Joy of Being You

Mindfulness: Why Am I So Happy?

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In his new book, “The Millionaire Master Plan,” Roger Hamilton writes about his own practice for creating his day each morning.  He shares eight questions that he asks and answers himself every morning.

I have been playing with his questions.

My favorite, by far:
Why Am I So Happy?

This question presses me to find my happiness and gives me infinite opportunities to name it.  I’ve also noticed that I am becoming more aware of happiness as my natural, innate state, even when I temporarily feel unhappy about something.

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How could I be anything but happy as
I stare into the face of this pure Beauty?

How great is that?!?

What about you?  In this moment, why are you so happy?

Post your comments, insights and progress below.

Thank you for playing with me today!

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Align with Source coaching

If you are ready to start a business, go to the next level with your business, change careers or radically transform your life, let’s have a conversation to explore if the one-year, one-on-one Align with Source coaching program would be a good fit for you.

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My book, “Thriving Work” is now available
on Kindle at Amazon for just $3.99:
Click here to order

Conscious Choice: The Energy of Freedom!

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What greater freedom is there than truly being me?  And you truly being you? Me in my artsy energy, you in your adventure energy; me loving to eat delicious food, you loving to cook delicious food; me wilting in summer heat, you living for it; and our list goes on . . .

Human/Divine, strong/scared, selfish/selfless, playful/self-conscious, flawed/perfect, you get the idea . . .

I love our US holiday of July 4th, Independence Day.  Our forefathers had a vision of being independent of certain constraints.  And yet today, our country and our world face challenges that our forefathers could never have imagined.  And still, each of us has the opportunity to choose our own freedom in any given moment.

While each of us has a list of certain things that will help us to be free – losing 20 pounds, getting out of debt, getting a new job or relationship or car, making more money, healing our broken leg or broken heart – there is a much more immediate way to be free.  In this moment.

Simply allow yourself to become immersed in the energy of freedom.

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Ooooo, aaaaah, the energy of freedom!

What does freedom feel like to you?

For me, I’m without concern and judgment, slowed down, excited and alert, and at the same time peaceful and present.

If it’s challenging for you to feel into it like that, then remember a time when you felt fully yourself, fully alive.  Once you remember the event or activity, then remember what it felt like.

That’s the energy of freedom.

No new car purchase or more money in the bank necessary.  Yet, interestingly, the more you live in the energy of freedom, the more whatever you require or whatever you’d like then tends to show up!

Happy Freedom!

Feel free to post your comments or insights below.

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I want to turn you onto my friend Rolf Evenson’s
new digital magazine, “Boomers Rising”

As baby boomers with generous entrepreneurial spirits, we face significant challenges. What to do next with our lives? How to make it work financially? How to create a life that allows us the freedom we crave, while offering opportunities for connection and creative engagement?

Join Boomers Rising Magazine to be an active part of the solution.

Boomers Rising is the world’s leading digital magazine for “encore entrepreneurs” inspired by a vision of passion, prosperity and purpose.

Some of my favorite articles:
– Confidence in Your Business
– Top 10 Food Lies that Keep Us Sick and Fat
– The Tribes We Lead
– Lessons Learned on E Street (Think Bruce!)
– The Illusive Obvious

You can read it on your iphone, ipad or android.

Check it out:
http://www.boomersrising.com

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My book, “Thriving Work” is now available
on Kindle at Amazon for just $3.99:
Click here to order

Affirmative Prayers: I Was Born for This

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Today I offer you one of the poems/affirmative prayers from my forthcoming book with a working title of:  Strong from Within: Simple perceptions and practices for returning to the joy of you.

 

I used to wonder
Why does nobody see this?
Why hasn’t this already been done?
Why do I want something
that nobody else seems to want?

Doubt, self-judgment.
Telling myself to be happy with what is.

Yet, it didn’t leave me alone.

If only we could each be as clear as this magnificent tree, I was born for this.

If only we could each be as clear as this
magnificent tree, “I was born for this.”

And so I began to realize
This is mine.
My part.  My vision.  My love.

This is why I’m here.
I was born for this.

My expression.
My contribution.
Expressing and gifting
what I alone can give.

My way.
Unusual.  Precious.  Needed.
My full expression.
Contributing to the Whole.
I was born for this.

I was born for this.

So, what about you?  What were you born for?  If you’re not sure, what’s your next step in knowing?  How can I help?

Feel free to post your comments, insights and experiences below.

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My book, “Thriving Work” is now available
on Kindle at Amazon for just $3.99:
Click here to order

StrengthsFinder™: With Connectedness in Charge

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A couple of weeks ago, I re-ordered my own internal Strengths structure.

