Stop Career Insanity

June 3, 2010 by · 13 Comments

Dear Frustrated Right Career Seeker:

Are you vocationally frustrated and confused?  Do you find yourself at a career crossroads without a map?  Tired of guessing and doubting?

If so look into your gut and see if you can believe in the following statement at least 51%.

You came here to fulfill a special purpose and the value of that purpose is best delivered by you.

That means that until you identify and engage your right career, some special group of waiting individuals will be missing the original product or service that only you are equipped to create, in your own special way.

They can’t get what they really want or need, until you wake up and do what you were meant to do.

With me so far? (If you’re one of those special few who is already enjoying career bliss, please email this post to a lost soul of you acquaintance.)

Here’s what’s nuts about the way you’ve gone about finding your life’s work.

You try to be who you are without first knowing who you are.

Your try to do what works without first knowing what works especially well for you.

You try to go for what you want without first knowing what you really want.

Understanding your essential blessing of uniqueness could lead to your life’s purpose and career clarity. No one has a specific core makeup just like yours. But even if you know yourself well – it’s not enough.

That’s why searching for your right career feels like madness. Just knowing who you are is only one third of the right career equation. If you were still a toddler we could bank on that alone.

But you’ve lived some life and that has formed you into a special dynamo of perceptions, preferences and possibilities.

No one has experienced the exact life that you have.

You must not only know yourself as you arrived but know yourself now, as a fully functioning adult.

The trouble is that a lot of the life experiences you remember, are the challenging ones, so you don’t see yourself as functioning well but as the sacred little kid who was unrecognized and under-celebrated.

Understanding this valuable combination of core makeup, life experience and life competency is the key to solving your career/prosperity/fulfillment puzzle.

So the real question is this. Are you ready to end this insanity?

Right career discovery is what I do best. I’ve been career coaching since 1998 and it still floats my boat better than anything else. I’ve written the playbook and I’ve traveled the paths so I can guide you there.

Going it alone is really pretty silly. The trouble is that you are far too close to the challenge to see through the fog. Know that life has always been for you and it all comes together through the process of Divine coalescence.

Divine coalescence is recognizing the realization that Life has always guided you to experience your highest possible expression.  Life has always been for your highest possible benefit and every single experience in your life is coalescing on your behalf.  This means that no intention, no action, and no unfulfilled desire has been a waste of time.

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Career Guidance · Tagged: , , , , , , ,

Top Ten Tips For A Confident Career Change

May 17, 2010 by · 20 Comments

confident career decisionConfidently making a career change comes first from you knowing and believing in yourself. Assured action then kicks in to confirm the  right move for you.  Use these ten tips to move from confused, doubtful and uncertain to enthusiastic confidence.

One framing, bonus tip before we begin.  Career wisdom most often comes in the form of active verbs rather than final professions. Fulfilling work is more about what you’d be doing rather than what you’re called while doing it.

Too many career seekers try too hard to see the end game.  They first try to identify the profession and that’s wrong.  Trying to imagine whether you’d like to be a butcher, baker or candlestick maker is putting the cart before the horse.

I’ve been career coaching for 12 years and here’s a question I ask every potential client.  “If the best career change for you, happens to be creating your own business, are you willing to seize the freedom of self-employment?”

Any response less than a strong yes, generally means that a client is either unaware of or doesn’t agree with, one of the following career change truths.   If you’re hesitating with a career change decision, carefully look them over.  You’re solution is to understand and embrace the truth(s) you find yourself resisting the most.

1. The absence of risk often indicates that you’re playing too small. There is no such thing as authentically playing it safe.  You can’t compromise yourself into a fulfilling and successful career change.  Getting real has nothing to do with being realistic and everything to do with self-honor.

2. You can’t see around the bend without getting off your ass. No matter how good a career decision looks on paper you really won’t know until you step into it.  You can’t see what doors may open until you walk down the hall.  Knowing that truth will allow you to keep your cool, stay present and observe.  Adjusting actions and seizing opportunities as they arise, can make a once shaky decision a brilliant one.

3. Ease into change or make the big leap but don’t straddle. Straddling the fence is painful because it hurts no matter which way you fall.  Change doesn’t have to be a big leap off the cliff.  You don’t have to immediately quit your job and leap.

