Comfort Food

 18 September 2013

      What comes to mind when you hear the words, "comfort food?"  Having been raised in the south, my mind usually goes to chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes with white gravy, string beans, corn, a biscuit, and a Coke.  YUMMY!  If, however, I asked you what you consider your spiritual comfort food, what would you say?

        So many people I know comfort their spiritual needs with food and drink, relationships, and things...and it is never enough.  For me, spiritual comfort food includes: listening to inspirational books on audio, reading great stories with positive lessons, listening to music, laughing with friends, spending time with my family, and writing.  Listening to birds singing, snuggling with Leisl & Winston, my longhaired dachshunds, lighting candles to scent my environment, and spending time in Bible study and prayer fingering my rosary -- these feed my soul.

      What is your spiritual comfort food?  Please share!

~ Missy ~

29 August 2013

Mentoring, Managing, Leading, Coaching, Training, Developing....

   

          How many of you, like me, chose to take time out of the corporate world to nurture your children and raise them up to be adults?  After you assisted with their launch into adult life, were you ready to go back to corporate life?  If so, let's talk!

           I wanted to become a Mom and wanted to be home with our daughter.  In business terms, choosing to be a Mom was strategic / intentional, and being promoted to the greatest job on earth - being a Mom - was a bonus.  What are the skills learned and honed from Mothering can be leveraged into organizational / corporate positions when going back into the business world?  

          This week I want to hear from you.  In the title of this blog, I mentioned 6 skills I honed during my years in active Mothering.  I developed MOMS [Mom's Organizational Management System] and used this model to highlight skills that are critical to being hired in business / corporations today.  What about you?  I'd like to hear from other Moms who became "empty-nesters" and went back to corporate life.

        Please post your answers and comments to these questions:

1.  What skills do Moms bring to the workplace that are learned / used / honed in the process of Mothering?

2.  How can Moms leverage their skills after a hiatus out of the workplace and in the home with children?

3. What obstacles, either real or perceived, exist for Moms going back to the business / corporate environment?

Many Blessings, Missy 

*  The above photo is of my wonderful daughter & me!  I love being her Mom, and I was thrilled that I left "big business" to be home with her full time.  It was a terrific opportunity and we are all getting a fabulous ROI because of that strategic move.  Now that she's successfully launched into her adult life, I'm jump-starting my 2nd career into business again.

20 August 2013

      While it's tempting to lament that our generation experienced the last of the "good old days," we know that they weren't always that good.  But, there were some great things about the "good old days" from the Baby Boomer generation.  This week, let's "take a walk down Memory Lane" and note those elements of our country, our culture, and of the 1950's - 1970's.  

Here is my top 59.  

1.  God's name was respected, honored, and was considered okay to say anywhere, including schools and places of work.
2.  Manners & Etiquette - "please", "thank you", putting one's napkin in one's lap when dining our and at home alike, and sending of "thank you" notes for gifts.  The last baby shower gift I sent was never acknowledged and the baby is now almost a year old!  And that's not unusual...but it ought to be.
3.  Loyalty - loyalty to employees, employees to employers, customers to providers, providers to customers, etc.
4.  Retirement Savings / Investments - it used to be taboo to steal from employees' 401K and other retirement savings plans.  Apparently it's perfectly fine to not give workers what they earned and / or were promised.
5.  Classy Women / Classy Men - when's the last time you saw someone under the age of 40 who you would describe as "classy?"
6.  "Normal" sized meals - it's no secret that one of the variables pin why we are over-sized is because our meals are.
7. Value for your $ 
8.  Modesty  in dress, speech, attitudes, etc.  Not being a prude here, but for goodness sakes, make sure your "cheeks" stay in your shorts and your midriff isn't the focal point of your accessorizing!
9.  Movies/ TV shows had plots, and comedies were clever & G-rated.
10. Actors & Actresses could act, and they honed their craft.
11.  Standards of Conduct - general assumed points of acceptable and "good" conduct.
12.  Hard work = Get ahead
13.  Saying the Pledge of Allegiance every day in school
14.  Respect / Reverence of Elders in the society, in the family, in the church, etc.
15.  Going out to eat was a treat
16.  Knew your neighbors & they knew you too!
17. Religious services - most people went.
18. Knew Key World Political Figures 
19. Knew American History - and took Civics class in high school.
20.  Sears Catalog - everyone in the family fought over who got to leaf through it first!
21.  Captain Kangaroo & Mr. Green Jeans, Mr. Moose,  and Bunny Rabbit
22.  Going on a 1st date didn't end with having sex
23.  Home phone was on the wall in the kitchen.
24.  Home ownership was a dream in reach and was an investment.
25.  Count your friends on your fingers rather than in the thousands on social media
26.  Self esteem  was not over-inflated.
27.  Your date had to come in to meet your parents
28.  Music was good without being overtly raunchy.
29.  Groceries were affordable.
30.  Housing was affordable.
31.  Cars & gasoline was affordable.
32.  Insurance was affordable.
33.  Got wrinkles?  Sport bangs to cover them up; who ever heard of putting botulism into your face???
34.  Quiet times & spaces existed in our lives.
35.  Only rich people had "pagers", "car phones", "mobile phones"
36.  Music mediums: 8-trak tapes, cassette tapes, reel-to-reel tapes, LP's and 45's
37.  Making do
38.  Going  without
39.  Saving up for
40.  Coffee was a cup of Joe...espresso was in Italy
41.  Brown bags for groceries was reused as trash can liners
42.  Board games brought people together for fun & social time.
43.  Boobs stayed inside your blouse, t-shirt, top, or dress.
44.  Boxers  were inside your pants & out of sight.
45.  Sugar was sugar. No pink / yellow / blue / brown packets of sweetener.
46.  Hospitality wasn't just a word in the dictionary.
47.  "Grace" was said before all meals.
48.  Call home once a week.
49.  Party lines
50.  Timepiece hands - people could read time!  When I was teaching full time, very few of my high school students could read a clock that wasn't digital.
51.  Rolls of film - loading film into your camera from a little black plastic  cylinder, having the film developed into negatives, and having the negatives printed into pictures.
52.  President of USA had previous many years of meaningful & applicable experience for the job.
53.  Coke - having a coke at a party meant a drink, not a drug.
54.  Teaching was a noble profession.
55.  Child correction - it was okay for other people's parents to correct your children.
56.  Not everyone wins a prize.
57.  Computers took up an entire room & were certainly not in your house.
58.  Service station - AKA the gas station - attendants pumped your gas, checked the oil level and the pressure in your tires, and also cleaned your windshield.  And they wouldn't accept a tip for it!
59.  People conversed with one another and really connected...and didn't have to have an electronic device in order to achieve communication.