I needed a better way to deal with stress in both my personal and professional life.  So, I put Connectedness in charge.

Before that time, Maximizer and Activator pretty much ran the show.

And, I get ahead of myself.  Let me back up a bit.

My top StrengthsFinder™ strengths:
1. Maximizer
2. Empathy
3. Connectedness
4. Activator
5. Individualization
6. Strategic

Maximizer consistently transforms good into great.  Empathy feels what’s going on with others.  Connectedness knows that everything is connected.  Activator gets things moving. Individualization knows, specifically, what you want and need.  And Strategic finds the best way.

The downside to having Activator and Maximizer in charge: Activator tends to follow the Ready, Fire, Aim approach to life, driving Maximizer and Strategic a bit crazy.  And Maximizer can go way too far with perfectionism without return on investment.

So, how did putting Connectedness in charge reduce my stress?  Connectedness connects me to myself, connects me to my Source, connects me to those I love and connects me to nature.  Connectedness knows what’s most important.  With Activator and Maximizer subservient to Connectedness, Activator fires more often in the right direction and Maximizer maximizes what’s most important.

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Connectedness loves being outside in wide open space. 
Connectedness connects me to what’s most important.

So, that’s a bit about my story.  Now, take me out and put you in.  What’s driving you?

If you haven’t taken the StrengthsFinder assessement, it takes just 30 – 40 minutes and $19.99. Take it now.

It will change your life, if you allow yourself to stay with your Strengths daily rather than thinking you must improve your weaknesses.

Feel free to post your comments, insights and experiences with your strengths below.

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If you’d like a personalized Strengths Strategy™ Application session, I am offering them via phone or Skype from anywhere in the world or in-person if you’re in the Santa Fe area.

40 to 50 minutes
$108 (Regularly $250)

Email me or call me on my direct office line to discern if this session would be a good fit for you.  505.466.1358.

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My book, “Thriving Work” is now available
on Kindle at Amazon for just $3.99:
Click here to order

StrengthsFinder™: Doesn’t Everybody Do That?

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After six years of coaching clients around their strengths, I am still tickled and surprised when I acknowledge them for some amazing thing that they do and they say, “What do you mean?  Doesn’t everybody do that?”

Last week I was with my friend Gina walking a lovely neighborhood retail area with shops and restaurants.  We were hanging flyers for my upcoming StrengthsFinder™ workshop.  And, I got the pure joy of seeing all of her strengths come into play.

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Each of our unique combinations of strengths causes each of us to shine, to be strong in the way that only we can!

In the first three restaurants she told me about something on the menu that she knew I specifically would love.  At the bookstore she held the door open for the shopkeeper carrying in boxes of books.  Then she offered to help her unload the car.  At the next restaurant, they didn’t have a place for flyers and she said in her gracious, sing-songy voice, “No is a perfectly acceptable answer.”  At the next bar, she told and the bartender that we were coming back for one of their specialty tequilas.  At the paper store she told the owner how the workshop could help her and her employees.  In the mobile fashion truck, she talked to the girl about bringing the truck to her birthday party.

And so Gina went for 5 or 6 more shops.  When we were walking to our cars, I said, “That was amazing.  I have hung many flyers in my life and never like that.  It was like you gave everyone we talked to a gift, or several gifts.  And, you knew exactly what to give each one of them.”  She looked at me so quizzically and then said, “doesn’t everybody do that?”

Ah . . .

We are so strong in our strengths that we don’t even know they are strengths.  They’re “just what I do.”

When I told Gina she could make very good money with her strengths she couldn’t understand why anyone would pay her to just hang some flyers!

Feel free to post your comments, insights and experiences with your strengths below.


My book, “Thriving Work” is now available
on Kindle at Amazon for just $3.99:
Click here to order

StrengthsFinder™: What Do Your Strengths Need?

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One of my clients has the strengths of Input, Intellection and Ideation in her top 5 StrengthsFinder™ strengths.  If she doesn’t have an hour or two of alone time every day to think, reflect and mediate, she gets super cranky.  Another has Empathy as her top strength.  If she doesn’t have alone time every day without naturally feeling what others feel, then she gets cranky.  Different strengths.  Same need.  For different reasons.

My Empathy/Connectedness/Relator needs to have an authentic, deep, one-on-one connection with one or two people every day or I become disconnected.  My Competition/Achiever/Command niece needs to be challenged, provoked and have clear rules of engagement or she’s not interested.  While my Harmony/Empathy assistant needs us all to play nice or she’ll find nicer playmates.  Different strengths.  Different needs.  For different reasons.

