Women in the LEAD

Negative Introspection Damages The Soul

“Negative introspection damages the soul.  It holds many people trapped for years and years, and ironically, it never allows them to change.  It is wise to allow the soul to carry on its secret work in the night side of your life.  You might not see anything stirring for a long time.  You might have only the slightest intimations of the secret growth that is happening within you, but these intimations are sufficient.  We should be fulfilled and satisfied with them.  You cannot dredge the depths of the soul with the meager light of self-analysis.  The inner world never reveals itself cheaply.  Perhaps analysis is the wrong way to approach our inner dark.”

John O’Donohue Änam Cara

Growth is not as obvious as you may wish – especially for us impatient ones.  It is a subtle weaving that plants itself throughout our life.  Understand that light and dark live side by side.  Allow divinations to come to you with an open mind and open heart. As John says, the inner world never reveals itself cheaply but it always gives us the exact information we need if we are willing to listen.

Maureen Simon

Hard work is not the path to Well- Being

Hard work is not the path to Well- Being. Feeling good is the path to Well-Being. You don't create through action; you create through vibration. And then, your vibration calls action from you.

Abraham Hicks – Excerpted from a workshop

 in Washington, DC on Saturday, May 7th, 2005

 This is one of the greatest lessons of my life. Being busy and active is something I adore but I am coming to realize that there really is no need to be driven.  When we live a driven life we miss so much because we see things and live things in the way that we want to from our will.  This often cuts us off from new thinking and new opportunities.  There is something to be said about being receptive; about allowing instead of forcing.  I’m working on this daily and suggest that you take a close look at this in your own life.  I no longer believe that things have to be difficult or hard. 

Maureen Simon

ECONOMIC Crisis: Be a Rainbow in Someone's Cloud

The economic crisis is spreading across the world. There are some positive signs that we will overcome, but there are also deepening signs that the suffering, much of which existed before, is spreading. As we work to find our own ways of preparing for the next opportunity --- looking to the good in the future, here are a few thoughts on what the priorities might be as we call upon the innate gifts of women's leadership to comfort and support and lead the way:

• At a time of crisis, nothing is more important than the human issues. All other issues will be solved, if you put your energy and commitment to people first and foremost in your considerations for action.


• At the time of crisis, listen to the people. Be with the people. Talk with the people. Don't delegate this responsibility. It will help you know instantly what to do and what things have to be done in priority sequence ---- first things first. Do what you say you will.


• At the time of crisis, forget big, complicated strategies and endless planning. Instead, accelerate execution by identifying your top 2 or 3 priorities and FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS on executing flawlessly. Don't try to boil the ocean. This is how things get out of control. When the most crucial actions are underway, identify the next set of priorities, repeating the same focused approach. Short-term, manageable goals, executed to perfection create superior results achieved. If you get a few things going well, it builds positive momentum for additional results.


• At the time of crisis, communicate often with the people affected. Remember, the best communication comes from more from your actions and behavior vs words and symbolic gestures. Be honest with people, help them see the end in mind and keep people informed.

As you tuck these leadership tools away for future reference, do it with deep gratitude and in honor of our neighbors who are suffering at this moment, giving us a opportunity strengthen our knowledge and skills, so we never repeat what we are witnessing. As Maya Angelou has said, "Be a rainbow in someone else's cloud." This is what the most effective leaders are skilled at doing.

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
Founder, Women in the Lead
at the Global Dialogue Center

You Are The Beholder

“People often say that ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder,’ and I say that the most liberating thing about beauty is realizing that you are the beholder.  This empowers us to find beauty in places where others have not dared to look, including inside ourselves.”

Selma Hayek

Beauty abounds in this amazing world we live in.  We have the ability to see and experience throughout each and every day that we live.  As you look externally for the beauty in your world, don’t forget to take time to look at the beauty that you and your life hold.

Maureen Simon

WOMEN: Growing into a BIGGER House

A short excerpt from a favorite book by Sue Bender, Stretching Lessons, sets the stage for my thinking today.

"Recently, I learned that a hermit crab doesn't have its own shell. ...When the crab starts to grow too BIG for that shell, it searches around and finds another one to suit its new size...

What do we do when we start to outgrow our shells as women leaders?

What choices can we make?

How do we make them as we become "bigger" than we were?"

This year has been about finding and claiming a new shell. I was bursting out of my old one. I love the bigger more spacious one, free of all that had become stagnant without even knowing it. Moving into a bigger house is an act of faith. On faithless days I question, "Can I? Will I?" On faithful days, the new sense of freedom rings! or am I already learning that freedom rocks!

How about you???

How's your shell fitting these days?

Do you need to let go of the past, lighten your load
and find a bigger more spacious place to grow?

Debbe Kennedy

Visit Women in the Lead at the Global Dialogue Center

Author, Putting Our Differences to Work
www.puttingourdifferencestowork.com

Notice the New Possibilities in Your Day

 

The Only Way to deal with the future is to function efficiently in the Now”

Gita Bellin

The world offers us so many possibilities each day. Today begin to notice the new possibilities in your world. There are many!

Maureen Simon

Work and Life --- The Struggle for Balance

I'm not sure I've ever really been successful in what I interpreted as balance between work and life. When I was moving up in my first career at IBM, this just was impossible. At the time, there weren't options for "flex time" and as generous as IBM was with its employees, it was essential ---- or so it seemed to me at the time that I had to be able to be available, just like my male counterparts, most of which had the support of their wives at home to deal with the kids and all. As I look back now, I think if I had it to do over again, I might have been more honest about my needs. I might not have accepted a couple of jobs that meant I was traveling constantly and missing out on my daughter's daily life more than I realized at the time. Over time, I've had to forgive myself for the shortcomings of those pioneering years.

