"Swamped?" Monday's Warm Cocoa 10.29.2026

“I am here today to cross the swamp, not to fight all the alligators.”

- Rosamund and Benjamin Zander

Swamped?

“Surround yourself with the best people you can find,” Chris Leader reminded me during our weekly meeting, before evoking his youthful experience of how to defeat the feeling of being overwhelmed.

“I was hired to go to Foster’s Farm to pick strawberries,” was Chris’ memory nudge.

He was part of a crew hired to harvest a vast field of strawberries. As the team looked toward the un-seeable end of the vast field, they were completely overwhelmed.

“Forget about what Old Man Foster said,” the supervisor advised, as soon as Mr. Foster left the field. 

Then, that field-boss picked up a stick and threw it into the field as far as he could. 

“Just pick to the stick,” he encouraged. 

The crew picked to the stick and when they reached the stick, the boss picked up the stick and threw it again. They did that until the end of the day. And, you know what? They had picked every strawberry in the field! Their supervisor had effectively demonstrated the powerful principle of compounding effort.

Doing what you need to do every day compounds upon itself. It allows you to change your life and get what you want, a little bit at a time. It is an easy principle to understand, but there is one thing you need to do to get yourself to really do it.

You have to sell the actuality of the principle to yourself before you’ll be able to motivate yourself to do it! To do this, remember that stick, the trigger, in Foster’s field! Set triggers every day, with alarms, to remind you to do the things you said you’d do. Push yourself by causing the measuring stick to live in your calendar. Build step by step.

Build habits. Habits build character and character creates the life you’ve dreamed of. And, don’t forget the power of that Foster Farm crew who worked together to conquer all of that picking to the stick.

Surround yourself with the best and smartest people you can find! They’ll help you reach that stick. They’ll support you, help keep you disciplined, give you courage to never surrender and get you over the finish line. 

What would you like to experience before the end of next year? Better health? Become more spiritually attuned? Strengthen family ties? Increase your financial security? Now is the time to think about what you really want in life.

Give yourself ambitions to make you excited to crawl out of that stagnant swamp!

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I’m Lynn Butterfield, Real Estate & Lifestyle Expert and Television Host for American Dream TV. I’ve helped hundreds of Buyers and Sellers, as an Associate Broker with Coldwell Banker, to discover where and how they want to live and work; to achieve what I call Realesation™. That’s why I bring you American Dream TV, Monday’s Warm Cocoa and Home by Design Magazine to stir your heart and mind. Contact me so I can join you along your own unique path of discovery.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QSH7-aW2Cvsr6S7v_4hVFBWjxnvvLr-f/view?usp=sharing

"Intentional Sailing" Monday's Warm Cocoa 10.12.2026

“Watching a video or reading about something is not the same as experiencing it.” – Zsolt Gomory

Intentional Sailing

“Most people who offer to take you sailing learned from a book or YouTube video,” Zsolt Gomory said, not more than a few feet in front of me. 

But, that’s not how he learned! His expertise was created as a result of years-long, real-life, passionate experience. Leading him to become a three-time Hungarian National Sailing Champion. Now, many years later, his passion remains, though his location has changed.

A few years ago, Zsolt decided to bring his world-class sailing and coaching expertise to Grand Lake in Oklahoma and to nearby Beaver Lake in Northwest Arkansas. When he started his company, AROK, his objective wasn’t to arrive in a new place just to impress others with his sailing and competition resume. He wanted to give others the feel of what sailing actually is, by putting a boat’s wheel and sheets into new hands. He lives with the hope of igniting new-felt passion.

Today, his company, AROK Sailing School & Cruises, offers private sailing instruction for beginners and experienced sailors alike. He also offers cruise packages for adults and kids. Zsolt wants his customers to learn or just enjoy the ride. Whatever his customers interest, he intends to make sure they leave the dock with more than they brought to it.

He is a firm believer in what he calls, intentional living. And, he created a simple three step method to assist others to benefit from such living. He calls his method, “CTL,” which is an acronym for “control.” How does he help others to intentionally-control what they can in their lives?

