"Unless a tree has borne blossoms in spring, you will vainly look for fruit on it in autumn."
– Walter Scott
What in you longs to blossom now? Even though many of us choose to set goals and make resolutions in January, that timing actually contradicts nature – human nature and Mother Nature . . .
As Nature herself knows, attempting new growth in the dead of winter makes for a very short life span! Perhaps explaining the reality of so many new year's resolutions never taking hold?!
Trees and flowers know better to wait for warmth to blossom. And so we as human have this same blossoming opportunity now – when the air is cool and the sun is warm and we feel hope deep inside our limbs!
So, regardless of what did or didn't happen with your new year's resolutions, what longs to blossom in you now? Can you sense more vibrant health inside you? Do you know greater abundance in your business? Are you feeling excited about new love blossoming? Is a new project waiting to blossom? New collaborations? Deeper friendships? New fun and adventure? Spiritual awakening? Travel to new places?
Let's use this wonderful, fresh, spring energy to give voice and commitment to what longs to blossom from deep within us . . . looking forward to a wonderful autumn harvest because we're taking the time now to tend the inspiration of new growth . . .
Feel free to post your spring blossoming urges in the comments below.
This week two of my clients discovered huge "shoulds" around being different than who they are.
"I did great last week when I was home every night. I love being home and not having to go out. This week several of my friends want to hang out. I should go out with them, but I’d rather be home." As we talked, I realized that my introverted client felt she had to be more like her extroverted friends.
"My cousin lost weight on Weight Watchers. My husband follows a high-protein diet and it works great for him. I’ve tried both several times and I don’t lose weight. What am I doing wrong?" As my client spoke, I heard that she hadn’t found her natural way to lose weight. She was slowing her progress to discovering her way by thinking that her cousin’s or her husband’s way should be her way.
Finding our own way is not as mysterious as we might initially think. Does it energize and excite you? Does it feel good to you? Right for you? That is your way! No matter how different it is from what those around you are up to.
Does it drain you? Feel like a burden? Do you hear (actually or implied) "I should?" That is not your way!
The specificity of you is never, ever to be repeated. If you really, really knew that, how might you shift the way you do your life?
If you’d like more specifics and activities around this wonderful topic of being more you, then grab your copy of my book: Thriving Work: A Journey to Your Best Self.
And as always, I invite you to share your responses and experiences in the Comments section below.
To noticing when you aren’t allowing you to be you and then consciously choosing more of you . . .
What do you long to create this year? In the continuous cycle of giving and receiving, what would you love to receive?
This year, instead of running “out there” to “get” or instead of sitting right where you are now, waiting to “attract,” I’d love to offer you something far more sustainable and fulfilling.
Consider for a moment the energetic difference between getting, attracting and creating.
What does each feel like?
If you are anything like me and my private coaching clients, you may find getting to be exhausting and attracting to be frustrating or some variation of each.
What makes creating truly different?
While you are not in charge of what you can get or what you can attract, you are always in charge of what you create!
Do you want to create or re-create your coaching business? Good. Then coach every day and ask people to pay you. Do you see the difference between that and trying to get clients or waiting for clients to show up?
It’s subtle and it changes everything.
Do you want to finally write your book this year? Great. Then write four pages every day. Can you sense the difference between that and buying a book-writing system or hoping you’ll have the time to write?
Creating holds you accountable. Receiving naturally follows creating. As you create your coaching business, you receive clients, income and fulfillment. As you write your book, you receive your own body of work, new opportunities and fulfillment. As you create, you begin to realize your infinite capacity to create.
What were you born to create?
If you are ready to immerse yourself in the creation process and would love an amazing coaching partnership in that endeavor, I will have an opening for a new client the end of January and another the end of February.
If you have an inkling that you would love to create a partnership with me as your coach, reply to this email and we’ll schedule some time for us to explore that.
In December, I created play in two areas: 21 intuitive paintings in 21 days and tremendous learning around StrengthsFinder™ from an advanced training. I then took two weeks off to integrate. I really stretched myself and feel so renewed and invigorated, ready to create more!
To our delicious creating and receiving!
Ann
P.S. Speaking of delicious creating, My client, Emma Skala, proprietress of The Shoppe here in Denver creates a dozen new cupcake flavors every single month! My favorite this month: French Toast. She told me she could create new cupcakes every month for the next 20 years!!! Now that’s creating.
She is featured this week on the Cooking Channel’s “Unique Sweets” the Wild West Sweets episode, first airing at 10:30 pm ET. How’s that for creating?!?
https://www.facebook.com/pages/TheShoppe/214370898579113?ref=ts&fref=ts
I love Winter Solstice. I love the darkness, the quiet, the cold, the hibernation. I realize I may be in the minority. I know that many feel relieved when this day arrives because it means tomorrow there will be a bit more light. I love more light also. Yet, what I seem to respond to this time of year involves my yearning for spaciousness and solitude.
I love a heavy snow because it stops activity for awhile.
