Winter 2002 "New Horizons"

ur newsletter will promote principles of personal success for women. These ideas will illustrate success in the working world, in interpersonal relationships, and in developing self esteem and confidence. Each member will bring special knowledge about attaining personal goals and adding a sense of discovery and excitement to women's lives.

	"Don’t just let chance alter your life - open your horizons and create it! Make the positive changes necessary to intentionally transform your life. Take a good look at your environment. Anything need attention?"
	"... Phil and I have not been able to forget that we still need peace, reconciliation and social justice right here in New Mexico. This state has an enduring 23% poverty rate; an equal percentage ... have no health insurance...; the state has a shortage of physicians; ... many people have lost jobs here, and severe cutbacks in Medicaid and other social programs are looming."
	"... I enjoy, even pride myself really, on being a person of diverse interests and skills, with a creativity and curiosity about life that makes each new day an adventure in learning and growth. Yet these varied interests pull me in many directions, scatter my focus, and fritter away some of the valuable time my partner spends targeted on her revenue producing goals."
	"The New York City skyline now looks empty, the missing towers representing tremendous loss and pain. At the same time, a new spirit has arisen from that place of seeming desolation. People have turned within and come together to support the transformation of grief into renewed strength and lifegiving energy."
	"... I posed the question, "What's possible for my life?" - and looked at where the answers took me. I decided that the only way I was going to make extraordinary things happen was to take my shot at them!"

Janet L. Hall is a Certified Kinesionics Practitioner/Herbalist/Nutritionist and owner of Alternative Wellness Center in Albuquerque. She is a member of the Association of Specialized Kinesiologists of the U.S., and also a member of the American Herbalists Guild. The People Living Through Cancer organization recently awarded Janet a plaque for her caring, dedicated and professional treatment of those she works with who are dealing with cancer. Janet is also the consulting Kinesiologist and Nutritionist for A New Hope, a foundation for eating disorders. Janet can be reached at (505) 294-WELL, or drjhall@qwest.net

ew horizons… when I hear those words, I think of upcoming change, refreshment, reorganization, growth, and new boundaries. We, as women, have so many responsibilities: family… work… household organizing, etc. It’s easy to get caught up in all the day-to-day stress and let life become methodical drudgery. We all need new horizons to reach for, for change and self-growth. Why? Because it is good for the soul. It renews our spirit. It opens the way for self-fulfillment.

     Webster’s Dictionary defines “change” as, “to vary, alter, modify, convert or transform.” Just think what life would be like without change. We love the changing seasons with varying weather, the unique sunsets, the wonderful variety of different foods to enjoy. Imagine if everything stayed the same around us, our horizons never changing.

     Don’t just let chance alter your life - open your horizons and create it! Make the positive changes necessary to intentionally transform your life. Take a good look at your environment. Anything need attention? There is much emphasis on a child’s environment; however, does our environment suddenly not count as we age? We need our environment to be free of negative things and make our home a haven for very positive refreshment. Think about what changes it might take to make your home feel that way.

     What things would you like to see change in your life? What areas of personal growth could you be striving for? Take out a piece of paper and jot down the top three areas of your life that you’d most like to see changed. Then write down what three personal areas of growth are needed. Mark each of them with the degree of difficulty that they hold for you, along with a target date for completion of that goal. The target date should be shorter for those areas that are not as difficult for you to work on. You only work on one item in each category at a time unless you’d like to work on more. For example:

Areas for Change	Degree of Difficulty	Completion Date
Get home more organized	40%	March 30, 2002 1st Goal
Less stressful job	80%	August 1, 2002
Lose weight	65%	June 1, 2002
Personal Growth	Degree of Difficulty	Completion Date
Be more assertive	90%	September 1, 2002
Be consistent	75%	June 30, 2002
Be punctual	20%	March 15, 2002 1st Goal

     If you have any trouble defining these areas, just ask a friend or your mate – sometimes they can give you a clear, objective view. Another thing that is helpful is to think about what your main goals in life are - picture it all in place. With no picture of how you want your life to be, how can you start living it that way? What you would like to hear others say about you? Looking back on your life, what feeling would you have so far? How would you like your life to be on a day-to-day basis? What would like to learn and gain from life?

