For last year’s words belong to last year’s language
And next year’s words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
T.S. Eliot, “Little Gidding”

Have you decided what your new beginnings are to be made of in 2010? For me, I find it difficult to hone in on just one aspect of my life that I wish to improve. There is so much to focus on in just 365 days! I want my resolutions to be purpose-driven, realistic, yet challenging. So, as the New Year is upon us, I am pledging to fine-tune several parts of my life. In fact, I have already started! Here are a few pointers to keep us committed to our resolutions.

Commit your goals to paper, say them aloud, and then actually do them. “I wish” and “I hope” are not at all synonymous with “I am.” There is a huge difference between saying that you will do something and actually doing it. The first step to actually achieving your goals is to make the commitment itself a reality. If you keep your goal to yourself, locked away in your own mind, it is easy to forget and postpone. It also inhibits you from gaining outside support, a vital key to bolstering your efforts when you lose your willpower and get discouraged. For example, if I secretly pledge to lose that dreaded five (hopefully not ten) pounds gained from holiday gluttony, how will my husband know not to keep temptations like sugar cookie cut-outs around me? If we are both aware of my goal, then he can help keep me on-track and be my shoulder to lean on when I need him.

Another great example of this is my actual, current resolution that I am actively fulfilling in 2010. Last year I found myself repeatedly saying, “I hope to one day go back for my master’s degree.” My wishing, hoping, and postponing, I soon realized, was a lot of hot air getting me nowhere. Then, I actually committed by gathering and completing admissions materials, taking the dreaded GREs, and enrolling! So now in 2010 (starting January 12, to be exact) I will find myself back in academia—maintaining my position at Ivy House by day and pursuing my master’s degree at North Carolina State University by night. It is a life-changing, challenging commitment that much planning has gone into. Without my actual commitment and without my husband’s support, I could still be my old 2008 and 2009 self, but I am not!

Remind yourself of the benefits of the better you. Understand the motivation behind your resolution and know why you are about to embark on the journey to where you want to be. Keep these benefits in focus at all times, especially if you are tempted to go off-course. I have a friend that aspired to confidently fit into a bikini by beach season. To keep her focused, she put a photo of her dream bikini on her pantry door. Anytime that she wanted to sneak some sweets, the cute, little bikini would scold her.

Reward yourself for meeting benchmarks. Rewarding yourself for each milestone met will help keep you motivated through your journey to the better you. This is not to say that you should light up to reward yourself for not smoking for a month, or that you should eat a cupcake to celebrate weight loss. Find ways to pat yourself on your back without compromising your goals. When I handed in the last of my admissions materials, for example, my husband and I celebrated by going out on the town for a fun-filled date night. It feels great to be cheered on!

Don’t overwhelm yourself with too many goals and keep your goals realistic. As I said, there is much that I want to focus on in 2010! I would love to start the master’s program while simultaneously reading more books for pleasure, decluttering my guest room (quite the feat!), volunteering more often, journaling and blogging a page per day, becoming more active, and being an all-over Superwoman. However, I have to remind myself that I can’t spread myself too thin. Focusing on too many goals will just make anyone frustrated, miserable, and stressed out. When your goals aren’t manageable, it’s likely that they’ll be stuffed in the “I wish” pile like last year. Think about maintaining the quality of your life, while also maintaining your goals, and creating an environment conducive to success. If you absolutely loathe jogging and your goal is to be more fit, find an alternative, realistic route to get there. Perhaps yoga or kickboxing would be more appealing.

Hopefully these tips will keep us on track in 2010. I’d love to hear back from you about your New Year’s resolutions, including updates on your progess. In the meantime, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, and good luck!

For the past few months I have had an increased sense of fulfillment. My work at Ivy House has always left me with that positive feeling of satisfaction. It’s easy to gain that sensation when your career helps others achieve their dreams. I can’t explain the sense of joy I feel when I see an author’s face light up at the first glimpse of their new book. Or when I get enthusiastic phone calls from authors announcing achievements, whether they win a national book award, or see their name mentioned in a newspaper or review publication. My role as publishing coordinator is always a fulfilling one, but lately it’s been amplified. The reason? I have taken the same kind of guidance I give to Ivy House authors and ushered it in new directions. I have become a mentor.

A young and vibrant high school girl approached me several months ago, asking if I could help her in completing a graduation project. She had to choose a mentor to educate her in the ins and outs of the field she was most interested in. In her case, this young, budding writer was thirsty to learn about every facet of the publishing industry—how to choose a publisher, how to submit a manuscript, what is looked for in the evaluation process, how a book is edited, how to market a book, the list goes on. I was more than happy to help this student check the project off her graduation to-do list, but didn’t expect to gain what I did in our meetings.

