Hi Creators and Big Thinkers!

I wanted to take some time today to say thank you for letting me come into your inboxes in 2009!

And more importantly, I hope I was able to come into your heart and that I made you feel more inspired and empowered this year.  That was my goal.

As you and I move through the amazing journey of life each day, I am in awe of the power we each have to create positive change in the world. We have the power to create positive change in our communities, in our families, and in ourselves.

I know we do, because over the last 10 years I have been experiencing it first hand through my work online and offline as a mompreneur, writer, and “coachsultant” to many of you!  And it fills my heart to see so many of you out there doing the same powerful work.

You are helping other people live their passions and create beautiful and wonderfully magical lives for themselves.  And yes, many of you, my clients did this in a very “wonky” economy as if you were given a “lucky pass”.

I knew why some of you were having an amazing 2009 when many weren’t…  and there was no luck involved.  You were thinking big and most importantly taking scary, bold action.

As a gift of sorts to you today, I offer some of the most important and life-altering mindsets I taught (and lived!) this year and I hope they resonate with you as you gracefully move into 2010.

• You need a group of “invested” like minded souls to hold you accountable.
• Being successful takes recommitment over and over again along the journey.
• Surround yourself with people that will expand your mindsets. You can only grow proportionally to the people you surround yourself with.
• Sometimes to move forward you must trust your intuition and just take the leap.
• The growth is almost always proportional to the investment.
• Growth does not come without discomfort.
• People are open to you leading them because of what they experienced with the 2009 economy. They have let go of their expectations and are ready to finally learn.
• When your message is your marketing, there is no selling involved.

These are just a few of the mindsets that moved my clients and myself forward at lightning speed this year.  I look forward to continuing our journey together in 2010 and learning completely new lessons!

Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for your trust and love.

Enjoy your holidays!

Sheri McConnell
CEO of the Global Institute of Associations

http://www.smartwomenprograms.com

Watch Your Language: 7 Tips for Big Results
by Christine Kane

A few years ago, I was in a car with the promoter of one of my performances. He had picked me up at the airport and was driving me to my hotel. On the way, we talked guitars. We got onto the subject of Olson Guitars, arguably the best guitar in the whole world. At one point, the promoter said, “Yea, well, in my entire life I’ll never own an Olson guitar.”

There was a time when I’d let a remark like this slide on by, even adding my own “me either” to the mix.

Now, I can’t. Yoda steps into my head and says, (in his Yoda voice) “So certain are you. Always with you it cannot be done.”

So, I turned to the promoter and said, “You are NOT allowed to say that!”

This is because I know the power of language. When you know that words become things, it’s hard to let language slide.

I can’t help it. I have a rule:
Friends don’t let friends speak crappily.

Language is powerful. Words can create reality. Even if my promoter friend doesn’t know how on earth he’d ever get his guitar, it doesn’t mean he should cut off the possibility with his own words.

If you’re wondering how to begin watching your words, here are 7 practical language principles for becoming a better creator of your life.

1 – Eliminate “never” and “always.”
Never and always are words of hysteria. “I always mess everything up!” “I’ll never figure this out!” “I’ll never get an Olson Guitar.”

First off, it’s not true. If you always messed everything up, you wouldn’t have made it out of the womb.

And second off, extreme words are designed to hook you. It’s just your emotions taking a joyride. You’re more powerful than that.

2 – Use AND instead of BUT.
“But” dismisses the statement before it. “And” includes it. For instance, “That’s a good article, but it needs some editing” isn’t nearly as encouraging as “That’s a good article, AND it needs some editing.”

“I love you, but…” is another great example of the dismissive power of “but.”

3 – Avoid “Should.”
Should is a heinous word for many reasons. It is victim-speak. It disempowers its object. It negates desires, thereby making it harder to make choices. It adds a nebulous energy to the decision making process. Use empowered language instead: “I could…” “I would…” “I am choosing to,” “I would like to,” “I don’t want to,” or “You might consider…”

4 – Stop calling yourself depressed.
Also stop allowing anyone to tell you that you are depressed. When you call yourself “depressed” or “obsessive compulsive” or “ADHD” or whatever – you’re claiming this thing. You’re calling it forth with the most powerful two words in our language: “I am.” That creates very little option for the transformation of this condition.

