There is an enormous gulf between the stage where I started conceiving this exploration and the stage I am aiming for. Even the phases that shape this journey demonstrate how difficult it has been to get on the road, not to mention keep on going. Finding the strength to pull yourself out of despair and hopelessness and restore your belief in your ability to improve your life, to be happier and to be fulfilled is unbelievably debilitating. The changes are very slow, large intervals elapsing between each improvement, each one taking its time to make the necessary impact before jumping...

Well, it seems that being designated the people's choice for the best picture seen in 2014 is no sure bet for an Oscar. 42% cited American Sniper as their favorite movie of the past year, all other nominated movies getting no more than 12% of the vote. Despite not winning the Oscar, being nominated alongside other wonderful movies such as Birdman,The Imitation Game, The Theory of Everything and Selma, must mitigate the loss somewhat.  Many of the nominees for best picture this year tell the story of remarkable individuals who made a great contribution to society, leading the...

I must admit I have never considered myself a feminist. There was always something about the interpretation of the term that I couldn’t relate to. I have always found it difficult to be treated as inferior, as the victimized sector of society (though I have never been oblivious to unjustifiable favoritism on the basis of gender).  The fact that feminism represented something against femininity, against men, something revolutionary in terms of women's evolution, trying to convince us that we should forget how we were raised and even some of our inborn inclinations, well...

I was thrilled to stumble across this Ernst & Young (EY) endeavor to gather their resources, collective knowledge, experience, and influence in order to take part in accelerating the Global Gender Parity Clock. This initiative was launched as a result of the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) 2014 Global Gender Gap Report which estimated that gender parity in the workplace will only be achieved in 2095. Another 80 years, 4 generations until stereotypes, habits, and antiquated distinctions based on gender will no longer play a role in people's ability to contribute and...

You want a career? No problem, go get one! Who's stopping you? Sound familiar? These are the answers you get when sharing your frustrations as a mother looking for her way back to a productive, fulfilling, and confident life. Everything is open to us: education, equal work opportunities, no discriminating evaluation systems. Sounds good. Now it is just up to us to make our dreams come true. It all works like clockwork… until you become a mother. I remember myself with my first child, flying across the Atlantic, so sure of my ability to retain a successful career; nothing,...

"I got my mind made up, man, I can't let go. I'm killing every second 'til it saves my soul. (Ooh) I'll be running, (Ooh) I'll be running, 'Til the love runs out, 'til the love runs out." Love Runs Out, One Republic Written by: Ryan Tedder, Brent Kutzle, Drew Brown, Zach Filkins, Eddie Fisher    I love the drums and the beat pulsing through this song. It gives it power and reminds me of a racing heart in a high impact training session, or a hectic rush hour in a vibrant city. It is the tempo I crave for the unfolding events of my life, but it is also simply a...

"Beauty begins the moment you decide to be yourself." Coco Chanel One short sentence, one concentrated word, so much essence, too much work… "Be yourself” – it should be easy, shouldn’t it? If you are the kind of woman who is just intuitively  being herself, either in words or in style, and you are certain that whatever interpretation you have given to being "yourself”  is good enough, then you may want to move on to one of my other blog posts. But if, like the majority of us, you are at times certain of yourself but at others hesitant, doubtful and less confident,...

Show me a working mother who isn’t struggling with the need to find some extra hours in her day. It is not only the managing of two jobs—the one outside the home and the one in the home—but the enormous number of tasks and things to think about and attend to, that wash over you, leaving you overwhelmed and lacking in energy. Aren't all of us mothers in the same boat? From the moment we become mothers, all our priorities change. Kids move to the front of our list, but along with them comes an unbelievably long lineup of extra responsibilities which become part of our daily...

The book Zero to One was written by Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and Palantir and investor in hundreds of start-ups, including Facebook and SpaceX, and Blake Masters, one of Thiel’s students. The book tells of entrepreneurial start-up and about building companies to create something singular and new. Yet, according to the book, there is no one formula, because every innovation is new and unique; the single most powerful pattern is that successful people find value in unexpected places.  "A startup is the largest endeavor over which you can have definite mastery. Yo...

It is no coincidence that younger fashionistas look cooler. And though being cool has never been a particular aim of mine and shouldn’t, in my view, be an aim in itself , it certainly makes an impact when it describes a confident appearance, an easygoing attitude, a calm demeanor, or just simply a self-assured person. It is therefore no surprise that teenagers and young girls taking their first steps in the world of fashion and style look cool. Their choices are natural and almost unconscious. And even if, by mistake, they put on some rather old- fashioned item of clothing, they al...