Now more than ever, becoming a courageous, bodacious woman can bring true sanity to your life.  What does bodacious really mean?  The dictionary definition includes the descriptors bold, outstanding, remarkable, and audacious.  Being bodacious became a personal rallying cry during my demanding 10 year career with AOL while I also dealt with a difficult marriage.  Out of this experience I came up with my own definition of bodacious:   The courage to be in charge of your life and lovin’ it!

To understand what it means to live bodaciously, I created the Bodacious Woman Mantra – 4 easy phrases to remember and guide you.

1. Look Within. Bodacious Women know that all the skills, techniques, and savvy in the world won’t stick until you improve the quality of your inner messages.  Looking Within means trusting your inner voice.  If you listen carefully, your inner voice will help you determine how you feel and what you want.  It also means protecting yourself from self-esteem busters.  Unfortunately, our culture tends to confuse self-esteem with self-absorption or just plain selfishness, and this confusion leads women not taking care of themselves. 

2.  Think Strategically.  You can't decide how to get where you're going until you decide where you are going and why.  Well, duh.  But how many times do we race off in the morning going from one thing to another until we drop?   Those days turn into weeks, and weeks turn into months or years, and we wonder why we’re not happy.  So, here's the question:  Do you know what you want?  Or, are you simply moving in the direction you believe you were supposed to?   You can only be happy when you move in a direction that’s true to who you are.

3. Act Bodaciously.  This involves saying what you want and taking a risks, which is often something women aren’t comfortable doing.  Maybe you're thinking that it's not "nice" to say so directly what you want.  Consider this:  It's not "nice" to muffle your communication so that others don't know what you want and don’t have a chance to respond, which leaves everyone frustrated and full of blame.

When it comes to taking risks, Bodacious Women know that to get anywhere in life takes risk.  They also know that the biggest risk is not taking one at all.  Giving something a shot that doesn't work out as planned doesn't mean you're a failure; it means you're a Bodacious Woman demonstrating her guts and courage.

4.  Love Every Minute of It! Stay energized and engaged by being serious about not being so serious!  Laugh as much as possible and find the humor that's begging to be discovered.  Be playFULL and let your happiness shine through.

Use the Bodacious Woman Mantra to create more sanity in your life and become the courageous, bodacious women you were meant to be!