Celebrate Success

We’ve started a new ritual in my family. Every night at dinner we go around the table. Everyone takes turns sharing their biggest SUCCESS FOR THE DAY! We then celebrate and honor that success and ask what we can do to help with continued support. The next step of Celebrating Success is creating a compelling REWARD!

I don’t know why but this step of the Success formula has been hard for me. Last night was different. I shared my success (which I AM SO VERY PROUD OF, and will have to share in another blog). We’re in Destin, home to some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, and because of rain the last few days, I haven’t had a chance to enjoy. So I felt excited to announce my reward as a relaxing stroll on the beach the next day.

I had a busy day today. On top of everything else, I’ve had a very sore and red eye the last few days, so I had to make time to go see a Doc in a Box. By the time I finished trading, Dr. appointment, etc – I felt a bit stressed and needless to say, behind… So much to do. I almost blew off going to the beach – but I remembered “It’s Important To Celebrate Our Successes”!

 At 3:30 I head over to the Gulf Island National Seashore – a beautiful, untarnished strip of beach and dunes. As soon as I crossed the boardwalk, I was breathless. The water was the most beautiful aqua blue, and emerald green I’ve ever seen. The ocean was very calm, almost like glass. The sky was robin egg blue with a few puffy clouds, and to my delight there were dolphins playing just out from the shore.

The stress of “I have so much to do” all just slipped away, I was in my happy place. I began walking up the empty white, powder sand beach- taking it all in. I’m a seashell collector, and after a week here in Destin, I hadn’t found any brag worthy shells. As I walked in the warm surf, I began seeing sand dollars – just floating in the tide. I couldn’t believe my eyes. After finding each sand dollar I’d say to myself, “How can it get any better than this”? I was totally present, trying to take it all in – the beautiful ocean, the magnificent dunes, the sea birds, and did I mention SAND DOLLARS!

This time of year, the sun sets before 5:00 pm in Destin. After about an hour down the beach, the sky toward the east began turning an amazing shade of pink – the sand even reflected pink as the sun was setting. To my delight a blue heron landed just ahead of me, I was so close, I could see the details in his feathers. After what seemed like an eternity standing an arms length next to this magnificent bird, he started meandering up the beach, into the pink sky. Again, I said to myself, “How can it get any better than this?”

I continued walking up the beach – I didn’t want this afternoon to end. I couldn’t believe my eyes – there in the tide were 4 sand dollars, all rolling gently next to each other. I stepped closer and leaned down to start picking them up – and out of the blue, something pinched my foot. I screamed, and stepped back to see a big crab meandering away. I said to myself again, “How can it get any better than this?”

I had to turn around if I was going to get back before it was completely dark. As the sun was setting, I was getting chilly. My wet hands that were clutching sand dollars were freezing. As I turned around toward the sunset to the West, I was amazed with the color show in the sky – beautiful shades of blues, reds, and oranges. It was spectacular. I stood at the boardwalk for the longest time, just soaking it all in.

I believe the Universe (God, Higher Power, etc) wants us to succeed. And when we are crystal clear on what we want, take the action to make it happen, and are open to receive – magic happens. My walk on the beach this afternoon was magical. In the back of my mind there is a lingering thought, “I wonder if I would have had the same experience if I hadn’t “declared” this as my REWARD!”

 What are you doing today to celebrate your success?  Comment below — I’d love to hear!

How To Get EVERYTHING You Want!

Almost 10 years ago, the book and movie The Secret was an overnight success. The Secret is based on the Law of Attraction and claims that positive thinking can create life-changing results. Whether we realize it or not – we have all been using The Law of Attraction to get what we have in our lives today.

In a recent Blog Post (Halfway), I mentioned the system that I use to design my ideal life. I want to share that with you today.

Step 1 – Get clarity on where you are NOW.

We are going to take a quick inventory on the important areas of your life. With this, we can establish a baseline, with no judgment.

We’re going to start with “The Wheel of Life”. Take a couple of moments and rank your wheel of life. For each of the 8 categories in the below wheel (you can change categories to priorities that are important for you), determine how happy you are with that area in your life. The center of the circle represents – 0, not happy at all – the outer circle represents 10 – this area of my life could not get any better. Imagine a scale from 0 to 10 on each line. Draw a line for each category depending on how you would rank from 0 through 10. Now look at your wheel, if this was a wheel on a car, how well would your car travel?

