It is not only by the questions we have answered that progress may be measured, but also by those we are still asking. Freda Adler

I am still learning. Michelangelo

We are more often frightened than hurt. Our troubles spring more often from fancy then reality. Seneca

Thinking it Through

As I talk with people, there is a fear common among so many entrepreneurs and service professionals. A fear that haunts them and removes much of the joy they could experience in their business. It is the fear that they do not provide enough value or they don’t know enough. Much to my amazement I have heard that fear expressed by some of the most competent, excellent, service providers that I know. It doesn’t make any sense but that is the problem with fear. It doesn’t have to make sense.

I met a highly educated and articulate man on the plane recently. He had been on a spiritual journey and longed to share what he was learning. He had started a book but felt he need to restart it as he had learned so much more. I asked him what was stopping him from teaching small groups of people what he had learned so far? His answer was that he didn’t know enough yet. That’s fear talking! Fear of being wrong. Fear of not having all the answers. Fear that people might criticize you. The problem with waiting until you have all the answers is that it will never come!

There is another problem in waiting for the holy grail of “knowing everything”. By the time you feel you are close, you are so far down the path, that it is hard to help others who are struggling at the beginning of the journey. For example, I was talking with a Fitness Coach. She had struggled with her weight as a young women. As she begin learning about nutrition and fitness she started teaching it. She started right away sharing what she had learned and experienced. She gave a huge amount of value to those she worked with. If she had waited until she was perfectly fit and at her ideal weight odds are that she would not have communicated as effectively with her struggling clients.
As a business owner, service provider and human-being learning and growing should be and will be a part of the package. Don’t wait to share. You will be providing value as long as you are giving from your passion. Give what you know now and I promise many people will benefit from what you have to offer.

Challenge

1. In what area of your life are you not sharing value because you “don’t know enough”?

2. Is there a business you are passionate about but afraid to start?

3. Take a minute to sit down and list all the ways you give value in your business or career. Give yourself credit for it!

Leanna Fredrich
Life Coach
Leanna@AmazingMondays.com

PS: If you need motivation, clarity and help to get “unstuck” email me for a free 15 minute consultation.

Any risk worth taking is worth taking whether it leads to success or failure. Martha Beck

Thinking it Through

I’m sure you’ve heard of people, may even know some, who love taking risks. Usually they are physical ones like ski-diving or deep-sea cave exploring. They are hooked on adrenaline. Most of us shake our heads in amazement at their choices. While we may never, ever want to copy them I believe they are on to something. Taking risk makes us feel alive. More importantly, growth of any kind requires a certain amount of risk. Anytime I hear someone say they have no fear and are content where they are, it makes me wonder… How alive are they feeling?

I am the first one to admit that I love comfort. My favorite adventure is to head on over to the nearest spa! It is easy for me to live in my comfort zone. What I have come to realize though, is that my desire to live in my comfort zone and my desire to grow, create and live a passionate life are often in direct conflict. I need to stretch my comfort zone and the only way to do that is to take risks. My risk muscles need building. I start by scaring myself everyday. I did that today by dealing with an IRS issue. I really wanted to put it off, bury the offending letter and pretend it wasn’t there but I didn’t. I handled it and the feeling of strength and power it gave me was well worth the feeling of risk I had to face. (It helped that I was able to prove I was right!)

For many of us taking a risk such as ski-diving pales in comparison to the risk of speaking our truth or god-forbid really taking a long look at what is going on with our lives and why we have lost the passion and zest for living we once had. It is terrifying to sit with our feelings and be still. By far the hardest assignment and the one most often ignored that I give clients and workshop participants is to sit quietly for 10-20 minutes and just focus on your breathing. Why is that the hardest action to take? Perhaps because that short space of time is about stopping and facing truth and feelings. The one thing we must do is the hardest to face.

So are you willing to pay the price of risk-taking in order to have a passionate life? Can you keep growing your comfort zone and learn to venture out of it regularly to expand and really live? If you are still reading this then I think you are! So join me in scaring yourself everyday. Remember you can always run on back to your place of comfort, catch your breath and then take some more risks. Start today!

Challenge:

1. What truth do you need to face that you have been avoiding?

2. Do you feel passionately alive?

3. What risk will you take today?

Leanna Fredrich
Life Coach
leanna@amazingmondays.com

We come this way but once. We can either tiptoe through life and hope that we get to death without being too badly bruised or we can live a full, complete life achieving our goals and realizing our wildest dreams. Bob Proctor

Thinking it Through

Do you remember as a child that feeling of desire? Of wanting something and dreaming of having it so intensely that you absolutely knew it would be yours? Dangerous stuff right? I’m sure by now, since you are a responsible adult, you have safely cloaked, squelched and muted your desires. What a relief! You are protected from that dreaded feeling of disappointment. All is right with the world. Ha! What I have found working as a Life Coach, is that safely hiding your desires away is not safe at all, in fact it leads to a feeling of numbness and even depression, that often makes the dreaded feeling of disappointment a welcome visitor.

Desires are a map to our passions, our true path and if we have the courage to follow them they lead to a vibrant, joyful life. So how do you retrain yourself to follow your desires and find your path?

The first step is to get quiet. Take regular time to be still and think about what you desire. Be very honest with yourself even if your desires make you feel uncomfortable. Often our initial desires, especially if they are destructive or negative, are really just sign posts to our true desires. Take the time to be still and explore them.

Pick a desire, any desire and follow it. When you discover a genuine desire begin exploring. If the desire is not accompanied by feelings of openness, happiness, peace and growing interest then it isn’t your core desire. Follow the trail of your desires until you find an authentic one.

Let your desire be intention. Change your wishful thinking into a belief that you will get what you want. (What about disappointment? When you are following your true heart’s desire you enjoy the journey not just the destination. You will survive any disappointment along the way.)

Allow the path to your desire to unfold the way it wishes. You may be surprised where it will take you and that is part of the adventure. Don’t lock it into happening only one way.

As you explore always ask, “Then what?” “ I grow a successful six-figure business, then what?” If you are as excited by the “then what?” as you are by the goal then you have a winner.

Believe that you can have the fulfillment of your desires. Much easier said then done! You will need to frequently reassure yourself that step by step you will move towards creating a life around what you desire. As you take those steps it will be easier to believe.

Challenge

1.  What do you desire?

2.  What steps are you taking to explore that desire?

3.  What beliefs are getting in your way?

4.  What can you do today to move towards your desire?

Leanna Fredrich, Life Coach

PS:  Having troubles finding your passion or believing you can follow your desires?  Email me at Leanna@amazingmondays.com