MaXIMIze - Happy New Year!

Another turn of the calendar, another year in the life - your life. How are you going to accomplish your goals and dreams this year? What motivation will enable you to do so?

The past few months have found me in a new locale, with a new job with a lot going on. It seems that I have moved from one major project to another with little or no breathing room, and having to figure out how to maximize my time to ensure the routine must-do things get done, employees are checked in with on a regular basis, and I don't end up burned out and/or sick in the process.

As a result, some of my goals and dreams have been set aside for a bit so I could settle in to a new home and a new routine. Now though, they are starting to clamor for my attention once again. 

This blog is one of those things clamoring for my attention. I feel its pull, particularly when a fellow new supervisor is looking for learning material or an employee is wondering how to accomplish a large performance objective.

Also, a post on Facebook by Jack Canfield on vision boards made me sit up and say "Manifestation Boards" a few mornings ago during my morning scroll on that site.

So, I am pulled, willingly, to once more share thoughts and actions with you, my loyal readers, on this blog.

My goal for the remainder of this month is to review the six areas of my life - career, relationships, physical well being, spiritual well being, finances, and overall well being - and see where I feel work needs to be done to get my satisfaction level in those areas to an 8 or above. 

In order to do so, I will MaXIMIze the hours on those days (of which there are at least 1-2 per week) when I am up before my alarm, when my energy is at a higher level rather than at the end of the day when my energy is drained and all I want to do is eat, read, watch a bit of TV, and sleep.

I will also create a manifestation board to help retain my focus on what I really want out of life - and what I want to give in life as well - both in the short term and for the long term.

As it takes 18+ years to raise a child to true adulthood, so it also takes time to truly achieve many of life's important goals. Once we realize and accept that reality, we can get back to the work and pleasure of living our best life now. 

Until next time, Namaste!

MaXIMIze - What are You Really Bringing into Your Life?

While we don't always get what we want, we get what we choose.

That was posted on Facebook on the 18th of May.

What we think we want may not be what we are drawing into our lives.

So if what is coming into your life isn't what you want, perhaps you need to examine the choices you are making - large and small - and what energies and actions you are drawing into your life with your choices.

Are your actions aligned with what it is you want?

Are your words and thoughts aligned with what it is you want?

If not, is what you think you want truly what you want and/or need, or are your choices telling you something else?

To attain a goal, you need to keep your eye on the prize, even when you have to pick your way along a rocky path.

If other things are drawing your attention, your energy, your focus - and you are sure of what you want, what your goal is - you will have to find ways to keep the focus on your goal and deal with the obstacles in your path.

CALL TO ACTION: Examine your current path. If it is leading you to something other than your goal, determine why. Is your goal a true one? Does your path have heart? Where is your energy focused - on your goal or on something else? Why?

Until next time, Namaste!
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Questions? Comments? Feel free to post them here or contact me at the e-mail address below:
Beth Henderson, MaxIMIzer
maximize.beth@gmail.com

MaXIMIze - Setting and Achieving Financial Goals

Setting and achieving goals in the financial area of our lives is the same as setting and achieving them in the rest of the areas of our lives.

If faced with a mountain of debt, paying that debt down, let alone off completely, can seem overwhelming. It can be done though, one step, one payment, at a time, particularly if you've done the work I've challenged us with in the last two blog posts.

You may look at that mountain of debt and say, "I can't."

One of my mother's favorite phrases when I was growing up was, "Can't never did nothing."

I'm here to tell you Yes You Can!

It took time to get where you are financially, therefore it will take time to recover and get to where you want to be financially. If you are willing to truly commit and follow through, you can achieve financial stability and freedom.

Remember our discussion on Personal Prose?  How are you talking to yourself about money and how you deal with your finances? Is it positive self talk or are you letting your inner critic run the show and shower you with negativity? Are you using your power words when you think about or talk about your financial situation?

Remember our discussion on Values, Goal Setting, and the Five Whys? Did you do the exercise of determining your core values and principles? How does the way you currently deal with your finances align with those values and principles? If the alignment is not there, what needs to be done in order to get in alignment with those values and principles in this area of your life?

Have you set SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely) goals in this area of your life, and if so, are you working diligently and persistently toward those goals? And - are you being patient in and celebrating the small victories along the way to reaching those goals?

If you did the Manifestation Board exercise, are your financial goals envisioned there? Can you clearly see where it is you want to be to attain a satisfaction rating of 8 or more in this area of your life?

Have you identified and assessed the roadblocks that may lie in your way to achieving your goals in this area? This includes the fears that you may have regarding this area - remember, we need to bring our fears out into the light and shake hands with them. By recognizing and acknowledging them, we can work through them and move toward MaXIMIzing our lives in all areas, not just this one.

And last but not least, what are you sowing in your financial garden right now? What do you want to harvest here in the future?

By really looking at and working through all these questions and developing and working toward SMART goals, you can move down the path toward MaXIMIzing this area in your life.

Next week, we'll recap what we've discussed in this area and look at the topics for next month's discussion - 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 - From Cocoon to Chrysalis - Assessing the True Risks/Roadblocks to Achieving Your Goals

Last week we learned about the roadblocks we are likely to run into when working to achieve our goals, mainly the internal ones.

This week, we are going to discuss how we can assess these roadblocks - how we can bring them out into the light and show them for the pebbles that they really are so we can kick them aside as we travel down the path to achieving our goals.

In business, when we are going through the process of studying the potentials of a new project, we create something called a Risk Register. Basically, we determine/define the following:

A description of the risk/roadblock.

The impact should this event/item actually occur.

The actual probability of its occurrence.

We then give each impact and each probability a ranking from Low to High on a 1-3 or a 1-5 scale, Low being 1 and High being 3 or 5 - the rankings are either Low, Medium, High or Low, Somewhat Low, Medium, Somewhat Medium, High.

By multiplying the impact by its probability, we come up with its Occurrence Risk Score, which shows us where we should focus our attention.

We then determine the planned response should the event/item actually occur and the mitigation - the actions we can take in advance to reduce the probability and/or impact of the risk/roadblock.

To see an example of how this lays out, please see this Wikipedia article on planning a birthday party.

Basically we are taking the time to determine the following:

What's the worst that can happen?

What's the best that can happen?

What's most likely to happen?

Why or why not?

Okay, so X happens - what do you do, how do you move forward?

Then, we make the plan, work the plan, and adjust the plan as we work toward our goals.

As the soft cocoon becomes a hardened chrysalis from which emerges a beautiful butterfly, these methods will help you move your dreams through goals into reality.

So, over the last seven weeks, we have covered a lot of material, focusing mainly on the internal items we all need to deal with in order to move forward to achieving our goals. We've discussed reseting, whether at the beginning of a new year, a new season, or a new chapter of life. We've also discussed personal prose and the importance of paying attention to how we address ourselves. We talked about the Circle of Perception and worked through looking at the six areas of our lives. We worked through determining our central values, talked about aligning our goals with these values, and working through the process of asking the five whys to get to our core values. We discovered the power in Manifesting our goals instead of just Visioning them. And most recently, we've discussed how to identify and assess the potential risks and roadblocks to achieving our goals.

As of the time of this post, I haven't determined the topic of next week's entry. If you have any topics you would like to see covered in this blog - remembering that the purpose to to MaxIMIze ourselves and MaXIMIze our lives - please let me know.

A couple of the topics I will be covering in future posts (just not scheduled yet) are:

Checking on your progress toward your goals - and perhaps realigning/readjusting the path.

What to do when you fall off the wagon (something we all do...).

I know others will come...and I'd love your feedback and input!

Until next, week - Namaste!