Motivation Strategies II

Motivation to move us past our struggles and to give us energy when we need it most are important "tools" to have in our tool box.  We shared some ideas last week, and this week I’d like to share even more ideas.
 
Several of our interviewees spoke of having a support system — people they could call to obtain advice, get some kind of pep talk, or just lean on in times of need.
 
Ramona Romero, Corporate Counsel, Logistics and Energy at DuPont, told us how her daughters help her to readjust when she’s feeling down because children aren’t sad for too long, and they don’t allow you to wallow in misery.
 
Many of our guests reflected on the attitude they held and how they can change it by telling themselves different things.  For example, Adriana Vela, founder of NanoBioNexus, would remind herself that all setbacks are just temporary.
 
A few of our interviewees, including author and poet Naomi Quiñonez, reminded us to take a step away and breathe, take time for yourself.  Jessica Herrera-Flanigan, General Counsel and Staff Director for the U.S. House Committee on Homeland security, will sometimes take a walk or exercise when she’s feeling out of sorts.
 
Women such as Manuela Bump Murillo, entrepreneur and sales success, will reflect on the past and how far she’s come when she’s feeling down.  She knows she is so much better off than earlier in her life when she grew up very poor in a third world country.
 
Allow yourself to cry, was another message from our guests — allow yourself to be sad for a while, and then you can move on.  Polly Baca, former Colorado State Senator, was one of the interviewees who shared that with us.
 
And harkening back to the past several weeks, many of our interviewees talked about reaching into their core and really knowing who they were and what they were called to do as being part of the motivation when they were "off their game."
 
And, of course, gratitude was mentioned over and over again by our Powerful Latinas as the key to changing one’s attitude.  Some of our guests keep gratitude journals, but almost all of them make it a daily practice to be grateful for what they have in their lives.
 
Humor is another motivator.  Dr. Jeanette Cisneros, medical director of a public health clinic, told us that a "goofy" sense of humor, as well as play, and having fun, are what help her when she needs a little boost.
 
Of course, if on the other hand, you’d like some DE-motivators, check out despair.com, to me one of the funniest web sites around.  Just for a fun chuckle.

Simple Lessons

Josie Garza, Executive Director for the National Latino Children’s Institute (check out nlci.org), spoke with us this week about her goal of creating healthier communities for children.  Josie has dedicated her life to making communities safe.
 
I had to think to myself, what if that were the goal for each of our lives?  To tell the truth, be honest, follow through on what we say we will, see the good in others, and learn to be non-judgmental?
 
It was so interesting to hear Josie talk about the lessons she’s learned from, and taught to, the young people she’s worked with.  These are lessons many of us are still working on (myself included!).
 
Sometimes we make excuses if we can’t follow through, or if we "fudge" the truth, or if we make judgments about those around us.  And yet, we tell our children to do what we SAY, not what we do.
 
Isn’t it true that the children around us (whether you have kids or not) reflect back to us exactly who we ARE regardless of what we tell them?  I’ve found this to be true in my own life.
 
My son is both my greatest joy, and the source of my greatest chagrin, when he does things that I know he learned from *me*!  Yikes…
 
Nevertheless, it’s not too late to both nurture ourselves and those children around us and learn those lessons.  And maybe even keep practicing them every day.
 
Those simple lessons are the most important…
 
To learning (and living!) the simple things,
 
Aurelia

P.S.  In case you missed Josie’s interview, you can purchase either the audio or the transcript (or both) of the interview at the special pre-sale price until next Wednesday.  Click here to find out more…

Josephine F. Garza

Josephine F. Garza is the Executive Director for the National Latino Children’s Institute (NLCI), the only organization dedicated solely to focusing on issues impacting Latino children and to building healthy communities for Latino children and their families.

>>  Join me as I discuss with Josie how her career has progressed and brought her to this position.

Josie was born and raised in San Antonio Texas, the oldest of three children.  She is thirteenth generation Tejana and the first in her family to attend college.

Ms. Garza holds a BA in Elementary Education with two certifications, one in early childhood education and the other in bilingual education. She also holds an MA in Educational Psychology with an emphasis in cross-cultural counseling and communications.

Josie began her career as a bilingual kindergarten teacher with the Houston Independent School District then with the Edgewood Independent School District in San Antonio, where she also began her career as a middle school counselor, specifically in the area of drug prevention education and gang intervention.

>>  I’ll be taking with her about her experiences in the school system and what needs led her to her other positions.

