Terri's Tuesday Tip of the Week - April 14th

The future depends on what you do today. ― Mahatma Gandhi

True happiness is... to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future. - Lucius Annaeus Seneca

                                                          

In Sheryl Sandberg’s book Lean In and her very popular TEDTalk “Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders”, she discusses a very valuable point that I think can be incorporated into Terri’s Tuesday Tips about dreams, vision and goals…..Don’t Leave Before You Leave.  She tells of a woman that visited with her about not applying and accepting a job because she was preparing to have children, but this lady was not married or even dating anyone.  Sandberg told her she was planning for the future way too much.  

We all get excited about these new dreams and goals that we want to accomplish.  I have heard it compared to when a woman becomes pregnant.  They are excited for the birth of their child and they have 9 months of planning before giving birth.  However around month 7, ankles are swollen, a continual increase in weight and they are just ready to birth the baby. 

The same is true when a new dream is birthed in each of us.  It is great to have the dream and we are so excited when it is first conceived in our heart and mind, but we must continue on our current path until it is time to birth the new dream.  As someone that has big dreams, I can attest to this.  Part of the process of developing into the person we need to be to accomplish the next dream is to stay on the current path and continue to develop, grow and prepare until the time comes to birth the next dream for our life. 

As I have thought about this, it is a great balancing act….be the best you can be in the present AND prepare for future dreams….

One must strike the right balance between speed and quality.

- Clare Short

Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is God's gift, that's why we call it the present. - Joan Rivers

Resources

·         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18uDutylDa4

·         http://www.advance.latech.edu/pdf/Lean_In_Book_Review.pdf

Terri's Tuesday Tip of the Week - April 7th

Comparison is an act of violence against the self. - Iyanla Vanzant

Comparison is the death of joy. -  Mark Twain

I wish I had her hair….I wish I had her job….I wish I had her thought process.  Do you ever compare yourself to other people and wish you had what they had?  

Over the last couple of weeks, Terri’s Tuesday Tip of the Week has been talking about vision, dreams and goals.  As I have been thinking about these various topics, I want to stress that each of us has a unique plan for our lives and we will not have the same path, vision or dreams as anyone else and we should not compare ourselves to anyone else.  Each one of is uniquely created for our own purpose!

I remember when I was in high school and one of my teachers asked me why I was not more like my sister.  He had taught both of us at different schools.  She was an excellent student and athlete.  However, I was not as academically gifted as her and that comment made me feel I was not good enough.  It took me a very long time to realize that we are both uniquely gifted ladies that have different journeys in this life.  We are both making a major impact on this world in our own special, amazing way!

I would challenge each of you to dream and set your goals.  Do not compare yourself to someone else because they do not have the same purpose and passions in this life that you do.  Also, be cautious who you tell those dreams and goals to.  Go to trusted individuals for advice, but know that you are the one that is dreaming and has the vision.  You are the one that will have to get up when your body does not desire to and fight to accomplish your life’s purpose. 

Don’t compare yourself because you are on a unique journey in this amazing life that we are living… 

When you are content to be simply yourself and don't compare or compete, everybody will respect you. – Lao Tzu

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Additional Resource: https://www.dailyworth.com/posts/2635-how-other-women-may-be-killing-your-confidence/2

Terri's Tuesday Tip of the Week - March 31st

Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible. - Tony Robbins

Today is the end of the first quarter of 2015 and I am so excited!  This has been an amazing year already and I can’t wait to see what happens for the rest of it….

Last week Terri’s Tuesday Tip was about vision and this week is about GOALS!  Over the last week, I had two different discussions about goals and it challenged me to rethink what are goals, why do we have them, how to create them and to have a personal “status update” since it is the end of the first quarter. 

According to dictionary.com, a goal is:

• something that you are trying to do or achieve
• the end toward which effort is directed: aim

When I thought back to how I started writing goals and how I now create my yearly goals, I thought back to the first time I remember creating a goal.  I was in my early 20s and I decided to read a certain number of pages in a year.  My goal was 10,000 and I read over 15,000 pages that year.  At that time in my life, I worked at a bank and would spend my evenings reading.  That goal propelled me to increase my vocabulary, improve my reading comprehension and prepared me to return to college to finish my degree.  

Today, I create goals based on the vision I have for my life and that vision has grown over the years.  The first true vision (career dream) I had for my life I discovered at 19 as I was running and it is now coming true.  With the vision that is every growing for my life and as I continue to dream bigger dreams, I begin each year (or start at the end of the previous year) to develop my goals to help me obtain the overall vision for my life. 

When creating goals, I recommend developing S.M.A.R.T. goals, which are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and provide a Timetable for accomplishing.  I create my goals in the areas of the 6 Fs: faith, family, friends, finance, future and fitness. 

With it being the end of the first quarter, I did a “status update” on how I was doing for 2015.  Here are some of the questions I asked myself:

• How am I doing on this goal?
• Why do I have this goal?
• Do I still need this goal with the new dreams and inspirations that are developing in 2015?
• How will this goal help me accomplish my long term goal?
• How will this goal help me accomplish the vision I have for my life?
• How will this goal help me fulfill the purpose statement that I created for my life?

When I reviewed my goals, I was surprised by something.  I wrote a goal and did not follow my own recommendation of being specific.  The goal was to create an awesome presentation for Toastmasters, which when I wrote the goal I had been asked to speak at a Toastmaster conference in May.  In early January, I had decided not to speak because some other major things came up.  However, I recently competed in the Regional Toastmaster Speech Contest and it was an awesome speech and I know I affected people’s lives with the speech as it also affected my life.  When I reviewed my goals, I first thought I was not going to accomplish the goal, but now I see that the goal was for a different outcome that I did not see yet. 

I want to encourage each and every one of you to create goals, dream big and have a BIG vision for your life.  There is no one right way to write goals, dream big or develop a vision for your life.  The best part of this whole process is summarized in this quote:

What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals. - Henry David Thoreau