Entrepreneurship isn’t right for everyone.   You could even begin taking control of your career and advance your professional goals by earning one of these online degrees MBA.  Some of us love the leap and don’t sweat burning bridges.  Others have more of a toe-in-the–water style.  Be who you are.  If you’re naturally an ease in to it person, be that in your change.  You can start small in scope but remain large in authenticity. One way of starting small authentically is to create an authentically inspired product.

4. You really won’t care as much about the money following. Money doesn’t always follow doing what you love.  However, do what you love and fulfillment does follow.  Once you taste fulfilling work you just won’t care about the money as much.  Then a funny thing happens.  Once you’re not so afraid about making money you become more confident. And money does follow confidence.

5. As long as you choose you can’t really lose. The only way you can make a big mistake is to ignore the longings of your heart and stand pat.  Settling sucks, for a day or a decade.  Don’t waste another day in soulless work. The instant you know in your heart, that you’re unfulfilled, decide to choose another path.

6. Desire = Proof of Capacity. If you didn’t have what it takes to turn your idea into a business or a fulfilling position – that idea would not have come to you. You are enough.  You have what it takes.  You are more than enough to live the purpose you came here to complete.

7. Quit worrying about looking like you know what you’re doing.

Fear of looking like a fool will keep you from getting what you want.  Egbert Sukop.

Few of us ever do actually know what we’re doing.  But we are remarkable beings in our ability to land on our feet.  Every thought you have about what someone else might think of you is pure bull.  They just don’t care that much.  Start being your own authority this minute. What you think about you is the only thought that counts.

8. Find and follow your enthusiasm. Journal. Observe. Take notes of every appealing idea.  If a certain business or career change appeals to you, dig deeper and identify exactly what you find appealing about it.  Look for and record all themes of enthusiasm; they are valuable signposts.  Your life has been nudging you in the right direction.  Open your eyes and notice the nudges.

9. Be sure to imagine the upside. So much of change seems to over-emphasize the downside of what might go wrong.  Remember; the reason you’re seeking a career change is to be fulfilled and happy in your work.  Imagine how gloriously delightful it will soon be to bounce out of bed each morning eager to face the day.

10. It’s all about fit, first and foremost. If you are miscast in your work you are out of place.  Out of place means out of authentic alignment with who you are.  Out of alignment means out of luck and good fortune.  Be authentic and make your own luck by understanding your authentic career change elements.

Which tip do you need to embrace the most right now?

Want to discover your right work once and for all?  Contact Tom for an exploratory coaching session to find your career clarity. 

Filed Under: Career Guidance · Tagged: , , , , , , ,

Jumping To Conclusions – In Love and Work

May 4, 2010 by · 26 Comments

If you haven’t found work that you love – you might find a clue in this post about finding the love of your life.

Behavior is a funny thing to put your finger on.

Most of us have a pretty foggy idea of why we act the way we do.

Beliefs, fears, values, needs and wants all influence our behavior.

It’s amazing how seldom we even consider our motivation.

But that doesn’t stop us from jumping to conclusions to explain the behavior of others.

The last frontier in human relationships may be the wild, wild west of online dating.   I kid you not.  Many women put up better pictures of their cats, dogs and horses, than of themselves.   I often wonder what kind of love they’re really looking for.

Yet I am having a ball searching for the love of my life.

I thought it might be fun to jump to a conclusion and share it with you.

My experience

Approximately 70% of women looking for love online say they want two things in man, honesty and a sense of humor.

Yet is it fair game to expect honesty but be unwilling to deliver it?

If you really want to experience the delight of natural humor then quit using it as a mask to hide your true emotions.

Saving Vulnerability

Here’s what I mean.  I bring my A game to every relationship, no matter how brief. I’m authentically expressive, vulnerable and often robustly direct.

Here’s an excerpt from my profile where we are asked to describe what we want in a match.

I want stand-by-me loyalty. I want frequent verbal and physical demonstrations of our love. I want no pretense, so a down-to-earth, authentic woman is my preference. I want a courageous woman who will ask for what she wants and I want to know what she needs. I don’t want to be put to the test or be required to guess. Finally I want to be allowed all the way into her heart so that the most trying and vulnerable times only make us love one another more.

