You are receiving this newsletter because you are a Smart Working Mom and have opted to receive info and industry news from Briefcase Moms®. This newsletter is a valuable resource providing coaching, advice, inspiration and motivation to improve work-life balance and career success. Sign up to get the offers only made available to people on this list.

Upfront & Personal

So, how has September been so far? From the conversations I've been having with clients, friends and myself (yep, it's true I talk to myself daily) I am hearing it's been a bit of a shock to our systems coming back to the fall schedule.

I was on a call earlier this week with my 90 Days to a Balanced Life group and everyone was concurring about how fast and furious the first weeks of September feel. They feel this way because they ARE crazy. Tons of paperwork from school (sometimes I think Adam is entering first year University not Grade One with the stacks of paper he's been bringing home), children adjusting to new teachers and programs, clients making BIG requests, professional development courses starting, etc. etc. etc.

So, when I read that Canada's No. 1 downloaded song is Wake Me Up When September Ends by Green Day it really resonated with me. I'd like to be able to just sleep through this nutty month and wake up in October when the dust has settled. Well, that's not really an option for any of us…no matter how pleasant it sounds. But what we can do is:

1) Revisit and clarify our priorities
2) Come to terms with the fact that our “inbox” will never be empty
3) Focus on what is important (those priorities) instead of what appears urgent and let go of the rest (at least until October or later)
4) Take time to nurture our bodies and souls
5) Re-adjust our expectations of ourselves

Because so many are feeling the work-life pressure this month, we had an overwhelming response for our Success & Balance TeleForum™ - Extreme Efficiency: Take Control of Your Career and Life. Special guest Ann Searles shared something with us that I want to share with you if you were unable to make the call…identify your work priorities (give each priority a name and a percentage of time you wish to spend against them) and organize your work day around them by naming your paper files and electronic files accordingly. If you are interested in hearing a full 60-minutes of time and sanity saving techniques the downloadable audio recording of the session is now available for purchase. Click here to hear Extreme Efficiency.

Please read on for some additional resources and tips on how you can bring out the best of you during the fast-paced days ahead.

Wishing much success and balance, L.

News You Can Use

Life in the Slow Lane: Is it for you?

Carl Honoré the author of In Praise of Slow has started a “Slow” movement. Read this recent article in Maclean's magazine to learn what life in the slow lane can be all about.

Read Article

Executive Coaching Tips for HR Professionals
"Coaching allowed me to see myself as a leader in the eyes of others and, while that's not always a pretty sight, it's been one of the most impactful experiences of my development," says Chuck Feltz, president of Deluxe Corporation's Direct Checks business unit and financial services.

The International Coach Federation estimates that $1 billion is spent on such coaching services in the United States annually. Search for "executive coach" on an Internet search engine and over 400,000 hits are likely. The monthly costs range from $500 to thousands of dollars to groom executives on the fast track to upper-management positions to helping others in times of personal or corporate chaos.

Today's Human Resource (HR) professionals are the people tasked with sourcing qualified coaches and seeing that the high cost of personal coaching delivers a calculable return-on-investment (ROI). Yet, unlike investments in technology, which often result in cost and time savings, there's no easy way to attach a dollar figure to intangibles such as improved leadership skills and enhanced interpersonal relations.

In tracking the coaching process, it is recommended that the HR professional or corporate sponsor hold quarterly status meetings with the executive and coach. Preserving trust and confidentiality is critical in the coaching relationship. That is why all conversations related to the progress of the executive's personal development are best communicated in a meeting between the person being coached, the HR professional or sponsor and the coach.

