Archive for category Positive Actions
4 Steps to Living Your Vision By Marsh Engle
Posted by admin in Feminine Success, Positive Actions, Vision, empowerment on August 25th, 2009
Today’s an anniversary for me. It’s been eight years since my first book was published. And, over ten since I began to investigate what allows one person to continuously achieve spectacular outcomes every day without fail while others experience what appears to be an endless stream of bumps along their journey to success.
Here’s what I’ve discovered: Success is in the quality of our choice of action!
All of the high achievers I’ve met and interviewed have one very important thing in common: They each have a practiced system of success and it’s one filled with the attitudes, habits, rituals and certainty that serve rather than distract them from their vision.
Here’s what else I’ve discovered: We cannot change what we refuse to see, deny or acknowledge. In other words, it pays big dividends to get real, take pure responsibility and be deeply honest with ourselves. Know what you require in your life and allow these elements to be your continuous point of reference that guides your quality of choice and action.
The pay-off: Your actions are inspired, your enthusiasm high and your results in alignment with your greatest vision!
Are you ready to bring your vision into focus and empower the actions in your life? Begin by experimenting with the 4 Steps to Living Your Vision:
1. INVESTIGATE. Start by taking a look at your current patterns of thought, habits of action and energy depleting attitudes – all of them. If you are like most of us, it’s very likely that you’ve unconsciously practiced many of the same routines day in and day out your entire life. ; As you become aware of any limiting habits of thinking, choice of language and actions, take note. Acknowledge them. This first step is simply about gaining awareness. No need to judge. Simply notice.
2. DECIDE. As you begin to take notice of your conscious and unconscious actions that have become your way of life, decide which ones tend to deplete your creativity and which are empowering and energizing. The habits and attitudes to hang onto are the ones that propel you forward and serve your highest vision. In many cases, these are the ones that also positively impact the people around you. Disempowering ones are those that steal your sense of connection, joy and fulfillment – these are the ones that stand between you and living your vision.
3. REPLACE. Since every choice … including our ways of perception … tend to become routine very rapidly, the best way to eliminate an old disempowering attitude is to replace it with a fresh point of view. Take a look at limiting behaviors and consider a new way of approach. Become innovative. Stretch yourself. Transform. Modify your choices and replace them with vibrant new actions.
4. PRIORITIZE. Start with small steps. Prioritize the patterns that you want to tackle first. Ask yourself which ones … when altered … will have the greatest impact in your life. Then, focus on making small changes in those areas of your life. Remember, what motivates and propels a purpose-full life is your passion and enthusiasm. Break through the barriers of progress one attitude at a time – as you feel ready.
And, most of all, always keep in mind: A vision without action is simply a dream. An action without vision is merely a passing of time. But vision with action can change your life and the world.
Jada Pinkett Smith’s Aha! Moment
Posted by admin in Career Development, Feminine Success, Positive Actions, Uncategorized, empowerment on July 11th, 2009
She tried to micromanage the world. By letting go and doing less, she realized she could actually be more.
About a year and a half ago, I realized I was about to hit a wall. My husband, Will Smith, and I were going through a major transition-besides acting, directing, writing, and producing, we’d started the Will and Jada Smith Family Foundation to support urban families through education, health, and arts programs. At the same time, I was trying to keep my family life healthy and strong and take care of our kids, Trey, 16; Jaden, 10; and Willow, 8. I’ve always been a caretaker; I think a lot of women are. We take care of everybody else first, and very rarely do we think about ourselves.
I grew up in a neighborhood in Baltimore that was like a war zone, so I never learned to trust that there were people who could help me. I was also stuck in the idea that taking care of others was the way to create good relationships. As a result, I tried to micromanage my world.
One day I was so overwhelmed I thought I might be crushed under the weight of all the responsibilities I’d taken on. I pray and meditate every day, and when I started meditating that morning, I felt that God was telling me, Surrender or explode. All of a sudden, I was released. The stress was gone, and in that stillness came the solution: The less I do, the better things will go.
But it’s one thing to have an idea and another to grasp it. Okay, so I realized that by doing less, I can be more. But what did that mean? And how could I apply that to my life? I started with my family. It’s not just about being with them; it’s about being present while I’m with them. That area had been slipping a bit, but on this day I focused on my kids. I turned off my BlackBerry and didn’t take a single call or check my e-mail. You know how you feel as though if you stop, the whole world will fall apart? Well, it didn’t. For a while, everybody was like, “Where’s Jada? We’ve got to get this answer! This needs to happen now!” But it all went fine without me.
So the next thing I did was trust that the people we’d hired could do their jobs. When I was trying to control them, they felt suffocated and invalidated. When I let go, they felt empowered, which created an atmosphere of harmony, and there was peace within the everyday chaos. I learned that surrounding myself with people who are able to help me is like being surrounded by tangible godliness.