In our conversations we covered a lot of ground, laughing along the way as we got to know each other. We would volley questions and answers back and forth and, in doing so, I soon realized that I was also learning something. Mentoring was a new way of testing my knowledge about my field. Sometimes I didn’t have an answer, so I would look it up for both of us. After months of meetings, phone calls, and emails back and forth, I also realized that I gained a friend. Last week I got a brief email that informed me that she had enrolled in a writing class this semester because I had inspired her to take classes that could help her develop as a writer. I once explained that taking classes that dealt with her career interest, as opposed to something un-enriching like study hall, could make her a more attractive college applicant. I certainly didn’t realize that I had such an impact on her (and she certainly doesn’t realize how this mentoring experience has impacted me).

If you ever get the opportunity to reach out, take that opportunity and run with it. My mentoring didn’t stop with the completion of this student’s project. I have been here to offer guidance in the college application process—something I wish I had a mentor for when I was an overwhelmed high school senior. Not only have I served as a general sounding board, but as a literary critic as well. Currently, I’m helping her develop her first young adult novella.

January marks National Mentoring Month. Start 2010 on a positive note and research mentoring opportunities in your area and/or respective field. Visit www.nationalmentoringmonth.org to learn more about the power of mentoring.

What do you believe in?  I don’t mean to ask which religion you ascribe to, or whether or not you believe in the supernatural.  I’m talking about the core, basic principles that drive and motivate the decisions you make in your daily life.  For many, this is a difficult question to answer, but when we stop to really examine our beliefs, they can provide revelatory clarity for how we define our dreams and goals.

First and foremost, I believe in treating others with the same respect, kindness, courtesy and compassion that I would want them to treat me with if our roles were reversed.  It’s amazing how far a smile, or a small gesture that brightens someone’s day, can get you.  This really holds true in the business world, where first impressions can mean the difference between a sale and a “No, thanks.”  In the case of disagreements, I try to remember that others are just as entitled to their opinions as I am to mine, so I believe in giving everyone the chance to speak their mind.

Secondly, I believe in putting 100% effort into each and every job I am assigned– whether or not I’ll be getting credit for it or I know if anyone is looking.  If I’m not satisfied with the work I’ve done, then how can I in good faith expect my boss or co-workers to be happy with it?  If I can’t fully commit to a task, then I would rather defer it to someone else who can.

I’m interested to hear what beliefs you ascribe to that guide you in your professional career.  Were these instilled in you at an early age, or have they developed as the result of experience throughout your life? 

You might find some inspiration at ThisIBelieve.org. 

Sunday, May 10th, was not only Mother’s Day, but also the kick-off of National Women’s Health Week, which lasts until May 16th. The US Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Women’s Health coordinates the event. The purpose is to remind women that their health should be a priority issue. Oftentimes as “caretakers” women ignore their own health while assisting others. Today, May 11th, is National Women’s Check-Up Day in the USA. While going to a physician or dentist is never what I would refer to as fun, it is imperative that as active women we maintain regular appointments with a health care provider. It can also save your life if there are problems you cannot detect on your own. Continue Reading »

In my last post, I discussed how busy the springtime always is for me.  So, I was really glad I was able to carve out some time this past weekend to volunteer, once again, at the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina.  ABI employees, including myself and Janet Evans, volunteered there a few months ago following our Food Drive.

I showed up on Saturday morning at 9:00, and I was so impressed by the turnout.  There must have been 75 people there– mostly adolescent kids– volunteering their time for a three-hour shift.  This time, I worked in the salvage room, meaning I sorted through goods that grocery stores are not able to sell because the cans are dented or the packaging is otherwise damaged.  Sometimes we had to throw away things that were most likely okay for consumption, but that the Food Bank wasn’t technically allowed to distribute because of the packaging’s condition.  This was a little disheartening.  But seeing the amount of food that we did salvage– about 8 pallets’ worth!– couldn’t help but cheer me. 

This experience made me think about the huge, often exponential, impact that volunteering can have on a community.  You see, I didn’t volunteer on Saturday alone.  After my first time volunteering for the Food Bank, with the ABI, I joined the NC Food Bank’s Facebook page.  One of my Facebook friends noticed that I had joined and recently volunteered there.  She had never volunteered there herself, but when she saw that I had, she asked if we could do it together sometime.  So, not only did I return to volunteer on Saturday, but I brought a new person with me.  Imagine if every person around the world who volunteered could recruit just one person.  The magnitude of that strikes me in a very poignant way.

