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Smart Women Give Themselves Permission

Written by: Joy Chudacoff

Article Overview: This article is about supporting women to accomplish their dreams and Big Ideas. Women need to give themselves permission that it’s ok to go for it in life. To really dream big and then make a plan to make it happen. Women need to first decide what they want and then give themselves permission to ask for support wherever they need it in order to accomplish the goals.

Smart Women Give Themselves Permission

Recently, I was having a conversation with a woman when she asked me a crucial question: “What are the steps I need to take in order to live a life filled with passion and purpose?” It’s really a 3 part process. When a woman is ready to create her own extraordinary life, she needs to first decide what she wants. Then she needs to decide how she wants to design her life. Finally, she needs to give herself permission to have the life she has chosen. It’s essential that she believes that she deserves to have the life she chooses. If you decide what you want your life to look like but do not believe that you should really have it, then your “dreams” will never become a reality.

My work is designed to support women in their journey to living their own extraordinary life. Years ago, I knew that I wanted to make some big changes in my own life. I had to first decide what I wanted. Then I had to design my life how I wanted it to be. Lastly, but crucial, I had to give myself permission to create this new way of being. You have to believe it so you can ask for it. This can be a challenging part for women in the process. Once they begin to visualize what they want, they may have trouble asking for it. Who do you need to ask? You have to communicate to those who matter most to you what you want in your life--what changes you desire. Your spouse, partner, children, co-workers, boss, employees, family, and friends. We become fearful in the asking process. We begin to question whether we “deserve” this. It’s very easy to make our needs secondary, to be comfortable and stay in the place where we are caring and nurturing others—helping others reach their goals. When I decided to begin my coaching work, my husband Greg needed to take on more of the activities with the children and this was a process for us.

There comes a time when you will begin to feel a calling to create more of what you prefer in your own life. It does not mean that you do not love and care for all of those people who mean so much to you. It’s a signal that the time has come for you to embrace more of who you uniquely are.

How about you? Do you feel like you know what you want but sometimes feel like it’s not achievable based on your current situation? Do you have a dream or goal but you aren’t quite sure that you deserve to have the time to make it happen? This is where a good mentor or coach can support you in making a plan that fits into your current lifestyle.

There is a great book that compliments my work with women. It’s called “Ask For It” by Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever. I met Linda a few years ago at the Harvard Women’s Leadership Conference and was very impressed with her work. You can go to www.askforit.org to learn more about the book. It’s a great resource that gives you a process and tools to use in learning how to ask for what you want in life once you determine what you want.

You really do deserve to have the life you want. All you have to do is decide what you want and how you want to design it and then give yourself permission to make it happen.
Anything is possible. Everything is waiting for you.

*****

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Article Tags: boss, children co, co workers, dreams, family and friends, helping others, husband greg, journey, passion and purpose, peop



Related Forum Posts
Re: My 3 best business books - 1. Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill 2. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen R. Covey 3. Permission Marketing - Seth Godin Think and Grow Rich seems more powerful each time I read it or dip into it. The 7 Habits not only offers some very effective ways to organize your life (which I have yet to master!), but also some great quotations and thought provoking statements including this by Nazi concentration camp survivor, Viktor Frankl: [i:2naxzsom]Between stimulus and response, man has the freedom to choose.[/i:2naxzsom] Seth Godin's Permission Marketing is a good read for anybody seeking to understand how to approach doing business on the Internet in the right way with regard to winning people's trust.
Re: History of Women in Business in the United States - Yes. Women have increasingly made positive economic contributions to society and their position is being recognized more and more as seen on the Forbes List of Executive Women. In general, women can be a bit more practical in their approach as entrepreneurs too.
A ton of Great Women - You might want to profile Teresa Cascioli of LakePort Brewery. She has an amazing story! I met her at at the celebratory luncheon for the Profit/Chatelaine Top 100 Women Business Owners. The Top 100 list is also a great resource for inspirational stories of Women Entrepreneurs.
Re: Are entrepreneur women more organized than men? - Women are generally more organised than men. They have good instincts more than men. Women are generally aggressive when it come to business. You don't want to mess up with them.
Re: Are entrepreneur women more organized than men? - The issue of women being more organized than men is true, start from you home, just see how messy the boys are. Women are also very cautious, unlike men who take any risk, a woman will analyze the risk first. Women are also go getter when it comes to business, once they make their mind, then they go for it.


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