The Latest News, Views, and Gurus
Vol. 3, No. 2
Greetings, Sisters (and Brothers)!
Spring is one of our favorite seasons. It’s inspiring to watch the heads of flowers push through the earth. We're eager to plant our flower, vegetable, and goal gardens. If you’re like us, you have new ideas to nurture and overgrown areas to weed. Read Chapter 6 for tips on how to reap more from your 2006 goal garden!
* NEWS FROM THE GS MARKETING FRONT *
It’s been two years since we launched the Goal Sisters book and web site. Some of you attended our book signings; many of you found us online or heard us speak on the radio. We welcomed you into the community of Sisters! You told us how you made time for self-care and confronted your fears to achieve what you thought was impossible. We celebrated your accomplishments and diligently continued marketing Goal Sisters.
Like all journeys, ours has a beginning, middle, and end. This month marks the end of our GS marketing extravaganza. It’s time for us to focus our intentions and attention on other professional and personal pursuits. We believe that the book can stand on its own merits and no longer needs us to shepherd it as we once did.
What does this mean for Goal Sisters? This will be the last newsletter we write and distribute. Ann will reduce her marketing pace with the book, but will continue to talk about the book to women’s groups and sell GS facilitator manuals. She will no longer facilitate GS groups, but is available to answer questions about facilitating GS groups.
In the upcoming weeks, we’ll tweak the GS site to encourage visitors to share their GS experiences. Michelle will continue hosting the GS site, but will no longer update it monthly. From time to time, Ann will e-mail our newsletter subscribers about GS events and opportunities. Please continue e-mailing her with questions, stories, and successes.
* LET THE CELEBRATION OF ENDINGS BEGIN *
We encourage our Sisters to celebrate endings (see Chapter 10). Although we wish we could celebrate the end of our GS marketing extravaganza at one of our favorite places, Shutters on the Beach in Santa Monica, California, it won’t happen unless we win the lottery. We won’t let that stop us! Visualizing our gala is almost as good as being there.
Picture this: the ballroom is full of people laughing, hugging, and chatting. Members from the original GS group are snapping photos. Bookstore owners and managers mingle with Sisters from the USA and UK. Our New World Library marketing maven, Monique Muhlenkamp, dances with the Amazon.com sales team. She’s joined by Mary Ann Casler, who designed the book’s cover, and several people who interviewed the Sisters. Jennifer Louden, Sam Horn, and Jan Phillips – our honorary Goal Sisters - exchange stories and experiences. Our friends and family members reminisce.
Georgia Hughes, our New World Library editor, steps up to the microphone and says, “Welcome everyone! The moment you’ve all been waiting for is here - it’s time to bid farewell to Ann and Michelle’s GS marketing extravaganza!” Cheers ensue.
Ann and Michelle emerge from the shadows, waving to the crowd, each carrying a glass of champagne. Georgia hugs Ann, then Michelle and gives her the microphone. “Thank you, Georgia. And thank you, everyone! Before we join you, please join me in toasting Ann for being the tireless, creative GS marketing diva and Group facilitator!” Michelle raises her glass and says, “I toast all of you, too, for buying the book and telling your friends about it! And finally, I toast the end of this amazing chapter in my life!” Everyone raises their glasses and someone shouts, “Would you do it again?”
“Yes, I would!” answers Michelle. “I sacrificed a lot for the book and web site, but it was definitely worthwhile. Think about it - what other experience could make me feel such joy, excitement, satisfaction, doubt, and angst – sometimes all in the same day? Seriously, I’m very proud of what we accomplished.”
Michelle passes the microphone to Ann, who says, “I echo Michelle’s sentiments. The experience could be a whole other book in itself! We have met some terrific people along the way and enjoyed the journey! We can’t go without celebrating Michelle’s work on the web site to assure that you received up-to-the-minute news about our progress.” Ann and Michelle clink their glasses, then Ann continues, “While you won’t hear from us regularly anymore, know that we’re still here to support your goal progress. Endings are really just changes and changes are necessary for growth and more good. We’ll see you receiving more of that good stuff as you continue on your own Goal Sister path!”
* * EXERCISE: HONORING WHAT WAS * *
Now, it’s your turn. What kind of ending did you recently experience? Did you finish your educational degree? Complete a year of sobriety? Did your children leave home? Maybe you ended a significant relationship. What would you say about this ending in front of a room full of your friends and family?
Take out your journal and write about how you will honor this ending. Create a scene and describe who would be there, what feelings you would share about this ending, and how you would honor the relationship/experience. You may need to do this in two or more sittings – give yourself permission to take as much time as you need.
* * ATTENTION-GRABBING GURU * *
Last month, while cleaning her office, Michelle came upon a gift from Ann, Jan Phillip’s ‘Marry Your Muse Workshop’ audiotapes. Always intending to listen to these tapes, but never getting around to it, Michelle listened to the tapes over the next three weeks. The last tape especially caught her attention when Jan addressed how hard it can be to answer the simple question: Who am I?
This is a question that’s very hard for many people to answer because we get so little coaching in the matter of who we are. Many people don’t even know where to go next with the question. So I suggest, well, how about, what are some of the qualities that distinguish you from the others? What might you identify as your ultimate concern? What is it you believe in? What are you living for, or maybe, what might you be willing to die for? Wrestling with these questions give us the chance for our essential nature to surface in the world….oh, that’s the thing about who I am. These are the parameters of my life. This is the force that is driving me. Once we recognize who we are, then we can dance with it, celebrate with it....
Michelle found it liberating to define herself by her answers to these questions instead of by the different hats (e.g., mom, wife, business owner) she wears. How about you – what do your answers reveal about your essential nature?
* * GOAL SISTERS HAPPENINGS * *
Join Ann on Thursday, March 16th in Springfield, Illinois, where she’ll speak at the evening meeting of Illinois Women in Leadership. Sharing the GS process, Ann's presentation will include hula hoops, beach balls and noise makers as members share their 1st quarter successes! 'Goal Sisters at Work' will be the focus of Ann’s presentation to the Executive Women’s Club in Springfield, Missouri. She’ll share tips for Goal Sisters success at the group’s noon meeting on Thursday, May 18th at Ryan’s restaurant. Interested in attending either event? E-mail Ann at
ann@goalsisters.com for more information.
As we ended our first GS newsletter, we end this one…We’re so grateful for your support and interest regarding the book. Your thoughts and prayers mean a lot to both of us!!! Thanks for cheering us on and being a part of our lives.
Onward and upward,
Ann and
Michelle
P.S. Please forward this newsletter to all the inspiring, fun, energetic women you know!
Copyright © 2006 by Michelle Beaulieu Pillen, Ph.D., and Ann Leach. All rights reserved. No part of this Web site may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise.
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