As I have been contemplating new products and programs I'd like to offer, I have found myself second myself, wanting to look good, fearing failure and generally resisisting change. Not much fun . . .
So, I paused to reflect and be with the fears and doubts so that I could move forward from a more centered place, from a place that is more of the best of me. During that reflection, I wrote this meditation / affirmative prayer to support my process.
I offer it to you now, too, so that it may offer you hope and direction as well!
Recipe for “Instant” Manifestation
Within every desire
is all that we need
to bring that desire to fruition.
As we are ready to surrender
our ego strong-hold on:
• What we think we know
• Needing to look good
• Old habits and patterns that no longer serve
• What we believe is “the way”
• Outdated identities that no longer fit
• Whatever demands we have . . .
And we open to the magic of:
• Being reborn in a moment
• Expressing vulnerability and humanness
• Loving all that is
• Accepting our good
• Flowing with change and transition
• Allowing ourselves to be all we are meant to be . . .
We are now ready in this moment
to bring our desire into reality. . .
In my Notes from the Universe, this morning, I read, "Very simply, Ann, the more that you accept responsibility for, the more power you have."
I had to read it twice. So, I have more power when I accept more responsibility? Yes, that feels true in my body and I had never thought of it like that before!
When I would like more clients, I don't passively wait for the Universe to deliver. Instead, I take responsibility. I set a clear intention and declare it to the Universe. Then, I clear my head of disempowering thoughts around attracting new clients. Then, I listen for inspired actions to reach out for those incoming clients. Then, I take those actions.
With full responsibility, I keep clearing my head of thoughts that don't serve my intention and I keep listening for and taking inspired actions until I have attracted as many new clients as I had desired. This whole process might take 20 minutes or a few months.
I realize as I'm pondering the connection between responsibility and power, sometimes I have heard me or one of my clients say, "It's out of my control. I can't make someone become a client."
Of course. True power is not arm-twisting or attempting to impose your will upon another.
Instead, it's about matching energy. One of the most empowering things I help clients with involves:
- Setting an intention for what they desire (in this case, attracting more clients).
- Clearing and continuing to clear disempowering thoughts that don't support that intention.
- Listening for inspired actions.
- Taking inspired actions.
- Repeating as necessary until the intention has come to fruition.
The easiest way for me to attract those new clients who would like help with this process: be actively engaged in the energy of this process, feel good about it, have fun with it, be in my power with it.
Probably the most clear way to see how this works: look at the opposite. If I think clients should just find me and I resent that they don't, if I expect someone else to send them to me, if I don't set an intention, allow my disempowering thoughts to flourish and don't listen for inspired action . . . what happens? Nothing good, right?
Business coaches, career coaches, life coaches: would you like to attract new clients right now? I would love to support you in that!
Check inside yourself to see if this inspired action fits for you: I'm offering a risk-free, no-cost, high-value coaching consultation for you to experience this! Sign up for yours today . . .
I just got back from the Career Management Alliance annual conference in San Antonio where I gave a presentation: Strong You, Strong Biz: YOU Are Your Most Powerful Business Attractor. I feel humbled and grateful.
Back in the fall when I agreed to this engagement, I felt excited. Excited to connect with my people – other self-employed coaches, in their cases, specifically career coaches. Excited to embark on a new adventure with my new business partner at the time – she would man the expo booth and I would give the talk and we’d both have a great time doing it.
Fast forward a few months to the day when I learn that the majority of the conference attendees aren’t self-employed and are in fact in the military helping military folks transition to civilian life and jobs. And to the day when my new business partner can suddenly no longer be my business partner for several personal reasons.
Then I start dreading the conference. What do I know to help these military folks? How am I suppose to do it all myself? The conference organizer reassures me that plenty self-employed coaches will come to my talk. I don’t have to re-structure it for the military. My sister offers me some tips on giving my talk and man-ing the booth myself.
Yet, I still have a bad attitude.
Just a few days before the conference, I wake up and realize, just like I wrote on a plaque I gave my grandma when I was 15, that “we are what we make ourselves.” In good coach-like style, I remake myself.
I embody my talk. I can feel in my bones how good it is. As I prepare all the expo materials, I feel grateful for the opportunity to serve in this way. I see the entire trip flowing smoothly, from the moment the shuttle drives picks me up from my front porch to the time another one drops me back on my porch two and a half days later. I set an intention to have a good time, give all I am there to give and connect with wonderful people. I set an income goal for all the new business that will come from this event.
And guess what happened!
It went exactly like my intention, only one better. Many people from the military came to my talk, too. And they got huge value, slightly different value than the self-employed folks, but great value, just the same. Two military ladies even told me I was “under-selling” myself to just offer my services to self-employed professionals, because they saw how I can help them, too. So we are going to talk . . . I see that income goal being met and then some!
And, the shuttle driver on the way home even dropped me off at my house first!
"Imagine that you could plug yourself into a socket that would tap into the electric current of the universe. Because source energy is indivisible and boundless, this would give you access to an unlimited supply of energy that only you could limit or stop its flow. Well, in fact, you are plugged in, and you are responsible for the level of flow you experience."
