Rewinding quickly to February of 2010, I was lost and so completely done.  At that time I realized I had given my whole life, my entire existence to a goal and dream that did not fit me anymore.  Don’t get me wrong, I had been here before in my life.  When I graduated from Photography School I was here before.  But this was different.  I had realized in this dark space that my dream wasn’t right for me because it didn’t allow me to use all my talents and gifts.  It didn’t allow me to engage my strong intuition.  I had become a person who had changed into a persona for a career/dream.  I had become completely disengaged and I was not in authentic alignment.  I had discovered this in the midst of my 2 months of depression, after I had invested 8 ½ years to a dream that wasn’t right for me.  I was at a fork in my journey’s road and it was time for me to do some deep soul searching and uncover not just a new career path or goal, but my true unique calling (that I believe all of us have).  This was no easy task but it was so worth my energy and effort.

The process I took myself through is the process and strategies I now use with my clients.  Everything is a lesson to be used later in your life.  When I truly sat quietly and listened to what my soul, heart, and maybe God was telling me, it came fast and hit me hard like; “Damn I knew that! That’s what I have been doing or wanting to do all along all my entire life!!” I had realized what I wanted to do to be in complete alignment and help leave this world better than I had found it.

Once I had figured out the “what” I wanted to do, I then looked at the next step of action to take and it was to complete a training program and gain certification.  That night, I had figured all of this out, and no less then 10 hours later my husband and I enrolled me into ICA.  We took fast and rapid action.  One reason was because we were so excited that I was no longer depressed, that we wanted to do something about it and use that excitement as forward momentum. Another reason was because we could tell, feel, and simply knew this was my calling and unique gift and we knew I had to give it everything I had (which included financially).

The next day I started my courses at ICA. Fast rapid action. So that the true tale I write doesn’t drag out: I essentially completed a 2 year coaching program in 6 months and also started putting together my business/company before I was done with Professional Coach Training and Certification.

This week is officially 1 year since I completed the program and certification.  1 year of living my vision. 1 year of acting on my true calling and helping my clients get closer to living and creating their ideal lives with passion. Quick is best for me because I can course-correct more quickly, succeed quicker (and in some cases fail faster – but in a forward direction).  I didn’t wait to get started or prepared.  While I was coaching paid clients this last year, there were fellow, newly graduated coaches still waiting to get started, or even worse, waiting to get ready and spinning their wheels.

Fast is better.  Truly, ultimately it also means I get to my vision more rapidly too.  After 8 1/2 years of floundering and feeling stuck it was just easier to act, easier to move, easier to start. After one year of fully living my unique calling, my unique gift to the world, I am so grateful for the speed that I took this journey in. I gave myself less time to doubt myself or my vision. People spend way too much time and energy in doubt.

I am looking forward to another “fast” year of momentum, energy, and great joy. I want to help you create and design your ideal life because life is too short to wait a second more on something that is not truly what you want. Fast is better.

Technorati Tags: authenticity, coaching, Energy, entrepreneur, Purpose, self-employed

comfortzone by Bryan Brenneman

“A man grows most tired while standing still.”  -A Chinese Proverb

I had a conversation with a very dear friend earlier this week; really, she’s like a sister.  We were talking about the energy and excitement of the new future she saw was possible for her life.  We both were very excited just talking about it. I was especially thrilled as a coach and as her best friend who is always seeing a larger vision for her, and I loved every minute.  But just as quickly as she moved forward in excitement, something happened. Something “always” happens…LIFE happened. She rapidly, within the same conversation, felt that she was on the edge.  The edge of what you ask?  The edge of her patterns, her old tapes, her norm and the future she had just crafted for herself.  When life happens to her, she normally lets it get the best of her and she lets her circumstances win — she quits, doubts herself or gives up, she stays with this pattern because it’s comfortable, it’s her norm, it’s her comfort zone to be defeated and sad, almost immobile.

This time was different though. It was different because she noticed that she was on the edge. She identified her patterns and she owned that she had a choice. I told her that if she chose her old patterns and her comfort zone, she was by default killing her fresh new vision. Yes, killing it.  It was a choice and a choice only she could make.  She could feel her frustration creep up. She wondered why she was always here — here in her comfort zone, doing the same old routine with the same results (crazy making insanity!). You can either let life happen and be defeated by your comfort zone or you can use the energy, frustration and emotions to fuel your goal, in essence fueling your future.

It takes guts, sheer will and determination to choose a life outside of your comfort zone.  That which is uncomfortable, unknown and potentially scary forces you out of your normal routine and allows space for growth and positive change.  The success of reaching your goals or designing a different, bolder life comes in part by how far the effort stretches you to grow and evolve.  Also, by doing something new, learning new skills to make it happen builds excitement, momentum and energy to keep you pushing through the next hurdle. It allows you to continue the journey and push past your own self imposed limits.

