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Gwyneth Paltrow. She is everywhere. She is an Oscar winning actress mastering foreign accents. She is in dramas, huge grossing blockbuster action flicks, comedies, and smaller indie movies that are really good even if few people see them. She is on Oprah (okay no more, but she has been on Oprah many times). And the woman can sing. I mean really sing! She was on at least 3 episodes of Glee. And not just on Glee…she totally rocked it singing, Cee Lo’s Forget You (in a version I honestly prefer to the original). She performed at the Country Music Awards and has been in talks for a record deal. She has a great newsletter called GOOP (www.goop.com) where she tells you what you can make, where to go, what to get, what to do, how you can be, and what to see. She is in fantastic physical condition, engaging in [...]

I left my parents house when I was 18 years old, to live in the city of my university. Today I have two kids. They are really (semi) grownups of 19 and 21 years of age, still living at home. I never thought that would happen. And, as it is happening now, I find myself liking and not liking it at the same time. I like it because I love to have them close by and I really enjoy the brief conversations that we easily share at different times during the day. It gives me joy. I don’t like it because it challenges my automatic and selfcultivated patterns of mommy-ing, which includes giving instructions and advice. Often their ears and their hearts are not open and appreciative of this advice. That makes me immensily tired. So, I’ve been thinking about this and analyzing what is making the difference for me [...]

A friend told me the other day that she does not feel comfortable bragging and that she doesn’t think it’s appropriate to brag. Huh. That caused me pause. I wanted to argue, yet I wasn’t completely sure about the point I wanted to make. So, I thought some more about it… As a coach I feel like I spend a good deal of time encouraging coaching clients to acknowledge what they’re doing well, to identify and own their strengths, to determine how to work in their “sweet spot” and shine…to in essence, brag. And, overall, I feel like many people – perhaps especially women – could benefit from a little more practice tooting their own horns. Yet, my friend’s statement had me thinking… There are admittedly times and places when you might not want to brag: when the person you’re with is struggling in the area, when the focus and [...]