– Ernest Chu
From the book, Soul Currency
Oh what rich balm for my spirit as I realize I have been limiting my own flow recently! While meeting with my coach, Peleg, I heard myself telling him about the "burden" of all I have to do in my business right now. And, I was talking about things I love to do - like writing this blog, speaking, teaching.
Somehow playing on Twitter had become comparing myself to everyone on Twitter. I wasn't "doing enough," I wasn't offering anything new, I was just adding to the noise.
Don't go down that road. It doesn't go anywhere any of us want to go!
By synching up with this comparison monster, what I really did: cut myself off from my flow, from source, from my spiritual clarity, from the deep knowing of the intrinsic value of my unique contribution.
With this realization, I am BACK! Back to me, back to my flow, back to my source, back in my own power, without concern for how I "measure up."
Thank God! Thank you, Peleg. Thank you, Ernest. Thank you, Ann.
While listening to my daily dose of Michael Beckwith earlier, I realized, once again, that my positive mental attitude is a choice. Maybe not always an easy choice, yet and still: a choice.
In this moment when I think I have too much to do, do I chose the presence or absence of a positive mental attitude?
Do I choose to be present with myself, these ideas I'm sharing with you, the sun streaming into my office and my fingers on the keyboard? Or, do I choose to be absent from this glorious moment, lost inside a swirl of habitual thoughts and familiar anxiety?
Do I choose the positive mental attitude that all is well when I am present or do I choose to be absent and feel lost?
What about you?
Are you willing to give yourself the precious gift of your positive mental attitude in this present moment?
You say you want to, but you can't right now because you don't have enough money? Or enough health? Or enough time?
Or, you'll have a positive mental attitude after you lose some weight? Or get a new client? Or a new lover?
Okay, I hear you.
And, in the meantime, would you be willing to give yourself one precious minute right now?
Would you be willing to take a great big, deep breath right into the full presence of your positive mental attitude? Would you be willing to be with you for this moment? Would you be willing to notice that, indeed, all is well right now? Would you be willing to feel the unseen support that holds you in this moment?
Excellent!
And guess what?! In that one minute, you achieved at least two of your goals - you lightened up and received the new lover that is you!
I'd love to hear about any other goals you achieved . . .
Recently a client asked me, “what is the opposite of fear?” I used to think it was love. While I still believe that’s part of the answer, the meaty answer that gives us something to work with is: trust.
Let’s try it on.
If I fear my neighbor is going to make my life miserable, I’m not trusting myself to handle the situation. If I trust I can resolve an issue with him, let go of the issue or even move to a better place for me, then I have nothing to fear.
If I fear the Earth is getting too hot, and I hate heat and I have no where to go, then I don’t trust that God never gives me more than I can handle or my ability to keep myself cool or acclimate to heat.
If I fear I won't have enough clients next month or next year, I have the opportunity to trust my ability to attract clients, to reach out to new potential clients and to serve from my heart. I also need to trust that regardless of how many clients I have at any given moment, I am creative, resourceful and whole and I have an entire Universe on my side conspiring for my good!
If I fear my memory isn't good enough to keep track of all that's important, I'm not trusting the inherent messiness of life. I have the opportunity to trust I'll remember what I need or have a way to retrieve something when I need it.
If I fear I won't ever meet my beloved sweetheart / life partner, I have the opportunity to trust myself to first be in great relationship with myself and my friends and loved ones. Then, I have the opportunity to follow my intuition about inspired action as to when or where I might meet him. And, I get to trust the process and God in the process.
I realize that in every one of these situations, I have many "opportunities" to trust. Because of my life-long commitment to my own spiritual growth and spiritual coach training, I'm going to take on these opportunities as sacred callings. It's too easy to let opportunities slip by. Of course, my life becomes so much richer and more fulfilling the more I answer a sacred calling, yet sometimes it seems easier not to answer. Today, I commit/recommit to answering!
What about you? Where in your own life is trust the antidote to fear? I’d love to hear from you.
Today is day 21 of my 21-day commitment to focusing on strengthening my spiritual foundation and sharing my process with you.
The time has flown by.
And, at the same time, I feel like I've always been in this process of strengthening my spiritual foundation. What that tells me: yes, I would love this to be a natural, daily part of my life!
For the last couple of days, I've gotten back to a practice that I used daily years ago. The original idea sprung from Julia Cameron's morning pages and I adapted the process to make it my own.
Each morning before I started my day, I would write long-hand two or three pages of whatever came to mind. I started with writing all the ideas in my head that weren't serving me. I got them out of my head and onto the paper.
Then, somewhere in about the middle of the writing, ideas would spring to mind. Ideas for how to best do my day that day and ideas for projects down the road.
Basically, I cleared the junk out of my head and then the good stuff had some space in which to flow. And, I loved having a record of the great ideas. I then transfered them from those pages to wherever they best fit in my planner and I got rid of the pages.
All that remained were ideas that could serve. And, often by the end of the day one or more of those fresh ideas had already been implemented. How cool is that?
