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Exhaustion Kills the Best Intentions

Plans for some 'me' time go awry. Why the wine was wasted...

Feel like a natural woman

I parked my car in front of a lake with mountains on both sides and thought, “Okay that’s pretty. Now what?” I checked my BlackBerry for emails and wondered what I was going to do with myself. People were fishing and hiking, but I wasn’t prepared for that. “I’m not dressed right,” I thought. “I don’t have the right shoes on. I left my trail map in the car. I’m a woman by myself and it’s starting to get dark.” Tense and uncomfortable, I settled for a walk along the beach.

Time Management, or Lack Thereof

My home office had been a telecommuter’s office for almost 10 years. In that time, I developed a schedule for work with wiggle room for family responsibilities. Sometimes, I worked more; sometimes, less. However, I always felt good about the work and focus I provided the company – and my family.

Martha Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Back in the day, I prided myself on being Martha Stewart.

Decoder Rings, Part II

We need lots and lots of practical advice about how to make flex work.

Secret Messages & Decoder Rings: Part I

This weekend my dad was trying to explain secret code to my five-year old. Explaining the “why” instead of the “how to” was key to getting my son to participate.

Job Title Dilemma

Guest post: I have lived the “life meets work” philosophy for almost 20 years now. It’s not because I discovered the trend early. I simply married into a farm family.

Lessons from the Founder of Hug Your Kids

Guest blog post from Michelle Nichols, author of Hug Your Kids Today! and founder of National Hug Your Kids Day.

Balance and baseball

I’m a devoted wife, mother and entrepreneur. Clearly, these roles tug at each other for priority, and at any given moment the scales tip in one direction or another. But when I saw a question in a LinkedIn group recently about how to achieve work/life balance when your kids are engaged in extracurricular activities, a switch flipped.

Searching for meaning in a tough economy

In this environment, it’s easy to discount the need for balance or fulfillment. It’s easy to feel trapped--constrained by outside forces that limit our choices and restrict our movement. It makes it difficult to listen to, or act on, our desires and our dreams. It’s hard to feel generous in a world that constrains us.

Let's dance

My girlfriends and I joined them and danced together, laughing. Of course, people were watching the dance floor and saw us being silly, but it didn’t matter anymore. We were among women who felt empowered by the lyrics, and we were letting ourselves go.

Ten tips to finding a job

Recently, Rebecca Martin, career coach and contributor to Life Meets Work offered ten insider tips to finding a job and included Life Meets Work in her advice.

Job Hunting Tips for Returning Workers

The economic reality is that many of us are being pulled back to work, ready or not. Based on our experiences of helping returning workers find jobs, we’ve compiled 9 key pieces of job seeking advice.

Staying positive

Recently, Susan Bernstein and I were talking about the importance of staying positive in this economy. Listen in on our conversation.

Pop the champagne!

Our first book quote!

So, you want to start your own business?

It’s not going to make you famous. Yeah, we’ve all heard about the teenager who hired her mother to work on her multi-million dollar business designing Myspace pages. And, the designer who made it rich selling dragonfly barrettes to movie stars. Guess what? That won’t be you. At least not for a long, long time. If you get into it for that reason, you’re going to be disappointed.

Making lemonade out of lemons

For now, I think we’ve got to set aside the idea that hard work is all we need to succeed. Trading in material things for time with ourselves, family and friends; returning to simplicity; and re-purposing things we already have will go a long way. We can only hope that these lessons stick with us when the economy rebounds.

Losing my balance and finding it again

I knew that something was changing, but I didn’t want to acknowledge it. Then, I noticed that the phone stopped ringing. Friends stopped calling to chit chat or extend an invitation to the pool. My living room--the gathering place for dozens of volunteer meetings over the last several years--sat empty.

The catalyst we need

There’ll be those who accuse me of drinking the kool-aid, but as someone who’s working to facilitate change within companies, elevate the national conversation and support flexible job seekers, Obama brings me hope.

Watermarks and toe cleavage

I graduated from college in a tough job market. So tough, in fact, that despite good grades and a summer internship, I couldn’t find a job. So, I took a job as a temporary employee in the Accounts Receivables department of a big company during the day and waited tables at night. I remember my first job search like it was yesterday.