If you have the opportunity to provide your boss with a summary of your achievements before he/she writes the appraisal, by all means do it!! Don’t let their distracted memory dictate what shows up in your permanent file.

Before you start writing though, take some time to reflect on your accomplishments and on how you see yourself. Throughout our careers and lives we get labeled and if we’re not careful we start to believe what others have assigned for us.

Early in my career I was working my way through college. I was basically at the bottom of the corporate ladder, but I was ready, READY, to take on the world. The company I worked for had very strict guidelines about how you could move up the ladder. For me, no degree meant no moving up. The world would just have to wait.

Several years later and two degrees under my belt (thank you very much!) I was slowly making my way up the ladder. Hello world!

By this time I could tell my fire wasn’t as strong. I had fallen into the labels I was given for not having a degree. “You are not worthy.” “You don’t have the right credentials.” If I believed them, then they must be true.

It wasn’t until someone else believed in me that I realized what I was doing. A wonderful manager was giving me promotions and raises and opportunities without me even having to ask. It was a great concept, but it also made me realize I had to take charge and rise above anything holding me back. The world was mine again!

So if you find yourself thinking you are average that is how others will perceive you. You are remarkable and the world needs to know it! Now I’m not saying to shout from the rooftops how great you are. But if you truly embrace what you have to offer the world and give of yourself genuinely and authentically, you will be rewarded in ways you never thought possible.

Now, get to writing that performance summary!

This lady was just asking for directions on how to get to the freeway. Easy enough, right? It struck me as a little odd though since you can practically see the freeway from where we were and she would’ve had to have driven right by it to get in the parking lot.

So I proceeded to give her directions. As I was giving her directions I could tell she wasn’t fully grasping what I was telling her. I tried to simplify even more. “Just remember right, left, left, then you’ll be on the freeway,” I told her. She nodded, drove off, and I went upon my merry shopping (I was at Target, y’know).

But of course, this is not the end of the story. Now I don’t know if my new acquaintance ever made it to the freeway based on my simplified directions, but my inner voice walked in and started badgering me…could I have done more/something else/something different??? My first second guess.

As I walked through the store, it struck me that I should have gotten in my car and told her to follow me to the freeway entrance. I wasn’t in a big rush and it wouldn’t have taken all that long. So that was it, I should have escorted her to the freeway. Ok, that’s good. Next time, I’ll think of that. Shopping commenced.

Later on that evening, my new acquaintance popped back into my mind with my friend Ivey (aka inner voice). My earlier solution just didn’t quite seem right. As I dissected the situation even more, I realized she seemed either distracted, distraught, or just not in a state to be driving.

Would I have been out of line to ask her if she was ok? Or just asked a few questions to better understand her emotional state? I don’t think so, especially if she truly would’ve been better off not driving. My second second guess.

At that point there was nothing else I could do. The situation had passed and hopefully my new acquaintance made it to her destination. I asked myself these questions to close the event: Was I kind and responsible in this situation? Yes. Could I have done more? Probably. Will I pay better attention to my inner voice next time? Most definitely. Will you now please stop beating yourself up about this and go to sleep?? Ok. Good night Ivey.

So what did I learn from this? It’s ok to second guess yourself (or even third or fourth guess yourself). Just try to get to the root of the situation and learn from your thought processes. Sometimes Ivey doesn’t speak up too loudly, but I should try to grasp why she shows up when she does.

I’m sure this won’t be the last we hear from her either…

I didn’t know it at the time, but breast cancer came into my life when I was around 5 years old. That is when breast cancer took my mom and changed my life forever. I don’t remember a lot about her, but I do know she was caring and loving, she could knit and sew, and baked me chocolate cake with white frosting and chocolate sprinkles for my birthday. She was only 40.

As I grew older and started learning and understanding what happened to my mom, a new presence seemed to be with me. You may know it, it’s that voice in the back of your mind that says things like, “will this happen to me,” “when will this happen to me,” “what will I do if/when this happens to me.” I didn’t like it, but it was always there.

It wasn’t until my 30s that I was actually able to talk about my mom without getting emotional. She was such a big part of my life that had been missing that it always made me upset.  Then a very dear friend of mine helped me to realize that my mom’s spirit is with me wherever I am. She’s protecting me and guiding me through all the good and the bad.

Like a lot of people who have a family history of breast cancer, I started getting mammograms earlier than the recommended age of 40. Most of them were fine, none of them were fun, and they all awakened the voice, “will this be the time the news is bad.” Well, when I was 40, the news started out bad which brought on more questions going through my mind, “my mom was 40, I’m 40, is this it,” “what am I going to do,” “how will I get through it,” and of course, “why me???” Fortunately for me I received good news after the biopsy and to date have not had any more irregular mammograms.

