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...

Yesterday, as we were gathering to begin a regularly-scheduled staff meeting, four of us were just catching up with each other on what was going on in our personal lives. One woman shared that she had just been to the doctor for her annual physical, and not only was she excited about the significant weight she had already lost, but had set a new goal to lose 17 additional pounds. Another talked about completing her first workout with a personal trainer, and how she was looking forward to the next one. And the third woman, well, talk about being on a mission. She shared that she has set a goal to compete in a triathlon, and had begun daily training for the fall event. As each of them was sharing their personal vision, I could sense the excitement in their voices, I could see by their body language that they had a sense of pride about what they were doing, and I began to feel those same things somehow magically being transferred to me. My adrenaline began to rise (or at least it felt like...