Let's Play Tag!

I am a Latino, a female, a minority and an alien…aren’t those tags so much fun to live by? Well, only if you want to.

When I moved to the US I was only me, Mariela Tinoco-Aramburu, but then it hit me that I may have become someone else once I started getting some Diversity and Inclusion training related to the whole legal and cultural aspects as per the differences and commonalities we all share (or not). Woao! I was shocked! I also started getting questions related to my professional knowledge as whether I knew things that were pretty common HR knowledge unrelated to my nationality. I could write a separate entry on my blog including all the ‘silly’ questions, comments and huge tagging I felt myself trapped by when I was living under my first year induction in a country characterized by its diversity.

More than 9 years experiencing the presuming new me and I’ve found quite a level of comfort in the attributes I’ve chosen to give to each of my tags. Here I go:

 Latino: Undetermined race not given by color or language. Alive and diverse all Latinos come from an extensive region with a variety of countries that sometimes share a lot of cultural values and some other times have not even the language in common. Winter and summer can be experienced or not. Poverty or richness. Happiness or sadness. Everything in Latin America is a matter of choice (not that different from anywhere else, don’t you think?).

 Female: A wonderful genetic combination that happens to some amazing people called women. It comprises a variety and out-of-the-box category that it is impossible to tag into any other self-described attribute but the one given in the biology class.

 Minority: A group that is not numerically bigger than another one. A growing number of people with the power to make sustainable changes in our society.

 Alien: It is work in progress. A person from ‘somewhere else’ not to be taken with fear. An explorer looking for a better life, seeking a dream and contributing to the fun diversity of our society with its own differences. A real barrier breaker. Innovative, brave and determined to make it.

What tags have you identified for yourself? Introverted or Extroverted? Emotional or Analytical? Do they trap your potential or move you forward to success? Do you consider yourself pre-determined and self-contained by a set of categories defined by someone else or have you chosen to live your life by your own chosen standards?

I couldn’t resist the urge to re-invent the definitions given to tags as life probes constantly that nothing is like it seems and how my grandmother would say: ‘the world is upside down’. It opens all sorts of possibilities to explore the life you have always wanted to live if you give it a try. Make your own definitions and get-out-of-the box!

Your life, your tag definition and your ultimate choice! Let's play!

Your Coach,
Mariela

P.S. For those looking for the legal information on how to deal with interviewing illegal questions, wait for a future entry on that matter coming soon!

Is your resume 'too oversized' to fit anywhere?

Have you heard the news on Kevin Smith ‘ejected’ from a Southwest Airlines' airplane due to his size? It is everywhere. CNN, Yahoo News, BBC and almost everyone else is talking about it. He planned his trip by booking two seats on the airplane but there was only one available and when he took it, he sat properly getting his seat belt on as required, but still the flight attendants did not consider it met the airline regulations to sit on it, reason why he was ‘ejected’.

What if they were talking about your resume? Is it oversized? Is it being rejected by the corporate job boards’ screening systems? There are two perspectives I can think of when figuring an ‘oversized’ resume.

1. TMI: How much detail are you putting into it? I wonder if you would invite someone on a second date if getting TOO MUCH INFORMATION on the first one. Same thing happens to resumes. Yes, there is such a thing as TMI on them. A recruiter does not need to know every single thing you’ve done but what relates to the job opening. Even better, what about using your resume to actually advertise the best that your professional brand has to offer? When we are watching TV commercials we just get a snapshot of a product based on what the advertiser has defined the interest of the audience may be. Be Creative. Do not copy and paste your friend’s resume. Do you want to be an ‘ACME’ Resume or the real deal?
2. Length: How many pages are we talking about? I’ve got clients that come to me worrying that the ‘resume’ seems to be 5 pages too long. What do you think?

A recruiter does not give generally more than 5-10 seconds attention spam by resume once it gets to her hands. What can you placed at the beginning of that resume to catch the recruiter’s attention even more than that?

1. A clear objective, summary and career highlights would do you a favor. Do not tell me what anyone else does but what your brand is all about. What makes you different from the competition? What makes you not just right for the job but the best there is out there to be found?
2. Please make it relevant. I do not want to know all the tasks performed on each job but the outcomes, added value you provided due to your performance to the organizations you’ve worked for.
3. Keep it simple. Be mindful to what the market is looking for and what you’ve got to sell to it. Get that reality check. It may be you need an upgrade. I had a client whose profile was fantastic but after I performed a job market analysis on her case, we realized she was missing key software knowledge to get that ‘dream job’. She was disciplined enough to get certified. She highlighted that element properly on her newer resume version. No much later, she landed the kind of job she was truly looking for.

