Over and over again, I am amazed at the accomplished, successful, wonderful women I meet that lack self-confidence.  These women are powerhouses with amazing resumes, wonderful families and incredible experiences.  Yet, when the leave and re-enter the workforce, their confidence disappears.

Confidence is critical to career success.  It is critical to the job search process, resume development, interviewing and work-life balance.

If you predominantly work from home and very rarely have to physically go into the office, you may get jitters when the time comes to make an actual appearance in person. This happened to me recently. I literally work from home about 90% of the time, but recently I was asked to come into our New York office for training. Oh well, there goes the bunny slippers! I immediately went to my closet to take inventory. It's been 7 years since I've actually worked around other people and unfortunately my wardrobe reflected it.

What happened to Paula Deen?

The Food Network dropped her like something deep fried and smothered in butter. But her fans are defending her and still lining up at her restaurant.

Your attitude is what will determine if you fail or succeed. Only you allow yourself to quit. No one can make you do anything it is only you to blame if you fail because you allowed it to happen.

I finally took the opportunity to volunteer in my daughter’s first grade class. It just happened to be the last day of school. Is it horrible to admit that I had deliberately not used my vacation or comp days to serve in Lexi’s classroom? If it is, then at least I have another 11 years to remedy the situation. My husband is a regular volunteer in the class, and I was excited about having my turn…until he came home from volunteering and told me that the teacher planned on working me hard during my allotted time.

Getting a job can be a challenge, especially if you are changing careers.  Some individuals believe offering to temp or freelance is a viable and productive way to receive a full-time offer from a company.  But unless you are changing careers (or otherwise feel you are at the end of your rope), I DO NOT recommend offering to temp or freelance for a company.

We all live our lives according to many rules.

Some of these rules we are aware of. Many of them we’re not.

Mama said there'd be days like these - or in my case a month.  Really, do I deserve a pity party any more than the next working  mom?  I mean is my crazy month all that special - two trips away from home (one business one for fun to be fair), end of school year scheduling adjustments, sick dog, unexpected health blip (nothing crazy that a little extra thyroid meds won't fix), and death of a friend all packed on top of the usual hectic work week and family and social commitments.  That's just life, right?

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Last week I connected with some powerful national presenters and we discussed the concept of self-care. Like many, they see self-care as something you "should do" for your physical health (exercise, eat well, get enough sleep), but that's where it ends. They were curious when I shared that I define self-care as the art of attuning and responding to your needs and desires, moment to moment.