As the CEO (Chief Energizing Officer) at Hartful Living including GaiaHart.com and BizBuilderCards.com; I’m a Messenger and Mentor for women entrepreneurs, connecting them to their capacity to energize their work and their lives in the art of living Hartfully. At BizBuilderCards.com, you can make a living through giving with greeting cards and gifts to build your network net worth as an additive to your current business or an easy way to send gratitude and kindness to the world.
Opportunity Costs: Choosing Your Time & Energy Wisely
October 7, 2011 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
Opportunity Costs: Choosing Your Time & Energy Wisely
Our time is our life energy. We trade our life energy for moments in time. Are you trading your time and energy for something that matters most to you or are you squandering it away. I see it all too often when consulting with corporations and public agencies that so many are racking up promotions, possessions and personal bests at the expense of something that matters even more such as enjoying a life well-lived.
What is the opportunity cost of your choices. What is the benefit or value you must sacrifice when you choose to invest in one opportunity and by default, walk away from another? We’re bombarded by opportunities and requests for our time daily. Where are your boundaries and what do you choose? How do you choose? By what standard do you measure the parameters on your time and therefore your life energy?
When you’re on the edge of making a decision to move ahead with something that’s going to demand your time, focus, commitment and energy; it may serve you well to consider some of the opportunity costs of your decision. Some questions to ask may be:
1. What impact will this have on my family or future?
2. How does it affect my most valued resource, my time?
3. In what ways does it support my life purpose and in alignment with my goals?
4. Is it moving me towards or away from my ideal life?
5. Is this something that I want to do or that somebody else or society wants me to do?
6. Does it reflect my values?
Of course the foundation of this is really knowing your goals, desires, dreams and purpose by which to measure if you’re off course or not. Don’t know your purpose? Then contact me to learn how your life purpose is revealed in your fingerprints. We can now crack the code to your calling and it’s all in your hands. There’s a free teleclass on the site, or contact me at Gaia@GaiaHart.com to ask about the Fall-iday Special Consult to reveal your true purpose so you have a baseline. Once you know what you’re supposed to be doing, the universe conspires in your favor to make it happen. But you’ve got to take action in the right direction first and make good choices by evaluating your opportunity costs of those choices.
So when demands are put on your time, or you demand something of yourself, whether it be training for a triathlon, learning to paint, aiming for the corner cubicle or taking your company public; think of the opportunity cost of doing such a thing and take a gander how it measures up to your bigger picture goals, desires, dreams and values. There’s always a cost to do what we do. That is, as they say, the cost of doing business. Is that cost affordable or not? Are you willing to pay the price and to put the time in? Are you willing to live another day not knowing what it is you’re supposed to do with your life?
Unplug & Disconnect to Reconnect, Recharge & Reboot
August 31, 2011 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
Sometime’s you gotta just unplug and disconnect in order to reconnect with yourself, your loved ones, your world, your purpose and your goals. I’ve been on a several-month “self-battical” to get reconnected to friends, celebrate a life mile-stone, get re-centered and renewed so I can come back refreshed and recharged. When you give out lots and lots of energy, there’s a time when you need to give that energy back to yourself. That’s why I haven’t blogged in a while, I was staying out of touch so I could get back in touch with myself.
Sometimes it takes a power outtage to get us back in touch with our friends, family, community – we lose touch to easily in this connected world. When I lived in blizzard country and now moving back to it; you would see lines upon lines of people in the video stores – just in case they were snowed in with loved ones and wouldn’t have to talk or deal with them. Hmmmm. Now I’ve heard some parts of the country before the hurricane had lines and lines in the liquor stores… a bigger hmmmmm. Blessings to those who have been affected by recent storms, but I’m talking about personal turbulance here and having your peace and personal retreat on your terms and not a forced situation such as unemployment, although you could use that time to take stock….
We can’t serve others well if we don’t first serve ourselves. If we don’t have enough energy for ourself, there’s not enough left over to give to others. We really do need to serve from our overflow rather than our cup. Our cup need to runneth over before we have extra to give, or else we run dry. I see it in so many people, more women than men. I’m thinking maybe the men hide it better. I see so many professional women serving everybody else and there isn’t anything left over for them or maybe their partner. That’s when we need to practice radical self care, which is not the same as being selfish, mind you.
I believe that’s precisely why the book and subsequent movie Eat, Pray, Love was a runaway best-seller and hit in theatres. I think it touched on the heartstrings of so many women (who make up 80% of the buying population) who just want to chuck it all for a short time to regroup and reboot so they can come back even better than ever.