You can actually be strategic about your resume once it is aligned to your Brand values and distinctive elements. If you nail what’s best in yourself, by working not just on a snapshot you can reflect on that piece of paper, but in the unique positioning statement you’ll sell to your network, then the chances are you won’t be oversized but perfect to a market that is just waiting for you to grab the opportunity.

 
“You've got to be success minded. You've got to feel that things are coming your way when you're out selling; otherwise, you won't be able to sell anything.”
Benjamin Jowett (British Scholar)

Are you hiking straight to the top or just hanging in there? (A very personal story)

Some years ago I was invited to go to a hiking trip to Mount Kenya in Africa. I could not refuse an invitation like that while I kept thinking how anyone like me could make it to the top. I had 7 months to prepare and get in shape for the big trip. Then, September 11 happened and the world as we knew it collapsed as fear grew big time among travelers. Still, we took a leap of faith and decided to go telling just a couple of close relatives and not even our parents.

Any professional hiker – which I can assure you I am not! – can tell you how important it is that you pack the right stuff. Not too much, not junk, dehydrated foods that you can cook easily on a camping stove, healthy energizing snacks, proper clothes and the best shoes you can find not to kill your feet.

So then, we went for adventure ready to take anything with our hearts and cameras. I felt ready but still had serious doubts I could get to the top. I trained at my best with a personal trainer, lifted weights twice a week, ran 5-6 miles a day, used the treadmill, ate healthy and had the best legs I’ve ever had. Ready or not, there I went!

Once we got to the entrance of Mount Kenya National Park I realized how scared I was. It truly looked like Jurassic Park and it was raining so badly that we had to stay with our backpacks sitting under the little guard house at the Entrance Gates waiting for the rain to clear a little in order to set our very basic camp. No luxuries allowed as we had a tight budget.

While sitting there pretending relaxation and excitement I just felt the urge to go back home, I thought of all the failure stories, the tourists killed by buffalos, snakes and all the horrifying images that Discovery Channel had had the brilliance to share with its audience. Still, I smiled and tried to picture the unique feeling of getting to the top of a high mountain.

Before I knew it, it was the day after and we began our hiking deciding not to wait for our guide as the path seemed very clear and easy to follow. It was truly a magnificent Rainy Forrest, a path surrounded by the biggest trees I’d seen in my life with the animal sounds you can only imagine in a well made documentary.

We walked for a couple of hours until my worse nightmare crossed in front of us: Buffalos!!!! I stopped paralyzed with fear remembering that they supposedly do not attack you unless they are alone. My husband did what every macho man would have done which was trying to scare them away with some well calculated screams, but before he did, he warned me to run fast and try to climb a tree if buffalos decided to attack us. The buffalos did not seem to respond well as they got ready to attack, and before I knew it, I was running fast and furious to the closest tree I could find even before my husband gave me the sign. He offered to climb the tree first, so he could help me out once in the closest branch but I quickly rejected asking him to back off for me to go first. The truth? I fell like a sack of potatoes and I cried for the ending of my life. However, once I turned my head I did not see the buffalos anywhere around as they had indeed decided we were not that scary anyway and disappear into the rainy forrest. Lesson learned: We waited for our experienced guide.

Once we all met, we reinitiated our hiking with hopes we wouldn’t be featured in the discovery channel or a Hollywood movie. We made it to second camp and decided to use the basic collective cabins instead of our tents being warned not to leave the door open under the risk of getting our food stolen by monkeys.

On our second day, we were welcomed by a much harder trail as it actually disappeared in the middle of the mud and the water flowing downhill under the stormy rain. Three hours into it and my legs felt like broken into pieces, my arms were weak as I tried to make my way by pulling branches and whatever could help me to drag myself further towards the very wanted top. At that moment, my husband asked me in his sweetest voice: ‘honey, would you like us to go back or keep going? It’s your call’. At that moment, I was faced with all my fears, my hard moments of hard training and a choice that would lead me to the top of a wanted dream or to a warm bath at the Naro Moru River Lodge. What did I do? I kept going for quite some good extra hours until we made it!!!! Yes, I actually was able to make it to the Teleki Lodge at 14200 feet!!!! Hurrah! I couldn’t believe it! I was actually that woman wearing dirty hiking clothes in the middle of nowhere having a lifetime adventure.

