There are lots of exciting things about Working Mother. They feature profiles of amazing women who are succeeding in business and in their personal lives. They showcase the 100 Best Companies each year for working moms. They have a MomBlog, for which I write. These are all very cool things, in my opinion, but there are two things about Working Mother that are particularly exciting for me right now.

The first thing that has me all fired up is that I will be interviewing Carol Evans, the CEO of Working Mother Media, this week. I'm extremely excited to talk with her. My initial intention was to interview her about advice she'd give to freelancers. I thought it would make a nice article for my freelance blog. But how can I have the opportunity to talk to such a maven in the world of women's media and not ask her more? I've got lots of questions lined up to ask her and will post her answers here soon after I talk to her.

So I decided that I'd look through Working Mother for my Monday Magazine Motivation this week. As I was leafing through the magazine, I almost fell off the couch when I saw a picture of my online friend, Heather Allard, on the page! That got me really excited! Heather is a twitter friend of mine and gives great business advice over at her site The Mogul Mom. Head over there to read the full Working Mother feature highlighting her advice on finding distribution for your business's product. It's good stuff. Heather is a knowledgeable business woman and a great friend, always willing to lend a helping hand and a word of encouragement. I'm so proud of her for her accomplishments. She deserves to be seen by thousands of women who read Working Mother. Woo hoo! You go, Heather!

So congratulations to my friend, The Mogul Mom. If you're interested in starting your own business, you'll definitely want to visit her site. As a subscriber, you can receive insight from Heather for free. Didn't I tell you she's generous? Also, wish me luck with my interview and be sure to leave a comment with any questions you think I should ask Carol Evans.

Today, instead of talking about Monday Magazine Motivation, I'd like to talk about a Motivation Mama. Denise Hart is The Motivation Mama.She's just one of the amazing women I've met online who's inspired me to be better and to do more. Usually when I'm not feeling terribly motivated, I'll come across the accomplishments or words of wisdom of an accomplished woman online, and it totally turns my mood around. Denise is one of these women.

I've talked about Denise before when she so graciously allowed me to review and give away one of her extraordinary motivational tees. That's right, she's an entrepreneur. Her business, Words To Live By Tees sells fabulous t-shirts with encouraging and motivational sayings on them. Denise shares her positive spirit with others through her business. Here's a picture of me wearing my "Live the Life You Love" tee from Words To Live By. I love it!

What I love about Denise is her positive spirt and her genuine nature. She's truly inspirational. She's a five year breast cancer survivor. She's also the epitome of one of her most popular tees, "resilient". She's come back from her ordeal to empower and motivate other women. Not only is Denise an entrepreneur, she's a playwright, a professor, and a mom. Wow, her energy inspires me.

Check out her blog, Motivation Mama. If you're interested in learning from The Motivation Mama, you may want to sign up for her 21 Days of Motivation Virtual Retreat. You're sure to learn alot and be one step closer to bringing out the best in yourself.

Thanks, Denise, for all you do and for always encouraging me to do my happy dance!

In its recent year-end edition, U.S. News & World Report lists becoming a microblogger as one of its "50 Ways to Improve Your Life in 2009." In a very short blurb about Twitter, the magazine cites the ability to get information to cure writer's block and for celebrities/political figures like Britney and Barack to increase their reach as uses for the popular addiction application. They also describe Twitter's 140 character limit capacity. What they don't do is explain the rationale behind including Twitter in thr list. The reader is directed to this video that briefly mentions the benefit that blogging and creating an online brand can have on one's career.

So exactly how can Twitter improve your life in 2009? Here's my list:

1. It can open up your world.
   
2. It allows you to connect in ways never before available.
3. It provides a wide network to many who otherwise may have few opportunities to reach out.
4. It is a neverending opportunity to learn.
5. It offers a chance to share.
6. It gives people an arena for their causes and agendas.
7. It delivers personal and career opportunities in new ways.
8. It allows you to vent and to be validated.
9. It's a convenient place for discourse on any subject.
10. It's an amazing way to spread information quickly.

