There Is No After – Right Timing Is Always Now

There is no right time other than now. Waiting for just the right timing is a self-inflicted disease that destroys more dreams than any other self-created limitations. And all limitations are self-created.

We say. “I’ll start this business after my girls are in college. I’ll ask for a divorce after we pay off the house. I’ll have time for me after I raise my children.  We’ll take that dream vacation after the business stabilizes.  I’ll tell him I love him after I’m sure that I do. I’ll spend more time with them after this project, deal or challenge is over.

There is no after. There is no after and even when it gets here it never looks like what you thought it would.

We all have a major decision to make that we are not making. ~ Ian Percy

After is an excuse and a poor one at that.

 Three Hard Truths about Right Timing

1) Windows of opportunity are always temporary. Truth is, delay is incredibly costly.  Windows of opportunity are moving targets. Opportunities are always in the midst of opening or closing.  When we try to keep a window propped open artificially it changes the opportunity. Look at the diagram. You’ll see that there is no delay or waiting in the cycle.

2) The reason we hesitate is never the real reason. It’s always a constructed defense or justification that temporarily relieves the pressure by excusing us for not taking action. I know this is true because I have helped hundreds get over, around or break through their own reason so they could start the business they really want to start.

3) The energy to seize an opportunity is always strongest right when the desire first comes into your awareness. That’s when the Universe is saying, “Go for it I have your back.”

There is no after.  There is only now.  Celebrate & claim your freedom by choosing to go for what you want without delay.

It is not uncommon for people to spend their whole life waiting to start living. Any action is often better than no action, especially if you have been stuck in an unhappy situation for a long time.  Accept – then act. Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it.  ~ Eckhart Tolle

The next time that the Universe blesses you with a really big idea don’t wait for the right time to act. Know that right timing comes along with the idea.

Be ready and do something to show you appreciate the opportunity. You could claim this offer to get really clear in a complimentary strategy session with me.

At the very least ask yourself this question. What does this opportunity require of me now?  Then trust what comes to you and act.

Personal Greatness is a Journey

find your personal greatnessGreatness is like happiness – the juice comes from the pursuit and what we experience in sacred pursuit more so than from arriving (if arriving can even happen).

In order to find happiness you must first make choices that make you feel happy.

In order to find greatness you must make choices that make you feel great.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Teddy Roosevelt

It’s far greater to be in the quest of personal greatness than to be playing it safe and not even be considering the possibility.  Or defending all of the practical (fearful) reasons why you cannot declare yourself in pursuit of your greatness.

I define greatness as the pursuit and actualization of your most vulnerable business calling that is most aligned with who you are.

Business is the joy of doing what expands your life by bringing you money.  Gary Douglas

Today are you in pursuit of your personal greatness?

Would you like to get very clear on what that is for you? If so be bold and claim a session here.

Five Uniqueness Quotes to Find Your Success

uniqueness These uniqueness quotes inspire me as I guide others in discovering their own uniqueness.

Those who truly find their sweet spot are much happier on the journey as they pursue success, fulfillment and wealth. Expressing uniqueness isn’t your only shot at wealth but it is your surest shot a deep fulfillment.

So why not create the thing that only you can? That way at the very least, you will be happy and fulfilled while you continue to make adjustments to bring in the money.

Every man and woman is born into the world to do something unique and something distinctive and if he or she does not do it, it will never be done.   Benjamin E. Mays

Yes I’m talking to you. If you don’t create the value that only you can, in the way that only you can, there will be a hole in the universe that will remain unfilled. Who knows what great need your special creation will have served?

This is your responsibility as an individual and you have a choice. You can seize it or you can live a mediocre life of conformity doing what others say you should do.

What each must seek in his life never was on land or sea. It is something out of his own unique potentiality for experience, something that never has been and never could have been experienced by anyone else.   Joseph Campbell

Campbell speaks to the special nature of what you have the ability to create.  You not only came to this reality uniquely equipped but you have lived a unique life full of unique experiences.  Did you know that your true calling has been subtly nudging you into special experiences that stimulate distinctive realizations?

Your sweet spot, best fit, business idea will be born from those realizations. To bring them to light ask and live with this question, not expecting an immediate answer. What would it take for me to become more aware of all the signs, hints and whispers that I’m being called to notice?

