Picture yourself walking down the street in a busy urban area of New York, London or Los Angeles.  Moving along you are mesmerized by magnificent architecture, the innocence of a child’s laughter, the fancified shop windows, the smells and sounds of the city.  You are completely lost in thought when by the grace of a complete stranger,  you are saved from being run over by a rogue vehicle blowing through a red light.  Your heart is racing and you are wicked stunned.  You thank the superhero on the street by offering him your first born child and stumble off  grateful to be alive.  Your wake up call has been delivered.

What will do with this message?

Your near death experience is asking you to take action in the areas of your life you deem most important. There is no more time for lip service or negative self-talk. If you want to explore more ways to invite authenticity, success and joyful balance to your life you are welcome to schedule a complimentary life coaching session with me to begin your personal transformation.

One of my life coaching clients is a brilliant creative visionary. Her vision of idealistic greatness paralyzed her for years from taking action on the small things which bit by bit, drop by drop,  add up to the full life she is desperately seeking. Couple this paralysis with brutal self-talk and hello inertia.

Like the fantastical dreamer meandering through the city,  this bright woman was preoccupied with rich textured dreams and magical notions.  She almost missed the harbinger of a tragic nightmare threatening to suck the life from her extraordinary vision.  We are working together to travel back to the beginning of her story with the commitment of making plans and celebrating incremental actionable steps over a clear and specific time line.

Big Ideas —> Plans Phases —> Action Steps  = Critical Path Time Line

Creative people overflowing with ideas and wacky scenarios love to play. Dabbling here and experimenting there can be big fun and certainly not as scary as stepping into your power to create your life’s dream.  I enjoy experimentation as much as any creative,  but have learned that too many trials lure me away from the laser focus I am finally learning how to surrender to and flow with.

As a personal coach I share my time inspiring creative entrepreneurs to accelerate their journey toward a full and balanced life on their terms. In my opinion, the best way to foster liberation is to live it, breath it and study it.  I am ecstatic to shine a focused stream of dazzling golden sunshine with the purpose of illuminating each bold and interesting plan of the people I play with.

Getting Out of your own way looks like this:

• Learning how to be happy with incremental victories that lead to your BIG VISION

• Being grateful for your experience and talents – There is nobody in the Universe quite like you.

• Reminding yourself daily of all you have accomplished

• Setting realistic daily, weekly and quarterly goals

• Kicking your own ass,  hiring a coach or tapping into a mentor to accomplish short-term plans

• Creating an environment of daily creative productivity

• Communicating with like-minded people who are happy to be a part of your support system

Open your eyes and look around.  You can get out of your own way and honor your creative vision.

It is never too late to begin again.

“Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage.”  -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Are you waiting for your life to be perfect, to remedy all of your bad habits, and achieve all of your dreams, and then finally be happy?  

Sign up for the Happiness Telesummit

Erica Glessing, author of Happiness Quotations and the popular Facebook page with the same name, organized this event with you in mind.

Register now for the Happiness Telesummit!

I recently finished reading The Firestarter Sessions by Danielle LaPorte and love what she wrote about DESIRE. Watch this short video for more about the magic of uncovering what you desire and owning how you want to feel.

Claim a copy of Danielle’s book at HERE.

How has forgiveness played out in your life?
How would you feel if you could let go of the painful events of your past?

I experienced this stunning poem for the first time this morning.

Everything is Waiting for You

Your great mistake is to act the drama
as if you were alone. As if life
were a progressive and cunning crime
with no witness to the tiny hidden
transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny
the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely,
even you, at times, have felt the grand array;
the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding
out your solo voice You must note
the way the soap dish enables you,
or the window latch grants you freedom.
Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.
The stairs are your mentor of things
to come, the doors have always been there
to frighten you and invite you,
and the tiny speaker in the phone
is your dream-ladder to divinity.

Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into
the conversation. The kettle is singing
even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots
have left their arrogant aloofness and
seen the good in you at last. All the birds
and creatures of the world are unutterably
themselves. Everything is waiting for you.

