Ending Procrastination and Living a Happy, Satisfying, Productive Life

Ending Procrastination and Living a Happy, Satisfying, Productive Life

This may be my most self-revealing post to date.

I just got off the phone from Bill Baren’s Time Expert’s TeleSummit (can’t recommend it highly enough and such a great value/bargain even/especially at the VIP level!) where he spoke with Neil Fiore, the author of The NOW Habit. Neil’s approach to ending procrastination completely dovetails with my way of thinking! I want to download this book directly into my brain this minute. I don’t want to have to wait for Amazon to send me the book and for me to have to read it. Even Genius Reading it will be too slow for me. SIGH! Alas, I’ll have to settle for that.  Actually, I am so hot to get this book that I may actually burn a little gasoline and go get it tonight!

Why am I soooo excited? Because I’ve been endeavoring to understand my own relationship to procrastination for year…..ok, decades. Why? Because it feels terrible, makes me feel terrible about myself and my life, and most importantly, because it keeps me from doing what’s really important to me: fulfilling my purpose and sharing my gifts with the world! So, it’s of paramount importance for me to vanquish procrastination for myself!  Well, prior to hearing this interview, I’d determined that I procrastinate or just plain don’t do the things that I don’t believe I know enough or have enough skill to do.  I’ve spent years tracing this back to my mother (y’know what They say: “If it ain’t one thing, it’s your mother!”.) who was hypercritical, rageholic, and verbally abusive; I could never do anything well enough or soon enough to suit her.  Ok, I understand all of that, I’ve processed a ton of feelings and experiences related to this, AND procrastination is still here.  I’ve gotten skilled at catching all the subtle camouflages for procrastination and at sensing deeply into my experience to feel the paralyzed energy around moving forward with these types of things.  AND procrastination is still here.  @#$%^&*(!!!  So, what to do?

In his book, Fiore gives a very quick exercise one can do in order to take the very first step.  He talks about the importance of that first step and how to do it.  It’s a lot like How do you eat an elephant? : One bite at a time. He talks about working on a task or a project in 30 minute increments. He also talks about how he has managed to write 5 books in this fashion.  One of the reasons I am so hot to read the whole book is that he talked about his beliefs, attitude and approach to goal setting and it makes perfect sense to me in the context of what I’ve studied and learned about how the brain works, creating new neural pathways in the brain, changing habits and behaviors, etc…  I’ve had major philosophical, spiritual, and emotional issues with goal setting and yet, because goal setting is so highly touted, I’ve given it a whirl and have suffered greatly in the process.  According to Fiore, this makes perfect sense. PHEW!  Thank you, Mr. Fiore!  So, I feel very encouraged that I can still become a published author and complete some other rather daunting projects with my current relationship with goal setting.  With what I learn from this book, it may even go 4 times faster (read the part about perfectionism).  I suspect that this will have huge implications for other parts of my life too.  I’m soooo excited!

Well, I could go on and on about this, but I think I’ll wait till I’ve finished the book…….or at least read a bit of it.  If you hadn’t noticed, there’s now a page on this blog for book reviews. Please stop by and chat awhile.  Post a comment about this book or any super useful or inspiring book you’ve read.  I look forward to hearing from you.

The Law of Attraction, Success, Satisfaction, Purpose, and Effectiveness in this Digital Age

The Law of Attraction, Success, Satisfaction, Purpose, and Effectiveness in this Digital Age

We live in digital time. Culturally, our pace is rushed, rapid fire and relentless. Facing crushing workloads, we try to cram as much as possible into every day. We’re wired up, but we’re melting down. Time management alone is insufficient as a solution.

The number of hours in a day is fixed, but the quantity and quality of energy available to us is not. This fundamental insight has the power to revolutionize the way you live your life.

This is something I’ve been thinking about and addressing in my own life and in the way I do business. In order to practice what I preach and be a living example of my work, I am always on the lookout for ways to increase my effectiveness, my satisfaction, and my success as a person, as a parent, and as a professional. I’ve been “attending” Bill Baren’s Time Experts TeleSummit to learn from the experts. Today, we heard from Jim Loehr, author of The Power of Full Engagement and head of HumanPerformanceInstitute.com.

In this bestseller, co-author and Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder of the Institute, Jim Loehr, Ed.D., demonstrates in this groundbreaking book, managing energy, not time, is the key to enduring high performance as well as to health, happiness and life balance.

By full engagement we mean physically energized, emotionally connected, mentally focused and spiritually aligned. Full engagement requires each of these four sources of energy. All of them are necessary, none is sufficient by itself and each influences the others. These ideas are perfectly aligned with my work and my ultimate objectives for my clients.

