Fuel in engines is critical. If you put the wrong fuel in, it creates....complications.
The higher the performance or specialized engine, the more critical specific kinds of fuel are.
You are that engine. Your inner motivation has been incredibly versatile. Multifuel. A hybrid.
But, just because you CAN run on various fuels doesn't mean that's what your inner circuitry is really thirsting for.
How to Exceed Limits as a Core Practice
It's a popular opinion that you can stay in your strengths, play to your preferences, and still have everything you want. I haven't found that opinion to be true. It's a nice fairy tale, though, and works nicely with our human tendencies to stay mostly the same and keep doing more of what we are doing (because it's familiar and new feels...." bad," "risky," or even "not aligned" at the start).
If you want to do something you've yet to do, it'll require you to become someone you have yet to be.
When attempting something new, only playing to your strengths and preferences will eventually become your liability.
Read morePart Three: Gratitude as Embodied Qualitative Presence
The next portion, and other 50%, of gratitude, is cultivating relaxed awareness. It is this aspect that I believe explains why gratitude finds so many of us when we are in natural settings. If we take away the mental aspect and just look at what is happening in the body we will notice that we are usually more relaxed in our physical stance. We have dropped tension from our faces, jaw, and shoulders. And because of that drop in physical tension, we open the fuller range of our sensory experience. We smell and know that we are smelling. We hear and know that we are hearing. We feel the air, we taste. We are physically experiencing our environment.
Read moreGratitude as Focus
Let’s cover some focus basics. First, many times you see what you are anticipating seeing. You feel what you are anticipating feeling. So, if you are focused on “hard” or “painful” going into an experience, that judgment will color your experience of it. Second, you can shift your focus at will. You can zoom in, zoom out and can bounce your focus to see different facets (and meanings) of a situation. You can do this proactively, in the moment, and upon reflection. And last, focus is directly related to the mental meaning we make of a situation.
Have you ever experienced something that you deemed “bad” in the moment, but later with some time and hindsight you also realized also led to some “good”?
Read moreInvoking Gratitude as a Force of Nature -- Part One
I don’t know about you, but sometimes, the way I experienced gratitude in the past seemed more like a mental list of what I should be emotionally obligated to feel “happy about,” but truthfully didn’t. What I’ve learned since is that forced toleration or reluctant acceptance is a cheap knock-off of the real vibrancy of wild force and connectivity of the real thing.
Gratitude is not something you do “to yourself” or “work harder to have.” It’s an energy you allow yourself to receive. It naturally comes to you when you are in the inner stance to receive it. It’s positional.
Read moreOn Navigating Precarious Positions in Entrepreneurship
I found myself navigating mountain roads in snow and ice this morning—the kind of icy road with a seductive layer of fluff masking an ice-coated pavement underneath. Add curves and drop-offs with a minuscule margin for error, and you have a recipe for tension and danger. I felt like everyone was heading away from the storm, and I was heading straight for it. It wasn’t a position I particularly wanted to be in, but here we were…
Read moreWhat Death Can Teach Us about Vision, our Resistance and the Call of Truth
“I thought I was learning how to live when actually I was learning how to die.” – da Vinci
I grew up visiting cemeteries---especially the historical ones. As strange as that sounds, it also profoundly impacted my perspective on life
Why? Death has a way of cutting through the distraction and noise to the heart of things. It wakes us up to the truth.
Read moreTransmission from the Trail
From one edge-walker to another, remember…
Integrity Checks and Skeletons
Thoughts on Being the Real Deal
What does authenticity really mean to you?
What if you had nothing to hide? Especially professionally. Feel the truth and power reverberating through that admission.
You walk the walk. You walk your talk.
You live your values. You have already brought Love to your flaws. You practice what you advocate for.
You are “the real deal.” There is a simple, quiet, humble confidence to this admission. You don’t have to be perfect—it’s not about perfection.
It means that you are purposeful, dedicated, and off the sidelines and on the field.
Read moreHow Do You Answer "What Do You Do?"
Let’s play a game I like doing with my clients….
Pretend we are at a professional get-together.
You’ve got your little plate of pretzels and hummus and obligatory drink in hand. It’s a pretty light atmosphere and people are mingling around making small talk.
Someone you’ve seen but never really met approaches you.
As they smile and say hello….after the “greeting and names” bit you know the question that comes next.
“What do you do?”
How do YOU feel about being asked that question?
Most of the people I work with dread that question.
I’ve noticed a few different responses in people I’ve played this with over the years….
Read moreLearning to Walk with Fear
Fear can indicate that you are up to something in your life that requires you to grow.