Step 2 – Get clarity on where you want to go

Now we are going to write the story of your future. Here are the rules, you are going to write about all the things you want and love – sky’s the limit. You cannot let your limiting beliefs or thoughts come into play (you know the chatter – I’d love to have that but there is no way as I don’t have a degree, I’m not smart enough, I’m not good enough, I don’t know the right people, live in the right place, etc. etc.).

We’re going to do a 1-3-5 Year Plan. Start with 5 Years and start writing Your Ideal Life – using all the categories from your Wheel of Life – NO LIMITATIONS. WHAT DO YOU WANT?

• Physical Environment – Where do you want to live in five years? What does your house look like, how is it decorated, how does it make you feel? Do you have a view? How does it make you fell?
• Friends & Family – Who are you spending time with? What activities are you doing? What are the sights, smells, sounds, and feelings? What are the characteristics about these people that you like? Do these relationships lift you up or bring you down?
• Money & Career — How much money do you have and what are you doing in your career? What contributions are you making? How it is touching/impacting your life? What is your “WHY” for making money and building wealth? Keep digging, keep asking WHY. A good friend of mine recently shared a saying I love, “Your WHY will make you CRY”. When you get clear on your WHY – you’ll be able to move mountains.
• Health – How is your health? What are you doing to take great care of yourself?
• Significant Other, Romance – what is your perfect relationships? How are you spending times together? Are you taking trips? What special things do you do for each other?
• Spirituality/Personal Growth – what are you doing to grow YOU? How are you filling your soul? Are you investing in your personal growth?
• Fun/Recreation –What are you doing for fun? Is it travel? Is it a hobby? What makes your heart sing?

Don’t sell yourself short – take some time with this process. After you’ve finished your 5 Year Plan, start on the 3 Year Plan. What needs to happen by Year 3 to make sure you’re on track for your 5 Year Plan. Then your 1 Year Plan – what needs to happen in 1 Year to be on track?

Most people don’t achieve what they want because they lack the clarity. Get crystal clear on what you want and it is amazing how the Universe steps up to help you achieve it.

Step 3 – Feel as though you already have it

There are a couple of things you can do for this step.

• Vision Board – Get a poster board and find pictures/sayings/words in magazines of all the things that you want. Paste these images onto your board and hang it in a place you’ll see it every day. Crystal clarity – turn your vision into something you can see.
• Visualization – Spend a few minutes each day in silent meditation. This is a great time to clear your mind, practice breathing and visualize all the things that you want. See yourself living and having your hearts desire, feel the excitement, gratitude, pride, happiness. If you’re busy – spend just 3 minutes each day.

Step 4 – Take action – baby steps every day

For your 1-year plan, start breaking the categories down into bite-size pieces of things you can do. When we look at the big picture – it can be overwhelming. I don’t know about you – but when I focus on everything to get to the end result – I get stuck. So we’re going to eat the elephant one bite at a time. Create realistic, easy things you can do everyday to get to your goals.

About 8 years ago I created a vision board that had a picture of a woman, sitting by this beautiful, serene pool. I no longer have that board – but I can see it still – the picture was in the bottom, right corner. She was reading a book. I was always drawn to that picture and just thought that “space” was heaven – so relaxing and inviting. At that time our backyard was filled with cedar trees – we really didn’t have a back yard; we had a forest. We knew we wanted our house to feel like a retreat, but at that time we didn’t have any clarity. The interesting thing when I created that vision board – the thought of putting a swimming pool in our backyard hadn’t even crossed my mind.

A year later, we decided to do some remodeling work on our house – and started thinking about a pool. It was all so effortless and just came together with ease. We had the vision, finding pictures to help us get clarity and our amazing construction team was able to put it together.

WHAT DO YOU WANT? For me, the only thing ever standing in my way is MYSELF.  Happy creating – I’d love to hear your creation stories!

Halfway

Today is July 2^nd, day 183 out of 365 for the year 2015. We are at the halfway point for this year – are you on track for your goals? Did you know that only 8% of people achieve their New Years resolutions? Why is that?

I have a theory – I think it’s “lack of clarity” and/or “lack of a big enough WHY”.

We all have the wonderful ability to manifest. Think back to a time when you were able to get exactly what you wanted. How did it happen?

