My Essay Blog

We are so much more than we know. The divine eternal spark of love, light and hope lives within us. This is true for all souls and all of us who are embodied here on the Earth, and yet so often life our daily life feels so far from this.

There are some difficult or traumatic events that shape us profoundly to the very core of our being. Some are personal or family events and some are larger global events that affect us deeply.

When pain enters our life, there are coping mechanisms within us that help us to get through the time of difficulty. If the trauma is very deep, or goes on for a very long time, our coping mechanisms can solidify and form a protective layer around us. These eventually become assimilated into our identity, so that we no longer feel the pain of the traumatic events. Our coping mechanisms help us to move forward into life, despite difficult circumstances.

These ways of coping with pain are intended to support us in times of difficulty. They are not intended to become solidified into an entire way of life, however in the absence of the love and light that are needed to foster healing, we may become entrenched in the old defenses. It is possible to go through life with an emotional and energetic suit of armor, which protects us and allows us to function, but which does not allow for a greater level of intimacy or emotional connection with others.

In this kind of situation, the emotional, physical and energetic patterns of self protection can become so much a part of us that we no longer know of any other options. Like a fish who does not realize that he is in water, because he knows of no other options, we remain in the only environment we have known, not realizing there is any other possibility.

Under these circumstances our identity and sense of who we are shapes itself around our defensive patterning. Without realizing it, we become our coping mechanisms. This can continue for a shorter or a longer period of time, until such time as our inner being feels safe enough to begin to explore other possibilities.

When the time comes that life shows us that we don’t need to continue in these old patterns, it is possible that we find ourselves afraid to let go of our defenses. In some ways, our emotional armoring was familiar, and provided a sense of safety. To think of letting this go can provoke feelings of panic or even terror, even if another part of us wants to move forward and free ourselves.

One of the reasons this can be so difficult is because our defenses became, for a time, a part of identity. When we begin to let these go, suddenly it can feel as though our very self is on the line. The question becomes, who am I if I let go of my pain? Like standing on the cliff, looking down into the abyss, it can feel like there is nothing and no one to catch us if we dare to let go of holding on.

In reality, there is a natural rhythm and flow to our inner lives, so when we reach the point of being willing to open to new possibilities, new supports become available, so that we are not alone in facing our fears. It could be a new friendship or relationship, an inner sense of greater trust, or other kinds of supports that reveal themselves and help us to have the courage to open to the new and to let go of our past defenses.

In this way, we are helped to move forward in our life’s journey, and to gradually come to know more of who we are as divine eternal beings of love. When we have the courage and faith to release our hold on old ways of perceiving ourselves, a new world opens before us and reveals choices we would have previously only dreamed about. By releasing our hold on the pain, and by releasing the ways we have protected ourselves against the pain, we are born anew into a new realm of love and possibility.

A hike in California’s Sequoia National Park turned deadly when Shannon Parker split from her group to grab her sunglasses from the car. Before she could get them, she found herself face-to-face with the lion and came to a daunting realization.

“I knew exactly what it was when I made eye contact with it,” she said in an ABC interview. “It was either the mountain lion or me. One of us was going to die.”

The cat attacked, catching Parker’s head in its jaws. Parker fought the cat for six minutes before she was able to free her face and scream to alert her friends. They chased it off with rocks and a pocketknife, but not before Parker sustained severe injury to her right eye, along with deep gouges in her thigh.

After a surgery failed to repair her eye, doctors fitted her with a

prosthetic. While Parker suffered no life-threatening injuries, the trauma to her face was devastating; Parker said the most challenging aspect of the attack was dealing with the disfiguring injuries she suffered.

Her plastic surgeon played a huge role in helping her recover when he told her that he’d be able to repair the damage to her face.

“And that right there, I mean, it just changed my attitude; it changed the hope that I had. It changed everything,” she told CNN. “And then, I knew not only was I alive, but I was going to progress.”

Progress meant not only recovering from her injuries, but recovering from her emotional trauma. Part of Parker’s solution has been to seek meaning in her experiences. Less than a year after the attack, she went back to Sequoia National Park to revisit the spot where she struggled for her life. Now she’s working to educate the public about what to do if a mountain lion attacks and, because she says that she would have stayed with her group had she seen warning signs posted, she’s working to place them where mountain lions might be a danger to hikers.