David Whyte from Everything is Waiting for You 
©2003 Many Rivers Press

“Forgiving someone does not mean you condone their behavior. The act of forgiveness takes  place in your own mind. It really has nothing to do with the other person. The reality of true forgiveness lies in setting ourselves free from holding on to the pain. It is simply an act of releasing yourself from the negative energy.” - Louise Hay

My heart is open and cautiously optimistic as I share this extremely personal post. My hope is to support those of you who may have a shared a similar experience and wish to move forward with a new life story.

Last week I summoned the courage to reconnect with my biological Dad after almost ten years estranged. In the Summer of 2002 after witnessing an unpleasant incident between he and his wife,  I experienced an out-of-body emotional crisis. I found myself in a metaphorical boxing ring and my opponent was surely going down for the count. Every boundary crossed, every trauma suffered from my youth came pouring out of me. Unfiltered. Ugly. Truth. That night I made the choice to protect myself and my young daughter from the unpredictable and twisted behavior of a charismatic, Jeckel and Hyde character who happened to be my Dad.  

Over the years I’ve been judged critically for walking away from this relationship. Because it’s not politically correct to sever ties to your father. I don’t subscribe to political correctness. Never have. And so it was that I found the courage to walk away from a toxic relationship to heal, learn and grow. To become an adult and begin making healthy choices in my best interest.

I don’t like my Dad much. I don’t agree with the way he lives his life. I do not appreciate how often he once put his young daughter in harms way. I do not care for his politics or the way racism seeps through every pore of his being. As a child I did not understand his alcohol-fueled, violent outbursts. And finally, I am still taken back by his irreverent attitude toward relationships, parenting and marriage. (I was step-daughter to four step-mother’s by the time I turned 30.)  I’ve learned that I don’t have to like my Dad. I don’t have to agree with the way he chooses to live his life.  I have no more expectations of him at all. I am willing to try and find a thread of common ground.

The only way to truly let go of the parts of my childhood that were traumatic is to forgive him for his harmful and oblivious actions.  Not in the manner of a holier-than-though, “I forgive you” from on-high, but in the manner that I choose to enjoy the rest of my days without dragging the trauma of my past with me. Today I am strong enough to stop punishing my Dad for his behavior and courageous enough to take a chance and face him.  

No matter how I feel about him, no matter the countless experiences of being frightened and completely exposed, I turned out okay.  I am alright.  I am the woman I am today because of my life experiences, some of which have to do with being parented on the weekends by a man who probably should have never had a child.    

Compassionate forgiveness begins with personal healing. There is deep restorative work that must be attended to, whether through counseling or with support from loved ones. For years I pretended to be so strong. Invincible. What I really felt inside was insecure, angry and betrayed.

This deep feeling of vulnerability bubbled to the surface after I became a parent. Things would be different for my daughter. Interesting that it didn’t occur to me that I had the choice to walk away from my Dad until I became a Mother. I instinctively knew to protect my child from his unpredictable madness. In choosing to protect her, I learned to protect and care for myself.

Honest introspection is the best place to start the healing process. I began by finding my voice and speaking about the trauma of the past. I journaled about why I was hurt, angry, confused and finally done. I talked with my husband, Mother and best friend. It was time to attend to the root cause of this suffering.  Reliving dreadful memories (which felt like cleaning up tiny shards of broken glass) sucked. But I came away understanding that the maltreatment experienced as a child and young adult was the foundation for feeling unsafe and skeptical of others in my adulthood. Learning to trust again is a blessing. Knowing that all is well and I am safe, a precious gift.

For eleven years I’ve had the privilege of witnessing first-hand the behavior of a Father with complete integrity. My husband of almost twenty years is an incredible Father and role model to our young daughter. His behavior demonstrates a new healthy parenting story. Our child will grow up knowing she is loved, safe and supported. Together we have broken the chain of abuse in our family and practice non-violent communication. 