Source: Human Resource Executive, September 2005

About Lisa Martin

Lisa Martin, PCC, is the author of the acclaimed Briefcase Moms: 10 Proven Practices to Balance Working Mothers' Lives. She lives what she writes and talks about. Mother of a six year-old son, a certified executive coach with 20 years of corporate and entrepreneurial experience, and the founder and president of Briefcase Moms®, she is all too familiar with the tug-of-war and challenges of work-life balance. Lisa has helped thousands of career-oriented women and men define, establish and maintain work-life success via her proprietary learning systems - 90 Days to a Balanced Life and Briefcase Parent Solutions

MAKE SURE YOU RECEIVE YOUR BRIEFCASE MOMS®   NEWSLETTER: Briefcase Moms® comes from the address lisa@briefcasemoms.com. 

If you are using AOL, Earthlink Hotmail, or a personal spam filter,please help ensure that you receive emails from this email address by adding this email address to your email address book. This will "whitelist" this email address, telling your hosting service that you definitely do want to receive emails from this email address. Please add us to your address book so you have no trouble receiving future issues.

Manage Your Subscription

To subscribe to this newsletter, send an email to subscribe@briefcasemoms.com. To unsubscribe see the end of this message.

View Past Issues:  click here

I encourage you to share, replicate or forward this newsletter or article as long as the subscription, author links, and copyright information are kept intact. Email laura@briefcasemoms.com for details.

Contact LisaMartin
For more information on Briefcase Moms® programs, customized private coaching with Lisa or inviting Lisa to speak to your organization, please contact her at (604)988-9394 or lisa@briefcasemoms.com. Or,visit http://www.briefcasemoms.com

 

 

 

Briefcase Moms® and Market Yourself Smarter present:

Take Control of Your Work-Life Plan: Four Strategies to Ask For and Get What You Want

I am conducting a three-hour intensive workshop in Vancouver on October 13. For those of you in the area who are looking to take control of your career and life, I believe this workshop will be of interest. The workshop will take place in a smaller group setting where you will spend the morning working through your personal work-life plan and walk away with tangible guidelines, tools and advice on how to ask for and get what you want. Click here for the invitation.

YOU: The Owner's Manual : An Insider's Guide to the Body that Will Make You Healthier and Younger
by Michael F. Roizen, Mehmet Oz

I just finished reading this book and its got some wonderful information on how to truly understand your body and shave years off your chronological age by taking good care of yourself. Read the Amazon review below for more details:

If there ever was a pair of docs who can make the small intestine seem truly intriguing, here they are. Dr. Mehmet Oz is an alternative-medicine maverick and a cardiologist known to implement acupuncture during open-heart surgery. Dr. Michael Roizen developed the RealAge concept of calculating one's biological, as opposed to chronological, age. Here they've whipped up a witty guide to the workings of the entire body, appropriate not just for those who can't tell their pancreas from their pituitary. Even Cheers' Cliff Claven types who think they know it all will likely be humbled by the 50-question "body-quotient" quiz that starts off the book.

With much sassy humor (they describe the adrenals as similar in shape to Mr. Potato Head's hat), they give a guided tour of the body's anatomy and major systems (hormonal, nervous, digestive, sensory, etc.) including plenty of fascinating trivia along the way. How often should you get your thyroid level checked? How much gas does the average person produce in a day? And, most importantly, how many times a year do most people have sex?? Drs. Oz and Roizen know. They also reveal plenty of bizarre (and potentially life-saving) facts such as this: If your earlobe has a prominent vertical wrinkle, it's likely that your arteries are aging faster than they ought to be. If only 8th-grade health class had been this fun.

The docs' main goal in presenting all this info is twofold: firstly, it's your body, so shouldn't you finally learn how it works? And, secondly, they want to help teach ways of preserving the body's health and youthfulness. To that end, they've included an "Owner's Manual Diet," a 10-day menu plan designed not for weight loss, but to make you feel "years younger." Its simple recipes are each meant to benefit a certain body system, such as Tomato Bruschetta, packed with the antioxidant lycopene, which has been proven to boost immunity.

As always your thoughts and questions are welcome. Let us know what you think. This space is reserved for subscriber comments. Send us an email.