According to Parker, her recovery, though difficult, gets better as each day passes. “I believe that my strength and hope has got me to where I am today.”

Just about everyone has heard, and most people agree to some extent, that goal setting is a great way to get yourself where you want to go in life. If you feel you can’t seem to reach the life you know you were born to lead, then effective goals can be a great motivating force.

As you begin to set and achieve goals your self confidence will grow astronomically. But where do you start and what will make your goals worthwhile? This article will help you to start setting effective goals which will lead you where you want to go in life.

An excellent place to start when you’re considering the goals you want to pursue is taking some time to consider whether or not the goal that comes to mind is really your own goal.

It is easy to give credence to goals you feel you should make, even though these may not be the real things which motivate you. Well meaning parents, friends, family and employers might have ideas or even suggestions about goals you could pursue.

Only you will know what is truly important to you, and only that which is truly important to you will give you the motivation you will need if the going gets tough.

If you want your goals to be truly worthwhile, then focus on performance goals and not outcome oriented goals.

Performance goals ensure that the success or failure of your goal comes entirely from within you.

Outcome goals depend on factors outside of yourself over which you have no control. If you say you are going to do a particular thing, you can either do it or not. But if you focus on an outcome like “I will make a million dollars” then you have to depend on others to make your goal happen, in this case you have to depend on others giving you money for some reason.

Outcome goals are cheap because you can walk away saying it wasn’t your fault, but performance goals leave the responsibility with you. In the end you’ll cherish the completed goals you were fully responsible for much more than any other kind.

Goals can help you focus on your acquisition of knowledge. They can help you organize your time and resources to get what you want out of life. Take responsibility for your life by setting goals and watch how you begin to feel empowered. You can truly be the designer of your own life.

Most coaches get involved in coaching for one extremely compelling and valuable purpose &ndash because they want to make a positive impact to the lives of others.

As a coach, the extent to which you are able to fulfil that objective is contingent upon two factors. Firstly, your skill and effectiveness as a coach; and secondly, on the number of clients you are able to affect through the application of your services. The purpose of this article is to focus on the second factor.

In the process of assisting people, it’s also possible for coaches to develop a fruitful lifestyle for themselves along the way. In fact, these objectives are entirely complimentary.

Many business people, including coaches, fail to recognise the important ethical role that marketing plays in their business. In doing so they develop a mindset that is self defeating to themselves, their business, and their clients.

As a coach, you are in business. How effectively you operate your business is entirely contingent on you. There are enormously successful coaches (in terms of client numbers, income and coaching outcomes), and coaches that are barely able to etch out a living. The difference between these extremes is not their coaching competency, but rather their mindset. You may be an incredibly skilful coach, but unless you have people willing to use your services, your skills are of little to no value.

So what mindset does it take to be a successful coach?

A successful coaching mindset:

- Puts the needs of prospects and clients first;

- Actively seeks to assist clients attain their objectives;

- Is empathetic to the needs of clients and prospects;

- Doesn’t limit the service offered to clients, and

- Acts as an ethical adviser.

It takes a Marketing Mindset to be a successful coach.

We regularly hear of coaches that feel as though marketing is ‘leading’ and ‘unethical.’ They feel as though it’s too ‘salesy’ and don’t feel comfortable with it. For those coaches, we’re going to explain why marketing is both ethically valid and commercially crucial.

Ethical Validity

There is an enormous (and growing) volume of people in society that would benefit from coaching services. Let’s call these people prospective coaching clients, or prospects. These prospects have specific goals they’d like to achieve, or challenges they’d like to overcome, with a view to leading a better and more fulfilling life.

As a coach you have a certain duty of care to assist these people. You can only begin to assist them once they’re utilising your services. Marketing is the link between the prospects desire and your ability to assist them fulfil their desire.

Marketing only becomes unethical in the circumstance that you are not able to fulfil your marketing promise to your client. In this instance you’ve misled your client, either knowingly or unknowingly, and have acted unethically.