*  Please leave your comments on these or suggest others.  Which ones of these elements need to be reintroduced into the 2000's?  Look for a new post next week!  Thank you for visiting my blog!

  

Not Done Yet!

Not Done Yet! -- a place for women of the Baby-Boom Generation to explore their lives with all of the joys, challenges,  personal growth & continuous improvement, value, and legacy in a supportive, fun, highly engaging, and encouraging environment.  Come join me, because we’re Not Done Yet!

Not Done Yet!

14 August 2013

Are you a woman of the “Baby Boomer”, 50+ generation?  Did you grow up believing that, because you were part of  the largest population ever, that you were special and that your future was going to be “golden”, “all set”, “comfortable”, “prosperous”?  Was it assumed that the government, and all sorts of companies would spend mucho moola on advertising and marketing to you as part of the “elite Boomers”, and that the other generations would look to you as the “top dogs” in your community?

Borrowing a terrific quip from Dr. Phil McGraw, “How’s that working for you?”  Now that we’ve “arrived”, we aren’t being courted by advertising or on the upper rung of the corporate ladder; we aren’t the largest population anymore -- the IY Generation is; we aren’t special to our government -- in fact, it seeks to limit our Social Security and other benefits; we aren’t all living comfortable or prosperous lives.  We’re not the top-of-the-heap.  We’re just aging and trying to figure out this time in life... on our own with little support.  Yes, there is MORE magazine and the AARP or AMAC, and some cosmetics manufacturers claim to cater to the “mature” woman...still, how do we learn to be our best selves at this stage in our lives?  No one is mentoring us; no one is paying attention to us.  Well, I am!

Okay, I hope my pointing out some disappointing facts hasn’t sent you to the freezer for more Chunky Monkey ice cream or another vodka martini or a second helping of “happy pills.”  I’m right there with you...a Baby Boomer, 57 years old, and struggling with what category I fit into.  Here is the conunndrum that may sound familiar to you:  calling myself “middle age” would mean that I plan to live to be 114 (Did you get the math?  57 X 2 = 114), but calling myself, “old”, “elderly” or “mature” isn’t palatable.  

If it hasn’t happened to you yet, it’s likely to be coming soon.  You may be viewed as too old to compete at the top levels in business; you may be passed over for interviews for managerial, leadership, and key roles.  It’s usually not overt, because that would alert Human Resources to the organization being agist in their selection and promotion practices.  Oh no, it’s much more subtle.  You may have advanced degrees and years of experience, but it may be the younger women & men who are getting the goodies.  At a time when we are now free of parenting and have the time and freedom to travel for the company or to focus on key initiatives, and you have depth of experience, you may no longer a desired “commodity.”  You may be seen as “waiting until retirement.”  You may feel stuck as younger colleagues are moving up.  

My passionate message is to encourage you and to challenge you so that you don't feel downgraded in your status.  I want to encourage you to stand up for other baby boomer women and to do all you can to keep 50+ women in the game -- we’re Not Done Yet! Instead of giving up or resorting to sabotaging other women to hold on to our rank and position, why don’t we work together to redefine who we are, what we want, how to leverage our value, and how to communicate our worth. Instead of waiting for AARP  or AMAC to help us or anticipating our government swooping in to rescue us, why don’t we become women of value and rail against the machine that defines us as “out to pasture!”  We’re Not Done Yet!

What’s our benefaction going to be, both as individuals and as a collective group?  Would you like to join me in exploring this place on the timeline of our lives, to live our best lives now, to find our purpose at this stage in our lives, to define our legacy, to contribute in meaningful ways, and to become coaches / mentors / supporters / encouragers of young women who need our wisdom, need to hear our stories, and who need support for their dreams?  Great! Let’s dive in together!

Start by joining my blog:  Not Done Yet!  Explore topics and discussions.  Consider joining me for webinars.  Join other women in Golden Circles -- a once a month time for sharing, learning, coaching, and defining our life goals and benefaction. Even one-on-one coaching / mentoring is offered. Promoting the clout of 50+ year old women and declaring that we are Not Done Yet! , isn’t just a noble cause....it’s saving us from becoming extinct!  

        Please come back next Wednesday!   I encourage comments and suggestions.

--Missy --

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