His major premise is that if we are to live satisfying successful lives, we need to:
- know what defines a successful life for ourselves
-commit to applying the bulk of our energy to creating/furthering this
-craft the rules of engagement for doing this
-align all of our energies (physical, mental, spiritual, emotional) to this purpose
-summon the emotions that support the process
-cultivate the physical and mental energy needed to execute the mission with full engagement (he goes into how to maximize your physiology in order to have maximum aliveness and energy)
-commit to engaging fully, managing our energy and our attention and our time (in that order of priority), and thus feeding that which we want to expand (essentially The Law of Attraction).

He feels very strongly that we are simply not designed to multi-task and that we grossly reduce our effectiveness and satisfaction in every area of our lives that we allow multi-tasking to affect. He spoke about marriage, children, jobs, personal life wrt this. He also spoke of the enormous risk we take when we multi-task because humans simply cannot split their focus.

There are resources on this site, some of them are free including a quiz/profile.
By completing 26 questions, you will receive the Free Profile. It will give you an initial sense of your engagement in each of the four dimensions. I found it to be quite accurate. Give it a whirl; takes only a few minutes.

http://www.humanperformanceinstitute.com/

Personal Freedom and Responsibility go Hand in Hand.

Personal freedom and responsibility go hand in hand.

The price for freedom is self-growth.

As with immigrants to this country, we must be willing to grow in a new environment in order to take full advantage of all it has to offer. We must be willing to stretch to break free of limits and constraints. As we well know, just because we are living in a place of ‘freedom’ it doesn’t necessarily mean we are safe and secure – how to be safe and secure is something else we must learn.

Just getting to the intellectual understanding or awareness that we may have those self-limiting barriers (or freedom, for that matter) is not enough. We must now DO something with that knowledge. Unfortunately, when ego rules the mind, we often find ourselves falling into the mindset that we don’t need to DO anything else … that we can simply hang out in this new freedom indefinitely and things will be different.

This mindset – this inaction – is so dangerous because personal freedom and responsibility go hand in hand.

This first “why I shouldn’t” line of thinking keeps you where you are and leads you down a false road. But the second line of thinking, the “why I should”, leads to more life and the true abundance of the universe.

Consider this question…

“Who did God place in your life as a guide, mentor, coach or teacher?”

If you can get yourself out of the way, that person can lead you to places you may never have even dreamed about. But the responsibility – the action – for beginning the journey is solely yours.

Success, Purpose, Vision, and Service

Success means that we go to sleep at night knowing that our talents and abilities were used in a way that served others.
–Marianne Williamson

The idea is to see a vision that gives you purpose in life and then to implement that vision. The vision by itself is one half, one part, of a process. It implies the necessity of living that vision, otherwise the vision will sink back into itself.
–Lewis P. Johnson

Money, Income, Life Purpose and the Chakras – Part 2

Money, Income, Life Purpose and the Chakras – Part 2

In the last post, I talked about needing to work through the issues of the first 3 chakras in order to gain autonomy, individuation, an internal sense of security, to connect with others, have relationships, offer your creativity and receive material rewards for it. All of that must happen in order to gain clarity about your desire and your purpose.

The chakra system is the spiritual link between purpose and profit. You’ll conquer your issues and your obstacles, make decisions, offer your gifts, take responsibility to get your gifts to as many people as possible.

The 4th chakra is about following your bliss- this will lead you to your purpose. Do what you love and combine it with a sound business plan. Passion + Purpose + Plan = Profit. Having done the work on issues around the first 3 chakras, you can really get behind yourself, be effective, balanced and creative and do the work you love while getting paid for it.

The 5th chakra is about knowing your core message and getting it out to a wide audience. The money is in your message so get it out as widely as possible. Many entrepreneurs’ success is hampered by their aversion or resistance to marketing. When it’s the message linked to your purpose, it becomes sharing and offering rather than marketing or selling.

The 6th chakra is about the decision-making and evolution-causing part of the brain. The transformational power of decisions leads to unstoppable wealth. Make the decision to be hugely successful, wealthy, philanthropic, or all 3. Pareto’s Principle applies here too: 80% of decisions are made in the moment. 20% require deliberation or research.

The 7th chakra connects you with the divine. When you get yourself aligned with this energy, you become a channel for energy and it bypasses the ego! How cool is that?! I LOVE this. Get connected; stay connected. Life and work are soooo much easier this way; more fun too. Helpful hint: stop multi-tasking; it interferes with this connection. Inspiration = spirit comes in.