She has worked with the Intercultural Development Research Association as an equity specialist for the Desegregation Assistance Center-South Central Collaborative in the areas of gender, race, and national origin equity for Federal Region VI.

Josie was Director for Project Pals, a National FFA (formerly Future Farmer’s of America) Mentoring Program that developed a national mentoring program for non-traditional youth involved in agriculture.

She was also Senior Program Officer for the National Training Institute for Community Youth Work at the Academy for Educational Development in Washington, DC.

>>  What has Josie learned from her different positions?  Who has she worked with and what led her from one position to the next?

Prior to coming on staff fulltime in 2002, Ms. Garza had worked as an independent consultant with the NLCI since 1997, the year it was founded. She participated in focus groups that began to look at cultural competencies in accessing healthcare, which lead to a report submitted to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation on barriers and solutions to accessing children’s health.

Josie was part of a team that designed culturally appropriate programs for NLCI for Corazon de mi Vida a child passenger safety initiative, Onda Sana an HIV/AIDS prevention program for young Latinos ages 10-18 and Salsa, Sabor y Salud a healthy lifestyles program for Latino families with children ages 3-12.

>>  From the study and research Josie has seen, what are the key policy objectives that her organization works on?

Prior to 2002, Ms. Garza was co-founder and served as Co-Executive Director over three years for Youth Advocates of California, Inc. in Los Angeles, an organization dedicated to building a positive youth community that taught young people how to access resources, and how to create a support system for each other.

Over most of her career, Josie has been actively involved with organizations dedicated to empowering and protecting the rights of young people and their families who have been disenfranchised, most of whom are minority (predominantly Latino) and poor, and many of whom end up in the juvenile justice system.

>>  What drives Josie to do the work she does?  What has she learned from working with children of all ages and from a variety of backgrounds?

She has three nieces, two nephews and one grand-nephew.  She has lived in Houston, TX, Washington, DC and Los Angeles, CA.  She currently lives in a little A-frame house built in 1929 with her two rescued dogs Troche y Moche in San Antonio.

Motivation Strategies

So for the past few weeks we’ve been talking about the foundational issues of success.  This week I’d like to talk about what you do when you need a little boost, a little "oomph" in your life.

Let’s look at some motivational strategies our guests have used.

Rita Jaramillo, Senior Liaison, Community Outreach, Office of Governance and Policy, for the National Education Association (NEA) keeps an "atta girl" book where she records nice things people have said or momentos of her past achievements.  In this way, she can refer back to it when she needs some inspiration.
 
Many of our guests talked about giving gratitude for all they DO have when they feel down, so that it helps them to refocus on the things they can be grateful for in their lives.
 
Mabel Katz, author of “The Easiest Way,” a book written about the principles of Ho’oponopono, added to the idea of giving thanks the concept of also letting go of having to have a specific outcome when things are difficult.  She talked to us about hitting the "delete key" in our lives when we want to change things.  She shared with us the idea that when we release our tight hold, it opens space for something new and better.
 
Christina Sarchio, partner at the law firm of Howrey LLP, spoke of her practice of reading the biographies of inspirational business leaders and/or women.  She told us that reading about others helps her to see that everyone goes through difficult times, and it also suggests strategies for how to deal with challenges.
 
And, of course, many of our guests also talked about relying on a Higher Power of some sort and saying a prayer.  Whether our guest practiced a more traditional spirituality (for example, Catholicism), or a different kind of belief system, many women shared with us that they turn to their faith when things are tough.
 
Check in with us next week, when we’ll be sharing even more motivational strategies from our guests…

Struggles and seeing worth…

This week I decided to do something fun!  We’ve been talking over the past few weeks about knowing your own worth, being comfortable in your skin.
 
Look below to see some quotes from past guests about some of their struggles with seeing their worth and being comfortable with who they are, and how they resolved those.
 
From Nancy Mirabal, professor of history at SFSU:The hardest thing for me has actually been…to see myself as an intellectual, as someone who has the right to do this work.
 
[She learned to say], "I have a right to do this, and I have a right to be an authority."
 
From Elma Gonzalez, Professor Emeritus at UCLA: I guess my main characteristic is curiosity; I was very curious as a child, I poked my nose into a lot of things.
 
At some point I did realize it is all about thinking you could do it and that you should be able to do it.
 
From Jessica Herrera-Flanigan, General Counsel and Staff Director of the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security:  I’m a pretty stubborn person sometimes; when I make a decision, I can just say okay, that’s what I’m going to do!
 