In 1994 I was working for Yellow Freight System (a job I loved) in Overland Park, KS. They were moving my department to a new Inside Sales Center in Austin, TX. I was offered the opportunity to move and lead my department. It was a great honor and a great opportunity. But I had lived in the Kansas City area my entire life, all my friends and family were there and I’d never been to Texas. I looked at the map – and saw the abundance of Lakes in the area (at that time my biggest passion was water skiing), so I decided why not, what do I have to lose. With the excitement of the move – I made 3 goals, I wanted:

1. A house near the Lake
2. A brand new inboard ski boat
3. A hot tub

These were great goals for a 31 year old to have, and boy was I excited. Oh, I forgot to mention, I was most certainly on a tight budget. I told my Real Estate agent what I was looking for, and what my price range was (I think he thought I was crazy). He kept taking me to boring houses in the suburbs that were not even close to a Lake, and telling me there was just nothing available by the Lake in my price range. I kept driving out to the Lake “looking” (remember, 20 years ago the Internet wasn’t what it is today). I stumbled upon an area that reminded me of the cute cottages I used to vacation in when I was a kid at Lake of the Ozarks – I was in love! And I found a cottage for sale in my price range. I immediately called my Realtor to be able to see inside. He tried to talk me out of buying that house, but it was love at first sight – and it was 2 blocks from the Lake and a boat launch. I bought the house in November 1994 and still have it today (and I must say it’s appreciated nicely).

The hot tub was next – it was easy – I found a nice used hot tub that was just perfect. Lastly was the ski boat – all of my friends in Missouri had Ski Nautiques, so naturally that’s what I wanted. I couldn’t find anything in the price range I needed, but I didn’t give up. I’d met with all the boat dealerships in Austin; they all knew exactly what I was looking for. In the spring of 1995 I got a call from Boat Town, they had a brand new 1994 MasterCraft they had bought from a foreclosed dealership – it was beautiful, and in my price range and I jumped on it. Within 6 months I had accomplished my goals and was having a wonderful time living in Austin. And the best part – it was all so easy!

I didn’t know it at the time, but I was practicing the Laws of Manifestation.

• Clear vision
• Visualizing daily with feeling
• Massive action
• Open to what the Universe brought to me

I needed this reminder today, so I thought I’d share. I’m sitting, getting clarity on what I want to accomplish for the rest of 2015 and beyond. In a future post, I’ll share the method that I now use.

We’re at the halfway mark for 2015, lots of time to make dreams come true. On December 31^st, what do you want to be able to look back and say, “Yes, I did that!”?

About

About.

via About.

Letting Go

I guess I was destined for a career in sales. You know the saying, “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”. My 84 year-old Dad has been in the Safety Equipment industry most of his life, and today he is still selling, still getting out calling on customers, and still excited to get every sale.

I’ve been blessed and fortunate in my career – working with great people, working for great companies – and I was happy and loved what I was doing for the longest time. Something started shifting for me though. If I had to pinpoint it to a single event, I think I would have to say around 2006 reading Robert Kiyosaki’s book, “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” started planting the seeds of desire to take control of my work life, my future.   Truth be told I was an “employee” – trading my time for money. The great thing about sales is you do have the ability to generate a nice upside when you are successful, nevertheless, I had a job – and I wanted more, I wanted Freedom. I wanted to feel like my work mattered, that it served a bigger purpose.

I grew up with “the Poor Dad”. I was told go to school, get a good job, work hard, stay with the same company until you retire and you will be successful.   In my parents generation this seemed to “work”. For me I felt like the hamster on the wheel – running faster and faster and unable to get off.

A lot has happened since 2006 in my life – 3 jobs, 8 significant deaths in my family, lots of personal growth opportunities, work successes and failures, and more insights, oh and did I mention I turned 50? I had made a decision that 2015 would be the year I’d start my own business. I was still fearful of leaving my job. The stars aligned though – and June 15^th was day 1 on this new journey.

My partner and I sat down and did the assessment on making the move – what are the advantages and disadvantages? The advantages list was huge, filled with opportunity and excitement. The disadvantages list only had a couple of items on it – one of course was “it won’t work out”.   This short list was all fear based, and the worse case scenario would be I’d have to get another job. I’m choosing opportunity and excitement. For the next year I’m taking the leap of faith and building a business. I’ll be blogging about my journey, process, and insights along the way.

I’ll end with a couple of questions – Are you happy with your work life? If not – what’s holding you back?

Rich Dad Poor Dad: What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!