On the premise that prospects will seek a coach to assist them attain their specific goals, it’s the ethical obligation of coaches to help prospects select a coach that will best be able to assist them. To do this coaches should fully, comprehensively and transparently disclose to prospects what services they offer; where their specialties lie; what experience they have; how they’ve assisted people with similar desires in the past; and how using their services will benefit them. Or to state it more simply, to undertake marketing.

Commercially Crucial

Marketing is commercially crucial because it links prospects that desire a certain outcome with skilled professionals trained to assist them achieve that outcome. It identifies you as someone that may be able to assist prospects with their pre-qualified needs. By seeking out information on coaching services, prospects have already identified for themselves:

1. That there are certain things in their life they’d like to attain or challenges they’d like to overcome.

2. That a coach is a person with the requisite skills and experience to assist them.

3. That they are willing to invest financially in the process.

The above is an extremely important point, and one that coaches need to accept.

As we explained earlier, coaches generally come from one of two schools of thought with respect to marketing.

The first school of thought perceives marketing to be ‘leading’ and ‘salesy.’ They come from the paradigm that by marketing you are proactively influencing someone in their decisions. Or specifically that you may make someone do something they would not otherwise do. We call this train of thought the Influencing Paradigm.

The second school of thought accepts that prospects are people that have identified for themselves their need to invoke change. And they’ve identified that a coach will assist them make that change. They recognise that the prospect has made the intellectual link between their needs and how they want those needs to be fulfilled. We call this train of thought the Service Paradigm.

The thought processes of these two perspectives are entirely dipolar. One positions the prospect as someone reluctantly influenced into utilising a service, and the other positions the prospect as a proactive individual capable of determining their needs that has actively sought out coaching services.

As a coach, it’s critical that you put yourself in the second paradigm of thinking. Only then will you be able to ethically fulfil your objective of assisting your clients. And only then will you be able to fulfil your symbiotic goal of building a successful coaching business.

By putting yourself in the Service Paradigm of thought you will recognise that to assist clients meet their objectives, you should:

a) Actively promote your services through compelling advertising that clearly describes what you can offer clients.

b) Understand that as a coach and a trusted advisor you are often in a better position of knowledge to ascertain your client needs to assist them attain their goals.

c) Be empathetic to the needs of your clients and actively offer solutions to them through various products and services.

d) Value your client’s intellect and decision making ability.

e) Do not pre-empt your client’s wants and hence limit the range and scope of products and services you offer them.

f) Always acts as an ethical adviser.

Once you embrace the Service Paradigm to marketing, you’ll realise that marketing provides you with a much greater opportunity to fulfil your primary objectives &ndash to assist your clients, and to build a successful coaching business. These objectives become complimentary and you create a truly win-win situation between the desires of your clients and your own desires.

In the second part of this article we’ll provide you with further information on how to develop your Marketing Mindset and a Service Paradigm.

While an individual would like to improve an aspect or certain aspects of their life so they can achieve a specific goal, or set of goals.

Most all Clay & Wing shooters desire to shoot better. But for many, shooting mistakes create frustration during competition, in the field, and even during practice sessions. Dan Schindler teaches shooters, from all skill levels, a shooting process that creates more consistency and proficiency by eliminating mistakes both before and during the shot.

Each month, Dan provides a new shooting tip to help you be more consistent in the shooting box and on your scoresheet.

The July 2008 tip has been released to the public:

What You Don’t See is What You Get

Sporting clays is the ultimate test, pitting ourselves against targets down gullies and through trees at countless unknown speeds, angles and distances. We spend thousands of dollars on equipment, books, videos and training all to master basic, rudimentary skills. Some shooters do, and they have the skills to show for it. But why is it that skills don’t always match scores?……..

To review the full article please visit: .paragonschool.com/shooting-tip-07-2008.html

The Monthly Article Index can be found here: .paragonschool.com/shooting-tips.html

I haven’t got time to relax &ndash really? Have you got time not too?

Being able to relax is important to achieving optimal performance and health. You name it; being relaxed will increase your productivity in it. If you’re not relaxed, everything you do will be a struggle. Relaxation provides mind-body integration necessary for peak performance.