And how MUCH we experience fear is a sliding scale.
Ideally, you want fear to activate you to engage and expand intelligently.
To do that, you’ve got to be uncomfortable enough that you are invested and paying attention. But, you also can’t be so terrified that you are overly reactive or shut down.
Somewhere between.
And that “between” will be different for all of us. And you can further develop your “in-between” as an activation edge. That’s expansive growth ( think stretching!).
For our purpose today, I want to share a few core principles that can help you stop being bullied and backed into a corner by your fear and instead step into being a leader in your own life and more significant contribution.
It May Not Be Your "Drive".....
I think it’s safe to say in our results-oriented culture, we’ve heard or experienced the cautionary tale of the cost of chronically “Doing More”. Most of the time in the personal development space is the alternative to "Be More” but even that can turn into a never ending hamster wheel of exhausted self-improvement.
It’s tempting to fault our ambition or drive as the problem. We tell ourselves that “Maybe we shouldn’t be so driven, we shouldn’t go for great, we should just settle down and appreciate what we have.” But I’m curious. Where did we start to believe that being driven and being content can’t co-exist?
Read moreIs there a place where you are both profoundly grateful for everything you have and are experiencing AND ALSO you are insatiably curious about what’s around the next bend?
A Practice to Reconnect with Resilience
Facing the unknown is hard. It’s primal. It reminds us that we aren’t in control of the microcosm or macrocosm of our lives, no matter how much we might think we are. And, it’s in the unknown where we discover our truth, our strength, and our potential to rise. Resilience isn’t the ability to “make it through” something. Resilience is the choice to purposefully engage with what shows up.
Here’s a question process that I’ve found helpful over the years to re-center when it might be easier to spiral.
Read moreWhen Personal Growth Turns Toxic
We are “supposed” to be interested in personal growth. Aren’t we-- as responsible humans-- supposed to want to pursue optimization, potential, and our “next level”?
Is there ever a time when personal growth is toxic and making us sick?
Read moreA Solid Way to Deal with Imposter Syndrome
Imposter Syndrome is that phenomenon where, when someone is up to something, they have moments where they feel like a fake. It’s when their inner voice is taunting them, “what makes you think you are qualified?” “What if you actually can’t do that?”
Whether you are puffing up (and feel fake/insecure) or playing small (and then feeling fake/resentful)—TRUTH will be your vehicle out.
Developing the capacity to truly step in and own who they are and what they can do is incredibly important so that they can actually spread their message and make the difference they know is in them to make.
Read moreHow Do You Define Success?
True success cannot be separated from the soul.
One life-giving concept I learned years ago was that of “Strong Spine, Open Heart.” That phrase became both a mantra and a framework for aligned actions. That phrase helped me see where I was disconnected and what was needed next.
May this one simple example help you do the same.
Read moreMaking a True Aligned Choice
How many of you have struggled over trying to determine what is the right choice to make?
I know I have! Historically, I could spend WAY more time and energy on a choice than I ever needed to—and it’s one of the primary ways we get in our own way as heart-led leaders and women in business.
As our impact or business grows, we have this sense of responsibility that even MORE people are affected by our choices. This can tailspin us into a hurricane of trying to figure out what’s the best option.
It’s valuable to understand and develop a plan for how you’ll make decisions, as decisiveness is an important quality for a leader.
Read moreKnowing how you start and stay in ACTION
When it comes to getting things done, I’ve observed two distinct patterns we fall into. You may consistently stick to one, or you float between the two depending on the context. But knowing where you start, and where your patterns lie, gives you an edge when it comes to skillfully moving forward.
Read moreNatural Law of Flow and Fall and How it Relates to Success
Notice for every inhale, there is naturally an exhale. For every exhale, an inhale.
Another way to say this would be to stay there is a high and a low to everything.
An uplift and a downfall. As such, in life and business, there is a cycle flowing and falling.
This Flow-Fall Cycle is a natural law – we can fight it, or we can accept it and use it.
I favor the last option.
Now, let’s apply this concept to something trending in soul-centered life and business.
Read moreThe Ultimate Distraction to Creating Success that Few Address
When we see our business as a vehicle to creating a difference in the world, it’s easy to entangle running that business and its successes/struggles with our own personal journey of becoming whole. It’s meant to be so. But when that intertwining becomes more tangled up and trapped that’s when things healthy progress comes to a halt.
One of the biggest places of entanglement between the two from my experience is within our own thoughts and feelings … we are ENAMORED with them.
They are the ultimate distraction on the path to finding our purpose here.
Read more