Making choices that are meaningful to you is the essence of the French woman's secret.

French women love to shop and prepare food. They love to talk about what they have bought and made. It's a deeply natural love, but one that is erased in many other cultures. Most French women learn it from their mothers, some from their fathers. But if your parents aren't French, you can still learn it yourself.

Intelligence, knowledge or experience are important and might get you a job, but strong communication skills are what will get you promoted.

Once a day, take some 'Beach Time.'

Make treating yourself a priority and always remember your life is happening now. Don't put off all your dreams and pleasures to another day. In any balanced personal definition of success there has to be a powerful element of living life in the present.

There is no lasting glory in rapid weight loss.

If you believe you can shed pounds quickly by force of will and deprivation, you will in all likelihood not only regain the ones you lost, but add a few more besides.