All of us have strengths.  All of our strengths have needs.  Yet we rarely talk about the needs, lest we seem needy.

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All of our strengths have needs.  And, it’s individual for each of us.  Same strength, different need.  Different strength, same need.  Different day, same strength different need.  Two of our own strengths, competing needs.  The trick: allowing all the needs, attending to all of the needs to receive the greatest value of the strengths.

To complicate matters, while each of our strengths have needs, the needs of one strength may conflict with the needs of another. Yikes, a bit of an internal battle.

If we acknowledge that we all have needs, does it make it a bit easier to talk about them?  If we acknowledge we sometimes have conflicting needs – both with those around us and within ourselves, does it help us work together and within ourselves to meet all of those needs?

Feel free to post your comments, insights and experiences below.

Self Acceptance: Follow Your Excitement

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When you feel overwhelmed, with too many options, how do you choose?  Try following your excitement.  When you look at all of your choices, which one excites you the most?  Which one makes you feel the most alive, the most energized?

Deep inside, you know what is best for you.  One of the ways our intuition communicates with us involves the energy of our excitement.  Pay attention to what things energize you and what things drain you.  Notice when you are thriving and when you are wilting.  Then, move toward what energizes you, causes you to thrive and away from what drains you, causes you to wilt.  It really is that simple. 

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You naturally increase your self acceptance
as you make choices most true to you.

Now, at first it may not seem easy.  You may feel concerned about hurting someone’s feelings or you may not want to renegotiate a commitment.  Give yourself permission to take care of yourself before you take care of others.  As you take better care of yourself, you’ll increase your capacity to spend time with others in meaningful ways, rather than out of obligation.

As you more consistently follow your excitement, you’ll have more energy, you’ll feel more peaceful and you’ll experience greater happiness because you have chosen to honor your true path.  

Would you willingly risk not satisfying the perceived expectations of others to gain the deep contentment that comes from living life in the best way for you?

Spiritual Awakening: Blossoming

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“Unless a tree has borne blossoms in spring, you will vainly look for fruit on it in autumn.”
– Walter Scott

What in you longs to blossom now?  Even though many of us choose to set goals and make resolutions in January, that timing contradicts nature – both human nature and mother nature . . .

As Nature herself knows, attempting new growth in the dead of winter makes for a very short life span!  Perhaps explaining the reality of so many new year’s resolutions never taking hold?! 

Trees and flowers know better to wait for warmth to blossom.  And so we as human have this same blossoming opportunity now – when the air is cool and the sun is warm and we feel hope deep inside our limbs!

So, regardless of what did or didn’t happen with your new year’s resolutions, what longs to blossom in you now?  Can you sense more vibrant health inside you?  Do you know greater abundance in your business?  Are you feeling excited about new love blossoming?  Is a new project waiting to blossom?  New collaborations? Deeper friendships?  New fun and adventure?  Spiritual awakening?  Travel to new places?

Let’s use this wonderful, fresh, spring energy to give voice and commitment to what longs to blossom from deep within us . . . looking forward to a wonderful autumn harvest because we’re taking the time now to tend the inspiration of new growth . . .

Feel free to post your spring blossoming urges in the comments section . . .

Clear intention: Quantum Leap to the Person You’d Like to Be, part I of II

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Would you like to be a more successful business person?  A thinner version of yourself?  A more loving person?  A more patient person?  Widely recognized as a talented artist?  Then, let’s play a game: be that person now.

First, define this person.  For example: My Natural Rockefeller, Me with a Rockin’ Hot Body, Love Goddess, etc.  Have fun with it.  Pick a name that makes you grin, giggle and stand a bit taller.  Now the fun really begins.  Play with making every choice, taking every breath as that person.  What does your Natural Rockefeller eat for breakfast?  What music does she listen to?  How does she speak?  Who are her friends?  How does she treat herself, talk to herself?

Give yourself permission to play this game fully.  Become aware of all the choices you make in a day.  In every moment, choose as this new version of yourself.  And, get ready for lots of fun, plenty of laughs and maybe a miracle or two!

Spiritual inspiration: from within (day 18)

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This morning as I was listening to a Michael Beckwith recording I noticed myself scanning his ideas for something to spark my blog post.  Then, I read an ezine from my friend, Tama, with the same thought in the back of my head.

Finally I noticed the spot of anxiety inside me.  Instead of taking in Michael and Tama as nourishment for my soul, I was busy looking for something amazing to share with you.  As if that amazing thing had to come from outside of me.  As if nourishing me isn’t enough.

The anxiety has subsided as I realize offering you a slice of my process is way more than enough!  Please enjoy this slice as you revel in YOU being way more than enough . . .