My story starts in the wonderful Midwest City of Minneapolis where at the age of 27 I decided to quit my job and move to San Diego just for the adventure of it.  I left my family, friends and the life I knew and at the age of 27 packed up my Ford LTD and headed to California.   Nice girls from the Midwest just didn’t leave their families and communities in those days (1984) in fact most of my high school friends were married and having children, but something in my soul knew that’s where I wanted to be and build a life.

I recall so clearly thinking this must be heaven because in January I could drive my car with the windows down and wear open toed shoes year round.  To my great astonishment, people weren’t quite as nice as the folks in the Midwest, I greeted everyone with a smile and a warm Hi how are ya, for awhile I wondered why they looked at me in such a freakish way. I came to realize Californians kept to themselves more than us Midwesterners.  I was hired immediately for work, something I kept hearing about the Midwest work ethic that people seemed to like.  There were some nights I cried myself to sleep wondering what I had done moving so far away from my support system, but life was good and I was blessed with new friends before too long.

I took further risks during my life in California, eventually started three businesses, not all were successful but I never gave up or gave in, I persevered. Eventually I met the man of my dreams and married, sadly he died in 2005 as did my dreams. Taking another risk, I decided in 2007 to sell my house, my business and once again move back across the country back to the town I had left so many years before. I started my life over at 51 years old, no job, no dreams.

I learned alot about life through death and even though risk taking is in my blood, risk taking is about living, it’s about saying yes to life.

So in 2008, I was asked by a friend back in CA who was running for a state public office if I would come out and work on her campaign. I thought about it, for a couple of days and thought why not? I closed up my house for 4 months, left my cat with my Dad and headed back to California to work and live.  What an amazing experience this risk taking is, because it has taught me to truly live life and be open to opportunities. So yes, every risk I have taken was worth the experience I gained from it.  I believe life will present me with more opportunities to risk the comfort of my home and life to expand once again.

Here is a poem that I love that inspires me to continue taking risks in life;

Risk taking is free

“To laugh is to risk appearing the fool

To weep is to appear sentimental

To reach out for another is to risk involvement

To expose feelings is to risk exposing yourself

To place your ideas, your dreams before the crowd

is to risk their loss

To love is to risk not being loved in return

To hope is to risk despair

To try is to risk failure.

But the greater hazard in life is to risk nothing,

They may avoid suffering and sorrow,

but they simply cannot

learn, feel, change, grow or love

chained by certitudes, they are slaves

who have forfeited freedom.

Only a person who risks is Free.”

christina henry

This month of March we celebrate National Women’s History Month where we honor ourselves and the history of women who blazed a trail for the women’s movement and recognition for women’s achievements in our countries history.

Before 1970, women’s history was rarely the subject of serious study. As historian Mary Beth Norton recalls, “only one or two scholars would have identified themselves as women’s historians, and no formal doctoral training in the subject was available anywhere in the country.” Since then, however, the field has undergone a metamorphosis.  Today almost every college offers women’s history courses and most major graduate programs offer doctoral degrees in the field. Whoo Hoo, this is something to celebrate!

Ladies, I hope you celebrate your own achievements because we all have a story and we have our own history to share. I hope that you share your life’s history with your daughters, tell them how different life was for girls & women in the 1960’s, 1970’s, 1980’s and so forth.

I share this article by Gail Collins, the first female editorial page editor for the New York Times, as she recounts the amazing women behind the cataclysmic changes in women’s rights over the past 50 years. CLICK HERE to read the amazing story of 5 women who changed history for women.

And think about the amazing women in your life, in your circle – those who inspire, support and push you along to greatness. Be sure to tell those women how much they mean to you and how grateful you are to have them in your Circle of Strength.

Do you have those days when you work on a project that you are so proud of completing and take a gulp as you put your work out into the world with the hope that a new prospect will notice and become a client? Do you clean up your home, prepare a nice meal with the hope your family will notice? Do you get a new haircut or outfit and you are feelin’ pretty darn good about yourself but deep down you hope someone, maybe your husband will notice? Did you send a donation to the people of Haiti after the earthquake, wondering, did I make a difference?