     What this list does first is to define the areas where change is needed. How can change take place otherwise? Secondly, writing out the list gets you committed to doing something about making the changes. Thirdly - and best of all – the list gives your subconscious something to shoot for. You can start to work first on the task with the lowest degree of difficulty, and when that one is completed, you can move on up to the one with the next highest degree of difficulty. Once you have made your list, the message has been entered into your subconscious - so you need not look at it every day. Put it in your drawer, and then check back periodically to see how you’ve done.

     Changing our horizons can also mean setting firm boundaries and taking a look at how we relate to other people – family and friends. Sometimes we need to look a little deeper inside ourselves to see just why we relate to others the way we do. It’s been said that the response we are getting from people is the response we are giving them. In other words, do you ever wonder why you get a certain response from someone? It may be time to look at the message we are conveying to him or her. Sometimes it is not what we say, but how we say it that can bring an unwanted response. Also, not setting clear boundaries can be a cause for unwanted friction. Taking care of the seemingly smaller details in our lives can prevent bigger problems from occurring. It’s good to think about and define just what your boundaries are.

     A great way to spice up your life and open up to new horizons is to look at the world and life from a child’s eyes – at least occasionally! Take your child, grandchild or someone else’s child to the pool or the zoo, watch their wonder at it all, and end that day feeling renewed, refreshed and invigorated by life!

     There are lots of ways to create new horizons for ourselves; it is an ever-evolving process, but a wonderfully refreshing one! Get started right away!

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Jane Blume, Editor/Publisher of our Defining Women newsletter, celebrates 36 years of professional work in communications this year. Jane founded Desert Sky Communications in 1989 to help businesses, non-profit organizations and individual entrepreneurs "get the right messages to the right audiences." Desert Sky's services include public relations, marketing and advertising strategies and execution; writing and editing; corporate identity; photography; facilitation; and innovative radio programs. For more information, call Jane at (505) 294-1976, email to  or visit www.desertskycommunications.com.

n the article I wrote for the Fall 2001 edition of Defining Women, I talked about “an extraordinary international meeting in Switzerland” that my husband and I attended that was “sponsored by a worldwide movement called Moral Re-Armament [now renamed Initiatives of Change]. MRA [now IC] was founded in the 1930s by a Protestant clergyman named Frank Buchman, who saw the ‘war clouds’ gathering in Europe and was looking for a way to prevent it. Buchman believed that conflicts among nations and peoples could be resolved only if opposing parties found ways to reconcile with each other through healing from within and apologies to ‘the other side.’ And healing from within could occur only if an aggrieved person could ‘put things right’ in his or her own life.

     “And so here we were, 6,000 feet up on a mountain above the lakeside city of Montreux in [IC’s] conference center, meeting people from every corner of the globe, all of whom had one purpose in mind: achieving peace, reconciliation and social justice through sincere efforts to understand and heal the grievances and hurts of others.”

     One month after we returned from Europe, a number of events rushed in upon us that almost blotted out the life-changing experiences we had in Switzerland. Our country suffered severe terrorist attacks on September 11… three days later, Phil had to have surgery (fortunately not life-threatening, and he’s just fine now)… our government declared war on terrorism and sent troops to Afghanistan… and “closer to home,” my business was going through a transition as a major client decided to bring its PR activities “in-house,” and I began working diligently (and ultimately successfully) to bring new clients on board. All in all, it’s been quite an eventful fall and winter.

     Despite everything, Phil and I have not been able to forget that we still need peace, reconciliation and social justice right here in New Mexico. This state has an enduring 23% poverty rate; an equal percentage – mostly the working poor – have no health insurance because they and their employers can’t afford it; the state has a shortage of physicians; and due to the recession, many people have lost jobs here, and severe cutbacks in Medicaid and other social programs are looming. All in all, it’s not a pretty picture.