This is my Top 10 List of How Twitter Can Improve Your Life. Some may argue that my items may not all be positive. I'll give them that. The power of a tool is in the hands of its user. I use Twitter to enhance my life. When it's not providing me with the experience I desire, I reassess my own use of it. What would you add to my list? Do you agree with my assessment?

Today's Monday Magazine Motivation comes from the October issue of Redbook. An article entitled, "Friends for Life" caught my eye, and I couldn't help but flip to the page.  I have fabulous girlfriends whom I love dearly, and I can't believe I haven't talked about them much here on my blog.

Let's start with Mandy.  She's been my friend since 1991 when I really had a chance to chat with her at her boyfriend's/my friend's high school graduation party.  Wow, did I just give away my age there? Yeah, I'm 35.  Anyway, she and I just hit it off. We were, as they say, inseparable for the whole next year.  We remained friends when she left town for college but lost touch a few years later after she married and moved to Texas.  Thankfully, we reconnected.  She's been there for me through so much.  And I truly believe there's nothing she wouldn't do for me.  I know there's nothing I wouldn't do for her.  Here we are at my wedding, where she was my matron of honor.

I have another group of friends I'd like to give a shout out to - my scrapbooking buddies, Brandy, Julie, Laura, Hollie, and Kim (not pictured).  These are a group of women I used to work with, and every week we'd faithfully get together to scrapbook. We saw each other individually throughout the week, but it was those times as a group that we really bonded and were able to vent about our frustrations and confide our troubles to each other.  We no longer work at the same place, and geographic separation has made it hard to get together.  But I still consider these ladies to be some of my closest friends. Here we are.

There are other friends I'm neglecting to mention here, but I wanted to be sure to take some time to recognize my closest ones.  My blog has led me to many online friends as well, and I believe you all know who you are.  I am grateful for my "real-life friends" as well as my online friends for their support and encouragement.  I need to set some time aside to spend with my girlfriends because they bring out the best in me and because it's therapeutic.

Have you neglected girlfriend time lately, too?  I recommend heading on over to Girlfriendology, a site dedicated to "inspiration, appreciation, and celebration" of female friendships.  You'll find contests to inspire you to get together with your girlfriends for a little fun, gifts for the special women friends in your life, and tons of information from the "Girlfriend Gurus" on every subject. So head on over for some inspiration on celebrating the most important of friendships!

I had something exciting happen to me over the weekend.  I won a contest.  You all know I LOVE contests.  This one was a contest by Allison Worthington, also known as Mrs. Fussypants.  See her link down there on my blog roll?  I love her.  She's also the editor of Blissfully Domestic, the online lifestyle magazine I contribute to.

Alli put out a tweet on Twitter last week asking people to submit their idea for a new Blissfully Domestic tagline.  The prize?  A piece of jewelry from her boutique, Fussypants Designs.  When you see this jewelry, you'll understand why I started brainstorming.

I don't consider myself a very creative person, but a cute tagline idea did come to me, so I decided to tweet it to Fussy.  I didn't give it another thought until yesterday morning when I received a message from her saying, "morning. You won the BD tagline contest. Email me your address, OK? I haz bling 4 u!"  Ooh, bling!  I was ecstatic.

Then I realized that I wasn't happy simply because of the prize itself (although I do love beautiful jewelry, don't get me wrong), but because of the other gift Alli gave to me - validation that my ideas are good.  You may remember that I left my previous job as a college adviser due to a negative work atmosphere, with people who really brought me down.  I spent a long time in that working environment, feeling like my ideas didn't matter and wouldn't be received favorably.  I allowed my self-esteem to plummet.

Since leaving my job, I've worked very hard to get back to my former self.  Starting this blog has helped me more than I can express.  Receiving a nod from Alli and the Blissfully Domestic editors that my tagline was the best submission for the magazine means the world to me and helps me to remember that I am a smart and savvy woman with some great ideas.   Thank you so much for choosing my entry and helping me to regain my sense of who I am.

** I will not divulge the tagline yet, as I'm not sure what Alli and the Blissfully Domestic editorial staff have planned for its unveiling.

There is an article in the August issue of O, The Oprah Magazine that I have been contemplating for a few weeks now.  I've been meaning to write about it a while, but other topics have come up.  However, it's still been lurking in the back of my mind, so I've decided that it's something I'm meant to explore.

