Doing What You Can Do

Measuring Your Abundance Intelligence® in Trying Times

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:27:49 -0500

While the rest of the world may be caught up in doom and gloom, those of us embracing Abundance Intelligence® know this is a time of huge opportunity.

Yes, I’ve said it.

I believe there has never been a greater time for abundance than right now!

Do you think I’m out of touch? Lost my mind? In denial?

It all depends on what you are focused on. At The Abundance Intelligence Institute™, we know that abundance is not about what you have, it’s about who you are being and what you are doing. We know that success is being a byproduct of who you are.

In these times, when there is so much turmoil and fear swirling around, success comes to those who remain focused on the greatness (and abundance) within.

Abundant people focus on what they can do and what they can control. They let go of everything else, and allow life to unfold through them. Most importantly, abundant people in these trying times trust that what is meant for them can’t be lost.

How is your Abundance measuring up these days? Need a jumpstart? Join us for a very special event we’re having November 3rd to help people do just that – thrive abundantly in the midst of fear and challenge.

Abundance Intelligence® Community Call

Measuring Your Abundance Intelligence® In Trying Times

Monday, November 3rd, 7 pm eastern

Bridgeline: 712-421-8139 access code 5769#

Are you struggling to stay positive? Are you feeling less like yourself, making choices more out of fear than authenticity? If you’re looking for practical strategies on how to gauge where your Abundance Intelligence® is at, and how to grow your Abundance Intelligence amidst these challenges, join Kim George and the Abundance Intelligence® Pioneers in this very special call event.

Participants of this event will receive an invitation to meet with an Abundance Intelligence® Expert 1:1 for a complimentary measure of their Abundance Intelligence® .

Which will you choose? Your greatness or your fear?

Student or Teacher?

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 15:07:48 -0500

“You teach the life you live.”

—Togo D. West, Jr. (b.1942); attorney, former US Secretary of Veterans Affairs

So much of Abundance Intelligence® is about the teeter-totter – finding the harmony, embracing the duality between seemingly opposite concepts. I’ve often said that “we teach what we need to learn”. This year in particular, I find myself really living and applying the concepts of Abundance Intelligence® to my daily life.

In Abundance Intelligence® , we talk about the difference between intellectualizing something and internalizing it.

When we intellectualize something, our mind knows it, but it may go no further. (We all know what it takes to lose weight, but how many of us have adopted the lifestyle that gives us our ideal weight?)

When we internalize something, we are taking it to heart. We are owning it. We are saying this is true for me and it is so true that I believe it and choose to live it consistently.

Internalizing makes the knowing of something actionable. There is no longer any separation from what we know and who we are being.

All of this brings me to a question I’ve been pondering – what comes first, being the student or being the teacher? Think about your own life.

What are the turning points you’ve experienced?

When were you at a crossroads and made a decision that impacted you?

Was it based on all that you had learned and internalized? Or was it based on a desire to learn and grown, yearning for a new experience?

Perhaps it doesn’t matter what comes first – student or teacher. Perhaps these roles are actually interchangeable in our lives.

We are never just the student or just the teacher.

And that is the beautiful opportunity.

As someone who has brought Abundance Intelligence® to the world, the more I personally live it and experience it, the more real and alive it becomes for me. Perhaps I started out as a sort of teacher in this case.

Now, more than ever, I feel like the student.

Exploring.

Experimenting.

Asking questions; letting go of the need to find the right answers.

Lately, any time a challenge shows up (and there have been several!) I find myself asking, “How might I apply Abundance Intelligence® to this situation?”

And then more powerful questions present themselves:

• Am I doing all that I can do in this situation?
• Am I letting go of all that I can in this situation?
• Am I responding to what is true for me today?
• Am I allowing life to unfold through me, not because of me?
• Do I trust that what is meant for me can’t be lost?
• Am I choosing my greatness or my fear in this situation?
• Am I looking for the opportunity in the difficulty?

Each of these questions, if answered authentically, provides a cornucopia of abundance if we have the courage to ask.

The choice is ours. What do you choose?

