Great food for thought from Steven Covey. I think a lot of work at home moms have repositioned their ladders in order to keep family priorities as well, priorities. And that repositioning can take great courage. I hope to be a source of encouragement for those women courageous (or stubborn!) enough to move their ladders.

I consider myself one of the stubborn ones. Professional degree notwithstanding, I just knew I wanted to be at home with my children when they were little. But I felt like a renegade – like an anomaly who others thought was settling for second-best. Man, I wish I had been encouraged to ask these questions, to go through this process. Not because I put my ladder against the wrong wall, really. But because I thought the wall I chose was second-rate.

Having chosen to remain a work at home mom even when my children are not so little, I now know this is a fantastic wall and I’m blessed to have my ladder here!

I think these moms are apt to evaluate a number of home-based business options and make a calculated decision to go into business. Have you or anyone you know come to be a work at home mom this way?

And sometimes, moms at home are looking for additional or alternative income streams, but don’t necessarily picture themselves as in the market for a “business”. This was me. I knew I needed to contribute to the family income while at home, and I was always attuned to ways to do that. Everything from clipping coupons to teaching a few beginner piano lessons. But I was NOT actively looking for a home-based business to enable me to be a work at home mom.

Maybe it was the fact that I WAS attuned to the possibility of income streams (or trickles, as the case may have been ). But when I sort of backed into my current home-based business as a means of achieving my goals of contributing to the family income and being at home, it was a grand fit! And it has been a solid income stream that does allow me to use my professional skills besides. Anybody else have this experience? Thank goodness for income streams!

Sometimes those kinds of circumstances have very happy endings. In my case, I did not actually set out to be a long-time work at home mom, but my interest in the product line of my company created a natural inlet into a fabulous home-based business opportunity. And once there, I realized what a terrific fit it was for me and my family.

But not all such stories have a happy ending. Like the underemployed college grads so common today.

So for those women whose careers have evolved into less than ideal fits, I would like to share the insight of Stephen Covey:

“If you don’t make a conscious effort to visualize who you are and what you want in life, then you empower other people and circumstances to shape you and your life by default.”

Microsoft Office is a common choice and might come pre-installed on a new PC or can be purchased separately (though it does tend to be somewhat expensive). There are various versions of Microsoft Office, so one does need to check carefully to be sure all the desired functionality is on the version selected.

Most versions have basic capabilities like Word (for document preparation and word processing), Excel (a spreadsheet for data organization) and PowerPoint (to create presentations). You may want a version that also offers Outlook, for e-mail organization, a calendar and task lists; and/or Business Contact Manager, to, well, manage business contacts. I use a version with both of these more advanced features as part of my “back office” and have found them very helpful in organizing information and keeping abreast of business activity.

In lieu of Microsoft Office, there are also free alternatives to many of these features, such as:

• OpenOffice.org for word processing and spreadsheets
• Google Calendar
• Gmail.com for email and tasks (and basic contact management; and I do mean basic even though it has been recently upgraded)

I don’t have a great deal of personal experience with these applications, but I know they do work well for some work at home moms. The level of functionality is not as advanced, of course, yet they may provide good, budget-friendly software platforms for starting your home-based business.

In fact, there is a lot of talk these days about the difficulties in getting a job even with a graduate degree! The number of people with advanced degrees is increasing, too, and yet they’re no guarantee of financial security in the corporate world. Some twenty-somethings have had to cobble together a number of part-time jobs in order to pay back student loans and make ends meet. Others have yet to obtain independent living quarters. I read a “lifestyles” newspaper account earlier this summer of a 29 year old with a master’s degree in forensic psychology making ends meet as a nanny and waitress.

Now, if that’s the intended choice of a 29 year old with a master’s degree, then I am all for that. Those can be satisfying, engaging jobs. But if that situation is by default, I wonder about the possibility of a home-based business for those individuals as a way to use their professional skills without having to convince someone to hire them. Just like we work at home moms want an outlet for our professional skills without having to punch the corporate time clock, this option seems like a no-brainer for the underemployed college grad as well.

The answer popped into my head immediately: I’m the ideal boss for me! Call it my independent streak, chalk it up to stubbornness, or maybe just recognize that this is the truth for any entrepreneurial type…being my own boss is incredibly appealing and one of the reasons I love being a work at home mom with a home-based business.

The qualities of a good boss identified by this article included excitement about and knowledge of the business in question, and interest in plus the ability to motivate employees. The columnist concluded that aside from these basics, what makes a good boss depends largely on the individual employee.

Well, I’m definitely excited about my business and nobody knows it better than me. I’m very interested in me (my so-called employee) and I’m fairly good at motivating myself. Yep, I meet the criteria!

What do you think? What’s your ideal boss…and are you it?!

This is a wonderful time to be alive. There have never been more possibilities and opportunities for you to achieve more of your goals than exist today. As perhaps never before in human history, you are actually drowning in options. In fact, there are so many good things that you can do, that your ability to decide among them may be the critical determinant of what you accomplish in life.

Enough said.

I would love to hear your impressions of this call!

Well, I think if we can see problems, we can also see possibilities – and potential positives. We can fathom ways to overcome roadblocks and be confident in our abilities to deal with all the problems and/or reasons why it won’t work.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not advocating flying by the seat of your pants with any old work at home scheme. I’m all for doing the research, making wise business decisions, and making a sound investment of time, energy and money into a solid option. But once that’s done, focus on possibilities instead of problems as a work at home mom.

“To know one’s self is a constant and continual process. Observe yourself. Be aware. Watch yourself in the moments of the day. Listen to yourself. Notice how you act or react in certain situations.” This is the advice of inspirational author Matthew Kelly in his book “The Rhythm of Life”. Kelly’s mission is to help people become the best version of themselves.

I have found that, while I am fairly adept at observing myself, I am quick to transition from observation to judgment. While it is helpful to acknowledge weaknesses along with strengths, berating myself for those weaknesses is not very productive. Far more productive is fashioning a plan to overcome such weaknesses.

For example, I originally intended to make this post much closer to the original post about knowing one’s self. And I am annoyed with myself that there was a lapse of several weeks. I have observed the action (or lack thereof). I have observed the annoyance. And now, it is my natural inclination to tell myself that I am too disorganized, too over-extended and too dumb to do this right. OK, OK, that last part about being dumb….I don’t think I truly think that about myself, but the impression is still there. Pretty harsh judgment.

It would be so much better to acknowledge that I get annoyed when I don’t follow through on an intention and then choose to (a) institute some practices or systems to help me in fulfilling my intentions; or (b) accept that, while it was a good intention, it was not vital for the success of the world, AND it may have been replaced with other equally good or even better intentions, such that annoyance is a really inappropriate response.

For example, the blog entry about choices posted in lieu of this one ties perfectly into this topic, as I am choosing how to respond to this observation about myself! And if I choose to stop judging myself at least long enough to reflect on that…voila! My original intention was, indeed, replaced with an equally good or even better intention. So, observing that I felt annoyance with myself as I strive to know myself, I can make another choice to replace that annoyance with a much more productive outlook. And the cycle continues. I can and want to continue to notice and observe myself so that I can know myself more fully and become the best version of myself.