I’m so excited to be working with these amazing women.  We’re already developing new programs and we’ve just gotten started.  There is a magic and a synergy that happens when things are right and this is an example of that magic and synergy.

I also decided I would commit to walking in the mornings and that I would look for someone who wanted to walk with me.  One of the ideas our team came up with was to have our master mind meetings while walking or jogging together 3 mornings a week.  That way we get to exercise our mind and our body.  We’ll keep you posted on our progress.

2011 is off to a great start for me and I hope for you as well.

This has proven to me again how important it is to hold on to your vision.  If you really want something, have patience and trust that it will happen.  Don’t let anything stop you from dreaming.  One day when you least expect it, it will happen.  And trust me, it’s worth the wait.

Overwhelm is something that many of us are faced with.  There seems to be more and more we’re required to do.  Between our personal life, family, and work, it’s becoming very challenging to fit everything in and maintain our sanity.  We’re also being bombarded constantly with information overload.  I was reminded of this when I was working with a client yesterday who is understaffed and overworked which resulted in complete overwhelm.

Action:

The first thing we did was get focused.  We took all the projects running around in his head and wrote them down. Remove the clutter from your mind. The second step was to organize and prioritize the tasks, the third step was to assign the tasks.  The last step was to compose emails to each person listing the task and the due date.  He was then free to work on his responsibilities feeling more focused and in control.

Tip:

Sometimes we don’t stop long enough to get focused and nothing gets completed.  If you find yourself talking about the same problems weeks or months on end, it’s time to take charge, make a plan and take action.  Often we think it takes too much time to delegate and it’s just as easy to do it yourself.  That is not true.  If you take the time to clarify your expectation with others and then diarize the follow-up if necessary, eventually with your consistent actions, you’ll instill consistency in others.  It may take more time in the beginning, and ultimately you’ll save time and will be much more efficient. And then you can get on with what you do best as a leader.

That’s true leadership.

Steps to alleviate overwhelm:

1. Get focused
2. Write down projects and tasks
3. Organize and prioritize your list
4. Assign responsibility to each item on your list
5. Contact each person giving specific responsibilities and assign a completion date and/or time.
6. Diarize and follow-up

It made me think about how many times I’ve been presented with an “opportunity” and how stressful this can be. I’m sure we’ve all heard people say things regarding opportunities, such as “opportunity only knocks once at your door” ” this is the opportunity of a life time” ” if I pass up this opportunity, I’ll never have this chance again”. One question I have is why is it so stressful if it’s truly an opportunity?

In my client’s case, she had a feeling that something just wasn’t right about this but couldn’t put her finger on what it was. Sometimes you have to just trust that feeling because there is generally a basis for it, it’s simply that you can’t consciously pin-point what you saw or heard that is giving you the feeling.

The best way to decide if this really is an “opportunity” for you or if it’s just an “opportunity” for the person making the proposal, is to measure and critique it according to your vision and goals. You also have to use your values as criteria because that’s where our motivation comes from and that’s also how we evaluate our progress and accomplishments. If you just take it at face value without considering it within the context of your life or your business and what’s important to you and where you’re going, you’ll probably find yourself going in circles.

To help you determine if this is a good opportunity for you, there are 2 sets of questions to ask yourself:

1. Does this opportunity help me to meet my goals? Will this move me closer to or farther from what I want to achieve this year?

2. Are the people involved aligned with my values? Take a look at how they present themselves. Is this how you’d want to be represented? What kind of language do they use to capture your attention? Is it towards motivation or away from? By their actions, do they value what you value?

In my clients case, the answer to the first set of questions was no, this would move me farther away from my goals for the year. In answer to the second set of questions, it was clear that their values were also not aligned. By focusing on vision, goals and values, it only took a few minutes for my client to come to the conclusion that this really was not an opportunity for her.

The more clarity you have around who you are and where you’re going, the easier it is to determine if this really is an opportunity.

It’s not about whether it’s an opportunity for anyone else, it’s simply about whether or not it’s an opportunity for you.

The only thing between you and your desires is your beliefs. Your beliefs determine your success in all areas of your life because they drive your behavior. Beliefs are the thoughts we have about ourselves, other people and the world, that fuel our actions.

