While doing a little dusting in the office, I spotted a well-worn copy of Steven Covey’s classic, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”.  This book first introduced us to concepts like the “abundance mentality” and the “upward spiral”, launching us down a path of personal development and growth, and a desire to support other women to do the same.

Seeing that title again got us thinking about the habits of highly empowered women.  What qualities do these women have in common?  What is it that sets these women apart from their counterparts?  Some lively conversation and a brainstorming session later and we came up with quite a list:  “The 30 Habits of Highly Empowered Women”.

1.    Empowered women know they have a mission to fulfill. They think, plan and live in accordance with their life purpose.

2.    Empowered women set aside the stereotypes and instead choose to focus on being their best and most authentic self.

3.    Empowered women know it’s o.k. to ask for what they want. They feel deserving of the best life has to offer.

4.    Empowered women have an open mind. They welcome new ideas and often a change of mind is more like a change of limiting belief.

5.    Empowered women see fear for what it is, “False Evidence Appearing Real”.

6.    Empowered women spread love and kindness wherever they go. Their open hearts attract great opportunities and wonderful people to them!

7.    Empowered women make their own self-care a top priority. They know they can’t help others if their personal energy is in short supply.

8.    Empowered women show gratitude for all the gifts in their life. It’s this gratitude that brings them abundance!

9.    Empowered women accept the differences in others. We’re all uniquely different (and equally important) after all!

10.    Empowered women surround themselves with other empowered women. They know the support of others allows them to do really great things.

11.    Empowered women close energy-sucking cycles in their lives. They know what’s important and can delegate or even dump the unnecessary.

12.    Empowered women are clear on their core values and live according to them. It’s the only way to fulfill their life’s purpose.

13.    Empowered women live a life of clarity. They know what they want to create or accomplish and they keep their eye on their goals daily.

14.    Empowered women take 100% responsibility. No matter how difficult, they always have a choice, and every decision is theirs to make.

15.    Empowered women believe anything is possible! They achieve because they believe!

16.    Empowered women recognize when things aren’t working in their lives and make the necessary course corrections to get back on track.

17.    Empowered women commit to constant and never-ending self-improvement. Knowledge is power!

18.    Empowered women put more focus and attention on the positive than the negative.

19.    Empowered women are constantly challenging their limits beliefs. They often question “why” and “why not”.

20.    Empowered women live in present time consciousness. They experience each moment to the fullest.

21.    Empowered women are honest with themselves and others. By living truthfully they will have no regrets!

22.    Empowered women “pay” themselves first. When their financial house is in order, they have more ways and means to give to the world.

23.    Empowered women empower themselves by empowering others. That’s all we’ve got to say about that!

24.    Empowered women don’t fall into playing the blame game. “If it’s to be, it’s up to me,” is their mantra!

25.    Empowered women know how to say no. They don’t let feelings of guilt or obligation keep them from what’s really important.

26.    Empowered women never, never, never give up on their dreams and goals. They believe and achieve!

27.    Empowered women have a strong relationship with their Creator, taking time for daily reflection and meditation.

28.    Empowered women living in balance; mind, body and spirit.

29.    Empowered women go over, under, around or through every challenge until they achieve their goals.

30.    Empowered women spend life doing the “right” things, instead of just “more” things.

Of course there are many, many more qualities that highly empowered women share.  What traits would have made your top habits list?  Please comment below.

The Soul Sisters

With the Thanksgiving holiday coming, our thoughts naturally turn to gratitude.  We know things aren’t perfect by any stretch, and many of our readers and Soulspring Groups’ members are experiencing the backlash of political unrest, financials woes, and natural disasters taking place in their parts of the world.

Still, regardless of your situation there’s always something for which to be grateful.  Below is one of our favorite poems that puts the concepts of thankfulness and gratitude into perspective and we would like to share it with you this Thanksgiving week.

Enjoy the holiday in joyful  thanksgiving.

The Soul Sisters

Be Thankful

Be thankful that you don’t already have everything you desire,
If you did, what would there be to look forward to?