Be a Part of Abundance Intelligence® History

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:29:10 -0500

Back to school! Summer is coming to a close – can you believe it? I’ve always loved this time of year. I remember as a kid how excited I was to pick out my pens and notebooks and folders . . . everything color coordinated perfectly. (I still can’t bring my credit cards into an office supply store!) And there was a sense of new beginnings in the air. Even as a little girl I could feel it.

Well, that sense of new beginnings is in the air again! What an exciting time in the world of Abundance Intelligence® ! Next month I am launching a brand new r&d team as a creative environment for my next book, tentatively titled The Power of Choice.

Several of you were part of the first r&d team when I wrote Coaching Into Greatness. Back then, in the early days, we called it the LIG team (living into greatness). Imagine – Abundance Intelligence® hadn’t even been thought of when we first began!

For those of you who are new to this concept, r&d teams are used in a variety of ways to create and beta test new programs and material. It is my most powerful creative tool, hands down.

Are you an early adopter?

Do you thrive on compelling conversations?

Do you want to be a part of the next wave as Abundance Intelligence® is introduced to a bigger market?

Then the Abundance Intelligence® r&d team is for you!

Here is the info on our first call:

Exploring the Power of Choice
September 17th, 7 pm Eastern

Bridgeline: 712-421-8139 access code 5769#

** Please RSVP by sending an email to info@coachingintogreatness.com with r&d call in the subject line.

Be among the first to join Kim as she begins the creative process for the next Abundance Intelligence® book. In this call, Kim will explore the elements that make up powerful choices: authenticity and surrender. What does it really mean to be authentic in our world today? Why does authenticity matter? What is the connection between abundance and authenticity? Discover how the Abundance Intelligence® guiding principle “what is meant for you can’t be lost “ is a cornerstone for allowing life to unfold through you and how you can begin to put this into practice for yourself.

The World Opens Up

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 19:30:59 -0500

I’ve often said that when your heart breaks, the world opens up to you.

Last month, I wrote about the loss of my dog, and the lessons learned from that experience. Although the experience was painful, I chose to write about it, and share with all of you, my extended family. What happened was amazing; so many of you responded with love and words of encouragement. Even more amazing, many of you told me how sharing my experience helped you to deal with something in your own life. I never imagined that such a wonderful response could happen. You all lit up my world, reminding me how very connected we are.

I began to reflect on one of the conditioned patterns in the Abundance Intelligence® system – Vulnerability. For most people, especially in the business community, Vulnerability equals weakness, and should be avoided at all costs. In our Abundance Intelligence® vocabulary, we know that Vulnerability is defined as possessing the strength to allow yourself to be seen as who you are in the world. The emphasis here is on strength. It takes great courage to show yourself to the world authentically, especially when times may be painful, uncertain, or scary. I took a risk in sharing the loss I experienced. I never expected what I received in return. What a gift!

When we step outside of ourselves and accept the challenge to let people see us as we really are, the world opens up to us.

Our hearts get a little bigger.

Our love lasts longer.

Our experiences become richer . . . and we live into our greatness, one human moment at a time.

Being who we are, after all, is truly a beautiful thing.

Thank you all for reminding me of that.

Celebrating a Life Well Lived and Lessons Learned

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 17:08:37 -0500

“Never say with grief, ‘he is no more’, but rather say with thankfulness ‘he was’.”

Alexander Pushkin

There’s nothing like experiencing the joys of life. But as we know, life has a way of handing us unexpected challenges, and sometimes, heartbreaking sadness. Two weeks ago, I had to put my 13 year old basset hound, Earl, to sleep. A huge mass was discovered in his stomach and there was no cure.

Facing this reality was devastating. My pets are like my children. This dog had been through so much with me, I couldn’t imagine a life without him. There’s a simpleness and a purity about being loved by a dog. Perhaps it’s that unconditional love. They never judge us the way we judge ourselves. They accept us, and love us, for who we are. We are always more than enough in their eyes.

I got to spend 3 days with Earl before letting him go and those days were at the same time achingly difficult and oddly comforting. We did all the favorite things and ate all the favorite foods (ribs, popcorn, pizza, and double cheeseburgers). We took lots of pictures, and watched the Red Sox together. Earl, of course, was a Josh Beckett fan like his mother. We went to the park, and Earl got to ride in his red flyer wagon for the last time. Most of all, we sat side by side and I would gently stroke his fur, talking to him in a quiet voice about all I loved about him and the years we shared together.

