In case you’ve never heard of International Women’s Day (IWD), the video above can clue you in. Or you can just keep reading. In some areas, people celebrate IWD just like Mother’s Day with gifts or flowers. And the holiday has been around since the early 1900s.

There’s no one central theme, but groups choose their own focus from year to year. Some themes include:

• women and men united to end violence against women and girls
• women’s voices and influence
• achieving 50:50 in the boardroom by 2020

IWD is being celebrated with 254 events in the UK, 182 events in the US, 157 events in Australia, 127 events in Canada and more in other countries. You can search for an event your area.

Are you celebrating International Women’s Day?

(Logo via International Women’s Day press page)

Post from: Blisstree

International Women’s Day Is March 8

STOP SELF-SABOTAGE! Get Out of Your Own Way to Earn More Money, Improve Your Relationships, and Find the Success You Deserve by Pat Pearson, M.S.S.W. (McGraw-Hill, Dec. 08, 224 pages, $16.95)

The Author:

Pat Pearson is a psychotherapist and motivational speaker who has traveled internationally to share her methods for helping people achieve greater success in their businesses and personal lives.

What’s Inside:

Everyone practices self-sabotage. If you don’t believe that, read this book to see if you really don’t practice one of the methods of sabotage Pearson discusses:

• Resignation Sabotage (Giving up before you begin)
• Denial Sabotage (Unable to acknowledge reality)
• Throwing It Away Sabotage (Getting rid of what you want because you feel you don’t deserve it)
• Settling for Less Sabotage (There’s no point in trying because you won’t get what you want)
• The Fatal Flaw Sabotage (Personality traits that undo your best efforts)

Of course, you don’t practice one of those sabotage strategies! Except you do. The problem is that we sabotage what we want unconsciously. If you knew you were doing it, you could probably stop yourself.

And that’s the point of this book: to wake up to the ways in which you keep yourself from achieving what you want, whether it’s a successful relationship or a promotion at work. Then, you can work on what Pearson refers to as your Deserve Level – what you believe you deserve. Pearson says,

“We all have an internal gauge that tells us how much we deserve what we want in areas of life such as love, work, friends and health. The Deserve Level is what we believe we deserve. No more, no less. We never exceed our own expectations, at least not for long.”

Pearson believes that our Deserve Levels are rooted in the past, often very influenced by our parents. Again, this isn’t something you may consciously consider.

The author also discusses several tools with which you can raise your Deserve Level. The book is peppered with famous relevant quotes (at the beginning of each chapter) and stories from real life, some of them from Pearson herself. She even applies one of the sabotage methods to Bill Clinton (can you guess which one?). The book also contains numerous exercises and quizzes.

Though it’s very accessible, this book isn’t something you’ll breeze through in one weekend.

Getting the most out of Pearson’s book involves a willingness to take a long look into yourself, your life and your actions, and Pearson is a friendly guide through that process.

This book will apply to you, whether you like it or not. I’m not promising that everyone who reads it will have some sort of miraculous breakthrough, but you will learn something helpful about yourself.

Please check back next week for a chance to win a copy of Stop Self-Sabatoge.

(Image via McGraw-Hill)

Post from: Blisstree

Review: Stop Self-Sabotage by Pat Pearson

I have extra motivation since I just moved. I got rid of a bunch of clothes before the move, but last night I got rid of Rubbermaid containers. I’ve started to hate them. They seem to be a necessary evil these days, but that doesn’t make them pretty.

I set out in search of a nice wooden trunk or cedar chest to store some stuff in. If it came in bench form, even better. I couldn’t find one anywhere except online for more than I wanted to pay. Everyone must be using Rubbermaids. Fabric-covered ottomans that have a tiny bit of storage are all the rage, but not what I want.

Michael talked me into going for more of an upright piece of furniture, like a cabinet. And this is what I found! It’s a dresser, actually. I added the wooden rooster sitting on antique books. No, it doesn’t match my bedroom furniture, but it’s in an entryway anyway. Plus, it’s the same color as my living room stuff.

Jennifer at Simply Thrifty posted about how January is a great time to buy furniture, and she’s right. I found sales everywhere, but I found this honey-stained six-drawer dresser at my local Pottery Barn outlet — still in the box for 50% off the outlet price. Sometimes at the outlet, you have to settle with an open piece that has a few scratches, but this piece was perfect.

What’s inside — free from closet-stuffed Rubbermaids at last?

My Life magazine collection from the 1950s, newspapers marking historic events, scrapbooks from kindergarten through college, diplomas, wedding guest book and other stuff that needed a home. If you’re going to keep it, why not have access to it easily?

For a few minutes, I loaded up one of the top drawers with my old journals from high school and college. There are about 10 of them. Then I couldn’t stand the thought of anyone being able to open up the drawer and read my private thoughts from years ago. I hid them away in a cardboard filing box along with about 10 notebooks of handwritten poetry from years ago. I’m not sure what I’ll do with the box, but I wasn’t ready to have its contents in the open. Sigh, but I still made progress.

What do you have hiding in Rubbermaid containers?

Image by Peggy Rowland.

Post from: Blisstree

Getting Organized Non-Rubbermaid Style

If you’re a parent or mentor to a young girl, have you given some thought to the impact of low self-esteem?

Chances are you have. Young girls aren’t great at hiding their insecurities, but they also don’t always tell you what they’re thinking.

Key findings from Real Girls, Real Pressure: A National Report on the State of Self-Esteem are a bit disturbing. The report was commissioned by the Dove Self-Esteem Fund. Here’s what they found:

• Seven in ten girls believe they are not good enough or do not measure up in some way, including their looks, performance in school and relationships with friends and family members

• 62% of all girls feel insecure or not sure of themselves

• 57% of all girls have a mother who criticizes her own looks

• More than half (57%) of all girls say they don’t always tell their parents certain things about them because they don’t want them to think badly of them

• The top wish among all girls is for their parents to communicate better with them which includes more frequent and more open conversations as well as discussions about what is happening in their own lives

Read the full report on self-esteem. And visit Campaign for Real Beauty for helpful and free self-esteem building tools.

Image via the Dove Self-Esteem Fund.

Post from: Blisstree

Helping Girls with Self-Esteem

Video by The Dove Self-Esteem Fund. Visit Campaign for Real Beauty.

Post from: Blisstree

Evolution: See what’s not real in beauty.