Such Fantastic News!

Did you know that July 15th is election day in Dawson County? I want to URGE you to do 2 things!

1. DON'T VOTE! (Not really, just don't vote until AFTER you come to the meeting at 10:30! )

2. DON'T MISS the meeting at 10:30!

We have a commitment from at least three* of the candidates running for office in Dawson to come and speak to us!
Julie Nix- Re-Election to District 4 Dawson County Board of Commissioners
Marsha Freeman Waller- Chief Magistrate Judge
Terri Tragesser - Re-election to District 2 Dawson County Board of Commissioners

Here's your chance to get one on one with some local candidates and find out what their platform is, get answers to questions you may have that affect you, and just simply "GET TO KNOW" some powerful women that are making a positive difference in our community.

Our Women2Women group consists of the most inspiring and successful women in our community. It only seems logical that we would include, yet even support, the women in our community who run for an elected office. They represent us all! Their voice is our voice! How comforting to know that we, as a group, will have a voice in government in Dawson County!

Don't miss this meeting! I challenge you to bring as many women with you as you can, so that we can show our support for these outstanding women.

IN OTHER NEWS: We have a donation from Susan Metcalf & Southern Southeastern for the Membership Fee for the Chamber of Commerce.

We are going to be an official member of the Dawson Chamber of Commerce registered as a non-profit organization!

WIIFM? (what's in it for me?)

It means that all of our events and meetings will be posted as a Chamber event on mailings, emails, and newspaper advertisements.

It means more traffic to this website! It means that if you win the "Spotlight Member of the Month" placement you get a month of FREE advertisement on the web! It means more recognition for you in the community. It means more business!

I will be sending an email shortly with an attached flyer to advertise the meeting on the 15th. Please print and distribute as many as you can and let's get as many women to the meeting as we can to show our support of our "voices in government" !

If you need more information, please contact me at w2wbng@yahoo.com or call me at 404-543-5384 - Kimberly Wilson

Back to this Goals Thing....

At our meeting this week, I talked a little about goal setting and shared with everyone some of my own goals that I have written and achieved over the years. There was so much more I really wanted to share with you on the subject, but I didn't want to take too much time away from the networking part which is why you came in the first place. So, I thought I would share with you this way and you can read it at your leisure.

It is a proven fact that having specific, written goals with a plan for achieving them has tremendous power to help you achieve them. Yale University conducted a study with the graduating class of 1953. One of the questions posed to the students was whether or not they had written specific goals for their lives and a plan to achieve them. They discovered that only 3% of the entire graduating class said yes. 30 years later, they went back and interviewed these same students. They discovered that the 3% that had set goals were happier, and more adjusted in life as a whole. In addition, that 3% were worth more than the other 97% of the class COMBINED.

Now that I have persuaded you to at least consider that goal setting is imperative to your success, I would like to share with you what my idea of goal setting is. As I told you on Tuesday, I used to think about goal setting as a way to get "things". I looked at my list as my future happiness. It was as if I lived every day to achieve my goal of getting _____, so that THEN, I could be happy! For years, I mistakenly lived my life thinking that way.

Then, over the past few years and a few challenging life experiences my ideas about it started to change. I discovered that happiness is not in things, events, or people. Happiness only comes from inside yourself. You must live this day and this moment in sheer joy and happiness that comes from inside you. If you can be grateful for today and everything about today and find happiness in it, then you can remain happy when the circumstances of your life change. Do you realize that YOU and you alone have the power to decide how you feel? No matter what is going on around you, you can make the choice to be happy and no one can take that away from you!

Last year I very dear friend of mine called me to tell me that his wife, Tina had passed away. Tina was 44 years old, and they had 2 teenage girls. She was diagnosed with breast cancer, and never recovered. Her death was relatively quick and unexpected. At Tina's "Celebration of Life" service, I noticed that there was probably more than 200 people there. Then one by one, they came. They talked about how wonderful she was. They talked about how thoughtful, giving, and caring she was. They offered experiences and shared stories of their lives together. They talked about her life at work, and what an extraordinary employee she was. I learned that she was a wonderful woman, mother, wife and daughter. I regret that I didn't take the time to get to know her better.

I drove away that day and started really thinking my life and I wondered what people would be saying about me, if it had been my funeral. I realized that not one person got up there and said " wow, she sure had a nice car! " or " she only wore the latest fashions" or even, " her house was the most gorgeous house on the block!" (and she did, she did, and it was)
I realized then and there that my goal setting needed some attention. I realized that the reason for setting the goal is not to achieve the goal. The reason for setting the goal is the person that it makes you become to achieve the goal. It's ok to have nice things. I still want my Corvette! But I don't work every day thinking that I am one day closer to my corvette. The most important goal that I have for my life is to make sure that every single day I make a positive influence on someones life. Maybe it's this blog. Maybe, it's a card. Maybe it's just a smile to a tired cashier in a grocery store. It doesn't take much to smile and offer an encouraging word to someone. It costs you nothing. But the rewards are the inner joy and happiness that you create inside yourself.

This group and this blog is helping me to achieve one of my goals. I want to do my part to support, inspire, encourage, and motivate women in my community to be all they can be. Making a million dollars can only inspire you so much. But becoming a person of abundance will last you the rest of your life! Have you set some goals today? Have you reviewed your goals lately? What's your action plan?

- Kimberly

"You can have everything you want, if you help enough other people get what they want." -Zig Ziglar

Speed Networking??

Today I surprised everyone by announcing that we were going to be Speed Networking! Patterned after the newest phenomenon in the dating world called Speed Dating, I decided to create an atmosphere of pure energy, excitement, and joy by having everyone sit across from another and in only 2 minutes talk about their needs and what they have to offer. Every 2 minutes, they had to move down one chair and start all over again!

Great Fun was had by all, and I look forward to seeing all of you again next month! Thank you to all the ladies who came today and brought a friend!

Congratulations to our Door Prize Winners!

(L to R) Sara Reed, Victoria Hope Bozec & Patty Powers

Special thanks to Annette Walden of Painted Lady Enterprises and Kelle'Castelberry - Image Salon and Day Spa for the donation of the door prizes! Please let me know if your company would like to provide the door prize and promote your business!