I am reading Seth Godin’s newest book “Poke the Box” and, as always, he is able to say lots of important things in skinny little books. This is one place where skinny really works best. Here is the essence of what you will read sprinkled with good facts and stories: it is up to you to innovate, instigate, and be the gadfly in your world.

The way of the world is in constant flux, yet we want to believe it is static. Every day you can see that what was safe and sure yesterday is not like that today. Just watching the crisis in Japan is a wakeup call that we never know what is there to disrupt our same old same old way of behaving.

The words for this era are instigate, provoke, discover. I so agree with Seth. And thus we are starting a series of GUTSY WOMEN RETREATS. These are the days for women to shout out, be in front, be zany, and be outrageous in making change happen.

It is time for all of us to “poke the box”, check out what we have learned as the right way to be and decide for ourselves what we can do to help our families, our organizations, our communities with innovative and important ideas to make all of us work together better.

We will also have GUTSY COUPLES RETREATS starting in the fall because we have been asked to take our leadership concepts into new areas. First we will tend to women in our May 20-22 workshop at The Country Place Retreat and Conference Center in the beautiful Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania.

The theme of GUTSY WOMEN RETREATS is: self-care, self-aware, pattern-aware. First comes nurturing; think of it this way “a hungry waitress makes a very poor server”! Then comes personal awareness, the “what makes me tick” thoughts. Next, our special and unique contribution about the essence of relationships and patterns of ingrained behavior in our lives.

So, call for a brochure and join us as we “poke the box” and explore better, best ways forward in your life. Or give this week-end as a mother’s day gift to those you know are and can be GUTSY. It’s what the world needs now!!!!