Friday, 3 June 2011

About - How Very Smart Girls™ Got Started

About

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How Very Smart Girls™ Got Started

It was the spring of 2004 and I was in Fresno, California visiting a very dear girlfriend who had turmoil in her life.  One afternoon my friend, her teenage daughter, and I went to a local coffee shop.  The air was dense and the situation seemed unmanageable.  Suddenly I said, “Very Smart Girls have a strategy.” My friend’s 13-year old daughter asked me what a strategy was and I told her. 

Over the next few days we exchanged more Very Smart Girls concepts such as Very Smart Girls have Positive Cash Flow (in this case, so we can enjoy more coffee together!) and Very Smart Girls have Options.  It was a classic case of an issue becoming a blessing.  We managed to laugh, learn and share important life skills.  Very Smart Girls was started.

About Very Smart Girls

The intention of Very Smart Girls is to provide you with practical skills, tools, and wisdom so that you have uplifting and successful personal and professional experiences.  Only you can build your best life and I hope Very Smart Girls inspires you to do so!

“The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experiences.”   Eleanor Roosevelt

Very Smart Girls is action-oriented. Experience your own success and you can feel, and be, empowered and enthusiastic to continue to do what works for you.

Our mission is to provide easily accessible, useful and timeless concepts and resources for you to use at any age. You may notice that Very Smart Girls will not specifically tell you “how to lose 20 pounds.”  We want to provide the tools to manifest whatever you choose to manifest. The essence of Very Smart Girls is about personal growth and development; keys to success include willingness, mindfulness and joyful practice.

There is so much to learn from each other.  Please comment on articles and stay tuned for more ways to be part of Very Smart Girls.

How to Use Very Smart Girls

The website has 4 primary categories.  As you work with the 4 categories, you will joyfully discover that they are interrelated.

Manifesting- manifesting is primarily about achieving goals in the physical world.  Perhaps you want to manifest a new habit such as taking vitamins each day or getting a new job.  You pick what you want to manifest in your life.

Mental Clarity & Calmness- great masters teach the importance of mental clarity and calmness.  When do you make your best decisions? Most likely it is when you are calm and centered. 

Relationship Communication Skills- these skills apply to both personal and professional relationships. A successful life includes the quality of your experiences with others and vice versa. 

Wellness- wellness is about the quality of your complete life.  Beyond eating healthy food and exercising, there is so much more.  For example, you can have a Joy List in addition to your To Do list. 

Definition

Ver-y Smart Girls
-          A way of being

Pronounced “ver-ee  smahrt  gurlz “

  1. Experiencing success in personal and professional relationships
  2. Living with clarity, intention, calmness, joy, peace and happiness
  3. Proactively Building your Best Life
  4. Enthusiastically committed to lifelong learning, personal development & growth
  5. Self-aware, conscious, mindful
  6. Being the best person you can be, and knowing that you are
  7. Sharing effective life skills with others    

Synonyms:
self-improvement, conscious living, life balance, empowerment, personal power, equanimity, genuine, authentic, positive, healthy

About Me

I am a personal growth enthusiast and participant. For most of my adult life, I have easily and naturally put energy into learning ways to personally grow and learn.  I consistently seek out uplifting classes, seminars, lectures, books and music.   If I had a hectic schedule and could only attend one class in a three class series, I would go to that one class versus not going at all. 

My friends would ask, “Can you just sit down and read a trashy novel?”  I couldn’t. 

Although the term “Very Smart Girls” manifested in 2004, the concept has been in the back of my mind for a very long time: an easily accessible, valuable resource for practical personal growth ideas that is informative, positive, fun, memorable and powerful.   

I am grateful to those I have learned from, for what I have learned and experienced, for what I will continue to learn and experience, and for the opportunity to serve in a positive and uplifting way.

I acknowledge you and welcome you to Very Smart Girls!

In gratitude,

Jo-Ann Downey
Very Smart Girls™
Practical Skills, Tools, and Wisdom to Build your Best Life™

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