I think the biggest thing is just being yourself.  You shouldn’t have to change who you are.  I mean, there are protocols.  There are certain things you have to do to get by in certain environments, but that doesn’t mean changing who you are.
 
From Nancy Rodriguez, owner of Tochtli Angel Arts:  I had no problem with that term [tomboy]; I thought it was really cool.  I didn’t really get what it meant, but I know I felt I was very happy with who I was, so I thought, that’s cool, whatever you want to call me…
 
When I had my spiritual awakening, I was just so relaxed about who I was.  I was able to blossom and be calm and let go of fear.

So each of these women (our first four interviewees) talked about their comfort level, knowing who they were, what they wanted, and just going for it.
 
Stay tuned for more quotes in the upcoming weeks.  I hope you enjoy these words of wisdom as much as I do!
 
Have a great weekend, and don’t forget Hispanic Heritage Month just officially started this last week — check out the celebrations near you!
 
Con cariño,

P.S.  In case you missed recent interviews, you can purchase either the audio or the transcript (or both).  Click here to find out more…

Be comfortable in who you are…

Our guests have made the point over and over again that knowing yourself and being COMFORTABLE in who you are is so key.
 
It’s that level of comfort that has allowed them to follow their passion and really flourish and give back.
 
We’ve been talking about knowing your self worth, and reflecting on the steps our guests have taken to be successful.  The foundation has to be strong, before the structure can be built.  So let’s talk about this comfort level… 
 
Many of our guests shared with us different aspects of their lives that at one point they weren’t comfortable with, and yet once they learned to embrace who and what they were, it freed them to do amazing things.
 
Sandra Robbie shared with us a story from her college years when she heard the song Lowrider and was trying to figure out how (and if) she connected with the other students on campus playing that song, and in fact, the culture from which the song came (which at the time was a sub-culture of the Mexican-American roots she grew up with).  She told us the lyrics say, "Everyone knows the lowrider…." and she said to herself, "But I don’t!"
 
Sandra also told us that she was insecure because she didn’t speak Spanish well.  Note:  This happened to several of our guests and is such an interesting topic that there will be a whole issue dedicated to this later…  But Sandra learned to embrace her history and recognize that the characteristic of not speaking Spanish, or not speaking it well, is so common among Latinos.
 
Recall that Sandra went on to produce and direct the documentary of Mendez v. Westminster, telling the story of civil rights and desegregation of schools in California.  The Mendez case was the testing ground for the later successful Brown v. Board of Education case, which is a touchstone for the nation.  Further, Sandra has traveled the country sharing the M v. W part of the story and working to bridge the gap between people.
 
Nancy Rodriguez was also so clear with us about her experiences and how it changed her life when she became more comfortable with who she was.  Although she’d been asked for years if she was lesbian, she vehemently denied that she was.
 
Once she was able to learn more about her background, her indigenous roots, embrace her past, and connect with her spiritual self, she was able to open herself to the possibility and truly be comfortable with who she is.
 
Nancy is now the owner of Tochtli Angel Arts, a cultural arts management and planning company, and organizes indigenous arts seminars and events, among many other things.
 
Sylvia Martinez also recounted to us her discomfort when being assumed to know certain things.  She told us of also wishing her Spanish skills were better, but then becoming more comfortable in who she was and laughing with colleagues at the stereotypes the publishing industry has of what it means to be Latina.
 
As a writer, journalist and speaker, Sylvia learned to accept who she was — her personal history– and this cleared the way for her to take on the project of writing The Book of Latina Women:  150 Vidas (Lives) of Passion, Strength and Success.
 
On the flip side of this, Arisa Batista Cunningham, Vice President, Global Diversity, for the Johnson & Johnson Comprehensive Care and Surgical Care Groups told us of her difficulty in speaking English when she first came to college in the U.S.  Although she was very comfortable and competent in reading and writing English, she was teased mercilessly by a certain key professor, as well as classmates.
 
She used this event in her life as a challenge, however, got help with her skills and was able to prove to everyone the scope of her true abilities.
 
Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, best-selling author, spoke with us (and shows us in her work!) that what it means to be Latina is not just one thing.  That we have a variety of experiences and backgrounds and that we don’t fit just one mold (on so many different levels).  We come from so many different races, religions, and countries.  We have different immigration status, or length of history in the U.S., different experiences in school and different class status.  The list of our variety is endless…
 
Emily Matos told us of becoming comfortable with who she was even in the face of other girls around her telling her she acted "white."  Now this is an issue all its own, so we won’t go into this in detail now (again, see future newsletters), but the idea that when someone is successful, studious or does well in objective ways that they’re trying to be "white" is an experience that many of us have gone through. 
 
