It’s no secret that modern life is stressful. And trying to succeed while following your dreams and being happy at the same time can seem downright impossible, especially when you throw career, children, fitness and pleasure into the mix.
Professional speaker and corporate coach Catherine Scheers is hoping to provide a life raft with a new book she’s coauthored, called Success University for Women, specifically designed to help women get what they want and become resilient in the face of life’s obstacles.
The book came about after Scheers and Jan Fraser, a corporate performance expert in leadership and stress management, were at an event with Jack Canfield, an industry leader in motivational speaking and writing. He is known for creating the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series.
“What we did was we asked some of the most successful women we know, what is the number one quality that you feel has helped make you successful?” Scheers said.
Out of that desire, 24 women from different careers and backgrounds from various parts of the world wrote their strategies for achieving success.
“It means having a vision for your life and keeping that foremost in your mind, and to keep going regardless of what life throws at you. In every instance, life threw a lot of stuff at people.”
Scheers said although they all came from different walks of life, from a magazine cover model to a farmer to a commercial airline pilot, they all shared a common value.
“They all had a very strong vision for what they wanted in their lives.”
Scheers said that one of the hardest obstacles to overcome is “the idea that we have to have it all.”
“There’s this idea that we have to have it all. The perfect life, the perfect everything; that we have to be superwomen and have perfect children, perfectly kept homes, perfect career, perfect bodies.”
“When we don’t meet that expectation, we feel somehow less than that.”
“Just as important in dispelling that belief is choosing what things matter the most in your life and setting them as priorities,” Scheers said.
“For me personally what works is picking what’s most important in my life. I have five things that are the most important to me. And whenever I’m given the choice, I pick one of those. I think that’s the real key to stay focused.
“For me, it’s my family. My children are all grown and gone but if one of them calls and says ‘I’m coming to Cochrane’ and I have clients booked, I cancel my clients, because I’ve already said my family is most important to me.”
In Scheers’ own chapter, she candidly describes her own struggle when her husband was laid off from his stable, well-paying job in the energy sector.
She not only dealt with the inherent stress of the situation but also the stress of trying to maintain a “veneer” of perfection expected of a business coach, which she delves into in the chapter.
“Once the book had gone to the printer, I panicked, I thought, ‘oh my god, what was I thinking?!’ I’ve dropped the veneer, I’ve exposed myself to the world.”
However, those fears proved unfounded she said, when she received a positive response to her frankness in showing vulnerability. One reader from Ireland, who’s husband had been unemployed for five years, reached out Scheers and left an impression.
After reading Scheers’ chapter, the woman said her husband found new resolve in dealing with his situation.
“I read the email and I just cried. I thought ‘That’s why I did it, that’s why I dropped that veneer and showed this is real.’”
Scheers held an event for Success University for Women at the Water Valley Church on Jan. 21. The response from the community was so great she has decided to facilitate a monthly book club in the area.
The Water Valley Success Book Club launched Feb. 1 starting its first book, The Success Principles, 10th Anniversary Edition, by Jack Canfield. The book club will aim at reading books oriented toward personal development.
The club will also focus on experiential-learning in order to implement the books’ advice into their everyday lives. Chapters will be read weekly and the group can update one another on their readings through their Facebook page until they gather at the monthly meeting.
Scheers explained the need for this book club comes as people are getting laid off or fear they may about to be laid off.
“With the economy, people are getting depressed and blue, there’s a lot of despair and hopelessness. What I suggested to them is that we focus on our personal economy versus the global economy that we can’t control,” Scheers said.
To learn more about the club or to RSVP, contact Kristine Sarsons at [email protected]
Scheers will be holding another event for her book, this time in Cochrane, at the soon-to-be-open Cave Sauna Day Spa - Bistro on Mar. 1.