Do you feel invisible to the world, wondering if anything you do makes a difference?

I will admit I have those feelings. Every month I send out a newsletter with the sole purpose of inspiring or empowering just one women to live in her greatness and I wonder if I am yelling into cyber space – is anyone listening? Sometime do you just feel invisible?

I want to share with you  a fabulous video a friend shared with me that poses the question about invisibility.

Today is Sunday which for me usually starts with coffee, the newspaper and the Tv Program “Sunday Morning” where I always find the stories interesting and fun. Todays show featured a Nutcraker Designer, a Dancing Patrolman, the weekly featured musican was Sting, and interview of the beautiful Sofia Loren and a creative holiday story about Ugly Holiday Sweaters where two guys came up with the idea to buy and sell ugly christmas sweaters, which by the way is a huge success. As I sipped my coffee,  I muttered under my breathe “why didn’t I think of that.”

My Sunday morning rituals always include a breakfast of eggs, bacon and toast, love that smell wafting about, let’s me know its the weekend and I’m not in a hurry to gulp the coffee and grab that breakfast bar as I head out the door.

But this morning something else inspired me -

I got to thinking about the piles of work on my desk, the laundry that needed to be done and the house that needed to be cleaned and my mind wandered to the idea of play.  My inner child seemed to be calling out and telling me to let go of all the “shoulds” and get in some play time today.  So about now you are wondering, why then am I sitting here at my computer writing this blog post??  Well, before I dart off the play, thought I might inspire you to schedule some play time into your life.  Play is valuable to the soul and to nurture that child within that we seem to take so seriously, play tells us to let our hair down and do something that brings us joy just because…hummm, maybe play needs to be added to your “should” list, I added it to mine today!

See ya, off to play!  Happy Sunday.

I want to share with you this wonderful new book called “Who’s Got Your Back” by Keith Ferrazzi.  I’m excited to share this with the many solo entrepreneurs that subscribe to my newsletter because I think it will benefit you the most.  We spend so much time working our businesses alone that the idea of having other people’s input is often scary and not something we embrace.

This book dispels that “going it alone mentality” for the powerful idea of creating your own personal board, built with trusted relationships of  peers who have your best interest – your back. The idea of having three people for example, that you can count on all the time for honest feedback, advice and accountability is an idea that can move you personally and professionally ahead to meet and exceed your goals in lightening fast ways you hadn’t imagined.

First you have to be open to the idea of who’s got your back and how lifeline relationships can change your life

2nd-Learn the art of building your dream team of lifeline relationships, create your personal success map and commit   to improvement
3rd-develop the strategies and structures that help you stay on course

“Who’s Got Your Back“  is all about creating your Circle of Strength, I encourage you to pick up this great book at your local store or connect here to Amazon;

Abundance is a concept often debated in spiritual and
entrepreneurial circles.

Entrepreneurs commonly use the catch-phrase “thinking
BIG,” but they really mean the same thing.

Abundance is tough to define because it’s one of those
unique ideas that must be experienced to really be
understood … it can’t just be explained.

Yet the most encouraging part of adopting an abundance
mindset is how it can connect you to people with totally
different set of beliefs and values.

This week I listened to some amazing people talk about abundance, Jack Canfield who spoke about the importance of visioning yourself in the way you want your life to be, he spoke of rituals of visioning such as writing your goals on 3 x 5 cards you carry with you and look at during the day, he talked of building a dream board placing pictures (envisioning tool) of where you see yourself and then feel what ii is to be in that place and he spoke to being grateful for where you are and what you have now in your life.

I listened to Richard Branson, owner or Virgin Atlantic Airlines. Wow, what an interesting guy. He never gave up on his dream of building a better airline even when people told him he was just a old rocker!