Today, there have been two key learnings about the struggle for balance in work and life:

• I've learned to be grateful and accept that I truly love my work! It is my calling, my passion. This gave me the freedom to give up the guilt that plagued me for years. I used to hide it. Downplay it to please others in my life. 
• I've realize that rest, relaxation, enjoying my life and those I love, exercising, eating right and having a spiritual practice to renew each day are a key part of what makes me effective as a leader in my own right.

Some years back, a very special client I worked with at Hewlett-Packard was creating an innovative collection of employee stories and anecdotes around work and life at HP as part of a "wisdom dissemination" project for new employees. One of the stories from a Canadian woman included a quote from an executive from Coca Cola that she kept near her desk, where she could see it.

"Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them---work, family, health, friends and spirit---are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that, and strive for balance in your life."

This sage advice remains an reminder and an inspiration to strive to live each day to its fullest, valuing all its wonderful parts.

How about YOU? What has been your experience the struggle for balance of work and life?
How have you managed? What have you learned?

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
Author, Putting Our Differences to Work
www.puttingourdifferencestowork.com
founder, global dialogue center, home of women in the lead
http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/women-lead-entrance.html

Never Feel Guilty About Learning

 

“Never feel guilty about learning.  Never feel guilty about wisdom. That is called enlightenment.  You must understand that you have done what you needed to do; it was all necessary.  You made all the right choices – all of them!”

Ramtha

We have the opportunity to learn from our past.  This is a sign of true wisdom.  Learn as much as you can.  Explore out of the box.  Our creativity and self assuredness and joy often stems from our ability to think freely and to learn creatively.  There is so much to know.

Maureen Simon

WOMEN: Learning to be Patient

Yesterday, we had a wonderful dialogue on Change, Gratitude and REINVENTING YOURSELF. Read Nina's comment on the linked post. She gives a glimpse into the experience. We will be posting more about it shortly, but it reminded me so much of a writing I did a couple years back that I thought would be timely to share:

It seems the best of us are so impatient for results in our lives. Whether it is the pressures of our career goals, reaching financial stability, finding peace within a busy life, unexpected troubles we want to disapper or sometimes, finding the love and personal security we long for as women. Oh, we want so much for things to happen that sometimes we disturb the process. We push our timetable on things sometimes forcing a premature birth before its time has come. As I write, a few memorable disappointments come to mind when I wished and manipulated circumstances, rushing to the finish. A couple of these decisions led me into heartache and later heartbreak for myself and others. I've also experienced the joy of patience and much prefer the experience and outcome. I've learned that Good things come to those who wait ---- not those who do nothing, but if you keep your actions goal-directed and remain patient for the outcome to materialize as you dream.

In the book Callings: Finding and Following an Authentic Life by Greg Levoy he tells a story that speaks to this impatience we feel. He writes:

"In his autobiography, Nokos Kazantzakis, author of Zorba the Greek, described an incident in which he came upon a cocoon cradled in the bark of an olive tree just as the butterfly was making a hole and attempting to emerge. Impatient for results, he bent over it and warmed it under his breath, by which he succeeded in speeding up the process. The butterfly, however, emerged prematurely, its wings hopelessly crumpled and stuck to its own body, which needed the sun's patient warmth, not the man's impertinent breath, to transform it. Moments, later, after a desperate struggle, the butterfly died in the palm of his hand. 'That little body," he wrote toward the end of his life, 'is the greatest weight I have on my conscience.'"

As lesson with the butterfly story teaches, we have to learn to trust that all things happen in their own time when our lives are ready to receive the miracles in store for us.

The dream was always running ahead of me.
To catch up, to live for a moment in unison with it,
that was the miracle. 
--- Anais Nin

Has impatience influenced your life?
I would love to know what you've learned.

RELATED POST: WOMEN and the BUTTERFLY: Claim Your Wings

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
founder, Global Dialogue Center
Home of Women in the Lead
Author, Putting Our Differences to Work

WOMEN: Reinventing YOURSELF - JOIN US!

NOVEMBER 11 Online Virtual Dialogue
Putting Our Differences to Work Center for Dialogue   
Sponsored by Women in the Lead

"Change, Gratitude & Reinventing YOURSELF" 
Both CHANGE and UNCERTAINTY are with us! Join me and others for our online global conversation NOV 11 DIALOGUE focused on YOU. Let's put our differences to work to explore possibilities, learn from each other, and answer these questions...

How can you make CHANGE an opportunity for personal reinvention?
What role does gratitude play?
Are you ready? 

This month's Putting Our Differences to Work Dialogue is sponsored by our Women in the Lead program(WIL) at the Global Dialogue Center. Maureen Simon of Maureen Simon Consulting and contributing author from our Women in the Lead Inspiration BLOG, will be joining me.

Our special guest interview is Gloria Young, President of Young & Lamay Associates. She will help us
seed our conversation with her insight and inspiring journey.

See details below. No fees, but registration is required, so we can send login information to you. You're welcome to invite a friend(s) that might benefit! 

Tuesday, November 11, 2008
10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. PT  (1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. ET)
Note: We are adding a little extra time for this topic.
 Informal "Virtual Break" follows.
 Check Global Time Clock

Register to attend:  click on link below
Note: Allow a few seconds for the registration to come up. 
Login information will be sent to you via email when you register.

https://www.livemeeting.com/lrs/0000011799/Registration.aspx?pageName=srm9ns958dmdc260

Hope you can join us!

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
founder, Global Dialogue Center
Home of Women in the Lead
Author, Putting Our Differences to Work