Empowering Women Articles

There seem to be 2 schools of thought on holiday productivity. 1.Productivity goes down during the summer (and Christmas) months because people are winding down and taking holiday 2.Holidays are good for productivity because they give you a break, allow you to re-energise and be more productive on your retu Now I actually believe there is a middle view – that BECAUSE you take holiday in those months you can be super productive all year long! Why do I say this?

I believe we are here on this Earth to connect—no one is intended to “go it alone”. Energy flows in, around and throw all things, including all people. To fully engage the positive forces of that energy, you have to become a part of the flow. The only way to do that is to connect to other people. I am certain that it took me many years longer than might have been as I stumbled along on my jou ey because I was so sure that I had to go it alone. Once I realized that I needed support to thrive, and I allowed those around me to help, I began to achieve things I never thought I could.

[Part Two] In my last article, I talked about the reasons why women don’t get promoted more often. My experience as a career coach and long-time entrepreneur has enabled me to witness, first hand, why men tend to get promoted at a higher rate than women. Now I’d like to talk about the bright side, which is your ability to improve your chances of being promoted by following some key strategies: Groom Your Successor rnr

Over the last decade the growth and sustainability of women owned businesses and female entrepreneurs has grown exponentially. However, while it is a fact that women dominate small business ownership, it is also evident that it is time for us to take our businesses out of the micro markets we have successfully dominated to the next level of growth; we need to start thinking big. Yet of the 10 million+ women owned UK businesses, many of us will go round and round in circles and maybe it will lead to the next level or maybe it won’t. Wealth Creation Is Or ‘Should Be’ A Key Driver To Successr

"Gossip," as defined by Wikipedia, is idle talk or rumor, especially about the personal or private affairs of others. It derives from the bedroom at the time of childbirth when the pregnant female's relatives and neighbors (an all female event) would gather and chatter about others outside the birthing room. The term ...

Have you ever started out on a path going in one direction only to find yourself, hours later, mindlessly ending up somewhere else? You planned to check your Facebook page but somehow you ended up on Twitter. You intended to have a dialogue in one of your LinkedIn Groups, but two hours later you find yourself down a rabbit hole reviewing interesting but irrelevant information and you have no idea how you got there.

Holidays are often bittersweet. We (generally!) love being with family and/or friends, we love the sharing of stories, the non-denominational feel of being grateful. We love the food! But, as my friend Robin says, people tend to bring their baggage in along with their pies on Thanksgiving! Let's get a handle on that, shall we?

Are You Fighting With Yourself? The Raging Battle Within By Linda H. Williams

Have you said these words and then realized another hour or two went by before you were finished? You see the disappointed faces of your family, you order take-out dinner again, and you miss yet another yoga class. Instead of spending time on our family and relationship, we find we spend our time with a laptop in our hands as we “quickly” finish this one thing.

Your family comes first - or does it? Since you've been spending so much time with your new home computer, is your family showing signs of jealousy? Do they compete with this inhuman time hog for your time? Or, at least, do they FEEL they have to? And what can you do about it? After all, you're just trying to make everything better... I mean, look at it this way, if you can just find a way to generate an automatic income from the 'net, SOMEDAY you'll be able to quit your outs

Let’s face it. No matter how much progress we make, we’re still going to have “bad days.” You know the ones. When the old critical voices are milling about drinking martinis in your head. You try to send them all away with your favorite powerful affirmation, but only a few of them even look up – and one of them turns away and snickers. So, what do you do when no matter what you do, you’re just icky? Very few success-gurus or business coaches talk about the bad day. Rarer

Horses have long been admired for their compassionate free spirit, being honored as a connection to the power and strength in oneself. One gaze into their eyes and we not only feel their wisdom, we see sometimes for the first time, our own Soul looking back at us. What we see may bring us joy and equally it can bring us face to face with our own darkness. Either way, the horses hold powerful keys to long-held wisdom of the enduring human spirit and the comfort of knowing who we are.

In 1988 NIKE cornered the market with the no excuse trade mark phrase to getting things done – “JUST DO IT”. In other words don’t think about it, don’t analyze it, and don’t process your feelings. Don’t whine or complain about it. “JUST DO IT”.