Be thankful when you don’t know something
For it gives you the opportunity to learn.

Be thankful for the difficult times.
During those times you grow.

Be thankful for your limitations
Because they give you opportunities for improvement.

Be thankful for each new challenge
Because it will build your strength and character.

Be thankful for your mistakes
They will teach you valuable lessons.

Be thankful when you’re tired and weary
Because it means you’ve made a difference.

It is easy to be thankful for the good things.
A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who are
also thankful for the setbacks.

GRATITUDE can turn a negative into a positive.
Find a way to be thankful for your troubles
and they can become your blessings.

Author Unknown

Have you ever wanted to understand the secret to living a truly happy, empowered, and high-quality life?  Well today we reveal the secret…

The Secret: Happiness and empowerment are not always achieved by doing more; happiness is sometimes more about what you remove from life than what you add to it.

How can this be?  Wouldn’t it stand to reason that a full life (doing, accomplishing, and getting stuff done) would also be a fulfilling one?  Well, not always.

Doing what you feel truly passionate about and eliminating what you do out of perceived obligation or guilt, is the key to living your best life.  It’s by recognizing where you can get the most reward from your efforts, and how you and those most important to you benefit, do you allow yourself permission to give your time and attention to those areas.

So how can you make sure you’re giving your time to the right stuff?  Try this simple exercise:

Pull out your to-do list (if it’s currently in your head, get your to-dos down on paper for the purposes of this exercise). For each item on the list ask yourself the following questions:

Why is this task important?
Why is this task MY responsibility (in other words, why are YOU doing this task)?
Where does this task fit within MY priorities?
What is the worst thing that would happen if the task does not get done?

For example, if one of the items on your task list is to clean the cat’s litter box, the importance of the task would depend on how important your cat is to your life.  If the cat is your daughter’s, you may be coming to the realization that your daughter might be the better candidate for the job, and that the cleanliness of the cat box isn’t a high priority task for you at all.  You’re realizing you assumed the position of litter box cleaner several years ago, when the cat was given to your daughter as a kitten.  She was too young to care for the cat at the time, but now is quite capable.  Passing on the honor to your daughter is sounding pretty good right now, however the little voice inside argues that it’s easier for you to clean the litter box and takes less time and effort than the nagging that would be required to get your daughter to do it.

Well, that may be the case initially, however it’s now clear that you’re doing the task out of obligation, denying your daughter this important lesson in responsibility, and feeling very underappreciated in the process; clearly not a recipe for happiness or empowerment for either of you.

While the above example may seem trivial, believe me, we’ve heard sillier reasons why there’s no time to work toward an important dream or goal.  And since when is cleaning the litter box more important than your life purpose?

It’s time to challenge your obligations and priorities.  While we’re not advocating that you dump all the dirty and menial chores on the spouse and kids, we are challenging you to question where and what gets your time and attention.  What you may discover is that you’ve been giving top status to things that are unimportant and not your priority at all.  Delegate, dump, divide or work out some deal, so you can have time for what’s really important to you.

The Soul Sisters

The 4th of July holiday tends to mark the half-way point of the summer season.  We don’t know about you, but we’re wondering where the first half of the summer went?  Time sure does fly, doesn’t it?

Don’t let the few remaining weeks of summertime get away from you.  Make the most of the sunshine and warm weather by creating a special “bucket list” specifically for summer!  Need some inspiration?  We’ve compiled a list of a few of our favorite summertime activities and we know you’ve probably got a few ideas of your own.  Create a list of things you want to be sure to do and experience before the days get shorter (and the snow flies)!

