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INTERVIEW YOURSELF FOR WORKING MOMS: A GUIDED JOURNAL

By Marci Taub, M.A.

ISBN 0-9716785-5-3

BACK COVER:

THE UTLIMATE WORKING MOMS' SELF-HELP GUIDE!

Have you ever wished for a guidebook to help you deal with the overwhelming challenges of being a working mom? An ally to help you meet your changing needs? Whether you're a working mom already or a working mom-to-be, Interview Yourself for Working Moms is that dream book: an action-oriented guided journal designed just for you. It’s filled with journaling tips, chapter overviews, sample entries, and 100 guided “conversations” to help you become your own career and life coach.

You can progress through the journal selectively, completing a "conversation" page here and there, or front to back, following its thematic chapters:

DIRECTION: Choose a career direction that best suits you as a working mom.
STRUCTURE: Structure your career to better manage your work and family lives.
ADVANCEMENT: Advance your career in ways that are compatible with your lifestyle.
SECURITY: Determine how much risk is necessary for you to keep up with change.
BALANCE: Achieve a sense of balance between competing demands at work and at home.
IDENTITY: Integrate your worker and mom identities.
SUPPORT: Develop strong support networks and become more self-reliant.
ENERGY: Maximize your energy while fulfilling your responsibilities.

Every "conversation" is organized in the three steps of the Interview Yourself™ method -- a powerful, self-directed process that will make a real difference in the quality of your life as a working mom. It guides you to: 1. Explore why you're stuck and what you need; 2. Build self-confidence about your past experience and future scenarios; and 3. Transform your thoughts and actions. You'll tell yourself the stories that connect your present issues, past successes, and future dreams. As you trace these connections, you'll realize scenarios for living a more balanced, authentic life. And using this method isn't intimidating. It's just like having a conversation with a wise, trusted friend who asks you relevant quesitons and really listens to your answers. Ultimately, you'll discover how to adapt your career to your lifestyle -- at your own pace and in your own way.

SAMPLE PAGES:

Below is a sample conversation from the book. As in the book, the first set of questions includes sample answers and the second, duplicate set of questions includes blank spaces for you to fill in your own responses.

Conversation #83: Grounding Yourself in What's Meaningful

Explorers

The Heart of the Matter: What's meaningful to you in your work and family lives?

What's meaningful to me is pursuing work that enables me to express my creative spirit and help others while sustaining loving, close relationships with my family that nurture our individual gifts, our feelings of security, our sense of belonging, and our self-esteem.

Making Memories: How do you remind yourself of what's meaningful when you're stressed out by support issues?

I remind myself why I'm pursuing my work and what I love about being a mom. This lets me replace the feelings of anger, frustration, isolation, and sadness, with feelings of gratitude, love, and joy for the heart of my work and family lives.

Confidence-Builders

Life Lessons: What three times have you felt good about yourself as a result of focusing on what's meaningful to you in your work and family lives?

I felt very good about redirecting my focus from the p's and q's of running my business to really look at why I was doing it. It was also good just to concentrate on writing the best books possible. It was truly liberating to stop second-guessing myself in all of the ambiguous situations related to my children -- it freed me up to love and guide them to the best of my ability.

Potential Outcomes: What's the worst thing that could happen if you tried to reduce your stress by focusing on what's meaningful to you now? What's the best thing that could happen?

The worst thing that could happen is that I could end up feeling more stressed out by how much is at stake if I don't work out my support issues. The best thing would be to find more patience and strength within myself to persevere in the search for resolutions to my support issues.

Transformers

Talk-Over #1: How can you talk to yourself about the heart of the matter that gives you a more flexible approach to getting the support you need?

I can say: "I will seek support when I need it, even if I need help with mundane things, because support will help me grow, personally and professionally."

Talk-Over #2: How can you talk to yourself about making memories that gives you a more flexible appraoch to getting the support you need?

I can say: "I will use tangible reminders of what's meaningful to me on all levels. I can reflect upon inspirational quotes; keep inspirational keepsakes nearby; and play music that inspires me."

Conversation #83: Grounding Yourself in What's Meaningful

Explorers

The Heart of the Matter: What's meaningful to you in your work and family lives?

Making Memories: How do you remind yourself of what's meaningful when you're stressed out by support issues?

Confidence-Builders

Life Lessons: What three times have you felt good about yourself as a result of focusing on what's meaningful to you in your work and family lives?

Potential Outcomes: What's the worst thing that could happen if you tried to reduce your stress by focusing on what's meaningful to you now? What's the best thing that could happen?

Transformers

Talk-Over #1: How can you talk to yourself about the heart of the matter that gives you a more flexible approach to getting the support you need?

Talk-Over #2: How can you talk to yourself about making memories that gives you a more flexible appraoch to getting the support you need?

Excerpted from INTERVIEW YOURSELF FOR WORKING MOMS: A GUIDED JOURNAL by Marci Taub, M.A. Copyright © 2002, Careerstyling®, L.L.C. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

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Check out Marci's article, " Five Balance Strategies to Help Working Moms," adapted from her book at:

The Wall Street Journal's CareerJournal.com http://www.careerjournal.com/columnists/perspective/20020805-fmp.html

Check out Marci's article, " Getting Ahead By Slowing Down," adapted from her book at:

BlueSuitMom.com
http://www.bluesuitmom.com/career/balance/slowdown.html