As difficult as it was to face the inevitable, I’m so grateful I had the extra time with him. In his last few days, Earl gave me an amazing gift – the gift of being fully, completely present. When my mind would start to wander and think about him being gone, I’d turn my attention back to appreciating and loving him right now.

Gratitude has a way of easing even the hardest of times.

The choice to be present, to meet the moment, regardless of our circumstances or condition, is the most powerful choice of all. When we choose to meet the now, we let go of our mind’s struggles about what could be and what has been and we choose to be who we are.

Celebrating life is about loving what is right now.

After you read this, I hope you will take a few moments to recognize the things you love most in your life – whether they are people, animals, or experiences. Then take the time to celebrate the blessing of that love.

Be present to it.

Really feel it.

Honor it.

Then communicate it, because love is meant to be shared.

This month’s Community call will explore what it means to Meet the Moment, and how we can more consistently make this choice to live the greatness of who we are. I hope you’ll join me.

The Abundance Intelligence® of Loving Yourself

Sun, 11 May 2008 17:15:39 -0500

"I have seen an angel in the stone and had to remove the excess rock to make her free!"

Michelangelo

In our work with Abundance Intelligence® , we talk about the importance of letting go of becoming someone to embrace the greatness of who we already are. A simple concept, yes; however, putting this concept into practice is not always easy.

Why is it so challenging to love ourselves?

It’s easier to love ourselves when we feel like things are going our way and we’re getting what we “want”. But even then, even in the “easy” times, how many of us struggle with really loving who we are? And how can we really love anything or anyone else fully until we begin to love ourselves?

I’ve been reflecting lately on this topic of what it takes to fall in love with yourself. If true abundance is exercising the freedom to be who we are, then being who we are is about loving who we are.

As life goes on, we get thicker and thicker layers of conditioning. We’re told what to believe and who to believe and how to believe and pretty soon we don’t even realize we’ve stopped believing the truth of who we are!

We’ve been trained by society to fall in love with all that is external.

Not thin enough? Buy this diet book.

Not smart enough? Take this class.

Not young enough? Apply the latest wrinkle cream. Oh, and don’t forget the Ab-Roller – the latest answer to those annoying love handles!

An abundant life is about allowing life to unfold through you, not because of you. It’s about peeling back the layers of who you’ve always thought you were, to reveal the inner knowing of who you’ve really always been.

Abundance Intelligence® , then, is a process for falling in love all over again.

The result is a love that endures, that sustains, that reveals.

What will it take for you to fall in love with yourself? What are you waiting for?

Meet The Moment

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 18:14:04 -0500

This is my favorite time of year. The flowers are blooming, the trees are budding and the birds are singing. The world around us is literally bursting with life. There’s a sense of renewed energy. In the past month or so, I find myself in an amazing vortex of creative energy and joy. Like the natural world around me, I feel like I’m bursting with happiness. Anybody that’s been talking to me lately knows this.

I am happier than ever before.

I’m being more like myself than ever before.

What’s made the difference?

About a month ago, during a 1:1 coaching session, I found myself coining the phrase “meet the moment”. To meet the moment means to be fully present and open to what is coming to you, right here, right now. It also means being mindful of what is already on it’s way to you – “acting as if”.

When we are able to “meet the moment”, we allow the beauty of life to unfold through us, not because of us. We love what is and we look for the opportunity to learn and be and grow. This is especially true when the moment includes challenges, difficulties, unexpected happenings, and even pain.

“Meeting the moment” is about letting go of judgment and being fully alive in the honesty of who we are.

This is Courageous Abundance in action.

This is possibility.

This is living life out loud.

What does “meet the moment” mean to you?

Do You Treat Your Life Like a Drive Thru?

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 16:20:37 -0500

“Abundance is an inside job.”

- Coaching Into Greatness: 4 Steps to Success in Business and Life”

So often, people view abundance as what we have.

Money. Wealth. Prosperity.

