It’s planning and budgeting time around the Mary Kay office right now.  That means we’re all thinking about our most important initiatives for 2010, our revenue forecasts for all of our markets around the world, and what we think we’ll be spending to accomplish our goals.  It’s a process that goes on for a few months each year.  We each begin at the individual department level, but eventually all have to come together to make sure that our goals are in sync overall and that our company-wide budget is reasonable.  No one particularly enjoys the process, but everyone understands how important it is to plan.

As I was thinking about this, I was reminded about two things:  (1) Mary Kay Ash always said that one should “plan your work, and work your plan“, and (2) that many young women these days don’t have a plan for their life, but wish they did (as we learned from our 2009 What Women Want research study). It occurred to me that as individuals, we don’t often take the time to plan for our year with the careful thought and discipline that we put into the planning process for our jobs.  I wonder what would happen if we did? What if we all practiced “plan your life, and live your plan“?

I’ve decided that I’m going to give it a try and see what happens.  Instead of making the usual New Year’s resolutions, which quickly fall by the wayside, I’m actually going to sit down with my husband this year and craft a plan for 2010 for our personal life.  I’d like the plan to include what we want to accomplish next year, collectively and individually.  What do we expect our income to be? How much will our living expenses be, and how much discretionary spending should we plan based on what we want to do?   I’d like to set a goal for a certain number of hours of volunteer time, and a financial plan for our charitable giving.  This would really be a big step for us, as we typically take life one day or one week, or one month at a time, as most people do.  We are blessed at this point in our lives, in not having to live from paycheck to paycheck, but the idea of actually planning a budget and sticking to it is kind of exciting for me. Just like we do at the office, we can sit down and review our progress each quarter, see where we’ve stayed on track and where we can improve.  And it will be fun to look back at the end of the year and see how many of our goals we actually met. I can imagine that having this plan would make all the daily decisions we face that much easier, because we would have a “filter” of sorts to weigh the decision against.  If we do “X”, is it consistent with the goals we set?  If not, are we willing to change our goals?

Of course I know that things will come up along the way that will get us sidetracked, they always do — those little, or sometimes BIG, things that are out of our control and come up at the most inopportune times.  But it would seem that, other than those times, the peace of mind in knowing where we were going and how we wanted to get there would bring a tremendous sense of freedom and independence, leaving far fewer things to clutter our minds each and every day.

If you’ve been disciplined about planning your personal life this way, I’d love to hear about it.  How did it work for you?  What did it feel like?

http://www.marykay.com/ginareay Article from Mary Kay Dot Com Blog- http://reflections.marykay.com/

Mary Kay Inc. was interested in finding out what women want in today's world, so we took a few months to learn from women in several countries around the world.  They weren't shy and they held nothing back.  We've been exploring these things over the last several posts, and we've reached #5.  In addition to completeness, strength and independence, family + choice, and a fulfilling career, women around the world are longing for a connection and sisterhood with other women.

For some, "girls night out" has become a never-to-be-missed weekly ritual.  These female escapes provide carefree times, to get away, however briefly, from the everyday stressors of life.  It can be as simple as meeting for tea or coffee, or involve pampering in the form of manicures/pedicures, or even full-blown weekend long retreats.

Our girlfriends, in many ways, are our family.  They provide a source of strength and security.  They assist us when we need the help.  They validate who we are and what we do.  They can be our creative muse, and they (almost) always accept us as we are.  Girlfriends are a safe haven from daily troubles, and can be great resources for help in many areas of our lives.  Talking to girlfriends is an important part of our daily routine for many of us.  For all the women we talked to, their female friendships are their most important, and often most stable relationships.

I see the results of a strong connection to other women, the sisterhood if you will, play out daily in Mary Kay.  Just a few moments ago, as I was on Twitter getting updates from the people I follow, I noticed a tweet from a Beauty Consultant.  She suffers from a serious chronic pain condition and was having a bad day.  She had a party booked with several women, and due to the pain, she was unable to conduct the party.  Rather than cancel and disappoint the women who were excited about their facials and makeovers, a "sister" Consultant offered to hold it for her.  That is the sisterhood in action.