1. Get up before the crack of dawn and savor the sunrise.
2. Buy yourself a hula-hoop and give it a whirl.
3. Wait for a warm rain (no hail, wind, or lightning please) and dance in it.
4. Find the most perfect picnic location, pack up your favorite foods in a basket, and have a picnic.
5. Go fly a kite up where the air is clear.
6. Here’s a real adventure if you’re feeling a little risqué? Go skinny dipping!
7. Get in touch with your inner child and blow some bubbles.
8. Be a do-gooder and volunteer for a day.
9. Be an astrologer for a night and lay out under the stars.
10. Try all 31 Baskin Robbins flavors.
11. Act like a kid again and instigate a water fight.
12. Combine the perfect shade tree with a perfect book for an afternoon of reading.
13. Make memories with the outdoors as your backdrop.  Schedule a family photo session with a photographer.
14. Connect with nature. Go on a nature hike with a camera and see how many species of flower you can capture on “film”.
15. Dream up some fantastic architecture and build a sand castle.
16. Show your team spirit and attend a Minor League baseball game.
17. Enjoy all-natural produce by visiting (and purchase from) a local farmer’s market.
18. Capture light by catching fire flies in a jar (but be kind and release them again).
19. Get creative with your grill – think pizzas, quesadillas, salads, and desserts!
20. Create a summer playlist. Pull together your favorite tunes for the season.
21. Head north and view the Northern Lights.
22. Take a day off work and surprise your kids by playing outside games all day!
23. Plan a mystery day trip for you and your group of besties!
24. Enjoy “the arts” in the great outdoors!  Attend an outdoor concert or live production in the park.
25. Find an outdoor eating establishment in your area and enjoy dining al fresco.
26. Toss out the maps – just pick a direction and drive for a day.  See what amazing things you can discover.
27. Forget about the PGA. Play a round at a miniature golf course.
28. Indulge in homemade lemonade on a hot day.
29. Make homemade ice cream. No maker – no worries.  Try this!
30. Spread some love. Pick flowers and leave them on someone’s desk, doorstep, windshield, etc.
31. See something on a HUGE screen. Attend a movie in a local park or go back in time at a drive-in theater.

Yes, don’t forget to have some fun this summer.  We would love to hear about your experiences so please report back with a comment below!

The Soul Sisters

It’s always enlightening (and I think kind of fun) to mentally walk backwards through your life and pinpoint a decision that brought you to where you are now.  I can go back all the way to when I was 18 and I decided to take a temporary summer position at Smead Manufacturing in Hastings, MN.

Through that position I met my friend LuAnn.  A year later I rented a room in the basement of LuAnn’s home and got to know her family very well.  Her 14 year old daughter, Taryn, and her friend, Ashley, schemed away at how amazingly perfect it would be for me and Ashley’s older brother to “fall in love and live happily ever after”.  Sure enough they managed to get the two of us on the phone together one afternoon.  We talked that day for 30 minutes and then the following Sunday for 3 hours.  Our first date was a week later.  We dated for 18 months, were engaged for 6 months, and now have been married for 9 years.  So you could say the decision to work at Smead that summer was the best decision of my life.

You’ve also had pivotal decisions in your life that have been important to bringing you to where you are today.  Perhaps choosing the college you attended (or didn’t attend), the person you married, the group of friends you have, or maybe even something as seemingly simple as taking a left turn instead of a right.

To me, retracing your decision path is the ultimate proof that our lives are really in our hands.  While it would be easier to say that we were just dealt a lucky/unlucky hand in life, the truth of the matter is that we are responsible for creating our lives by the choices we make.  Our lives are basically just a summary our years of decisions.

Sometimes it is easy to feel we don’t have a choice in a decision.  It is important to remember that we always have choices; sometimes we just don’t like our options.

It’s important to remember, too, that a choice rarely the final word.  It’s not a must that we always make the right decision the first time.  But it is a must to know when a different decision is necessary.  I love the quote by Steven D. Woodhull, “You’ve got a lot of choices.  If getting out of the bed in the morning is a chore and you’re not smiling on a regular basis, try another choice.”

Take a look at your decision path today.  Are you accepting 100% responsibility for your current livelihood?  By blaming others you are giving away your power, and by giving away your power, you are not left with the power you need to make a change.

The Soul Sisters

Thoughts are things and when you consider that 80% of our daily thoughts are negative, that can be a pretty frightening scenario.  It’s no wonder we’re stressed, overwhelmed, frustrated, stuck and afraid; it’s what we think about all day long!