I’ve learned not to settle. I’m looking for the love of my life. I’m romantic, strong and vulnerable. I believe the best adventures are of an inner nature. I like exploring deep consciousness, deep emotional connection and the deep delight of our bodies. If I fall for you, I’ll get ahead of myself. That’s why I’m bearing my soul here. I trust you to tell me what you like, want and need. I want to love and be loved.

I’m very comfortable sharing my deepest emotions and truth. I express meaningfully and well in all manners of communication, verbally, written and well, you know. 😉

If you want to be championed and accepted for who you are, I’m your man. I must admit a preference for a full head of long hair. I want to be able to lose my mind burying my head in your hair. I melt when you show your ears and wear your hair on top of your head.

I’m visually stimulated but just as much turned on by penetrating conversation. I prefer tall over short and hot over not. I understand that some ladies in my age range have lost their libido. Please find it before contacting me.

Yet I’ve so far encountered very few women who are willing to match my forthrightness.

Why is that?

If we can’t speak from the heart, in matters of love, where can we?

Some women protect their vulnerability like it’s their virginity.

Is genuinely expressed, self-awareness, such a rarity that it’s meant to be grudgingly doled out?

If not for a possible love of your life, for whom are you saving your awareness and vulnerability?

Waking all the way up

Awareness is simply choosing to observe oneself in both thought and action and then being willing to adjust accordingly.  I like this question.

What am I thinking and doing that’s contributing to what I’m experiencing?

My jumped to conclusion

Being cautious, taking it slowly, not wanting to get hurt, not wanting to get your hopes up, are all conveniently crappy excuses to hide behind.

I know you’re afraid; so am I.   But I can’t see the real you when you’re hiding behind the symptoms of your fear.

I’ve had my heart broken, more than once and it’s one of the most powerfully alive experiences I’ve ever encountered.  Why run from that?  What better wake up call to evolve from?

Perhaps these women simply don’t know themselves that well or they do and they’re afraid to come out as the incredibly messy beings we all are.

Gender Disclaimer

Just as I don’t intend to bash women, I’m not excusing the stupidly juvenile behavior of many men.  I know what frustrating idiots we can be.

I also know that any heart must first be open to receive authentic love.

I’m concerned about this post coming off as bitter.  I’m not.  This doesn’t describe every woman I’ve met.  A few know themselves well and they aren’t afraid to express as the delightful angels that they are.

I also understand that there’s an incredible volume of hurt to work through before most can openly love and freely express love.  I wish I could give everyone of you a big hug but I can’t, if you won’t let me get close enough to reach you.

Work that you love

What’s this got to do with finding work that you love?  Actually it applies very well.

Can you speak to the connection?

Care to jump to your own conclusions regarding my experiences or this post?

Have at it.  Lord knows, I’m willing to be a fool for love.

Announcements & Resources

If you’ve struggled with career change clarity you’ll want to attend this free phone class: How To Clearly See What You Ought To Be When You Grow Up

New Career Change resource pages are up at CoreU Coaching.  Career Change and Discovery, Starting Your Business and Nine Elements of Authentic Career Discovery.

Create Your Inspired Info Product In Five Days, is an excellent, low risk way to start your own business.

Filed Under: Relationships · Tagged: , , , , ,

Reaching Your Full Career Potential

April 27, 2010 by · 11 Comments

reaching your full potentialPotential is within the realm of possibility but not yet reached. We talk about reaching our full potential like it’s a good thing, but I don’t think it is.

Potential is somewhere in the future, yet the only place we have any power is in the now.

When folks talk about reaching their full potential it’s always a self-judgment. It’s a judgment based on something they may have heard, or a comment that someone else made about them, that got stuck in their head.

When someone tells you, what he or she thinks would be good for you – it usually isn’t good for you.

Any mindset that passes judgment on unrealized performance, is likely to cause more stress and suffering than motivation to change.

In the process of career coaching I’ll often ask my clients to decide what they most want from a career change. When they say, “I want to live up to my full potential.” I dig deeper by asking.

