SMART WOMEN: STEPPING UP TO VICTORY

Earlier this month I was a featured author at the Baltimore Book Festival. It was a fun event and I was lucky to be scheduled during hours that had the best weather.

In this venue, I interacted with many wonderful women and had many conversations. Here are the highlights of nearly every exchange:

1 – Every woman over age thirty agreed that she felt pressured to put her own needs and aspirations aside to accommodate those of others, both at home and at work.

2 – Most agreed that we are socialized - through advertising, politics, work and religion – to think of ourselves as “less than” our male counterparts.

3 – Every woman understood my explanation of the “Surviving Woman” – the woman who usually settles for what she can get instead of going after what she wants. Sadly, most identified with her.

4 – Many women either resisted or couldn’t grasp the idea of a Victorious Woman. She understood positive images like women and success or achievement, but not VICTORY, associating that idea instead with politics, war, sports and religion (and didn’t want to be identified with those).

5 – One by one, as we talked about the Victorious Woman, each fully embraced it. For most of the women, it was as though they finally had permission to talk about themselves positively, without undercutting what they did. They enthusiastically shared their own victorious stories and told me how, deep down, they aspire to a more victorious life – though they didn’t really think it would be possible.

What about you? Do you think of Victory as something for religious zealots, four-star generals, sports team and politicians? If you do, THINK AGAIN.

VICTORY is about YOU. It is about the CHOICES you make everyday – choices that flow from your desire to be your best self and live on purpose – your purpose, not the one someone else decides for you.

Want to be more victorious? Here’s a beginner’s exercise: Close your eyes, go twenty years into the future and look back to now. What are your victories? Write down at least three. Coming back to now, how do you have to think and act differently to make those future victories become realities? Some examples: you could change your own toxic or self-sabotaging behaviors, find your voice and speak up more, develop a greater sense of self-respect, refuse to settle for the behaviors of disrespectful or demeaning people.

In my Victorious Woman Workshops, I take lots of time focusing on WOMEN AND VICTORY. As the activities and discussions develop, the participants are energized. In one of the first Victorious Woman Workshops, a woman told me that she would never again look at victory in the same way…and, as a result, her life was forever positively changed. I’ve heard that comment many times since then. And it’s about time….for every woman to think about her life as one of victory. You can learn more at http://www.victoriouswoman.com/

©Copyright Annmarie Kelly. 2006. All Rights Reserved. If you wish to use anything from this newsletter, you need to get written permission. Call 610.738.8225 or email to info@victoriouswoman.com