In today’s episode, we get to hear from my Mom, Barbara Allen-Rosser. Mom served as a television news anchor in Hartford, Connecticut, Washington D.C., Tulsa, Oklahoma (where she met my Dad), Fort Myers, Florida, and New York City. After a short stint in real estate and accounting, she has now been involved with Mary Kay Cosmetics for 28 years.

In this episode, mom shares her advice about how she and my Dad thrived in their commuter marriage for over six years. The advice is helpful for those who are in a long-distance dating relationship, long-distance engagement, or long-distance marriage.

Mom shares how her prayer routine helps her recharge the saw, specifically focusing on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and her hour of prayer upon waking up in the morning. She also enjoys The New York Times and Wall Street Journal crossword puzzles, as well as reading.

In the mindset minute, Mom shares how she led a campaign that raised $7 million for Holy Spirit Elementary School, a new Catholic school in the Archdiocese of Mobile. Holy Spirit Elementary School is part of Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School, a regional Catholic school in Montgomery, Alabama. Prior to raising these funds, she was not involved in fundraising, but she worked hard to learn, get out of her comfort zone, and now the school is thriving.

In our story segment, Mom tells how she won the highest award in Mary Kay Cosmetics, Ms. Go-Give. The award is given to the leader in the organization who gives most consistently and effectively. She not only won the monthly award in 2010, but she won the annual award during seminar that summer.

How did she “give”? Mom’s motives are simple: empowering women to understand who they are and to live their femininity with purpose, self-giving, and effectiveness. She also hopes to evangelize through her example while working with consultants and customers.

She also shares how she integrates her spiritual life, professional life, and family life. The key word is “harmony”. Practically, this means keeping a detailed calendar and being very practical in her approach to life. Planning ahead is key to this, specifically when you want to, for example, attend your child’s game or ceremony.

Our key takeaways from the episode today are:

1. Take more time in prayer this week. Ask the Lord to reveal why He wants you to do what you do. This why, if from the Lord, will be rooted in servanthood. Here is a list of steps to help you figure out your why.
2. Your identity is a son or daughter of God. You are loved for who you are, not what you do. If you struggle to reconcile that, bring that to the Lord.
3. Plan ahead. Here is a resource from Brett and Kate McKay at the Art of Manliness. They go into detail about the third habit of highly effective people from Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, “put first things first”.

Thank you for listening to the Effective Catholic podcast. If you enjoyed are episode, please rate it on ITunes and subscribe. You can also apply to receive daily, personal development delivered to your e-mail inbox at www.effectivecatholic.com. On Thursday at 5 PM EST, we will be continuing our series on Facebook Live entitled, “How to Create a Self-Culture”. This week, we will be discussing our “why”. Have a great week!

Works Cited

Covey, Stephen. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Salt Lake City, Franklin Covey, 2016.

McKay, Brett, and McKay, Kate. “Create a Weekly Attack Plan.” Art of Manliness, 2012, https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/weekly-plan/. Accessed 9 July 2018.

Rosser, Tyler. “Hypocrisy, Coach, Hypocrisy.” Effective Catholic, 2018, https://effectivecatholic.com/2018/05/31/hypocrisy-coach-hypocrisy/. Accessed 9 July 2018.