I understand that no matter what I think, feel or want, my Dad is free to create his world as he wishes. He will never be a parent to his grown daughter, but I can show him some compassion as a human being who’s walked through his own fire.   

Remaining attached to the pain and anger that comes with surviving child abuse could have been a life-long prison sentence. I choose to be free. I choose to let go of the story.   

As I enter back into the matrix of this biological connection, I will protect my inner child with sword and shield. Facing my Dad after all this time is a gamble I’m willing to make on my terms.

And so it is.

Shann Vander Leek inspires women in transition and creative entrepreneurs to set big goals, achieve extraordinary results and create balance in their lives. Telephone and email consultations make her accessible to clients all over the world. Please visit True Balance Life Coaching for our monthly Life Balance newsletter and claim your complimentary copy of our new special report: Clobbering Overwhelm.

2008-09 Copyright – True Balance Life Coaching – All Rights Reserved

• Do you often feel like your life is (or has been) about everybody else—and are you ready to reclaim your feminine sovereignty? 
• Are you ready to begin an epic love affair with yourself, and let go of useless drama and self-sabotage?
• Are you willing to receive support, spiritual nourishment, and transformational coaching, and allow your inner goddess to shine?

Six years ago, I asked myself these questions, and answered “yes” as well. This heart-altering awareness led me to take action and answer my calling as a women’s transformational coach and divine feminine Goddess. My soul’s purpose is to lovingly support, nourish, and engage with women just like you—women who want to live fully, in full awareness of their own power, divinity, and joyful essence.

I want to teach you to give your full attention to yourself, and help you create your Sacred Goddess Life. You are an incredible woman. You have a full life. But in order to step into your true Goddess self, you must choose to let go of limiting beliefs. Face the monsters under your bed, and you’ll have taken your biggest step toward claiming your sacred place in this world.

I am ready to support you through the exploration of your unique essence with The Transformation Goddess Experience.

If you want to learn more about the Transformation Goddess Experience you are invited to explore TransformationGoddess.com further for luscious details.

You are welcome to come to our free teleclass on April 4th!  CLAIM ACCESS HERE.

For the past five years I’ve been enjoying my entrepreneurial freedom as a life coach after a long haul in the conventional corporate world. I earned my yoga teaching certification, professional coaching certification and began transforming my life through writing, coaching and shadow work. Until last fall, I was still unclear about how I could bring all of my gifts together, shine my light brighter and share my true Goddess essence with powerful women. Thankfully, one day everything clicked and the Transformation Goddess Experience was born.

What is The Transformation Goddess Experience?

A soulful, sensual and sacred exploration for women. A three month transformational offering for women who are ready to unearth their inner Goddess through the exploration of self-study, self-care, sacred ritual, and luscious living from the comfort of their own home. Women who are ready to become fully expressed, empowered, and supported. This delightful experience begins with a luscious virtual retreat.

Please watch this short video to learn more about The Transformation Goddess Experience and visit the new website! I’d love to know if this offering speaks to your heart.

If you are ready to call up your unique essence and thrive in your feminine Divinity, join me for a Dynamic Call on Wednesday, April 4th at 7:00pm Eastern.

Get Access to the TGE call HERE.

For one full day, I challenge you to track 10 experiences which make you feel joyful.

Items on my list:

• The peaceful morning sunrise
• A hot and delicious cup of coffee
• Laughing with friends
• Receiving positive feedback
• Walking in the woods
• Dancing with my daughter
• Writing in my dream journal
• Having tea with a new friend
• Listening to Etta James soulful music (RIP Etta)
• Capturing images of the Village of Suttons Bay

Joyful life coaching exercise: I suggest sharing what you observe each day with your loved ones at the dinner table. Tom, Marin and I generally share our Top Five.

Joy Spotting has been a great way to keep our family close.  Even when one of us has experienced a difficult day, we can always come up with at least five items that made us pause and smile.

What great and crushing beauty will make your Joy Spotting list?