Yesterday was my birthday and I am blessed with friends who encouraged me to slow down, celebrate and truly honor life. Many years my birthday passed by with small celebrations, as mothers tend to do when they focus so much time and energy on their kids. As my son gets older and I recapture time I haven’t had in years. I can now choose with a sense of freedom and creativity, what I want to do with my time. In this week's Sun-day design I want you to join me in choosing how you spend time on you, just think of it as a little birthday gift to me. My one wish for you is to find a sliver of time that you can dedicate to you and something you love. For my birthday I chose dinner with friends and 2 days at Oprah’s The Life You Want Weekend. Taking time for you may mean les time for your family, kids, or coworkers. The activity you choose will recharge you, infusing with more love and energy, which everyone around you benefits from. Here are some other ideas for celebrating you:
Whatever activity you decide on, let it awaken your spirit and nourish your soul. Do you feel like no matter how much you try to change life stays the same? Your past doesn't have to dictate your future. The 20 times you've dieted before doesn't mean you're doomed to a stagnant scale this time around. The change you seek is within reach just let your imagination run wild on how to get there. If achieving your goals were as simple as creating an action plan then more of us would be living our dreams. You get stuck when life throws you a curve ball, when progress stalls and change doesn't happen in the blink of an eye, or when you realize you don't quite have the resourcefulness to move things forward. Imagine yourself as CEO of Your Life, Inc., because that is EXACTLY who you are. Now that you recognize your role as CEO I want you to think of 3-5 things you want to achieve on this year's balance sheet. Your "balance sheet" will account for challenges and set backs you may experience all the while positioning you to come out on top. Feel free to revisit your dreams or vision board as a build your list. Once you have your goals in mind, pick the one that you would pay someone else to have right now. That's the one you go for first. Now for that goal list 3 wild, insane, no way that can happen ways to pursue the goal. This is key to breaking down the boundaries you've created in your mind. Here's an example: Balance Sheet: Spend my next birthday in Sonoma, CA Three out the box ideas to save money for that trip: 1. Put one whole paycheck aside and live on a college diet of Raman noodles 2. Sell my furniture and a few designer handbags that should cover air & hotel 3. Pick up a job babysitting on weekends to earn some extra cash over the next 6 months What do you think? Not really all that crazy huh? Exactly!! What you're pursing is possible it takes some creative thinking, true grit, and sacrifice. Go for scary and write your ideas down so you can debunk your own myth of what's impossible in your life. Live through your imagination and let it take you to new and exciting places. Be sure to share you zany ideas in pursuit of your goals too in the comments below. Imagine this, you're working away in the zone, loving what you do and the people you're doing it with. You're cranking, pushing, excelling and boy does it feel good. Hours in the day fly by without your noticing because you love this moment right here, right now. When you come up for air you can't believe how much you've done and energized you feel. How often do you experience a day like this? Not often enough and it's because you spend most of time focused on other people. Whether you work at home, in an office, on a stage, or on the street your day is very likely to be spent fulfilling someone else's agenda. Even entrepreneurs find their workday is about meeting other people’s needs, their ridiculous requests and seemingly selfish demands. When you're finally able to work on your own goals and personal projects it can be difficult to get into a rhythm because your energy is zapped and there's nothing left for you. This week's Sun-day design is about finding your flow, creating the optimal time and space to work at your peak on something that's all about you. To find your flow you have to create the space for positive energy to move in and around your life. That means you have to clear your clutter! I don't just mean the clutter of papers in your office or clothes piled up around your house, it's about clearing the blockage in your visual, mental, and physical space. Start with your visual blocks, where do you usually work? Remove - dare I say the people and the things you don’t need around, then infuse your space with visual images of whatever inspires you. For me it’s a picture of my son, the latest books I’m reading, the weekend newspaper, and a journal. You can clear your physical space in just 5 minutes. Having a clear visual space may not immediately get you in the zone if your mind is distracted too. That means you have to clear you head of negative, disabling thoughts and beliefs. You can do this by asking yourself one question - “what do I gain by not working on this?" For example, if I put off on writing my book I can avoid sharing my work with others and having them critique my work. Once you figure out why you're avoiding your work you can face your fears and move on. Sometimes even after you create a visual space that inspires, clear your mental blocks and still you'll find the creativity just doesn't flow. This means your physical plane is blocked too and you’ll need to literally move so the energy in your body can budget too. A good 10-minute stretch, jumping jacks, walk on the park, or vinyasa “flow” yoga can do the trick. The challenge for you this week is to design the day and time you're going to work on you and your priorities. Get clear on what you