Imperfection is part of life.

It is part of humanity. It is all around us and within us.

Trying to force perfection can be tough on the psyche. While striving to achieve more, we will fall short far too often.

Instead of focusing on your imperfections look at the special qualities that make you uniquely you. Think of how far you’ve come and notice simple moments worth celebrating.

In a fast-paced and often chaotic society, many women tend to put their own needs on the back burner.

As women we often spend much of our lives nurturing others and struggle with giving ourselves permission for self-care.

It’s hard to remember that we, as much as anybody else in the entire universe, deserve our own love and affection. In order to design a more complete and fulfilled life, I’m learning that I need to prioritize self-care, which ultimately nourishes and flourishes every other aspect of life.

Taking care of my well-being and health first is the best way to ensure I will be able to care for all of my love ones. Self-care reduces the stress, worry, anxiety, tension, fear and overwhelm which bury our dreams and weigh us down.

Rest and reflection enable us to tap in the power within and tackle life with more ease.

Toxic work environments, chronic complaining friends, or doom-and-gloom days deplete energy. I’m finding that eliminating these type of triggers allow space for more positivity and abundance.

A calms state of mind opens up a bridge to our unconscious world and is the conduit to realizing what’s possible. When we take time to acknowledge our dreams, we allow ourselves to become more consciously aware of our thoughts, feelings and experiences we may have either repressed, forgotten about, or never been really aware of.

What is weighing you down?

Start giving the world the best of you, not what’s left of you #StayHealthy #Startwithyou #WomanPower

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REMEMBER…

When well-being and health is absent, wisdom can’t reveal itself, art can’t manifest, strength can’t strive, wealth becomes useless, intelligence can’t be applied.

Walking is the best exercise!

This year, walk away from arguments that lead you to nowhere but anger. Walk away from people who deliberately put you down. Walk away from any thought that reduces your worth. Walk away from failures and fears that stifle your dreams.

The more you walk away from things that poison your soul, the happier your life would be.

Walk towards joy and peace of mind. Walk towards loving relationships. Walk towards an attitude of gratitude, laughter, action, inspirational experiences, and self-love.

Walk towards choices that move you forward.

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Don’t try to explain yourself to everyone. If they don’t accept you shake it off and keep on walking – don’t try to make them understand. Walk!

Wish you a Happy New Year filled with joy, fulfillment, new dreams, new hopes, new experiences, new joys and a truly prosperous year!

Today is a brand new day. A fresh start. An opportunity to replace any negativity with positivity, think happy thoughts, exercise, go for a run or do some sit ups, drink lots of water, fill the body with fuel, sip a latte, take a picture, enjoy the morning.

Today is a day to inspire, create, learn, (more…)

Shame is a feeling of being inadequate or unworthy of connection, love, and belonging.

We often bury the feelings of shame inside us. One of the characteristics of shame is it makes us want to hide and remain unseen.  Shame can be physically uncomfortable and difficult to speak about openly so often we learn to hold onto it, tucking it away into our deepest parts instead of treating it like an emotion that deserves to be aired out and heard. Its often by sharing our feelings of shame and airing them to people we trust, that we’re finally able to face our shame, be with it and overcome it.

A good friend of mine recently had a business failure and it was a rather public one. He experienced damage to his self-worth that left him feeling wounded and isolated. I learned that he had been avoiding friends and family and until a conversation with me, he hadn’t opened up about his experience or the shame surrounding it. As he confided in me, I could almost see the weight lifting from his shoulders and hear the relief in his voice.

I’ve noticed that the inclination to hide the shame from ourselves and others often produces more shame. It’s only when we take the risk, sharing our hidden uncomfortable feelings of shame, that we might be rewarded with the most precious thing of all: Acceptance.

So the next time you identify feelings of shame tucked away in your body and mind, see if it’s possible to find someone you trust to confide in.

As we begin to bravely share our experience with others, shame can actually be a connector that decreases our isolation. We can discover that we’re not alone, feeling inadequate or broken. As we recognize this together, it allows us to heal and make peace with all our parts.

Profound thoughts from Tamara Levitt. Listen to her lovely meditation on Calm.

“There are 3 kinds of people: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened.” ~Author unknown.

Vince Lombardi famously said leaders aren’t born, they are made.

Leaders are often associated with natural charisma, confidence, dazzling social intelligence, insight, intuition, courage, compelling communication, a zest for change, and vision that allows them to set their sights on “things” then make them merit attention.

While these traits may seem natural most can be learned.

1. Charisma: In her book, The Charisma Myth, Olivia Fox Cabane, shares anecdotes and research illustrating how elements of charisma are learned. She reveals how specific behaviors such as the ability to be fully present in a moment can help individuals develop their personal charisma.

2. Confidence: One critical key to confidence is preparation. It’s hard to be confident if you feel like you are walking in the dark. In Zenhabits, Leo Babauta states that you can beat that feeling by preparing yourself as much as possible. Then groom yourself, stand tall, think positive and focus on solutions.

3. Social intelligence: Daniel Goleman,  author of  Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence (Harvard Business School, 2002) says the most effective leaders are alike in one crucial way: They all have a high degree of emotional intelligence.  Emotional intelligence has 5 key components—self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skill – the ability to find common ground, build rapport and manage relationships proficiently. While some people are naturally better at this than others, many people don’t understand how to go about it so they make attempts that fall flat, seem fake, or make them annoying and arrogant.