And to top it all off, it was great to see my friend and spend time with her, which I probably wouldn’t have done otherwise.  Doing that hard work with her wasn’t at all painful or grueling.  Quite the opposite; it was fulfilling to help out, and we chatted with each other the whole time.  And we certainly felt like we had earned the big lunch we enjoyed afterwards!

NC Food Bank YouTube Page

NC Food Bank Twitter Page

In an earlier post, I stated how important it is for individuals to be involved in charitable organizations and community projects. During the month of January 2009, the American Biographical Institute, including myself and my colleagues, decided to collect items to donate to the North Carolina Food Bank. For fun, we had several “theme” weeks including baby items, and a recipe week when we bought items for casseroles and shared the recipes among ourselves. The goal was to collect as many items as possible for the Food Bank, culminating on January 30th with a volunteer day at a local branch. Before we got there, we had no idea what we would be doing to help out. We were first instructed to sort medical contributions, watching the expiry dates and looking for broken seals. Next we were shown huge boxes of canned items on pallets. Again we checked seals and were told to be creative in packing boxes with a variety of items for making meals. It was a challenge among us to bend and pack, some of us not having exercised much recently! We finished our challenge with emptying the huge boxes, breaking them down, discarding the pallets, and even sweeping the debris away. The joy we felt as a group helping others was uplifting. To know that we had donated much-needed items and were giving our time to help the underprivileged and jobless was thrilling. I encourage all individuals and corporations to dedicate not only money to charity, but time as well. It will help those in need and will give back to the volunteer a sense of community involvement that is priceless. It also creates valuable team building for a better business organization. Here we are…

May you have a happy, healthy, prosperous and peaceful New Year! I have already started some of my new year’s resolutions, slowly but surely. As incentive I have been reading What’s AGE Got To Do With It? by Robin McGraw. I highly recommend it for women of all ages. It is packed with some wonderful tips on fitness, nutrition, skin care, hormones, faith and more.

On a professional level, I believe it is important to be active in organizations, whether charitable, business, educational or community-based. Internet networking is great, but it is the face-to-face contacts that are so rewarding. I recommend several websites that provide yearly event calendars for conferences, exhibits and social activities pertaining to women. Perhaps one or more of these will spark your interest in increasing your network:

National Women’s History Museum-Events by State

Women’s Health Events (U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services)

womenscalendar.org

Happy searching!

As a woman in my twenties, I feel very fortunate and grateful to my female predecessors in the working world. I am keenly aware of the struggles that women of my mother’s and grandmothers’ generations went through in the name of equality for women. I know that I am lucky because I haven’t had to deal with inequality in the ways that they did.

Because of all the progress we’ve made, though, I think I sometimes take for granted that the world is more fair than it really is. So it’s always surprising to me when I hear news like what was recently reported about the “Career Wage Gap.” The Center for American Progress Action Fund released a report this past December that examines the cumulative effects of a woman’s lifetime of lost wages in comparison to a man in the same job, at the same level of education. What they found is that, on average, an American woman will make $434,000 less than a man over her lifetime. The career wage gap is evident in all professions, ethnicities, and levels of education for women all over the United States. The wage gap is even higher for women with the most education; a woman with a college degree or higher will lose $713,000 over a 40-year period, compared with a $270,000 loss for a woman who did not finish high school.

So what accounts for this astounding discrepancy? Is it a blatant case of sexism in the workplace? Have modern feminism’s accomplishments lulled us all into a false sense of security, meaning we are really no more equal than we were in the 1950’s?

Or is the career wage gap a little more complicated than that? Perhaps it is the result of a combination of reasons– reasons that are more products of circumstance than devious intent or neglect on the part of employers. One possible reason that comes to mind is the effect that motherhood has on a career. Many women make the decision to take significant time off work to bear and raise their children, which, over a lifetime can add up to quite a few dollars lost. Another could be a difference in how women approach salary negotiation– perhaps women are less aggressive or willing to take risks.

This is not to put the blame on women. It’s just an observation about the way things are– circumstances caused by being female. So how do governments, employers, and the public address these aspects of womanhood that, by their sheer nature and existence, reduce our bottom line take-home pay? Does the fact that women are “separate but equal” demand that women be treated differently so as to prevent unintentional sexism in the workplace?

What are your thoughts on why the career wage gaps exists, and what can we do about it? How have you seen it play out in your personal experience? Does the career wage gap exists in countries other than the United States?