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MARY PREFONTATINE
CEO, Institute of Career Advancement Needs
by Mallika Chopra
I am so excited (and honored) to be speaking at the ICAN Women’s Leadership Conference this year. How cool to be sharing the stage with Arianna Huffington and so may smart, accomplished women! I am humbled and thrilled.
There are a few things I want to explore together at the conference.
First: Share some of the tools I learned growing up (yes, my father is the well-known author, Deepak Chopra) to get centered, find peace and figure out what it is that you actually want. One of these tools was meditation (and we will do a simple mediation together), the other was clearly articulating our intents – our aspirations who we wanted to be.
Second: Talk about balance. I am a mom with two young girls. My intent is to be a good mom. And, yet, like many of you (who may be married or single, moms or not moms, working or not working), I am stretched in many directions! Relationships, kids, friends, family, work. Is it possible for women today to truly find balance? What is balance in the 21st Century and how can we find it?
Ultimately, the two themes above are integrally woven together.
We make goals to find happiness, meaning and purpose in our lives. Wellbeing today is not just about health and fitness. Wellbeing also includes being socially fulfilled, enjoying our jobs, feeling part of a community, giving back and having a sense of purpose. Wellbeing for me includes feeling balanced, rested, inspired, motivated.
My intent is to find that place of balance and happiness so I can share it with those I encounter in my life.
What’s your intent?
Mallika Chopra is the founder of Intent. You can state your intent and support others at www.intent.com , and read Mallika’s blogs at www.intentblog.com .
Posted February 20th, 2012
By Lindsey Pollak
Ask your parents or grandparents to define happiness and they’ll surely talk about love, friends and family. Next, they’ll probably mention succeeding in their chosen career, owning a nice home and having a solid nest egg.
But ask a Gen Y (those born approximately 1982 to 2000), and the definition of success and happiness may sound quite different. As Hannah Seligson recently wrote of her peers in Washingtonian, “Instead of a steady job, they want a meaningful one that serves a larger purpose or fulfills a personal passion. And instead of settling down with a spouse and mortgage, they want more years of freedom to chase career dreams and explore different paths before they have to make tradeoffs.”
While detractors call this “entitlement,” I admire Millennials’ desire to live life on their own terms. Millennials want to explore multiple careers, relationships, lifestyles and technologies without committing to any one path too soon. For a generation with a life expectancy of 100 or more, why not live big in your 20s?
In fact, I think that Gen Ys want things many of the rest of us in previous generations wanted, too — freedom, choices, meaning, passion. We just didn’t prioritize them over money and security. Millennials do.
What do you think abut the different approaches of Millennials and other generations? I look forward to discussing with you in April!
Lindsey Pollak is a career and workplace expert with a special focus on managing generational differences. Visit her website at www.lindseypollak.com or follow her on Twitter.
Posted February 13th, 2012
Julia Moulden is an author, speaker, and Huffington Post columnist.
What would a world of women leaders look like? Lady Gaga. Christine Lagarde. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Angela Merkel. Oprah Winfrey. Tawakul Karman. Johanna Sigurdardottir. Sheryl Sandberg. Arianna Huffington. The list is long and growing each day…
How things have changed in a single generation! Although we’re just twelve years in, it’s not too soon to call it: the 21st century belongs to women.
Want to be part of it? Or enhance what you’re already doing? The ICAN Women’s Leadership Conference is the place to be this April.
I’m leading three sessions. Discover how women are changing the world through good works and how you can forge your own positive path of service. Learn how women come into their own after 50 (check out the first paragraph for proof!) and how to unleash your own passion and purpose when others are telling you it’s the end of the road. And explore how women like us are harnessing the power of social media to become an ever-more-influential part of the global conversation (just in time for Facebook’s $50 billion IPO).
What’s next for women? Come find out. We’ll talk about how you and your daughters will shape the world that’s coming.