Within the past few years I have noticed more people talking about their experiences with breast cancer. I have gained a lot of strength and inspiration from these stories and from these women. Their stories have also made me realize that I don’t have to walk through life alone with the voice of cancer in my mind. I now walk through life inspired by their courage, strength and resilience. My mom is with me too, and I’m sure in some way she’s helping me write this article. If anything, I hope that by sharing my story others can gain strength from knowing you are not alone.

Customize the Look

First, you can customize the look of your homepage. I know for me, I enjoy my online experience a lot more if it is visually appealing. There are hundreds and hundreds of themes to choose from — I’m currently using a Martha Stewart theme because of the pretty flowers, but depending on my mood I can change it with a few clicks.

Customize the Content

Next, you can add any number of gadgets in the main part of the page. There are so many to choose from that I was a little overwhelmed by all the choices. I still have room to add more, but so far I have added 5 that I use consistently:

• Google Reader — This gadget shows all new posts for RSS feeds for which I have subscribed. With one click I can read the post right there or click again to go to the website. Some posts are set up to only show the first couple of lines and then have a ’see original post’ link that takes you to the website. My preference would be to have the entire post available in Google Reader so I could just read it and move on, but that’s just me, I guess.
• Weather — This allows me to see the current temperature and conditions and see the forecast for the next 4 days. Clicking on this gadget will bring up a more detailed description of the weather forecast. Because I run and bike a lot, this has definitely helped me plan my workouts.
• Google Bookmarks — I know bookmarks can be added in Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, etc., but if you change between internet gateways your bookmarks don’t follow. By having my bookmarks all in iGoogle, then no matter what platform I use to get to the internet I know my bookmarks will be there.
• Wikipedia — This gadget has a search field that will bring up Wikipedia in a separate window. I don’t search for a lot on Wikipedia, but this gadget saves time by allowing you to type in your search term and clicking go to bring up Wikipedia.
• Local Gas Prices — Because I work from home, I don’t drive a lot so I don’t fill up my car with gas very often. I just thought this one was really cool. It’s nice to see the gas prices and then decide if I should fill up or wait awhile.

There are literally thousands of gadgets to choose from — gmail, finance, YouTube, news, games, quotes — you name it, there’s probably a gadget for it.

Increase Your Productivity

By having a lot of the things I need right in front of me when I log in to my computer has helped me to be more focused and productive. No more fumbling around to find a website, now it’s just a simple click from my iGoogle home page. I don’t yet have a personal or virtual assistant so iGoogle is filling that role right now. Now, if I could only get it to brew me some tea and do the grocery shopping…

So check out iGoogle and see how you can improve your productivity and streamline your activities!

For years I’ve known I wanted to be a business owner, but I never thought I would be running a website. I’ve always known I wanted to help inspire and empower other women, but I never realized it would be through stories of my experiences. I’ve always felt challenged and invigorated by taking on a new risk or engaging in some kind of change, but I’ve learned I can adapt to it better if it’s on my terms and not someone else’s idea.  I have known for a long time that with a vision you don’t necessarily need to know  ‘how’ to make it happen as that will come through with persistence and perseverance.

So how did I get here? I can tell you this didn’t come to me as a vision all put together but rather bits and pieces that started taking shape over a number of years.  I can recall several moments in my past that led me down this path.  My first memory is from the early 1990s.  I was living in Southern California, and as the story goes, it was a beautiful day.  This happened to be one of those perfect beautiful days where the sky is bluer, the temperature is “just” right, and all seems right with the world. Well, I was walking back in to work after lunch and something just came over me. I thought to myself this life is just too short to be sitting in an office all day. That is when the first part of the picture started forming…I want to own my own business.

This decision had nothing to do with my current job because I loved my job and I especially loved the company I worked for. I had even told a friend of mine when I first started in the 80s that I would never quit. More on that in later posts…

I don’t have a specific memory of the next part, I just remember I knew I wanted to have a positive impact on other’s lives just as others had positively impacted my life.

I didn’t have the opportunity to go to college right after high school and needed to work full time. When I was 20 I still had a strong desire to go to college but really didn’t know how that was going to happen while working entry level jobs.

That is when my first and most memorable ‘career guidance angel’ came into my life. I was working one of those entry level jobs and she was my supervisor. I don’t remember what she told me, but I know her words helped me find my way in to college. It took me a little longer to finish, but nonetheless, I did finish!! I will always be grateful for her inspiration and her belief in me (I am once again inspired to find her and tell her this myself).

So fast forward to 2008 and I have done quite well in my career. But that little voice was still there and by this point was much louder. I still enjoyed my job, but I felt like I was going through the motions everyday. That was when I decided to follow the next piece of the story and take a big risk.  I quit my job to go out on my own…I just didn’t know what that was at the time.  Now I certainly don’t advocate doing this on a whim; I’m a planner and I planned and saved for this event over a long period of time.

I will say the vision of my new business is still taking shape, but I’m excited for what it can and will become. It has taken me a little time to get here and I have no regrets. I’ve been on a really cool journey and I can’t wait to share it all with you!