The long awaited post about the Mary Kay retreat. (or at least I hope it has been long awaited... lol)

Warning! Long post alert!!!

By the way, in this picture she was 75. Check out her skin! It is FLAWLESS!!! Oh, and I should mention that when this picture was taken, photoshop WASN'T available.




















Rocket Scientist, Bug and I headed off last Friday around 3 or just after 3 to drop Bug off at my parents house (thanks for watching Bug for a weekend!), and we continued south to the ski resort for the retreat. The only thing that night was dinner, and thankfully, we made it in time even though we were kind of late in leaving and finding where we needed to be.

Dinner was... well it was good, but the festivities afterward were... to say the least interesting. Especially for someone who hadn't been to one of these events before (namely... me). It was entertaining, funny, and many people were recognized, which is a normal thing in my career. People get recognized with prizes (made with diamonds for the bigger accomplishments, and just really classy stuff) for the things that they do. Did I say I love my job yet? Anyway, I was expecting the recognition since we do that every week at meetings. But all the funny things? Yeah, that kind of took me off guard. But it was probably just a small look into what seminar is like, but that is for another post (after I come back from it as new director ^_^). Seminar (for those who don't know what I'm talking about...) is basically the same thing as retreat, but for the whole Mary Kay company. Everyone gathers in Texas where the headquarters are, and cheer for each other, learn from each other and don't sleep at night. At least that is what I have been told, since I have never been to seminar, that is the best I could tell you.

Anyway, back to the story... one thing that was unique about this particular retreat in my home state, was that the president of the Mary Kay company was coming. He (yes, I did say he) was hilarious! I wish I would have taken my camera with me, because when I first walked into the ballroom where everything happened (dinner, classes, etc...) there he was. Within 5 feet from me. I wanted to go say hi, but my cowardice prevented me. Besides, I didn't even have a camera. Anyway, so yeah, he was hilarious. He accepted with good graces all the craziness of all the women around him. He even wore a pink cowboy hat. Anyway, what an inspiration and wonderful man he is. I would like to actually talk to him someday... Oh, and did I tell you that the president picks only one retreat to go to a year and he chose the one that just happens to be in my home state? Yeah, pretty cool huh?

So, yeah that was the first look into the Mary Kay world that I had only heard of before. I went back to my room and fell asleep, Rocket Scientist with me even though he needed to stay on track with his graveyard shift sleeping habits. That didn't work too well this weekend, cause, well there were things going on during the day, and he couldn't really sleep in the afternoon like he normally does. He almost fell asleep during the dinner and thing afterward because that is when he normally sleeps.

So, next day now. This is Saturday, and the day starts off and ends with classes. This day was chock full of classes. The first one I got from my awesome National Sales Director. She first talked about the heritage of Mary Kay's business, and showed old magazines and things. Way cool. Then she talked a little about time management, and the program that she set up called the Perfect 10. The idea is to have 10 skin care classes in one month and 10 interviews. Then your business slingshots. Anyway, I won't get too far into that. This day was full of classes and had many inspirational quotes and things. One of them my National said and I will tell you now. "You will only perform to the level of your self-esteem." That was certainly an eye opener. My self-esteem isn't really all that high. And guess what? My work hadn't been all that great. Interesting that I hadn't realized that connection before.

So anyway, then the next class started, though I can't remember the person who talked, I got a lot of sayings from her too. She talked about two different things. "Getting your head in the game and keeping it there" and "Keeping focused". I think the overall subject matter for her was "Winning your mental game". Which is something that I really needed help with. Still do I guess. But every subject matter that they talked about was what I needed to hear. Anyway, so some of the sayings from her were:

Getting your head in the game and keeping it there
"Don't talk negative to yourself or anybody else."
"Forgive yourself for mistakes, then do it again."
"Don't ever compare yourself to others."
"Surround yourself with people that uplift you and hold you accountable."
"Reward yourself with a job well done."

Keeping focused
"Life is a doin' it yourself thing."
"We're not paid for what we know, but what we do."
"Someday is not a day of the week." (love that one)
"It's not what you think you are that holds you back. It's what you think you aren't."
"The best is always kept on life's top shelf. So reach for it."
"The #1 regret of American women is not fulfilling their dream."
"It's best to learn from the very best and copy none."
"The hardest part of faith is in the last half hour."
"The strongest form of leadership is learning how to be up while you're down."
"You can't expect too much too soon, or you do too little too late."

