The SASI blog ...inspiring sparkle: 8/18/13 - 8/25/13

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Gratitude Attitude

This great post by Jeff Weiner, CEO at LinkedIn, is all about the high return on investment (ROI) of a simple, free, accessible management tool in business: gratitude.

I'll take Jeff's suggestion a step (or three) further - gratitude just might be the highest ROI tool in life.

Consider for a moment your home and the people you share it with. Now think about all the little things we do for and with each other in that shared space: cooking, housekeeping, laundry, yard care, car maintenance - the list goes on an on. Now consider the one simple thing that can turn those little chores into messages of love and respect. Yep, you nailed it: gratitude.

Saying thanks feels so good, but receiving thanks feels even better. So, for the next week or so, I challenge each of us to cultivate a theme of gratitude at home: the simple act of showing sincere appreciation to each other for all the little things we do. The benefits will seep into our workplaces, our civic engagements, our passions...

I'm betting we find that the ROI of this little tool blows us all away.

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Welcome to the SASI blog! Soulful.Authentic. Strong. Inspiring.

Girls. Chicks. Women. Females. Dames. Divas. Whatever the moniker, the most amazing women I know approach their lives with two shared themes - a deep desire for personal and professional growth and a commitment to creating a full and beautiful life. And, oh, the power we possess! Deep down, we each know that if we stay true to ourselves and to what is most important for us, we will have it all - on our terms. If you've spent even an hour with an inspiring female of any age, you know exactly the power to which I am referring.

The seed for the Inspiring Girls Experience was planted over a glass of wine with a girlfriend. We were brainstorming about a business idea while my then two-year-old daughter (and the most inspiring girl I know) played nearby. Our conversation turned to how women naturally tend to weave their personal and professional lives together (for me it was happening at that moment!), wearing many hats and doing many 'jobs,' and trying to balance it all to create their definition of a beautiful life. Yet with all these things going on, we too often do not take time to sit down in a relaxing place, share a piece of ourselves, and connect with other women. Ultimately, my girlfriend suggested I do something about it: specifically (as she put it), I could combine my talent for bringing people together with my gift for sharing and encouraging others to share personal insights and wisdom. Huh. It felt right. So I let her suggestion marinate for a while and really searched my heart. It still felt right. Then I realized that during the seasoning process, I had in fact become passionate about creating a culture of inspiration and fun, a “place” where amazing women reconnect with the girl inside, where we dream and laugh, share pieces of ourselves, inspire each other and find inspiration.

Nurturing a belief in starting small and seeing where things go, I invited eight women (who did not know each other well) – some my most trusted friends and a few thatI believed would become so – and launched the Inspiring Girls Experience on a warm summer evening in June 2009. Our experiences have run the gamut from "book and movie club" to "sushi and martini night" and everything in between, and have morphed over the years as our lives have evolved. But the impact of this amazing group of “girls” on my own personal growth – as a woman, a mother, a wife, a professional and a friend – has been life-changing. It has helped me define who I am and who I want to be, and what the next phase of my beautiful life will be. IGE has evolved into SASI, and it is a gift I am honored to share with you.

So grab your favorite beverage (and a few friends), settle into a relaxing place, and embrace life as an Inspiring Girl & a SASI Woman!