Well, we're coming up to the end of another year, and it's time for a brief sabbatical. I'll be taking the next two weeks to concentrate on family and friends and to rest and reflect on the year ahead.

Thank you to Win-Win Web readers from all over the world for dropping by to visit and making this year a very special one for me. I look forward to returning on January 2 for a new year filled with new learning, new joy, and new adventures.

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A special thanks to Dwayne Melancon of Genuine Curiosity for this photo submission to the Scavenger Hunt.

Dick Richards over at On Genius recently posted an article entitled Subjects, Objects and Victims. In the article, he talks about recognizing our responsibility for our own emotions. For the most part, I agree. We are responsible for our own emotions. But what I find interesting - and profoundly important - is exactly how we can use that responsibility to take control of our emotional life.

What is the true value of a life mission? It unites our nature in a common purpose. It is both what we SEEK and how we CONNECT to the world at the same time. It is the gateway into success and fulfillment in every aspect of our lives.

In the introduction to this blog, I began to discuss the ideas of our SEEKING and our SOCIAL natures as human beings. Our life mission integrates the two into a cohesive whole.

Note to self: remember to start Christmas shopping early next year! Try to remember what it is like to enter into the public arena on any weekend in December, and remember therefore to avoid the experience at any and all costs. Also remember that your family is growing and Christmas shopping is not the simple affair it once was. Two or three weeks just isn't going to cut it any more.

Proposed implementation plan for Christmas Shopping 2006:

November 1 - Make Christmas List of Friends & Relatives
Halloween is over. Move on. Also, skip Thanksgiving - there's no time. If travel is possible, visit Mom & Dad for turkey and stuffing. Mom makes a far better Thanksgiving dinner than I would anyway. If travel is impossible, forget the turkey. Eat at Waffle House.

International Crafts

Today's marketplace is truly international, but not everyone benefits equally in the global arena. The least we can do as consumers is try to promote fair treatment of those who may be unable to negotiate prices or other contract terms on an "equal footing" with international conglomerates. (And let's face it, that's just about everyone.)

If my life mission leaves me lots of options, how can I narrow down my choices?

In my last post on life missions, I talked about aligning your career with your life mission. The idea is to choose a career path in which simply living your life mission every day will naturally and inevitably bring you success. But as I also pointed out in that article, your life mission can do that in more than one career!

Responsible Jewelry

I've been inspired by the holiday season (and by last night's blog maintenance) to add one more category to the list: The Upside of Shopping.

I'm going to use this section of the blog to highlight companies that are making a difference - not just companies that have foundation "arms" or do charitable "public relations" works from time to time, but companies that exist specifically in order to accomplish a vision of positive change in the world.

First up, I'd like to introduce you to greenKarat Ecojewelry.

How can you leverage your life mission into career success?

I like to say that the greatest strength of a thing is also its greatest weakness. What makes something especially good at doing one thing will often make it especially bad at doing the opposite. Take a fish, for example. A fish is especially good at thriving in an aquatic environment. It can breathe underwater, and it can swim like... well... like a fish. But take it out of its natural environment and plop it unceremoniously on dry land, and it will be about as successful at surviving as... well... as a fish out of water! (Hey, these similes are cliches for a reason.)

U.S. Highway 46

Like my own father, my mother’s father was also a creative soul. At times a farmer, at times a carpenter, he brought forth many fine things into the world. He took pride in his craftsmanship, he took pride in his eleven children, and he took pride in a Native American heritage that he could never prove. But what I remember most vividly about my grandfather is the time he spent on U.S. Highway 46.