Luckily, Emily, currently a graduate student at NYU, was comfortable with herself and able to brush off the comments she got and again, let her skills take her where she wanted to go.
 
María Reinat Pumarejo, co-director of the Institute for Latino Empowerment, and nominee in 2005 for the Nobel Peace Prize as part of the 1000 Women for Peace, summed it up nicely when she said, "You need to look deep inside yourself to be able to love who you are."
 
So, mujer, whatever you’re not comfortable with, look at it closely.  Figure out what it is, and take a deep breath and relax.  Do what you need to do to be able to accept ALL of you…right now…in this moment.
 
Hasta la próxima!

Supporting your dreams…

Norma Cantú, professor at UTSA told us this week during her interview that her goal at age 16 was to "end war" in the world.  While she joked about the optimism of youth and how compared to this goal she felt like a failure, the observation/remembrance made me think quite a bit.
 
What if Norma already has ended war — a war she didn’t know might have existed and never got a chance to start.  How many people has she touched and how can she know the possible affect she’s had on them?
 
Recall that over the past few weeks we’ve been talking about self-worth, being comfortable with who we are, and figuring out our mission.
 
Well, as young people, we have grand goals and dreams, and that’s a good thing!  The optimism of youth is something we should maintain and cherish, according to another of our interviewees, Emily Matos, currently a graduate student at NYU.  Also, the dreams of our youth help point us in the direction of our passion and a life of meaning.
 
Being comfortable with who you are starts with finding and knowing your self-worth and then leads next into believing that anything is possible.  With that openness of possibility comes the ability to dream BIG.  And hopefully, each of you also had the opportunity to dream BIG as a child.

And if you didn’t, it’s never too late…
 
Norma’s interview this week gave a nice example of how we do "end war" — or at least prevent it in the first place!  Valuing children, teaching them how to think and explore, giving them space and ability to dream, and then supporting those dreams is all part of the key.
 
So, Norma, maybe you did "end war" — maybe not all of it in the world (yet) but let’s applaud those dreams of youth and work to keep them healthy and alive.  What did you dream of as a child?  How can you nurture and support those dreams in your life now?
 
Norma’s changing the world right now — and has done so throughout her history.  Let’s each recall our dreams and reflect on what it means about who we are and what we can accomplish.
 
To YOUR expansive and (un?)believable dreams,
 
Aurelia 

P.S.  In case you missed Norma’s interview, you can purchase either the audio or the transcript (or both) of the interview at the special pre-sale price until next Wednesday.  Click here to find out more…

Norma Elia Cantú

Award-winning author and professor Norma Elia Cantú is a Chicana postmodernist writer and a professor of English and U.S. Latina/o Literature at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Dr. Cantú has published extensively in folklore and literary studies as well as poetry and fiction.  Her scholarly interests include folklore, Chicana literature, and borderlands studies.

>>  Join me as I ask her what drew her to this area of study and what she continues to enjoy the most about it.

Norma was born in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico and grew up in Laredo, Texas, where she attended public schools.

>>  I’ll be asking her about her growing up in Laredo and her family background.

Prior to her UTSA professorship, Dr. Cantu taught in Laredo at Texas A&M International University.

Norma received her A.A. degree from Laredo Community College in 1970. She received her bachelor of science degree in English and political science from Texas A&M International University in Laredo, from which she graduated summa cum laude in 1973. She received her master of science degree in English with a minor in political science from Texas A&I University-Kingsville in 1976 and her Ph.D. in English from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1982.

>>  What has been Norma’s career path and what can we learn from her choices?

Dr. Cantú is the editor of a book series, Rio Grande/Rio Bravo: Borderlands Culture and Tradition, at Texas A&M University Press.

Author of the award-winning Canícula Snapshots of a Girlhood en la Frontera (New Mexico, 1995 and 2000), she edited Flor y Ciencia: Chicanas in Mathematics, Science and Engineering (Adelante Project, 2006) and has co-edited Chicana Traditions: Continuity and Change (Illinois, 2002), and Telling to Live: Latina Feminst Testimonios (Duke, 2001).

