Your best you

The Weekly Action Alert from Jennifer Siebel Newsom at MissRepresentation.org brings a suggestion to examine yourself and what areas of your life you wish to improve.  She writes, 

"Jot down a list of the people who you look up to in your personal life and why you admire them. Think about how they might be able to help - or are already helping - you move forward towards your best self.
You might be surprised to find so much inspiration already present in your life!"

She's so right! There are women all around us who serve as a positive influence in other people's lives, and I'll go on record as claiming they probably don't get near the recognition they should.  I can think of a handful of friends or colleagues off the top of my head who I feel have great personal aspects or work ethics that I aspire to embody myself.

I hope to keep "paying it forward" by telling these wonderful women exactly how I feel about them in a spirit of gratitude and humility.  Reflecting back on times when I received a compliment, it's heart-warming to think of their kind words and how much they meant to me at the time.  All of us have a crappy day and could sure use a kind word in our moment of pissyness (if that's a word).  

Take it upon  yourself to follow Siebel Newsom's lead.  Think about what women in your life teach you or provide by their own example.  Are they a natural-born leader or a quiet thinker who acts deliberately?  How have they helped you on a professional or personal level?  If you can't incorporate those attributes yourself, you can at least tell the person how much their actions/words/sentiments mean to you.  It only takes a second to make someone else feel good.


That being said, I also want to acknowledge how wonderful it is to live in a privileged country where women are free to support each other.  The Western world is so fortunate to experience the freedoms we have with repercussions served (for the most part) for sexual harassment and assault.  There are too many women in other countries who are NOT afforded the same respect and treatment as we expect in America.