You can’t shrink your way to greatness. Where there’s scarcity, there’s value.  Seth Godin

Truth, don’t you know when you are playing too small? Don’t you know when you’ve settled for less than your first place dream?

In these two uniqueness quotes Godin is telling us to quit playing in arenas that are much too small for us.  We only shy away and shrink when we are out of our uniqueness.  It’s extremely challenging to take a stand for something not born of your core uniqueness. It’s impossible to create a one-of-a-kind product or service when you fake it or try to copy another.

Being unique is also very savvy marketing advice.  Godin tells us that scarcity creates value because when something is rare the demand for it increases. If you struggle you might ask yourself this. Where have I been playing too small?  What would it take for me to bring much more of me into expression?

Desire for anything is the thing itself in incipiency; that is, the thing you want is not only for you, but has already been started toward you out of the heart of God; and it is the first approach of that thing itself striking you, that makes you desire it, or even think of it at all.   Emily Cady

This desire you have – to be free to call your own shots and to be rewarded for simply being you – do you get that it’s already on its way to you? Do you get that your desires are as unique as your ability to bring them into existence?

Cady is talking about The Blessing of Unique Contribution. It promises that you are uniquely equipped with the ability and the capacity to discover original ideas that are your special contribution to humanity.  It also promises that you can bring these ideas forth and monetize them as your true calling based business.

This blessing states that God is not some cruel trickster who has equipped you with brilliant individuality only to short you on the ability to express it.  If you weren’t capable of bringing forth this desire then you would never have recognized the idea in the first place. So please quit watering down your divinely inspired ideas.  If your idea has come from the heart of God accept that you are divinely appointed to bring it forth.

You are an individualized expression of the creative flow. There is something you can do that no one can do quite as uniquely as you.  Somewhere there is a need for that special contribution. We live in an orderly universe. You are needed as much as you have need.  Eric Butterworth

You are a force of nature and as such there is a need for the special fruit that only you can bring to market.  Butterworth is telling you that your success (if uniquely created) is a done deal.  Someone out there somewhere will value and appreciate your unique offerings.  Create it uniquely and market it uniquely and your phone will ring.

Now that you have been touched by the special inspiration in these uniqueness quotes begin today to walk a different path in your own special way. That’s the surest path to your success. If you are ready to get reall clear on how to turn your uniqueness into a unique business contact me here.

I’d be honored to read your comments.  Which of these quotes really spoke to you? What questions do you have about what to do now?

 

 

How to Live a Simpler Life without a Walking Dead Apocalypse

The Walking Dead - Season 2, Episode 1 - Photo Credit: Greg Nicotero/AMC - hills_amcWhen I watch the excellent Walking Dead series I’m drawn to living a simpler life.  The urgency of making your homestead zombie free is obviously simple.

I’m drawn to the simpler life of surviving and of finding shelter, food and safety in these stories.

Have you ever had this thought?  I think it would be easier for me to thrive in a post-apocalyptic setting then in today’s society.  Perhaps it’s the fresh start and the level playing field.

Could I actually be sick and tired of personal development and self-actualizing?  Or is the appeal really the opportunity for a complete life do-over?

Maybe it’s because I think as a coach I would be a very natural and valuable leader in such a post-apocalyptic scenario.  What about you? Ever find yourself longing for simpler living?

What do you find specifically appealing about making a fresh simpler start?  Is it, living a simpler life or the crystal clarity about what really matters?  Survival is clear and simple and it’s obviously practical.

How many aspects of your current life can you say really matters to you?

I don’t know about you but I’m not going to dropout completely and go raise chickens in isolation. I’m also not going to wait for the plague to wipe us out so I can fight zombies.

I think it’s more courageous to fight the zombie-like aspects of the lives we’re already living.  Really how much of your current life brings you vividly alive?

So what choices do you have if you crave the clarity and meaning of a simpler life?

You could start by asking the following questions and honoring your responses with action.

What could I drop or cut out of my life today that would make it much simpler right away?

What areas of my life are too unclear to even choose a new direction?

What choice might clear things up for me?

