Posts Tagged ‘choice’

We are deep into autumn here in the U.S. and the energy has softened and cooled from the brilliant summer days.   This reduction in energy and light affects us.  While the West does not pay much attention to the change, the Chinese, for example, recognize the seasons and their influence on the earth and our bodies.  Nature displays the change very clearly – it brings forth vegetables and fruits – the result of the sunshine, nutrients and water building all spring and summer.  The end of a project.  Leaves go to work one last day to produce food for the tree; they give a last brilliant signature color, then let go.  The end of a project.  The animals that hibernate or travel south begin to shut down or shove off.  The end of a project. As the light changes, so do we.   Our bodies start to pull in, its energy shifts to our core away from the extremities as we prepare for less heat and light.  The end of a project, or many projects.  The bright, fast energy of summer is giving way to the softer, slower light of autumn. There is a pause, even a sadness in the air as we say goodbye to the sun.  And it is good.  The rest is good. It is time to gather the vegetables and fruits and clear out the vines that produced it.

“Dance like no one is watching. Sing like no one is listening.

Love like you’ve never been hurt and live like it’s heaven on Earth.”

– Mark Twain

Dance Like Nobody's Watching

Sing like no one’s listening.
Listen like the speaker is divine.
Work like you’ve never been burned or burned out.
Do relationships and conversations completely -whole, nothing left
out, all is said, and any mess is cleaned up.
Play like a child.
Paint like everybody loves your work!
Feel your grief to the depth of your soul.

Laugh from the depth of your soul.
Live like a child – from moment to moment – emotionally present to every shift and new discovery.
Learn something new every day.
Work like you don’t need the money.
Wear your favorite colors.
Whatever it is, don’t wait until the special occasion to use it or
say it.  Right now is a special occasion.
Take this opportunity to be yourself.  Do it again now.  And now…

Sleep like it’s the best vacation you could ever give yourself.  It
is.
Treat your body like you’ll never be able to replace any parts.
Make up with someone.  Forgive someone.  Set down the burden of
resentment or guilt.
Live like you just fully recovered from a life-threatening illness.

Thank 10 people for their contribution to you.
Walk in nature like you belong with her.  You are made of her.

Action

Take action on whatever of these resonate with you.  And choose one
that doesn’t. Live fully without the stops for a few moments or a
few days, and notice what happens in you and around you.  Thank you.

Leave a comment – what in this list are you taking on and why?

A Leg UP

I just finished watching  Michael J. Fox  special on optimism.  He visited a country between India and China called Bhutan.  They measure their Gross National Happiness instead of their Gross National Product.  Wikipedia says, “While conventional development models stress economic growth as the ultimate objective, the concept of GNH claims to be based on the premise that true development of human society takes place when material and spiritual development occur side by side to complement and reinforce each other. The four pillars of GNH are the promotion of sustainable development, preservation and promotion of cultural values, conservation of the natural environment, and establishment of good governance.”

What if we measured our GPH- Gross Personal Happiness. What would your GPH be based on?   Productivity?  Integrity?  Laughter?  Connections?  Income?  Balance?   How are you doing with it?  Leave a comment and let us know.

The anniversary of the moon landing reminded me of the anniversary of a life-changing journey I created.  Twenty five years ago this summer I was riding my bicycle solo across the United States.  I was in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks on 7/24/84 sharing two lane roads with gigantic motor homes – worse than the east coast traffic!

One of my big aha’s this week as I remembered this bike trip with a coach, is that I had a plan for the trip.  It was simple.  Every day I got up and pedaled at least 60 miles down a very clear path – the road – unless it was dangerously hot or pouring down rain.  The road took me east every day.  Not north, south or west.  East towards Boston and the Atlantic Ocean.  As long as I followed the road, and kept safety precautions, I would get to Boston, to Deborah D.s house – my best friend from high school.  Now, the problem with me in my business is that I keep changing plans.  I change marketing plans, I change my goals, I change niches. I doubt my vision.  I worry about money.  I take exits off the road to visit giant balls of string and two headed snakes.  I wander north and south and wonder why I’m no closer to Boston.

The road and my goal focused all of my energies. It kept me true and on task.  Sure, I never saw the two headed snake, but I reached Boston, I accomplished my goal.

Action

Take stock of your plan. What is it to honor it?  What are your two-headed snake detours?  What are three changes you’ll make to your plan or how you honor it?  I invite you to respond in the comments.  Thank you for the courage to invent yourself everyday into your greatness.

Do what you love.  Be who you are.

Consistently.

Laugh when you forget.

Honor your soul before you honor the cage of beliefs  that keep you predictable, safe, and fitting in with your tribes.

Your soul won’t steer you wrong.  If the word soul is too spiritual, honor your personal heart wisdom.

Do what you love.  Be who you are.  Consistently.

Why am I saying this?  Most of my life, and I imagine yours, has been spent sacrificing soul for safety, money, and fear.

I have a free teleseminar today, “Insider Truths to Unleash Your Success”, at 6Pm Pacific for more on this topic.

Brilliant Gorgeous Talented Fabulous

Marianne Williamson spoke here in the San Francisco bay area this week.  She talked about asking the big questions in politics.  What are the radical questions, the ones a child might ask. Like why do 16,000 children die of hunger every day?  She got me looking at where I play small, hide my brilliance, and avoid the big questions.  What beliefs do I hold that allow me to  tolerate that death rate?  (someone else can take care of it; I’m too small). What is really hurting in my clients? (fear, despair, anger, doubt; needing to re-invent themselves as their “employer” rather than the corporation) Will I go there and address that pain for as long as it takes to heal and give its gifts? (I have done so.  I need to be vulnerable and strong, just like my clients). What’s small about my business and how I play the game? (When I’m one-one with clients I am willing to stand on the brink with them as they step into their unknown.  I don’t yet hold raw and vulnerable conversations with my audiences.  Now’s the time to step out and do that.) I choose out of this conversation to hold bigger conversations.  I will ask bigger questions of myself and my work and my clients and audiences, and stand for bigger answers and responses.  If not me, then who?  If not you, in your area of purpose and passion, then who?