     One arena where we think we can make a difference is in health care. For several years, I have been a volunteer with the Health Security for New Mexicans Campaign. The Campaign believes that health care is everyone’s right, not a commodity offered by profit-making entities, and seeks to bring universal health care to our state through a “single-payer” system of reimbursement to providers. To make this change, the Campaign has devised a piece of legislation called the New Mexico Health Care Act, which will be introduced into the Legislature during its 60-day session in 2003. On behalf of the Campaign I have started to give talks on the subject to various groups, have already had a speaking engagement in Gallup, and expect to go back again very soon.

     Phil, who is a retired service chief with the Veterans Affairs hospital in Albuquerque, is passionately interested in medical ethics issues. Universal health care is one of them and the corrupting effect of the financial ties that have been forged between health care providers and drug companies is another.

     We have decided that it would be a good idea to introduce the principles and work of Initiatives of Change to our friends and colleagues - who are concerned about a variety of issues. To this end, we have invited Richard Ruffin, head of IC’s national office in Washington, D.C., to visit Albuquerque with his wife, Randy, in mid-March. Dick and Randy have spent the past 30 years working full-time for IC – both in this country and abroad – and we have encountered many fascinating and dedicated people through them.

     We first met Dick in the early 1980s when he came to support IC’s work in Portland, Oregon, where we were then living. That city now has a group of people working together to make a difference – and we are intrigued with what the future might hold for possible activities here. I’ll keep you posted.

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Carol Akright is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP), stockbroker and insurance agent specializing in intergenerational planning, retirement funding and wealth building. She is Registered Principal with Associated Securities Corporation of Los Angeles, a full service brokerage firm. A financial educator as well, she lectures nationwide at both public and corporate seminars on investment strategies, "Dream Funding," and other financial topics. Contact her at 505-897-1970, akrightcr1@aol.com

any of us make New Year’s resolutions with firm resolve to create our own destiny on the blank pages of new opportunities at the dawn of the New Year. January 1st is like the boundary/borderline of a “New Horizon” - with limitless possibilities before us. It’s exhilarating, isn’t it? We’re enthused, inspired, and confident—until we really think about making all the day-to-day changes and improvements required of us if we’re to step out into the new future we envision.

     Recently, I created a new partnership with one of my colleagues—a woman whose years in the business number fewer than mine but whose “successes” regarding net revenue production are greater than mine—much greater. She’s one of the top “producers” in our firm. We each bring different talents to the partnership. My achievements in public speaking and marketing to new corporate clients are something she wants to model. Her tenacity of focus, productivity and time efficiency are skills I’d like to enhance in my own practice. In theory, the partnership should work because we both see the same “New Horizon”—growth, opportunity, and collaboration to produce the same results: an expanded client base and increase in net profits for our businesses.

     Yet, on the eve of writing this article, sitting at a restaurant awaiting a friend, I reflected on the one change I surely need to make to produce this new horizon of results. I felt daunted by my partner’s way of operating her practice—so totally focused on the money results—asking each day, “Will this activity make me money?” By contrast of work style, I enjoy, even pride myself really, on being a person of diverse interests and skills, with a creativity and curiosity about life that makes each new day an adventure in learning and growth. Yet these varied interests pull me in many directions, scatter my focus, and fritter away some of the valuable time my partner spends targeted on her revenue producing goals. On that eve of reflection I wondered—quite frankly—am I willing to shift my M.O. (modus operandi) to make such a substantial change in the way I approach each work day in order to reap the result I say I want? Needles of doubt clouded my mind—a pull of uncertainty about whether I truly can, or will, curtail my many interests to telescope my vision and my efforts.

