Please note: If this is your first time visiting our blog, please click here to hear the premise of Pass It On, Baby! and how it all began.... Pass It On, Baby!
Welcome back to another featured guest blogger - Louiseza! Louiseza and I have been friends for a couple of years now. We worked together for awhile at the same company as freelancers and when I started my own business - she came to become my accountant for my company too. We have had many a deep conversations about spiritual books, ideas and philosophies. She is an amazing wife, mother and career woman. She loves to write and this gave her an opportunity to utilize those skills. We hope you enjoy her blog post as much as we did!
In love & kindness - Heather & Elizabeth
I was recently speaking with one of my friends. She is my cerebral friend. I usually defer to her when I need a no-nonsense answer. I would venture to say that I am her mamma-bird friend, as I am to most, meaning I am usually the one giving advice and trying to move people towards their goals and dreams. My friend is in the midst of applying for graduate school; her task at hand happens to be writing an essay. She has about 3 or 4 questions that she must answer in her essay and each of them center on her accomplishments and contributions in life and basically how has she made in impact both professionally and personally. Now I see my friend as being a very accomplished woman. She is a college graduate, a CPA candidate, a business owner, a property owner (she owns two homes) and she is very devoted to church and community, all while raising her daughter by herself. Unfortunately, until this assignment, along with a conversation with her mother and the one that we were having that day, she had not thought of her life as being impactful. This saddened and surprised me. How could the women on the other end of the phone not realize what a contribution she had made in life? I personally know that she has spent countless hours as a mentor to our Girl Scout troop. When she owned a bookstore her business not only contributed to building a healthy economy in the Denver (Colorado) area, but to the literacy of others. At work she spends 45 to 50 hours a week providing support to her account team and leading her own employees. How did she not think that the hours of tax advice that she gives to her church members each year is of no impact, or that the time she spent writing a friend’s financial plan for her business (for free!) was not important?
I reminded myself that she is not alone in holding herself to such a marginal esteem. All too often we women—men too, but women especially—fail to recognize our own accomplishments. In a day and age when so much craziness is around us, we forget to make note of the inherent good that we contribute to the world. We women are the biggest offenders when it comes to lack of personal acknowledgment. We manage home, family, career and so much more, but we rarely manage to give an “atta-girl” to ourselves. Why is it so hard for us to think highly of our own accomplishments? Unfortunately, as women, we have become used to doing, because, “it’s what’s expected of us” or because “if we don’t do it, then who will?” I don’t think that it is wrong to assume these responsibilities, but how about assuming the credit for being a good person, a great mom or the kick-butt employee? I think that if we took more time to recognize the good that we do, we would instinctively do more good. If we only realized what a great role model we are to that young intern, the kid down the street or our own children—realize that the simplest things sometimes make the biggest impressions.
Some of my favorite commercials are the Liberty Mutual “good deeds” commercials. I love these commercials, because they spot light people doing good for others, but more importantly to me they focus on how those good deeds affect others. They make us aware of how our actions prompt such wonderful reactions. Similar to life, the commercials remind us that our smallest and most human gestures can have residually impactful effects on our world. A great example of this is Pass It On Baby. The impact that this labor of love has had on its recipients, donors and blog followers is indescribable. By acknowledging their desire to help and be impactful, Heather and Elizabeth have opened many doors that have allowed countless others to make a difference in so many lives—Awesome!
Email Elizabeth & Heather
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