Declarations, a powerful opportunity to create change

Declarations, a powerful opportunity to create change

Declarations, a powerful opportunity to create change

Last year, just before the 2016 Positively Powerful Woman Awards Dinner, a group of us got together to discuss what was the one thing we wanted people who attended to leave with. We wanted people to be inspired, excited and knowing that they had a big role in the process of effecting change in the world. It was important that our guests believe that evening was the start of something and not a singular event. That when they went home that evening, they were ready to move the world forward in a Powerful and Positive way. What finally took hold for us was the thought of individual declarations.

2017 Positively Powerful Woman Awards and Dinner

June 10th at the Desert Botanical Gardens

Why declarations? Because they are often life altering. A declaration unlike a new year’s resolution, changes our relationship with others, our friends, family, and community. It impacts how we view the past and creates a future we were not aware of until just that moment. A true declaration has commitment attached to its hip. Our declarations matter to us.

And so we invited our guest to write a note to themselves, that evening, right there at the dinner, that would contain their own personal declaration about their future. Place the note in a self-addressed envelope and that we would mail the notes back to them on June 1st, 2017. No, we did not read the notes.

The Power of Declarations is that it is the point at which the world begins to changes.

Being Acknowledged

Being Acknowledged

Don't Ignore Us - What the 2016 Election Taught Us

by Pauline Sandell

I’ve been meditating on my strong emotional reactions to the election, escalating those reactions by looking at some of the “stuff” on Facebook before I got a grip on myself to stop feeding those reactions and engage my capacity to look at a bigger picture (which I can do really well when I chose). I just want to share them with you all.

Those who came out to vote for Trump have been heard (or “seen”). There is clearly a huge number of Americans who feel their need for attention has not been met and the only person on a public platform who has given them even a glimpse of a possibility that they might be even acknowledged – seems to be Donald Trump. Whether he can deliver or not – they are willing to take a risk because he acknowledged their need.

I understand how it feels to not to be seen, heard or acknowledged repeatedly and consistently. It sucks!

This is not a comment or opinion about the politics (as a Brit , tho I live in the US, I cannot vote here yet). This is an observation about being human and the human condition – the need to feel like we matter, that we count is primal. To feel ignored, talked at, exploited at best – manipulated and powerless – at worst – I think, forces one to do whatever it takes to be “seen” and “heard”.

Whatever my own beliefs and views – all I can say is I understand (and worked with populations) who know first-hand how it feels to not to be seen, heard or acknowledged repeatedly and consistently. It sucks!

What this election and the Brexit phenomenon may be reflecting is that huge numbers of the population showed up to say “I want to be counted – literally (I want to be seen and heard).

We have a system called democracy that allows that. Some other parts of the world don’t. Does the system always work the way we think it should? Hell no! But it mostly serves us (or we make do) – but then comfort encouraged benign “righteousness” may lead to the belief that the system is working for everyone. Clearly, from this election, it seems the system is not!

The fact that we have a system (however imperfect) that gives people who may feel they have no voice the option to be heard, in my view is still pretty progressive. I can certainly celebrate and feel good about that!

Pauline Sandell

Pauline Sandell

Personal Coach and Writer

Let’s hear it for the girls

Let’s hear it for the girls

Let’s hear it for the girls
Susan G. Finley

These are some of the women, known as “Human Computers” who were greatly responsible for getting the United States into space.

 What could have been said 

“That’s one small step for men and women, one giant leap for humankind.”

 

Susan Finley NASA, JPL-Caltech, Engineer

I’ve  just recently learned about the women techies who made it possible for our getting to and from the Moon, yeah!

And if you are first learning about these incredible women, like I am, then we better do something about getting the word out.We need to make an effort to show that our girls, our women, our wives and our daughters are used to doing more than what has been expected of them. The problem is that so little is expected of them! When a Girl gets something right she is considered an anomaly.

Girls in the spotlight

When she gets something wrong, meaning that it’s not working yet, they sometimes get the feedback “we gave you a chance AND?” Similarly to the focus on Marissa Mayer not being able to turn Yahoo around as if boys would have done a better job? By my count Yahoo CEO’s it’s 5 boys vs. 2 girls which suggest that the problem is not gender.

We like to give significance to being the 1st, which has often meant that others have never been acknowledged, invited in or accepted in. 

Over the next twelve months, If you’ve got a story about a woman who has not gotten the recognition she should have, be it a public person or someone who you know personally and think she deserves the spotlight I would love to publish that story here and have it be a part of our countdown to our 10th Positively Powerful Woman Awards event June 10th 2017.

Please email me using the contact form below.

 

1 + 10 =

Learning how to find your way

Learning how to find your way

Learning how to find your way

lao tzu a path to leaning

Lao-Tzu

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”

So many ways to learn, how many to unlearn?

As adults we have our “to do” lists, the speeches we attend, the audio recordings, workbooks and other sources from the last, the latest and greatest seminar we went to. All because we have an insatiable desire to learn. Maybe it’s because of some problem we want to solve or some business strategy we want to learn….whatever, we are a walking talking commitment to ‘learning’.

However what we don’t realize is that it is the unlearning that most interferes with what we do to learn. Unlearn why we procrastinate, why we let those notebooks gather dust after the first rush “to do” wears off. Or we get scared. What gets int the way of our being courageous to do something about the stuff we called “learned”.

What do you need to unlearn? This is where the human connection can kick in; that he or she that gets you over some hump and into action. Rewiring the brain to unlearn is faster with a caring two-some.

“What does it take to go where you’ve never been?”

I read this in a brochure of one of my international clients. Got someplace, a goal, vision, a health issue you’ve never been or had before? Think about the impossible way you most want to be or goal you want to reach… then put it in the abstract. Distance yourself from it. Meaning, imagine it as a wilderness you’ve never been in before. Could be a new country you got a training assignment to work in…whatever. To go to that imaginary place, what would you do? Find a map? Use your GPS or Google Map to check it out? Get a guide? Google the weather, temperature and start packing accordingly? For sure, you’d let yourself get excited about the trip. Then if it was important enough to you, your life and/or your sense of adventure, you would GO!

Learning how to achieve the impossible

It’s no different with the journey to your ”impossible dream”. Get a guide…a coach someone who’s been there and done that. You wouldn’t want a guide who is as new as you to the wilderness, would you? Do you homework, don’t go in blind. Think, does he or she have the credentials for your particular journey. And for sure – get excited! Remember, what’s new territory you is the journey you choose and could be the journey of your lifetime, your next adventure. Too many times we don’t act with urgency to what our intuition tells us. Trust and step out.

Women Leadership and a Collaborative Economy