MaXIMIze - Growing Our Best Lives

The Bible tells us as you sow, so shall you reap. Karma tells us what comes around, goes around. What we put out in the world is what we get back, directly or indirectly. What we planted in the past is what we are harvesting now. What we plant now is what we will harvest in the future.

Here are some questions to ponder:

What are you harvesting now? What is showing up in your life right now?

What do you want to harvest in the future? What do you want to show up in your life from now on?

Are you planting the right seeds in the right soil to be able to harvest what you want to in the future instead of growing weeds?

The parable of the mustard seed illustrates that last question very well. The seeds sown in the well-prepared soil and tended appropriately grew and provided a bountiful harvest. The seeds sown in barren soil with no preparation or tending did not even germinate to be able to die on the vine.

So, are we willing to do the work to ensure that what we are sowing now is really what we want to harvest in the future? Are we willing to till the field, remove the rocks and cobbles, plant the seeds, water the field, and pull the weeds while the seeds we planted grow into a bountiful harvest?

Over the coming months, we will go into each of the six areas we looked at in the Circle of Perception post, discuss bringing in the harvest, express our gratitude, and finish the year by celebrating ourselves and our successes.

My sincerest hope is that you will continue to read this blog through the rest of the year, and if you feel the need to go deeper on any topic at any time, please feel free to contact me.

Next week, we will explore the topic of finances and examine our personal relationship with money.

Until then, namaste!

MaXIMIze - Spring Cleaning

"You can't reach for anything new if your hands are still full of yesterday's junk." ~ Louise Smith

It seems only appropriate with the turning of the season from Winter to Spring that we focus on cleaning out and letting go of that which no longer serves us in order to lay the groundwork to sow the seeds of our best life now.

Just as we get annual physical and periodic dental and eye exams, so too should we take stock of and excise where necessary our emotional and psychological baggage.

If you've ever read Cheryl Richardson's book Take Time for Your Life, then you've seen this theme run through her writing as well. And as I said in my post from July 19, 2013 on my previous blog, as we move up the spiral staircase to our highest, most MaXIMIzed life, we must leave behind those things - ideas, habits, thoughts, people, situations - that no longer serve us, and in some cases are pulling us down the bannister back toward the bottom step.

In order to do this, we must inventory and acknowledge that which we currently have and take stock of it - ask the question of what is still truly serving us by helping us achieve our goals and what is holding us back by directing energy away from our goals.

We can MaXIMIze our lives by minimizing the baggage we carry through them - both physically and otherwise. Sometimes though, we need to work through the otherwise to be able to minimize our physical baggage.

Once we identify those things, thoughts, and beliefs hat are holding us back, we can work to disengage ourselves from them by removing physical reminders and replacing them with things, thoughts, and beliefs that fulfill us and lead us to achieving our goals.

Those things that are holding us back are the darkness in our life, and those things that fulfill us and lead us to achieving our goals are the light in our life. So, we need to close the door on the darkness and always face and move toward the light.

Next week, we will discuss sowing the seeds to grow our best life now.

Also, my new book - Take Your Life in Your Arms and Kiss It! - is available from lulu.com - click here for more info!

Until next time, happy cleansing and namaste!

MaXIMIze - Working Through Fear

Last week we discussed working on your swing - developing your follow-through. This week, we tackle one of the biggest obstacles to following through and achieving your goals - Fear!

"We have nothing to fear but fear itself." ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

What is your greatest fear? Specifically, what fear or fears hold you back from achieving your goals and living your best life now?

What is fear really? Physically, the manifestation of fear is the same as that of excitement - racing heart, sweaty palms, adrenaline rush. Psychologically though, the two are quite different.

Where excitement is gleeful, joyful anticipation of an event or an activity - a very positive emotion - fear is the exact opposite, usually fueled by that nasty little creature known as the Inner Critic.

Where excitement vitalizes, fear paralyzes.

So how then do we move through fear?

"Do one thing everyday that scares you." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

We move through fear by acknowledging it. We bring our fear out into the light and shake hands with it. Light diminishes darkness, and fear is part of the darkness that we need to shine our light on in order to achieve our goals and live our best life now.

We identify where the fear is coming from. We talk to the fear and get it to tell us its roots - how it came to be. For example, we may have a fear of never being good enough that is deeply rooted in our growing up years.

