She's a networking fanatic!

It was the second Monday of the month and Sami completed all of her school work super early so she could do what she enjoys....network at the DFW PR event! Her fan base is growing by leaps and bounds!

First she met up with Patrick Dougher of The Implementers Corner radio show.

Then she networked a bit with Cheryl Jackson of the Giving Tree in Dallas.

All the while, photos were being snapped by "The Crazy Picture Guy"

http://www.crazypictureguy.com/
He's amazing...his work is amazing and most of all, he has a heart of gold and Sami said she was so honored to know that he was just a few steps away watching over her (thanks so much Scott!)

We'll see you all again next month!
Caryn

What an honor!

Today I received the most blessed of emails from Sherri Walker. She shared with me that I had been choosen for a special honor on her site...take a peek....

http://woman2womanlounge.wordpress.com/2008/02/13/caryn-gottlieb-fitzgerald/

Thank you Sherri! You are a blessing!

Caryn

"Fish Sticks" is book of the month!

We are excited to learn that "Fish Sticks, Books and Blue Jeans - Teaching kids to be thankful for everything (yes, even Fish Sticks) everyday!" has been selected as Book of the Month on the Woman2Woman Lounge!

Read all about it here:

http://www.freewebs.com/woman2womanlounge/bookofthemonth.htm

Sami's radio interviews now on press page!

Sami's interview from Impact Texas (99.5 the Wolf) and The Implementers Corner radio shows are now on Sami's press page at: http://www.samifitzgerald.com/presspage.htm

Happiness Is a Fish Stick

Have you noticed that this year we have a spate of books on happiness?

From Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment by Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar to The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want by Sonja Lyubominsky, there is an interesting trend to studying and somehow quantifying happiness. Is it like one of those pain charts in the hospital? When asked how happy we are, we will be able to point to the appropriate happy face representation on the happiness scale.


Marci Shimoff and Carol Kline have even boiled happiness down to 7 easy steps (Happy for No Reason: 7 Steps to Being Happy from the Inside Out). And why? Why is our pursuit of happiness (our right as Americans as set forth in the Constitution!) now taking a scientific turn? Is the hope to develop an easy answer? A happy pill? I wonder if we were truly happy, would we need to go search for ways to achieve happiness? Is it only the happy who get happier (like the rich get richer)? Then why aren’t we happy?


Daniel Gilbert, NPR correspondent, has written a book called The Geography of Bliss in which he travels to places around the world known to be the most and least happy. His findings are interesting. The extremely wealthy inhabitants of Qatar are unhappy but the impoverished Bhutanese are very happy. So maybe money makes you sad.


Gilbert interviewed an Icelander (happy place) about his belief in elves and the man replies, “I don’t know if I believe in them, but other people do and my life is richer for it.” So maybe being surrounded by elf-acolytes makes you happy.


Now before you turn off your computer, give away all your money and start searching your garden for elves, let’s think about what it may really take to be happy.


I think (in my non-scientific opinion) that people are happy when they are happy with what they have. I think people are happy when they believe in something bigger then themselves—when they are not the center of their own universe, when others are not looked at solely for comparison purposes, when satisfaction is achieved by competing with oneself and not by besting our neighbors.


Nothing ground-breaking there, but it is much easier said than done. So, aside from moving to Iceland or Bhutan, what are we to do? How do we find our own “happy place?”


Caryn Fitzgerald, mother of six-year old Sami, thinks her daughter has the key. Together, Caryn and Sami have written Fish Sticks, Books and Blue Jeans. It’s a gratitude workbook. Sami’s parents are network marketing professionals and they attend many motivational seminars and bring their daughter along. It was at these seminars that Sami was introduced to various motivational materials and one day asked her mother for a gratitude workbook appropriate for a child. When they couldn’t find one, Sami decided to write her own, after all, Sami said “Mr. Mark (referring to Mark Victor Hansen of the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” series) said ‘you can make it yourself’ so that’s what I’m going to do.”


Sami’s mom told me that what started as just a project for Sami, soon became much larger than either expected. Friends who were tired of hearing “Mommy buy me” started asking, “Please, can we have a copy?”


One thing led to another and now Fish Sticks, Books and Blue Jeans is available on Amazon.com. Sami does radio and television interviews and is currently on a book tour. Caryn shared what it’s like to watch Sami read from her book to a group of students and encouraging the kids to answer the questions—it quickly morphs into a lovely peer group. Sami does have one minor complaint. Sometimes her hand gets tired from signing so many autographs!


I’ll admit, I was a little leery when Caryn first contacted me. I’m not one for this type of book. You’ll find no copy of The Secret (book or dvd) at my house. “Put positive energy out into the universe” messages merely make me roll my eyes. But this was a little girl (and her mom is an MJM Yenta!) …so I set aside my snarkiness and looked at the book with an open heart.


I think there’s something to it. We could all benefit from focusing a little less on what we don’t have and a little more on what we do. And Sami’s book helps children focus daily on the good and happy already in their lives with affirmations like “Food nourishes my body. I deserve to give my body and mind nutritious food everyday.” And “Laughter makes me feel good. Some of the people or things that make me laugh are: (fill in the blank).” It’s truly a lovely idea beautifully executed. I recommend it for children (and their parents!)


It seems it took a 6-year old to uncover the secret to happiness—it’s not about elves or wealth, it’s about looking at the world in a positive way. As the Greek philosopher Epictetus said, “We are disturbed not by events, but by the views that we take of them.”

_________________

Meredith Jacobs is author of The Modern Jewish Mom's Guide to Shabbat (HarperCollins) and co-founder and editor of http://www.modernjewishmom.com/.