gotohealth's Blog

The first time I took the Panas test, I came out to be the Mad Scientist. Taking it several times on different days, I am a Cheer Leader most of the time with higher than average positive assessments and lower than average negative feeling assesments of my feelings. 

 

I do not go around with a "rah rah" voice, but it is easy for me to smile and be enthusiastic when I speak to audiences. At home, I rarely shout and mostly be quiet and listen. In my early gradeschool years, I was willing to raise my hand and answer questions, but in junior high and high school I was very mousy. I kind of blossomed in college and gained confidence to become a leader in my adult life. Arthur Brooks writes in his book BUILD THE LIFE YOU WANT that everyone wants to be a cheer leader, but it takes practice and needs all four connections.

 

I live with a daughter who came back to the house where she grew up five years ago. My guess is that she is a Judge with low positive feelings and low negative feelings; especially with her divorce. In high school she was a class leader and has owned her own "gotomedia" busines since 2000.  Brooks writes that a Judge makes a good surgeon or spy. She is a good parent and a succesful business owner as well as being the author of a best selling book WORKFLOW.

 

My older granddaughter who came to live with me is for sure a Cheer Leader but needs a lot of emotional self-management. She has a good head on her shoulders, but it is hard for me to watch her desire to get hits on social media. Fortunately, she is learning by making several of her mistakes while she is "home" in a safe place.

 

My second granddaughter is for sure a Poet. Somehow she was born with the ability to self-manage her high negative outbursts. As soon as she could walk she would take herself to her room for about five or ten minutes and come out ready to tackle the next event in her day. It was amazing. 

 

My husband was absolutely a quiet Mad Scientist and Poet. He was a new student when his family moved to Nampa, ID, his junior year. He was voted Vice President of his class of 400 students. He was an amazing partner for our 56 years. Our Japanese heritage was important in our life together with a clear goal of passing on our stories to the next generation with books and his cartoon strips. Go to seattlesamurai.com for info about his art and life.

 

LIFE is a privilege and more fun as we learn to practice being "HAPPIER"! 

I just spent an hour writing about my experience with the Panas Test and lost it all. I will wait a while and try to explain my story later today. Darn, I must not have pushed "Save" at the right time? I think I need to push "save regularly as I'm writing?

 

On the other hand, this is probably a good example of how I deal with life. I'm feeling drained and distraught and upset. I want to give myself a break. So, I go to a habit that I have aquired to assuage my loneliness since my husband passed seven years ago. That is to listen to YouTube Podcasts. I have a bunch of favorites, but I have not subscribed because I scroll through and settle on one that is interesting to me at the time. 

 

I find that I'm spontaneously directed to one that is interesting and often it's just answering a question I had awakening. My daughter says it's an algorithm and discounts my definition of "it was meant to be". 

 

When I lost all that I had blogged earlier this morning, I gave myself a break and found this interview with Alex Karp "Fight For the West". Alexander Caedmon Karp was born on October 2, 1967, in New York City,[2][3] the son of Robert Karp, a Jewish clinical pediatrician, and Leah Jaynes Karp, an African American artist.[4][5] He was raised in Philadelphia and graduated from Central High School in 1985.[6][7] He has said he struggled with dyslexia from an early age. He is an American billionaire businessman, and the co-founder and CEO of the software firm Palantir Technologies. In 2025 his net worth has at times exceeded US$10 billion, ranking him among the top 300 on the daily Bloomberg Billionaires Index and the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires Index. I will come back to this posting after I listen to some more of his story.

 

I'm resonating with the fact that he has embarked on studying something that is part of what he decided was his purpose in life with also convincing his Jewish parent that making money was not important and chose to live beneath his means. First, he had the handicap of overcoming dislexia.

 

Alex wrote his book over a year ago, but he is most proud of the fact that it has become so currently relevant. Karp is the co-author, along with Nicholas Zamiska, of The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West.

 

I am excited to hear how Alex views DOGE. He labels himself a Progressive Democrat and values the constitution of the USA. I too believe that WOKE has gone too far, but Universities is where we learn divergent thinking and is necessary.

 

I like his support of European Vocational High Schools for education. He spent a lot of time in Germany. I like that he is open to the battle of ideas.

 

I'm spending the day listening to conversations with Arthur Brooks. He teaches a Happiness course at Harvard. His latest book is BUILD A LIFE YOU WANT. 

 

I am making a plan to learn to share HAPPIERNESS this year and adding it to my purpose in life of LEAVING A LEGACY with my work on OMOIDE and our Goto-Health program that we started way back in 1976 with HEAL-THY-SELF translating to the HEALTHY SELF benefits I am experiencing at age 86. 

 

I am assuming I will live to 100-years-of age with the 700,000 that are alive today at that age. So what kind of life do I want at that time?

 

Keep reading to learn what I am learning as I add to my repretoire this next few months.

 

 

It's six AM and Kirin has left for Drill Team practice which occurs four days a week. I will ask her to give me the names of the other four students. 

 

Congratulations!

The Seattle Rep Theater lost 17 salaried positions so they are not able to help us share our stories this year.

 

Omoide started in my kitchen over 30 years ago. Here we are, another year of meeting once a month, giving ourselves a deadline so we get our stories down on paper. Then we get together for sharing, editing and taking breaks for yummy treats. 

 

More and more research from places like Harvard and Stanford is saying that story sharing and writing is one of the activities that bring "happiness and fulfillment". 

 

It makes me smile!!!

Today, I'm listening to a good friend, Andrew, talk about 'fingerprints'.  In his home remodeling business, he makes sure the chrome and mirrors of the home are wiped clean as they leave each job. It's a fun party game to randomly discuss and analyze the various interpretations. But the most important part of the discussion about 'fingerprints' is that each of us have a unque set. 

 

It's becoming 'the thing' to work on finding the story of who we are as we listen to speakers and lecturers around the country. I work to avoid falling into popular ideas, heroes of the month and such, but I'm interested in finding and writing down what I decide is the real me. As I mentioned in a previous blog, I've enrolled in a class by Dr. Margot McKinnon DOMINANCE THEORY.  I'm having a good time answering her questions to determine my own scale of the five personality types she describes. I'm learning that I am very purpose driven.

 

When my husband, Sam, was alive; we decided the most important purpose in our lives was to leave a legacy for our great grandchildren. Therefore, that purpose has culminated into several books we have written. 

 

Since my husband has been gone, I find myself on a new path of learning. It still includes leaving a legacy. But I'm open to including more learning and finding new aspects of that legacy!!

 

Andrew messages me his Monday Morning thoughts and I'm passing some of it on with this blog. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO HAVE WHORLS? How can I benefit others by sharing what I learn? It's also researched and proven that giving service with our purpose leads to being HAPPY. It's a lot of fun to explore how all this fits into who I am and how all this translates into how I live this human life?!? 

 

Thank you Andrew.