It is important to relax to get your mind clear and your body tension free; to regain focus and to cool down and to help return to a balanced physical state. Relaxation is vital for a healthy mind and is required to maintain motivation and interest in our lives and careers. Not being able to relax and unwind can be damaging to your health. Even when there are huge demands on your life, you may have a large family, an important career, and a home amongst your other weekly commitments - it is still necessary to find your own time and space to relax.

It is very important that throughout the day we find time to relax. Twenty minutes, two or three times a day, is preferred. If you can’t manage twenty minutes, it’s important to realise that whatever amount of time you do manage to get to relax will be beneficial to your mind and body, even if not noticeably so.

When time is short there are a number of things you can do: reading, writing, daydreaming or just sitting quietly. Quite often what ever you do to relax will be personal and work for you, so you need to find what works best.

As a Life Coach I have worked with numerous people with issues relating to relaxation and stress etc. It’s interesting that initially many find it difficult to slow down and see the benefits of taking more time out. However after a few weeks and a couple of life coaching sessions focused on this area, and a bit of commitment on their part, most change their ways and wax lyrical about the benefits to their lives.

Some of the common benefits of relaxation are:

• It improves your ability to concentrate. It will help you in your ability to tune out distractions and gives you better sensory awareness.

• It improves body awareness; you need to know when you are under or over doing it.

• It speeds up healing time following an injury and fatigue, the body needs to recover fully if it’s going to perform at an optimal level in the near future.

• Learning is enhanced, it is much easier to introduce new thoughts and ideas when your mind is clear and you are relaxed. Skills are best learned when you are in a relaxed state and there is an absence of tension.

• It helps you sleep better

• You become more efficient

• It puts your focus back on the present and gives you a sense of control

• It increases energy

If you don’t take the time to unwind and relax regularly, you might be putting not only your own health and well-being at risk but also that of others as well.

In relation to your responsibility to the health and safety of others; we only have to think of driving a car, or operating machinery, and how our ability to do these tasks diminishes when we are tense, tired and stressed. So in fact our responsibility to relax is not just for our own sake but also for that of others.

With regards to our own health and emotional well-being, if we don’t make time to relax regularly we are putting our health and mental health at risk of failure. Some of the effects of lack of relaxation are below:

• Headache, common ones being tension headaches and migraines. Controlling tension and relaxing can help migraines. Tension headaches are susceptible by definition to treatment by relaxation.

• Chronic fatigue, your body is in a total sate of fatigue. You suffer from total lack of energy and motivation all of the time.

• Cardiovascular disorders, high blood pressure and heart disease, heart attack.

• Gastrointestinal problems, diarrhoea, constipation and stomach ulcers as well as indigestion and heartburn.

• Poor immune system, becoming susceptible to illness

Early warning signs that we need to have a break and relax are:

• Yawning/sighing

• Lack of concentration

• Feeling the urge to stretch and move about

• General drop in performance

• Feelings of stress and irritability

• Performing uncommon errors

• Tiredness

If we are aware of the signs and take notice of them and take a break etc, you could avoid a lot of stress and fatigue, you will be more rational and focused, and better equipped to carry on, and be far healthier.

Spending a lifetime of ignoring the signs could impact heavily, not only on your health, well-being and happiness but also those around you. Relationships could suffer as well as your career. On a personal note, the consequences of not taking time to relax over a lifetime could mean you pay the ultimate price.

You say you don’t have time to relax. I say you don’t have time not too. You are your own best resource; you need to take time to nurture and look after yourself.

Thanksgiving is right around the corner, the holiday that has its origin in the Puritan’s tradition of giving thanks for a good harvest. The Puritans weren’t the first in this regard. Many religious and societal traditions are based in the concept of gratitude. What all these traditions may or may not have known is that recent scientific studies point to a direct link between gratitude and a deep satisfaction with life. Not only is it good to give thanks, it is good for you to do so!