In Abundance Intelligence® , we understand that true abundance is exercising the freedom to be who you are. Viewing life as relational begins with defining abundance as who we are being, not what we are doing or possessing.

The quality of our relationships begins with our relationship to ourselves. In other words, how we view others and the world around us depends on how we view ourselves.

Do we see ourselves as not enough or that we already having what we need, want and choose to be who we are?

Do we see life as something that happens to us or something that happens for us?

Do we view life as a series of transactions, a mad dash to the finish line (the one who dies with the most toys wins)? Or do we view life as a series of relationships to be discovered, developed, invested in?

Happiness, like abundance, is available to us right here right now. Just like we choose to practice Abundance Intelligence® , we choose to be happy.

Each of you is already great. It is a matter of choosing your greatness over your fear that causes you to be abundant.

Success, and happiness, are a byproduct of being who you are.

Life Is Relational, Not Transactional

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 16:14:14 -0500

Abundance Intelligence® Community Call
Abundance Intelligence® Guiding Principles Series
Wednesday, March 19th at 7:00 pm Eastern

Life is Relational, Not Transactional

Bridgeline: 712-421-8139 access code 5769#

Join us for another installment in the popular Abundance Intelligence® Guiding Principles series. This month, we will premiere our newest principle: Life is Relational, Not Transactional.

People with a high Abundance Intelligence® see the importance of relationships in all of life. They understand the connectedness of all living things and all events. They embrace synchronicity and allow life to unfold through them. Most importantly, they actively build relationships and invest in relationships in everything they do.

Life is not a marathon to be won, or another trip through the drive thru. Call in to discover the relationship between the art of connecting and abundance. Discover how, when you first connect with yourself, it then accelerates your connection to greatness and to the world around you.

What Are You Connected To?

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 16:02:57 -0500

“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten we belong to each other.”

Mother Teresa

Love is in the air! Yes, it’s Valentines week! And yet, so much of what’s in the news isn’t focused on love, it’s focused on fear – a looming recession, the mortgage meltdown, the IrAbundance Intelligence® war.

I think the quotation from Mother Teresa says it best. We struggle most when we lose our connection to each other, to what really matters. The most important connection of all is the one we have to our inner knowing, our authenticity. But with the frenzied pace of life – the “have it all now mentality” so many fall under, it’s so much easier to do more and more, producing, laboring, racing on the endless treadmill.

Loving someone or something else begins with an ability to see beauty. To be able to see the beauty all around us, we must first begin to see it in ourselves. It’s an illusion to believe that we can truly love anything else while berating ourselves.

So, on this Valentine’s Day, when so many of us are focused on love, I encourage you to start with yourself.

Do one thing this week to reconnect with who you are, what you believe, and then what you love.

The world will thank you.

Most importantly, you'll thank yourself.

What's Your Abundant Paradigm?

Sun, 13 Jan 2008 18:04:14 -0500

As I write this, it’s mid January. How are your New Year’s resolutions faring?

Are you confident or complacent? Energized or anesthetized? How about trying something new this year?

Instead of creating New Year’s Resolutions, consider creating and adopting an Abundant Paradigm for 2008. An Abundant Paradigm is a mantra, phrase or expression that captures the essence of what you want to live into this year. Even more so, your Abundant Paradigm captures your greater truth – it’s your philosophy of how you view life.

In our work with Abundance Intelligence® , we help people identify their Scarcity Paradigm – what their fears have conditioned them to believe for most of their lives. I have talked openly that my Scarcity Paradigm used to be “Good Things Don’t Come My Way”. This largely resulted from a series of early losses I experienced as a child. The impact of this paradigm was profound -- no matter how much I succeeded, I wasn’t happy, and I lived with a great deal of anxiety, because I never trusted that anything good I was experiencing would last. Certainly not a recipe for abundance!

My reality today is much different. My happiness does not depend on what other people do or don’t do. I pay attention to what comes to me and have let go of my love affair with struggle. Moments of anxiety and doubt still show up, but they are fleeting because now I know what to CHOOSE. I choose my greatness over my fear. I am living life, rather than forcing it--all because I have adopted a new Abundant Paradigm – “What Is Meant For Me Can’t Be Lost”.

What might be possible for you if you adopted an Abundant Paradigm?