want to do and why you've been avoiding it. Clear the clutter in your visual, mental, and physical space so that you find and embrace your flow. Leave a comment below and share what gets you in the zone too. You don't need a fortune teller or crystal ball to see into your future. Just listen to your heart, quiet the noise in your mind, and design the the life you secretly seek. I bet you're thinking that's easier said that done! Well it's true, best way to bring into existence the life you want is to write about it, be about it, talk about it, and of course visualize it. A vision board is just the tool to help you do that. They can work some serious magic into your life and catapult your transition from the version of yourself that merely exists to your powerful self you're craving to unleash into the world. A vision board is an excellent way to get you focused on what you need to do and experience to bring what you desire into your life. If you haven't made one for yourself I'll tell you the most important reason you want to create one now and it serves as this week's Sun-day design - the power of attraction. The beauty of the board is that it's working while you're sleep, while you're away, attracting and drawing greater things in your life even bigger than what you initially intend. A vision board energizes and expands your dreams. Commune and play, create and converse. Get clear and see the future you're creating in the here and now. You'll be surprised by the wonderful things and people you attract into your life. Here's an example of how my vision board attracted greater connection in my own life. My board features a picture of a loving couple whom I didn't know but I felt their picture represented love and connection when I was designing my board earlier this year. At the time I had no idea that picture was of restauranteurs "The Neely's" whom own the very restaurant I recently held my mother's birthday brunch in. The power is in that event at the Neely's was that it was a place I honored my mother which in turn fostered an even deeper level in our relationship. In placing that picture on the board I fostered love in connection in so many relationships in my life this year and how awesome is that! Now it's your turn. Once you have your vision board in place you can literally glimpse into your future. It's probably more accurate than any of future telling device you come across and since it's your own inner power reflecting back to you, it's more likely to happen and soon. Remember you're always co-creating your life's experience. Allow the guidance and wisdom to to come to you. Leave a comment below and share what future your vision board beholds. In a matter of just a few days this New Year has already been a time of growth and expansion. I’ve been called to actualize the words on my vision board – to be BRAVE in designing the woman I choose to be. I've had to brave in releasing some people in my life. It's easy to let go of people you have little or no relationship with. It takes courage to let go of people you love. My breaking up is less about them and more about the love I have for me. I have chosen to listen to my heart, go after the vision I hold for my life and be graceful in saying goodbye with love and care. Like your favorite childhood sweater there comes a time you have to recognize you've outgrown it and cherish the memory you have. I've also spent time purging things in my home that no longer fit my life - old files, letters, clothes, remnants of life I've been working to transform. The last item on my breakup list is my bad habits - yea I've some of those I need to let go of. For some people their bad habits may be drinking too much, drugs, yelling, shutting down, cursing, or ignoring people in their life. Whatever yours may be, the key to breaking up with bad habits is to first acknowledge and own up to your bad behavior. Confess your bad habits to the people they've impacted. Once you do that focus on the behavior you want to demonstrate, the personality traits that you want to evolve. As you begin the first month in this New Year I want you to design your own beautiful breakup with the things and/or people you need to release. Appreciate the gifts these people or things afforded you and design a beautiful breakup coming to a place of peace, resound in your purpose, and open to all life's possibilities. Create peace around the end of those relationships (people or things) by listing the ways you’ve benefited from them, even ways in which you’re now motivated to stretch yourself in learning and doing more in your life. Recognize the relationship had a purpose in helping you become to the person you desire to be. Even if you’re discarding people or things that were hurtful, there’s always a lesson to be gained – so that you won’t repeat the behavior or find yourself being hurt again or your story can be a blessing to someone else hurt by similar circumstance. Lastly, as you release these people or things be open to the possibilities that arise, the one’s you consciously design with your goals and vision board as well as the ones that feel like mistakes or accidents that seemingly make a way for new and exciting adventures. This is the work I do as I coach. To help you come to peace with the life experiences that block you, to help you find your purpose in the life lessons that knock louder and louder on your door calling for you to open up to the possibilities of everything YOU are and in your heart want to be. Of course, I have to live my work and navigate my life lessons too! |
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Lessons LearnedThe life we experience is designed to help us grow. My wish is that you learn from me as much as I learn from you. Share your life lessons and let's build together. Archives
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