If you lived up to your full potential what would be happening then that isn’t now?

Tell me the top three benefits of living up to your full potential.

What kind of a career would you be working in if you were living up to your full potential?

Full potential is an unreachable illusion. It’s a state of unrealized perfection that is not clearly defined.

Reaching full potential is like being all that you can be. Who could ever be that? Where would they find the time?

It’s funny, we hear folks all the time talk about reaching their full potential but how often have you heard someone say. “I’m done. I’ve reached my full potential.”

Reaching an undefined, full career potential, is impossible. Even if, at some future time, you reached your full potential, you wouldn’t know it or feel that you had.

However, full potential in present moment fulfillment and as a desired level of prosperity can be defined. Identify what that is for you and go for it.

There is nothing else that anyone wants for you other than for you to be you. Byron Katie

Byron Katie through her illuminating process The Work has helped thousands realize the crippling affects of believing false assumptions. Watch the short video below as she challenges the mindset of full potential.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM4jtnR6pww

If you want career clarity, then ask for an exploratory, career change, coaching session to challenge your limiting mindsets at CoreU Coaching.

Are you reaching for your full potential? How’s that going? What might you go for instead?

Filed Under: Career Coaching · Tagged: , , , , , , ,

When Doubt Is Good

April 16, 2010 by · 35 Comments

Sometimes you just have to say, “fuck the keywords” and write what’s on your mind!

Doubt is good when you know you’re ready for what’s next, even though you don’t yet know what’s next.

A lack of clarity and certainty is very good news when you can see it for what it is.

When the light of understanding is temporarily replaced by the darkness of doubt, the doubt can be very good when you frame it within an anticipation of coming good.

What if that precarious resting place between the completion of one stage and the beginning of the next is nothing more than your soul catching its breath?

I know what I’m talking about because that’s exactly where I am right now, with my writing, my marketing and the next iteration of my calling. (You didn’t think you find your calling and it’s game over, did you?)

You might know that place. It’s the place where everything you think and write (at least to you) smells like shit.

It’s that place when you feel like you don’t give a shit but you really feel that way because you do.

It’s that place when you begin to question every move and wonder when in the hell am I ever going to get my shit together? (At this point in my writing I thought about all the good shit (literally) in my compost pile and I almost went off on a metaphorical tangent about the benefits of combining shit.) See what I mean?

(Early in my blogging career I used the word ‘God’ in a post and lost 60 subscribers overnight. So I figured maybe I’d get them back by using ‘fuck’ in this one. Oh shit those aren’t the same scaredy cats are they?)

(Maybe I was simply ready to go public with the shit-hell-fuck trifecta?) That’s the darker side of the swinging doubt pendulum but it was an accurate read on my mood before I realized I was simply in a state of gloriously good doubt.

(One of my best web buddies, Suzanne Bird-Harris, says I should write more as rugby-playing Tom than deep thinker Tom, so you can credit her inspiration for the off-color candor in this post.)

Self-Doubt Warning

I am not talking about the kind of self-doubt that has you searching the web and comparing yourself to everyone else and coming up short. That shit will kill you. (Maybe I should have called this post Good Shit & Bad Shit?) (Jeez!) (Am I going to end up writing more in parenthesis than not?)

I’m also not talking about the kind of self-doubt that has you questioning anything personal about your capability, talents or identity. That shit stunts your growth and will eventually kill your spirit within.

Good Doubt

Good doubt is simply a lack of clarity of direction. You’re all dressed up and ready to go but you don’t know where you’re headed.

Good doubt is having the balls to hang in there with the unknown. Good doubt is actually embracing the unknown and immersing yourself within it because you know that everything happens for your good.

Hang onto that. The Universe conspires on your behalf.

Everything that happens happens for a good purpose to benefit you. If you can’t believe that, then life really does suck and then you die.

If you’ve ever been where I am right now you’ll know this feeling. You reach the crossroads, all the signs are down and even your inner sense of direction feels foggy.

Halleluiah! Praise the Gods of Change! You have been blessed with the good of uncertainty.

Life is about shifts, adjustments and punches in the gut. Rolling with the punches means not resisting them but using momentum to see the good.