Most people choose comfort because it’s what they know best — it’s where most of us spend the majority of our time.  Most of us have lived our whole lives not even realizing there was a choice involved, not even aware that our comfort zone was existent.  Your comfort zone wins when you chose easy over the thing you know will get you to your goals, when you chose to not rock the boat, when you chose to not do the thing you have wanted to do your whole life.

On the day of our phone conversation, my friend faced a pivotal next step towards reaching her goal and she was considering not taking the next step of action to make it happen (with her comfort zone lurking in the corner of her consciousness).  But, with her new bold choice, she decided to follow through with an opportunity and take a chance and it turned out to be “perfect” in her words, which is such a beautiful thing.

All it takes is a choice to make a shift.  Your comfort zone can kill your future, but you always have a choice.  A choice to do it differently than you normally do.  A choice to choose your big bold vision of your future over what you know and think is normal.  A choice to choose the life you envision after to achieve your goals.  I hope you choose to win and fuel your energy towards your bold future and live a life outside of your comfort zone.

Technorati Tags: comfort zone, goals, Lifestyle Design, personal growth

photo credit by jamelah e.

“The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward. “ -Amelia Earhart

Let me begin by telling you a very recent story. When I began my journey to become a Professional Certified Life Coach, I had set the intention of earning a credential, and not just any coaching credential. To be more specific, I wanted the Professional Coach Credential (PCC), which is the second of three types coaching credentials.  To earn this credential I would need to complete 125 hours of coach specific training, 10 hours of work with a mentor coach and 750 paid client hours with at least 8 different clients.  I went to Coach Certification Training for the 125+ hours and had set the timeframe to accomplish my goal in 3 years.  By industry standards 3 years was the fast track. (Fast is how I like to do things and I will explain more in another post.)  I had even powered through and completed my Coach Certification process in 8 months instead of the 2 years they gave me to complete the program. This was only able to happen because I was dead set and focused on living out my calling in life to become a Professional Certified Life Coach.

By working to earn and achieve my goal of the second coaching credential, by default I earn the first credential (ACC).  Initially, I had decided to skip over the first and just focus on earning the second credential because that was my declared goal. But therein lies the problem. By skipping over what I had already achieved, I was failing to acknowledge the work I had already accomplished and was potentially thwarting my efforts for the original goal.  By not applying for the ACC which I had already earned, I was not rewarding myself for all my hard work and efforts that I had already achieved.  I was also leaving business generating perks and benefits on the table by not adding the alphabet soup to the back of my name, potentially making my goal of the original credential that much slower and harder to achieve.

But I am not alone in my madness; we all do this to some varying degree.  It is easy to be a workaholic and goal-getter — pushing harder, faster and more to someday achieve our larger goals.  But eventually if we keep going forward without acknowledgment of what we are doing and achieving, we will burn out every time.  We may talk ourselves out of the goal, just because we are exhausted and mentally, energetically fried. Or we may decide that the goal is unattainable because we don’t see results. But in all actuality we just haven’t been rewarding ourselves or choosing to “see” our results. For me this was a pattern in my own life I hadn’t been able to see until this whole credential dilemma.

Every goal has small incremental achievements included in them.  In order to achieve any goal, I recommend creating a plan for your goals, and in that plan you should include how you are going to reward yourself for all the incremental success along the journey of achieving your main goal.  By deciding your rewards before you begin to take action toward your goal, you will prevent the potential pitfalls of burnout, self-induced failure and the false evidence of no results.  As adults or parents we use rewards for children all the time, we give rewards for good behavior and take them away for bad behavior (Remember star charts and the coveted gold star?).  Somehow or somewhere on our journeys to adulthood we decide that the rewards are only for children, that we have outgrown rewards. This is false thinking.  I see that now and I hope you do too.  Rewards are a very important key ingredient in your success (and failure).  If we are running toward the carrot without looking back from time to time and patting ourselves on the back, the carrot no longer is that appealing, in fact we may just feel sick at the thought of carrots and talk ourselves out of moving forward all together.

What have you been skipping over, not seeing or refusing to acknowledge yourself for?  How are you going to reward yourself for what you have all ready have accomplished?

Genuinely Cheering for Your Accomplishments Big and Small,

–Kat, ACC

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Technorati Tags: Action, goals, Rewards

By miikkahoo

“In case there is a loss in cabin pressure, yellow oxygen masks will deploy from the ceiling compartment located above you. To secure, pull the mask towards you, secure the elastic strap to your head, and fasten it so it covers your mouth and nose. Breathe normally. Even if the bag does not inflate, please keep in mind that oxygen is flowing. Please make sure to secure your own mask before assisting others.”