How many times do you say ‘I need to manage my time better?’ or ‘If only I had more time?’ or ‘Time just seems to disappear?’ If it’s quite often then you’re not alone – the vast majority of the clients I work with and the women I come across every single day say time is their biggest issue – not being able to manage it, not enough of it, or just not using it wisely.

When I was six, my father bought me a violin and that was a life-changing gift. I wouldn’t say I was a mind-blowing talent but I was good with music and I enjoyed spending time studying it. At the age of ten, I started to give small concerts. At first for my family and our circle of friends; months later, I was playing on the scene of the School of Fine Arts in my hometown. I can recall how nervous I was before every single concert. However, once I started to play, I was entering a state of ease and flow and my violin became my best friend.

These success quotes have all challenged my thinking, opened up a new perspective or inspired and motivated me to keep going at one time or another in my dance (in my life and business journey.) I hope they can do the same for you! 1.The last of the human freedoms is to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances.Viktor Frankl 2.Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.A old Bennet

So many people start out the new year thinking, “Starting January 2 (because you give yourself that extra day to be ‘bad’ ) I’m going to …quit smoking, lose weight, go to the gym, open my own business, switch jobs, stand up for myself….” The list can go on and on, but the truth is, resolutions are generally flimsy. They’re limp. They aren’t backed up appropriately, and so they only serve to make you feel bad about yourself. So how do you begin to change things?

A song's lyrics contain the line..."My body is the temple of my spirit." Is it true? As someone who lives with a health condition that causes physical pain to my body, it is a harsh reality for me to face. Is my spirit in pain? Yes, it is. Do I create my own pain and self-hatred? Not consciously, but I most definitely ...

A journal from February 9, 2009: As I sit here on a Sunday morning in February, snow blanketing the ground, a light breeze making the chimes sing, I love the soft quiet. My girls, my ducklings, as I like to call them when they’re here together, are asleep in their beds. It’s nearly noon, and I know they are wallowing in the comfort of their beds, their home safe-space. And I’m loving the picture of it.

As Game of Thrones winds down and the fictional epic fantasy TV drama ends in April 2019, I cannot help feeling a strong sense of anticipatory grief. In spite of the high degree of violence, and nudity, it has been one of the few entertaining TV shows that has embraced the idea of putting strong female characters into powerful leadership roles.

Last week, I got a letter in the mail from the IRS. The dreaded letter all business owners never want to see. It informed me that I was being audited for my 2012 business expenses. They were not auditing one or two categories. Nope. I was being audited for all 23 expense categories for that year. The good news is that I keep very good records of my business and I’m very, very honest on my taxes. The bad news is they want all this by September 30. The same date my book manus

I was asked recently by a leader in education what 3 things I’d teach teenagers for Leadership and Success in Life. This is an absolutely great question and goes to the heart of what I’m passionate about – leadership and success in their broadest context i.e. leading the life you want – a successful life that makes you feel happy and fulfilled. It’s also about developing successful leaders for the future – people who will be good at leading themselves as well as others. My first thoughts were that they should lea • how to become extremely self-aware

I don’t usually speak or write about religious matters. I have learned that it is a sensitive topic for many who feel insulted or threaten so if I have to, I always state that I respect and honor all religious beliefs as well as the believers. Today, however, a memory landed in my mind and I guess it was for a reason. Young enough I came to realize the difference between being religious versus being spiritual. As a child, I witnessed many scenes of religious, devoted individuals, faithful church goers and contributors.

Those of you who’ve heard me speak or know a little about my work know that I’ve created a DANCE system for business women to get you clear and focused on how to create a profitable business that serves you and allows you to live the life you truly desire. A system that helps you get out of your own way and instills in you the confidence to make this happen so that you achieve success on your own terms. This system is a step by step approach to making success predictable and hugely enjoyable and it’s also a metaphor for how you live your life and how you set up and run your business.

During the first year of my child's life, I took a total of 11 trips for work. I will never forget the first time. I was so unbelievably sad for days prior to the trip and tried to think of any excuse for me not to get on that plane. Deep down; however, I knew I had to go. I was conce ed that my husband was going to have to take on additional responsibility and tasks he normally did not undertake. He reassured me that everything would be fine. You know what? He was right.