The thing about beliefs is that we live our life as if they’re true and yet we’ve just made them up. The good news is that we can change them.

Our core beliefs are formed at a very early age. It is believed they are formed between 0 and 7 years of age. The is a time when we are like sponges, taking everything we hear as true with no ability to logically challenge anything. That’s how we learn and how we form our core beliefs and values.

Other beliefs are added as we live our life.

There comes a time in your life when it is important to challenge some of the things you hold true. Based on what you want to achieve in your life, do your beliefs serve to move you closer to your goals or farther away? Do they support you or limit you?

The first step to achieving a goal is a deep desire to achieve it. When it’s a true desire you can feel it as if you already have it. You can see what it’s like, hear what’s going on around you, you are so emotionally attached to achieving your desire that you can almost taste it.

The second step is to discover if you have any beliefs that are going to stop you from achieving your goal. When you believe you can do it or have it you’ll find a way. When you don’t have that strong belief, you’ll be stopped by challenges or obstacles.

Often the beliefs that elude you the most are the ones that are having the most impact on your life. They are so deeply ingrained that you don’t recognize them as beliefs.

There are 3 ways to identify your limiting beliefs.

1. How you respond to others

Pay attention to how you respond to others. When you have a negative emotional response to another person or situation, notice what you’re saying to yourself when you get the feeling or what you’re thinking to yourself. Are you judging them or yourself? Are you negating what they say? Are you defending yourself in some way? The words that come to you are your beliefs.

Often we get so caught up in our emotion that we miss the important message. It’s never about the other person, it’s always about ourselves. What does this tell you about yourself and your limitations?

2. Reflection

What is your life reflecting back to you? What are your results showing or telling you? The question to ask yourself is “what must I believe in order to have these results in my life?”

Look at all areas of your life. Do you have the relationship you want? Do you have the career you want? Do you have the friends and support you want in your life? Do you have the money you want in your life? If not, my question to you is “what’s stopping you from having it now?”.

For example if you don’t have enough money there will be any number of underlying belief that supports you, such as, this is a slow economy, nobody is making money, times are tough, it’s hard to make good money, I don’t have enough education, I don’t have enough time, I’m not lucky………..and the list goes on.

The problem with these beliefs is that when you hold them, you act as if they are true which means you accept the consequences of them and don’t look to overcome your situation.

3. Continuing Life Patterns

Notice if you have any patterns that you seem to repeat in your life. Do you always end relationships? Do you spend more money then you make? Do pay off your bills only to stack the up again? Do you reach a level of success and then something happens so you have to start over again? Do you continually attract people into your life who aren’t trustworthy? Are you constantly struggling to get ahead?

In order to recognize the patterns, you have to be willing to see them without judgement. Some of the patterns may permeate more than one area of your life. Often there are clusters of beliefs that are linked together, so it’s important to get to the clusters.

Once you recognize your limiting beliefs and how they’ve limited you in your life, it’s time to change them. When I work with a client to change those limiting beliefs the transformation is remarkable. Once they’ve eliminated those elusive, invisible barriers, they are able to move forward to live the lifestyle they desire.

Our emotions are a wonderful part of our experiences. They are the feeling side of life. Without our emotions, every experience would be the same.

Our emotions are an automatic response that sometimes serves us and sometimes does not. Because our emotions are something we’re not always in control of, they are good indicators for our health and well being.

Scientific studies have proven that our emotions are stored holographically throughout our body at a cellular level. It has also been scientifically proven that because of this, an over abundance of negative emotions can lead to challenges for our health and well being.

As well as posing health challenges, an over abundance of negative emotions can cause challenges in relationships, both personally and professionally.

When someone is filled with anger or sadness as an example, all it takes is one wrong word or one wrong look and an eruption of emotion takes place. It’s impossible to hold back our feelings permanently. Eventually someone will trigger the emotion by pushing the right “button”.

They can only push the ‘button” if you have one so it’s your responsibility to remove it. Your response has nothing to do with the person, it’s all about you. If you are not filled up with negative emotions, your response will be appropriate for the situation.