And this year I choose to go to San Diego for an advance StrengthsFinder training and to visit my sister and her family in San Diego and my other sister and her family in Palm Springs. I just got back two days ago.
I created my trip. And, I had to stay very aware to experience any space, solitude and quiet in those settings! Several times I had to laugh at myself because hibernation was nowhere to be found!
And, immediately upon returning home, several clients had overwhelming situations and I had to play catch up.
I have found this practice of staying aware to experience space, solitude and quiet in busy and chaotic situations serves me beautifully. I am driving slower. Eating healthier. Taking more pictures. Meditating for 10 seconds at a time. Getting up earlier. Driving without the radio or phone calls. And, as I mentioned in the last Sacred Space Notebook, creating a painting daily in 21 minutes or less.
Today I’d love to share with you my painting that depicts fours ways to show nothing. I loved the assignment, even though I don’t believe "nothing" exists.
This painting represents four ways I depicted nothing, yet when I look at it, I am drawn into a peaceful and comforting place . . .
I invite you to share your own responses and experiences in the Comments section below.
Happy Solstice. And, Happy New World.
Have you been squirming away from directly asking someone to become your client?
My private clients and coaching colleagues have told me many reasons for not asking. And yes, I used to use a couple of them myself!
- I don’t want to bother them.
- They’ll ask if they want to work with me.
- I don’t like to sell.
- I shouldn’t have to sell.
- They’ll ask when they’re ready.
All excuses of someone who isn’t committed.
When we are committed, we do what it takes.
Are you committed to serving this person in front of you?
Are you committed to your financially sustainable and abundant business? Or, are you trying to be committed without bringing cash in the door?
When you ask the person in front of you if they’d like to become a client, join your program or buy your product, you provide the delicious opportunity for them to commit. You have asked them for a clear “yes,” “no” or “here’s what I’m considering and here’s by when I will commit to yes or no.”
They may not yet be comfortable with committing. They may squirm. They may be in the process of getting comfortable with discomfort.
And, they may be thrilled that you asked so that they get to be in the process of committing - to a clear and true yes or no. The clarity and truth of commitment empowers the person who is willing to stand in that clarity and truth.
When you ask, you give the person in front of you a gift - the opportunity to truly self-empower with a clear and true yes or no. This is not something that is done often. For most of us, we move through our day making, receiving and accepting half-agreements, excuses, hopes, best guesses and uncommitted, empty promises.
When we commit, it feels entirely different inside us and to the people around us. Think of a time in your life when you knew you would do whatever it took to make something happen. Did it happen? Of course it did. Because you were committed.
Take a moment now to allow yourself to feel how that commitment, devotion and determination felt inside you. Imagine your work and life if you felt that way most of the time! You’d feel like a goddess, a wise woman, an avatar. Perhaps very accurate, indeed.
- From my new book, Thriving Work
As you are creating and discovering your thriving coaching business, where is your commitment?
Would you like to buy my book? :)
If you’d like support in committing to your coaching business and to your coaching clients, get a copy of my new book, Thriving Work: 90 days of daily practice for transforming you and your coaching, consulting or healing business.
http://www.annstrong.com/thriving-work-book/
To your thriving coaching business,
Ann
P.S. I invite you to share your thoughts and insights in the Comments section below.
In India, Ramananda said, there once was a sculptor commissioned to build a temple. As he approached a block of granite and began to chip away, the sculptor felt a strange resistance, as if the rock resented being poked and cut. The sculptor got spooked, and he moved to the next block of granite.
This second rock was more willing to be chipped and sculpted into the statue of a beautiful deity. When the sculptor was finished, he placed the granite on a high altar. He used the first block of granite as the stepping stone upon which pilgrims would stand when they made their offerings to the deity.
Later, Ramananda continued, the first stone complained to its friend, the carved stone. The first stone lamented its own destiny beneath the soiled feet of worshippers, while the other stone was now being revered and bathed in milk, honey, and rosewater. The second stone responded, “If you recall, you didn’t want to be touched, carved and chipped by the master.”
Excepted from Yoga Journal
“Once upon a Time”
By Dan Charnas
When my yoga teacher, Chris Anne, read this story to open a recent class, I felt a wave of relief run through my body as I realized that I DO want to be chipped and carved. And yet, sometimes I still resist. This sweet story reminds me to whole-heartedly say a resounding “yes” to that which chips and carves me.
Where in your life do you find yourself being chipped and carved? How much are you embracing or resisting?
ORDER YOUR COPY OF “THRIVING WORK” TODAY!!!
“Ann Strong hits the nail on the head with “Thriving Work.” I've long been a fan of her work and am thrilled that she's offering her expertise in this book! You can't help but be inspired by her words, and implementing her suggestions will make all the difference in your business."
– Jeannette Maw
Good Vibe Coach and Author of
“The Magic of Pray Rain Journaling”
“Thriving Work” serves as a guide and companion to moving beyond limiting beliefs, perspectives and habits to more consistently and consciously choosing to live and work from your naturally radiant self:
http://www.annstrong.com/thriving-work-book
I have been playing with an invisible cord of energy that draws me toward my short-term and long-term commitments. The cord consists of an empowering question that both my conscious and unconscious mind continue to answer: "What would it take to . . . ?"