Since then, it’s been a year of bliss. I don’t have to go around trying to save everybody anymore; that’s not my job. I took off the Control Freak crown, and now my headaches are over. That tiara may have been pretty, but it was just too damn tight.
- As told to Suzan Colón
Envision the Possibilities!
Posted by admin in Career Development, Feminine Success, Positive Actions, Uncategorized, empowerment, inspiration on May 28th, 2009
The Amazing Woman Envision Statement
In this moment I see myself as the amazing woman I am.
On this day, May 28, 2009,
I pledge my full attention and intention toward living my most vibrant and amazing Self.
May I be open to the quiet whispers of the Divine voice that gently guides me to soar freely and completely in all ways.
May I find the vibrant trust and the creative confidence to follow this wisdom guidance allowing any thoughts or feelings that stand in the way of my pure intent to softly melt away.
In doing so, may I clearly recognize myself
as a brilliant, shining example of someone
who listens to her inner wisdom and trusts intuitive callings.
May I stay focused on my highest vision,
seeing and feeling it as being already demonstrated.
By doing so, I make a solid commitment to myself
to project the power to magnify and bring my creative brilliance to life.
I celebrate this as the amazing woman I am.
© The Six Essentials 2008 Marsh Engle Media. All rights reserved.
Do not copy without written consent of Copyright owner.
Obama’s First 100 Days: Giant Strides for Women
Posted by admin in Positive Actions on May 22nd, 2009
In reviewing President Obama’s First 100 Days, the editors of Ms. magazine are impressed by a series of positive actions to advance the rights of women and girls. The Obama administration has taken giant strides for women in terms of employment, reproductive health and elevation of women’s rights domestically and globally.
As Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority (and publisher of Ms.), says, “I’ve been working for women’s rights in Washington, D.C. since the days of Jimmy Carter, and I’ve never seen anything like the constant outreach to and inclusion of women’s leaders and the pace of actions for women’s rights.”
Obama would impress feminists even more if he appoints additional women to positions of power in his administration—currently, they comprise about 30 percent of appointments requiring Senate confirmation, according to the Washington Post.
Here’s a partial list, in date order, of the Obama actions that have moved women forward:
January 23rd: Overturns the “global gag rule”, paving the way for international family-planning programs to regain funding and improve their services. The rule had prohibited programs in developing nations that receive family planning assistance from the U.S. from even mentioning abortion to their clients. As the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists put it, such restrictions “violate basic medical ethics by jeopardizing a health care provider’s ability to recommend appropriate medical care.” Tens of thousands of poor women’s lives each year were lost; with the gag rule’s removal, women’s lives will be saved.
January 29th: Signs the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, named after the gutsy Alabama woman who realized, too late, that she’d long been shortchanged in wages compared to men at her same level at Goodyear Tire. The new law reverses the 2007 Roberts Supreme Court ruling that workers had to sue within just 180 days of the original discrimination—a standard almost impossible to meet. The Act, which covers sex, race, age and disability discrimination, codifies decades of previous interpretation that each discriminatory paycheck can be the basis of a lawsuit and that the whole term of the discrimination is covered, not just the first six months of employment.
February 4th: Extends government health insurance to cover 11 million children through the SCHIP program.
February 17th: The Obama economic stimulus package passes, saving and creating jobs not only in construction, where men dominate, but in fields where women workers are the substantial majority—health care, child care and education. The package also increases Medicaid, food stamps and unemployment benefits.
February 27th: Moves to rescind the “conscience clause” that the Bush administration forced last-minute into HHS regulations in order to allow health-care workers to deny patients abortions, contraception or any other medical procedures toward which they felt moral repugnance.
March 2nd: Chooses Kathleen Sebelius as Health and Human Services secretary, thus appointing seven women in all to Cabinet-level positions. Although his overall appointments of women to positions requiring Senate confirmation is thus far only 30 percent and needs improvement, he had appointed a record percentage (30 percent) of people of color to such posts.
March 6th: Institutes a new position of ambassador-at-large for global women’s issues within the State Department, naming Melanne Verveer to the post.
March 9th: Lifts restrictions on stem-cell research.
March 11th: In one big day, establishes the White House Council on Women and Girls and signs the Omnibus Spending Act, which restarts U.S. contributions to the United Nations Population Fund (the Bush administration had blocked these for eight years) and reinstates low-cost birth control for college health centers and clinics for low-income women.
March 19th: Pledges to sign a U.N. declaration to decriminalize homosexuality, which Bush had refused to do.
April 3rd: Calls Afghanistan’s proposed Shia family law—which would have permitted marital rape, among other measures removing women’s autonomy—“abhorrent,” helping to lead Afghan President Hamid Karzai to review the law.
April 23rd: The FDA extends Plan B availability to 17-year-olds—something highly unlikely to have happened under Bush.
By the Editors of Ms. magazine
For in-depth coverage of Obama’s actions for women, join Ms.to receive our brand-new Spring issue and get the full story on nominations, the stimulus package, health-care, and more.