Sorry folks, I have no answers today. I only have questions for those of you who want to leverage your good doubt to arrive at newfound aliveness.

Don’t fight it – roll with it. Just live with some very good questions and see what comes to you. Here are some of my favorite good doubt questions. Use them at your own risk of startling clarity.

What’s missing?

What good purpose might my impatience serve?

What’s next for me that I can’t quite see?

How would Ben Franklin (or respected thinker of your choice) solve this one?

For what good purpose am I experiencing this unpleasant circumstance?

What insights can I almost grasp that would explain where I am?

How can I change my point of view to see things differently?

If I could plug my brain directly into Divine Intelligence, what surge of brilliance might come?

I’m off to meet the Wizard. Tell me what you think of this shit.

Good Upcoming Shit:

Give a buck to Kiva and finally understand how to create with inspiration rather than willpower.

TWO COMMUNITY SUPPORT COACHING CALLS for those who purchase Create Your Inspired Info Product In 5 Days. (Must purchase on or before Friday 4-23.)

Filed Under: Career Guidance ·

Four Ways To Be Who You Really Are

March 28, 2010 by · 14 Comments

How about we skip all the bull and just come out as we are?

When you can boldly be who you are, then you can serve from the core of what you were meant to give.

Coming all the way out and risking authentic expression, is more confidently accomplished from a supportive platform.

Self-employment is the most direct route to being who you really are.  Working for someone else is seldom a supportive platform. 

Sure self-employment can be scary and messy but wouldn’t you rather have scary and messy freedom over soulless imprisonment?

I’m writing this for you if you’re deadening your spirit by doing the same purposeless work day after day.  I’m writing this for you if you’re already self-employed but under-earning.  What good is freedom without the means to enjoy it?

Authenticity and money are connected via confidence.   Money is attracted to confidence.  Confidence expresses most naturally from being the person you really are.

The solution to both under-earning and a lack of fulfillment is the same.  The solution is authentic expression and it’s impossible to express authentically if you aren’t being who you really are.

I admit it.  I’ll use any challenge, urging or encouragement I can to get you to be you.   You think the decision to be self-employed has to be a big deal but it doesn’t.  You can begin here for 77 bucks and 12-15 hours of sweat equity.

Success is really all about alignment.  When you’re out of alignment, with who you are and with what you came here to do, then you must make up the slack with effort.

Have you ever driven a car that was out of alignment?  I have and it’s a bitch to hold the steering wheel steady.  A misaligned vehicle takes much greater focus and much more physical strength just to keep it pointed in the right direction.  Your life isn’t any different.

That’s why you’re so stressed out if you’re unfulfilled in your work.  Your authentic alignment is all out of whack and it’s taking its toll on your body and mind.

Just “be who you are” and bring your gifts wherever you are and wherever you go, and this change that has begun, will begin to show itself as the movement that it is.  Mari Perron

Four Ways To Be Who Your Really Are

What does it mean to be who you are?  That answer is different for all of us but there are four pathways to authenticity.  Each is a conscious choice and for each choice, half measures do not work.

To be who you really are you must:

1).  Express and create your boldest, most authentic, original idea. This path is where authenticity meets creation.  This is how you fulfill your sacred covenant of uniqueness.  Have you chosen to bring about your biggest dream?  If not then you’re acting in a less than fully authentic way.

Don’t let the thoughts of “that’s too big” stop you.   All big dreams begin with single, small, bold steps.

2). Engage that idea and bring it to the marketplace in the way that only you can. It’s not enough to simply choose your biggest, boldest idea – you must also deliver it from the core of your individuality.  This is your authentic edge.  Are you driving your dream in your own special way or are you copying the methods of others?

Don’t look around at the way it’s always been done.  Blaze new trails, in ways, that could only have come to one who is being who she is.

3).  Create in service to those you care about the most. This is where your life experience rubs up against what you came here to do.  Who you are now is different than who you were when you arrived.   You’re an individual who has uniquely responded to challenges.  Are you working in service to the group of people that you most care about?

The fierce and compassionate qualities of your heart will give you strength only when you really give a good shit.

