Posts Tagged ‘personal development’
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Tipping points
I went to yoga class yesterday. I am a new student to this ancient practice and so I accept, with grace and humility,
that my body cannot yet do what some of the students in class are capable of.
This is one of the many blessings of learning to love me: I accept that I make mistakes, I fail, and fall,
forward (sometimes in the same moment.)
If you saw me at yoga you would know what I mean.
The teachers are kind and patient and always tell us to do what we feel our bodies are capable of, no less and no more.
We were working on a few balance practices yesterday.
I am bad at balance, always have been.
I started wearing glasses before I was two and I know the balance issues are somehow related to that.
I have always told myself there are some things I cannot do because I have balance issues, skiing for example is out, as
is walking on a tightrope and flipping on a trampoline.
So when the instructor gave us a balance pose to practice, first with our eyes open and then with
our eyes closed, my mind went immediately to “ Oh I can’t do that, I have balance issues” even before I tried my
mind had made it up that I would not succeed.
The teacher went on to explain why it was important to persist.
She explained that, if you close your eyes, the brain is forced to fire up new neurons to make this happen.
This was especially important to know for the “more mature women” in the class because it would prevent falls.
Apparently just practicing a minute a day will begin to improve the balance.
Wow! I can do that. I can spend a minute a day rewiring my brain.
Here is my take away from that class. The paradox between spending just a few minutes a day practising
my balance to improve my future health is akin to taking a few moments each day to practice personal
balance to improve my mental health.
Both are related to the other, both are essential.
So, now that I am close to done here, I am going to pour myself a cup of hot tea
and turn my brain off. Who knows, I might even spend a minute or two standing on one foot with my eyes closed.
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Throw out the cranberry sauce? Are you crazy it’s Christmas!
Seriously can you imagine if somebody decided that this Christmas there would
not be cranberry sauce with the turkey? Even if it’s the canned stuff that’s
more like jelly than cranberries it’s the tradition that is important right? If
you’re like my family you have always had turkey with cranberry sauce at
Christmas and probably Thanksgiving too. It’s just what we do: I’ve never really
thought about it when I started to prepare my own festive meals until one of my
children balked at the idea of cranberries and turkey. Well mostly they balked
at the thought of eating turkey but the cranberries didn’t thrill them
either.
Here’s how the conversation went:
Me: “What do you mean you don’t want cranberries with the turkey? Wait you
don’t want turkey either?”Child: “Mom you know I’m vegetarian I don’t eat turkey and the cranberries
are not organic and they’re full of sugar. I’m not putting that into my
body.”Me: “But we’ve always had cranberries. My mom served it to us: all of our
relatives serve cranberries with turkey.”Child: “I know mom but I don’t want any..no offence but it’s not my tradition
it’s your’s.”Me: “But what’s mine is your’s….it’s always been that way…” voice
trailing off as I begin to question the whole concept of doing something “just
because.”Child: “Mom I’m not having any. You can serve it if you want but I’m not
having any..”Me: ” Ok…ok I get it you don’t want it…”
End of conversation but most certainly not the end of the thought process for
me. What did it mean to have traditions and why do we follow them? Is it simply
something we do because that’s the way it’s always been done?That thought led to think about money and traditions and here’s what I’ve
come up with .In my family the tradition was that money was hard to come by: money was
finite: money was something to be taken very seriously: money meant control and
a lack of money meant no control: money was to be saved for a rainy day…money
was a struggle that would never get easier.You know what? I’m with my kids on this one: I’m throwing out the cranberry
sauce and the money traditions this year! I’m done with struggle and fear and
scraping by and making do….What about you? Do you have any money traditions
that you’re holding onto just because that’s the way it’s always been?Speaking of traditions enjoy this piece from Time…
Now go be fearless.
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What’s driving you nuts? It might be worth a million bucks.
Million dollar business ideas have no boundaries, age limits, race restrictions, time lines, or economic class. They can occur when you least expect them.
For psychologist Roger Adams, it occurred during a midlife crisis and divorce. For management consultant Mercia Tapping, it happened after a 10-year battle with allergies and the search for a cure. Ruta Fox was a freelancer running out of work when she said “Ah” to her “Aha” moment. Searching for the million dollar business idea is less a product of business planning and market research and more born from observation and frustration.
The Aha! Effect
It’s a flash of quick insight leading to an obvious answer, the proverbial light bulb moment, or eureka event. When it happens, your life will never be the same.
Roger Adams was burnt out and hated his job. On vacation in Huntington Beach, Roger was reminded of “a happier time watching the kids, working at the roller rink, and growing up as a kid around skating. Seeing kids going by on their in lines and skate boards and I thought there has got to be something new out there,” reflects Adams.
It was then the proverbial light bulb over the head occurred. “I got this idea for a shoe you could walk and roll on,” says Adams. He headed for the garage and started cutting up running shoes and placing wheels on them.
After putting together a few designs, Adams thought to put the wheel in the heel. Falling several times, Adams realized he had to stagger his feet to balance. “The fall and the getting up the 4th time is when the hair on the back of my head stood up and I had a vision like I never had before. I just knew this thing could be successful,” says Adams.