I was exhausted and freezing cold. My husband couldn’t wait to get to the real top: Point Lenana. So, I was faced with the same question again: 'Do you want to go for Point Lenana tomorrow at 3 am or hang around Teleki?'.

That was a difficult choice that took me just few minutes to reply: I will hang in here! So, I stayed and I did not reach the real top.

So, does it matter? It’s been +8 years since we made that trip and I consider it one of the peak moments of my life. The probe that when you want something, you prepare, you set your mind and your heart to it and then, you go, go, go and keep going until you make it. I may not have reached the snowy Point Lenana but I made it much higher to where I’d ever dreamed of. I made it to that forgotten corner in my heart that treasured the childhood dreams and converted them in adulthood adventures. I made it to the image of the person I can be whenever I want it to be. I created the amazing possibility of repeating the story for the rest of my life stretching my own self-imposed boundaries out of any comfort zone to the adventures that lie in front of me to be explored and the tops to be reached while I may hang in there for a little while between them.

Go for your dreams.

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream”.

C.S. Lewis.

P.S. Oh! The picture above is the Teleki Lodge. A day there feels like touching the clouds with your feet still on Planet Earth.

What's luck got to do with it?

I’ve had a ‘lucky’ day today as I was able to coach all my clients over the phone while also doing some networking mixing, blogging, online networking, cooking and playing with my kids….I guess I was just ‘lucky’ that I had time to do all of that today or wasn’t I?

Don’t you hate it when you get to achieve something really important at work or in your personal life and people blame it to your luck?

Certainly I’d love to be as lucky as William Kiefer who won big time in the lottery a week ago right here where I live. He is donating 60% of it to charity. I could have been the winner, if I only played the lottery!

If I let luck determined my life, then I’d be better off letting the stars determining my future. So, here’s to my original question, what does luck have to do with the outcome of our choices?

It is like swimming with sharks and having the bad luck of being bitten by one. Isn’t it truth we control our choices; therefore, our actions are consequence of our own purposeful intention?

My grandma never wished me luck when I was going for a hard test in college; she would place my head between her hands and whispered to my ears her hopes that my judgment would make the right call. Didn’t I know how wise her words were at the time!

Luck is not anything else that the results of your judgment call or is it simply that?

I have a client who lost her very successful job at a major international corporation, after working with me in refining her Professional Brand; she did her homework and started selling it among her contacts. She got interviews with stakeholders and decision makers of companies that did not even have jobs available on her technical field as she understood the importance of being ahead of the game, but guessed what; she got a job only a few weeks after her job search started. Wasn’t she ‘lucky’?

Is it a ‘lucky’ coincidence to find the job of your dreams or just the result of a lot of hard work, preparation and use of multiple resources?

I see quite often e-mails from people asking for help to find a job just because they’ve never done a bad job in their careers. I wonder they must be pretty average not to define themselves in positive terms. Those people do not provide a compelling reason to help them, to refer them to a potential employer. They do not even offer a single career highlight to be used in their ‘defense’; therefore, they are out of luck when nobody passes their resume to potential hiring managers or recruiters.

Decide today to play your lucky card! That means, go and invest in yourself, work hard towards your vision and keep an eye on your competition. Thomas Jefferson said: I'm a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it’.

Does the big fish really eat the smaller one?

Successful entrepreneurs and professionals can tell you how networking has been core to the fulfillment of their visions. Even politicians have figured this out already. Social Networking for instance was Key to Scott Brown's success. Tea party twitterers, Facebook friends, and Blogspot buddies helped him win big time as a junior U.S. Senator from Massachusetts.
If examples like this are all around us probing how networking and social media influence stakeholders and decision makers; then, why do people listen to the toxic voices in their heads? Why do they hide behind a resume that does not sell? Why do they have a plain profile in LinkedIn and let hideous Facebook pictures filter in the web for recruiters to see when they Google their names? Why do they network rarely and just come to terms with the network when in urgent need? Why don’t they invest in themselves and give up their chance for success?

