3 Women who Influenced me this Year

Now that we’re into our last month of the year, I’m looking back at what shaped me. For me a good part of it has been reading and listening to inspiring women. Here are my top three women who influenced me this year:

Arianna Huffington – On success and sleep

It was during a time that I knew I wasn’t getting enough sleep and I read various exerts of Arianna Huffington’s book, Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Happier Life. My lack of sleep was self inflicted and I was looking for motivation to get more of it! Most of the reviews and exerts of the book were mainly focused on the sleep topic and how redefining success in our lives has to do with it.

I downloaded her book on Kindle, and found so many areas of wisdom in it. She talks about the meaning of success in the terms of a career at the expense of her health and meaning of life as she built Huffington Post. She had a big wake up call after collapsing, cutting her eye and breaking her cheekbone. After a series of medical exams to find out what was wrong with her; it simply came down to exhaustion. She took a good look at her life.

The overall message is to find balance and meaning in life, to stop hurting our health and relationships by striving so relentlessly for success as defined by society. That doesn’t mean stop achieving; it’s more about finding success in the richness of life. Oh and to get enough sleep. In fact, Arianna suggests we sleep our way to the top, quite literally.

Elizabeth Gilbert – Your Elusive Creative Genius

I was one of the millions that enjoyed Eat Pray Love. It’s not the book that influenced me this year, I read it many years ago. It was the author, Elizabeth Gilbert’s TED Talk about the creative process. The talk was recommended to me by my coach Jac, and it really spoke to me. This talk is brilliantly delivered and it resonated with me in so many ways, including some of the kooky things she does when the words just don’t flow. Knowing that she does these crazy antics too, encouraged me to do it more… Yep, guilty here but it works!

Dame Stephanie Shirley – Why do ambitious woman have flat heads

I had never heard of this woman until listening to this TED talk. She is actually one of the most successful tech entrepreneurs of all time, dating back to the 1960’s. It’s an inspiring talk about how she pioneered an all-woman software company in the UK, empowering them back into the workforce after having children, thinking up creative ways for them to do this, like working remotely. Once again, this was in the 1960’s! Dame Stephanie Shirley was way ahead of the time. If you don’t know about this amazing woman, watch this talk.

So what about you? Who or what inspired you this year?

Mel x

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