First Word

In my "throw myself on the funeral pyre of martyrdom," I had an epiphany. I am generous to the point I found that I was often taken advantage of. No realizing or necessarily discerning the difference between helping, being taken advantage of, or just plain being robbed LOL ... I set myself into an unproductive mindset. Always "other" focused and concerned with client needs vs. my own needs, I began to see an erosion in profits, and I started to struggle. Blame part of it on the economy, part of it marketplace competition, and part of it on -- me. I recently was invited to work on a project that once launched would be a tremendous profit center. I immediately felt "profit guilt pangs": what gave me the right to create such a profitable business model? Why should I make that much money? Anyone out there hearing this and realizing they suffer from "profit guilt pangs"? Doesn't this make me greedy? I had a whole litany of thoughts like these tr...

I have always been one to follow my instincts -- your gut tells the truth even when your mind resists. Gut-reactions are the ones that speak the initial truth. It is only our minds that cloud the issue and drum up questions or my all-time favorite, "Why?" A client of mine was talking to me about the book Blink b y Malcolm Gladwell, and he said its theory is that we size up stuff pretty much in a "blink" of the eye. I agree. Our senses tell us everything we need to know quickly. It is only our minds that interfere in the obvious. Some people might even say it's psychic, and I'm willing to go along with that assessment too -- part gut, part observation, part psychic. You have two self-empowerment tools you probably didn't realize were at your disposal: your gut and your ability to trust your gut. Problem is (as this applies to women especially with men who are "players" or don't have pure intentions) many people will have that gut-reaction ...