"YOU Are an Excellent Woman!" proclaimed the headline on the cover.  Well, who could resist picking up the magazine and flipping through it, right?  I've been interested in women and identity formation since taking an Introduction to Women's Studies course my freshmen year of college.  What an eye opener it was to learn about concepts I had always intuitively known and to have them validated by other like-minded women!

Back to the magazine article, titled "Women and the Negativity Factor."  The writer, Aimee Lee Ball, discusses her own personal experience with feeling not "good enough", and she reminds us of a line in the movie Pretty Woman in which Julia Roberts responds to a compliment from Richard Gere, "The bad stuff is easier to believe."

Why?  Even the strongest, most intelligent, spectacular women I know are prone to silly, stupid insecurities.  We tend to let fear hold us back or we add qualifiers to our sentences such as "It wasn't too hard" or "Anyone could've done it".  Why don't women give themselves full credit when receiving compliments?  Why do we worry that our flaws will be exposed?

According to a neuropsychiatrist quoted in the article, "It turns out there's an area of your brain that's assigned the task of negative thinking."  There's also a phenomenon called "the drive for self-verification" involved, in which we desire others to "reflect the beliefs we hold about ourselves".  It's this drive that causes the bad experiences to override the good and makes it easier to believe the negative.

The good news from the article is that scientific findings state the brain is forever changing and that it is likely to adapt to modifications in our negative thinking.  The more we work to turn our thinking around, the easier it will be for our brains to process our experiences in a positive way.  The experts quoted say that a change in thinking won't occur overnight; it will take time to outweigh a lifetime of ingrained experiences.  They liken this change in thought process to that of the change in your body after engaging in a regular workout regimen - just as your body will become toned and lean, your thoughts can become more positive and forgiving.  It's nice to see a scientific angle to the psychological approach I've taken both personally as well as with former clients and students.  I firmly believe that thoughts drive actions and behavior.   The trick is to practice the positive thinking to bring about the feelings we desire.

I read an article online yesterday at MomLogic that really made me mad.  It was about women dating older men and took a very negative stance on the subject.  For those of you who don't know, I'm married to an older man.  My husband is twenty years older than me (he'll tell you it's nineteen and a half!).  So you can imagine I took offense when MomLogic asked their marriage and family therapist "why young beauties hook up with their daddies older men." 

My first instinct was to go off on a rant sprinkled with a litany of profanity, but I'm sure this statement was meant to incite indignation.  I'm not taking the bait, so I've decided to offer a civilized counter to the points given by Dr. Fox.

The first reason given, financial security, is quite laughable in my situation.  My husband makes less money than I made in my previous position.  I certainly didn't marry him for the money!  The article's introduction illustrates the Hollywood trend of May-December romances.  I really don't think Catherine Zeta-Jones married Michael Douglas for the money!  Women today know that they are capable of attaining financial security on their own terms.

Emotional stability is next on the list.  Yes, life experience is bound to lead to a more balanced perspective on life, but we all have our hang-ups, no matter what our age.  I won't go into details, but my hubby definitely has his.  And he's had twenty extra years for those issues to become ingrained!

Maturity.  I'll give MomLogic this one, to an extent.  Often times young guys make you want to scream with their antics, but I know quite a number of "older men" who are quite attached to their "toys", like fantasy football, computer games, TV sports, and motorcycles, to name a few.  Thankfully, my man doesn't indulge in ANY of these!

Nope, I have no Daddy complex.  Maybe others do, but being romantic with one's daddy sure doesn't seem to be what most women are after.  I hate it when I feel my husband treats me like a child and put an end to it before it can even begin!

Finally, the article says that, "men with power are more attractive."  I am aware that subtle power dynamics exist in many relationships, such as counselor/patient, teacher/student, adviser/client; however, it's erroneous to make the assumption that such a dynamic exists simply because one party is older.  We all know what happens when you assume!

So there, MomLogic!  You can kiss my #@&*^ ass!