I have traveled on numerous international trips with our top Sales Directors and National Sales Directors, and inevitably, someone's luggage doesn't make it to our destination. Now, these aren't just any trips mind you.  These are trips to 5 star hotels in some of the most widely sought-after cities of the world.  These women worked their buns off all year long to earn the trip for themselves, and you know darn well that they didn't just go to the closet and throw last year's family vacation clothes into the suitcase.  No ma'am.  There was major power shopping to get just the right outfits, planned strategically to each day and every special dinner.  And, then, well, all those cute outfits are floating around someplace in luggage limbo.  Not to worry.  Mary Kay sisters to the rescue.  When that happens, anybody else who is on the trip and is anywhere close to being your size will pony up her cute outfits for you to wear until your luggage is found.  Nevermind the fact that she couldn't wait for everyone to see her in THAT outfit.  That's the power of the sisterhood at work.

This same sisterhood is one of the reasons that I feel very safe even when I travel to someplace that I have never been.  You see I know that just about anywhere I go, there are Mary Kay people there, and they would do whatever they could to help me if I needed something.

No doubt this very strong desire for a connection with other females is what is driving women to social media in record numbers.  (We'll explore this particular aspect of social networking in a future post, so I don't want to dwell on it here.)

In closing, I think Sister Sledge said it best (okay, I know I am dating myself) . . . "We are family — I got all my sisters with me."

Another of the "10 Things Women Want Now" is a fulfilling career.  We heard from some stay-at-home moms in the US that they feel adrift when their kids no longer need them every minute of the day, and wonder if they should have continued to pursue their careers or completed their educations.  Latina women in the US felt that a career was a vital part of being a "complete, modern woman". The Chinese women we heard from were well aware of the trade-offs of their careers, and few were completely comfortable with being stay-at-home moms.  They seem to need a modern, autonomous view of themselves, apart from their family.  This same desire for an element of autonomy drives women in Ukraine and Russia to pursue a career.

This sense of autonomy seems to be relevant regardless of culture or geography.  Our careers are a very important part of our identity, and are significant contributors to our overall sense of independence and completeness.  What seems to differ regionally is how long this has been important to women.  In the US, it's well into the third generation, and some may even say four.  However, in Eastern Europe, this phenomenon is barely a generation old.

I think this aspect is at the very center of the on-going challenge that women have in finding balance in their lives. On one hand, a fulfilling career is part of who we want to be, yet it comes with many trade-offs that impact other areas of our lives that are equally, or even more, important.  I have been off-balance many times in the past, and found myself struggling with deciding what I needed to do to get things flowing smoothly again. The answers were never immediate, easy or win-win.  They were tough choices.  I'm sure I made some bad ones.  But sitting where I am now, things turned out okay in spite of that.  That doesn't mean that I wouldn't have made some different choices if I had known then what I know now.  (I'm not sure I will ever understand why we get the wisdom after we make all the mistakes!)

When I was growing up in my Mary Kay career, I learned from watching the other women around me.  Apparently, others do too, as evidenced by our research.  These women told us that they model themselves after other successful women for their own roapmap to professional success.  (I will also tell you that some of my greatest learnings came from watching women that I DIDN'T want to behave like.) Women who appear "put-together" and "complete" are the most revered, and their advice is trusted.  I was blessed to be able to watch and learn from Mary Kay Ash herself, as well as our many female sales leaders who gave me plenty of positive examples for female leadership in business. 

Now, as a tenured professional woman, who has survived managing family and career as I was climbing the corproate ladder, I know one thing for certain.  I know that my career filled a very important role in shaping who I am.  It gave me an identity that I alone owned, separate and apart from my identity within my family.  I know for certain that, had I not had the career that I have loved for the past 25 years, I would now not feel as complete and fulfilled as I do.