JustMOMsensations

********My new column in Women's Post Magazine .************* How it was …   A few months ago, ‘Social Media’ was a foggy acronym for internet dialogue. I had used Facebook to reconnect with old classmates and distant family members.   I even created a LinkedIn page, after being peppered with connect requests from business colleagues.   I did not, however, blog, Tweet, Insta-anything, Pinterest or utilize any social media tools to promote my business interests.   Not until I was given a little push.   At a family dinner, my cousin was surprised to learn I was blog-less.   “Who better to blog than a Mompreneur who is also a writer?”   That little push got me sliding toward my first blog.   The defining moment … After decades of business writing, my creative writing skills needed refreshing.   Three of my short stories were published through traditional channels.   I needed a medium that offered full control over the topics and style.   More importantly, I wanted

‘Perfection’ is an impossible attainment.   Some think the journey toward it raises the bar in a way that accepting average never could.   Others scowl at perfection with disdain.   I think we can all agree on one thing, mistakes help us learn.   A detailed directive toward success can be less impactful that a personal experience of failure, lessons learned and a new approach toward better results. As a child, I was taught to try, and if the task went wrong, put the lessons learned into improving the results for the next attempt.     That teaching carried over to my career, where I followed the mantra, “better to make a mistake, and learn than do nothing at all”.   My Dad used to say, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained” – which always reminded me that success would never be possible without taking a risk. In the last few years there has been a lot of talk about a Maya Angelou quote; “when we know better we do better” .   The first time I heard it, the statement felt like permi

Being " in the present moment "  is an ongoing issue for me.  I see that same quality mirrored in my 8-year old daughter.  I am constantly being peppered with questions like: "What are we doing this weekend?"   "Is there anything special coming up?"   "I can't wait until summer .... "    As a child I would often hear my Mother say; " stop and smell the roses ", instead of rushing through my childhood.  I tended to push forward to each milestone, instead of fully enjoying the spaces in between.  Even in my 30s I had not made enough improvement in this area.  I read a book called Real Moments by Barbara De Angelis.  The message in the book was very similar to what my Mom had always told me, but the message was packaged differently enough to catch my attention and make me stop to consider how it affected me.   I began to make subtle changes. While fighting through morning traffic on the way to my office I would d

Whether in my personal life or through the resume writing/interview coaching aspect of my business , I have noticed an increase in the number of people needing a pep talk about heading back to work, after a stretch of time at home with kids.   A large percentage of stay at home parents are women, but there has been an increase in Dad's making this choice also - which is an impactful shift for equal rights. Each pep talk involves these key elements: Reminding the parent that their marketable value did not disappear, but does need to be refreshed, Giving them contacts for trusted resources in finance to provide advice on whether it DOES, in fact, make financial sense for them to become an income earner instead of a dependant (in a two income home), and Me wishing I could provide my resume/coaching services for free - since the budgets many parents are working from are limited. It does not always make financial sense for the parent to return to work.  It is key to work through

This blog series has been rattling around my mind for some time.  Nearly 20 years ago, I first heard this quote;   At that time in my personal development, I didn't have the breadth of life experience to take a position on this quote.  Nearly two decades later, I do and I see a lot of truth in it.  This blog series will explore some of the ideas/statements that have impacted me in the last few years, and show how the roots of the same lesson were planted earlier in my life, from other sources. Old Message, New Messenger - Part 1:  We Teach People How to Treat Us I admit, I heard this quote on the Dr. Phil show, along with millions of others; " We teach people how to treat us ."  In researching this quote, I found information that suggests a similar message was made popular by Dear Abby, several years earlier.  I have spent many minutes pondering it and when I am not getting the treatment I want from others, I step back and ask myself how I have been teaching