I came across an interesting little article on the Marie Claire website called, "What's So Hot About Redheads?", and, of course, I just had to check it out!  It starts out with a quote from Conan O'Brien who says, about growing up a redhead, “the insecurity and defense mechanisms are downloaded pretty early.” 

That got me to thinking about myself.  I could certainly relate to the statement.  I remember the hell I went through as an adolescent.  Growing up is hard enough without being markedly different.  While I had no physical deformity or handicap of any kind, being practically the only redhead in a very large school made me feel as though I did.  I would definitely attribute some of my insecurities to the teasing I endured as a kid.

Fast foward to today.  I like my hair.  I like most things about myself - except this damned baby belly, but I can even see the benefit to that - just look at what it produced!  The road to self-acceptance was a long one for me.  As a mental health counselor and a college advisor, I've talked to many adolescents about my struggles as a way to help them through their own.  The best advice I could give would be to be patient.  Learning to love yourself takes time, and each person comes to it on their own schedule.

The Marie Claire spotlight on redheads had a slideshow with various female celebrities, outing who was born a redhead and who was not.  Did you know Lucille Ball was not a natural redhead?  I can't believe I didn't know that.  But, of course, two auburn beauties I love, Juliana Moore and Kathy Griffin, are the real thing.  One of the most surprising pics was of Rose McGowan as a redhead; she looked good!  I think she should go red all the time. 

Finally, I enjoyed reading the comments left by others.  I could definitely commiserate with each.  I cheered for those who had come into their own, accepting their unique beauty, and felt for those who still seemed to have issues from their youth.  Being the secure woman I now am, I felt compelled to leave my own comment - something I never would have done in my teens!

Today's Monday Magazine Motivation comes from the August issue of Family Circle, where I found an article on home party businesses called "Money in the Bag".  As an Independent Beauty Consultant for Mary Kay, I fall under that category.  I haven't really been "working my business" lately, as I'm currently focusing on my writing, so this article helped to give me a jumpstart to get back into the swing of things.

There's a section on questions to ask and one on home party basics and whether direct sales is right for you.  I really liked the section on smart sales strategies, which gave me some good ideas to get things moving again.  The article contained some really good information, and I suggest reading it if you're interested in selling something like Mary Kay, Pampered Chef, PartyLite, etc. 

You can find another good article here from Brain, Child magazine.  This one warns of the hidden dangers of work-from-home companies and even includes Mary Kay as one to be wary of.  But I say read the articles, take the advice, ask your own questions, and use your intution to make the best decision.  I know that Mary Kay is a product I love and believe in and am realistic about the time and effort I want to put in to it.  Because I don't want to be away from home a few nights a week (leaving my poor husband with the wild children after a long day of work) and driving to lots of different places, I'm not willing to commit 100% right now.  Also, I didn't have a ton of money to put into inventory, so I chose to start small. 

The effort I'm putting into my business allows me to get out and about, meet other women, and have a drawerful of wonderful products I couldn't otherwise afford.  I'm also learning skills that will help me in my freelance business.  The best result is the confidence and pride in myself I've gained through taking the chance and getting started.  A home party business isn't for everyone, but it could be for you if you're realistic about your level of commitment and your desired results.

It's Monday, again.   A good day to remind myself to get back on track after my weekend slip-ups.  In my defense, my sister-in-law is the best baker in the whole world, so I couldn't have been expected to resist the yummy strawberry cream cheesy dessert she brought to the party!  But, alas, I did slip up, so I've decided to make up for it in this week's Monday Magazine Motivation.

The folks at Self have set up a series of really great month-long jumpstarts to changing lifestyle habits.  They have several programs to choose from.  You can choose a program of "Readers' Best Tips", one to "Feel Your Healthiest in Just One Month", or even "31 Days to Great Sex".  I've decided to take on "Flat Abs Fast!" because if I don't do something drastic, I'm afraid I'll have this baby belly forever. 
 
Each program offers a new tip each day.  Feel free to "keep the ones you like, toss the ones you don't."  Sounds easy enough, right?  We'll see in a month.  I vow to report my results in the Monday Magazine Motivation four weeks from now.  Wish me luck!

Yeah, I know I don't have a prayer of looking like her, but every little bit helps. Baby steps, remember?