were going through their divorce and it helped make me feel I had more control over my life and environment but it's not a healthy practice. 

Add to this both of these dear friends had supported me when I went through a bad break up a few years back. Sure I had helped them when they were in rough times but something felt like I still owed them this almost extreme empathy when they were in pain. I was wrong. 

I've gotten way way better over the years practicing observing and not absorbing people's drama and asking myself if these are my monkeys or not. But when talking to these friends they shared they don't need my help just my ear and compassion.

There are times when we need to step up and repay people's kindnesses but I had kept these friends' buckets full of love and friendship so they didn't need anything from me. 

2023 was also the year I became completely debtfree. I know some have been for years, decades or had never even carried that burden but when I left the relationship I was referring to I left with nothing we shared even the car I was driving. 

I'm stepping into 2024 owing no one anything, so in that vein, even though it doesn't come naturally to me, I'm going to try and focus exclusively on: 

What's best 4 ME?  

Meaning, not worrying about anyone else but myself. I know that's sound selfish which is why I warmed you into it. But frankly, it's none of your business what I'm focusing on so ha 😜   

That's my invitation for you to join if you want. Let's try to not worry about anything but our own fitness, finances, romances (although follow along with Tay and Trav's if that floats your boat) or anything else that will bring us joy, health and happiness. 

I mean I am going to need you to vote to save democracy, but that's not til November!

 

So how about we tend to what needs tending but along the way practice serenity and giving up worrying about anything not in our control or to our benefit. The people in our lives want what's best for us and us being at our best is what's best for us all!

Happy New Year 🥳 and Cheers 🥂 to all there is in store for ME 😁

Creating YOUR Year ... 🎊 🖌️

2023 was DEEP and delightful  ... but I believe 2024 is going to MY YEAR!!

Happy Mapping and Cheers to a JOYFUL 2024! 

Theme 2023

Being isolated on and off for the last couple years made people crave being close, yet we were all a little rusty with our social skills. So while it was great to be with people, I still found things to be kinda... surfacey.

This year I want to get DEEP with people and myself. And not like tell me about your childhood deep-- just not shallow, small talk, busy making. I was also reminded while visiting my family in Florida over the holidays that low-tide leaves things mucky and to get to calm and clear you need to go deep into the water and away from the choppy surface 🌊

So that's where I hope to spend 2023... in deep conversations, in deep thought, in deep work, in deep love! Even if it's just dating with an openness to not be stingy and closed off from the possibility of all the ways love can show up in our lives or checking in with friends and getting to the core of how they really are doing not just the pleasantries. 

What about you? 

Come join in if you haven't created your year yet and check out past themes if you want to get some inspiration. And remember: there is no right way to create a theme or year- you do you!

Cheers to 2023 🎊🥂 and all the DEEP JOY that can be for YOU and for ME 🤗

Creating YOUR Year ... 🎊 🖌️

2022 was good (and Happy Happy) ... but I believe 2023 is going to be even deeper, richer and more ME! Hope the same for YOU!!

Happy Mapping and Cheers to a DEEP & JOYFUL 2023! 

Happy Mind

May is Mental Health Awareness Month and also the month that in 2002 began the worst summer of my life. I call it the Summer of Discombobulation because within two months time: my Nonne died; my college sweetheart Chris was found dead; I left the company that I had spent my whole career at; and it was my sister's big out of town wedding extravaganza (which was happy and wonderful but was hard to be up and peppy for when it felt like my whole world was crumbling down around me). 

Oh, and did I mention I was still recovering from a breakup. Ya, it suuuucked!!!!

I was so so sad and had white-knuckled it through until that Fall when I hit a breaking point and needed to do something. So I attended a weekend workshop: Landmark Forum. And, hated it! Well I hated the first day, then got food poisoning the second day (from a local lunch spot, not their fault)... but then on the third day it all came together and I've never been the same since. There has been plenty written about Landmark so let me be clear, yes it is a little cult-y in that you get pretty high on the transformation you undergo and then they want you to tell everyone you know about it; but no, it's not a cult. I can't be sure if this is what they actually meant to teach us but this is what I got out of it...

The key to understanding life is that we suffer because we're meaning-making-machines that take our past experiences and interpret what's happening now through those old tainted lens.  So when X happens we project our past onto the situation and tell ourselves a story (Y) about what's happening as a way to understand its meaning which we then believe is the whole and real truth when it's simply just our version of what we choose to believe.

It seems like a simple concept but until it really clicks in your head you would swear both the past wounds you're carrying around with you and what you're currently thinking are true. Once you break free of the collapse of these two distinct things you see the world much differently. Only way I could explain it is that I felt like Pinocchio once his strings had been cut: I'm free!!

This was truly a profound experience for me but as liberating as it was it also made me nauseated at how messy my emotions had been and how sick I was of so much of my life. Which lead me to begin sketching out all the things that were bugging me and not the way I wanted them to be. That lead me to creating a mind map of my life which after I got engrossed in working on eventually morphed into Me Mapping.

