Dreams & Goals

Like a Boss

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Last week the Birmingham Business Journal announced its Top 40 Under 40 class for 2015 and I am proud to say that I am among the young professionals chosen for this honor. What makes me even prouder and even happier is that I recently learned a group of women who have in some way been inspired by the work I do through See Jane Write teamed up to nominate me for this recognition.

This time last year I didn’t even consider myself a real entrepreneur and now here I am being featured in the Birmingham Business Journal! This wouldn’t have happened without the support of that group of women (or the support of my sweet husband who helps me with every See Jane Write event). But I also believe this wouldn’t have happened had I not decided to change my attitude last summer.

Back in July Megan LaRussa Chenoweth’s keynote address at the See Jane Write Bloganista Mini-Conference inspired me to start taking myself seriously as a businesswoman. As a result, I revamped the See Jane Write website and weekly newsletter, started working with a business coach, and started signing up for every webinar on business building that I could find.

As I state in my article for the Birmingham Business Journal, “My career as an entrepreneur started to take flight when I overcame my self-doubt. Once I started to take myself seriously as a businesswoman, other people started to as well.”

For that article, each honoree was asked to answer a slew of questions and obviously not all of them could be used. If you live in Birmingham I hope you’ll pick up a copy of the latest issue of Birmingham Business Journal at a local bookstore like Little Professor Book Center. But I thought it would be fun to share with my blog readers a few of my responses that weren’t used in the article.

Enjoy!

What keeps you up at night? 

Ideas keep me up at night! I always have so many ideas for lessons I can teach, programs I can offer, events I can host, and things I can write to inspire my students, my clients, See Jane Write members and other women in my sphere of influence.

What’s the first website you visit each morning? 

SheReadsTruth.com

What book has influenced you most in your career? 

The book that has influenced me most as an entrepreneur is Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In. It pushed me to overcome my impostor syndrome and to start believing that I am good enough and smart enough to do what I want to do.

What inspires you? 

Women inspire me more than anything on this planet. My mission in life is to empower women and girls to find their voice and share their stories. That drives nearly everything that I do.

What important lesson have you learned that has helped your career? 

I’ve learned to embrace and be unapologetic about my femininity and to never see it as a liability.

What’s the best advice you’ve received? 

Feel the fear and do it anyway.

Your turn! I’d love to read your answers to these questions, too! Leave them in the comments. 

*Cross-posted at WriteousBabe.com.

The Results Are In!

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Image by League of Women Voters via Flickr/Creative Commons

Earlier this month I created a two-question survey and offered a pretty sweet incentive to complete it: Those who completed the survey would have a chance at winning free admission to See Jane Write events held February – December 2015 (excluding events for members only).

And the winner is….

Emily G. 

Congratulations, Emily!

And thanks to all of you who completed the survey.

The results revealed three things — 1) you all love live events 2) you all are ready to blog like a boss and 3) you’re having trouble finding time to make your writing dreams come true.

Live educational vents will continue to be the bread and butter of See Jane Write. Future events will offer information on how to monetize blogging properly use business tools like MailChimp, PayPal, etc. In fact, I’ve decided that the theme for this year’s Bloganista Mini-Conference will be Blog Like a Boss!

how to write and have a life

As for time management — I’ve got you covered there, too. My e-course How to Write and Have a Life is all about how to make time for your dreams. Over the course of a dozen lessons you will learn how to set goals that will help you better manage your time, how to get rid of bad habits that are wasting your time, how to adopt healthy habits that will make you more peaceful and productive, how to rekindle your romance for your blog, how to write more, read more, and stress less, how exercise can make you a better writer, and how to give yourself a break. Enroll today!

Find Your True North to Find Your Life Path

Sponsored Guest Post by Sheree Martin of Shinecast

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Sheree Martin

Is your inner compass pointing to your true north? Do you even know?

Do you feel overwhelmed by life, by your desire to be healthy, balanced and fulfilled in whatever roles you’ve chosen–or landed in by default?

When I was in my mid-20s I found myself floundering….trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I was on the path to a successful career as a business lawyer, but it didn’t seem to be the purpose I was designed for. I was a good and dedicated lawyer, but felt empty.

Not long after my 30th birthday, I became a shareholder in a prominent Alabama law firm. I had followed most of the rules and I was successful on the outside, but I felt like I was shriveling, dissolving, evaporating.

During those years, I embarked on the journey to self-discovery that led me to where I am today — a very happy person, still pursuing my true north. Still growing, still discovering.

My journey wasn’t always easy or direct and, for that reason, I feel compelled to help others, as a teacher, writer, mentor, guide and I hope to do that through the Shinecast.

The Shinecast is a multimedia project designed to help you discover your true north and walk on the path that is right for you. The path that allows you to discover and BE your whole, REAL, true self.

Real is Whole, Real is Being Yourself

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The industrial, corporate world often uses the honeybee colony as a metaphor for how efficient organizations exist. In this metaphor, each worker bee has a role and each bee is said to fulfill that role in service of the queen for the good of the colony (i.e., the good of the company, in their version). On the flipside, we hear unfulfilled workers described as corporate drones.

What the industrial beehive metaphor doesn’t reveal is that each honeybee plays a different role at various stages of the approximately 42-day lifespan. The bee doesn’t do one single thing its entire life. The life of a honeybee is multifaceted.