Our souls have a non-negotiable desire for life purpose. Your auric field holds your life purpose. Success is an inside job; BE the person you are meant to be. Now is a good time to begin. How well you’re doing with each of the chakras determines how bright your energy is and how immediate your manifesting will be. We emit a very clear frequency when we clear out the baggage; then people and opportunities are attracted to us. Re-write your story, dump the heavy baggage, cultivate bright new energy. Theta, NLP, Coaching and Hypnosis are great tools for this. I know this because I use them on myself- not just on my clients.  I am living proof.  When you are BEING your purpose, everything will happen! Since I made the simultaneous decisions to BE my purpose,  invest myself 100% in my coaching/training business and to end my unfulfilling romantic relationship, there has been a confluence of grace, resources, and opportunities that exceeded my hopes and expectations!  Everything is happening!

Money, Income, Life Purpose and the Chakras

Money, Income, Life Purpose and the Chakras

Does this sound like a question from one of those tests where you pick the one item that does not go with all the others? Well, it’s not. These things all have a very strong relationship to each other.

If you’ve been reading my blog, you’re familiar with how life purpose relates to money and income. If you haven’t, I’ll wait while you read the 5 part series on The Secret to Increasing Your Income More Easily and Enjoying Yourself in the Process. In addition to what’s stated in that series, the chakras (7 energy centers in the body) all need to be spinning optimally to have no limit to your potential income.

Interestingly, each chakra corresponds to issues that affect your bank balance and your potential income. As I always say, when you handlle your money issues (this includes issues around work, income, debt, saving, investing, and purpose), your relationship with money transforms and your entire life transforms as well!

Here’s a quick run through:

• 1st chakra: has to do with your tribe or family, their mentality, beliefs, and patterns; security and survival, and connection. Our income reflects the degree to which we play it safe versus rocking the boat wrt our tribe/family. TIP: create your own tribe that resonates who you truly are and allows you to transform rather than conform.
• 2nd chakra: has to do with relationships with self, with others, with creativity. Your comfort level with each of those 3 relationships directly affects your income. Your ability to receive income is proportional to your capacity to put your creativity out in the world. If apathy or procrastination is part of your experience, there’s some work to do around releasing your creativity and offering it to the world and getting paid for it. Passion pays!
• 3rd chakra: has to do with strength, stamina, fortitude, courage, individuating, the I AM, staying true to your boundaries, standards and purpose. Your self-care (diet, sleep, exercise, relaxation, quietude, reflection, recreation, and fun) is reflected in your bank balance. Now, are we all motivated to take better care of ourselves? It’s essential to claim your inner power and put yourself FIRST! No, it’s not selfish; it’s the most generous thing you can do since it allows you to give more.

In order to gain clarity about your desire and your purpose, it’s necessary to work through all issues pertaining to the first 3 chakras. You must acquire autonomy from your family, heal any wounds resulting from said family, and move on. Create new tribe that supports your true self and it’s purpose. Connect with with your creativity and exchange it for money. Relate to others, develop good boundaries in your personal and professional interactions, have good relationships.

Stay tuned for Part 2.

Wise Investing in Turbulent Times

Investment tip: Both the real estate market and the stock market are uncertain investments right now. What is certain?  Investing in yourself ! That investment will never lose value. It’s a sure thing!  You can’t lose and the upside potential is completely unlimited. Invest in getting yourself to an ideal position where there is nothing stopping you from succeeding. Even in turbulent times, there are those who succeed and many who succeed wildly.  I’m talking about those with ethics and integrity, NOT opportunists who lack integrity.  Why do they succeed when others are struggling or sinking?  Among the contributing factors: they know who they are, what their gifts and purpose are, they’re motivated to offer these gifts and reap the rewards of doing so, and they’ve cleared the way by eliminating internal obstacles such as fear, limiting beliefs, doubt, procrastination, insecurity, unproductive habits and behaviors and internal conflicts.

Motivated?  Want to take some action?  Money Mastery provides the opportunity to master your inner game of money.  It’s the KEY to living the life you are meant to lead.

• have a healthy, mature prosperous relationship with money.
• have fulfilling work that pays you what you’re worth.
• make conscious choices toward having deeply fulfilling finances, work, and life

Money Mastery combines quantum tools and cutting edge methods for a highly accelerated way to:

• uncover your unconscious beliefs, patterns, and behaviors about money.
• eliminate defeating behaviors, beliefs, fears, and internal conflicts.
• transform your finances, work and life to be abundant, fun, fulfilling, and flowing with ease.