So I did my own version of the popular story and travelled to faraway islands and driving across the country reconnecting with friends and my fun side. I’ve offered up some posts and pictures along the way as requested by my tribe. I didn’t carry a computer (oh horrors of horrors some of you may be thinking – a whole several months without a computer … egads!) I did have my iphone so I could infrequently check email – I do have a few businesses to run and still needed to coordinate a cross-country move. But oh the jubilation of living a lifestyle produced by being your own boss and having a network marketing business to support me while I danced across land and sea. Danced, sailed, scuba dived, kayaked, flew, snorkeled, zip-lined, hiked, swam, cruised, ate and drank my way from sea to shining sea. With Send Out Cards, I was able to stay in touch and still earn income while I was out of the office because my office was in my phone. Be my guest and send some free cards on me at BizBuilderCards.com.
It takes courage to unplug, hit the pause button and tell your circle of people you won’t be available. Some will support you, other won’t understand and think you’re shirking your responsibilities, some still want to stay connected and keep contacting yu, and still others want to join you. The bottom line is that it’s not their path – it’s yours. And if you have no energy to walk your path, what good are you to anybody else?
My friend Jean Ann rents a villa in Mexico for 6 weeks each year and then invites friends down for a weeken or a week so she gets to reconnect with her tribe in a lovely setting. She hires a cook and housekeeper so she can also enjoy her time down there. Another friend rents villas around Europe and invites her coaching clients to have their session on site – it’s all a business write-off. Wonderfully creative ways to disconnect and reconnect at the same time.
So you may not be able to take off weeks or months, but at least a weekend jusat for you at a local B and B – the point is to get out of the house and leave electronica at home. Eat well, drink well (and responsibly), surround yourself by beauty and good company or be alone and do some introspection to get to know yourself again.
I highly, highly support the self-sabbatical approach to energizing yourself, your life, your relationships and your business. There’s no need to go to Italy or an ashram or take a vow of silence to do it – do whatever you darn well feel like doing to support whoever it is or whatever it is you want to be, do or have. Give yourself permission to unplug and go with the natural flow.
Here are some pics of how it flowed….. what are you waiting for??? You deserve a break today, so get out and get away… to find yourself…..
Is Your Organization Open to Innovation?
May 11, 2011 | Posted in Leading Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
I’m taking a new look at my workplace and living space these days. I’m moving my business and my life to a different place. I’ve noticed how I want to lighten my load, throw off the dead weight, innovate ways to do more with less.
I’ve gone through this drill with each move and notice that I’m drilling down more and more to ge to the heart of what works for me in my business and my home life. Taking a fresh perspective on the things that you have usually done or used to serve you helps bring out new innovative ways to doing things and using things. I though I’d been ruthless the last few moves with removing items that no longer served me or the business well. I find it needs to be done in layers.
What if you did the same to your organization and pretended you were moving offices, moving to a different level of service, moving closer to your customer’s needs. What would you jettison? What would you keep? Who would stay or go? What do you really need in your office or what is serving it’s purpose, but not very well?
Have you looked at your processes with a keen eye, or from the eyes of your customers or your colleagues to see where you can streamline? Take a cue from Domino’s Pizza and their new menu items. They have a survey printed on the box asking how you like it. Have you interviewed your clients to ask “how we doin’?” Have you interviewed your team members to ask the same when you’re in a performance review session.
How about a brainstorming session with other departments to ask where the bottlenecks are and how to creatively improve them? It starts with letting go of your old perspective on how things should be done or how they should look or be. Be open about the outcomes, re-purpose some things or ways of thinking. Embrace some changes or create some yourself to shake things up. It could start with cleaning out the junk drawer or just looking at what’s working or not working so well and being open to propose a better plan.
Sometimes you have to introduce the innovation or the change in increments and layers. If we’re forced to change too much in too short of time, we experience future shock and we dig in our heals. Making incremental changes and letting it settle in, then tweaking some more, ditching a little here and tossing a little there doesn’t meet with so much resistance. Ask around and see what your team can tweak or hold a contest to see who can come up with the most innovative solution to a recent challenge.
Some find it hard to accept new ways of working because they may think they’ve failed in some way. Being open to innovation means not holding on so tight to what you thought was the best way of doing things yesterday. Things change, you did the best you could with what you knew and what you had at that point in time. Let go of some old ways and things to make room for new ways and things. An open mind is a good mind. Create space for new things to come in.