     So, new horizons, even ones with limitless possibilities and opportunities that attract us, really force us to become accountable to our vision of the future. There is that old saying, “If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep getting what you’ve gotten.” In my case, I stepped back and took a broader look at the year 2002. I have several extremely important personal goals that do require large chunks of new cash—i.e., income from this year. When I look at these blank pages of new days, weeks, and months ahead of me, I know that I will be truly unhappy if I do not achieve these personal goals by year’s end.

     All of a sudden, what I talk about in my recent book and in all my lectures became true for me—I have several BIG PASSIONS (DREAMS) that I want to fund in 2002. I figure that I need to add $80,000 to my investment account to pay for them. That’s $80,000 after taxes, after expenses - and all new money. Having such a specific result in mind is incentive to telescope my time, efforts and productivity. So, this year, I’ve determined to maximize this partnership opportunity, to produce results I now know (after more reflection) that I sincerely want. I am willing to “do what it takes” on this new horizon, so that on December 31, 2002, I can look back and feel fabulous, fulfilled, and happy that I have funded my most cherished dreams for this year.

     Isn’t it interesting how taking a fresh look at old truths, combined with renewing our accountability to get what we want in our own life, creates both the determination and the commitment to play a better game in the new year—to reach a new horizon beyond the one the sun set upon – on New Year’s Eve just a few weeks ago.

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Dr. Gail Feldman is a clinical psychologist, award-winning author, and public speaker. Her latest book, "From Crisis to Creativity: Taking Advantage of Adversity," will be published in an updated edition in London this year by Little Brown. She is trained in hypnotherapy, regression therapy, and eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR). For more information, please call her office at 505-266-8488; you may also send email to: GFWrites@aol.com, or visit her Website at www.gailfeldman.com.

n our life journey, every change presents us with a new horizon. Sometimes these horizons are breathtakingly beautiful, and other times they appear bleak and barren. The New York City skyline now looks empty, the missing towers representing tremendous loss and pain. At the same time, a new spirit has arisen from that place of seeming desolation. People have turned within and come together to support the transformation of grief into renewed strength and lifegiving energy. Their creativity has given many forms to the expression of this loving care, so that as we become accustomed to the new horizon we can know it is filled with a new spirit of interaction.

     Things wonderful can come from deficit. I was fascinated to read that when Albert Einstein's preserved brain was reexamined last year, it was found to be missing a part of the normal human brain, the parietal operculum. Because of this defect, the inferior parietal lobe was able to grow 15% wider than usual. These brain cells, packed close together with more interconnections, brought Einstein greater mathematical cognition and visual-spatial imagery. The missing part of his brain actually allowed for the growth of his genius.

     We can remember from this that every seeming darkness gives way to light. When looking for a brighter horizon this New Year, keep in mind the following:

     1. Focus on the light. In order to do this, hurt, loss, disappointment and pain, the darkness that would pull you down into it, must first be acknowledged. Let this be an active, ongoing process of observing the feelings, thoughts, and behavior, the grief that would block acceptance of the past and joy in the present. Know that with intention, "this too will pass." The light is always beckoning at the end of the tunnel.

     2. Nurture your body. You cannot be psychologically and emotionally fit unless the body, the carrier of your mind and your spirit, is sturdy and strong. Tending to the body creates energy that flows and feeds back to support the physical, mental, and emotional systems. In every way you know how to, care for your body, love it, and thank it for all of the years it has sustained you. If you have abused or neglected your body in any way, ask its forgiveness and promise to be a better caretaker of this miraculous container of the Self.

     3. Feed your spirit. Light comes from an expansion of consciousness. Use prayer and meditation to recognize and open to your vision of greater service and life purpose. The world needs you right now to be a positive, creative visionary. Align with faith in all possibilities.

     4. Be inspired. Einstein clearly stated that his efforts were, "to understand the mind of God." When dealing with problems, one spiritual teacher says to, "Take your mind off the problem and place it on God." Similarly, Einstein advised, "Go where the problem isn't." Fear and darkness dissolve when we contemplate light, levity, and spaciousness.

