Archive for 2006

When was the last time you felt uncomfortable? In your life, your business, or both?

If you haven’t felt uncomfortable – in a good way – for a while, it might be that you haven’t been stretching a lot lately.

Not that discomfort of the truly uncomfortable kind is something to seek out, but just like shedding an old skin, growth can be itchy and feel a little like a rash, even.

So this is an invitation. For all of you who are in business, especially those of you who’ve recently joined the Master Mind Your Business to Success Program (or the waiting list for it)… I challenge you!

Post here an answer or comment to one of these questions:

(1) What could you use help with right now, today, in your business? Remember that the ability to receive help is the #1 most underdeveloped skill in most businesses.

(2) What’s going phenomenally well right now? How and why does that reflect what you truly want in your business?

(3) If you’re a Master Mind participant, either with us or through your own Master Mind group, which one of the 9 steps is staying with you most and why? Sometimes the most important shifts can feel like splinters in our mind. We want to know what they are because they can lead to business breakthroughs.

Write me to tell me what you’re committing to. Better yet, post it on the blog so everyone can support you in your BOLD declaration!

Now, after you’re done reading this week’s issue of Start It Up, get off your butt and go do it!

Good morning!

Normally, you get our ezine on Thursday afternoon or evening, depending on where in the world you are (and if you’re in Australia, usually Friday morning! ). But today I couldn’t wait until the afternoon.

A lot of you that know me personally know that I just won’t shut up about transformational trainings. In fact, soon I’ll be studying to become a transformational trainer myself (WOO HOO!) If you don’t know what I’m talking about, (and please forgive the overly simplified description) transformational trainings are a curriculum of personal development workshops that have you look at the beliefs out of which you live your life, so that you can then choose actions consistent with what you say matters to you.

For example, have you ever known a person (not you, of course!) that said they wanted the relationship of their dreams, but then went around mistrusting people and having a pessimistic outlook? Well, transformation is about honoring your commitments and having consistency in your being and doing. When you honor who you authentically are, you immediately create others doing the same. There are dozens of training centers around the world that offer such curriculum. One in particular, Summit Education, right here in South Florida is my absolute favorite! Anyway, I digress.

My point is that when I saw this video on You Tube, it struck me how transformation begins with one person. One person deciding, today will be different. Today I will impact the world around me. There is a scene in the video that literally had me in tears. I was like, Wow, I want to live in a world like THAT! Click below to watch the video.

So, what will YOU do today to have your business transformed? How will your family, your work, your clients’ life, your finances be different just because you chose to take a stand today and do something about it? Write me to tell me what you’re committing to. Better yet, leave a comment here on the blog so everyone can support you in your BOLD declaration!

Now, after you’re done reading this week’s issue of Start It Up, get off your butt and go do it!

She walked out fuming. How dare that spineless “colleague” of hers make decisions without consulting with her first? She called her coach (i.e., me) to vent and get clarity. Her blood pressure is up, her breathing is shallow, her stomach is queasy, and she can’t concentrate. She is what I like to call, a peace keeper.

People who like to keep the peace usually avoid conflict, evade discomfort, leave things unsaid, and “let things pass”… And they pay heavy prices. For the sake of keeping the peace, some people are willing to lose money, risk their physical health, step over other people’s feelings (although they’d never see it that way because they’re “just keeping the peace”), even forego a soul mate and soul purpose. Somewhere, viscerally, it makes sense: If I keep the peace, I won’t have to risk, I won’t have to be rejected, I won’t have to deal with the maddening uncertainty of life, I won’t have to be wrong or feel “out of control.”

A peace maker, on the other hand, is willing to step through it all, to get to peace. What I mean is this: If peace is the safe, clean, integrous place where people are free to be 100% themselves by themselves or with each other, pursuing their highest/deepest truth, then a peace-maker is someone who is willing to go through discomfort, conflict, speak the uncomfortable truth, bring up and deal with emotions we often want to hide from, risk rejection, be okay with uncertainty, be willing to not have to be right or in control all the time, all for the sake of enjoying peace within themselves and with the people surrounding them.

Hey, don’t get me wrong. Peace makers pay some prices too. They may not hear the answer the want to hear when they bring up an uncomfortable conversation. They may face rejection, or failure. The thrill of uncertainty as they jump the chasm to their dreams may end up by falling flat on their face. It can be frustrating when you do not see possibilities or solutions, even when you really want to. Peace keepers sit in no-possibility because that’s all they see, and it’s easier to navigate (faith, after all, is evidence of things unseen). Peace makers are willing to go at it blind, bump into things, for the sake of reaching that which up til now they have only imagined.

Quick quiz: Is there someone in your life right now with whom you haven’t said everything there is to say? Do you owe someone money and have been avoiding them? Do you cut a conversation short because you don’t want to “have to go there” with a particular person sooner or later? Or even deeper, are you believing/feeling something that you haven’t even admitted to yourself?

It’s time for integrity.

Make peace.

Peace is not a cheap harlot, to be kept, bought or bribed, and then turned away when it gets ugly.

It is a precious gift to be made and offered to those you touch and who touch you. If for nothing/no one else, because YOU deserve peace.