Curious?  Read the Testimonials page to hear about other’s experience with Money Mastery.

How HAPPY are you?

I have been reading Marci Shimoff’s newest book: Happy for No Reason and I cannot recommend it highly enough- even if you’re already happy. I heard about this book and thought I’d skip it because I’m pretty happy and didn’t think I needed to read a book about being happy. I was so wrong. I have learned so much reading this book, it has inspired me, reminded me of many things that are good to be reminded of, and I’m becoming happier by the week. I’m reading the book in 50 days with 50 other people and we’re going to see how happy we can become.

How happy are you, really? Care to find out? Try this.

The Happy for No Reason Questionnaire

Rate each statement on a scale of 1 to 5:
1 = Not at all true 2 = Slightly True 3 = Moderately True 4 = Mostly True 5 = Absolutely True
1. I often feel happy and satisfied for no particular reason.
1 2 3 4 5
2. I live in the moment.
1 2 3 4 5
3. I feel alive, vital and energetic.
1 2 3 4 5
4. I experience a deep sense of inner peace and well-being.
1 2 3 4 5
5. Life is a great adventure for me.
1 2 3 4 5
6. I don’t let bad situations keep me down.
1 2 3 4 5
7. I am enthusiastic about the things I do.
1 2 3 4 5
8. Most days I have an experience of laughter or joy.
1 2 3 4 5
9. I trust this is a friendly universe.
1 2 3 4 5
10. I look for the gift or the lesson in everything that happens.
1 2 3 4 5
11. I am able to let go and forgive.
1 2 3 4 5
12. I feel love for myself.
1 2 3 4 5
13. I look for the good in every person.
1 2 3 4 5
14. I change the things I can and accept the things I can’t change.
1 2 3 4 5
15. I surround myself with people who support me.
1 2 3 4 5
16. I don’t blame others or complain.
1 2 3 4 5
17. My negative thoughts don’t overshadow me.
1 2 3 4 5
18. I feel a general sense of gratitude.
1 2 3 4 5
19. I feel connected to something bigger than myself.
1 2 3 4 5
20. I feel inspired by a sense of purpose in my life.
1 2 3 4 5
Scoring section:
If your score is 80 – 100: To a great degree, you are Happy for No Reason.
If your score is 60 – 79: You have a good measure of being Happy for No Reason.
If your score is 40 – 59: You have glimpses of being Happy for No Reason.
If your score is under 40: You have little experience of being Happy for No Reason.
Whatever your score, you can always move toward being more Happy for No Reason. The book is full of simple quick things to move you in this direction.  Decide to do one or two exercises each week; it’ll feel less daunting.   After you buy the book, there are online resources you can use on the book’s website.

How Does the Proposed Wall Street Bailout Affect Your Security?

How Does the Proposed Wall Street Bailout Affect Your Security?

The events of this week and the uncertainty about the future that they engender make one thing crystal clear: Our only security is what is intrinsically part of us and cannot be lost, stolen, or destroyed.  Our inner qualities, capacities, and knowing are secure within us.  Our integrated confidence in our own abilities to create and offer meaningful, purpose-filled products and services that serve the world and serve humanity is how that security manifests.

Our external circumstances, environment, investment accounts, relationships and more can change or fall away in an instant, but as long as we continue to believe in our divine capacity to contribute… and to live happy, fulfilling, fabulous lives … we remain open to the opportunities that exist at exactly the same time as any perceived crisis.

Perhaps more so than any other time since the late 80s, this is the time to INVEST in OURSELVES – in cleaning out and up-leveling our internal belief and guidance structures – so that no matter the shifts in our economic or political environment we become and remain true to our unique gifts and are able to stay the course to fully express these gifts. By clearing out limiting beliefs, developing constructive habits, remaining calm and grounded, taking purposeful steps, getting and staying in alignment with our inner compass, clearing obstacles to our personal power, we increase our security and our chances of not only surviving but THRIVING now and into the future! This is how many entrepreneurs will achieve massive success in the next 12 months regardless of the circumstances covered by the news media.
The mainstream news is very negative lately (as it is usually), yet so many great things are truly happening all over the world at any given time- it’s just that few ever get to hear about those things. I urge you to focus on where you want to be going and realize that with the law of polarity in place, when you hear of bad times, there is also tremendous good happening and it’s your choice which one will affect your life, your consciousness, and your purpose. There are no victims – only participants.  What we put our attention on expands.  What do you want to expand?  Put your attention there and keep it there.  The benevolent forces in the universe WILL be with you.