     Two women stand out in my mind for their ability to "go where the problem isn't." Maya Angelou and Oprah Winfrey both experienced deprivation and trauma in childhood and they both overcame the seeming limitations of their early lives. Oprah has been willing to disclose her own experiences and challenges and bring psychologists and spiritual teachers onto her show. She affects the lives of 22 million people each week. She believes that life is a constant learning experience and that greatness, as Dr. Martin Luther King taught, "is determined by service."

     Oprah serves. Her prayer is, "Use me God. Show me how to take who I am, who I want to be, and what I can do, and use it for a purpose greater than myself." Oprah's social activism supports many service organizations around the world, including a multi-million dollar college scholarship program, the Angel Network, for students in need. She reportedly, also maintains an entire village in Africa through her personal financial support.

     Writer’s Digest named Maya Angelou one of the top 100 best writers of the 20th Century. She has been nominated for both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. She has written dozens of books, plays, poetry collections, essays, and screenplays. She is also an accomplished actress and is fluent in English, French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic, and West African Fanti. Her list of honors and awards run many pages.

     Both of these distinguished women have aligned their personalities with their souls, in order to share their creative strength in service.

     The fifth step, then, in finding a bright horizon, is to accept your power. It's right there inside, at the core of your being. It is the source of your self-expression and the silent spring of your creativity. Keep in mind, however, that the only thing we fear more than another's power over us is our own power. We worry that looking at a too-bright horizon will burn the eyes. We fret about stepping boldly into the light. We'll lose the comfort of the familiar, the ease of being common, and more, much more, may be required of us.

     Find the courage to shine your light anyway. Be a beacon. You'll find that anxiety will transform to excitement. The body doesn't know the difference, and the energy from that excitement can fuel all of your efforts to move toward a new, bright horizon. As Oprah says, "Create the highest, grandest vision possible for your life because you become what you believe."

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Lenann McGookey Gardner is a Harvard M.B.A. and an independent management consultant specializing in improving companies' sales and marketing results. She works with smaller businesses, as well as large companies, worldwide.  Call Lenann when you want to grow your sales by closing the most desirable, highest profit business. Lenann is a recent winner of the American Marketing Association/New Mexico's "Services Marketer of the Year" award. Visit her on the Web at www.YouCanSell.com.

HOW BIG A GAME WILL YOU PLAY IN 2002?

new year! Are you spending it just recovering from the holidays – or planning to make this the best year of your life?

     I can't remember who said, "Failure to plan is planning to fail", but I know it's true, and so do you!

     Let's assume you're going to plan your year now. Where will you be sitting one year from now? What will you have accomplished? What relationships will have moved forward? What business or personal success will you be enjoying?

     In 1980, I was exposed to the notion that one can choose to play a "big game" or a "small game" in life. The fact that this 22-year-old notion inspires me as I write this column is a reflection of its impact on my own life! In a seminar I took in that long-ago year, I realized that, up until that time, I had been more focused on not losing – specifically on not having to EVER have to go to my Dad and ask for money – than I was focused on winning -- creating a life that I found exciting, challenging and fun. And I resolved to change my strategy for my life.

     As a small-town girl from rural Ohio, I had seen myself as a good girl, trying to get by and make a living in the big city (Los Angeles at that time). I wanted someone to tell me what to do and when to do it, and then I wanted to do that very well - in half the time that anyone expected - and impress everyone. I wanted people to say, "Wow, she's awesome!" And I wanted to be able to count on getting my paycheck on Friday.

     In 1980, I let that go.

     Instead, I posed the question, "What's possible for my life?" - and looked at where the answers took me. I decided that the only way I was going to make extraordinary things happen was to take my shot at them!

     I'd always wanted to be a radio broadcaster. I had a journalism degree and no experience in the media unless you count the college newspaper for which I had written some award-winning stories. And I started trying to interview for jobs at the big local radio stations in L.A. (Here's a quick picture of how the radio business works: all the "markets" or metropolitan areas in the country have a rank. One starts at a station in a smaller market and, if one is good, one moves to a job at a station in a larger market on that ranking list. And if one is good there, one moves to a job at a station in a still larger market. One does not START in the #2 market in the country, Los Angeles!)