One of my favorite set of speakers were David Morelli & Marci Shimoff, they spoke about how you stop focusing on fear insread focus on the path you want to go and “feel” what that is like.  Here are a few tips they offered to raise your abundance thinking;

1. Be Open to receive abundance, breathe deeply and you will become more open physiclaly

2. Create space for new by cleaning out old energy, Marci suggested a simple task of getting rid of 27 items a day for 9 days, things that no longer serve you which tells the universe you are open to receive

3.  Step back out of fear to have the possibility of something else. You can do this by daily meditation and visualizing your negativity and old beliefs leaving your body and being grounded back into the earth or out into the universe

4.  Practice gratitude, every day find things you are grateful for and the many blessings you currently have in your life

5.  Giving – will raise your happiness level, volunteer or give to someone else in need

Where do you get stuck?  Most be people get stuck in “I’ll be happy when……”  instead learn to be happy now, this moment.

I’m learning to change my abundant thinking and I hope you will too.

BY THE WAY, YOU CAN STILL LISTEN TO THE REMAINING SPEAKERS THROUGH JULY 30TH   FOR JUST $1.00, CLICK THE PICTURE BELOW

If you’ve been reading my posts, I have become a huge advocate for KIVA.org because as an entrepreneur myself I have been challenged with financial capital for my business growth.  I truly believe that if you empower a person with the ability to make money then they will become self sufficient and care for their families which ultimately is what we all want.

Kiva has up been micro lending in poverty stricken countries since the organization began. In May they decided to offer the mico lending model in the United States with some opposition, which brings me to the question – Do you believe there is poverty in the US? Well, how does one define poverty is probably coming to your mind.

During the difficult economic crisis of the past year or so, I see many people suffering and having to do without things they never imagined.  Can we compare it to a peasant farmer in South Africa who is trying to buy seeds to plant a field?  I think not, but I also don’t believe that negates the fact that a small business owner in the US is stuggling to keep their business open.

I think this country should put more emphasis on the entrepreneur, the small business owner who took a risk on their dream of business ownership.  We forget the small business owner employs people, they pay taxes and money flows into the economy for their efforts.  So the point I am trying to make is that I am of the belief that we should also find it in our hearts to support American business owners who might need a break right now – those that our banks have shunned – those who work hard to make America great.  So here’s let’s keep an open mind to the mico lending business model, let’s rebuild America one small business at a time!

I have been an ardent supporter of women and believe if we strengthen women we will strengthen our communities.

If you want to join my Kiva Team – Circle of Strength, CLICK HERE for more details.

This past weekend I attended the National Conference on Widowhood in San Diego, CA.  You may be thinking, why would anyone want to gather with a bunch of people who are probably wearing black, morbid and crying all the time.

Well, as a widow myself,  let me demystify the myth of widows/widowers  -  the attendees were primarily women (there was one brave man) ranged from the ages of 25 to about 75, came from 28 states and 6 countries.  There were no black veils or gloves and yes a few tears were shed but the bond of a group that all experienced the same loss of a spouse was incredibly empowering.

The conference sponsored by The Soaring Spirits Loss Foundation provided educational seminars and social gatherings all with the intent to empower, strengthen and provide hope for the future.

This event truly exemplified the mission of Circle of Strength - to  inspire, empower and have more fun.  The buzz around the conversations were about life… about life cut short and a life well lived and about what is yet to come.

The grieving journey is hard, it is painful and it takes time.  But most people on this journey seem equipped to make their life work in meaningful ways.  I have found more optimism among widowed people than most others, because if they lose their worldly possessions it doesn’t compare to the loss of their spouse.

The lesson learned in general was that a group of like-minded or life-experienced people can be powerful, empowering and provide great strength.  Look for a group of like-minded people in your area, check places like Meet-up.com, or a business associations or a business network group in your area.  Check out community education in your area, they offer short classes in many topics from cooking to learning computer skills.  The point is, there are many ways to connect and be empowered by people, no need to feel alone – so broaden your connections and get out and be inspired!