It is like a ‘big fish theory’ in which by replicating the force of nature, the bigger fish eats the smaller one creating a chain reaction. But does it work for us that way? Does it have to be like that?

What makes a fish a big one? The size? Its speed? Its power? As we are talking on people terms let’s discard size as a factor and think on speed and power.

But, how can any of us compete against bigger fishes on this sea to be faster at catching the opportunities and powerful enough to win over our competitors? NETWORKING! Look at the picture.

What makes the power of the ‘big’ fish? A bunch of synchronized little fishes moving on the same direction towards a goal. They are connected. They all know why they want; they are following the leader within.

Switch your perspective for a minute and look at your current situation in ‘fish terms’. Where is your network? Have you identified your key allies, mentors, sources of major expertise, best practice holders? Have you identified your own Brand to market it effectively? And are you truly connected to a common ground level to swim at a more powerful speed towards each other’s vision?

Can you visualize yourself moving faster, smarter and with much less struggle by tapping into the resources of your Network? I can. Then, what are you waiting for?

"Our success has really been based on partnerships from the very beginning."

- Bill Gates

Will the Universe conspire in your job transitioning favor this 2010?

“When you want something, the entire universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”

This is a phrase that comes from one of my favorite personal books - the Alquimist by Paulo Coelho -. When I read it back in 1997 while I was on a long solo business trip to UK I was very impacted by it. It was a perfect moment in my life and a phrase that made sense to it. Inspirational stuff you may say.

Are you a believer? Are you inspired? Do you truly believe in yourself? What about your vision? How are you coming across to those that encounter you? What is the perception you create with your Brand? Are you pushing the Universe to conspire in your favor or sitting in front of your computer screen hoping to be discovered by a head hunter that comes across your resume at a job board?

I love conspiracies, the intellectual ones driven with such passion that can’t be defeated. Are you a key actor in your own conspiracy?

First and foremost, take full accountability of your life. Then, ask yourself:

1. Are you still aware of your vision? When was the last time you stopped to reflect on it?

2. Are your actions connected to it? Is your job transitioning where you want it to be? Are you taking every necessary –well planned and prepared – step to get you to your vision?

3. How aligned are your resources to it? What kind of networking, volunteering, and contribution you are making to ensure you are not one number of the unemployment statistics? Are you paying forward or you're always looking for something?

4. Are you having some fun? Can you tell, honestly, you are doing your best? Do you remember the Jerry Maguire movie in which there is a part Jerry finally gets what it really means to be #1. Being oneself, dreaming big time, daring and risking it all and above all, using a very distinctive brand that eventually put him in top of his competition to win it all.

5. Do people trust you? Gain TRUST as your biggest commodity value. Have you read the Speed of Trust by Covey? If high trust organizations outperform low trust organizations by 286% on Total Return to Shareholders can you imagine how your total return will be when you manage your own Professional Brand by adding Trust as one of its core competencies?

Get inspired in your job transition process. It is all right to experience ups and downs. The job, the unemployment, the size of the house or the car will never determine who you are. You do!

Remember …“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. “ Mark Twain

Are you a Jay Leno or a Conan O’Brian?

Like most of us - whether we like it or not – the news are all about the feud between NBC, Jay Leno and Conan O’Brian. It would probably be one of those unfortunate events that we would discard as trash if it wasn’t by the fact that one of the characters may be terminated right in front of the public eye.


I am not much of a TV night show follower but I went to the web and watched the Internet clips in which Jimmy Kimmel made a parody of Leno and Letterman did the same in his own style. In case you don’t know, they are the competition and have taken sides with O’Brian. Now the question is: Is it fair for Leno or O’Brian to be on the spot for a NBC decision?

And here’s how I think this matter relates to most of us.

1. Have you ever got transferred to do a job that someone else did before being terminated? Or promoted to a higher level job?

2. Have you been a new hire to replace someone who was fired?

3. Have you started a new job that you have not many qualifications for and worry that your performance may not be up to speed to what is expected?

4. Have you been transferred to a job you did not even asked for and placed under a Personal Improvement Plan just a few months after starting it?

5. Do you feel exposed and on the spotlight due to your own job scope changes and Company restructuring?

I am sure we did not have the cameras following us but we certainly had peers talking about it either on our face or in our back.

