I am super late posting today as this morning was spent in the company of a whole, great, big, bunch of powerful women. I had to get up before the chickens, but the event was completely worth it!

I attended Powerful Women: A Strategic Forum for Women Business Owners. The panelists were all female business owners who very candidly shared their experiences. While I heard few revolutionary ideas, I heard a tremendous amount of conventional wisdom that bears repeating on a regular basis.

• Diversity is key – We need differing viewpoints and opinions to develop sound practices and thoughts.  If all we ever hear are our own thoughts and opinions (either from within or without), the flaws are reinforced – kind of like genetic mutations.  With enough repetition, we can end up with the ideological equivalent of a hairless cat or Dennis Rodman – not good news in either case. In diversity, we get other perspectives on who we are, allowing us to …
• Know ourselves – That input helps us draw more realistic pictures of who we are.  It is essential that our self-images be grounded in reality so that we can determine our strengths and weaknesses.  Once we know those, we must ….
• Surround ourselves with good people – It’s less essential to know everything than it is to know people who know the things that we don’t know or whose strengths prop up our weaknesses.  We cannot be all things to all people and that’s okay!  It’s human, for crying out loud!  Even with good people and our own talent, we sometimes fail.  When that happens, we must …
• Accept responsibility – Few things will erode confidence in or respect for someone faster than their refusal to take responsibility for their actions, whether intentional or un, which resulted in mistake or offense.  “I apologize” – two words worth more than their weight in gold.  They are simple, obvious and the quickest way to allow ourselves to move on to the next step which is to …
• Pick ourselves up – If we try, we are going to fail.  It happens.  “Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure… than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt.  We have the energy to continue to try and succeed and fail and pick ourselves up because we …
• Nurture ourselves – We’ve talked about this one before.  We must recharge our own batteries, else we cannot do those things which lead us to healthier lives.  You know it; I know it – it’s WAAAY faster and easier to grab a couple of Tastykakes than it is to steam some veggies and bake some salmon.  But that’s not going to nourish our bodies.  Likewise, we have to do those things which nourish our spirits.  If we allow our bodies and spirits to become compromised, we are worthless to both ourselves and to those around us.

As I said, none of these ideas are particularly revolutionary; however, they are all good, solid pieces of wisdom we should have stitched on throw pillows.  And, in my opinion, the last one needs to be stitched biggest.  Neglect of our own bodies and spirits is insidious and nearly invisible; however, as panelist Elizabeth Moss reminded us this morning, it’s the oxygen mask thing.  “In the event of loss of cabin pressure, please secure your own mask first before assisting others.”

If we don’t take care of ourselves first, we end up with nothing to give others.