2007 Women's Conference in California

I'm spending a lot of time in the car these days, and thanks to the miracle of satellite radio, it really is becoming a University on Wheels. Yesterday I caught a re-broadcast of last year's Women's Conference and nearly had to pull over several times. One - to take notes. Two - to take stock.

With the latest financial uproar, it's left me adrift in a working world where I used to know my place. Where I got up every morning with purpose and pride. These days it's a struggle to find purpose...and I hate it. I tied so much of my own meaning in to who I was as a business woman. How was I revered by my peers, how much money I made this month, how much I contributed to my 401k, how big my bonus was....

Without those markers of success I'm struggling to find accomplishment in stupid things like laundry and weeding....not that I'm any good at either, as my husband will attest. So most days, I don't do either, and I wander around my "home office" looking for things to do, yet never finding what I'm looking for.

So yesterday, as I was listening to a hodge podge of women stand up and talk about Legacy (it was last year's topic) I started to wonder if I had been creating a legacy after all. What, really was I leaving behind? What, really, am I teaching my child(ren)? That success is measured in bonuses and 401ks - kudos and praise from co-workers?

Jamie Lee Curtis's presentation really did get me to pull the car over. She found a Buddist book that said at the end of our life we are asked two questions: Did I learn to live wisely? Did I love well?

She now asks herself those questions every night...I think I'm going to do the same. Taking stock in the day and really measuring whether I got the most out of it....live WISELY, love WELL. That's heavy....and I think it will require me to be very honest with myself.