How others perceive you are at work does not have to do to whether you are the kindest person on Earth or not but how you do your job and manage relationships with others. At times, your professional brand will be placed under the public scrutiny (not as much as Jay Leno’s Brand I hope!) but if you have a clear level of consciousness on the critical elements of your Brand, then you should be able to manage either a ‘damage control’ strategy or a campaign that sells its attributes as its best.

A former manager I had taught me when I was on my early career that perception was everything. I have struggled for years with the concept (even now) but if a strong percentage on how decisions are made depends on what others think of us, wouldn’t it be nice that we assumed CONTROL of our Brand to move on and successfully into quiet waters?

I am curious how a corporation like NBC is going to manage a decision that due to the current economy will have a lot of repercussion in the public perception but I am even more interested in seeing how the story will unfold for Leno and O’Brian in their own Branding strategies and campaigns.

Now, what would you do if those were your shoes? Do you know your own professional brand well enough to manage it consistently and create an aligned perception of it across the board?

Is it funnier to laugh at someone else's expenses? Hum! well, yes, only if we are talking about Leno and O'Brian who are certainly doing a fantastic job in making us laugh at their business.

Open Up your presents today!

How delightful is to open a new present and ‘play’ with it. That new mini I-Pod or the coffee maker, the new bike or the special craft made by your kids…mmmm! Can you feel the distinctive smell?
I also love the feeling of finding one of my old toys. It is like when I go visiting my mother’s house and I go through those old photo albums and keepsakes, I get certainly nostalgic and I remember those ‘old times’ when things were different.

Then, my question is when did ‘different’ get a negative connotation? When did we start shaping ourselves to the 'play-doh' of the times forgetting our own texture and colors?

I have a fascination with originality. If it comes from your heart and you’ve taken the best is there combining it with your own genius, then we have ‘something’ and even we may get quite a number of those ‘things’. Do you know what those things are? IDEAS! your own and unique ideas. The ones that trigger your actions to where nobody else has put foot on before…your own vision!

Everyone has a gift, the main obstacle to use it resides it in oneself. Either there is a cultural reason that prevents you to enjoy your own greatness at something or a personal one that acts like a barrier with a huge sign that says: TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED.

But why are you prosecuting yourself for daring to think and dream BIG? How about playing pretend these holidays to figure out you have the right to claim a territory of your own in your life? There, you can be your own CEO to collect your dues and direct your future at your best on your own to what is there waiting for you to dare to obtain it.

Are you laying on your couch Resting In Peace while you watch a re-run of the Survivor finale or brainstorming already in what to do different, what lessons have you learned already that could take you to a next level in your career and life in 2010?

It is your call, your business, your choice as you are the Producer, Director and main actor in your own reality show called: Living a life you deserve to call your own!

Open up your presents (=TALENTS) today and enjoy the smell, the feeling, the excitement of starting to play again with them!

Have fun!

What moves you to action is what makes you WHOLE

Two days ago while meeting a spiritual counselor I’ve known since I was a child I couldn’t help but laughing at her very ‘apparently simple’ reflection that she was grateful to God for having giving her health. This comes from someone who has had multiple sclerosis for most of her adult years. She is one of the most amazing individuals I’ve met in my lifetime. When she talks to you while sitting on her wheelchair, her strength, joy, faith and evident choice of happiness makes you forget everything else but the power of her words and her message. She makes me wonder about how inaccurate the term ‘handicapped’ can be on a situation like this. Is she a handicapped individual for not using her body fully or are we the handicapped ones for not making the difficult choices that get us closer to our vision?

She has listened to people problems almost everyday for more than 40 years (maybe even more than 50!). She has supported, encouraged and moved others to action. She’s done more from the wheelchair in her room – without Internet connection - than most.

She is an inspiration and a true example to follow. Then, I am inspired by the Season (it is Christmas to me, by the way) and moved deeply by her presence and life example. Now, what moves you? What can take you to the next level? I mean, what can get you from your thoughts to real brave coherent actions?

I’ve witnessed and listened this 2009 to many stories of people who impacted by their surroundings blame the outcome of their lives to whatever events have happened to them, instead of, reflecting on the choices that put them on that particular spot on the first place.

How wonderful would be for all to take advantage of the Season to re-think in what makes us handicapped individuals or whole fulfilled ones?