4). Show up and stand up, in ways that fire you up the most. Are you fully alive while working?  Are you enthused just thinking about your work?  Is it a joy to experience others appreciating your work?  Can you feel your special juice even when you must be open and vulnerable to express?

The only person who can ultimately save your ass is a stronger more determined version of your true self.

Those are the four ways to be who you really are.  What’s your authentic batting average? Are you 0 for 4, .500, batting a thousand?

If you aren’t yet being who you are, do you really want to be?

Self-employment is the most direct route because it presents more options with far less restriction.   But even being your own boss doesn’t have to be an all or nothing leap.  You don’t have to risk everything.

But you do have to risk looking like a fool for the love of who you are.

Why not lighten the risk?  Why not put your toe in the waters of self-employment by starting part time?  Here’s one way.

I’ve created a process where you in less than a week, you can weave in all four authentic ways while creating and completing your original information product.  In five days at least you’ll have something to sell that you really care about.

Are you ready to cash in on who you really are?

Work a Creation/Completion process that inspires your to create authentically.  Get your copy of Create Your Inspired Info Product In 5 Days.

Not sure that you can create authentically? Then this no obligation opportunity is for you. 12 Core Components of Inspired Completion Rally Call

You’ll get a free download of all 12 components plus a coming alive rally phone class on what it takes to put them in play.   Even if next Thursday at 7 PM Eastern isn’t a fit for you.  Register and I’ll send you the recording and the download.  You could win a copy of Create Your Inspired Info Product in 5 Days just for showing up on the call.


Filed Under: Career Discovery · Tagged: , , , , , ,

Authentic Inspiration Zaps Procrastination

March 16, 2010 by · 18 Comments

Authentic inspiration is to procrastination what sunlight is to darkness.
Procrastination or any form of resistance just can’t coexist in the presence of authentic inspiration.

I’m going to go against the grain here and take a stand for inspiration.  Especially since Seth Godin came out with his excellent book, Linchpin, I’ve seen an awful lot written about battling resistance.  His marketing advice is topnotch and it always stretches my noodle.  But I think he’s missed the mark on resistance.

But Seth isn’t the only one.  Many authors and self-help gurus recommend taking a stand against resistance.  They say that you don’t have to feel good in order to create, follow-through and complete.  Seth goes so far as to recommend ignoring your feelings.

You’re familiar with this Nike-like philosophy of just sucking it up and doing it.   Use willpower and discipline they say.  Face the fear and do it anyway.  I used to spout this same rubbish until I stumbled on a better way.

More on that soon but first a confession; I’m a big tough guy and a talented, experienced coach but I’ve lost more battles with resistance than I’ve won.

Resistance is by definition self-sabotage. Procrastination is the most common manifestation of Resistance because it’s the easiest to rationalize.  Steven Pressfield

Resistance can also show up as distraction, obsession and avoidance.  Really any made up excuse or rationalization that keeps you from doing what you want to do, is resistance.

“Just Do It!” makes sense but why is it so damn hard to just do it? I understood that I get more done by diving right in but I more often run than dive.  Resistance is a sneaky bastard.  Sometimes you can trick it and sometimes not.

Sometimes accountability works and sometimes not.  Sometimes a sacred and honorable pledge will work and sometimes not. Sometimes looking at your deepest motivation  (why) for creating what you’re creating will work and sometimes not.

Have you had similar struggles with Resistance? Have you tried but found the “just do it” advice lacking?

I think that Seth and the boys assume that since willpower works for them it will work for everyone just as well.  Apparently not.

Self-control is an exhaustible resource.  Chip & Dan Heath from their book, Switch: How To Change When Change Is Hard.

Self-control is willpower, discipline, sucking it up and just doing it.  And we can run out of self-control.  I think traditional productivity experts have forgotten all about this oldie but goodie.

What we resist persists.  Perhaps resistance is so powerful because we keep fighting it. Ignoring feelings is resistance.  Sucking it up is resistance.  Standing up to resistance is resistance.

How about we try something that we can’t run out of?

Inspiration is inexhaustible as long as it’s authentic.

I’m here to tell you that you don’t have to work around resistance.  You don’t have to stand up to resistance.  You don’t have to suck it up and just do it.