We have all heard this before on airplane flights but many people are unaware how important this little (read: important) reminder is to our day to day lives.  I use this analogy quite a bit in my coaching sessions. I remind clients that they must take care of themselves so that they can best help themselves and others.  Self Care is the oxygen that will enable them to move forward.  Without it we panic, feel overwhelmed and pass out or burn out.  It is a very important and simple concept that everyone needs, but not everyone implements into their lives.

If you are an entrepreneur and you lack a self care routine (ie: oxygen mask), you are also of no effective use to your business, clients and employees.  You will lose motivation to work towards your goals and vision.  You will become resentful.  Creating a self care routine/plan is the first step you should take before scheduling and implementing any goal or lifestyle design plan.

Self Care is different for everyone.  Some people meditate, some play Sudoku, some listen to music. Self Care is very individualized and important for balance.  Without self care, you go-go-go and then crash and potentially get ill physically and/or mentally.  Self Care is the “preventative maintenance” of your health, spirit, and life.  When clients have a lot of stress and overwhelm, the first question I ask is “How is your self care going?”  Overwhelm is normally an indicator that self care is either non-existent and/or is no longer working for them. Your personal self care routines and plans may change from time to time.

In order for self care to be most effective and beneficial, it needs to be consistent.  I often talk about self care time as sacred and non-negotiable.  Do you consistently renew yourself with activities that you enjoy? Do you sleep regularly? Do you eat well and balanced?  There are many different aspects of a self care plan. I view anything that “fills your tank or fuels your passion” as a piece of self care. The other piece to consistency is how does your self care fit into your routine?  Is it scheduled?  Are you committed to it?  In my personal professional opinion, self care needs to be set or scheduled into your system before you start to strategize your goals and ideal lifestyle design.  Your self care will be pushed back over and over again and then you will fizzle out if you don’t schedule it and make it a priority.

Before you burn out, what are you going to do today that allows you to rest, gaining renewal and relaxation (guilt free) so you can charge on with more energy and focus through your life?  Take a breath and keep in mind that oxygen is flowing as long as you remember to breathe and make your self care a priority.

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Technorati Tags: self care

by seier+seier

Systems have always been an important part of my life for as long as I can remember.  Growing up with a learning disability and a divorced household, I had to use systems from very early on in my life.  A system is more important than any one single idea or thought.  Ideas are random and systems are duplicatable.  A system allows you to reproduce your efforts and results.  Systems prevent you from being random and help you become strategic.

Don’t get me wrong, there is great genius in being random. However, when you are trying to design and create your dream life there is enough randomness at play already.  Some people rebel against systems and I respect that, but does that rebellion serve a purpose and if so, what is that purpose?  When I have clients who are rebelling against their own systems, my first instinct is to ask them if that method works for them.   Most of the time it doesn’t but there are times when it does.  When I am in the creative process I intentionally throw most of my systems out (for a short while) because it allows my creativity to expand and experiment, but this mode is very intentional.  Once I have gotten all of the creativity and experimentation I need, I then spend some time getting organized, realigning the systems and order. Other times when I am writing and typing a blog, I need order from the start so I can focus.  Randomness and disorder act as a distraction. These differing modes of operation are an important part of my own system.

In order for your systems to work most effectively they need to be your own and not someone else’s.  Most unintended rebellion comes from trying to force yourself into someone else’s system instead of tweaking and modifying it to suit you and your own needs.  Systems can support, hinder, or can come up somewhere in between.  Another question I tend to ask clients is “Are your systems making you more effective?”  If it’s not then we need to tweak it so that it does.

For example, let’s take a successful sales person who has a system which helps them create and attain success, but then they switch positions or companies.  They will typically be just as successful with the new position or company because they have a system that they can follow to produce consistent results.  We see this with CEO’s that change companies all the time.  Their systems help them be more strategic and efficient in the creation of their results and outcome, their personalized and tested system follows them wherever they go in the business world.

In Lifestyle Design and Business Creation it is very important to keep track of your process so that you can duplicate it and create a personalized system for future success.  If the focus is on creation and effectiveness then that also means you need to release what does not work or help you.  When creating, designing, or optimizing your systems be very cautious when introducing new tools, software, gadgets and tech into the system that is already working for you.  It is also important to give yourself plenty of time to implement the new addition so that you are not hindering your process.  Effectiveness is always the goal in using and creating your system.

This is precisely why I call myself a Lifestyle Design Strategist — because I have tested tools, systems, and strategies that assist my clients to design and create their ideal life, and in turn fine tune their own individualized systems.

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Technorati Tags: Creativity, Design, productivity, self-employed, small business, work at home