Women in the LEAD

“Where Does Your Time Go?”

Being mindfully focused is actually a more energy efficient state of living and working.  The little bit of energy that you invest in staying mindful is far less than all the energy you burn up in the tension and distraction of ordinary mindless living.  Just consider this:  If you’re an average American adult, over a lifetime you’d spend approximately:

• Five years waiting in line,
• Four years doing household chores,
• Three years in meetings,
• One year watching T.V. commercials,

Although many of us feel that all we do is work, If you are like the average person, your attention is specifically focused on work-related tasks for only about thirty hours a week, and you spend approximately ten or more hours a week doing things irrelevant to your job while you’re at work, such as daydreaming or talking with your coworkers about non-job-related things.  You spend nearly as much time—approximately twenty hours each week—with your attention turned toward leisure activities, with about seven hours in front of the television, three hours reading, two hours in activities like working out or playing music, and about seven hours in social activities with family and friends, or going to parties or to entertainment.  The remaining waking hours of your week are invested in basic maintenance activities such as commuting, eating, cooking, washing, shopping, puttering around, or in unstructured free time activities like just listening to music.

                                                                           “Living in Balance” m Joel Levey & Michelle Levey

One of my greatest lessons these day has been to  gain greater awareness  regarding how I spend time.

Where do you feel life/time is mindlessly slipping by you?

Where do you now believe that you do not have enough time in you life?

What would you now like to make more time for in your life?

Go for it!!!

Maureen Simon

                                                               

Fire, Truth and Life –What is the Relationship?

“Three things which are always increasing:  the light of fire, the intelligence of truth, the life of existence—these are victorious over all things and are the end of darkness.”

                                                                 Welsh Triad--Trans. Caitlin Matthews

Where in your life do you need more:

§         Light of fire.

§         Intelligence of truth

In many wisdom traditions light and truth equal life. Sometimes it can be very useful to ask yourself some very primal questions…listen closely for the answer.

Enjoy!

                                                                                    Maureen Simon 

WOMEN: Moving from AGGRESSION to HEALING

With the tragedies we've experienced across the world, it is clear that our neighborhoods, communities, countries and the world are in bad need of HEALING. Women have long been recognized for their healing nature. Helen Fisher, anthropologist at Rutgers University and author of THE FIRST SEX: The Natural Talents of Women and How They Are Changing the World, who I mentioned in a my previous post on women looking inside to examine ourselves, also tells us that women bring innate talents to our jobs and lives, including a natural emotional expressivity, empathy, a tendency to nurture and a capacity for patience.

In a world that has become so broadly driven by more and more aggression, Helen Fisher again tells us in her book some interesting facts. One that we witness is that men continue to be more violent than women in places culturally different as Botswana, Brazil, Canada, India, Kenya, Mexico, Scotland and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire). Based what we've all witnessed since Helen wrote the book, I would have to add the United States, UK, Iraq, Iran, Nigeria, just to name a few hot spots of violence.

Helen as also affirms that nowhere in the world are women as physically aggressive as men. However, she does point out we are far from innocent --- we can be catty, demeaning, bitter and abusive to one another's face and slanderous behind each other's backs, but few of us are prone to physical attacks. Helen goes on to state that "some scientists have argued that women and females of other primate species are just as aggressive as males, they just express it differently." This is where I must say I find my thinking...

We are all capable of dishonoring one another, aren't we?
...and we have a wide range of ways to go about it.

SO WHAT'S OUR OPPORTUNITY AS WOMEN?
Knowing we have the capacity to be either aggressive or healing, I see that women have a tremendous opportunity to heal the world that today is so inflamed with violence in every corner --- not just wars and rumors of wars, but it has permeated every aspect of our daily lives. Check out the listings for your local theater, look online at the news, look closely at the computer games your children are playing, count how many TV programs are full of violence each day or search Google for "violence" and you'll surely get a heightened glimpse at how we have desensitized ourselves and allowed a real lust for violent behavior, greed and aggression toward one another to be seductive in our lives---so much so, most of us hardly notice anymore.