What doesn’t much matter at all that eats up my time and attention?

What really matters where I’m pretending that it doesn’t?

The truth is life is as simple or complicated as we have decided it needs to be.  You can decide to make a fresh start right now.  Answer those questions and take one small action towards simpler living.

If you really can’t wait and want some radically fearless help then go here and ask for it.  As your  life coach I’ll be your fearless partner in this life as well.

Break Comes Before Breakthrough

making a breakthroughSorry Dad.    You were right and I didn’t realize it until now.  I thought my Dad was just trying to cheer me up when he said.  “You just need to catch a break.” Finally I see the wisdom in those words.

Maybe we ought to listen more carefully every time someone who loves us tries to help us?

The thing is – breaks do need to be caught.  To be caught they need to be realized as the potential shift in consciousness that they are.

A break is at the same time a fracture and a gap. It’s a tearing apart and an opening.  Thus the wisdom in …. break comes before breakthrough.

In what specific life area do you need to catch a break?  Are you aware enough to catch it when one is being offered? Are you really committed to making that break?

The only way to have a life is to commit to it like crazy.  Angelina Jolie

The same area where you would love a break is the most challenging situation where you want to make a breakthrough.

In what specific life area do you need to catch a break because I’m offering you one right now?  But this isn’t merely a cognitive gift of wisdom.  I’m offering you a breakthrough experience.

We’ll meet this Thursday Feb. 7, 4:30 PM Eastren, on the phone.  To join us you only need to reply to this message answering two questions. Your responses will be kept confidential and only be used by me to prepare the experience.

In what specific area of my life would I most benefit from making a breakthrough?

What is the number one obstacle to me breaking through and shifting to a new way of being?

That’s all that’s required for you to participate in this breakthrough experience.  Or you can just go one saying that you never catch a break.

Tom Volkar

PS Remember that joke about the praying man who turned down three lifesaving rescue attempts and then asked God why he wasn’t saved?  Don’t let that be you. Respond now and answer the two questions above.

 

 

What You Need to Know When Your Partner Wants To Start a Business

entrepreneurial supportGiven our uncertain economic times more and more spouses and partners are faced with the question of how to support a partner who wants to call her own shots and start a business.   Immediately when the subject is broached the other partner often jumps straight to the fear of how his family’s lifestyle might be adversely affected without a steady paycheck.  So how can you sincerely support your entrepreneurial partner?

This fear triggers the entrepreneurial partners doubt and results in more delay and uncertainty. A sense of hopelessness is often felt along with unspoken resentment towards the more fearful partner.  This resentment added to a sense of obligation to continue in non-fulfilling work can shake the very foundation of any relationship.

If you’re that spouse that wants to continue the so-called security of what looks like sure thing, I understand your fear.  But don’t you really want to support your partner and do everything you can to add to her happiness?

What if there was a way for both of you to get what you want?

Being aware of these insights can put you in position to give your partner a way out without jeopardizing family security. Read them and then ask.  Knowing that each of these is true how can I best support my partner?

1). Unconditional support and encouragement matters.  Facing the trials of entrepreneurism is hard enough without adding home battles to outside ones.  When the entrepreneur can feel as though she has a home sanctuary to rest and recharge it increases the chance of her success.  So ask yourself this. How can I be more unconditionally supportive and encouraging for my partner?

2). The only real security is self-created by owning your own business where you have the freedom to make all of the decisions regarding your wellbeing.  Coming around to seeing the truth in this statement will help you to understand that the choice for self-employment actually increase security.

3). When one partner is unfulfilled in her work usually both are.  When the first partner successfully pursues self-employment success the likelihood of the other partner doing the same vastly increases.

4). Often when the discussion to create a business is on the table only the downside risks are examined. What if the gains from this move would give you both more joy and prosperity than you ever imagined possible?  Frequent imagination sessions with your partner where you both viscerally envision the rewards of success will actually increase the probability of living a prosperous and fulfilling life.

5). Making the move to entrepreneurship does not have to put your well-being at risk. With the help of a qualified business coach you and your partner can agree to non-negotiable transition requirements that determine when a move is actually made.  This agreement makes sure that your partner will only quit her job after each of these requirements is firmly in place.

