The role of women at home and the community has long changed as evidenced by two income families and women leaders nowadays. Although still in the low numbers worldwide, women business and political leaders have made forceful headway exemplified by Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg at Facebook, Executive Director Lisa Graves at the Center for Media and Democracy, and President Park Geun-hye of South Korea. Their vision of a better life is universal – encompassing their families, communities, and the world. Reading about them inspires and motivates other women to touch and actualize their own dreams.

Aside from focus and determination, women who follow their dreams share these seven elements:

1. Gratitude – they are grateful not only for the benefits that come their way but also for the challenges that make them grow and develop new skills to meet the obstacles head on.
2. Clear values – these are principled women who know the importance of honesty and fairness at home and in the workplace.
3. Responsible – they take 100% responsibility and are not into the “blame game.”
4. Belief – they have spiritual space that is a big part of their lives and they make time for it daily.
5. Take care of themselves – they look after themselves, mind and body, aware that if they’re not in top shape they won’t be good for others.
6. Positive – difficult as it may be, women who live their dreams fix their eyes on the positive, resolving and finding solutions for negatives.
7. Empower themselves as they empower others – in extending themselves to help others, they are reinforcing the qualities that got them to where they are.

As put by Mike Norton, making dreams come alive means “never say that you can’t do something, or that something seems impossible, or that something can’t be done, no matter how discouraging or harrowing it may be; human beings are limited only by what we allow ourselves to be limited by: our own minds. We are each the masters of our own reality; when we become self-aware to this: absolutely anything in the world is possible.”

Written by Yoli P.- The Help