In a study at the University of California at Davis, Professor Robert Emmons came up with some very interesting and illuminating results from his research project on gratitude and thankfulness. Professor Emmons found that people who kept gratitude journals on a weekly basis exercised more regularly, reported fewer physical symptoms, felt better about their lives as a whole, and were more optimistic about the upcoming week compared to those who recorded hassles or neutral life events. In addition, participants who kept the journals were more likely to make progress towards their personal goals in life.

The study also notes that people with a strong disposition toward gratitude have the capacity to be empathic and to take the perspective of others. Grateful individuals place less importance on material goods; they are less likely to judge their own and others success in terms of possessions accumulated; they are less envious of wealthy persons; and are more likely to share their possessions with others relative to less grateful persons.

If the practice of gratitude is so beneficial to our overall well-being, how can we learn to cultivate it more? My gut feeling is that the type of gratitude we normally experience when we see others that are less fortunate than ourselves is not enough. If it were, we would all be much happier as we are surrounded by evidence of the suffering of so many people in the world today. It seems that we need to look directly at our own lives in order to be truly grateful and thereby reap the benefits of gratitude.

The concept of gratitude is directly related to the idea of the power of positive thinking. Concentrating on what we do have versus what we don’t have seems to be the key. Reminding ourselves on a daily basis of all the things that come our way keeps us grounded in gratitude instead of want. At any given moment during the day we can stop in the moment and be thankful. Keeping a record of these moments, journaling, is what Professor Emmons recommends. When life becomes overwhelming we can look back at our musings and see just how lucky we really are.

Indeed, further results of the University of California’s study show that a daily gratitude intervention (self-guided exercises) with young adults resulted in higher reported levels of the positive states of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, attentiveness and energy compared to a focus on hassles or a downward social comparison (ways in which participants thought they were better off than others). There was no difference in levels of unpleasant emotions reported in the three groups.

As we are told not to sweat the small things so too can we be very grateful for the little joys in our lives. I just got back from running to school to drop-off something for my daughter. Upon entering the house, which is warm and toasty compared to the rainy, cold day outside, I was greeted by my three dogs with tons of kisses and love. They now lie by my feet as I type away. The house is peaceful and quiet like my own personal sanctuary. I glance out my windows and see nothing but the foliage that envelops my home. These are the little moments that that we can become attuned to in gratitude. There are hundreds of such moments in any given week if we are mindful of them. They add up and build upon one another to create a more centered, content and positive perspective on life.

Furthermore, the research reports that grateful people do not deny or ignore the negative aspects of life. Again, my intuition tells me that given the perspective that gratitude gifts us, we are undoubtedly more equipped to handle life’s challenges. One’s attitude can determine how effective one is in coping with what life throws in our direction. Our perspective on life determines our reality. If we approach things with a perspective grounded in say the belief that life is unfair, everything that turns up will look unfair. But as we practice gratitude, we are endowed with its gifts of optimism and the necessary energy required to take on our lives.

How can you start to practice gratitude? Begin with the art of mindfulness, being totally present in the moment. Notice all the little things that surround you, things you might take for granted if you hadn’t stopped to really look. Offer acknowledgement of these small gifts much like my moment in a warm and peaceful home with my dogs. Write them down in a gratitude journal. The little things make up the fabric of our days, our months, and our years. Oftentimes we hardly notice them because we are so caught up in the task of living. As they say, stop and smell the roses.

Stop and consider what you have been given in life. Are you blessed with financial security? Do you have loving children, a supportive family? A nice home? Are you in good health? Do you enjoy your work? Do you have wonderful friends? What does nature give to you? Do you have a supportive and loving mate? Concentrate on what you do have and not what you lack.

Research also tells us that the act of giving back to the world has much the same effect as gratitude. Interestingly enough, Emmons study also found that participants in the daily gratitude condition were more likely to report having helped someone with a personal problem or having offered emotional support to another. The act of gratitude and the act of giving back therefore reinforce each other and lead to the inevitable …more fulfilling, meaningful and happy lives.