The eureka moment led to the creation of the running shoe with a built in wheel and a new sport called heeling. Texas-based Heeling Sports Limited has grown rapidly with sales in over 50 countries and is on track to reach over $40 million in 2005. Heelys is now one hot international trend.
Today’s million dollar business inpsiration is taken from About.com/small business information.
http://sbinformation.about.com/od/bizopportunities/a/milliondollar.htm
If you’re like Roger Adams in this article and are fed up with your job there are other choices available to you. When you’re stuck in the mud of despair it’s often too cloudy to see anything but more muck. Want a change? Don’t know where to start? Working with a life coach will offer you a new way to look at things: to shift your perspective: to clear away the mud. Want to try a sample session?
Contact life coach Jan to set up your time for a sample session. Isn’t it time? Aren’t you just tired of doing things that you hate doing? Contact Jan at jan@helpingmillionsmakemillions.com to set up your free session right away!
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Do the math ladies: WE are the 99%
When I was a teenager in high school I took several of the mandatory math classes. My preference was music and language but I had to take math if I wanted to graduate. Back then we had grade thirteen (yup I’m aging myself) I did pretty well in grade nine math but it wasn’t my favourite class for sure. Grade ten math was a nightmare. Apparently I liked nightmares back then because I was given the opportunity to repeat the nightmare for another year. For two years I tried to understand what the teacher was trying to teach. Here’s what I learned from this man who called himself a teacher.
1. If you weren’t a jock you didn’t count
2. If you were a female in his class you had one purpose: to be beautiful. (strike two on that one)
3. If you tried to ask questions you were called stupid or idiot or dummy and stood the chance of having the chalk eraser thrown at your head. ( I know because it happened to me until I learned to stop asking)
4. If you didn’t understand the work you sure as hell didn’t ask the teacher for help.
5. If you didn’t ask for help and didn’t understand you sure as hell had better not let the teacher know that he had failed at his job.
Bottom line: I stopped going to class and I failed grade ten math twice. Same teacher same class same failure.
In that class I came to believe that I didn’t know much about math which was ironic because my first full time job was at a bank. I stayed there for many years and moved up in the ranks fairly quickly. Actually I did understand math: I didn’t understand those teaching methods in grade ten: big difference.
Now about 40 years later here’s something you all should know.
The CBC did a documentary in March of this year called “The F Word” In it they quote the statistic that women compromise 53% of the population in the world and earn 1% of the wealth. Do the math ladies! That means 43% of the world earns 99% of the wealth!
I am pretty certain my math teacher from way back when would think that this statistic would actually be ok but I sure don’t. I hope you find this startling too: startling enough to want to change the numbers. You ready to be a change maker?
Women in business will be the ones to start up our ailing economy and here’s a cool and fun math kinda graph to show you how that all works. from Open Forum.
Women support local: women shop local: women support other women in business who support other women in business: well you see where I’m going with this. Women don’t just make money and hoard it they share it out: they support their communities and their communities don’t just survive they thrive. Want to be part of a movement like that? Want to be a woman who helps to change her entire community? If you’re not sure how to start but you know you have a great idea consider hiring a life coach to get you started on the right track.
Do the math ladies.What’s the elephant in the room? Women and wealth. We ARE the 99%: change that.
Now go be fearless. Jan
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Falling flat on her face: literally
She flew off the back of a moving motorcycle but she doesn’t remember it. They tell her she flew thirty feet in the air and landed on her face. That accident was a year ago and she’s still trying to pull the pieces of her life together. She hasn’t been able to work because she suffers from the effects of a severe concussion. It’s likely she won’t be able to go back to the work she had been doing for the last 25 years.
I met her at the swimming pool today. We were both going to the same aqua fit class and I wasn’t sure where to go and she did so we walked together. I was grateful for her help and happy to speak with somebody new. She’s fearless this woman: she wants to work: she doesn’t want to stay home and not do anything meaningful in her life. I sensed she had a lot to share so I closed my mouth and opened my ears and waited.
Turns out she’s pretty scared of what her future will look like if she can’t work at the same career. Turns out she’s pretty devastated after finding out she may never go back to this job. Turns out it’s no wonder she feels the way she does :that’s pretty dam scary.
I believe we were meant to meet so that she could share her story with me. Choosing to keep myself still and quiet and present during our time together allowed her to open up to me in a way she had not done for quite some time. I was honoured that she felt comfortable enough to trust me with her story.
You know what I learned from this remarkable woman? We all have our challenges: some are big: some not so much but it depends on how you look at it personally. Hearing her story left me wondering how big my obstacles really are….it’s all perspective isn’t it?
Well I’ve given myself a huge challenge and some days it feels just kinda huge. Helping a million women make a million dollars in their life time by turning their passion into profit: that’s the challenge. Most people believe it can’t be done but I don’t believe them. Why do I want to do this? Good question and it’s a long story but here’s the short version. The elephant in this room we call Earth is this: Women make up 53% of the population. Women earn 1% of the wealth…WE are the 99% ladies. That’s gotta change and if it takes me to be one of the change makers well I’m up for it.
How about you? Do you believe you can make a million dollars doing what you love?
Share it out friends I’d love to hear your story.
Now go be fearless.