Unwrapping the Greatest Gift of All

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 18:43:58 -0500

Eggnog. Holiday Jingles. Family Fun. Family stress. Giving. Receiving.

The holidays are upon us. It’s easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of this time of year – the “doing” that the season brings. And yet, it’s a perfect time to look back on 2007 and celebrate.

Was your abundance showing? How did living into your greatness take shape?

Each year, I pick a theme. For 2007, it was “Lightness of Being”. I’ve always found it easy to work hard; what hasn’t been so easy in the past is having fun. All that changed this year. I can honestly say I’ve had the most fun ever. What made the difference?

I changed the way I view the world. More importantly, I changed how I view myself in the world. 2007 was the year I thoroughly embraced my abundant paradigm – “what is meant for me can’t be lost.” I’ve learned that I can allow life to unfold through me, not because of me. Feeling good and trusting my intuition has been the most accurate compass of all.

As you approach the New Year, what are you committed to choosing? As you give and receive, what are you open to unfolding in your life?

Perhaps the greatest gift of all you will unwrap this season will be the gift of your authenticity, your true self.

I wish you great joy this holiday season, and a lasting commitment to the true you. We’ll help you get there.

Thank you for being you!

Certified Abundance Intelligence® Leader Program Is Launched!

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 11:41:03 -0500

I know many of you have been wondering what I've been up to.

No, I haven't been off following Eric Clapton or the Derek Trucks Band (not every night, anyway)!

Last month we launched the first Certified Abundance Intelligence® Leader training program. What an amazing bunch of people! The Certified Abundance Intelligence® Leader program trains professionals how to utilize the Abundance Intelligence® Leadership Model with individuals to reach greater resutls.

We met in Boston for 4 days -- learning, growing, challenging, and bonding together. There was lots of insight, emotion, and even some fear. Each of us reaches the crossroad where we can choose to face our fear about living into our greatness or turn around and go home. I'm thrilled to say we all faced this together.

The next step in the Abundance Intelligence® Leader certification program is a 5 month practicum. We are blessed to partner with a wonderful organization called The Memphis Challenge, that will provide the amazing clients for our work. More about them in future posts.

Stay tuned for more updates!

Interested in finding out how you can become an Abundance Intelligence® Leader? Send an email here with Abundance Intelligence® Leader in the subject line.

Dogs Get Fixed. People Don't Get Fixed.

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 09:47:23 -0500

The cornerstone of our work with the Abundance Intelligence® System is the belief that each of us is born great—born with everything we need, want, and choose to be who we are.

Yet our society is constantly bombarding us with message after message about improving ourselves, fixing our flaws, changing our lives and re-inventing who we are.

As if who we are isn’t good enough.

I think this is a load of crap. This kind of belief – focusing on what is “wrong” and what isn’t working, instead of focusing on what’s naturally great and already working--perpetuates and fuels the billion dollar self-improvement industry.

One of my favorite lines from Coaching Into Greatness is “Dogs get fixed, People don’t get fixed.” Is there something about yourself that you see as flawed? A weakness? Something you’ve been struggling to improve for years? Usually, when we negate a part of who we are, we’re also resisting the truth of who we are.

As a society, we’ve got to let go of our fixation with fixing ourselves. Let’s learn to be the Observer. Instead of making things wrong, we learn how to observe what we don’t want and choose what we do. This is engagement. After all, this is doing what we can do.

This is the work of Abundance Intelligence® .

Rest Easy

Thu, 31 May 2007 20:30:05 -0500

I quoted these thoughts from the Brahma Kumaris in last night's Abundance Intelligence® Community Call:

"Rest does not come with sleeping, it comes with waking. This is both an insight and an action of enlightenment. When we are enlightened we relise that real rest is possible only when we become free of illusion and we no longer struggle against life. Illusion is the idea that people should be, and do, what we want them to. The truth is, all is as it should be, despite appearances, or our perceptions of others to the contrary. This means you can be easy on yourself, easy with others and easy with the world around you. Easiness is a virtue, an attractive one at that. It is much more influential than force. So quit forcing, end the struggling and . . . relax!"

Remember, struggle is strictly overrated!