motivation

  • Beating back the hold your EGO has over you

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    “One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time”- Andre Gide

    Your faith must be greater than your fear if you have big plans for your future. And your fear is manifested through your ego.

    Your ego HATES new plans…particularly big juicy ones. Your ego’s primary interest is to keep you safe. That means no risks, no rocking the boat, no new paths and absolutely no expansion whatsoever. It wants you stuck to the trunk of the tree while your big plans require you to step onto the skinny branches further up and out. Your ego will do everything in its power to stop you from taking that risk.

    Think of it as an overprotective parent. Their intentions are good: they love you and want you to be safe. But the minute there is a suggestion of anything new and unknown, they go into full panic mode and start locking all the doors and grounding you for life.

    So, here’s how positive change goes for a lot of people. They take the first few steps and are rockin’ it! Synchronicity is pulling in a bunch of opportunities…and then, bam! They get laryngitis. Or crash their car. Or their smart phone dies. Deadlines encroach on their time and their money gets tight and suddenly, all that excitement and enthusiasm is gone. They get sucked back into their mundane lives.

    This is classic ego at work. Your ego is setting you up to fail by using all your forms of self sabotage. It wants you to screw up…horribly. Why? So you won’t attempt to do something new and risky again. It wants you safe and stable and has no interest in anything new. To the ego, new = danger.

    By knowing this, you can override your ego’s tantrums. You can become aware of the challenges cropping up. Yes, someone may have slammed into your car. But that doesn’t have to stop you from going for your goals. Get the car fixed and move on. Your day job may be interfering with your free time but you can focus on the time you DO have and capitalize on THAT. Instead of crawling in the fetal position when your iPhone dies, take a deep breath and make an appointment at Apple’s genius bar.

    By seeing the issues and moving forward anyway, you can beat back the ego’s power. Also, the more often you “feel the fear and go for it anyway”, the more comfortable you will feel taking risks. The most successful people in the world, also took the biggest risks. When they failed, they failed big. But then, they dusted themselves off, learned what they could from the experience, and went back to the work of going for it.

    So, yes…it feels like the universe is conspiring against you. But it isn’t. Your ego is. Your ego is moving heaven and earth to keep you stuck and safe…and bored.

    Turn your focus to moving forward anyway. Get comfortable being out on the “skinny branches”, and start leaping for your dreams.

  • The Truth about Synchronicity

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    “Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous” – Albert Einstein

    Synchronicity happens when you take a bold step towards following your passion. What you think is a coincidence is actually the universe’s helpful response to the actions you take to live your life’s purpose.

    It doesn’t happen while you’re dreaming about your goals, it happens when you take deliberate, focussed actions towards achieving them. To finally say “I’m going for it!” requires high energy. Think back to a time in your past when you set a big goal and then took those first few steps. You weren’t sleepy or grumpy…you were excited and enthusiastic.

    Energy attracts ‘like’ energy. Have you ever noticed when you are having a “bad” day, it feels like the world is plotting against you? Usually your energy is in the toilet and you are dealt problem after problem throughout the day. I’m not saying that sometimes crappy things don’t just happen. But ultimately, we create our experiences whether we’re conscious of it or not. So just notice that when you are cranky or run down, simple issues become major challenges. You are literally pulling that low draining energy into your experience.

    The same is true for high energy choices. Resolving to lose the weight will likely have you notice your local gym is running a sale for personal training. Deciding to finish the script by December 31st could attract an unexpected meeting with an agent interested in finding more clients. Committing to meditating every day for 30 days could cause your schedule to change in a way that makes it easier for you to sit and practice. (I literally had that happen with yoga. I decided it was time to switch classes and boom! My schedule changed to make room for the new class and fill the previous time with a new client!) This is synchronicity at work.

    But,again, this kind of “luck” doesn’t come from sitting at home doing nothing. It happens with action. You must move in the direction of your passion in order to receive the goodies of synchronicity.

    To quote Oprah, “Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.” The world is energy…the more charged with excitement you are, the more of that same energy will be drawn to you.

    Start taking big actions today towards your goals. Enlist all of your passion and determination. And watch the world step up to support you in ways you never even thought of.

  • How the Economic rule of 80% vs 20% can be applied to Your entire life

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    How the 80% vs 20% rule can be applied to action:

    According to time management guru ‘Brian Tracy’, (and economist ‘Vilfredo Pareto’, who was researching time management back in the late 1800’s), 20% of your activities will account for 80% of your results. 20% of your customers will account for 80% of your sales. 20% of your products will account for 80% of your profit.

    This means your actions matter. If 20% or your actions create 80% of your achievement, then those actions are more valuable and more necessary to pinpoint to help you succeed.

    Your to-do list just got very important…if you have 10 items on the list, just 2 of those items will yield the greatest returns. What are the highest valued actions you can take to achieve your goal? Let’s say you are studying for a big test or finishing a big project. Is tidying your desk going to bring you as much success as ignoring the clutter and getting an extra hour of work done? No…the clutter can wait.

    Start to get curious about what you actually accomplish every day. How much time are you wasting looking through junk mail? How many times a day do you check your email? If you cut back to checking it only twice a day, how much time would that free up for you to be more productive? If you’re responding to emails, which ones will give you an 80% return for your time? Bottom line…if it’s not a high value action, it can wait.

    80/20 applied to obstacles.

    You can apply this to self sabotage as well.

    Here is an interesting statistic…only 20% of what’s holding you back is out of your control. That means, 80% of what’s not working, is IN YOUR CONTROL.

    This is true for companies as well as individuals. The majority of your obstacles are internal. If you owned a coffee shop, for example, there are many areas you could look at to improve your revenue. Maybe the employee turnover is high thus costing you time and money to train new people. Your accountant might be off on their numbers or maybe your marketing campaign isn’t hitting your target customer. These are internal issues that you can improve upon.

    This is the same for artists, entrepreneurs, and anyone tying to achieve a big goal. You control 80% of your obstacles.

    Do you procrastinate? Do you skip running spell check when emailing potential clients? Do you waste time on Facebook when you should be revamping your resume? Do you fail to follow up? Are you chronically late?

    Start to look at your behavior from more of a business perspective…where are the internal weakest links? Where are YOU holding YOU back? If you aren’t clearly able to see the ways you get in your own way, look at your past. Look at your previous let downs. What were the mistakes that YOU were responsible for? Where, why, and how did you drop the ball?

    This is not a self shaming expedition. This is a close examination of where you can improve and ultimately experience more success. Ask any successful business owner, they will tell you that their struggles and their own mistakes showed them more about themselves than they ever knew before. Self examination is a necessary practice if you want to achieve your goals. Period.

    So again, take a look at your to-do list…what are the highest valued actions? Maybe you can cut that list down to a few ‘mega’ tasks…What actions can you take today that if completed, will give you the biggest bang for your buck?

    And then look at what internal obstacles need to be addressed. Where can you step up your game and why aren’t you already doing it? Where are you holding yourself back?

    Get curious and specific. And then, go for it!
    (Often our various forms of self sabotage can be hard to spot and even harder to overcome. This is where having a coach can be the smartest investment you can make when tackling a big challenge. I work with people on these issues all the time. And the actions I have them take towards conquering their obstacles, always produce 80% of their ultimate success. If this sounds good to you, get in touch and we’ll get to work!)