Conference Breakout Sessions
Breakout Session 1 & 3: NEW RADICALS: Reinventing Your Work to Save the World
Breakout Session 2: RIPE: Rich, Rewarding Work After 50
Posted February 6th, 2012
If you found the first few weeks of 2012 not at all to your liking, then today is your chance to start the year over. January 24th is the first day of the lunar calendar – known as Chinese New Year – the most celebrated day of the year in China. 2012 is the Year of the Dragon – promising power, prosperity and longevity.
I read that legend has it, in ancient times, Buddha asked all the animals to meet him on Chinese New Year. Twelve came, and Buddha named a year after each one. He announced that the people born in each animal’s year would have some of that animal’s personality. Those born in dragon years are innovative, brave, and passionate. Salvador Dali, John Lennon, Frank Sinatra and Mary-Louise Parker were all born in the year of the dragon.
If you want to know the animal symbolizing your birth year – check it out at http://www.usbridalguide.com/special/chinesehoroscopes/Dragon.htm
For an insight into today’s Chinese culture, I recommend the film The Last Train Home – a superbly told story about the world’s largest human migration – and available on YouTube (There are 6 parts). Every spring, China’s cities are plunged into chaos as 130 million migrant workers travel back to their home villages for this auspicious holiday. This mass exodus is an epic spectacle that exposes a nation tragically caught between its rural past and industrial future. The official Xinhua News Agency reported that during the Chinese New Year holiday period more than 3.16 billion passenger trips will be logged on the railway, the airlines, and buses. Staggering isn’t it? So the next time you catch yourself frustrated with traffic – think about it – and give thanks for your good fortune.
May 2012 bring you the fire needed to create prosperity and peace in your life and in the world. As they say in Cantonese “Gung Hay Fat Choy!” (Happy New Year).
Posted January 23rd, 2012
I have three deeply held values in my life…beauty, love and joy. So when I happened upon a recent commentary by Douglas Todd exploring the differences between the emotion of joy and happiness I wanted to share it with you.
Todd quotes the Dalai Lama saying “the purpose of our lives is to seek happiness,” which he sometimes calls Joy. Thich Nhat Hahn, another Buddhist teacher, occasionally tries to make a distinction by saying “if you are very thirsty and you see a glass of water, you will experience joy. But after drinking the water you will experience happiness.” I get that – I feel that way when I first see a loved one’s face after a long separation.
Todd also writes, “Famed psychiatrist, Georges Valliant offers a rare, brilliant essay on joy in his book Spiritual Evolution: A Scientific Defense of Faith. In his chapter on joy, Vaillant starts out by clarifying that happiness is “secular,” “cognitive” and “tame.” In contrast, Vaillant says joy is “spiritual,” “a primary emotion,” and “connection to the universe…Joy is laughing from the gut.” I get that too – deep belly laughter is like tonic for my soul and fills me with an emotion far greater than a static sense of happiness.
At this time of year I find joy in Beethoven’s Ode to Joy – the beauty of the music and the voices in the choir evokes a sense of spiritual transformation and connection with the mystery of life. Which is exactly what the composer intended when he wrote it. Succinctly said by both Vaillant and restated by Todd, “It is so much easier to sing about joy than to talk about it.”
Posted December 21st, 2011
Beljean Ong is a “tea instructor” in a little shop at 38 Mosque Street in the heart of Singapore’s Chinatown. She drew me in from the crowded street with an invitation to come in and get some relief from the humidity and heat – and an hour later I left with a bag of the highest quality Oolong loose leaf tea, a small hand carved tea scoop and an inspired view of the importance of doing what you love. Ms. Ong opened her store in 2002 to share with others her passion about tea – and now she runs a global business teaching others about the art of making tea, tea agriculture and why tea is a source of goodness in our lives.
Underneath her knowledge about tea is a life philosophy about the importance of self-love, being generous, and taking time to pause. She is quietly fierce about developing a universal awareness regarding the value of taking time for tea. How intentional are you when you make tea? Are you putting the best tea into the right pot? Do you brew it with good water at just the right temperature? Do you serve it in a beautiful cup and share it with love? As a metaphor for how we choose to live our lives its a good one.
www.thetimeoftea.com
Posted November 11th, 2011
