international women's day 2017

Happy international women's day 2017

Happy international women's day 2017.  Maybe happy isn't the right word.  I'm observing this day.  I don't know if we should quite be celebrating.  The state of humanity is teetering on the edge of being truly broken.  I don't know about wearing red, marching, resisting, or any of that.  What I do know is the following actions we can do each and every day to honor women, respect women, and be respected as women.

18 Ways to celebrate women and each other on International Women's Day 2017:

1. Be kind.  For humans, it is "harder to be kind than clever".   
2. Listen with empathy.  Understand, than speak your opinion.
3. Go wide than decide.  Check your perspective, where is your mind and heart as you speak/think?   We are way too quick to judge.  Even quicker to speak.  
4. Start with gratitude.  Like our parents likely taught us, say please and thank you.  Don't take people and blessings for granted.
5. Change starts with you.  The only thing you can really change is yourself, your attitude, your heart and your actions.  Have an opinion?  You, do something first.  People won't follow if you are not walking the talk.
6. Give it forward.  Let's take "pay it forward" further, take action in making the world a better place.  Wish someone had done something for you/another?  Take a moment to do something kind, helpful, supportive for someone else.  No ask in return.  Just because.
7. Slow down.  Yes, slow down.  Humans are not meant to send 150 emails a day, read 300 emails, facebook, tweet, text, voicemail, drive, eat hopefully, exercise, write a blog, be in meetings, all in a day.  Not even a quarter of that.  Does this all really matter?  Live a good life.  
8. Respect quality.  Good quality services, products and food.  Thank you business for not abusing child labor or 3rd world laborers.  Thank you farmer for taking the more challenging route of using less chemical pesticides.  
9. Respect life.  Pay respect to the earth for the resources we get to use.  Thank you trees for paper and our buildings.  Thank you animal for your bones, meat and leather.  Thank you plants for our air.   
10. Effort does count.  Recognize the intent and effort being put out by people.  Sometimes, it's not just the result that matters.  Hard work counts, a lot.
11. Coach and mentor.  At every step of the way in life, we are each responsible for being coaches and mentors to others.  This isn't a responsibility for those with titles or millions in the bank.  A third grader coaching a first grader.  A manager mentoring a peer.  A husband mentors a wife, and vice versa.
12. Sharing is caring.  You have an extra $10 or 100?  Treat your friends to a round at happy hour.  Buy a hot meal or a blanket for the homeless guy sitting on the street corner.  Buy lunch for a friend.  Don't go to the grave with millions in the bank.  Take care of others.  
13. Sincerely promote women.  Women don't do enough of this for each other.  Men don't do enough of this for women.  Promote women that are out there teaching, raising our future generations, fighting in the battlefields of entrepreneurship, speaking to crowds, writing books and blogs, working in nonprofits, raising money for good, and all of the acts of service for others.
14. Invest in women.  No.  I do not mean only money.  That's a small piece of the puzzle.  Invest in women by spending quality time with a woman - share a coffee and hear her thoughts and struggles.  Set up time to work shoulder-to-shoulder with her on her most important challenges.  Answer her phone calls.  Give her REAL FEEDBACK (don't couch it, don't soften it, don't filter it.)  
15. Build bridges.  Reach out to someone you haven't spoken to in awhile.  Try a phone call or Facetime or Skype.  Grab coffee.  Go see a movie.  Do a GNO (girls' night out).  Make brunch plans.  CONNECT heart to heart.
16. Love our children.  Smile when you see one walking by on the street.  Let's teach our young boys to treat other boys and girls with kindness.  Let's teach our young boys and girls to respect their own bodies and speak kindly about other people's bodies.  Let's each walk the talk in how we talk about and treat our own bodies and look at others.
17. Show you care.  Send a note.  Give a hug.  A REAL HUG, both arms around that person.  Say thank you.  Smile.  It's okay to care.  Let's stop being the world of the walking dead.  Let's take the time to care in our own ways.
18. Take a little risk.  Live a little.  Smile (and if the other person doesn't smile back, you did).  Call someone (and if they don't call back, you did).  Want to be a designer, draw something today and start designing.  Don't wait.