We develop a plan to refocus when fear appears and tries to derail us from our goals. For example, we make a list of all the things that we have accomplished and been praised for and/or just know deep down that we did really well.

Then, when fear does appear - and it will, trust me - we work the plan and refocus on achieving our goals. For example, when that fear of not being good enough rears its ugly head, we can go back to our list of what we have accomplished and done really well and bolster ourselves with those accomplishments. If we did those things, we can achieve these goals too!

So, to move through our fear, we acknowledge it, we identify it and its roots, we develop a plan to refocus if and when it appears, and when fear does appear, we work that plan.

Next week, we will discuss Spring Cleaning - getting rid of that which no longer serves us.

Until then, namaste!

MaXIMIze - Working on That Swing - Developing Your Follow-Through

Follow-through - goes right along with the previous post about falling off the wagon. We need to develop ways to keep that light that is our goals firmly in front of us and to keep trekking down the path to that light one step at a time.

In my coaching practice, one of the tools I develop for my clients is a vision statement - a written and oral focused compilation of what the client's future will look, smell, taste, sound, and feel like when his or her best life is being lived.

Here is the vision statement I developed for myself as part of my training program:

"Beth, as you awake to feel the arms of your life partner enveloping you, you are aware of and amazed by how far you have come over the last year or so because you developed all the skills, talents and tools that you need to easily achieve the goals you have chosen for yourself…your confidence and belief in yourself increased as you grew, banishing the persistent procrastination and enabling you to show your true gifts in the area of financial well-being and coaching acumen. As you stretch and run your mind over your client list for the day, you realize that you easily create the life you want because you have a clear vision of what you want to be and have and work positively and diligently toward those goals with confidence and self-assurance, grounded in your knowledge base and secure in your relationships with others in your life, both personal and professional. As you get ready for your work day, you look forward to working with your clients to coach them to bring into their lives the success you’ve brought into yours. Your ability to see the big picture as well as handle the devilish details has increased exponentially as you incorporated more regular exercise and more healthy eating habits into your daily routine. Your debt load is minimal and you are checking things off your bucket list (and sometimes adding to it!). Your commitment to do the work necessary in all these areas and your extraordinary follow-through has led to a greater sense of well-being and peace in your life overall. Life is good!"

I listen to this at least once a week, more often if needed, to keep my focus on what living my best life means to me - and to keep that light in front of me.

To use a baseball analogy, this is my way of keeping my eye on the ball and watching the bat I'm swinging connect with the ball and knock it out of the park.

If we keep our eyes on the prize, on achieving our goals in life, and continue down the path toward those goals - that prize - our follow-through will develop naturally.

There is a line from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer - the Claymation version from the 1960's - that goes along the lines of, "Put one foot in front of the other, and soon you'll be walking 'cross the floor." Follow-through is simply the act of continuing to put one foot in front of the other and walking down the path to our best life now.

Next week, we'll discuss walking through fear. Until then, namaste!

MaXIMIze - Falling Off the Wagon - Getting Back on with a Minimum of Bumps and Bruises

We all fall off the wagon from time to time - the trick is getting back on again quickly, without falling down any number of rabbit holes. Those rabbit holes are dug by things such as guilt, fear, regret and other such negative emotions, and we can get lost in the underground warrens if we don't know how not to slide down the rabbit holes in the first place.

How we defend against the negative emotions and self-talk is key to getting back up and running quickly. When we slipped and fell as children, did we stay down and refuse to even try to walk, run, ride a bike, climb a tree, roller skate, or anything else we were trying out for the first time? No, we did not. We got back up, dusted ourselves off and tried again until we succeeded!

Over the years since childhood, we collected guilt, fear, regret, and other negative emotions from being told "Can't," "Shouldn't," "Don't," "Not Good Enough," and a whole host of direct and not-so-direct negative messages. We internalized all that negative input, and it became our Inner Critic and our own worst enemy.

Remember our discussion on Personal Prose? When you fall off the wagon, rather than focusing on the negative thoughts and feelings, focus instead on the power words that support and nurture your goals. Remind yourself of the five whys, the deepest reasons for achieving your goals, then get up, dust yourself off, and get back on the wagon that will take you down the path of your best life!