What This Website Is

This is a new website dedicated to women. I plan to include various articles of interest to women and to also links to websites that women may be interested in, such as WAHM (Work At Home Moms) and links to marketing or businesses that you might like to take a look at. The pictures may change from time to time as I put pictures of trips that I have taken or sunsets or sunrises or maybe pictures you send me.

If you have a business that is devoted to women, or if you are a woman business operator, then please get in touch with me to be linked to this site.

Goals and Dreams

Don't underestimate the value of a few seconds. As Benjamin Franklin said, "If we take care of the minutes, the years will take care of themselves." Quotes from Will Rogers

Our smallest actions may have tremendous repercussions
Our today is what it is because of what we did yesterday.
We need to be conscious of what we are doing or not doing.
If you don't take advantage of an opportunity when it comes, you may miss it for eternity -- grab hold and don't let go -- seize it now.
Nothing worthwhile is easy - you have to work at everything."

Oct 25, 2009

All too often as women we get sidetracked by the various demands of our life – our husbands/boyfriends, our children, our parents, our jobs… We forget that we too are allowed to have dreams and goals, that we are important and that our lives are important to us as well as to others.

As women we learned to multi-task at a young age. If we had younger siblings, we often had to look after them in some way, to keep them entertained and not bothering our parents. We also often had to learn household tasks such as cleaning and cooking. (More young boys are now learning these things, but the expectation is still that the female will be the one who looks after these things.)

Do you know why women are so good at problem solving? It is because it is a big part of our everyday life. In the mornings we have to make sure that each child has their lunch, their lunch money, the right shoes and socks, their homework, their breakfast, cookies for special events, etc., etc. Then in the evenings, after working out all day, we spend the drive home thinking about what we are going to serve for supper and who has to be where at what time and is there enough time to make a big meal or will we be eating “on the fly” to get kids to their various activities? We wonder, “Do I have to stop at the store to pick up anything? Do I have enough money to get groceries or snacks or whatever is needed?” Men, on the other hand are usually thinking: “I’ll be glad when I can get home to relax with the newspaper/a drink/the TV.” Their brains are ready to shut down while women’s brains are still spinning. Women are focused on making sure that everyone has what they want or need before they consider doing anything for themselves.

How many times have you been going to do something for yourself – even if it was only to sit quietly with a cup of tea or coffee – when someone came by or called and asked you to do something? When this happens, more often than not, you sighed a little and then said, “ok” or “no problem, I can do that”. You likely didn’t say: “I’m sorry I don’t have the time at the moment”, or “Let me get back to you.”, even though that might have been what you wanted to say. Or, we just sit down and then we jump up, remembering one more thing that needs doing, and then we’ll just sit down and relax.

For instance, as I was writing this I sat down with my Chai tea, picked up my pen and started to write. Then I realized I hadn’t eaten anything yet, so I got myself a bowl of cooked cabbage, which I had just finished making, and then I went to rinse the dish and thought, “Oh, I should do these dishes.”, so I did. Then I came back to the table, to my cold Chai tea and an unfinished article, so I took my tea and put it in the microwave and picked up my pen. As soon as I’m finished writing I will go upstairs, put on some make up and head off to the church hall with my six pies and see what they need help with for our church supper.

My microwave beeped a little while ago, so I’ll get my tea and head upstairs now to change.

See you later!!

Fran

More To Follow

Oct 30, 2009

Here I am again, running around in circles. I decided to sit down with a cup of coffee – I think I’ve taken 2 or 3 sips – then looked at the clock, realized I hadn’t eaten yet and that was at 12:15 when I put some lasagna in the microwave to heat. It beeped some time ago as it is not 1:00 and I am reheating it.

But back to goals and dreams… How often have you let the busyness of your life interfere with achieving a goal or a dream? How often have you used the excuse, “I just don’t have the time to…”? (You supply the goal or dream.) I know I used that excuse far too often.

The truth is, you will never “find” the time, you have to “make time” for it to happen.

There have been times in the past when I pursued my goal straight out and others when I meandered my way along. I achieved my goal of a university degree in 2000 after 13 years of distance education. I started when I was 38 years old. I set my sights on 2000 and finished my final course in August 2000, in time to graduate and attend the ceremonies in October. Nine years later that is till one of my proudest moments.

My very first goal as a child was to become a mother. I didn’t want to be a pilot, a teacher, or anything else. Just a mom. I was married at 18 but the kids didn’t come along for 5 more years. I had 4 – boy, girl, girl, boy – and I’m proud to say that they are ALL wonderful, responsible, intelligent, caring human beings. If you have read my bio you will know that I officially became a single mom when my oldest was 14 and my youngest 3, although I had spent a great deal of time on my own as we had separated several times.

I found that it is important to keep on setting new goals or else you run into the problem of just sitting around wondering what you should be doing. That was my dilemma from the time my kids were born until I became a single parent and set my goal to achieve my degree.

A few years ago I decided that I wanted to make money on the internet. I had dreams of raking in “big bucks”. After all, that’s what all the ads say you can do. So I signed up for this offer and that offer and I bought this course and that course, but I didn’t have a plan. I didn’t set up mini goals and time lines and so I have been floundering.

I purchased the woman-2-woman domain several years ago when I was writing articles on a regular basis, but life got in the way and I never got set up. This week I decided that now is the time. I would just get it up and add to it each week. I will be adding info on Affiliate Marketing, Traffic Exchanges and Personal Growth with links you can use. Most will be women as that is my main focus, but there have been several men whom I have found very helpful, so I will share that info as well.

My current goal in my daily life is to achieve my High Performance Leadership. I thought I would be able to do it quickly but I was challenged by one of my committee members and realized that there was much I needed to learn. My goal is to achieve this award by March of 2010 so that I can receive my DTM (Distinguished Toastmaster) award at the conference in April.

To achieve this I need to learn to set time lines and mini goals, instead of just rushing through things. My next project is to send out letters to former members. I will set a time line of December 1st to give me enough time to prepare the letters, get stamps, and mail them.

My goal for this website is to have a list of at least 5 items in each section by mid November. If you have some suggestions, please let me know. Send me an email with the subject line “Women” to franlwatson @ gmail.com (no spaces).

I look forward to hearing from you.

Fran

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