As a woman who owns her own business, I am constantly in support of organizations and businesses for such a cause. One powerful organization is: The Women Business Owners Network (WBON), a Vermont-based association of over 320 women business owners. WBON is the largest non-profit women business owner membership organization in Northern New England. They work on bringing together business owners and organizations that support women in business while also creating a forum for women to connect, share and grow their business.
I recently found their new blog which helps to create opportunities for members to exchange information and resources through regional Chapter meetings, conferences, and tradeshows. I believe women thrive when we connect with each other, and provide each other with inspiration and the power to keep growing.
Lenora's Italy Retreat blog | Lenora's Change Limiting Beliefs Website
For the first time in my 31 years of living in Iowa, earlier this month I participated in the Iowa Caucus, the first state to hold one for this presidential election. My husband and two children joined me. It turns out that in the past about 10% of the voters in Iowa turned out for this, but in 2008, 25% ventured out into the freezing January night to cast their votes.
I felt like I had a voice in an old fashioned town hall-like meeting, to publicly vote for my candidate. As a special bonus, for several weeks before the caucus, I was able to see many of the candidates and their spouses, as they traveled to hundreds of rural towns. I don’t know for sure that I can make a difference, but I like to believe I can.
What really struck me was the power of speech, and the hope of transformation. Since my life’s work is about transforming beliefs, I’m excited to see that this year’s election theme is focused on change and transformation. It gives me hope anyway.
It makes me happy. I’m beginning to write in my happiness journal 3 things I’m happy about every day. I’m adding that to my written list of daily gratitudes. What makes you happy or gives you hope?
Lenora's Italy Retreat blog | Lenora's Change Limiting Beliefs Website
Through coaching and teaching, I have compiled a list of common limiting beliefs that women have shared with me. I thought you might want to take a look. Check any statements that resonate with you. Are you willing to ask yourself a few questions to change your beliefs and change your life?
___1. I’m not enough (e.g., good, educated, thin, young, smart, rich enough).
___2. I need to make others happy so I won’t be rejected.
___3. I can’t be happy until he/she changes.
___4. I have to earn other people’s approval to feel good about myself.
___5. If I let people really get to know me, they won’t like me.
___6. I have to stay in the relationship because I can’t make it on my own.
___7. If I’m happy even when others are suffering, it means I don’t care.
___8. I can’t be happy until the relationship/career is different.
___9. If they really loved me, they would _________________.
___10. I need to do more and more to be worthy.
___11. I don’t know what I want.
___12. I shouldn’t put my needs before others’.
___13. I’ll never really change.
___14. I’m responsible for other people’s happiness, and they’re responsible for mine.
___15. I don’t deserve love, success, money, fame, etc.
___16. If I pursue my own interests, my relationships will suffer.
___17. I don’t have time to nurture myself.
___18. It’s too late for me to find happiness and success.
___19. If I speak my mind, I’ll be rejected.
___20. I should be farther along than I am.
___21. I’d better not be too happy, or I’ll just have farther to fall.
___22. Things will never work out for me.
___23. I shouldn’t have to ask my partner for what I want.
___24. I’m a bad/unlovable person.
___25. I need fear to motivate me and keep me in check.
___26. I’ll never make enough money.
___27. I’ll always have to struggle, while others have it easier.
___28. Whatever I’m doing, I should be doing something else.
___29. Health problems will always keep me from happiness and success.
___30. I can’t do it.
If any of these statements ring true for you, it may be time to take your destiny into your own hands by dissolving the beliefs that sabotage your success and happiness.
What is a belief? It is a perception of reality, or something you were told that you had no reason to doubt. How do you know that you have a self-defeating belief? If you are feeling some way you don’t like feeling, you are probably believing something that’s not true.
Choose one limiting belief and ask yourself these questions:
* Do I believe that?
* Why do I believe that?
* What seems true about that?
* What might concern me if that belief were gone? (What might happen that I would not like?)
These questions give you a powerful starter kit for creating happiness beyond belief. Freedom from your beliefs is life changing.
Lenora's Italy Retreat blog | Lenora's Change Limiting Beliefs Website
Here we are already 3 weeks into the new year! I hope all of you have started on the right foot, whatever that may be. Yesterday, after yoga class, I drove an hour to spend the day watching my son and other high school students compete in Speech Competition. It was a joyous sight to see hundreds of teens singing, doing mime, or performing one act plays. I also loved the sign I saw taped to a blackboard in one of the classrooms: “No matter how far you go down the wrong road, you can always turn back.” It made me laugh because on the drive there, I had to turn around several times, only to end up re-tracing my steps, because I thought I was lost out in the middle of nowhere in Iowa. As my friend Jana, sings “I’m not lost, I’m just exploring.”
I know in my coaching work, some people don’t believe they can turn back if they took a path that now seems ‘wrong.’ In reality, we must lose our fear of being wrong. We make mistakes even though we make choices every day in the best way we can. But was it really a mistake? I like to think we often have to learn by trial and error. Each day can be a new beginning.
After the speech competition (my son is moving on to the next level), my husband and I went to a nearby Italian restaurant with friends. I’m always humbled when I think of the joy in the simple pleasures of tasty food and delightful conversation. Nothing can replace that. On the way home, I saw a wild turkey, an owl and a herd of about 25 deer in the cornfields. It’s not the Caribbean, but I was fulfilled. What simple pleasures will you enjoy in this fantastic year of 2008?
Lenora's Italy Retreat blog | Lenora's Change Limiting Beliefs Website
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