Day 157: Sandy Witman

March 6, 2010 at 12:01 am, Category: Inspiration

“I think when people can think in those terms of what the possibilities are instead of what the obstacles might be, that it totally opens their minds and their thoughts to what can be done instead of what cannot be done.”

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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Sandy, for agreeing to be part of the Project today, and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?

Sandy Witman: Hi, this is Sandy Witman, and I live outside of Reading, Pennsylvania, and I am a business consulting manager for one of the major food distributors in the country.

Toni: Well thank you, Sandy, and thanks for being here today.  Well, let’s go right to that very first question, which is who do you inspire, Sandy, and how do you do that?

Sandy: The first person that I came up with when we starting talking about this is my daughter.  She’s in her early thirties, a teacher, a mother, and we’re at the point now where I think I can be a great inspiration to her on a daily and weekly basis.

Toni: How does that happen, do you think?

Sandy: I think it happens because she is at the point now where she has no issues picking up the phone and calling her mother and asking for, not necessarily advice, just some input on what’s going on with her in her life.

Toni: Do you also believe then you inspire people at work as well?

Sandy: Absolutely.  My coworkers are a real key part of my life day in and day out, and we spend a lot of time together physically as well as on the phone.  and in the business that we’re in, which is totally sales oriented and customer relation oriented, I think I have a fairly large impact on how they proceed through the day, especially when they’re running into obstacles.

Toni: So how do you impact that?  How do you inspire them?

Sandy: I try to turn around whatever might be the negative message that they are talking about into a positive and take it from there.

Toni: How do you think being that way with your daughter and inspiring your daughter, inspiring people that you work with, how do you think then that that helps to explore their potential?

Sandy: I think when people can think in those terms of what the possibilities are instead of what the obstacles might be, that it totally opens their minds and their thoughts to what can be done instead of what cannot be done.

Toni: Do you think that’s hard to get that message across to people?

Sandy: It’s more difficult with some people than other people, but I can say from my years of doing what I do that, at this point, a lot of the people that I deal with on a daily basis know that they’re probably going to get that kind of input from me, so I think when they pick up the phone and call they might be waiting for “okay, how can we turn this one around?”

Toni: So it’s … don’t bother me with staying in the negative place, because we’re going to move towards the positive.

Sandy: Absolutely.

Toni: We don’t have time for this right now.

Sandy: There’s no time for negativity.

Toni: That’s right.

Sandy: No, there’s not.

Toni: Move forward.  Well that’s fantastic.  So what do you need to be inspired, Sandy?

Sandy: What I need are things that probably don’t relate to a lot of the work and a lot of the friends and family.  I believe that we all have the potential to be really great people, and I think we have to look at that sometimes.  And we have the potential to help others be great people, and that’s how I try to step back, listen to the stories, listen to my own stories, and reflect on that and figure out what I can learn from those experiences.

Toni: Yours and others.

Sandy: Mine and others, yeah.

Toni: When you find yourself at a place where you go “Oh, I’m walking into a huge negativity festival here,” what do you seek for yourself in order to fill your inspiration up so that you can then provide that to others?  What do you have to do for yourself?

Sandy: What I do for myself is just take a few minutes and kind of look inside and look at my strong points as well as maybe some of my weak points and kind of put my mini-plan together before I walk through the door.

Toni: Now, are there certain tools or methodologies that you seem to consistently reach for when you are seeking inspiration?

Sandy: Yes.  I do a lot of reading about these topics.  I do meditation every day which truly helps me, as well as the yoga that I do on an ongoing basis.  I think all of those just contribute to a feeling of being able to feel calm most of the time in spite of what might be coming my direction.

Toni: So this possibility thinking and the way that you work by taking a very difficult situation and turning it into a positive, have you always been that way, Sandy?  Is that the way you’ve always looked at life?

Sandy: I would have to say that this is something that’s developed over the years, and I think I’ve always been since a young girl a pretty positive person, but I think going through life and having the experiences happen that happen to all of us has made me just be more cognizant of what I can do personally to approach things with a positive attitude.

Toni: So it’s looking at your own ownership in that.

Sandy: Yes, absolutely.

Toni: Taking personal control in that area.  A lot of people do not realize that they have that power to take that personal control to be aware so that they can not only do it for themselves but for others, and it sounds like you’ve really taken grasp of that.

Sandy: I think I have, and I think I have been able to pass that on in quiet ways to a lot of other people, and that’s a real gift for me to be able to do that.

Toni: Wow.  So how do you explore your own potential?

Sandy: I spend a lot of time looking outside of myself and what’s available out there, and the resources that are available are pretty unbelievable, and just kind of focusing on “Okay, what do I think I might need right now to help me?”  And that could be literature, that could be friends, that could be a seminar, whatever it happens to be.

Toni: Where do you see yourself applying what you do to explore your own potential that can then correlate to what you do for others?

Sandy: I think I have a good ability to internalize what I absorb at least, you know, partially, and take that and pass it on to other people, and that feels like a real gift to me to be able to do that.

Toni: To pass on that experience and knowledge?

Sandy: Yes.

Toni: Wow.  So what I’m hearing from you, Sandy, is that, you know, it doesn’t matter what you go through in your life, and you know, you may have gone through difficult situations yourself, but the place that you’re at now with your daughter, with your coworkers, with yourself is to be aware, to stay aware, and to learn and do the things that you need to do so that you can be present and help these people turn the negative into the positive.

Sandy: That’s it.  That was a great summation.

Toni: Well thank you for that.  I really appreciate you giving your time today to be part of the Project, and we wish you the best of luck.  Thank you so much, Sandy.

Sandy: Thank you so much.

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For more information about Sandy Witman:  switman2@verizon.net

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