These are things that we all know to be true in the abstract and yet we can take them from the abstract into the specifics of our own existence. Start practicing gratitude today. Pull out a notebook and write down just one thing. Commit to adding to this journal everyday. A good time might be before bedtime when you have time to reflect back on your day. Think of all the good things that occurred. Perhaps a brief but meaningful exchange with a child or a friend. Maybe a great cup of coffee. When you put down your pen and paper, you might just go to sleep easier. That’s yet something else for which to be grateful.

Yes, you can have anything your heart desires through applying the universal law of attraction. However, the key is to really be in touch with your Higher Self in order for your true heart’s desire to manifest for you on a conscious level. If a desire comes to you which is primarily revealed only through your personal ego &ndash your lower self &ndash without actual guidance from your Higher Self, then this desire has a lesser chance of manifesting.

How then do you tap into that part of you which is in touch with your Higher Self ? The key is through meditation. By stilling the body and the mind and allowing your Higher consciousness to flow through you in order to guide and direct your true desires. Turning your energies inward and closing off all outside distractions allows you to focus your attention on your Higher consciousness which resides at the center of your mind.

Now, once you are in touch and aligned with your true heart’s desire as revealed by your Higher Self, you can begin to apply various manifestation concepts to nourish your desire and bring it into fruition.

This is where the fun really begins!!!!

How To Manifest What You Truly Want For Your Life

Apply the following techniques in order to manifest your heart’s desire:

First, calm your body and your mind by sitting in a quiet place, close your eyes, and turn your attention inward and focus on your third eye between your eyebrows. Take 3 deep breaths-in through the nose and out through the mouth. As you exhale, repeat the sound of “aah.” Next, breathe in through your nose and exhale through your nose and focus on your breath. Do this 3 times. Now that your body and mind are relaxed, you can begin to visualize your desire as it is revealed to you.

Once you have experienced what you feel is a true desire, then you can begin to visualize this desire in great detail already fulfilled in your mind’s eye. Create a mental movie of this desire in as much detail as possible. Use all your senses to see, hear, touch, taste, and above all, feel, the end result in your mind’s eye.

Capture the feeling state associated with your desire. Would you feel strong, powerful,love,peace,joy, having achieved your desire? The feeling state linked to the visualization fuels the flame to manifest your desire.

Practice these techniques on a regular basis and make miracles happen in your life!!!!

In a previous article we discussed the distinction between an Influencing Paradigm, and a Service Paradigm, to marketing your coaching business. We discussed how marketing your business is both ethically valid and commercially crucial, and how marketing is a critical process in achieving your coaching objective of having a positive impact on the lives of others.

To quickly surmise, we explained that people with an Influencing Paradigm mindset perceive marketing to be ‘leading’ and ‘salesy.’ They come from the paradigm that by marketing you are proactively influencing someone in their decisions. Or specifically that you may make someone do something they would not otherwise do.

People from the Service Paradigm school of thought accept that prospects are people that have identified for themselves their need to invoke change. And they’ve identified that a coach will assist them make that change. They recognise that the prospect has made the intellectual link between their needs and how they want those needs to be fulfilled.

To be a successful coach, or in fact successful in any business, it’s critical that you embrace a Service Paradigm mindset toward your marketing.

In this article we’re going to further explore exactly how you can develop a Service Paradigm marketing mindset.

Before we can begin to discuss how you can develop your Service Paradigm mindset, let’s look at some of the characteristics. Coaches with a Service Paradigm recognise that to assist clients meet their objectives, they need to:

- Recognise that everyone in business is in the business of marketing. Without clients they’ll have no one to deliver their services too and hence no one to assist.

- Actively promote their services through compelling advertising that clearly describes what they can offer clients.

- Ethically promote their services with vigilance.

- Recognise the cycle of life of their prospects and regularly promote their services for as long as prospects allow.

- Understand that hey are often in a superior position of knowledge to ascertain what their client needs to assist them attain their goals.

- Be empathic to the needs of clients and actively offer solutions to them through various products and services.

- Value their client’s intellect and decision making ability.

- Not pre-empt their client’s wants and hence limit the range and scope of products and services they offer them.

- Always acts as an ethical adviser.

As a coach, to outwit your competitors you must create a niche; and to build a successful business you must attain a Service Paradigm marketing mindset.