Some of you may know that I’m a beekeeper. As I’ve worked with these bees over the past few years I’ve come view the healthy, successful honeybee colony as a metaphor for a successful, holistic life.

The colony is a symbol of our life. You might think of the queen bee as a symbol of our true north, our highest purpose. Each honeybee represents some aspect of our life — a goal, an interest, a responsibility, a need. All of these must be integrated and work together in service of our successful life.

Just as a single honeybee can’t live independently, our lives can’t be focused on one thing to the exclusion of everything else. I’m not talking about achieving balance, but rather achieving wholeness and integration.

The honeybee is not a dreamer, though. The honeybee is always active, always moving forward.

Your Path, Your Compass

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I am happy not because I’m at some destination point, but I’m happy because I’m still growing, still walking on the path to being all I was created to be.

The Shinecast project is designed to provide the foundation and illumination to help YOU walk the path to your true north.

I’d love to have you join the Shinecast movement.

The best way is to start with the free weekly newsletter where I’ll be sharing my own insights, as well as great resources I’ve found to help you on the path. I’ll also be rolling out a series of audio and video stories that I’m creating and I’ll be sharing links to those stories in the newsletter.

If I can help you in any way, just hit me here: @RealSheree on Twitter or @Shinecast on Instagram. Or email me: digshinecast@gmail.com.

It’s time for you to go forth and SHINE.

 

If you would like to be a See Jane Write sponsor for February, contact Javacia Harris Bowser at javacia@seejanewritebham.com for more information on partnership packages. 

Win free admission to 2015 See Jane Write events!

nametags I’m always brainstorming different ways to help the women of See Jane Write.

Last week, for example, I hosted a goal-setting workshop to help See Jane Write members kick off the year motivated and inspired. (Check out this recap from Heather of My Life Well Loved and this one from Katherine of Rodney’s Saga.)

And next week’s event with Carrie Rollwagen is designed to help women looking to transform their blog idea into a book idea, women looking to self-publish, and women who just want to get better at self-promotion. (Get your tickets here! Only a few tickets are left!)

But I know the best way to figure out what the women of See Jane Write need and want is to simply ask. So this month I’m doing just that. I’ve composed a two-question survey to help me determine what changes I should make to See Jane Write this year.

And I’m offering an incentive for completing the survey: You could win free admission to all ticketed See Jane Write events held between Feb. 1 to Dec. 31. This includes our annual Bloganista conference!

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Click here to complete the two-question survey.

2. After you have completed the survey, comment on this blog post. In your comment, let me know that you’ve completed the survey and tell me one event or program you’d like See Jane Write to offer this year.

3. Enter the contest using the widget below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
  The winner will be announced January 30, 2015.

5 Mistakes You’re Making When Setting Goals

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Most  people love setting goals and resolutions in January and I’m certainly in that number. At the start of a new year I always commit to pursuing lofty aspirations. But for years these goals would often be abandoned by April! Finally, I figured out what I was doing wrong. Chances are, you’re making many of the same mistakes.

On Wednesday, January 6, I hosted a goal-setting workshop for members of See Jane Write. I walked the women in attendance through my own goal-setting process and shared anecdotes about some of the mistakes I’ve made when goal-setting in the past.

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Here are five mistakes you may be making when setting goals:

1. You’re setting too many goals. When I was a teenager every December I would make a list of 99 things I wanted to do the following year — 99 things! Obviously, I never accomplished all of these. In fact, by spring I’d completely forgotten about most of the things on my list! I recommend setting about 3 to 5 major goals for the year. If you need help culling your list, remember that your goals should always be a reflection of your values. Don’t take on a goal just because someone told you it would be a good idea. Do what’s best for you and the life you want to create.

2. Your goals aren’t big and bold enough. Yes, your goals should be realistic. If your aspirations are too outlandish you might feel defeated from the start. But this doesn’t mean your goals should be small. They should ruffle feathers and raise eyebrows. Challenge yourself! Otherwise, you won’t be very motivated.

3. Your goals aren’t measurable and specific. Don’t simply say you want to be a more successful blogger or get in shape. What do these things look like? Do you want to earn a certain amount of money from your blog? Do you want to run a half marathon? Specificity will give you the direction you need.

4. You’re only setting long-term goals. One reason I didn’t accomplish many of goals of the past was simply because I got bored with them. If you know me well, you know I get bored with things VERY easily. But I realized that by breaking my 3 to 5 one-year goals into several 90-day goals I stayed excited about my pursuits. At the end of each quarter I could set new 90-day goals so I felt like I was taking on a shiny new project, but I was actually still working on the same one-year goals I set on January 1. These 90-day goals will also keep you from feeling overwhelmed.

5.  You’re not sweating the small stuff. While 90-day goals are great, you need to break down things even further. You need what I like to call momentum moves. These are things you do on a monthly, weekly, and daily basis to help you accomplish the 90-day goals. So if you want to earn more money from your blog you’ll probably need to blog more. Your momentum move could be to take devote four hours each Sunday  to writing three blog posts for the week.

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If you need more help with goal-setting this year, consider enrolling in my new time management e-course How to Write and Have a Life. In this course, I will walk you through my goal-setting process and show you how setting goals in such a way will save you time and make you more productive.

 

*Cross-posted at WriteousBabe.com