Empowerment

So I was at this conference over the weekend, Steve Wiltshire’s Life Line Coaches Million Dollar Protégé Leadership Retreat. It was an amazing experience. The conference is for leaders in direct sales, across many many companies, all brought together because they coach with Steve and his team. Being in direct sales, you get very used to hearing from “your” company, your home office. It’s interesting to get the perspective from leaders with other companies. In my case, it really did make me appreciate even more my company and all that our home office does for us.

What set this conference apart from many others is that it was us, the leaders who coach with Steve and the Life Line team, who were doing many of the presentations throughout the weekend. Of the roughly 200 people who attended, there were 21 of us speaking. My talk was on “Building Your Culture Through Empowering Leaders”.

Speaking in front of that many people, on a stage with an actual podium and microphone, would have been something that would have made me VERY nervous a few years ago. And I admit I was a little nervous before I stepped on stage. But once I was up there, all that melted away, and I was just IN the moment. It was a fabulous experience. And truly very empowering for me, because I DID it. And afterwards, to have so many women, both those I knew and those I had never met, coming up to me and telling me that I was a natural speaker, or how much my talk resonated with them, or that I was the best presenter they’d heard all weekend…well, that was absolutely an indescribable feeling. So ironically, my speech on empowering leaders actually empowered me. And that’s a beautiful thing.

Tampa Bay

Tampa is beautiful to fly into. All the water, and the bridges. The places that, living here, you can’t always really appreciate up close because up close they’re just the spots where you get stuck in traffic, or the places that are just far enough away to be an inconvenience to have to travel to. But from above, they’re nothing short of extraordinary. Long stretches of road laying literally in the miles of water. Concrete and metal and other man-made marvels, where once there was nothing but water. God’s beauty, enhanced by man’s beauty.

Travel

There is something so wonderfully delicious about travelling alone. Spending time in an airport, completely without any ties to anyone in the building. A certain anonymity. There is a whole complex world of restaurants, stores and other hidden gems just waiting for you to take the opportunity to explore them. Nobody else to answer to. Nobody to entertain, or be forced to compromise with on where to eat, what to buy, where to sit… As many times as I do it, I never tire of it.

A First!

This was my first foray into cooking decorating. Seemed like a fun thing to do, and my friend Christy was teaching a class. Who knew I would get HOOKED??? So now over $100 in supplies later, I will be attempting to make some summer themed ones, on my own, without Christy’s help. Maybe later this week!! Wish me luck!

Wednesday Wisdom

“If you don't go after what you want, you'll never have it. If you don't ask, the answer is always no. If you don't step forward, you're always in the same place.”

--Nora Roberts

Wednesday Wisdom

"It's never too late to be who you might have been." - George Eliot This was the quote that I sent out to my Thirty-One downline this morning, as part of my Wednesday Wisdom initiative. January is a hard month for direct sales, second only, IMO, to July. But that doesn’t meant that we all can’t reinvent ourselves in February and have an amazing month. If there is something in your life that isn’t as fabulous as you KNOW it can be, then change it. Only you have the power to make your life what you want it to be.

To Eat Or Not To Eat

Lately my hubby has been on this whole “let’s try new recipes” thing. I’m fine with this, because any night that he’s cooking is one less night that I have to try to either cobble something together or hit the drive through.

Let’s get something straight – I can cook. I’m just currently in a phase where I choose not to. I used to cook a lot – think hand-stuffed manicotti with homemade meat sauce, garlic seasoned pastry pockets stuffed with four types of mushrooms, homemade eggrolls with (also) homemade fried rice. There was no end to my culinary wizardry, nor to the time I was willing to expend to put an elegant and delicious dinner on the table. Now? Not so much. I don’t know what has changed, but right now I just can’t work up the enthusiasm for spending hours in the kitchen.

So that brings us to now. A few months ago, Perry decided that twice a week he would whip up something inventive from one of his many, many cookbooks that up until this point have mostly gone unused. Most of the time, the things he comes up with are pretty good. There was a yummy mushroom soup a couple weeks ago that I could easily have eaten nightly, for example. Also several interesting salads, and various concoctions of cheese and meat that have been pretty palatable.

Last night, Perry took things a bit too far. He prepared duck. Duck. Quack quack. Duck. Now, I do the shopping, and so I purchased said duck. So it’s not like he sprung it on me. I knew it was coming. But yet when it was actually time to eat it, I honestly couldn’t get the image of the little feathered dudes down the street in the pond out of my head. I did not enjoy the duck. I plan to abstain from duck in the future. I may even have to go take a loaf of bread to the pond as penance.

Coming up this week, we have lamb. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about that, but I think I feel a little bit better about it than duck. At least I don’t drive by the little lambs every single day when I leave my neighborhood. Not sure what little woodland creatures will be on the menu next week, but if it comes down to it, I might have to take up cooking again. Maybe that’s all part of his plan.