There were three specific things that have served as wake-up calls for me. 1). The other night I watched a trailer for a new animated movie about fast food. Even in this movie rated PG Comedy, violent behavior is a core element of the film --- shooting, beating, smashing. 2) Recently, I saw a brief mention of the popularity of a Christian video game that is "selling like hotcakes." It has soldiers kneeling to pray before they go to out to shoot, kill, maim, and blow-up people and their homes and cities. I found myself asking, Who is it that Jesus would ask us to kill or bomb? 3.) Great sages like Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. told us that violence begets violence. We certainly are seeing the manifestation of this truth. Meanwhile, the most powerful leaders of the world are thriving on AGGRESSION and VIOLENCE right now --- killing thousands and thousands, turned millions of deaths, injured and displaced --- while the profiteers line their pockets and most of us sit helplessly watching or ignoring.

IGNITING THE POWER OF OUR HEALING TRAITS
To me the opportunity for us as women is for us to ignite the positive influence of our healing traits, using them wherever we go, leaving a positive footprint with each step we take, each room we enter, each occasion we attend; touching each place with our healing blessing of peace. In a reading from DailyOM online, they wrote about this idea of blessing space whenever we go:

"Physical space acts like a sponge, absorbing the radiant of all who pass through it. When you bless a room or an entire building, you leave a powerful message of love and light for all those who will come after you....Your affirmative energy footprint will help brighten your day as you contemplate your blessing's future impact on siblings in humanity and your environment."

Imagine the power of our collective work in this simple way. If each woman around the world could bless the space where they walked and fill it full of healing energy. There would be millions and millions of meaningful moments of good every day.

Are you willing to try an experiment?
Commit to at least one healing blessing for your world each day this week.
Then see what influence you see.

I promise to do the same and report back...I hope you will too!
You can contact me by leaving a comment here (below) and I will write back to you.

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
Founder, Global Dialogue Center
Home of Women in the Lead

“The Realm Endless of Possibilities: Can we Really Create Anything?

It is my belief that we hold in our central nature the ability to create what we wish.  The world holds great abundance and potential.  The main question is what will it take for us to step into our full capabilities. 

If we become curious about what’s possible and place our attention on it, the very knowledge that is yielded from this focused attention has the power of endless manifestations.  So much has been said about the “Secret” that our collective thinking is beginning to open up.  More and more people are gaining confidence and considering, what is really possible in my life.

The fascinating thing about this is I have come to realize that when we look at manifestation principles and include concern and interest for the whole (planet, other humans, etc.), our chances for success increase.  Maybe it’s time that we not only look at creating what desire—want to manifest, but what can we create in our lives that will add meaning and further our purpose here on this great earth?

                                                                        Maureen Simon

WOMEN: Do others LISTEN to your PRESENTATIONS?

I look back fondly at my first loved career at IBM. The whole wonderful experience  spanning 20+ years was a developmental leadership laboratory to learn skills that invited new opportunities and would later shape my contributions as an entrepreneur and writer.

One valuable lesson was learning to find my own unique style as a speaker and presenter. At the time, women were scarce in leadership roles and a man's approach ... a joke, taking off their coats, loosening their ties and sitting backwards chair to look really cool ... somehow didn't fit me.

At a management conference, I heard James Humes, a presidential speech writer, give a compelling presentation. He did his quite famous impersonation of Winston Churchill, teaching us Churchill's five elements of great oratory ---- how to deliver a message that makes other listen!  As I listened and watched, I identified with Winston Churchill so much. He had to overcome his own limitations and obstacles to achieve his own greatness --- I too was struggling to find my own. ...and he went on to become one of the greatest speakers of the 20th Century. His simple principles became the yardstick for not only putting my own signature on presenting ideas, but also later became a tool for helping other leaders find their unique voice and be great in their own right. I hope they will also be a helpful tool for you:

WINSTON CHURCHILL'S FIVE ELEMENTS FOR A PRESENTATION

1. Deliver a strong beginning to ignite interest.

2. Use simple language. No big words. No pretense. Forget all the trendy B-school talk.

3. Maintain one focused theme for your message.

4. Incorporate analogies that bring your key points to life.

5. Close with an appeal to the human emotion. This doesn't mean crying or big
    time drama. It means making sure you strike a chord that reaches each
    person.

With these five elements present, you will get your point across in your own style of beauty.

What best practices have worked for you? Hope you will share them with us.

Debbe Kennedy
Founder, Global Dialogue Center
Home of Women in the Lead

Learn more about my new series, WORKING TOGETHER, a audio learning program designed to help you become a more effective leader.

Our Grandfather Europe: Will It Guide Us?