5 – Delete the word “hate” from your vocabulary.
“Hate” has lots of energy. When you use it, you send lots of energy out into the very thing you “hate.” Even if it’s negative energy, it’s still a powerful force, adding its charge to that thing. You’re also depleting this energy from your own spirit as you say it.

6 – Be “great.” Or “wonderful.”
A disease of the creative temperament is a belief that we must be authentic at all costs. So we can’t answer a simple “How are you?” without delving into an in-depth scan of our emotional temperature.

Try this instead: When people ask you how you’re doing, just say, “I’m great!”

I used to think if I said this, then I better have a good reason for saying it, like I just won the lottery or something. I thought it would make me look suspicious, and people would start to wonder if something was wrong with me. But then I did it. And you know what? Most people don’t care why you’re great. You’re saying it for you.

7 – Pay attention to the music of your speech.
You know how some people? They talk in question marks? And you have no idea why? But it makes you think you shouldn’t really rely on them? And it makes you not want to hire them?
The music of your language says a lot about you. If you let your sentences droop like Eeyore, (”Thanks for noticing me.”) or if you do the uncertain question mark language, take note of what attitudes are causing this. These patterns are created for a reason. Even if it feels like faking it at first, generate confidence as you speak.

About the Author:
Performer, songwriter, and creativity consultant Christine Kane publishes her ‘LiveCreative’ weekly ezine with more than 8,000 subscribers. If you want to be the artist of your life and create authentic and lasting success, you can sign up for a FRE*E subscription to LiveCreative at www.christinekane.com.

Movie of 2009 Lessons & How Women Are The Next Wave of Entrepreneurial Leaders

Watch below as Sheri (CEO of two global associations and a million dollar success training company) and some of her 2009 Mastermind clients discuss the lessons learned this year. Then listen in as Sheri and Ali Brown (an INC. 500 CEO) explore why women are the next wave of entrepreneurial leaders in the world!

Download an application below to find out about all the benefits of our

2010 Mastermind and Inner Circle Programs.

Click here to Download Application Now

Fax to 866-821-5829

If you have questions about your application or readiness for one of our programs, please contact our office for a free 20 minute strategy session with Sheri and/or her Office Manager.

You must turn in your application first to take advantage of the free session.

If you decide not to move forward and enroll in our 2010 programs after your session, your application will not be processed.

Lessons Learned During A Year Full of “Growth Opportunities” by Sheri McConnell

This year was an amazing year full of growth opportunities. I know many of you expected me to say challenges, but that truly wasn’t my experience at all. Although I experienced more lessons this year than in some of my previous years online, I welcomed them all as they were coming because I knew my willingness to learn this year would mean I would move even faster once the economy recovered.

Here is a quick inventory of some of the “growth opportunities” I experienced in 2009.

1.  Your Perception of the Economy Is What Matters

Awareness is everything. Your awareness of how you literally have so much potential right inside of you will take you through all economic climates. Sadly, most people just don’t have this awareness yet. All the external factors (our health, our economy, our financial situation) can be perceived in such a way that you can move through them no matter what. It is about being positive and about being aware of the energy and thoughts inside you at any given moment. If in “your world” you perceive you have choices to quit “if this” and “if that” happen, then guess what, you might as well not get started.

I learned this year that if you really want it, you won’t have excuses. And trust me, they are all excuses. We don’t say no to an opportunity because of lack of money, or too much travel, or lack of time… we say no simply because we just don’t want to move forward. And here is the thing. In my opinion, is it OK to not move forward all the time. Nature tells us that we all must go dormant for a period of time to truly flourish again in the future. Being aware that you are choosing to go dormant is OK.  Having the perception that the external things are the reasons not to grow is not OK. Just know when you are ready to flourish, external reasons are not of your concern and you only need to be “aware” and then commit to be able succeed.

