Women in the LEAD

The Abundance Mentality

"The Abundance Mentality flows out of a deep inner sense of personal worth and security.  It is the paradigm that there is plenty out there and enough to spare for everybody.  It results in sharing of prestige, of recognition, of profits, of decision making.  It opens possibilities, options, alternatives and creativity"                      Daily Reflections For Highly Effective- People Stephen Covey

Inner personal worth and security are golden gifts.  They come from a deep sense of knowing that what supplies us is endless.  Certainly, having confidence in our gifts and talents adds to what we can comfortably offer the world.  But, we also need to have a strong belief and sense of knowing that we are provided for". 

Business provides us with many challenges on a daily basis.  We are tested in many areas.  When we work from a place that allows us to contribute our gifts and natural talents we usually find greater success.  This does not mean that the road is paved with a red carpet and all of the doors fling open but we must align our daily contributions with what we do best and love.  When we combine right action and trust we must then let go and allow for universal intervention. 

Maureen Simon

WOMEN: Learning to Let Go

It seems that life is a series of comings and goings. A constant changing flow of happenings. I remember watching my mother grasp on it tightly --- so scared and fearful to let go. Interestingly, my life took a different pattern. Not that I wanted it that way necessarily, but for reasons beyond my control --- and in my control --- life was a whirlwind of changes, hellos and good-byes, happiness and sadness when I was making my way. I'm imagining that many of you could recount a similar restless, chaotic times or maybe that's where you are right now. The good that came from it was a small miracle of sorts as I look back in reflection, because it helped me practice the act of letting go --- learning to welcome and trust the unknown. For this I am grateful.

On my desk, I have one of the boxed card decks of THE FOUR AGREEMENTS by Don Miguel Ruiz. I love to open it to see what wisdom I am to take in. The top card today explains my reason for being grateful for all the changes I never expected --- even when they might have ripped my heart and soul out by their roots at the time ---- because with each one, came a corresponding period of renewal and growth --- it always seemed to leave an opening for a new dream to form and come true. Today's card said:

"Whatever life takes away from you, let it go. When you surrender and let go of the past, you allow yourself to be fully alive in the moment. Letting go of the past means that you can enjoy the dream that is happening right now."

Is there something in your life calling you to let go?
What new dream are you holding back because of it?

Debbe

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

Women’s Innate People Skills- They Are So Needed in the World

“Women’s innate people skills will be a valuable commodity in almost every sector of the twenty-first-century economy.  Peter Drucker and many other respected business analysts have come to regard people as a company’s most crucial resource. “The organization of the future,” Drucker says, “must be non-bureaucratic and based on the concept of human capital.”

With their people skills, their language abilities, their drive to network, and their faculty for contextual thinking, women will be extremely valuable human capital in almost any business setting.  No segment of the marketplace, however, requires people skills more constantly than the service occupations.”

-Helen Fisher, The First Sex

I believe the first step in we---women becoming “extremely valuable human capital in almost any business setting” is first and foremost us realizing the essential value that we hold in both business and the world. Our gifts and talents must be realized first through a personal inventory. Once we are clear about how the feminine lives in our own lives we can begin to reach out and educate ourselves so that we can better understand the natural gifts of the feminine and how they can become more alive in business and the world.

Start today----what do you uniquely contribute to business, your community and the world as a women? What feminine gifts do your sisters naturally hold?

When we personally awaken and claim our gifts, talents and attributes we will begin to see the feminine truly valued in the world.

                                                                                    Maureen Simon

The Power of the Solstice

Sun-stone’s kiss, midsummer pleasure,

Welcome all and some.

At the hele-stone sing and gather,

Every blessed one.----Caitlin Matthews

The solstice presents us with wonderful opportunities to take note of where the light shines brightest in our lives.  As we reach the longest day of the year we can take inventory of where our greatest gifts of light live in our lives.  This special week take notice of the midsummer sun.  Absorb the warmth.  Light a candle.  Appreciate the light.

Maureen Simon

Use Your Bad Experience

“Everything can be taken from a person but one thing: the last of human freedoms- to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

-Viktor Frankl

Victor Frankl was a concentration camp survivor.  For him to be the one to teach us that the freedom of our attitude cannot be taken away from us is truly an eye opener.  When one reaches the bottom and has the strength to teach about choices and attitude one is truly a Saint.  It is true “ Everything can be taken from a person…but one’s attitude.”

When you look at the way you approach life is your attitude a healthy one, and inspiring one?  Where could your attitude serve you and all around you in a better way?  It is in these moments of contemplation where enlightenment occurs.  The world needs us to wake up now and show a light on all is dark.

-Maureen Simon

When Gentleness Moves to Hardness

“Water is the softest thing on earth, yet its silken gentleness will easily wear away the hardest stone.  Everyone knows this; few use it in their daily lives.  Those of Tao yield and overcome.”

-From the Taoist Scriptures, The Way to Life: At the Heart of the Tao-Te Ching

This saying reminds me of how the subtlest, gentlest, and softest can impact the hardest most firm, in some cases, most obstinate things.  This saying also brings home to me the importance of gentleness and firmness combined.  Silken gentleness can wear away the hardest stone.  Where in your life could gentleness move hardness in a way that would benefit all.

-Maureen Simon

When Evening Falls

The day is no more, the shadow is upon the earth.  It is time that I go to the stream to fill my pitcher.

-Rabindranath Tagore

Tagore has such great words of wisdom and a natural gift for connecting nature with day to day life.  In the rush of things it is important to notice when the sun rises and sets.  Evening holds the opportunity for introspection and reflection that the quick buzz of the day does not.  When you watch the sun set and the shadow of night falls upon the Earth, take time to look at the day that has passed, reflect and enjoy all that you have.

-Maureen Simon

Right Relationship-Making Important Choices

Only in relationship can you know yourself, not in abstraction and certainly not in isolation.

The movement of behavior is the sure guide to yourself.  It’s the mirror of your consciousness; this mirror will reveal its content, the images, the attachments, the fears, the loneliness, the joy and sorrow. Poverty lies in running away from this, either in its sublimations or its identities.

                                                                        J. Krishnamurti

I have been paying close attention to the relationships that I have attracted into my life recently. I am reminded of a day that I used to try to please people; of a day that I did not have clear boundaries or even know when to say yes or no to friends and family.  I remember learning how critical that it is for me to tell the truth about who I am and what I need to all the lives that my life touches. I remember the clearing that had to occur– for me to be able to say that all of the relationships in my life are the right relationships. This is a special feeling that one reaches after in much clarifying and soul searching.

When we reach a level of total truth about the specific people ,places and values that our life must  hold and express—our quality of live reaches the  heavens!

Enjoy—exploring—where you need to make changes in the relationships in your life in order to have the quality of life that you truly desire.

Maureen Simon

One Must Help Oneself First

“”It is one of the most beautiful compensations of

   this life that no man can sincerely try to help another

   without helping himself…Serve and thou shall be served.”

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Unless we are able to help ourselves, we can be of no service to others.  What does it mean to help ourselves?  This question is answered on many levels.  Notice the places in your life where you feel a deficiency of self-care, of excitement for life, and of general well being. Notice what possible need is crying to be met.  Take one small action to meet each need.  When your own foundation is solid, there will be plenty to share with others. 

                                                Maureen Simon