Then after that I think we had lunch. That was emotionally lifting in of itself because of the person that I talked to. She is in my unit (though I think she is an adoptee) and we talked about, what else?, business. I explained to her why I hadn't done much this month (it is the birth month of my son that died) and you know what she told me? She had lost two kids (I can't remember their genders). I suddenly saw her in a new light. I knew I could go to her for help no matter what. She did say that the pain never goes away, you just learn to live with it. Too much for my hopes that the pain would leave...

After lunch classes resumed. Everyone divided again (I was in the consultant/senior consultant under one year classes) and we were inspired and taught again. Here are some notes from my Time Management/Self-discipline class.

"Must know how to say no to the good so you can say yes to the better and best." (I already knew that one cause of the General Conference talk called "Good, Better, Best")

Tips from Mary Kay (herself)

• You don't have to do it all
• Organize your desk
• Filing System "Touch it once"
• Listen to educational CD's (from the Mary Kay company made by top directors)
• 5' o clock club (wake up at five every day)
• Get ready for the rest of the day right when you wake up. (I struggle with this. I'm still in pj's.....)
• Work expands for the amount of time available to do it. (like if you say cleaning your house will take one day, and it will take one day. But then someone says they are coming over in a half an hour, and guess what, you get your house clean in that amount of time.)

"Action gets rid of fear and guilt"

Self-discipline

Procrastination vs. productivity

"I haveta" vs. "I get to"
"I must finish" vs. "When can I start"
"It's SO big" vs. "I can take one step"
"I must be perfect" vs. "I can be human"
"I don't have time to play" vs. "I must make time to play"

The next class was about Finding your inner strength. So here's some thoughts from that one.

"I'm gonna mess up. Several hundred times"
"Fear only exists in your mind."
LOVE this one. "We would never tell anyone else, even our worst enemies, the things we tell ourselves. Why do we allow ourselves to do that to us?"
"Believe in yourself"
"Learn something new every day."
"Give yourself permission to change."
"You'll never know how great you can be unless you try"
"It's not who you are, it's who you choose to become."
"If what's in your dreams was not already real inside you, you couldn't dream it."
"You can make money and excuses but not both."

Then we had our holiday sales class, but I won't bore you with that. Then that day was done. AMAZING stuff!!! One thing that really surprised me was that we didn't talk a ton about the business, but how to lift ourselves up. How to feel better about ourselves, so we could do better in our business. Anyway, so people asked me after I got back how it was, and honestly, it was amazing and uplifting and really there wasn't any words to explain it.

That night I missed out on my unit's party of sorts because I didn't know about it, but I did wait for my roommates to come back. Eventually I stopped waiting and opened the hide-a-bed that I was in so we could get some sleep. They got home around 1:00 maybe 12:30 but in any case, I didn't expect them to take that long with whatever we were doing. I didn't fall asleep before they got back and we ended up talking until around 5 in the morning! Yeah, we were crazy, but I needed it. I had a lot of emotional problems I was dealing with and it was good to get them out. We talked like best friends. Talking about one thing, then switching subjects with seemingly no connection between the two subjects. It was really fun and a burden off my back as I tried to explain my feelings toward the sisters in my ward that have just had babies.

Sunday morning we had another meeting, and pretty much all that happened there was multiple people were asked to talk about their "I story". Which really is what they were before they started their business, what made them choose this business, and where they have come. All of these stories were inspirational and helped everyone know that they are not alone in their struggles. It kind of reminded me of testimony meeting. lol

Then at the end of that meeting everyone got a goal paper and we wrote down what we wanted to get and when we would get them by. On the back of that paper we needed to put a purpose. Mine I wrote in big letters. CAUSE I'M WORTH IT! I did think of writing down something to the effect that my family needs the money and all that. And that is a good purpose, but I don't think it is the best. I need to do things for me, and what better things than those that will help my family too? And every woman needs girl time. No matter how much they love their husbands or kids. If they don't do things for them, but only things for their family, they lose themselves. I know how that is. I have lost myself in being a mom, and that is good, being a mom that is, but losing myself isn't a good thing.

I made my goals and gave them to my director and I just felt so uplifted and amazed at the whole thing. I should have written this all down earlier so I could remember just how I felt, but I'm glad that I have finally written this down so when I get down, I can read it again. Sorry it is so long, but I just got so much out of this!

Thanks for reading, and I hope some of the thoughts I shared will help you in your daily lives.