4. Insight: Leaders need technical expertise to win the trust of followers, manage operations, and set strategy but today, being informed is often confused with being smart. Leaders must know how to gather, sort, and structure information, and then connect it in new ways to create insight.

5. Intuition: The right way to lead is not in the data. It is with informed intuitiveness. Empathy for the led is essential and so is listening to that feeling in your gut.

6. Courage: Credibility comes from being first through the door to the unknown. Standing in one place, or stepping back while others take risks to make the frontier safe for others, simply doesn’t cut it. Moving forward is not a leap or a sprint but a plodding process.

7. Communication: The watershed capacity in leadership is unquestionably communication.  The powers to inform and persuade win the battles for hearts and minds. The process of compelling communication can be learned and honed to establish credibility, inform, inspire, unite,  direct and rouse followers’ passion.

8. Zest: Leadership requires zest. It is a heavy load and long journey that drains resources so to keep your energy up, you require fitness in all areas — physical, mental, and moral.

9. Vision: Leadership requires vision. Vision requires listening. All can hear but few really listen. And too many people only listen to themselves. Listening to colleagues and collaborators,  markets and constituencies, and yourself — all through the endless din of the present, the ominous voices of the past, and the deafening silence boding the future — is vital.

Becoming a good leader is not easy, but by seeking the right knowledge, learning relevant skills and seeking support as you put them into practice then adapting them to different situations, you will have an invaluable asset to offer the world.

That’s where ELEO comes in. ELEO is focused on inspiring and equipping entrepreneurs to lead. On Saturday, July 26th ELEO is hosting a one-day conference in San Jose, California.

It will be a gathering of great minds with the goal of providing practical advice on how to lead a company or organization with lessons from experienced leaders including top venture capitalists, Fortune 500 CEOs, serial entrepreneurs and everyone in-between.

Space is limited so register today. http://eleoconference.com

The truth is, most of us discover where we are headed when we arrive. Often we follow the path of life, not knowing where it will lead. Some people make plans, set goals and stick to them. Others go off the beaten path in search of “crazy” pursuits. In both cases, some succeed. Others don’t. And others still find that what they thought they wanted, was not what they needed at all.

Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin and Hobbes, in a commencement speech at Kenyon College, said this on pursuing what matters:

“Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement. In a culture that relentlessly promotes avarice and excess as the good life, a person happy doing his own work is usually considered an eccentric, if not a subversive. Ambition is only understood if it’s to rise to the top of some imaginary ladder of success. Someone who takes an undemanding job because it affords him the time to pursue other interests and activities is considered feeble. A person who abandons a career in order to stay home and raise children is considered not to be living up to his potential — as if a job title and salary are the sole measure of human worth.

To invent your own life’s meaning is not easy, but it’s still allowed, and I think you’ll be happier for the trouble.

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There are a million ways to sell yourself out, and I guarantee you’ll hear about them. You’ll be told in a hundred ways, some subtle and some not, to keep climbing, and never be satisfied with where you are, who you are, and what you’re doing.

Selling out is usually more a matter of buying in. Sell out, and you’re really buying into someone else’s system of values, rules and rewards.

…If we don’t discover what we want from ourselves and what we stand for, we will live passively and unfulfilled. Sooner or later, we are all asked to compromise ourselves and the things we care about. We define ourselves by our actions. With each decision, we tell ourselves and the world who we are. Think about what you want out of this life, and recognize that there are many kinds of success.

You can read his entire speech here.

The poem Continue was written by Maya Angelou

The poem offers words of hope and perseverance… a message of empowerment and hope, of courage and generosity, a call to action and an answer to the question all of us ask ourselves about our ability to make a difference in our own lives and in the lives of others.

On the day of your birth
The Creator filled countless storehouses and stockings
with rich ointment, luscious tapestries,
and antique coins of incredible value,
jewels worthy of a queen’s dowry.
They were set aside for your use
Alone

Armed with faith and hope
And without knowing of the wealth which awaited
You broke through dense walls of poverty
And loosed the chained of ignorance which
threatened to cripple you so that you could walk
A free woman into a world which needed you.

My wish for you is that you continue.
To be who and how you are…
To astonish a mean world with your acts of kindness.

Continue to let your eloquence elevate people to heights they had only imagined.
Continue to remind people that each is as good as the other and that no one is beneath nor above you.
Continue to remember your own young years and look with favor upon the lost, least and lonely.
Continue to take the hand of the despised and diseased and walk with them proudly in the high street.

Some might see you and be encouraged to do likewise.

Continue to plant a kiss of concern on the cheek of the sick and the aged and infirm and count that action as natural and to be expected.
Continue to let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer
and let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good.
Continue to spare no vision which comes to enlarge your range and increase your spirit.

My wish for you is that you to continue.
Continue to dare to love deeply and risk everything for the good thing.
Continue to float in the sea of infinite substance which set aside riches for you before you had a name.
Continue and by doing so, you and all your dreams will be able to continue…

Eternally.

Nice line from Ratan Tata’s Lecture-

If u want to Walk Fast,  Walk Alone

But  if u want to Walk Far,

Walk Together….