Cynthia D’Amour on Leadership and Life

   As in stop the mail train I need to get off!
I don’t know about you but it seems like my email has been taking steroids lately.

I’ve got strong filters in place - so it’s not a lot of typical spam.
I enjoy reading certain e-newsletters I subscribed to.
I LOVE getting email from friends and clients.

The annoying [...]

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   And all in one dish.
James loves to cook. Tonight he tested a new chili recipe on me.
Usually I’m up for whatever he whips up - but tonight he had a real oddball combination in the works…

Cinnamon
Dark Chocolate
Chipotle Pepper

Not exactly what I would expect in a chili dish.
I’ll admit I was rather skeptical - and [...]

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   James was almost crying!
Tonight James had Nashville Hot Fried Chicken at Zingerman’s Roadhouse.
Normally, James can’t find anything spicy enough - well he did tonight!
I laughed as Mr. ”This Isn’t So Hot” almost wept due to the fire in his mouth!
(James brought home leftovers so he can light up tomorrow too.)
Zingerman’s promised hot chicken - and delivered [...]

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  Miss Michigan  - make that Miss America!
After writing about the Miss America reality show and getting the inside scoop in a comment from one of the executive directors, I had to watch the pageant on Saturday.
The attempt to be hip was different…

The contestants wore jeans for their introductions.
Eliminations felt more reality show - than pageant.
When [...]

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  Kevin Holland tagged me.
In the blog world, bloggers sometimes play tag - similar to the game you may have played as a kid.
In this game, I’ve been challened to share eight things you may not know about me.
Given I encourage leaders to play together on the Chapter Leaders Playground, I had no choice but [...]

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   At first, it was a little shocking - and then sort of funny in a warped way…
I got a request to complete a survey for an association I belong to.
The email started out telling me that while I get tons of survey requests, I needed to make this one a priority.
However, they did not provide any [...]

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  Who was right?
I’m not sure either of us was.
The other day I had to get my finger pricked for a blood test. The nurse put a spiffy cartoon bandage on my finger.
Not having kids, this was quite the novelty for me.
I drove home and showed James my cute “Walrus” bandage.
“Walrus?” he exclaimed, “That’s Daffy [...]

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  Or a reality check after relaxing…
On Friday I wrote about feeling sort of blue due a committee meeting being planned without any input about my availability.

Was I overreacting?
Would a few days off make a difference?

After a weekend of relaxing, I still get a twinge from the situation…

Was it life or death? No
Was my ego in [...]

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