“The European Dream exists at the crossroads between post-modernity and the merging global age and provides the suspension to bridge the divide between the two eras.  Post-modernity was never meant to be a new age but, rather, was more of a twilight period of modernity—a time to sit in judgment about the many shortfalls of the modern era.  If the sixties generation of protests and experimentation was aimed at both knocking down old boundaries that constrained the human spirit and testing new realities, it came with an intellectual companion in the form of post-modern thought.”

                                                                                    The European Dream

                                                                                   

When I first read the European Dream, my mind was opened to the different roles that Europe and the United States play on this planet.  Europe has always felt far more apart at the global age than the U.S. has to me in that it has the capability of bridging many eras.  It holds in its history wisdom and knowledge that we can learn from today.  As I look at the European Union and its policies and developments regarding human rights, I realize that there is a grandmother/grandfather wisdom that we could learn a great deal from.  I have always believed that Europe would someday look at us—the toddler—and be able to provide us leadership from its history and past learnings. 

Maureen Simon

IMUS: Women Turning Inward to Examine Ourselves

When we see men of worth, we should think how we may learn to equal them. When we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inward and examine ourselves.
--- Confucius (c. 551 - c. 479 BC)

I usually don't write much about news stories here, but I wanted to share a few thoughts about the past week and the opportunity that sits in front of each of us to make a difference as women of influence.

The Imus faux pas seems to not only have taken over the airwaves, it has started a dialogue about behavior that seems to come very close to each of us --- probably closer than we think at first glance. Imus' behavior is without excuse and he appears to be having to be accountable on some levels.

With close examination, and a little honesty on our parts, I imagine all of us can think of a time when our words --- our unintended smart mouth --- our irrational words said in anger --- our hurtful comment said at someone else's expense --- have left deep and lasting scars on the lives of others. Bad words can sting. They can hurt deep inside and perhaps, at times, we don't even realize the permanence of our impact on others. Perhaps, you personally haven't used your words carelessly, but if not, it seems certain you can remember at least one instance where someone else hurt you with the weapon of words, yes?

Are our mistakes any less a sin than IMUS' insensitive blunder?

What the IMUS' situation has revealed in the past few days is that this sad incident, with all its appalling realities for the Rutger's women's basketball team, has become a revealing expose of our society today. We've allowed our culture to be one of meanness. We've even perhaps become addicted to it. Look at the violence in the movies we watch, the games we allow our children to play, the shows we see regularly on TV. These seem to seed a casualness about what used to be shocking.

The past week, the media did their part to hype it up, taking one man's bully tactics into a whole week of non-stop news. While it was happening, it seemed they were over-reaching, robbing us of what we probably needed to know, allowing ratings to trump hearing any other significant news stories about our country, the war, tributes to our fallen soldiers, reports on environmental changes and suffering of our neighbors all over the world needing our help and concern. However, I realize now that it seems no coincidence that it might have put the spotlight on the level of our cruelty, carelessness and meanness to one another. Somehow, it exposed the lust some have for this mean-spiritedness.

Have you noticed that in the process as a growing group fingers are pointing in every direction to blame someone, it appears the whole mess is putting a mirror right up in front of our own faces, asking us to do what Confucius suggested in his message above --- to examine ourselves; re-evaluate our own behavior; recommit ourselves to more care and consideration in how we communicate with one another. It seems this would be a big step forward don't you thing?

WOMEN HAVE AN IMPORTANT OPPORTUNITY TO INFLUENCE
Helen Fisher, anthropologist at Rutgers University and author of THE FIRST SEX: The Natural Talents of Women and How They Are Changing the World, tells us we have a feminine empathy:

"I think women's emotional expressivity is a by-product of natural selection for one of humankind's most admirable traits, empathy---the capacity to experience vicariously the feeling of others."

Imagine what we could do putting this strength to work to stand up for creating a more loving and compassionate society --- think of the impact we could have as role models for others.
Learn more and listen to PODCAST with Helen Fisher 

I invite you to join me in a week of self-examination. See how you use your words. Look for opportunities to set an example of love, concern and compassionate for others. See what you can do to help others see the need we have to build a more civil society than we know today.

Put your feminine empathy, knowledge and know-how to work this week!
I promise to do the same.

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
Founder, Global Dialogue Center
Home of Women in the Lead

“Where Do Your Dreams Go and How Can You Get Them Back?”

