New Year!

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

New Year's!

As we move from the hustle nand bustle of the holidays, a bright, shiny new year awaits!

As a certified coach, I encourage you to take a few minutes to think about what you'd like out of 2009. Life happens at warp speed, whether we're ready for it, or not. If we don't focus on what we want out of life, we generally don't get what we want.

As you decide what you want, I suggest you write it down. The very act of writing it out enagages the left side of the brain. The right side, the more creative side, is the side we tap into when we're dreaming, when we're exploring the possibilities that lie ahead of us in 2009.

At least once a month, and preferably once a week, look at your list. Hold it. Read your dreams out loud. The feel of the paper (or the "touch" of your fingers on the keyboard if you wrote on your computer) and the sound of your voice all work together to help anchor your wants, dreams, and desires.

But it all starts with the very first step, dreaming, wishing, hoping, thinking...

Next month, we'll talk about the crucial next step...

Until then... Happy New You!!

Summertime Questions to Consider

It's summertime!

Green leaves, flowers blossoming, sultry nights, birds singing, birth, renewal....

What do you need to renew?

What do you need to re-connect with, re-connect to?

What's is YOUR passion?

What makes you feel alive?

What quickens your heartbeat?

This is the absolute perfect time of year (at least in the northern hemisphere!), to sit on a chair outside, or maybe curl up in a hammock, bask on beach.

And when you do, don't forget to connect.

Dream while a lazy, fat cloud saunters across the sky.

And it's okay to ask yourself some questions that will sustain you in the shorter months of fall and winter.

Questions like:

If I had my ideal day, what would it look like? What time would you get up? What time would you go to bed? What would you eat? Where would you live? What would you do (if anything!) to earn a living?

Who would I like to connect with? (Is it time to send a formal written invite, or maybe an email or -- gasp! -- pick up the phone! and invite a friend to lunch, dinner, even a glass of wine at a rooftop cafe?)

What will summer of 2009 look like? (Will there be a great holiday to the ocean, or will you rent a cabin in the mountains for some blessed cool?)

What are my plans for this year's first cold snap?

What do I want to accomplish the rest of the year?

Regardless, this is a fantastic chance for you to picture your perfect life.

After all, what are daydreams for?

Here's to you and your dreams!

Christine

If it's time to take your life to the next level, let's talk

www.summitviewcoaching.com

Crouching Tiger

Today it's my pleasure to introduce a friend and mentor, Cathy Forsythe. Cathy is an inspiration to all of us. She's amazingly talented, one of those Millionaire Women Nextdoor. Through her constant attention to 'what she wants,' Cathy is a trailblazer in thinking and action. With smarts more than money, she's creating a legacy.

Enjoy-- Chris



“A coward dies a thousand deaths, a hero only dies once.” -- The Art of War by Sunzi

Failure is not sexy. It is necessary. Failure’s not much fun either. But more often than not, it is the catalyst to greater things. Don’t fear failure, that just makes it worse, more stressful. Instead, embrace it, knowing that this is the first step to greater things in your life.

Think of failure as a crouching tiger. As the tiger gets ready to launch in a fury of power, he crouches. That means going in the opposite direction he plans to jump, going downward. In crouching, the tiger lowers his haunches to the ground, gathering his power. Then, with a huge burst of energy, he launches himself into an incredible leap.

This is a perfect analysis of failure. Maybe by failing, you were simply moving something out of the way that no longer belongs in your life. Maybe you are making room for something truly fabulous.

Reevaluate what you consider the failures in your past. Sometimes it takes a little creative thinking, but by looking back, I usually see that a failure has eventually turned into something wonderful.

I recently had to close a business that had been in the family for thirty years. My father had started the business, then entrusted it to me, planning to use some of the income from that business to support his retirement. The business grew and prospered for fifteen years. Then, the competition started to move in, the chains got closer and business started to drop. I fought the good fight for almost five years before it became apparent that I wasn’t going to win. After many discussions, much agonizing, and more sleepless nights than I can to count, the decision was made. The time had come to close the business.

It’s bad enough that this was my main source of income. I also felt as if I had let so many others down, including my parents, four employees, and customers who had been with us since the beginning. The guilt and the stress weighed on me as I dealt with selling off inventory, laying off employees, eliminating store fixtures, canceling accounts, and saying good bye to old friends.

I had been fortunate enough to have made some plans years earlier that were beginning to pay off. And my parents were finding ways to get along without the income. Several things happened in amazing order and now I am able to look back at this experience with wonder. I have since bought two new businesses, gaining a new, enthusiastic business partner, I sold the building the family business was in for a nice monthly income, and life has started sending new opportunities my way.

Closing the business was crouching, and some days it felt like I would never get to the bottom. However, the leap that followed has brought me a new zest for life. I get up every morning, eager to see what adventures the new day might bring, because in many ways, the adventures are coming faster than I can absorb them all. By accepting this supposed failure and moving through it with grace and gratitude, I believe I am manifesting a new flow of abundance in my life.

Believe in yourself, believe in the synchronicity of the Universe, but most of all, believe in the power of failure. It is simply the next step in the grand adventure called life.

Cathy Forsythe

Dreaming

"Follow your bliss and doors will open where there were no doors before." -- Joseph Campbell

Follow your bliss... Easier said than done!

So many of us are caught up in the daily grind, get up, peel back our eyelids, brew a cup of coffee or tea or crack open a can of soda (who cares, as long as it has caffeine) go to work, or drag the kids out of bed and get them ready for the day. Then, with our responsibilities to our relationships, our jobs, friends, homes... We're so tired, how would we even know what our bliss is, let alone to follow it?

But you know what, it's there, somewhere, niggling. It's those random thoughts that dart through when you're busy doing other things. Maybe it's a book you see advertised, and you think, "One day, when I have more time, I'll read it."

One day, I'll take a long vacation.

One day, I'll go back to school, get a puppy, do that volunteer work I've been thinking about.

One day...

Maybe, if you're like me, you get ideas at the most interesting times. When I'm in the bathtub, when I'm driving, drifting off to sleep, or going for a walk.

But all those times have something in common...they come to me when I'm either alone or being quiet.

It's in those moments that I get that whisper of what my bliss might be.

But it's what I do with those moments that matter. Do I ignore them until they go away? (Yeah, more times than I care to admit! LOL) Or do I do something with that urge? Do I follow it? Do I book a trip somewhere fabulous? Do I do a little research into a new job I might like to have? Do I scribble down a few words for my new book?

In the quiet, and, thank God, sometimes in the chaos, ideas, thoughts, inspiration come to us. What we do with them is up to us.

What were you thinking about as you read this? What came to your mind? And now, what are you going to do with it?

Here's to you, and here's the the urging of inspiration!