But what if for 30 days you could take steps to change the way you think?  What if you took responsibility and control over the way you think?  What if you began each day with the intention to make a positive change?

Below are 30 Power Thoughts that will help you do just that!  A statement to kick the day off right, we’ve given you one for each of the next 30 days.  Print the list and commit to focusing on the “thought of the day” for a few minutes each morning, afternoon and night.  Then watch how your perspective, attitude and life change as a results!  Please report back with your results!

30 Power Thoughts:

1. What today will be like is up to me. I get to choose what kind of day I will have!
2. To fulfill my desires all I need to do is step up and claim (and proclaim) what I want.
3. I teach people how to treat me. Today I will teach them to treat me the way I desire; kind, loving, respectful.
4. By holding on to past wrongs I am not making room for my future.  Today I choose forgiveness.
5. Even in difficult times, there’s a reward in knowing I did what was right. Today I will do what feels right to me.
6. I must be truthful to myself in order to grow.  I release myself from denial and choose honesty.
7. I was put on this Earth to fulfill a purpose and the sooner I discover my purpose, the sooner I can get busy!
8. I am in the here and now. I will no longer base decisions on what has happened to me in the past.
9. There is no reason for me to fear failure. Failure is the best way to learn and grow in experience.
10. I am responsible for my own choices. Therefore, I will not make choices based on the desires of others.
11. It is never too late for anything. Instead of wasting time with regret I will set out to do what I’ve always intended.
12. I will take the golden rule one step further; I will treat MYSELF with the same kindness & respect as I show to others.
13. I understand that I can be my biggest problem.  But I also know within me is the power to be the ultimate solution.
14. Remaining in my comfort zone doesn’t allow for growth. Today I’m busting out from what feels comfortable and safe.
15. Everything in life is neutral. What I deem to be positive or negative is based on my attitude and perspective.
16. I always have a choice. While I may not like my options, I accept the power and responsibility that comes with decision.
17. I will not over-exaggerate nor belittle my problems. Instead I will face them, deal with them, and then move on.
18. I will take a hard look at what isn’t working in my life and take deliberate action to make positive change in those areas.
19. I will not limit things to what I perceive to be possible. I will dream big and have faith that the way will appear.
20. I will take the time to define my values. This is the only means by which I can gauge what is right for me.
21. Within me is the power to change my life. I will plug into it and use it to fulfill my purpose.
22. I no longer fear change! Every change in my life elevates me to new levels of empowerment.
23. I understand I’m the average of the 5 people I hang around with most. I accept loving and inspiring people into my life.
24. I rise above the daily chaos that keeps others busy and distracted. I allow myself to be centered, self-aware and wise.
25. I accept that thoughts are things. I replace disempowering thoughts with empowering ones.
26. The past and future are illusions. We only have the present and I stay focused on the now, taking a moment at a time.
27. Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes. Cutting ties does not represent a failure. I know when it’s time to move on.
28. How I start the day sets the tone for the rest of the day. My morning ritual ensures I experience an extra great day.
29. Just because it’s a rule doesn’t make it right. I break the rules whenever my highest values are supported by doing so!
30. With each moment comes an opportunity to create a new beginning. My best self continually reveals itself to the world.

The Soul Sisters

We all know them (or maybe you’re the guilty party); those people who are self-proclaimed “indecisive”.  They are the last to choose from the menu at a restaurant, try on 3 differnt outfits before deciding on the perfect one, and choosing the right toothpaste could easily suck up a good twenty minutes of their time.

Being “indecisive” is a personality trait that is often taken pretty lightly, while the contrary is actually true.  Choices are powerful!  With each decision we exert some level of control, and while we may not always like our choices, the final decision is up to us.  We think that’s pretty empowering!

Yes, the decisions we make and our daily choices are very important.  Even the smallest of choices are what pave our paths to the future.  So how can we inspire you to step into your power of choice?

Well, who doesn’t love a good quotation?  Time and again we find it’s a simple quote that draws the most attention on our Facebook page!  We love those short little nuggets of wisdom, and we’ve actually amassed quite a collection!  Below we share our top ten favorite quotations to inspire you to choose…and choose wisely!

