True Balance Life Coaching

Happy New Year!

This is the the time of year when life coaches and personal development bloggers have a field day sharing tips and ideas about how to strut your stuff and live your best life. With the new year comes a clean slate. A blank page.  The chance to begin again.

If you are ready to improve the quality of your life, chances are you will begin to make changes in January. With transition comes the comfortable pull of ‘the way things have always been’. This force is strong and can often overpower newly minted resolutions before they have a chance to germinate.

I choose to live in a resolution free zone.

I prefer to evolve and improve my life with incremental steps toward profound change. Reflecting on my successes and failures in 2011 helped define my personal intentions for the new year. While I have lofty intentions and enormous dreams, I expect occasional setbacks. I believe you can correct your course of action and begin again at any time. Falling off the wagon does not mean you’ve failed.

If you are ready to make some changes, check in with how you feel about the following areas of your life to determine which area needs the most attention.

• Relationships
• Health and Wellness
• Career and Business
• Finances
• Spirituality

When I look at each area of my life I see that improving my health and well being is most important. And while I improved my nutrition in 2011 with whole foods, super foods and healthy tonics, I let my active yoga practice and physical activity falter. This is not a new experience. I’ve played tug of war prioritizing regular exercise  for many years.

Currently, I am marveling at the increased size of my Buddha belly. When the waistband of my favorite yoga pants began rolling off my waist,  it was time to get moving again. Excuses,  self-sabotage and getting away from the ritual of moving my body each day lead me here. Can you relate?

Here’s what I know. When I regularly move my body,  I am a much happier and healthier version of me.  The rituals that lead me back to this place of out-of -shapeness must be altered. I know how great I feel after practicing yoga, taking a brisk walk or going a few rounds with my heavy bag. I plan to get my ass out of my comfy chair more often in 2012. I’ve created a new ritual that will support my success. And when I inevitably fall off the wagon, I will dust myself off and get back on again.

Self Improvement begins with clear and focused action.

• Identify what you wish to change
• Get real about where you are you right now
• Identify where you want to go from here
• Create a new daily ritual to get you from where you are now to where you want to be.

Another thought about Personal Intentions….

Brilliant entrepreneur and marketer, Chris Brogan recommends contemplating and claiming three meaningful words that represent your intentions for the new year. I love this approach. When you identify your three words they become guideposts to help you stay on course with your personal evolution.

My Three words are:  Simplify – Practice – Generosity

This year I plan to simplify my life by letting go of the past. I plan to practice what I preach and move my body. I intend to be extremely generous with everyone I have the good fortune of sharing my time with.

My young daughter proclaimed her three words (fun, surprises and dominance) while standing on top a giant mound of snow.  You know what they say about apples…

• What area of your life needs the most attention right now? What are you going to do about it?

• What three words will you choose to represent your personal evolution in 2012?

“Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it.” -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Have you ever found yourself in awe of another human being who seems to have it all? These are the people who show up full of vitality, creative magnetism and are without question, on top of their game.

I experienced this awe-inspired feeling when I discovered Carrie Wilkerson, AKA The Barefoot Executive. I follow Carrie on twitter and Facebook and occasionally watch her videos etc. And you know what? I’ve found that Carrie is a rock star and a self-proclaimed overnight success – 10 years later! She continues to hone her craft daily and work her butt off while raising a young family. She is an incredible role model for women entrepreneurs.

I could share more about this extraordinary woman, but this is not the intent of the post. My intention is to share the value of incremental actions over a period of time that will lead you to what you define as a better place. Carrie is on example of a successful entrepreneur who knows the magic of incremental change.

Once you express an interest in making a significant change and set your intention, it’s time for exploration and support.