     The result? I couldn't get work!

     So I took an unpaid internship: Up at 4 a.m. every day, at the station by 5:30, writing sports stories for the morning news broadcasts, for no money. My first day on the job, the boss said, "Don't have any illusions. You won't be on the air here. You're not union, for one thing, and this is a union station. Just write the sports."

     I was on the air in seven weeks.

     How? I just figured out what the station needed! Every day from 6 ‘til 10 a.m., the morning show had news on the hour and on the half-hour. The station wanted listeners to keep us on all morning, so we would air segments of a feature story every half-hour, promoting them regularly: "At 8 o'clock, we'll have more about the psychological impact of the colors you have around you in your living and working spaces!"

     It was challenging for the reporter in charge to come up with subjects five days every week that were rich enough to justify ten, two-minute segments. So I thought up topics and, after work every day, working from my office at the radio station, I'd call people and conduct telephone interviews, which I would then edit down into ten two-minute segments that always ended with, "This is Lenann McGookey reporting for K-West News!"

     Imagine the program director's surprise when I walked into his office with stacks of 10 tape cartridges, day after day, containing perfectly good feature stories – an interview with the first woman astronaut, intense questioning of a solar powered aircraft designer, and that bit about the psychological impact of the colors surrounding us are just a few examples – all ready to air. He didn't like it that my name and my voice were there on every recording, but he couldn't easily delete them, either.

     As soon as these features went on the air, I started getting calls from other stations. After seven weeks in the internship, I was hired by KMPC, a radio station owned by Gene Autry, to be the news producer for the “Robert W. Morgan Show” every morning, as well as a full hour of news and features every morning from 5 till 6 a.m. (Great progress; I was getting paid -- $10,000 a year -- but had to be at the station at 3 a.m.!)

     KMPC was great, but I wanted to be on the air regularly, not just a producer, so I took a second job, as afternoon drive time anchor at a station called KFOX in Redondo Beach ($5,000 a year – a small non-union station). Not long after I began that job, I finished a newscast one evening and immediately received a call in the newsroom. The caller said, "Would you like to be in big-time radio?" I replied, "Is this the movies?" And he said, "No, I'm with KHJ, and we'd like to talk with you about an on-air position here."

     Seven months from the start of my broadcasting odyssey, I was on the air five days a week, four hours a day, no nights, no weekends, no holidays, and making $45,000 to just talk.

     Little ol' Lenann from Castalia, Ohio.

     Lots of things have happened to me since these events in the year 1980, but the idea of reaching out to play a bigger game with my life has never left me.

     What happened with my broadcasting career? It ended – when I decided that the new frontier I wanted to take on was motherhood. I didn't plan to have to lie on my left side for three solid months before my first child was born, nor was I aware that being a stay-at-home mom for two years and two months would be as much fun as it was! When I went back to work after that time with Lindsay, I used my business skills to launch new businesses for Mattel, and my sales and marketing career resumed. Occasionally I'd be in a recording studio making a commercial, and I'd think about how much I loved the microphone I no longer had occasion to use.

     Over time, as Lindsay grew and I started my sales and marketing consulting practice in order to spend more time with her than I could as an executive at MCI Telecommunications, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and what is now Bank of America, I'd periodically remember the fun I'd had with broadcasting, and think about whether I might make a contribution again.

     And now it's happening! As I write this, I'm up for a nationally syndicated radio talk show called "The People's Voice.” Created with a partner, lawyer Tim Karsten, the show is an attempt to get some good news on the radio. We have a publicist in California who is eagerly awaiting copies of the show to take out to the syndicators, and we are hopeful that the show will be purchased. A Senior Editor at Simon & Schuster says she'll take the book I've written for publication as soon as the show is sold. New horizons!

     And what's your plan for 2002?

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