Instead how about tapping into your naturally occurring flow of authentic aliveness?

How about working on something that naturally inspires you to feel really good?

I wonder what that might be?  Here’s a hint.

Don’t ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that.  Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.  Howard Thurman

So my friend, what brings you alive with natural enthusiasm?  What brings joy to your heart and puts a spring in your step?  What work calls you?

One of my biggest challenges as a true calling coach is helping clients to see how they can transition into a true calling inspired business without putting everything at risk.

One of my biggest personal challenges used to be completing what I started.

So I’ve been experimenting with ways to serve my calling while at the same time finding a solution to my completion struggles.  I’m very excited to tell you that I’ve found the solution to both.

Today I’ve launched that solution in the form of a creation/completion product that you can use to Create Your Inspired Info Product In 5 Days. Purchase on or before Friday March 19, and save 50% off.

The easiest way to start a true calling inspired business is to create and sell an authentic product.   This guide inspires you every step of the way, as you complete not by sucking it up but by riding a wave of authentic aliveness.

Life doesn’t have to be one big struggle after another.  We were first built for joy.
I’ll close with a powerful video where Pamela Bruner takes us through a delightful EFT tapping session that uses fun instead of willpower to make challenging tasks easier.   This video is wonderful for creating a state of inspiration.

Get your copy of Create Your Inspired Info Product In 5 Days.

Filed Under: Business Startup · Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , ,

How To Extract Your Best Business Idea

March 12, 2010 by · 12 Comments

You have powerful points of wisdom within that when expressed could be your authentic edge in the marketplace.  That wisdom represents better business ideas than anything your conscious mind realizes.

We talk a lot about authentic expression in terms of standing up for what’s important and in terms of life purpose but I don’t think we talk enough about our inner wisdom and how to extract it.

When you decide to express your well-earned inner wisdom you set yourself apart in remarkable ways.  It’s your wisdom and no one else can express and exploit it like you can.

Your best idea is waiting just below the surface, buried under your lack of willingness to dig and your fears.

How about instead of waiting for true calling epiphanies you take a look at how to dig deep and extract your own inner wisdom?

 

 

Major Wisdom Extraction Realizations

1). Forced Urgency is like a shortcut because it goes directly to the engagement of wisdom extraction.
2). With Increased Decisiveness you can discover, decide on and develop wisdom much more quickly than imaginable.

Forced Urgency

One of the most practical therapists I’ve ever read is Nathaniel Branden. He’s written classics such as The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem and Taking Responsibility.  One technique that Branden uses to extract wisdom is the technique of Sentence Stem Completion.

When we intensify awareness, we tend to generate a need for action that expresses our changed psychological state.  Nathaniel Branden

By swiftly answering strategically chosen sentence stems, six days in a row, with at least six complete sentence endings, we access resources that normally remain hidden from our consciousness.

Without the exercise this wisdom does not normally show up in our behavior. This powerful technique doesn’t give enough time for self-doubt and questioning so resistance doesn’t rear its ugly head.

If you’d like me to email you complete instructions on this technique ask for them here.

Increased Decisiveness

Resistance adores delay. It will seize any excuse to delay you just long enough so that your original inspiration fades.  Resistance knows that when left to discipline alone you are more likely to give up.

Self-control is exhaustible.  Chip & Dan Heath from their book, Switch: How To Change When Change Is Hard

So if self control (willpower, discipline) is an exhaustible resource, it’s only a matter of time when burning adrenaline alone, you run out of fuel.

What’s the answer?  Increase your speed to action by making decisions much quicker and engaging them much sooner.  In a word, decisiveness.

Surprisingly speed inspires sounder decision-making than careful analysis. When you’re quick about it, the best ideas surface and it’s easier to pick out the viable ideas from among the junk.

We have assumed that taking longer and being more thorough is good for us.  But getting lost in the delay of over-analysis is always more costly than acting decisively and making lots of mistakes.

What’s your experience using forced urgency and greater decisiveness?