Now excuse me while I clear away the old printer to make room for the new, innovative wireless one (double the output, double-sided printing, eprinting and half the cost of ink)…
10 Tips to Create a Caring Culture at Work
April 10, 2011 | Posted in Leading Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
You know the old Zig Ziglar quote about people not caring how much you know until they know how much you care. Taking that to heart in the workplace can pay dividends on many levels. While most people join organizations because of the general workplace, many leave because of co-workers. Our teams can be technically proficient but socially deficient, and that can cause more than just friction. It creates a workplace of chaos rather than calm.
Below are 10 tips to create a culture of caring and form a workplace by design and not default by focusing on the people before the productivity. These are gleaned from over 25 years of working with corporations, private companies and public agencies around the world.
1. Show your concern and notice when team members aren’t their normal selves. Take note if they’ve been out of sorts, or doing above and beyond and anything out of the ordinary. When we know others notice what we do and who we are, it makes a difference in the trust, loyalty and commitment.
2. Send Thank You notes, birthday cards, and anniversary cards for time at your organization. Dropping a card on their desk is nice; sending one to their home is even more special. It says you took the time to say something personal. They mattered to you to spend some extra time on them. Appreciation and acknowledgement wins over self-promotion every single time. Communicate that you care about the whole person, not just what they contribute as part of their job duties.
3. Send a card home addressed to their family member or partner explaining what a great job they’re doing, how they are an appreciated team member. Perhaps thanking the family for the overtime that was worked since when the family member is at work, they are not with their family.
4. Some organizations offer perks such as free lunches, boxed dinner options to pick up before leaving work, dry cleaner pick-up, car detailing service, seated massages, Fed-ex pick up at work, or social clubs and activities such as a band, softball league or other hobby and interest groups.
5. Offer some volunteer days to help build goodwill in the community as well as camaraderie among your ranks. Host a day of service for a local charity, building a home for the needy, cleaning up the community, and reading to the elderly or the young. Provide a list of different ways to volunteer during the year or have each department choose to champion a charity.
6. Ask each team member what they want out of the relationship with their job and the people in it. This will give you a clue as to how you can best serve them and help them get what they want out of their job and improve their quality of life.
7. Offer a little extra time off during the holidays – even 59 minutes early to take care of life and the stresses that come about during the holidays. Depending upon your organization, some offer holiday parties, bonuses or other acknowledgement for a good year of business.
8. Offer to cook breakfast or buy lunch for your team to celebrate milestones and share appreciation. Supervisors do the cooking or host a pot-luck to share different types of food. Some organizations have hosted car washes for supervisors to wash the cars of those who made a significant contribution, hit sales goals or achieved a milestone of success. Depending on the size of your group, invite them to your home for dinner or take them out for dinner or an event.
9. During the gardening season, ask team members to bring in their extra veggies and fruits to make a community salad or have a grab bag of fresh food to share the extra harvest bounty with those who don’t have a garden.
10. Start your meetings with some good news from participants to set the tone. Bring some surprises to some meetings to shake things up and make it more interesting.
11. Over-deliver and pay attention to the needs of your team. Make as big a deal when a new member arrives as when they leave the organization. Go out of your way to show them around and introduce them and ensure they have what they need to do their best. Serve them well and they will serve the organization well.
Creating a culture of calm and caring can be accomplished in hundreds of little ways to show you care. In this time of budget constraints, many of the things you can do won’t cost you much at all. With an authentic attitude of concern and caring, you can do wonders to create a great culture in your workplace.
Are You in Your Right Livlihood?
March 29, 2011 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully, Wealthy Woman | By Gaia Hart
Networking with business owners and professionals over the past couple months raised some questions about who is working in their right livlihood and who is not. Being a customer in any retail establishment or restaurant,you can almost sense who is in alignment with their right livlihood as sales people or servers. You know how they greet you and their demeanor if they like being there or if they’re just passing the time until they can clock out.
Think of Susan Boyle, the singer who was afraid to show her talent and kept her light hidden until she had the courage to sing in a competition and is now one of the top sellign artists of all time and performing for royalty. Who wudda thunk? What if she never had the courage to listen to her heart? What about you? Do you have the courage to find out your true path? Learn more on a personal consult with me and my business partner or ask for a recording of our telecourse Cracking the Code to Your Calling.
There are so many workers out there who are just passing the time, letting their lives pass by without investigating what it is they really want to do. Or what their soul purpose is in this lifetime. It’s a very easy thing to decode once you know the formula for unscrambling the GPS you hold in your own hands. Your personal GPS, your Greater Purpose System is encoded into your fingerprints before you were born. There is a scientific method of decoding your prints, which are unique to you, and figure out your life purpose, your life lesson and what ‘school’ you’re in for this lifetime. You’re given everything you need to know for following your right path and living your right livlihood. You just need to decode the message. Listen to a free 30-minute teleclass on the 4 different schools of life purpose by sending an email to Gaia@GaiaHart.com and ask for the link.