For me right now, I'm asking, "What would it take for me to practice this same meditation for the next 40 days?" As I'm writing this I learn that Steve Jobs has died and I am called to ask, "What would it take for me to live and work more fully present in each moment?"
One of my clients is looking at, "What would it take for me have more fun with my team?" Another is asking, "What would it take for me to have a better relationship with my banker and money?" Another is playing with, "What would it take for my business to feel easier?"
What is your "What would it take . . . ?"
ORDER YOUR COPY OF "THRIVING WORK" TODAY!!!
"Ann Strong hits the nail on the head with "Thriving Work." I've long been a fan of her work and am thrilled that she's offering her expertise in this book! You can't help but be inspired by her words, and implementing her suggestions will make all the difference in your business."
– Jeannette Maw
Good Vibe Coach and Author of
"The Magic of Pray Rain Journaling"
"Thriving Work" serves as a guide and companion to moving beyond limiting beliefs, perspectives and habits to more consistently and consciously choosing to live and work from your naturally radiant self:
http://www.annstrong.com/thriving-work-book
During a LinkedIn discussion for business coaches who coach entrepreneurs, I came across the question: "What is the single most important skill for business owners?" 57 coaches had already answered the question with replies like focus, marketing skills, leadership, emotional intelligence and seizing opportunities.
Hmmm, I pondered, "Is there truly a single most important skill?" And then I realized what foundation is essential for every one of those 57 skills.
The most important "skill" for business owners:
A life-long commitment to peeling away all the limiting beliefs, perspectives and habits that get in the way of naturally growing your business from your full, radiant self.
The sunflower does not ask, "What is the most important skill I need for me to do my business here on the planet?" It simply does its business because it isn't encumbered with human beliefs, perspectives and habits that keep it from naturally growing into its best self.
The less limiting beliefs, perspectives and habits we have, the more we naturally focus, market, lead, play well with others and seize opportunities.
What daily practices do you engage in to consistently and consciously peel away all that stands between you and your natural brilliance?
The most important "skill" for you as a business owner involves whatever daily spiritual practice most supports you in peeling away the limiting beliefs, perspectives and habits stands between you and the best of you.
ORDER YOUR COPY OF "THRIVING WORK" TODAY!!!
"When it comes to working 'for' yourself, you need a realistic guide to working 'with' yourself. Ann Strong's book, "Thriving Work" provides spiritually-grounded practices to help us astonish ourselves and the world."
– Tama Kieves
Author of "This Time I Dance: Creating the Work You Love"
"Thriving Work" serves as a guide and companion to moving beyond limiting beliefs, perspectives and habits to more consistently and consciously choosing to live and work from your naturally radiant self:
http://www.annstrong.com/thriving-work-book
"Whether we are just starting our business or taking it to the next level, our human nature tends to cause us to doubt and/or second-guess ourselves. The most potent remedy is counter-intuitive. Instead of striving for "perfection," committing to imperfect vulnerability, expression and aliveness naturally evokes radiant clarity and confidence." *
Last week I watched a powerful TED Talk, a 20-minute video by Brene Brown, about whole-heartedness and vulnerability. I've since watched it again and haven't been able to get it out of my mind.
For those of us in the business of helping people create their best lives and best work, the most powerful thing we can do ourselves involves fully engaging in the messy process of creating our own best lives and work for ourselves, too. Which requires vulnerability. Which makes most of us squirm.
Take a deep breath, give yourself permission to squirm and gift yourself 20 minutes to watch this powerful video:
Brene Brown: The power of vulnerability
ORDER YOUR COPY OF "THRIVING WORK" TODAY!!!
"One part business coach, one part poetess, one part priestess, Ann Strong has given us a transcendent new type of business book. She guides the reader with a gentle hand and deep wisdom, and the powerful integration of practical business and spiritual insight."
– Suzi Pomerantz
Executive Coach and Author of "Seal the Deal"
Growing your coaching business is easier and harder than you ever imagined. Read "Thriving Work" so that you don't have to learn it all the hard way!
http://www.annstrong.com/thriving-work-book*Excerpted from my just released, "Thriving Work: 90 days of daily practice for transforming you and your coaching, consulting or healing business." Copyright 2011.
Today, as I pause for a moment to integrate the wonder of just having published a book, Thriving Work, I share this short, powerful meditation from the "Thrive" chapter with you:
FLOURISHING
Clear Mind.
Open Heart.
Strong Body.
Radiant Spirit.
Excerpted from my just released, "Thriving Work: 90 days of daily practice for transforming you and your coaching, consulting or healing business." Copyright 2011.
ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY!!!
"Thriving Work" serves as a guide and companion as we commit to our own transformation and partner with our clients in their transformations.
http://www.annstrong.com/thriving-work-book