Free Business Confidence Podcast

I think it has a lot to do with these three factors.
1). They didn’t go deep and extract their waiting wisdom so the idea was not authentically aligned.
2). They never followed a firm, creation/completion process with supportive structure and environment.
3). They were not able to use discipline and willpower to follow-through.

 

Filed Under: Career Discovery · Tagged: , , , , , , ,

Courageous Individuality

February 23, 2010 by · 19 Comments

Thank goodness this isn’t the norm today but this was true for girls of my generation. It used to be, if you asked an 11-year-old preteen what she wanted on her pizza, she decisively said, pepperoni. But ask her just four years later at 15 and she’d be more inclined to respond. “Oh I don’t know, what do you want?”

Cultural pressure to fit in is a powerful conditioner that affects all of us.

It’s takes a lot of courage to stand tall, speak up and boldly act as an individual.

But expressing as an individual is your only chance if you want to create an authentic business with sustainable prosperity and fulfillment. Conformity is not a selling point. Being average is dull.

Yet the truth is, it’s far easier to just go along with the crowd and follow a system created by someone else, than it is to boldly and authentically speak your mind.

So what. Who said easy and comfortable wins? Hyped up marketers pitching systems tell lies of easy money and big riches. If it sounds too good to be true it’s not either right? So why do we fall for those lies?

I know why. We fall for them because it’s safer not to stand out. It’s safer to hide behind someone else’s creation than to expose our own vulnerable individuality.

But these, more and more often, systems are collapsing and remarkable individuals are succeeding.

Money is attracted to confidence and I think it might be time for all of us to take a look at the path less followed.

What if your greatest potential source of confidence was your expressed individuality?

What if your greatest way to make more money was also your greatest way to make a difference?

Spiritually evolved communities have been announcing a new age of consciousness for years now. It seems to me that we are willing to lend our financial and emotional support to those who create authentically.

I hope you can see that this is your time to serve humanity through individual expression. I’ve realized that a true calling can be started in a much smaller way than I’d originally recommended. To follow your calling you can take the big leap off the cliff or barely stick your toe in the water.

In fact a more prudent entry point for many could be starting smaller. That’s why I’ve been creating a product that combines the three most powerful concepts I have experience of.

1). The Supportive Accountability of Coaching

2). The Authentic Aliveness of True Calling

3). The Inspired Productivity of Completion

 

You can’t save the day by sitting on the sidelines. I hope you agree that it’s your time to push all of your chips to the center of the table and bet big on your individuality.

 

Filed Under: Business Startup · Tagged: , , , , , , ,

Your True Calling Inspired Business Startup

February 18, 2010 by · 14 Comments

The old saying goes, he who hesitates is lost.  That’s true but the hesitator is more than lost – he’s lying to himself.

If you’ve wanted to identify and start a true calling inspired business and haven’t by now. What’s your excuse?

Really what are you waiting for?  I hope it’s not a small business idea that’s so brilliant that it arrives bathed in golden light on the wings of angels.  That’s a myth.  More good ideas come from observing mistakes than from epiphanies.

But to observe a mistake and extract the wisdom from it you’ve got to be willing to try lots of stuff so you make really good mistakes in the first place.

This post came from a mistake.  Yesterday I started a teleclass with 8 folks on the line.  It was called, Finding the Clarity and Confidence to Begin Your True Calling Inspired Business.

Halfway through the call all the participants got bumped off and I was talking to myself.   I thought that a couple may have dropped off and the remaining folks were just shy about participating.  I figured even if I were alone the recording would still take and I could send it out to folks.  Nope. Later I found out that I had no audience and no recording.

So I re-recorded the call and simplified it down to the three necessary ingredients for a true calling inspired business startup and five ways you can start up your business today.

You might think you need a perfect startup business plan or at least a completed idea of what your business will look like but that’s not true.  Believe that and you’ll never get started.

What you need for a successful business startup is to feel really good about it.  That good feeling comes from the clarity and confidence to begin.  If you’re through whining about risks and security and are ready to do something, listen to this recording and tell me what you think. Better yet – get started; humanity needs your expressed uniqueness.

[podcast]http://www.delightfulwork.com/audios/TruCallInspiredBiz.mp3[/podcast]

Filed Under: Business Startup · Tagged: , , , ,