Natasha Josefowitz

Natasha Josefowitz

Dr. Natasha Josefowitz was a professor of management for 30 years and is an internationally-known business consultant and keynote speaker. For ten years she had her own weekly program on public radio and a monthly television segment.

Dr. Josefowitz is the best-selling author and award-winning poet of 21 business and poetry books. Her articles and poems have been published in over a hundred newspapers, journals and magazines.

Natasha was inducted into the San Diego County Women’s Hall of Fame in 2015. She also received the Living Legacy Award from the Women’s International Center and was named as one of San Diego’s “Top Guns” by the San Diego Business Journal.

The Washington Post says:  “Natasha Josefowitz is helping her generation, and those that follow, find their way into a successful, meaningful and fun older age…her optimism about aging is inspiring.”

Her books, available on Amazon, are linked below:

*A Hundred Scoops of Ice Cream
*Been There, Done That, Doing It Better! A Witty Look at Growing Older by a Formerly Young Person
*Fitting In: How to Get a Good Start in Your New Job (coauthor: Herman Gadon)
*He Writes, She Writes—A Dialogue in Contrasting Views Written in Verse (with Irwin Zahn)
*If I Could Touch the Sky… and Other Poems in Children’s Voices
*If I Eat I feel Guilty, If I Don’t I’m Deprived… and Other Dilemmas of Daily Life
*In a Nutshell: Feminine Verse, Feminist Verse
*Is This Where I Was Going?
*Living Without the One You Cannot Live Without—Hope and Healing after Loss
*Managing Our Frantic Lives: A Humorous and Insightful Look at What Makes Our Lives So Hectic, with 10 Strategies for Coping
*Natasha’s Words for Families
*Natasha’s Words for Friends
*Natasha’s Words for Lovers
*Over the Hill and Loving the View: Poems to Celebrate Growing Older
*Paths to Power: A Woman’s Guide from First Job to Top Executive; Instructor’s Guide to Paths to Power
*People Management: How to Be an Effective Leader in the Workplace
*Retirement: Wise and Witty Advice for Making It the Next Great Adventure
*Sex and Power: Workplace Issues
*Sixteen New Ways for Women to Succeed at Work
*Too Wise to Want to Be Young Again: A Witty View of How to Stop Counting the Years and Start Living Them
*Women’s Secrets: Witty Insights into the Thoughts, Feelings, and Dreams of Women
*You’re the Boss: A Guide to Managing Diversity with Understanding and Effectiveness

Tales of the comforter, consultant and facilitator

 A while back, a young woman asked if she could come over and talk to me. She reads my columns and finds them useful. I was happy to help.

She came over, and we both sat down on my sofa. I asked her why she had come. She burst into tears. When she finally was able to speak, she told me that her long-term partner had left her. I was holding her hand as she spoke. [By Natasha Josefowitz, Ph.D, ACSW]

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Lifestyles, Natasha Josefowitz

Saying yes, when you really should say no

I do it; all my friends do it; everyone I know does it. “We all say “yes,” “OK,” “I’ll do it,” when we don’t want to. It can be a favor for a friend, additional work for an employer, a helping hand to a co-worker, an errand for a relative, a committee we don’t want to sit on, a fundraiser we don’t want to attend. Why do we say “yes” when we really mean “no”? Do women do it more often than men? I believe they do. After I have said, “yes,” agreed, committed myself, I often regret it. By then, it’s too late. If it is hard to say “no,” it is ten times harder to say, “I’ve changed my mind.” [Natasha Josefowitz, Ph,D]

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Lifestyles, Natasha Josefowitz

All you can do is cultivate your garden

Reading the headlines of The New York Times wreaked havoc with my immune system, my hippocampus, my cardiovascular system, or possibly all of the above. Did I need to know that Venezuela’s hospitals are lacking medicines or that there is no food on the shelves of grocery stores? That there is a terrible drought in Australia while fires are ravishing the country and cattle are dying from lack of water? That bad floods are inundating city streets in India? [By Natasha Josefowitz, Ph.D]

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Lifestyles, Natasha Josefowitz, San Diego County

Tired brains make default decisions

We are bombarded with constant decision-making, and our brains get tired. This explains why ordinarily sensible people buy junk food, splurge on unnecessary items, or procrastinate. Our brains begin to look for short cuts either by acting impulsively, not thinking through consequences, or by saving energy by doing nothing—avoiding making any decision—which could also lead to unintended consequences. Becoming aware that our brains are beginning to function by default, we can postpone whatever decision we were about to make. If your need is to decide now, give your brain some glucose and you’re good for another hour or so. [Natasha Josefowitz, Ph.D]

