How Did You Get Here?

February 27, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Have you ever found yourself in a place where  you never thought you’d be?  Over my lifetime, I’ve asked myself several times, “How did I get here?”  Sometimes, it wasn’t a good thing either – like when I realized I’d been practicing law for nearly ten years and felt no passion for it. Sometimes, though, I’ve posed the question out of a sense of awe – like when I was crossing the equator on a boat with my family in the middle of the Pacific Ocean on a three-week passage. We were fulfilling a dream, doing things we never believed we could carry off, and were in the exact place we wanted to be at that moment. It is these times, obviously, that we need to be striving for.  It is that sense of awe and purpose that fuels us to be the best we can be.

The Merriam Webster dictionary defines the emotion of passion as “an intense, driving feeling or conviction”. By definition, then, your passion inspires you to act.  In May 2010, Simon Sinek delivered a TED talk that very convincingly demonstrates the way to inspire leadership is to find people who have passion for what they are doing. And it’s not surprising that the premier management consulting firm, McKinsey&Company, recently came out with a study evidencing peak performance and job satisfaction when an employee at any level finds meaning in his or her work.

These are consistent with one of my favorite inspirational quotes that comes from an ancient yoga theorist, Pantaljali: “When you are inspired… dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.”

Change begins from within, from that place of passion and purpose and cause. Once you find it, you begin to live intentionally. You are making conscious intentional decisions about your life – which leads to a life lived on purpose, performing at your peak. So much more is possible from this place.

Regardless of how you got here, whether you’re in a good place or one not so great, find your inspiration, meaning and passion in what you do.  And from that naturally comes more inspiration, meaning and passion. I’ll meet you there.

 

Filed Under: Change, Motivation, passion, Success Tagged With: , , , ,

What Does Saying No Really Mean?

January 28, 2013 by Leave a Comment

This past week I found myself feeling overwhelmed. I was Drowning – that feeling we get when we are doing too much. Everyone has a different threshold, but I had clearly reached mine. My To-Do List was not only getting longer, but it also was not having anything taken off. In other words, I was getting nothing done. My mother and stepdad were coming into town for a short visit and I had no idea how I was even going to spend time with them, and as they get older, I want every minute of them that I can get.

When we are frantically trying to do too much, everyone and everything around us suffers. We cannot be present with those we are with, we forget to take care of ourselves, we don’t get enough sleep or eat properly, we are more inefficient, we lose things, we become disorganized, our environment is in chaos, and we are more prone to accidents or getting sick. You know that feeling. And when it hits, it’s time to say No.

When we say No to things on our plate, it is more than just saying No to things that we’d otherwise be doing. When we say No, we are actually saying Yes to a way of being. We are saying Yes to a greater calm, to being present and being intentional in how we live our lives. We are saying Yes to being in choice. And that’s powerful.

Ask yourself if you are in that state of Drowning. Have you hit your threshold? Do you need to be saying No to things on your plate? If your answer is Yes, get intentional about what you will say No to, and put the plan in place. It feels powerful and freeing. On the other hand, if you are feeling stuck, that there’s nothing you can say No to, please contact me. I will help you figure it out. Because there is always something you can be saying No to. You are always in choice. You get to choose how you will Be. Please don’t settle for any less.

Filed Under: Dealing with Overwhelm Tagged With: , , , ,

Happy Holidays & Toward 2013

December 24, 2012 by Leave a Comment

While I am currently traveling abroad, this post is scheduled to come out on Christmas Eve, when those who celebrate will be moments away from Christmas, and those who don’t, will be getting ready to head out for the obligatory Chinese food. Either way, there’s a tremendous amount of electricity in the air, lots of light, and an exciting feeling of what’s in store for the next year.

One of my favorite quotes comes from Steve Jobs:“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life…Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.  They somehow know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

As a coach, I am passionate about helping people live according to their passions. Passions can be about an idea (e.g.a strong educational system), or a job (e.g. the work you do), or a hobby (e.g. painting or music), or about something you do that likely comes very naturally to you (e.g. helping people be more efficient). While there are so many things to be passionate about, for everyone it’s different.   What does remain the same across the board, however, is that when you live passionately, you feel empowered to accomplish so much more in line with who you really are and your highest, best self.

At year end, it’s appropriate to evaluate where you’ve been (which becomes your starting point for today) and where you’re going. For 2013, I challenge you to pick something you are passionate about and move closer to it.

Goal setting in any realm remains the same: Step one involves evaluating where you are today so you know where to start. Step two is to figure out where you’d like to be, which becomes the ultimate goal. And finally, in step three, you design small steps that will bring you closer to where you want to be. Eventually, you’ll get there, I have no doubt, but if the task feels daunting, the key is to begin taking these designed steps. After all, tomorrow will come, and when it does, you will either be that one step closer to where you want to be, or you won’t. It’s really as simple as that.

To help you with this exercise in all areas of your life, be sure to sign up for Success 2013 where we will set goals with a plan for taking individual, realistic steps to moving you forward to that ultimate vision you’ve created for yourself. We will repeat the exercise in all 12 areas of your life, with a method for revisiting each area every year to keep you moving forward. The process keeps you on track, feeling empowered and intentional in all that you aim for.

May you feel empowered and intentional in all your endeavors from this day forward.

Happy holidays everyone, and happy New Year.

Filed Under: Goal-Setting Tagged With: , , , , , ,