If you’ve been floundering, wandering about, not knowing if you have a purpose, feeling dull, without passion or fulfillment in your work; then we need to connect. My team and I will be your guides to crack the code to your life purpose, the life lesson that keeps holding you back and showing up and the life school whose curriculum you’re here to learn. Once you know your school, your lesson and your purpose, the rest is easy to figure out. All kinds of variations in your school and purpose can be explored. You’re given the right path to your right livlihood and the experts to help you figure out how you want to travel on your path.
After a 45-minute life purpose analysis of your fingerprints, you’re given your life school, life purpose and life lesson. Afterwhich you’re given a decoder document explaining it all. Then you get another 45-minute session with a personal life purpose coach to help you strategize implementation. All this for under $300 as our gift to you with a savings of $200 off the usual investment.
What is knowing your life purpose worth to you? How much of your life are you willing to spend out of connection with your divine purpose? How many unfulfilled days are you willing to give to somebody else in exchange for a paycheck? If you’re fed up and not going to take it any more, or if you’re just curious if you’re already on the right track to the right livlihood, then send me and email at Gaia@GaiaHart.com to set up a free pre-coaching call to see if it’s the right fit for you. What have you got to lose, but your the rest of your life?
Looking forward to hearing from you and helping you find your light and your right livlihood to enrich the world and yourself.
At What Level are You Operating?
February 18, 2011 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully, Wealthy Woman | By Gaia Hart
I’ve had umpteen discussions recently with entrepreneurs, execs and employees in transition or in frustration. Most are disgruuntled and seeking higher levels of challenge, free expression, satisfaction and success. The Gallup organization cites that 55% of employees are disengaged and 20% are actively disengaged with a majority of workers actively seeking other opportunities.
When you’re feeling the itch to change something in your career and you don’t know exactly what’s wrong, but you know you’re not happy; then it’s time to uplevel your life and your work. You’re working at a lower level than your capacity. When there’s no more personal or professional growth left in your work, then it’s time to move on to another challenge. If you’re feeling flustered, frustrated or ready to pull your hair out or somebody else’s hair, then you’re on the edge and need to jump up another level to function more in your place of purpose and brilliance and less at your level of competence or routine.
There are several levels at which we operate: inability, ability, talent and brilliance. The level of inability are the areas in which you don’t do well or where you don’t necessarily have an aptitude or competency. You don’t necessarily have any interest in doing these types of things. For me this area is plumbing, taxes and car repair. These areas are better off out-sourced to give somebody else a job who commands that ability.
Your level of ability are areas you can do, but they don’t give you joy and it seems like lackluster busy work. It smacks of mediocrity and you’d be better off out-sourcing these things as well. Housekeeping, cooking or landscaping may be one of your areas. Or you may revel in gourmet cooking and that is your place of brilliance – it’s all very individual. If you’re working at this level, it seems beneath your talents and you’d get bored or frustrated easily. You may find yourself saying “this is stupid” one too many times.
Your level of talent is where you likely excel, earn income, get praise for what you’re doing and are admired by colleagues, family and friends for what you do. They likely want you to stay at this level because it feels safe and comfortable for them and they like you there. It’s a secure feeling because you know what you’re doing and you’re good at it. Although you may be getting itchy to do something else. You start to feel confined and the chafing of the golden handcuffs or maybe trapped in the lifestyle, but not feeling the joy any more for what you do or who you’re doing it for. You don’t want to lose what you’ve already accomplished in your career, but you’re not happy.
Many stand at the edge of this terror trigger and lose their courage to jump up to the next level of brilliance due to the unknown. Others may not want you to jump because they’re afraid for you. Our subconscious is built on security, survival and safety. Many back down off the ledge and live in their level of talent, a little discontent, a little dull ache for more, feeling “it’s not great, but it’s not that bad – I don’t hate it and I’m better off than most – I should be happy.”
We can start out in a business or a job that fits our place of brilliance at first, but as we learn and grow, it offers less challenge, personal and professional growth and it shrinks down to our levels of talent or ability. Think about Oprah when she decided to start her magazine in addition to her wildly successful talk show and then decided to shut down her show to start her own network. You can bet her first TV show was in her place of brilliance for her capacity at that time and then she expanded her capacity and the show just wasn’t big enough to contain her dream and her brilliance and her purpose. By all accounts, her level of ability far surpasses most mere mortal’s dreams of brilliance. It’s all very personal.
