Mary Clement, Ph.D., JD/MSW

Mary Clement, Ph.D., JD/MSW: Speaker: Mary Clement, Retired Attorney and Wellness ConsultantWhat does being an Influential Woman mean to you?Mary Clement: An influential woman means to me responsibility. I'm responsible for everything I say or do or act. Wherever I put my footsteps in the sand, my electronic presence and vibration is in there. And I'm responsible for that. And so, I can either uplift people and strengthen them, which is what I hope I do, or I can demoralize them and make them less than the human beings are supposed to be. So there's a a huge amount of responsibility. And the only way you can do that is to have a strong connection to a spiritual sense. Mm And what I mean by that is that you recognize you are more than a biological body, you are a spirit as well. And that spirit goes above your head into the ethers and connects with other spirits. Um, forces for good. That you can use. And influence other people. Because it's not you who's speaking, but it's a higher power source.What's one piece of advice would you give to younger women chasing their dreams?Mary Clement: There's one piece of advice I would give to you younger women who are chasing your dreams. It's OK to have a dream. But what you also need is spiritual support. You need Someone Who prays with you. The, the, the biggest thing that helped me in my life. Was the prayer and the fast. Once a month I would pray and fast. Um, Sunday, from Saturday night into Sunday church. Because I would get impressions from a higher power that would help me understand where I needed to go or what I needed to do. Sometimes we create dreams. That are old. To the point that it's time we give that one up. It's not, it's, it's, it's a desire. But it's not what what the heavens will have us become. And we need to use our time on this earth to, to develop ourselves and develop other people and to fulfill our purposes. We're all here for a special purpose, and we don't always know what that is. And so you need someone. Who will pray with you. You, you need someone to be a, a mentor, a, uh. Uh, uh, a hurrah, yeah, a coach. And it doesn't matter who it is. What matters is that you get information. And validation. And you get ideas. The work that I do with people helps them with chasing their dreams. Because it It outlines a spiritual path, but it also takes away the barriers of our thinking that create more difficulties and What was meant to have happened. So the one piece of advice I would give to younger women. Is find someone. That you can pray with. Fast and pray. And get guidance and direction. and this is really important because uh I evidently had a dream to be an attorney and it took me 10 times to take the bar exam in order to pass it. Because I needed more time, and I needed a computer to write my answers. And Virginia wouldn't give me those accommodations, but Tennessee did, and so I became a Tennessee lawyer. But there were days and wonders that I had to say to myself. I am not a failure. A failure is not a person, it's an event. And with the, with the support of other people, I continued. To study for the bar exam. Take the bar exam. Ask for my accommodations. Finally got them in Tennessee. Passed the bar, and became a practicing attorney at age 60. Life is still open to you as well.