How to make women your allies, not enemies It used to be called sisterhood, the feeling of kinship with other women that fosters support and community. Perhaps you’re fortunate to have a support group of wonderfulrnwomen, but many women don’t. Frankly, I don’t see much sisterhood around today, except maybe in the HBO hit series Girls, where the spirit of sisterhood is in and on the air. http://goo.gl/Vp H8 In business, I’ve seen how badly women treat each other. Gossip, back-biting and sabotage are rationalized as justifiable means to achieve the end—career advancement.r

A client of mine calls it spinning. I call it helicopter brain. Our lives seem almost manic at times, and I’m guessing you feel it, too. Between coaching, editing my new book, event speaking, interviews, consulting and being the mom of an aspiring and talented young woman, my ability to focus can get seriously challenged.

“The purpose of man is in action, not thought" Thomas Carlyle One of the main thing's I've learned over the past 6 years since I handed my notice in, stopped being an employed manager and first thought seriously about developing my own business is that taking action is even more important than having a fully formed plan. Now as someone who is fairly reflective by nature, and a perfectionist who has spent a lot of her life planning, this was a difficult lesson to learn!

Have you ever had a dream, goal or objective that you could not fulfil or accomplish? Maybe you tried to lose weight, train for a marathon, begin an online business, write a novel, or do something else that was challenging. Why didn’t you succeed? People often fall short at achieving a big dream they desperately want, because they lose their self-motivation. Keeping up your motivation can be difficult when you face a long period of intense work. Here are 7 ways that will help you to stay motivated so you can hold onto and reach those big dreams. Honour yourselfr

Many of my private coaching clients are women who want to build a business. But they don’t really know where to start and don’t have a formal education in how to go about setting up their own shop. Let’s go through the steps that are needed to build a successful business. It doesn’t always take a lot of money to start one. Here is a great article on The $100 Startup. It all starts with an idea.

When my daughter was little, she used to yell, “look at me, look at me” for practically everything she did. Standing on one foot, jumping in the pool, she wanted me to look every few seconds and take note of her amazing accomplishments. I was reminded of that human trait when I read an article during a flight to Dublin. It said that people who do well in social media are, for the most part, narcissists.

We all experience setbacks in life from time to time - setbacks like losing an important business order, the break-up of a valued relationship, or losing a job. When this happens, even a small event can send you over the edge, creating an unwanted crisis in confidence. Here are 7 steps you can implement that will help you to take back control of yourself, and your life. 1. Ignore Exte al Stimulir

Why Are You Trying To Please Everybody?

Not surprisingly, women are more vulnerable to stress in comparison to men. And, I would have to say that is even more so for working mothers! Working mothers experience a multitude of tugs for their time, attention, and energy. Along with the pulls, working moms place unreasonable expectations on themselves and believe they should do it all and with perfection! All of which can contribute to higher levels of stress.

"Have faith in your dreams, and someday, your rainbow will come smiling through. No matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep on believing, the dream that you wish will come true". - Cinderella What is the key to creating magic in your life? Well, I can promise you it's not by abdicating personal responsibility. It's not by being passive like Sleeping Beauty or hoping the white knight is going to save you. It's by taking responsibility for aligning your intentions with the Universe... and calling on your own resourcefulness to make your dreams come true.

It’s been a long hard winter of spending many a day inside planted in front of this computer of mine. I love and hate this blessed and cursed place. The warm outside temps that got me to the park for a mid-afte oon walk today further drove home what I have been sensing lately which is that while I love to write and create here, I am also feeling I have not been living “in” the world and instead have been staying quite removed. It’s time to make a change because:

I have seen it happen to many of my coaching clients. They work hard, put in the hours, follow their business plan and then their business grows. Sometimes almost too fast and they are not prepared for their own success. Who would have imagined? You’ve heard the saying: Be careful what you wish for because you just might get it. That also applies to growing your business. What many professionals don’t realize is that rapid growth is the most dangerous phase in a business because all of a sudden you are adding more clients, which means more work than you might be set up for.

I have always liked the It Takes A Village idea. Getting and giving other women—and men—support when they need it is essential for the success and well being of us all. It is also one of the core principles of The Women’s Code. I was reminded of the wisdom of the village idea two weeks ago, when one of my clients fell off the path, literally, when her bike toppled over and she injured her hip. She couldn’t drive or sit in a chair for longer than a few minutes before feeling pain. Single, with her own business, she faced a daunting task.