No background noise or reactions to words but openness to what is there to really listen to. I met this extraordinary woman who I am immensely proud to call not just my friend but a spiritual guide and I listened with my heart, soul and ears to what her words/actions had to tell me. I also stayed in the moment, ‘squeezed’ the best of it and have taken it with me to think further.

As she is thankful to God for her health I am thankful to all the fallings, doors shut on my face, broken pieces and leaps of faith…I am thankful that I am willing to get out of the career coaching talk to move into a personal territory that triggers to most our choices; therefore, our current lives and future to make us whole with no excuse but the one we may paint in our minds on our own.

I see the choices she’s made everyday to be happy inasmuch of her physical pain and health difficulties but her election is to be thankful, to be at God’s service by helping others to choose what will hopefully make them whole and happier.

Everyday it is up to you what path to take to move you closer to what you truly want that creates some sense to your life and a meaning to it or as I even coach my own little kids at every single chance ‘happiness is a choice and not something that happens to some’.

P.S. I dedicate this to you my dear Alida, even if you do not have Internet access in your room, I am sure your life has changed the world for the better!

The Top Ten Presents to give to yourself this Season (and mostly free!)

Are you overwhelmed by the Holidays, the giving, the sharing, the socializing, the traveling, the mailing, the calling and the waiting for that special present you’ve been looking forward to get for a while (e.g. a job to many). Well, I came up with a list of my top 10 presents you could seriously enjoy by making you a happier person this Season ; therefore, a more likeable to anyone in your network.

1. Give yourself a day. Yes, it may sound overly redundant to tell you to do this as we apparently do this every day, the truth? Can you book a date with yourself to do just the things that make you happy? What about having your favorite breakfast, wearing your favorite clothes, listening to your favorite song while singing it out loud and having a blast with yourself for a whole day? Reward: Inner Peace and Joy.

2. Choose a Cause to give. I realize that times have changed, the unemployment rate is higher and economy is not at its best but most of us can make a difference if we compromise with an initiative we can relate to. Let’s say money is not in the booming department, still you can volunteer your time or your talent to make a difference with the added benefit of applying your experience and gaining visibility.

3. Be a friend. Everybody is so busy and stressed out these days that smiling has become a rarity. Use those face muscles and exercise, assume the best in others, adopt acceptance instead of judgment in your heart and spread the joy.

4. Surprise the ones you care about. A hand written letter instead of an e-mail, sipping some cocoa while enjoying a good fire, a hug and some appreciation words to that relative you care but do not get along with.

5. Be Thankful. Have you forgotten to thank the former colleague that referred to you to a key business contact that landed you a job? What about appreciating the effort others put on your cause asking nothing in reward but a thank you? Go and enjoy ‘paying your gratitude dues’ as it is never too late.

6. Pay Forward. I am glad you’ve made possible some of your goals, now what about helping others to do the same. The paying forward initiative is such a great way to embrace the best you are and you can achieve by planting your good deeds along your path.

7. Get out of your comfort zone. Assuming you have already tried a number of simultaneous resources to get you closer to your destination, what about pushing yourself out of your box to try something new. For those working on their presentation skills, what about trying Ignite or pecha-kucha instead of Toastmasters? Adventuring into unknown territory can certainly triggers your curiosity, empower your creativity and refine your ability to transfer your skills more effectively.

8. Dream a Dream! As a child I would dream of many things, the amazing part of the story is that I was actually taught to visualize and work hard towards my vision. A teaching I thought to be very personal has become what many called ‘the secret’. Do you remember the Kevin Costner movie in which he heard over and over again ‘If you build it, they’ll come’? Well, not trying to spoil the secret that there is not secret but to dare to dream big and work smart to make it true.

9. Play Pretend. Assume you’ve made it all the way to the top of that high mountain you have envisioned yourself. Watch around that vision, how it feels, how it looks like, where it is happening, who your allies are and write it down! Details count and playing pretend is such a fun and productive exercise to create a compelling vision.

10. Celebrate. Are you the result of a series of accidents in your life that happened to you or the creator of your own universe, the architect of its grounds, surroundings and outcomes? You are the product of your own choices and the amazing learning and experience you have acquired along the way is a great reason to celebrate. List your top 10 reasons for celebration and get in the Holiday season with joy, a vision and the confidence you will be at your best in 2010!

Happy Holidays!!!!