When I decided to leave the high-profile corporate advertising sales world, I didn’t simply roll out of bed  one day and land my entrepreneurial footing. I had to explore all of the possibilities. The incremental actions that led to my transformation included:

• Getting clear about my intention
• Exploring and enrolling in a coaching certification program
• Studying great coaches like: Thomas Leonard and Martha Beck
• Choosing the type of clients I wanted to play with
• Choosing the type of groups I wanted to get in front of
• Hiring the right mentor coach for coaching, speaking and writing

More than five years later, I continue to make incremental actions. Like the sands in an hour glass. Every grain of sand adds up. Every step matters.

As a student of the school of experiential learning, I have had my share of failure. I’ve struggled on occasion with fear and uncertainty. The good news is, I  always find someone who can support me with what I want to accomplish when I need it most. And you can too.

When I decided to write Life on Your Terms, I made the choice to become involved with a publishing group who were compiling a guidebook for women titled: Wake up Women BE: Happy, Healthy and Wealthy. For a minimal investment, I became a contributing author in my first book which later became a best seller for women. During this time, I learned how to create a book marketing platform and devoured several classes designed to effectively flaunt my offering.  I later used the knowledge I’d gained from my involvement with Wake up Women and experienced a wildly successful launch for Life on Your Terms…

I share this example with you to illustrate how thoughtful choices and focused training can lead to significant rewards in your new ventures.  You can do anything you set your mind to doing with clear intention, incremental action, education, training and supportive mentors and coaches.

Get to it!

Learn more about Carrie Wilkerson HERE.

“True love doesn’t have a happy ending, because true love never ends. Letting go is one way of saying I love you.”

On Letting Go …

Some of  my life experiences this year have been excellent teachings about the art of letting go. In the last 7 months I let go of one of my closest friends, said farewell to one of my biggest limiting beliefs, and said “a holding back the tears” goodbye to my young daughter as she skipped off for two weeks of equestrian camp and 14 nights away from home.

Letting go of the closest friendship outside of my marriage was a shock to my way of life. How could this be? I had so many unanswered questions. I was hurt. I was angry. I was in denial. Thanks to the advice of a good friend, I’ve learned to be with the range of emotions and have stopped trying to figure out why our friendship was kicked to the curb. I will always have fond memories. I now choose to move on without flogging myself over what may have happened. Even though the friendship dissolved, I love and accept myself completely.

Leaving behind limiting beliefs began by paying close attention to my language. I was letting myself off the hook on some big projects with potential for business growth.  I was making excuses. Often hearing myself complain: “I’ll never finish this project because I don’t have the support I need to get it done”. During a coaching session with my business strategist it dawned on me that I simply had to get clear about what I really needed help with. It was time for some divine intervention. Within a matter of days I’d finally found the support person I was looking for.

When my husband and I dropped off our daughter at summer camp for two weeks, I realized in the moment that it was the last time I would be in the presence of this incredible version of my little girl. I was thrilled about her coming adventure, but sad to know she would be coming home a different interpretation of her young self. I cried almost all the way back home. My hope is she will return safely with grand stories of her adventure and will have made some lasting friendships. As hard as it was to let go, I know this time away from Mom and Dad will be healthy for her.  I can now look forward to meeting my daughter all over again when she returns back home.

Each experience of letting go flooded me with a stunning range of emotions. Even when the moments sucked out loud, I sat with my emotions and eventually let the painful feelings slip away. It was time to let go of the tether and float back into the skies of my glorious, imperfect life.

Here are a few of the things I’ve learned about letting go that I hope you will find supportive:

• Allow yourself to feel what you feel without judgement.
• Write down your thoughts and feelings in a journal.
• Create some time to be alone and mourn your loss. No matter how great or small.
• Plan a private good bye party and wish what-once-was a fond farewell to make room for new beginnings.
• Talk to a trusted friend, coach or counselor.

“We need in love to practice only this: letting each other go. For holding on comes easily–we do not need to learn it.” – Rainer Maria Rilke

When you realize that letting go is a natural part of life, you can begin to eliminate long-term suffering. Allow yourself to feel the way you feel. Then, I invite you to move forward with grace. You really are stronger than you can imagine. You deserve to love and accept yourself completely.