If you want to help your partner get really clear on the nest moves for your family have her go here to request a free strategy session. You are invited to attend along with your partner since you are in this important move together.

 

 

 

 

 

Is Your Life Purpose Keeping You From Making Money?

Silhouette of man and sunshineYour life purpose could be holding you back from making money and enjoying your work.

Could you have set yourself up with a life purpose that’s so big that you never seem to get traction? Do you hesitate because you don’t feel up to the task or you don’t know where to start?

Or worse, perhaps you’ve started and failed to earn enough money so you began to doubt yourself.  Or maybe you doubt that you’ve discovered the right life purpose?   Sometimes it’s as simple as aligning your purpose with an offer and marketing it so people will buy it.

I wonder, could you be happy, fulfilled and prosperous without ever trying to fulfill a life’s purpose?

What if terms like life purpose are loosely thrown around by the fortunate few who have experienced making money from doing what they love? What if these well-meaning folks, in their attempt to explain their own success, have mistakenly set you up for failure?  Here’s why I think that could be what’s happened.

Life Purpose sounds so colossal, so final and so very singular. By its very definition it limits you to fulfilling one big meaningful purpose.  What if you change your mind?  What then?

What if you experience an earth shattering event that changes the way you see everything? Should you stubbornly try to make sense of your life purpose within the context of that event?

I don’t think so and for own sanity and prosperity please consider an alternative to life purpose.  How does contribution sound to you?

Each of us has a special capacity to contribute something unique to humanity.  As your life experience changes and expands so does your capacity to contribute from that special perspective.

Your experience through this life will never be repeated. You will experience — every day — things that no one else will ever know. To think that we each have only one Contribution that can lift and expand the capacity of the human race is silly. We have an infinite array of possibilities that lay before us.  Jeff Bollow

Life Purpose seems so final and singular while contribution is ever-evolving and plural.

Contribution is a dynamic series of gifts that we realize and share with others as we reach new milestones of insight.

The real possibilities in life show up when you are willing to be in question – recognize you have choice, get that you have possibilities and be the contribution and receive the contribution the world wants to give.  If you could see how amazing you are as a being, as a person, and as a contribution in life, then you would have no excuse for being unhappy. Gary Douglas

Douglas wisely claims that a life purpose is too limiting and fixed because it acts as a foundation.  Foundations have walls that act as boundaries.  Nothing new may enter outside the closed walls of a foundation.  When refreshing new possibilities approach a life purpose they are often judged as not fitting within pre-concluded boundary definitions.

Those judgments then continue to block the expanded awareness of more possibilities that don’t fit within the stated life purpose.  The all or nothing perspective of life purpose is restrictive and limiting.

As an alternative consider the structure of contribution.  The many pillars of a contribution can support your business with both strength and flexibility to allow in new opportunities.

Isn’t it time for you to bring forth your special contribution for the good of all?

Your contribution is the actualization of your unique being expressed as inspiration, ideas and energy.  You are the only one who can deliver it in the way that you can.  Until you do, humanity will be missing an important linchpin of inspiration.

Want to take the first step to discovering your contribution?  Just leave a comment below and I’ll send you the info and prep to join us for a special free, phone class, Going Within to Bring Forth My Brilliance. 

Making a Fresh Start

making a fresh startAn important part of your life or business is crying out for a fresh new start. There’s something magically freeing about wiping the slate clean and beginning new again – but we often waste that magic by stopping short of completion.

Some question their inherent capabilities after repeatedly failing to produce a desired result. Yet life coaching has taught me that there is nothing wrong with you, your capabilities or with starting over. What’s usually lacking is the faulty process that you’ve used. After this five-minute read you’ll know an effective process for making a fresh new start and successfully completing.

A fresh start comes ready made with fresh hope that this time things will turn out better and they will, if you’ll use this process that focuses your fresh start energy for maximum advantage.

You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing that we call ‘failure’ is not the falling down, but the staying down. Mary Pickford

Many folks attempt geographical fresh starts.  Others get excited with the newness of a fresh relationship.  Some get their kicks from cracking open a crisp new book.  At least half of us have started diets and exercise programs dozens of times. With every fresh start we blindly hope that this time will be different. By why should it? Making a fresh start alone doesn’t guarantee different results.