Action
As I ask you these questions, I ask them of me as well.  What’s the next bigger arena that will call forth your greatness and use your purpose?  What’s your payoff for avoiding it?  What’s the price you and the world pay?  What story stops you? What is the first step for {!firstname}?  Take it this week.  If that step has you freeze, find a way to unfreeze.  Break it down into smaller steps, find colleagues, get a coach.

Thank you for your courage, purpose, passion, and your fears, concerns.  It’s all good.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.  It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.  We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?’  Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.  Your playing small does not serve the world.  There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.  We were born to manifest the glory that is within us.  And as we let our light shine we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.  As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” —Marianne Williamson

Do you realize you can declare that you have a clean slate at the beginning of the second half of the year?  I just worked on my 3rd quarter plan on  Eric Lofholm’s  sales protege call.  We’re at the beginning of the quarter.  It’s time to start fresh with the second half of the year. You may have done everything in your plan, or you may have veered off most of the time.   Give yourself permission to start with a clean slate.  Complete and let go of what you did or did not do up till now.  No amount of thinking, regretting, celebrating or sadness will make the future any better.  Just shake it like a tree, get all the apples out of it that you can to take with you into the future.  Those apples are the gifts of learning from the past six months.
Complete the past 6 months.  Use a ritual, declaration, celebration dinner, or whatever it takes.  Then breathe and let yourself become aware of what wants to be created next.

The next step is to assess where you are and picture where you want to be at the end of the time frame.  Do you want to be joyfully employed? Making another $10,000 or $100,000? Three sizes smaller?  Then work backwards. Who do you have to be to achieve those goals? What will you learn?  What results will you produce in July, Aug and September?  Each week? What will motivate you?  How will you handle breakdowns this time?  How will you keep your goals fresh in your mind?

Finally, make a plan.   Make it as detailed or general as you need to be successful.  For me, great detail just makes me crazy.  I like broad brush strokes.  For others, details are it.   The plan isn’t over until it’s on your calendar.

“Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion”. Thomas Hardy

Leave a comment – Did you declare a clean slate?  What is your planning process?

Idea #1 in the last blog was about you as a new and improved product.   Idea #2  is borrowed from sales; it is scripting.  OK, you might want to throw me out of your network for suggesting this, but hear me out.   The more people I talk to, the more I realize that my biggest challenge in making sales is your  biggest challenge in getting in front of people or having control of a call or interview.   My sales mentor, Eric Lofholhm says using scripts was the biggest boost to his sales than almost anything else.  I reluctantly started using scripts and found I was much more comfortable in presenting my services and asking for business.  Good people – sales scripts are noble, necessary, and are just creative, informative, and focused communication with an agreement and/or money included in it.  A script saves both you and the person you are presenting to time and energy – you have a clear direction.  Here are a few areas you might want to have a script ready to use:

1. When a HR person or recruiter calls you on Friday at 4 PM and you are not in shape to go through an interview
2. When you cold call an HR person,
3. hiring manager,
4. or someone about an informational interview
5. When you are asked a question in an interview that throws you off.  A one line mini script that gives you a moment to collect your thoughts
6. A script for each interview – the questions you’ll ask, the concerns you have
7. At the end of the interview – a powerful completion with what you say if you want the job, if you do not want the job, if you think you’d be better qualified in a different position….etc.

What else?  Write some here in the comments – even some samples.

You can download a free audio on sales from Eric Lofholm here  (https://m269.infusionsoft.com/go/7sec/Nancy) It will have many ideas you can transfer to interviewing, setting up interviews, and organizing yourself around presenting yourself as a service or product rather than an employee.

Miracle in the Sun

Over the last several weekends I’ve planted 70 flowering and vegetable plants.  I watch their brilliance emerge as leaves and flowers, created out of the raw materials of earth, air, and sunlight – it’s so amazing!  Every plant draws on the same materials.  So where do these little seeds get the green, yellow, pink, purple and blue?  I have to go to the store to buy those colors.  How do they design rose petals, cherry blossoms, tomato leaves and their aromas, all from the same materials?  And soon the most fantastic brilliance of all will emerge- round, red, ripe tomatoes; crisp green beans; orange, green, and yellow squash, all full of sugars, proteins, minerals, and vitamins. What intelligence in the soul of a plant! Each has its own unique emerging brilliance.

People have unique brilliance – each uses the same raw materials of food, water, sunlight, air.  Each of us processes these materials through our set of genes, beliefs, desires and talents to create our own amazing lives- full of grace, beauty, challenge, and hardships.   We are such powerhouses of change and transformation – food, water, and oxygen are transformed into bodies that are tall, short, blond, dark, light, muscular, frail, and smart in a variety of ways.  Ideas, beliefs, thoughts, morals, values, and vision are transformed  into art, buildings, software, mathematics, plastic, pollution, walking, cell phones, games, swimming, driving, war, peace, acceptance, intolerance……!  What a masterpiece!  What a kaleidoscope of expression, of brilliance.  What creators we are.  The caterpillar metamorphasis is astounding, yet we do even more astounding transformations every day!   Celebrate your brilliance!