Enjoy!

The Soul Sisters

TOP 10 QUOTATIONS TO INSPIRE EMPOWERED CHOICES:

1. “In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.” ~Eleanor Roosevelt

2. “Don’t get your directions from someone who’s never been where you want to go.” ~Unknown

3. “…to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for, where you want to go and why you want to get there.” ~Kofi Annan

4. “I discovered I always have choices and sometimes it’s only a choice of attitude.” ~Unknown

5. “It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” ~Joanne Kathleen Rowling

6. “There are always two choices. Two paths to take. One is easy. And its only reward is that it’s easy.” ~Unknown

7. “When you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that is in itself a choice.” ~William James

8. “When making a decision, focus on what feels “shackles off” versus “shackles on.” ~Martha Beck

9. “It is the big choices we make that set our direction. It is the smallest choices we make that get us to the destination.” ~Shad Helmstetter, Ph.D

10. “You are your choices.” ~Seneca

In this day of instant everything, so many are seeking a quick way to do, be and have it “now”.  As an organization that helps women find their passions and live life on purpose, we’ve heard it all…Isn’t there a book I can read?  Can I find it on Google?  Don’t they have an assessment for that?

Your passions and your divine assignment for living aren’t something you can learn in a book or find in an internet search, although clues can be found there.  Truly living “on purpose” is a process that requires commitment, self-reflection and determination.  You might even say that when it comes to passion and purpose, living your passion is equally important to finding it.  That adage, “it’s not just the destination, it’s the journey,” definitely applies.

You can’t wait for your passions to reveal themselves to you, or for your life purpose to knock on the door; it’s referred to “pursuing your passion” for a reason.   You have to get out there and try new things, experience different adventures, meet new people, and become aware of new causes, for every aspect of your uniqueness to come together in just the right way.  While this might sound complicated, it doesn’t have to be; with the right perspective, getting there is most of the fun!

It does take creativity though, and dedication.  It’s much easier to let the day-to-day lead you through life.  So, where does one find the inspiration to try new things on the journey to passionate, empowered and purposeful living?

The first place we recommend is your “bucket list”.  Soulspring Groups’ members have several pages in their Soulspring Journal which are dedicated to creating a list of things they want to do before they die (101 to be exact).  We’ve heard of women dedicating themselves to knocking one thing off their list every week!  That’s a pretty aggressive goal, but imagine the thrill!

Another great source can be found on Soulspring Groups’ Facebook page.  Each Friday on Facebook is Springboard Friday; a day where we post a simple activity to carry out (or plan for in the future).  We’ve provided the planning tools, too!  Followers of our page can download them via or Empowerment & Fun tab.

Past activities have included learning CPR.  It’s a skill we all should know and there’s a sense of security that comes with being prepared for an emergency.  Perhaps taking a CPR class could uncover a passion for emergency response?

We also suggested becoming more aware of the nighttime skies.  Learning about the stars is not only fun and interesting; a focus skyward gives us a sense of the greatness around us.  Perhaps being able to identify the constellations would inspire a passion for astrology, or spark a passion in your child for science and space?

Debating on where to go on your summer vacation?  One recent Springboard Friday post suggested throwing a dart at a map and traveling to that destination.  The map could be of your country or state, or even a local map that’s closer to home.  Who knows what you might stumble upon on your adventure…a new company or business you didn’t know existed, a historical site, a remote piece of nature…Each could be a doorway to a new purpose or passion for your life.

It’s time to stop your search for the easy way to discover your passions and the quickest route to your life purpose.  Instead put more attention on what is revealed to you along the way…Take some time to get lost and you might just find yourself.  The lessons, excitement and connections you make on your journey through life will reveal your purpose in due time…that is, if you’re willing to get your hands dirty and start really living.  You can get started right now by making a point to stop by Soulspring Groups’ page on Facebook this Friday for a new passion quest assignment you can get on the calendar for next weekend.

The Soul Sisters