To develop your Service Paradigm marketing mindset:

1. Be determined to succeed. You need to be absolutely determined that you’re going to succeed. If you just want to succeed, but you’re not willing to go the extra mile, you’ll get swept aside by those that are more determined. If you are truly determined, you’ll be confident and this confidence will automatically show in your business and be transparent to prospective clients, peers and the general public. Prospective clients will want to be associated with you, and clients will want to continue their involvement.

2. Persevere. Coaches with a marketing mindset embrace challenges as part of life and part of business. If you perceive challenges as impassable barriers you’ll never develop a marketing mindset. It’s crucial you accept you’re going to confront hurdles as part of business. How you perceive these hurdles, as opportunities or barriers, will drastically influence your level of success. Perseverance is a key ingredient in developing a marketing mindset.

3. Remain positive. Literally nothing destroys a marketing mindset more than a negative attitude. A marketing mindset is a ‘can do’ attitude. Faced with the same challenge, the coach with a positive ‘can do’ marketing mindset will find a way; the coach with a defeatist attitude will submit and fail.

4. Set Goals. As a coach this is something you should know a lot about. Set yourself specific, achievable, stretch goals.

5. Plan a strategy. Establish a specific plan of action to attain your goals. Identify what resources you’ll need and the possible challenges you may confront.

6. Implement your plan. This is the most difficult part. Implementation of your plan. Modify it where required, change your goals as others are attained, modify your plan if flaws are perceived, but always continue implementing. Non-action is the precursor of business failure. If you continue to implement, your business will always sustain forward momentum. If you have momentum, your direction (goals and plans) can always be adjusted.

7. Keep marketing. Your success or failure hinges on your marketing. Always maintain your marketing mindset. Always be focussed on marketing. It’s a common trap to get caught up in the day to day ‘operation’ of your business and put marketing aside. This is a recipe for disaster. How effectively you market will be the most influential determinant on the success (or otherwise) of your business. Marketing is not difficult or confusing, but it does require significant ongoing diligence and attention. The moment you lose focus on marketing your business is the moment your business performance will suffer.

Learning to trust and live by our intuitive inner guidance systems is not about developing fancy party tricks to impress our friends. It is about learning to return to a life of balance that is guided from a deeper source of wisdom than our current culture has to offer.

The more “masculine” thought processes (I’m not bashing individual men here&ndashwe all have masculine and feminine attributes) dominate every aspect of our culture, honoring only the linear and rational ways of thinking. As a result, we find ourselves swimming in massive debt, experiencing disharmony and dysfunction in the majority of our personal and global relationships, and finding millions of the most educated, gifted and resourced people in the world dependent on anti-depressants. All that, and at the same time we face the very real and eminent potential of an environmental disaster that could be beyond repair.

What An Intuitive Life Looks Like

Living by intuition, you begin to leave fear, doubt, immobilization and frantic action behind. Why hurry-worry? When you realize that you will know what you need to know, when you need to know it (and very often not a moment sooner), you begin to see there is no need to live in the imagined future. There is no need to plan out ten possible outcomes you don’t want, one you do, and then spend precious time and energy making sure those things do or don’t happen. You have the time, space, energy, and faith that you can simply enjoy the “now” in real-time.

Of course, you’ll lose a lot of the drama in your life. People will come to see you as peaceful, maybe even serene, and there won’t be overly much to complain about. The old friends, stuck in their old ways, won’t know what to do with you. So they will likely leave. Yet you will begin to attract new friends who have also left a good deal of the drama behind. This drawback is like complaining that someone has dumped gold on your fresh-cut lawn. But you will learn to deal with that.

Living By Faith

Where the mind will play a thousand tricks a day on you, the intuitive knowing&ndashwhich you cannot always summon on your personally preferred time table, but which is completely trustworthy when it does come&ndashnever fails. Never.

Even if the road that rises up does not take you where you thought you were going, in the end it takes you where you most wanted to go. I call this “Smart Reliability” because when I dream big dreams, but plan my route to accomplishing them in ways that are limited to my current understanding, my intuitive drive makes the needed adjustments so that the bigger dreams can actually come true.