This was quite amazing to see a flock of seagulls in various stages of flight at Fingal Beach. Some just sitting, some preparing to take of, some in flight and some coming to land.
What stage of flight are you in?
– Suzie Cheel
Last night on PBS I saw a program on success and winning. The following fact almost floored me.
The self-talk in our heads runs at about 300-1000 words / minute.
Imagine the power of that barrage of thoughts. Whether positive or negative, that much energy can direct a life.
Just being aware of when we’re talking to ourselves makes a huge difference.
Taking responsibility for it can make a difference in our lives.
I believe that to know yourself is key to succeeding in both business and life. Once we figure our own direction and intentions, those of other people have less power to shape and bend us.
For a few years I spent significant time exploring self-actualizing questions.
Am I being true to myself?
I could tie my mind in complex knots over that one question. Being myself, being true to myself, knowing when to trust my perception of others, I found all of these far more complicated than I needed to make them.
In an attempt to sort myself, I did the math. I thought …
I have so many emotions. Do I always have to go with the one I feel most? If Iâm 10% happy does that count less than the 20% nervous I feel? Is one thing I’m feeling more truly me than another? Which should I act on when I’m feeling, love, jealousy, anger, hurt, ignored?
Your answers might be easy, but I could think myself into a tizzy over such questions. Most situations offered too many possibilities.
Finally I looked outside myself for an answer. I saw Dorothyâs personal sense of class, Joâs open acceptance, and Marthaâs grace under pressure. I wished for my motherâs strength and my fatherâs generosity of spirit. I sought out the people who had the qualities that I admired, qualities I wished I could cultivate in myself.
Eventually, I found that I would grow more and with less angst if I used a different question.
Eventually that question became …
Am I being true to who I want to be?
That question I can check in mirror.
The person I want to be would respond like this …
And the benefits of this future question were lovely. I spent less time out-thinking things, more time doing. And with less and less future before me I want to be the future me now.
Who is the “me” in your future? You get to decide that.
This works for teams, couples, and individuals. Try it.
How will you be your future now?
Be irresistible.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
There’s a lot we can learn from successful women entrepreneurs. Although there are many routes toward becoming a successful business woman and supporting workplace diversity, one thing all top entrepreneurs have in common: a tireless work ethic. As Margaret Thatcher once said, “I do not know anyone who has got to the top without hard work. That is the recipe. It will not always get you to the top, but should get you pretty near.”
Here are 3 lessons we can all learn from successful woman entrepreneurs who know how to apply a strong work ethic to achieve their goals.
A 2011 Zenger Folkman study that surveyed 7,280 leaders across a wide range of successful organizations found that women excel in many leadership categories, outperforming men much of the time. In fact, the two categories in which women outscored men most dramatically were taking initiative and driving for results. It should come as no surprise that taking initiative pays off. Women entrepreneurs do not wait around for a lucky break to come to them. They identify opportunities, take initiative and follow through to achieve their goals.
To make it to the top, you will have to put in long hours. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer used to put in 130-hour workweeks at Google, including regular all-nighters in which she slept under her desk. She managed to avoid burnout by being invested in â and keeping a positive attitude toward â her work. As she told Joseph Walker, “I don’t really believe in burnout. A lot of people work really hard for decades and decades, like Winston Churchill and Einstein . . . Burnout is about resentment. It’s about knowing what matters to you so much that if you don’t get it that you’re resentful.”
In addition to putting in long hours, sometimes entrepreneurs have to be willing to do work that no one else wants to do. Especially when you are first starting out, you will probably have to put in some grunt work before you can move up.
Finally, always be willing to practice self-development: women who are always looking for ways to improve have an advantage in business. The Zenger Folkman study also found that women were more likely than men to seek out personal and professional development. Katy Cowan, who runs the PR agency Boomerang and founded the online community Creative Boom, identifies a “willingness to learn” as one of the “top ten traits of successful, creative businesswomen.” She writes:
You cannot rest on your laurels when you run your own business. The creative industries are always changing, so you will constantly need to keep up and innovate. Successful female entrepreneurs know this and will work hard to learn and improve all the time. They’ll read books, go to workshops and be willing to learn from others.
There is no secret recipe to becoming a successful female entrepreneur. However, this combination of working hard, putting in the time and always being willing to learn something new has propelled plenty of women to the top.
Thank you for adding to the conversation!
This was a sculpture from the recent Swell Sculpture at Currumbin Beach. This was a stand out piece.
What is WOWing your weekend?
– Suzie Cheel
This is one of the 50 sculptures from the annual Swell Sculpture Festival that lines Currumbin Beach for 10 days in September each year.
This sculpture spoke to me. I could see this being somewhere a child or children would be drawn to sit in and look out to the sea and just imagine……..
A Peaceful Moment by Dion Parker
Take a moment to be peaceful.
– Suzie Cheel
I leave Wednesday for Portland and SOBCon NW 2012. It’s our 10th event since the first. I’ve been thinking about that first event.
The week before the first SOBCon in 2007. I was filled with the excitement and doubts that come from taking on a huge endeavor such as I’d never taken on before.
It wasn’t like doing something for school or for the place where I worked. Doing things for them always had certain people who defined what we would do. Papers were written to the standards of the teachers. Reports and projects fit the expectation of the manager assigning them.
This was something we — our team — were doing ourselves for the people who would come.
Whose approval and applause was I looking for now? I was comfortable with what we had built and still, I had this doubt. It took a while for me to identify what was lingering there to hold me back.
It was the kids in my 3rd grade class saying something like “Who are you to do something like that?”
Why was a bunch of 8-year-olds from my past still getting real estate in my head?
Why should I care about their approval now? It didn’t make sense.
Once I admitted a bunch of kids were the doubters I feared, I could let them know that I’d outgrown their shouting. They couldn’t knock me over with their disapproval now. I have more skills than I did when I knew them at 8 years old. Their power isn’t nearly so big now that I’m grown. So I moved those doubters and shouters out of my head. I’m not sure why they had power then.
I was afraid of childhood events. They doubters and shouters were barely memories at best.
So the next time I thought, “Who are you to do something like that?”
I said out loud, “I’m the one doing it!” and I got on with doing it.
Half the battle is knowing who are the doubters and shouters you’re letting undermine success.
The other half is telling them they don’t count.
Being big enough to tell the doubters and shouters to go doubt themselves is irresistible.
Be irresistible.
–ME “Liz” Strauss