new year’s resolutions | Tuesdays with Laurie

While walking through a parking lot, I saw two dogs trying really hard to look casual: one in the driver’s seat; the other, a backseat passenger. I imagined their whispered conversation:

Driver: You don’t think she sees us, do you?

Passenger: Nah.

Driver: It’s been a month. How ya doin’ with your New Year resolutions?

Passenger: Not good. You?

Driver: Me either, that’s why I fetched the truck keys.

Passenger: Where we goin’?

Driver: You know those drive-through windows our human gets bags of food from?

Passenger? Yeah.

Driver: I’m sick of the Dog Food Diet. No one will ever know we cheated. All our human does is pull up to the window, waits a minute, and then a bag of food gets handed out.

If you made them, how are you doing with your New Year resolutions?

Rather than make New Year’s resolutions, each year I select a single word to focus on in the upcoming year. In 2018 my focus word is ontology—the philosophical study of the nature of being, becoming, existence, or reality. I was first introduced to this word while reading Madeleine L’Engle’s nonfiction series, The Crosswicks Journals, and have been fascinated ever since.

Why ontology, you ask?

On July 10th of this year, my next book, The Business of Being: Soul Purpose In and Out of the Workplace hits the shelves.

This book isn’t just about being in business; it’s about the business of being. But when you stop to think about it, each us is like a small business.

Blending business and spirituality, The Business of Being demonstrates how to stand in alignment with your core values; it explores how to thrive, soul-side out, in and out of the workplace.

Here’s what two advance readers had to say:

“This gem of a book is really three books in one: a savvy guide to building a business, an engaging story of a boutique restaurant, and a coaching guide to living an intentional life. Chock full of quotes, stories, and examples, The Business of Being will help you be the person (and the business) you want to be. And in doing so, it shows you how to change the world—and have fun doing so. Bravo!” —RITA SEVER, author of Supervision Matters:100 Bite-Sized Ideas to Change You and Your Team

“Complete with recipes, the imaginative highlight of The Business of Being is the vibrant account of the founding and running of a French restaurant called La Mandarine Bleue. This book is a lucid, step-by-step guide to personal and professional success—with vichyssoise mixed in.” — KIRKUS REVIEWS

Do you have a focus word this year?

Tuesdays with Laurie

"Whatever you are not changing, you are choosing." —Laurie Buchanan

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A Dog’s Life

Ontology