The Official Child at Heart group on Facebook is for everyone that believes in living life with a youthful spirit…one that is Child-LIKE but not Child-ISH. Living with a “Child at Heart” spirit is about inciting wonder in a way that compels us to recapture the qualities we once had as kids and ignite a new passion for living leading to personal success at home, at work and in life.

I agree to practice the seven secrets to being a “Child at Heart”:
1. Activate my imagination…leading to creativity
2. Be quick to laugh
3. Experience things for the first time…Rejuvenate
4. Live in the Present…Play More
5. Look Up for Perspective
6. Believe the Impossible is Possible
7. Be Daring

As a result of this change in attitude and activities, I will experience the following benefits:
* Lower stress and better health.
* More fun. Work becomes play.
* Help and hope in tough times.
* More friends, stronger relationships, and community.
We need this more now than ever.

The main message of “Child at Heart” is this: By learning from the qualities of children, and bringing back some of those qualities we originally possessed when we were kids, we can live more successful and fulfilled lives by improving our leadership abilities, our relationship satisfaction, and our overall enjoyment of the life we live. At its core being a “child at heart” is about embracing and bringing back what we knew and how we acted when we were young for all our life.

Join the Child at Heart community today! It’s free and fun.

This week I attended two funerals for friends that recently passed away after battles with cancer. Doing so reminded me of the fragility of life and importance of relishing every moment.

One memorial was for Paul Singer, the former CIO at Target Corporation. He was a friend and mentor. As an exceptional businessman with character, he made good things happen and so was offerred many challenges. He was someone who knew why he was here in this world. Paul had a passion for adoption and he was driven to find homes for kids. He lived his faith. His life was too short but it was well lived.

His friends and family were asked to describe Paul in one word. Words they used were: respected, hilarious, compassionate, dignified, larger-than-life, unique, easy-going, father, and loving. If you were to learn one thing from Paul’s life it would be to create the kind of family that he did. Love your own kids and others as well.

The other funeral was for a friend’s wife Michelle. She left a legacy of creating beauty and playing roles of friend, daughter, sister, aunt, mom, and wife. Her life was a unique expression of her love for God. She lived and laughed a lot.

Facing untimely death makes us view our lives in a different light. It puts the importance and priorities on different things. We need to spend our time and energy on the things that have the most lasting value and impact. We should follow our passions. We need to balance appropriately all the roles we play.

I view the most important roles for me as husband and father. If I can fulfill those two roles at minimum I will have lived well. I am fortunate that my work roles are ones that I truly enjoy…in helping people support their passions with technology and inspiring people to have hope and laughter in life.

I encourage you to put some thought into your life this week and do two things.

(1) Ask yourself the following questions: How will you be remembered? What legacy will you leave? What will people say about you when you’re gone? Who’s lives are you touching and leaving better for it?
If you don’t like what the answer is, now is the time to begin changing it. For me, I truly hope that people don’t just say I was a nice person. I would view that as a failure.

(2) Choose one person you love and write down a list of all the positive one word descriptors that you can come up with. Send it to them now. Believe me, it will make their day.

For me, I wrote a few words about my lovely wife including: discerning, insightful, wise, loving, beautiful, heart-of-gold, fun, intelligent, caring, compassionate, inspiring, strategic, creative, focused, achieving, justice-seeking, enthusiastic, likable, persuasive, poised, confident, sympathetic, empathetic, optimistic, big-thinker, giving, generous, romantic, etc.
If you haven’t met Brenda and don’t know this about her, I encourage you to do so. Your life will be better for knowing her. (Fortunately for me, I get special priority time with her.)

The Bible says there is a time and season for everything (Eccl 3:1) and these past days were a time to mourn, comfort, heal, and remember. Fortunately, both of these people had a strong hope founded on their faith in God. They had made a decision to follow Christ as their leader. They modeled their lives after His example. If you’re going to choose a mentor…He’s the best there is. It’s a comfort to know in this season of loss after their passing, that this separation is temporary and it is for them just the beginning of new future life.

Who was someone that really mattered to you that you lost? What is their story and how did they make a difference in your life?

OK, I don’t have one of these vans yet…but these commercials are hilarious… You gotta see the Swaggar Wagon music video and then all the glimpses into the lives of mom and dad with the kids. http://www.youtube.com/user/Sienna

Some web sites and blogs are now calculating the lost hours of productivity cost by the recent PacMan tribute offered by Google in honor of the 30th anniversary of Pac Man on May 23rd, 2010. They calculated the cost at over $120 million!

These calculations don’t take into account that the time spent on Pac Man would take away from a 100% productive work hour. Instead of the time going to some other activity, it happened to go to a minute of PacMan that provided joy, a smile, a laugh, and lowered stress.

Studies show that increasing play (even at work) can lead to increased productivity and better health. The official term of “Workplace Internet Leisure Browsing” (WILB) is used to refer to activities that can actually increase productivity by about 9 percent according to one study.

In another way of looking at the event, Google provided a lot of free entertainment. TV and Facebook can account for a lot of unproductive activity, too…depending on what your’re watching or what you’re doing with Facebook. Actively connecting with friends and family and sharing photos en-masse can actually save you time or make you more productive. Watching an educational program on TV (and fast forwarding through the commercials with Tivo) could be considered quite productive as well when you put that knowledge to use.

Fun at work involves taking the ordinary and making it enjoyable. It can be a reward for commitment and hard work. Adding fun lowers stress and gives us a common bond with team members. When we are having fun we develop new brain cells in areas devoted to learning and memory.

Some people might consider playing a game to be childish behavor…but there is a difference between “childlike” and “childish”. Childlike behavior leads to creativity and innovation while childish behavior can interfere with work. Distinguishing between the two is important.

Just for future reference, you can play Google Pac Man it any time by going to  http://www.google.com/pacman

To begin a game, click the “Insert Coin” button. If you want to play with two people, click the “Insert Coin” button twice and Ms. PAC-MAN will join in. PAC-MAN is controlled with arrow keys or by clicking on the maze. Ms. PAC-MAN is controlled with the WASD keys. You can mute the sound by clicking on the button in the lower left corner of the game.

If you have FileMaker Pro, download fmPacMan to play Pac Man in your database!

Just use it as a short break…not an addictive past time. Have fun!