Norma has just finished a novel, Cabañuelas and is currently working on another novel tentatively titled: Champú, or Hair Matters.

She is also working on an ethnography of the Matachines de la Santa Cruz, a religious dance drama from Laredo, Texas and a collection of poetry.

>>  From the variety of writing that Norma does, what is the common theme?  What is most interesting to her about her projects?

Norma’s presentations include:  Canícula: Snapshots of a Girlhood en la Frontera, La Quinceañera and Other Latina Life-Cycle Markers and Chicano Literature of the Tejano Borderlands.

Aside from her teaching, writing and speaking commitments, her current passions include getting the Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa off and running (www.ssganzaldua.org) and preparing to teach a summer course in Toledo.

>>  I’ll also be asking her about her newest project and what all is involved.

She formerly served as senior arts specialist at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Folk and Traditional Arts Program and as acting director of the Center for Chicano Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

She has also served on the boards of the American Folklore Society and the Federation of State Humanities Councils.

You Have a Mission!

Last week we discussed knowing our own worth.  But where does this sense of worth come from?  And how do we overcome messages that don’t value who we are and the special contributions each of us  have?
 
One of the ways that our guests knew they were valuable and worthwhile is because someone around them supported them and guided them and told them of their worth.
 
So make sure and value those messages from the people around you, even if they’ve been far and few between.  But what if there’s no one around to tell you how special and important and unique you are? 
 
Part of the message we’ve received is that we can know our own value and have faith in that value, even when no one else around us believes in us or sees the potential, because each one of us is uniquely blessed and given a different gift, a different mission in life.
 
Nancy Marmolejo, CEO of VivaVisibility.com, told us that she helps her clients each find and share the "special medicine" they have with the world.  Nancy told us about her belief that we all have a unique gift and it’s up to us to develop that and get it out there.
 
Juana Bordas, CEO of Mestiza Leadership International also told us of her belief that everyone is called to serve as a leader (servant leadership) at different points in their life, based on their own callings.  And Juana actually also puts out products helping you find your mission (check out her booklet on finding your personal purpose which she sells on her website at www.mestizaleadership.com).
 
Consuelo Kickbusch, Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army (Retired), and Founder & President of Educational Achievement Services, Inc. told us stories of working to convince young people, especially, of  their importance and worth.  She was this past week’s interviewee and shared with us how people taught her to look beyond what people might "normally" see to really see the value of each individual.
 
Next week we’ll talk about how our interviewees have taught us the importance of being comfortable with who you are.  This comes in part from knowing what is important to you, your likes and dislikes, what you’re good at, and how it fits in the bigger picture.
 
But in the meantime, ask yourself if you know all the uniqueness and specialness of you — take some notes, if necessary.  And what that is special about you is showing you what YOUR mission is?
 
Do you know what it is yet?  And if not, what do you need to explore to figure it out?  If you know what it is, great!  If not, just know that you DO have a mission and a purpose and you are given wonderful gifts to be able to carry it out.
 
Maybe it’s all a matter of relaxing into your whole being to learn what it is.  Join us next week…

What is your mission?

Wow!  Every week I am so moved and inspired by my interviewees, and this week was no different.  Consuelo shared some amazing stories with us about people she’s spoken to and worked with.  
Consuelo has now been sharing her message of hope and encouragement for over ten years and she shared with us several occasions of meeting people whose lives she had changed through her speaking engagements.
 
It’s important for us never to forget the impact we have on others’ lives and the number of lives we touch in big and small ways. 

Although Consuelo has made it her mission to reach out and share her messages in places that might be difficult and dangerous (such as schools where no one else will go), we also have an influence on the lives around us and the people we touch.
 
One of the people Consuelo had encouraged to change the path of his life went on to become a high school counsellor and keeps his jacket on to hide the tattoos he received when he was a gang member because he realizes he is a role model (until he can have them removed).
 
However you move through your days, realize there are those around you who look to you for direction on how to act (and react), what to say and what kind of attitude to have.  Whether we realize it or not, we have a profound impact on those in our circle.
 
What kind of impact are you having?  Is the kind of impact you want to have?  If not, remember you can always change it.  And if so, keep it up and realize you’re doing important work.
 
As is my message EVERY week:  remember that YOU are a Powerful Latina.
 
Con cariño,
 
Aurelia

P.S.  In case you missed Consuelo’s interview, you can purchase either the audio or the transcript (or both) of the interview at the special pre-sale price until next Wednesday.  Click here to find out more…

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