I realized the goal of my life was to be as happy and joyfully grateful as I could be 😊

I don't always achieve it, but even when bad things have happened in the last 20 years I've never felt as sad as I was that summer. And it is because I know the story I tell myself isn't the end of it. I can interpret whatever is happening in a more empowering way.

Now my discombobulation was situational and I did the work of reading a lot, attending that program and seeing a great therapist, so had the ability to dig my way out my funk. But my beloved Chris had mental health issues that he couldn't reason his way out of. He had been diagnosed with bipolar manic-depression in his early 20's and even though he was a super smart guy he ended up dying from the stubbornness of not taking his medication. It is the saddest thing ever to know someone you love would be here today if they only could have accepted help. 

Chris was an athlete, an engineer that contributed to several important projects, a loving brother and the greatest first-love a girl could have. He was brilliant, funny, giving, could dance all night and would rub my feet after my waitressing shifts which was so dreamy. My family loved him and I miss him all the time especially when I see a gadget he would have marveled at and wanted to take apart and improve. He was the sweetest most decent person when he was well but even geniuses need help when they're not in their right mind. 

I shared at the start of this How to Happy series that I use perspective, gratitude and remembering death as my happiness pillars. But the only way to use your mind to get to those thoughts is if it's healthy. I know for certain Chris wouldn't have purposely left this world (or me and those he loved) but mental illness is deadly. So take this as a reminder to invest some energy into your mental health and wellbeing, map things out if you don't know where to start, and please, please get help if you need it. Someone will miss you if you're not here. And you deserve to be as joyful as possible while you are.

May we all be mentally well and Happy Happy in our journey through life! 

Creating YOUR Year ... 🎊 🖌️

Me Mapping Creating Your Year 2022 from Joy Meredith

2021 😳 ... amiright?!!

I have much much higher hopes for 2022, but as always I need to map it out to really see and live into it. So join me 😊

Happy Mapping and Cheers to a Happy Happy 22! 

Creating YOUR Year ... 🎊 🖌️

ME Mapping: Creating Your Year 2021 from Joy Meredith

2020 was a lot... 😳

so I hope starting fresh will be even more fantastic than ever. 

Wishing YOU a healthy, happy and fabulous 2021! 


Cheers to creating your most JOYfull Year Ever :)

Creating YOUR Year ... 🎊🖌️

ME Mapping: Creating Your Year from Joy Meredith

Wishing YOU a fabulous 2019! 

Cheers to creating your most JOYfull Year Ever :)



And... if you're interested in mapping with ME please come join us for the next ME Workshop on the January 19th. 


*SlideShare doesn't allow editing or updating decks anymore so this version is through 2020 in case you're wondering 😉

The ME Workshop 2019

 The ME Workshop 

February 2, 2019

(rescheduled from 01.19.2019)

When:                    10am - 12:30pm

Where:                   Illinois Institute 
                               of Technology
                               201 E, Loop Rd
                               Wheaton, IL 60189          

Investment:           $100.00   

Take Aways: You’ll leave with a hard-cover 
professional artist sketchpad, an easy-to-follow guide to the technique, and a tangible blueprint of what you’ll be working on to create the life you want.

Feel free to come solo, you'll meet some lovely folks... but it's always great if you can do something this fun and important with someone you care about so invite away :)

The SPLASH

[Warning: There will be lots of shitty language and upsetting thoughts below--- 
if you're having a shitty or delicate day maybe skip this post.]


Shittiness doesn't just have the power to ruin someone's day, or year, or their career but can ruin their entire life or our whole world. 

See, when we are shitty it doesn't neatly stay confined to just us and the person we are shitty to........ it splashes and goes everywhere ........ I mean EVERYWHERE!

Because Stephen Miller is a shitty person a young boy separated from his mother at the border doesn't even recognize her anymore. Because the killer was a shitty husband my high school friend Ron Goldman is dead and his sister, Kim, has spent years of her life anguished by his loss. Because Donald Trump is a shitty president world leaders have had to adjust their economies, foreign policies, and military plans because they no longer have one of their staunchest allies as a reliable partner.

SHIT SPLASH hits the person you're directly shitty to and then ripples and gets on anyone who is in their life... and so on... and so on ... and so on... 

Imagine knowing Harvey Weinstein raped your friend and having to see him win award after award. Well you don't have to, there are women who can tell us how that not only affected their friend but how just knowing there was a serial-rapist in their midst changed what movies they went for, who they might be able to trust, and how they felt about the industry they had dreamed of working in. Clearly it must have been horrible for Louis CK's daughters to hear/read about the creepy things he had done but how shitty must it have been for his tv-daughters to know their director and co-star has now tainted what they spent a good portion of their young lives working on.

How sick must it have been for anyone who knew the true Cosby to see him being touted as America's Dad. He didn't just rape and ruin the lives of his victims he splashed that shit on anyone they loved or dealing with the fallout from their pain. 

The butterfly effect states: a very small change in initial conditions can create a significantly different outcome. That is a delicate way of saying your shit splash can ruin things you aren't even aware of for people who are merely in your vicinity. 
Splash, splash, splash!