It’s a fairly well-known fact that human beings use only a small portion of their mental capacities.  The brain requires exercise in order to develop, yet we solve many of our problems by habitual practices and comfortable routines that do not develop our unused creative capabilities.

Less well known is the fact that the process of tapping these reservoirs of latent possibilities is quite simple.

First you need to learn to trust your own subconscious and unconscious mind and then get in the habit of recording and remembering messages that surface.  Analysis of these messages will soon provide patterns of information to help you understand yourself and to solve any problems that are nagging at you.  Moreover, you can learn to deliberately program your subconscious so that you are guided to new insights and information.

The three major areas we are talking about and which many successful people have made work for them are:

1. Dreams
2. Visualizations
3. Affirmations.

Risk-Taking For Women

Betsy Morscher & Barbara Schindler Jones

Trusting your own subconscious is the first step in developing our innate abilities—the brain follows the subconscious.  Through our dreams, visualizations and affirmations, we receive information and deliver information from the subconscious mind.  Becoming awake and alert to information in the non-tangible world provides us with a whole new dimension of knowledge.

Maureen Simon

Above All Be True to Thyself

“This above all:  to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man. “

Shakespeare

Once we understand the power of truth, it’s hard to go back to anything else.  If we go off track and enter the land of the white lie, we tend to feel it in our bodies.  So then, what does it mean to be true to thyself.  Quite a large subject to cover.  To be true to thyself includes knowing what we value and what’s important to us and living these truths daily.  Being true to ourself also includes having the discretion and integrity to know what truly being honest means and to be very clear about what is not true for us in our lives.  Entering this level of clear thinking and commitment places a personal responsibility on us to live in a way where we value all life.  Once we reach this level of truth, it becomes impossible, “to be false to any man”. 

Maureen Simon

WOMEN: The POWER OF THOUGHT; Is it a SECRET?

What I love about what the launching of THE SECRET has done is that it has us all thinking and talking with one another. My introduction to the "Law of Attraction" came from a number of sources, some that I shared previously. Two of my favorites were written in the first half of the 20th Century. They both carry wisdom and many fingerprints --- proving again that wisdom is knowledge with a long self-life, a friend and scholar told me once. The idea wasn't just discovered, it is a truth that is just begin explained again, by some current day thinkers, at a new time in history. Maureen's last post got me thinking again about it!

Earlier this year, I was reminded by about the Law of Attraction in a reading from one of my favorite books, Around the Year with Emmet Fox. Here is what it has to say about planting seeds in our thinking:

"As soon as the subconscious mind accepts any idea, it immediately begins trying to put it into effect. It uses all its resources to that end. It uses every bit of knowledge that you have ever collected, most of which you have totally forgotten, to bring about its purpose. It mobilizes the many mental powers that you possess, most of which you never consciously use. It draws on the unlimited energy of the mind. It lines up all the laws of nature as they operate both inside and outside of you, to get its way.

Sometimes it succeeds in its purpose immediately. Sometimes it takes a little time, sometimes it takes a long time; but if the things is not utterly impossible, the subconscious will bring it about---once it accepts the idea.

The law is good for both good and bad ideas."

You may be familiar with this process and not even know it. Have you ever had a "heart's desire"?--- one you had no way of fulfilling, but you were sure that you would?--- deep inside you knew you were going to get that job, marry that person, get into that school, have a life that was full and happy? All this realities began with a thought. I've also experienced the result of negative thoughts too---when I've let my fear and disbelief take over, ever so subtly, leading to disappointments and sadness.

Claude Bristol, author of The Magic of Believing, tells how Theodore Simon Jouffroy, the French philosopher once said, "The subconscious mind will not take the trouble to work for those who do not believe in it."  He goes on to give us the recipe that we have to think of ourselves as being successful---envisioning ourselves fulfilling our heart's desire:

"...it must be in the spirit that the work has already been done. ...while it is necessary for you to feel and think yourself successful, it is important for you to go one step further and actually see yourself as already success, either in the performance of some selected task or as actually occupying the position to which you are aspiring.  For the next and final step, you must wait patiently while the subconscious is assimilating the elements of your problem and then goes about is own way to work it out for you."

Our discussion and the reminder while writing, gives me inspiration to put it to work this week.

How about you?

Are you willing to give it a try?

Debbe Kennedy
Founder, Global Dialogue Center
Home of Women in the Lead