First, he offers an invitation, “come aboard.” He asks all who’d like to, to come aboard one of his boats.

“All I ask is that they take the first step off the dock toward opportunity.” 

Once on the boat he makes another invitation. “Take part.” 

“There is something about using more than one or two senses,” Zsolt explains. “When you feel the steel wheel, hear fluttering sails and experience the visual beauty of water in combination with the horizon, it imprints passion onto your soul!”

Imprinting is Zsolt’s objective. He does this by allowing his students to “learn as you go.” Others may call this practice. But Zsolt says, “that word, practice, can often leave people feeling as if, what they first felt passion for has become drudgery. If that happens, one begins to suffer from intentional avoidance! What’s the fun in that?”

“Intentional sailing is about loving life, by making it the way you want it to be!”

Take CTL and enjoy your sail.

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I’m Lynn Butterfield, Real Estate & Lifestyle Expert and Television Host for American Dream TV. I’ve helped hundreds of Buyers and Sellers, as an Associate Broker with Coldwell Banker, to discover where and how they want to live and work; to achieve what I call Realesation™. That’s why I bring you American Dream TV, Monday’s Warm Cocoa and Home by Design Magazine to stir your heart and mind. Contact me so I can join you along your own unique path of discovery.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QSH7-aW2Cvsr6S7v_4hVFBWjxnvvLr-f/view?usp=sharing

Curated, Monday's Warm Cocoa, 10.5.2026

“Good afternoon! Will you please let your wife know a gift has been delivered to her front door.” – Hannah Carlson

Curated

He looked down at the text message on his phone. “Good afternoon! Will you please let your wife know a gift has been delivered to her front door?” 

The message there was a complete surprise. Yet, he didn’t hesitate to call his ailing wife to see if she was strong enough to walk to their front door. Since he wasn’t home with her. She did have the strength and as she walked, the two stayed on the phone together.

That telephone connection tied the two together as she opened their front door. When the front door swung open, to reveal the now gift-occupied porch, she let out an audible gasp. It was a breath of surprised-gratitude at the sight of the beautifully displayed gift basket resting on the porch.

She reverently picked the gift basket up and carried it into the house, before asking her husband, “can you please connect us using FaceTime so I can share this with you?”

Her husband touched his phone screen and the two were instantly connected visually.

“This is so amazing! Hannah curated this gift with such care,” she said as tears welled-up, causing her eyes to glisten as if they were filled with sparkling diamonds.

The two explored each handpicked item in the basket together with building emotion. After-all, they had been battling the wife’s illness together for many months.

“This is so unexpected,” the husband said to his wife in a whisper. “It’s easy for others to forget, to move forward with their own lives, as long-term illness continues to claim its victims. We have not been forgotten!”

Each selection in the basket testified that the givers had done more than simply remember their struggling friends. Each piece demonstrated their understanding of the physical and emotional toll affecting their friends. It reflected their deep commitment to aid, comfort and stand by their loved friends. The offering was an exhibition of the word curated.

One most often thinks of curation as being limited to a specific type of public showing. The showing of historical artifacts in a museum, a collection of an artist’s displayed paintings, or formally presented photographic collections. But, this week Hannah, Ryan and Emory Carlson amplified and personalized the understanding of curation. 

They established curation to be equally narrated as a personalized expression of human love.

Hannah articulated this reality perfectly as she responded, to the recipient-husband’s message of gratitude, by saying, “We love her and you.”

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I’m Lynn Butterfield, Real Estate & Lifestyle Expert and Television Host for American Dream TV. I’ve helped hundreds of Buyers and Sellers, as an Associate Broker with Coldwell Banker, to discover where and how they want to live and work; to achieve what I call Realesation™. That’s why I bring you American Dream TV, Monday’s Warm Cocoa and Home by Design Magazine to stir your heart and mind. Contact me so I can join you along your own unique path of discovery.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QSH7-aW2Cvsr6S7v_4hVFBWjxnvvLr-f/view?usp=sharing