You tell yourself you want something more. You tell yourself, at times, that you’re ready. And then you don’t act. Or, maybe you sabotage. Or, maybe you fail to see opportunities that are right under your nose. Why? You’re too worried about “the how.” When you worry too much about how something is going to happen, you begin to micromanage your life, your business and career, your relationships. You think that if you have every little detail in order, every hair in place, you won’t fail this time.

So many women entrepreneurs I speak to and work with have fallen into the trap of believing that having the right information and knowledge and getting your strategy right is the key to guaranteeing a successful business. But for the majority of women in business this just isn’t the case. I say this because of my own personal experience, and the experience of many of the women I’ve coached. So what’s really going on here?

How did you start you day? Did you greet the morning with the expectation of good things, with the intentionality of happiness, or did you feel like pulling the covers over your head, and like chicken little, just burying yourself? Your thoughts as you begin your day, is a major factor in determining the level of joy you’ll experience during the day. If you dread what awaits you outside of your door, you may be tempted to stay in bed. I know, you’re saying, ”I can’t stay in bed all day. I have too much to do.” Please understand that you don’t have to be lying in bed to be asleep.

Question raised during a recent success survey: Why are there fewer women than men in leadership and management positions? My perception is that this is changing, as women throughout the world are now better educated and make up a greater proportion of the working population than ever before.

I was reminded of my own learning and how this mirrors the experience of many other women in business, during my recent experience of running a dancing competition and the different approaches taken by different dancers on the day. Some dancers focus purely on the job in hand – on winning. Others focus on getting it right – on not making mistakes, not falling over, not looking foolish, or not letting anyone down. And yet others just seem to enjoy the process, by which I mean they love dancing and they don’t appear to be too attached to the results they get.

Do you like yourself? Do you love the person you are with all your weaknesses and strengths? One of our worst mistakes as a human race is non-acceptance. Every day we wake up looking at a strange reflection in the mirror. We don't like what we see, want to change it but don't know how or why. Most women, as well as men I have met, live in constant criticism of themselves. They complain about some extra inches here and there, about the premature wrinkles, their families, jobs, and their entire surrounding environment.

It can feel almost automatic to hold onto the past. We may not really enjoy it, but it’s what we know, and it can feel easier than making the changes that our necessary to living more fulfilling, joyous, meaningful lives. After a while, the past can seem to take on a life of its own, gaining control and momentum and leaving us feeling like we are under its power. That mistake you made? Maybe the guilt and “I should/shouldn’t haves” grow with time. That choice you wish you

It happened without your noticing. “Yes!” slipped out of your mouth, even though you felt your shoulders rise, your stomach clench and your heart start beating a little faster. You feel resentment creeping into you as you leave the conversation. “Dammit! I caved again.” It’s a double whammy. You have piled one more thing onto your already over-full plate and you are mad at yourself for succumbing. You don’t like that you’re a pushover. (And perhaps you take on some self-sabotaging behaviors like eating or drinking to soothe yourself.)

There seems to be a myth amongst women in particular, that caring for yourself, by which I mean consistently taking time to attend to your own needs so that you stay energised and feeling good most of the time, is somehow selfish. But let’s just take a moment to examine the implications of this: • You don’t stop very often, because when you do it makes you feel guilty or you just can’t relax because you’re thinking about all the things you could be doing, or should be doing.

Do you want to hear something crazy? I did not have any idea how much pleasure was available to me in my body until I was in a whole lot of pain. My body has experienced the high of dancing on stage with joy and ease to the "show stopping" pain of being unable to move a single joint in my body without a searing and ...

For years, little pieces of me got lost in the cracks, in between the details of everyday life. I had this feeling of uncertainty, of something being off. I just knew there was more for me. I searched everywhere for myself. And then I released something, and that's when it happened.

According to Dictionary.com, fear is defined as “a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid.” Fear can mean that you are about to experience a painful emotional experience. Both the fear of failure and the fear of success create an apprehension that something bad is going to happen. The fear of failure is the anxiety you feel while anticipating not making your goal, but the fear of success is a different type of fear.