We are all shitty at some time in our lives- heck in many of our day-to-day actions- but we can make life and our world better if we: limit how shitty we are to ourselves and others and by leaving less of a crappy-mess behind in our wake.

What can you do if you've been The Splasher?

• Map It Out: Take an inventory of your life, including your shit.
• Own your ME-anness: Take responsibility for your energy (& shit).
• End It: Stop being so shitty and clean up the mess.
• Do Good: Repair the shit you've broken.
• Create Art: Make helpful shit. 🎨💩👍

What if you've been a victim of shittiness? 
Do as Oprah did... take all the shit that has happened to you and turn it into fertilizer and  🌱 🌿 🌳 GROW!

My LINE of DEMARCATION

This Spring I lost two friends within weeks of each other. And in addition to the grief I felt I also couldn't help being overwhelmed with inspiration for their amazing lives-- these good, kind, generous, decent, loving people renewed my joy of life and the preciousness of living true to ourselves. I felt a deep urgency not to waste any of the life I have left.

This isn't the first time I've lost people I loved within a short time of each other and if you would have asked me when the before and after of my life was it would have been in 2002. Everyone who knows me well knows of the Summer of Discombobulation ... also highlighted in the start of my workshop and how ME Mapping came into my life.

Well as I was driving away from my dear friend Jim's funeral luncheon in May I recognized I was again in a new place in my life. Within the last three weeks I had visited with my past, been reunited with some people I had not seen in years, made peace with a few ex-friends, and had been reminded death can show up whenever it damn well pleases so none of us are guaranteed a thing.

Weirdly this Summer of 2018 and my 2nd big time of loss and transformation just happens to correspond with a big birthday-- so I have drawn a line of demarcation.
I'm done with anything weighing me down from my first  50 and on to what is worthy of this new time in my life. I had put up with things that weren't working in my life in the past and on this side of the line that's simply not going to work for me.
Life is too short for un-JOYfull living!

I made a Project 50 list of things I want to work on this year and who I want to be in this next decade of my life. It won't be easy to manifest it all but I know what I want and don't want in my life and I'm going to fully practice attracting what I want and decluttering and detaching from what I don't. Existential angst is a good wake up call for how you want to live your life. It's a gift. Not the one I was hoping for (wanted a new iPhone📱😉) but hopefully one that will keep me appreciative of life and saying fuck it to anything that is not truly important.

Cheers to the lives and memories of Sue Casey 🥂and Jim Tulley 🍻
You are loved and missed dearly! 😘😘

Happy Birthday to ME! 🎂🎉🎈

Happy joyfull life to us ALL for as long as we are blessed to be here!! 🤘😍✌️

Creating 2018...

ME Mapping: Creating Your Year 2018 from Joy Meredith

Wishing YOU a fabulous 2018! 

Cheers to creating your most JOYfull Year Ever :)

WE Mapping

ME Mapping has helped me transform my own life (and others) for over a decade now. WE Mapping is the companion work for couples.

I hope you find it useful in making your life with your love even more JOYful :)

Creating 2017...

ME Mapping: Creating Your Year from Joy Meredith

Wishing YOU a fabulous 2017! 
Cheers to creating your Best Year Ever :)

March DADness

Quick question: Have you spent more time this week following your team's progress, your candidate's, or your kid's?

I mention this because the news, social media, and overheard conversations lead one to believe that sports and politics are the only thing adults have to focus on in their non-work hours. Sure it's way easier to divert our attention with mindless competition then to tackle the really hard work of coaching our kids to the success we really want them to have. But tough!

This is a sexist assumption so feel free to reverse if it doesn't match your situation but I'm going to go out on a limb and presume that most mothers do the bulk of the logistical and physical work to take care of the kids. This leaves fathers in the "supporting" role and I think that it's time to change that.

I'm not a huge sports fan-- truth be told I only like sports when I can be at a game and when there is an event that is centered around one-- but I do know many men who spend more time watching, bracketing for, and betting on sports then they do directly interacting with their children. And it makes me very sad :(

So how can that be turned around?

Make it more fun and PLAYFULLY competitive to get more involved with our kids. Daddy Up!

Some ways to make Daddying more sporty:

• Engage more with Teammates (other parents and your kid's friends)
• Strategize with other Coaches (teachers and coaches)
• Make Game Plan by mapping out what you'd like them to excel at this season ->
• TEAM DADDY: take on fatherhood with fun and excitement (get a family/team logo, mascot, color, cheer) 

Kids are exhausting and often annoying and a huge amount of work just to keep their basic needs covered. But they can also be the most fun, most rewarding, and best investment of our time. Turn Daddying into a sport that you invest your time in and the wins will be so worth the bet :)

Creating 2016!

Wishing YOU a fabulous 2016! Cheers to creating your Best Year Ever :)

ME Mapping: Creating Your Year from Joy Meredith

ME Mapping: The Updates

I've updated the ME Mapping slidedecks and thought you might enjoy :)

To work on Current Life:

ME Mapping from Joy Meredith

And... to Create Your Year:

ME Mapping: Creating Your Year from Joy Meredith

HAPPY MAPPING!

...and if you'd like more or would like to Map with ME come join us for next
ME Workshop :)