2.  Your Boundaries Help Others Grow

They have to test your boundaries to grow. Did you get that? People don’t test your boundaries to hurt you or to take advantage of you. They test them because they are still growing. And they never stop growing. As you can imagine, if you are a coach or consultant or a “coachsultant”, then be prepared to constantly have your boundaries tested.

How do you grow? Your keep working through your own boundaries and tweaking them until you are happy. Yep, it is that easy to be happy. Here are a few areas that I have found having good boundaries will move you forward the fastest:

• Your physical and mental space
• Advice you take
• Access you give
• Problems you take on
• Results of others that you absorb

3.  Your Customers Want YOU–Mind, Body, and Soul

They want balance. This year I really understood at a deep level how to expand and grow past my comfort zone even more. In the previous ten years, I had spent so much time mastering the mind and soul parts of myself and my business that I had in some ways neglected the body. (Sidenote: I had instead given my body to my four children, but that is another article!) This year I realized I had a been subconsciously telling the people I inspire that you can be successful, but you can’t be balanced. I was “showing” them that you can’t have it all when I wasn’t in shape. Once I began to become more balanced in the “Body” area of my life this year by hiring a trainer and paying better attention to what I ate, my clients literally “felt better” too and began to thank me for my hard work.

Here are just a few ways your customers need you to be balanced:

Mind
They need you to provide good content that helps them detect patterns and learn quickly.

Body
They need you to breathe, move gracefully through struggle, and most of all take care of yourself.

Soul
They need you to help them connect their work to the passions of others so they can experience their own “true meaning”.

4.  Your Customers Are a Part of YOU

We are truly all one.  This year I was able to watch how when we take part in “negativity” at all it shrinks us. Even if we react to negativity as a way to decompress or vent, it shrinks us. Even if we don’t participate in the negativity, but allow the energy of it to fill the air we are breathing, it shrinks us. This year I learned that the only way to run a business and to experience a truly amazing life is to live moment-by-moment in the essence that “we are all one”.

Want To Use This Article In Your Ezine or Website? You have my permission, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Sheri McConnell is the CEO of Sheri McConnell Companies, Inc. and the president and founder of two national organizations, the National Association of Women Writers-NAWW and the Global Institute of Associations-GIA. You can visit Sheri, access her free article archive, and find out more about all four of her companies at www.sherimcconnell.com. Sheri lives in San Antonio, Texas with her husband, their four children, a weenie dog, and two cats.

Join Sheri McConnell, CEO of the National Association of Women Writers as she shares how to use visual tools to set goals and jumpstart your creativity.

Title: How To Use Visual Tools To Set Goals and Jumpstart Creativity

Date: November 18

Time: 11 am Pacific,  Noon Mountain, 1 pm Central, 2 pm Eastern

You will learn:

- Sheri’s favorite tools and resources and where to get your own
- How to visually set up your surroundings to support the emergence of your brilliance
- Why information must flow through you to make your “right brain” happy

Bio:

Sheri McConnell is the CEO of Sheri McConnell Companies, Inc. and the president and founder of two national and international associations. She started her first association, the National Association of Women Writers-NAWW in 2001, and founded the 2nd association, the International Association of Web Entrepreneurs in 2006 and cashed out on it 2 years later.

Her latest association, the Global Institute of Associations-GIA was launched in late 2008 and produced multiple six figures within a few short months. Sheri is known as the Leader to Leaders™ and consults with big thinkers and creators from all over the world in multiple industries teaching them how to leverage the association model.

She is also the author of Smart Women Create Membership-Based Businesses, The Smart Women’s Book of Powerful Quotations and Smart Women Know Their “Why” – A How To Memoir on Discovering Your Life Purpose (Pub Date Fall 2009). You can visit Sheri, access her free article archive, and find out more about her and all of her companies at www.sherimcconnell.com

Sheri lives in San Antonio, Texas with her husband, their four children, a “weenie” dog, and two cats.

How To Register for This Event:

If you are not an NAWW member yet, find out more about NAWW Membership Benefits by clicking here: http://www.naww.org/blog/benefits

If you are already a member, you can find the call in number on your Member Login page. If you no longer have this information, please e-mail us at support@naww.org