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I was working on another project this morning at my kitchen table with the window open.  It’s a typical Santa Ana fall weekend in San Diego where it feels like the threat of fires.  When you’ve lived here through both the Cedar and the Witch Creek fires, your sensors are up for that kind of stuff in the fall.  Both of those fires came within a mile of my home.  Luckily, we survived with minor damage and big messes from both.  Comparitively speaking, over 400 homes in my community were lost last year.  It was a devastating time.

I’m truly amazed at feedback I’ve received in response to my post on Proposition 8: Why Should the Majority Get to Choose How the Minority Lives?. In addition to the 16 comments on the blogpost itself, I’ve received emails, phone calls, twitter tweets & direct messages, facebook messages, phonecalls and people walking up to me to chat. It’s been so enlightening. Below are some demographics about the folks that have reached out to me:

• 90% of the group voted no for Prop 8.
• Most of them have someone in their family that is gay and therefore directly affected by the law.

Since last week’s election, you have inevitably saw some of the statistics covering how President Obama maximized social media tools to connect with his constituents. During his campaign, he reached out to connect with people using the internet through Facebook, Linked In, My Space, Twitter, and other social media tools. He even paused to email a thank you note to his team before his acceptance speech. Undeniably, he had many competitive advantages over John McCain, but one cannot debate that social media played a huge part in his election.

Yes, I know. This topic is controversial…especially to working mothers. Well, I guess I mean to say to any mother or any parent for that matter.

As some of my Twitter buddies know, I was in Hollywood over the weekend. As I drove down Santa Monica boulevard, I knew I’d be late for a meeting with Denise Wakeman of The BlogSquad (more on Denise coming soon) due to all of the Proposition 8 demonstrators lining the street. The level of energy was noticably high as people yelled and sang and honked their car horns on every block in support of gay marriage. Today, as I drove through my conservative San Diego neighborhood lined with demonstrators in the rain, the energy was much different. These demonstrators equally as passionate, had showed up to urge us all to Vote “Yes”.

As I walked into a meeting Wednesday afternoon, my phone vibrated with a new email message. “angiesmom is following you on Twitter”. I got a huge grin on my face. My mom is following me-too cute! You see, my mom is young. She graduated early from high school (read brain child), got married at age 18 and had me when she was 19. We grew up together, more like sisters than mother-daughter. She’s so playful and pretty into technology for the baby boomer that she is. (She knew the intricacies of AOL long before I did).

I went to a client’s wedding last night.  She’s been a single, working mother for over 15 years.  It’s been my great pleasure to work with her and observe her amazing transformation over the past few months.  You see, she’s been doing incredible work and getting to know herself again.  Well, maybe not again.  Maybe even for the first time ever.  My client is over fifty and has been living a life of service to others for many years..to her children, her church, her friends, her employers.  There hasn’t been much time for her.   (Can I take a moment to tell you she’s SO amazing?)  Anyway, she met a man who initially I thought kismit had brought to her because it was about time that she have some joy and pleasure for herself.  But as I sat in the church watching the ceremony, I realized that although that is partially true, the universe has a much bigger plan in store for her.  The ceremony included performances by my clients children.  Her daughter has a voice like Ella Fitzgerald (or Christina Aguillara for those of you youngsters) and her son performed a reading that made me feel like I was sitting on Broadway in NYC.  I watched, listened and wondered about both of them and their individual journeys.  Remember I coach their mother, so even though I don’t know them, I already know something about the challenges in their lives.  

There have been a lot of articles in the media over the past few weeks debating whether Facebook actually has any value.  This, in itself, indicates that there is a whole lot of value in Facebook.  I wanted to share with you an interesting article from Harvard Business Publications by Jeff Stibel.  Jeff talks about why Facebook is so much better than other social networks and why it fundamentally works.  Personally, I continue to be amazed at the functionality of Facebook.  Almost every day I discover something new that you can do with it.  Did you know you can even hire a Facebook coach?  Yes, it’s true, many mainstream corporate employees continue to choose LInked In and Plaxo over Facebook since some perceive Facebook is for a younger generation.  I did an experiment last week after attending a UC-Irvine MBA Alumni event.  For all of the business cards I collected, I checked to see if the folks were in Facebook and Linked In.  >90% were only in Linked In.  Interestingly enough, the next day I received a phone call from someone looking for a coach who had been refered to me in Facebook by the other 10%.  These folks also happened to be the younger people in the crowd.  Point in case, if you want to do business with Gen X, you’ve got to be in Facebook.  You know what their vote is regarding whether Facebook has value. 

I arrived upon a car crash today just seconds after it occurred.  It looked like a one car accident with a single person in the car.  The car was pretty smashed but the driver looked unharmed other than being dazed and seemingly in shock.  This was a Sunday afternoon in a suburb so not like an urban holiday when crazy drivers are everywhere.  It’s rattling to be around the strange energy of an accident.  I wondered, what was going on with this driver?  Was he thinking about unmet commitments at work? Relationship conflict? Not spending enough time with his kids? Or maybe even sleeping at the wheel from exhaustion?  Whatever the case, he wasn’t present.  I’m sorry his Sunday afternoon was traumatized but I thank him.  You see, he gave me a gift.  Just another reminder to continue to work on being present at whatever I’m investing myself in every given moment.  Like most working mothers, I’ve got a lot on my plate.  It’s easy to spend too much time on one thing and get out of balance on the others.   Everyday I must continue to strive to get better at focusing on the highest of my priorities and to really be in the moment.  For me, this means I must rank priorities often and make sure every task I do is in line with my goals.  I keep a list of my top 10 goals with me all the time.  When I feel I get off track, I just need to refocus and realign my tasks to the goals and I feel more centered.  This means, if something is on my to do list that doesn’t fit my top 10 goals, then it’s deleted or delegated.  It’s not a grey area, it’s black and white.  It’s the only way I can keep up.  Now, let me confess, my life is clearly not black and white.  When it comes to my family, I can’t control or predict what they need.  However, having personal clarity allows me to have an available margin to offer when the unexpected pops up…and it always does.  If you want to work on being present in your life, I suggest starting with Steven Covey, The Franklin Covey website has lots of good stuff in their online library.   Enjoy!

In his bestselling book, The Dip, Seth Godin, Internet Marketing Extraordinaire writes about leadership and perseverance.  Seth tells us that great leaders are the ones who can push through the hard times to get to the finish line.  Specifically, The Dip indicates that most of us can achieve a moderate level of success.  Next, things level off again and then we experience a little dip in performance because it gets much harder to get to the next level.  Maybe we get bored, maybe the highs of accomplishment wear off.  It sometimes feels easier to regroup and change direction than to continue pushing boulders uphill.  I like Seth’s concepts.  They fit nicely with the “Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” mantra.  The Dip is especially relevant for working women and entrepreneurs because there are so many tests along the way that it’s normal to have days where you want to give up on pursuing what’s most important to you.  You have to be committed and you have to keep reminding yourself that The Dip and other bad days are all part of the learning process to get to the next level.  Easy stuff is boring anyway!