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Lifestyles, Natasha Josefowitz, Travel and Food

Human responses to seeing violence, destruction

Humans enjoy seeing violence. To wit: boxing. In Roman times, Christians thrown to the lions was entertainment seen by over 50,000 people in the Colosseum. Gladiators fighting to the death in the same arena had audiences cheering. In the Middle Ages, public hangings drew crowds. Centuries later, it was beheadings by guillotine and the burning of witches that drew onlookers. What was considered entertainment in the past would be seen as horrendous today. [Natasha Josefowitz, Ph.D]

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Lifestyles, Natasha Josefowitz, San Diego County

Can robots help elderly, lonely people?

We have a problem. A silver tsunami is coming our way. It is the baby boomer generation, that high curve on population charts, which has reached retirement age. Not only is our elderly population increasing—the largest growth is people age 85 and older and by 2050 the global population of 65+ year olds will have doubled—but the number of working-age people and fertility rates are shrinking. So, we will have more people needing care and assistance and fewer people available to provide these services. [Natasha Josefowitz, PhD]

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Lifestyles, Natasha Josefowitz

Friendships: welcome at any age

Besides food, water, sleep, and shelter, there is another crucial ingredient for survival—the need for friendship, for a connection with other humans. This need starts early in life and lasts throughout it. There are at least four stages in our lives with different friendship needs. School years, parenting, empty nesters and old age. Some friends can last a lifetime, however they need to grow with us over the years as our life circumstances change. My best friend from high school still calls me; she is the only one who remembers my parents. [Natasha Josefowitz, PhD]

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Lifestyles, Natasha Josefowitz

The misadventures of old age

I was eating breakfast when she ran up to me excitedly saying, “I’m here.” I had no idea who she was. My bewildered expression must have shown. She exclaimed, “It’s me.” Well, that didn’t help, so I fished for clues. “How have you been?” I asked trying to figure out who she is, all to no avail. She finally left, telling me that she would see me later. As I sat in front of my unfinished bowl of oatmeal, I wondered: Who was that? [Natasha Josefowitz, Phd]

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Lifestyles, Natasha Josefowitz

Connecting to ancestors and descendants

Humans have always been storytellers, whether around a firepit in some jungle or around a fireplace in an urban apartment, the children and grandchildren listen to the stories. They learn the sagas of their parents, their grandparents, and their grandparents’ grandparents, who became Indian chiefs or generals or were jailed and escaped or who started a business or a university. [Natasha Josefowitz, PhD]

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Jewish History, Lifestyles, Natasha Josefowitz

The impact of righteous or vengeful anger

Hoping something bad happens to the perpetrator is responding with revenge. This kind of anger is destructive and can escalate into violent confrontations. But there is also righteous anger. Anger can send a message that something really matters. When strong beliefs are at the foundation of a strong reaction, a fruitful dialogue can ensue which acknowledges the legitimacy of the anger and hopefully leads to a resolution. A parent’s angry message means the child has crossed a line. The boss’s angry tone indicates that the job may be at risk. An angry spouse demands more attention. [Natasha Josefowitz, PhD]

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Lifestyles, Natasha Josefowitz

Letting go of cherished beliefs

What is surprising is that facts have very little to do with changing people’s minds. Beliefs that have an emotional charge cannot be easily dislodged. We like to hold on to something that has been part of our belief system for a long time; change means we must negate what worked for us for many years, to accept that we had been wrong all those years. We tend to accept information that confirms what we believe and discard contradictory information even when presented as facts. We attach labels to genders, races, and cultures. [Natasha Josefowitz, Ph.D]

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Lifestyles, Natasha Josefowitz

‘Finding purpose’ may be overrated

A few weeks ago, I got a call from the director of a senior center asking me to give a talk. I have several topics I often lecture on; for seniors it is usually about some aspect of aging. However, the director had a specific subject in mind: could I talk about giving seniors a purpose? So the first thing I did was to research this topic. I found several articles on the subject; every one of them linked better health and longevity to having a purpose. Somehow this did not feel right; I wondered whether it was semantics. [Natasha Josefowitz, PhD]

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Lifestyles, Natasha Josefowitz