Saying I’m sorry only works for so long.

It isn’t appropriate to lose your temper and verbally abuse or attack people, or cry during a commercial, or feel guilty doing something good for yourself.

The good news is, it is possible to release these negative emotions. It’s one of the most rewarding parts of my work and can be life changing.

By releasing the emotions, it allows you to be in charge of your behaviour. Your perception completely changes. You’re able to better articulate your position, and expectations when the emotional charge is gone. People are more likely to listen and appreciate your perspective. This is an important part of being able to have a positive influence on others.

Healthy Emotional mini-checklist:

1. You are able to receive feedback that differs from your opinion without a negative reaction.
2. You’re able to express kindness before receiving it.
3. You don’t hold a grudge and can let things go.
4. You don’t intimidate people you have authority over including your children.
5. Your moods aren’t influenced by traffic conditions.
6. You don’t experience anxiety in everyday activity such as going to the doctor, meeting new people, driving through a tunnel.

If the above list does not describe you, and you find your emotions are holding you hostage, you may be interested in our Journey of a LifeTime workshop where we work with you to breakthrough your emotional limitations.

Through this program, you’ll be able to set your expectations high. and expect to feel calm, centered, and confident. Your success in life will no longer be limited by inappropriate emotional responses. You can create a life of health, wealth and inner peace.

I started to really think about creativity and how it impacts our success. Creativity is a part of every new idea, and moves us from problem to solution. Because creativity is a natural process, for most people it comes on it’s own and leaves on it’s own, which can be frustrating when you’re faced with a project that you have to complete and creativity is no where to be found. The interesting thing about creativity is that it is stimulated by a specific brain speed. Even though it is something that is naturally occurring the exciting thing is that we can learn to control and shift our brain state to access specific states of mind.

I stumbled upon this years ago when I was creating a script for one of my CD’s. Up until that point, I felt I was only creative in the early morning. I would wake up and immediately go down to my office, half asleep and sit in front of my computer and begin typing. This worked well, except, for the fact that it limited me in my ability to create my script at any time of day. When you’re working to a deadline and are only able to produce at a certain time of day, it can be stressful.

One day I decided if I could do this early in the morning, I could do it at any time. I just had to figure out how. All I needed to do was reproduce the same mindset at will.

I noticed how relaxed I was and that I was still almost in that waking/sleeping state when things just flowed for me.

All I had to do was recreate that state and I would be able to access my creative juices on command. I began to play with this and sure enough, whenever I wanted to do some writing, or develop a new course, I would put myself in that deep relaxed state and I was able to access my creative flow. Believe it or not, when I worked in this state, rarely were there any edits.

From a scientific perspective, what I was actually doing was changing the speed of my brain waves. Our mind is so amazing and when we learn how to harness the power of our mind, we open ourselves up to a whole new world of possibility.

Changing our brain speed is a naturally occurring process. The lowest level of brain activity we encounter is Delta. We access Delta during sleep. As our brain speed increases, we access Theta. Theta is that special time between waking and sleeping, that time when we receive flashes of inspiration just before waking fully or just before falling asleep. Theta is an ideal state for some types of accelerated learning, positive suggestions, and self-healing. The next level is Alpha. This is where creativity and relaxation reside. By learning how to access the Alpha state purposefully, you are able to tap into your creativity at any time you choose. It is also used in accelerated learning. Training yourself to access Alpha is very useful as it greatly reduces stress. For most people, it is physiologically challenging to experience stress in Alpha and also Theta. The last level of brain speed I would like to share with you is Beta. Beta is our normal waking state. At this level, we often function in a more competitive state.

The most powerful aspect of this is that we can learn to change our brain speed. Some of the ways we can do that is through meditation, relaxation techniques, guided visualization, focused breathing techniques and for some people prayer.

Another very effective way to shift your brain speed is with essential oil blends. Based on the synergistic effect of the blends, we’re able to shift our brain state by stimulating the brain to naturally secrete the appropriate chemical response.

For me it all goes back to the power of the mind and a reminder that the more we learn to take control of our mind and our responses, the more we’re able to create what we want in our business and our life.