But increased awareness while working a different process will produce different results. The necessary ingredients are awareness, commitment, action, frequency, redemption and completion.  Answer the question(s) next to the ingredient to work this process.

1) Awareness. What part of my life would most benefit from a totally fresh start? What realizations have I come to from my previous attempts in this area? If I’ve truly learned these lessons, then what do I intend to do differently this time?
2) Commitment. Why is the decision to commit to this change the most important commitment I’m making this month? (If it’s not important enough to drive eager involvement for at least a month, then you may want to choose again.) Looking forward 30 days, how will I feel having successfully followed through to completion? Write out a celebratory script in full five-sense detail. If you aren’t really fired up on day one, it likely doesn’t have enough energy to sustain your focus.
3) Action. What are three small steps I can take in the next three days to jump start my momentum? Take them one-a-day over the next three days.
4) Frequency. That leaves 27 days, looking at where I want to be on day 30 and back planning, what are 14 possible actions I could take? Take one of these actions every other day. You can change the specific actions once you get going. But if you begin with a pool of actions to choose from you will have increased your probability of success significantly. Frequency is often the missing ingredient in a faulty process.
5) Redemption. We cannot go back in time but we can stop the energy drain of past mistakes by arriving at a place of higher self-regard. Redemption, in this case, is the act of fulfilling a pledge to ourselves that we’ve failed to fulfill previously. By making amends we repair our own self-esteem and prove that we are competent to life. What specific end result would be self-redeeming and make me very proud?
6) Completion. Here’s where you claim the prize (benefit of your main completion) for following through. Imagining this prize is what created the desire for a fresh new start in the beginning. Make sure that this prize is meaningful and valuable to you. What prize will enthusiastically hold my focus for 30 days?

There are no limits to the number of times you can start fresh. You can completely start anew over and over again. Inspiration doesn’t deplete itself. It’s a naturally renewing resource.

Come alive to your greater glory – commit to starting over today.
You can do it and you’ll be glad you did.

How to Start Over In a New Career

Start over in a new career possibilitiesWhat if starting over in new career was far easier than you think it is?  If you’re dying from the inside trying to live in a toxic work environment – rejoice!  That dissatisfaction is your life trying to get you to see that you can make a move and start over.

That’s the purpose of contrast. Without those deadening work experiences you might remain blind and deaf to even the possibility of making a fresh new start over.

The first step is to be grateful for that feeling that you’ve got to get out.  Honor the urge to escape the corporate politics and unexplainable management decisions.  Just look yourself in the mirror and say thank you.

Thank you for presenting enough pain in my life to urge me to make my move.

Then you must being to tell yourself a story of hope, gratitude and possibility instead of a prison-locking story of despair. Statements like those that follow only keep you locked into one possibility.

I’m stuck because I’ll never make as much money on my own.  I hate my job but I don’t know what to do about it.  It’s a tough economy I’d be crazy to leave now.  I can’t start my own business because I don’t know where to start.

You must let go of all of those limiting one-way conclusions or that’s the only options you’ll see.

Instead declare and acknowledge out loud, that you are at choice to start over in a new career.

The swiftest change comes from asking the most positively powerful questions like this one.

Thank you for helping me to see that I have choices, what are all the possibilities?

Right there is your key on how to start over in a new career because it combines gratitude, choice and possibility.

Most who remain hoping but never act do not allow themselves to dare ask, what else is possible?

Did you notice that I did not talk about the specific new career you might start over in? That’s because the possibilities only can surface after gratitude is expressed and choice is acknowledged.

One more important tip – do not try to answer a possibility question with your conscious mind.  Just ask it and live with the question unanswered for a while. That way the Universe can go to work by helping you to see all the possibilities.

If you allow your mind to answer the following question, it can only respond by giving you options that you already know.

Thank you for helping me to see that  am at choice, what are all the possibilities?

So here is your action step. Right now ask this question 10 times in a row and then comment on how you feel about your possibilities.

Thank you for helping me to see that I have many choices, what are all the possibilities?

If you are ready to make your move even faster contact me now to discuss the possibilities.

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