Your purposeful place of brilliance is where you truly shine. It’s exhilarating, joyful, happy and it feels right. It’s where you dreams are made. You are usually richly rewarded for it. It’s where purpose, passion and profits reside. My purpose is to help you find yours. My mission is to help you identify and clarify your mission. Let me know how I can help you uplevel your work and your life to your place of purpose and brilliance – Gail@GailHahn.com.
Your Place of Purpose & Brilliance: the Tingle Test
February 17, 2011 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully, Wealthy Woman | By Gaia Hart
Uncovering your brilliance isn’t a puzzle to solve. Rather it’s a puzzle to dis-solve. It’s distilling some of the bigger picture things you do when you’re in flow and identifying precisely what you’re doing when you’re in the zone. Being in the flow is when time disappears and you’re so caught up in the activity and absorbed mentally, that you don’t notice how much time has passed.
Discovering your brilliance can come as subtle hints. Glimmers of insight are good. Pay attention to how you feel and what you’re doing when you’re firing on all pistons. When you’re operating at optimum brain capacity and the challenge meets your unique skills, but doesn’t overshadow your abilities; you’re in flow.
Identify what you’re doing when you’re in your flow and then dissect it and dissolve it down to the pure activity where your unique knowledge, skills and abilities mesh with your sense of purpose. For instance here’s how it may look: enlightening others to discover their purpose and uplevel their work and their lives. Distilling further using my unique abilities: creating innovative ways to wake people up to themselves and attain further self actualization to better serve others. And even further filtered: as a mentor and messenger – creating artful, fun, experiential methods/activities to incite insight in entrepreneurs and execs to live/work in their potential and purposeful place of brilliance and live fully expressed to improve the world.
Some easy ways to find out if the work you’ve chosen is intersecting your purposeful place of brilliance is the Tingle Test. Do you get tingles of excitement when you think about your current business or does it leave you flat? Do you feel energized or exhausted from your work? Does time fly or does it drag on when you’re doing your work? Are you feeling success or strife and struggle? Do you feel fulfilled or frustrated? Are you feeling more or less fully expressed when you’re finished doing your work each day?
If you need guidance in figuring out your place of purpose and brilliance; I can help you uncover your purpose through a scientific method that was put in your hands – your personal GPS, Greater Purpose System. Take the time to write a list of your unique abilities, and the activities when you’re in flow and what you believe to be your purpose and reason for your work. Start the flow of ideas, brainstorm on paper and get the ideas incubating, then contact me to crack the code to your calling and decipher your life purpose to guide you toward the right path so you can pass the Tingle Test.
Your true purpose is in your hands. Send me an email to set up your session which will help you set up your life on the right track. You’ll get two coaching sessions as a jump start to your place of purpose living in the full expression of your brilliance. More later on living at upper levels or lower levels of your capacity.
Avoid the Aimless Groundhog Day Life Experience
January 31, 2011 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully, Wealthy Woman | By Gaia Hart
If you’ve ever experienced your life as a mundane hamster wheel similar to the movie Groundhog Day, then you’re in for a new awakening on our free teleclass: Cracking the Code to Your Calling: Unveiling Your Life Purpose to Boost Passions & Profits. Life Purpose Analyst Margaret Shebalin and I will be covering the technology known as scientific palmistry to share with you how you can unravel the secret treasures at your fingertips. You can listen to the recorded teleclass at: http://www.audioacrobat.com/sa/W1dCHL8X.
Once you know your true calling, live your true purpose and fully express your purpose in your work and get paid for it, you can break free of the Groundhog Day syndrome that most people endure. You don’t have to live an aimless, ho-hum life day after day when you hold the GPS (Greater Purpose System) in the palm of your hands. You were born with specific DNA that points to your purpose. It’s been in front of your eyes your entire life.
Learn the decoding system we use to reveal your real life purpose on our priceless (recorded 37-minute teclass at: http://www.audioacrobat.com/sa/W1dCHL8X. Listeners will receive a special code good for $200 off your first coaching session with Margaret and Gail to reveal your real purpose and your life schools. Your life compass will be revealed to you during your very first session. As a bonus, our listeners will receive $200 off their first Life Purpose session where your life purpose, life lesson and life shcool will be revealed at http://www.audioacrobat.com/sa/W1dCHL8X.
We invite you to discover your true calling. We’re thrilled to incite insight into each and every one of you. Our purpose is to reveal your purpose to you and guide you along your right path. Looking forward to ‘seeing’ you on the call on Groundhog’s Day so you can break free of the Groundhog syndrome and live the life you were born to live. Feel free to contact me with your questions at Gail@GailHahn.com.