The Female Paradox

Women have a paradoxical nature.  On the one hand we may display what we feel is “feminine behaviour”, non-aggressive, compliant and people pleasing.  On the other hand, we have dormant talents which, if nurturned and honed, can be our greatest advantage in an entrepreneurial world. We can use this to our advantage in business, simply by recognising and using our natural talents to greater advantage.

7 Dormant Talents to Turn to Advantage

1.  Lack of Focus

Typically women are overcommitted in their time by 25%.  Women feel guilty if they are not pleasing everyone. We over commit, we let people down and we look disorganised. 

We must learn to do fewer things very well.

The Paradox: Women are natural list-makers.  They can often focus on small and repetitive tasks that men avoid.

The Solution:

Increase Your Power of Focus

Use your natural talent to greater advantage by:

·       Prioritise what is important and what is unimportant

·       Learn to assess how long a routine job really takes

·       Each day, focus on what the most important outcome will be.  Work out how you will achieve this.  Your Core Activity is the one that will deliver your priority outcome

·       Practise self care, manage your energy drains; make sure you have time to relax and re-energise.  You will then deliver fewer things, very well.  Re-energising is part of your business plan!

·       Reorganise your systems; declutter your working space, thus creating a mental environment for focus.    More to follow >>>

 

Need to go shopping for a new outfit? Dread the thought of trailing round the shops? Want the maximum impact with the minimum output? Consulting with a Shopping Coach could save you a lot of time, money and frustration.   more »

Picture of me chilling out on our balcony in Pangkor, Malaysia. I love travelling; maybe because I was brought up in West Africa, I long for the sun and places I have not yet seen.  Inner journeys fascinate me too.  Life is so rich!
Here is a wonderful poem to ponder on:

A poem, with a cautionary note about not taking chances in life.  It is from a book which now out of print "Spoon River Anthology" by Edgar Lee Masters, written around 1914.  It was taken from a collection of verses in which Mr Masters tells life of Spoon River in the epitaphs of the people who were buried in the cemetery where he had grown up as a boy. 

 George Gray

I have studied many times
the marble which was chiseled for me -
A boat with a furled sail at rest in a harbour.
In truth it pictures not my destination
But my life.
For love was offered me and I shrank from its disillusionment;
Sorrow knocked at my door, but I was afraid;
Ambition called to me, but I dreaded the chances.
Yet all the while I hungered for meaning in my life.
And now I know that we must lift the sail
and catch the winds of destiny
Wherever they drive the boat.
To put meaning in one's life may end in madness,
But life without meaning is the torture
of restlessness and vague desire -
It is a boat longing for the sea and yet afraid.

Edgar Lee Masters
Spoon River Anthology