The Art of Hartful Living
Articles to Energize Your Work Wealth & Well-Being
September 22, 2010 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
I’ve been remiss about blogging since last month, but have been ferociously writing articles for your reading pleasure with links to each article following the title. I decided to give it to you all in one fell swoop so you can pick and choose which suits your needs instead of piece-mealing it into several blog posts.
Below are links to articles I’ve written on energizing your work and your life. They are written for enlightened execs, entrepreneurs and employees on how to revitalize at every level and energize individuals and organizations.
I will host some talk shows on similar topics on my weekly Energized Entrepreneur Show: http://thewinonline.com/node/5978 and each show is 10-15 minutes. So if you want to listen to some of the articles, they will be available in the coming weeks.
Here’s a list of the articles – free to view and read and if you download or use any portion of them, I would appreciate credit and a link to my websites www.GailHahn.com, BizBuilderCards.com and Funcilitators.com as they are all copyrighted material.
Enjoy!
Gail Hahn, the CEO (Chief Energizing Officer)
Office Olympics: Original Games that Put Minute to Win it to the Test
www.associatedcontent.com/article/5767082/office_olympics_original_games_that.html
Twisted Training: Creating Experiential Training Programs to Engage, Inform, Inspire & Entertain Employees
www.associatedcontent.com/article/5767112/twisted_training_creating_experiential.html
Extreme Shopping Around the World
www.associatedcontent.com/article/5767316/extreme_shopping_around_the_world.html
Travel Holidays Around the World
www.associatedcontent.com/article/5767378/travel_holidays_around_the_world.html
Spa Experiences Around the World
www.associatedcontent.com/article/5767570/spa_experiences_around_the_world.html
50 Ways to Communicate, Connect and Build REALationships
www.associatedcontent.com/article/5767652/50_ways_to_communicate_connect_and.html
Insider’s Secrets to Follow Up and Follow Through
www.associatedcontent.com/article/5767738/insiders_secrets_to_follow_up_and_follow.html
Fun Shui: De-mess to De-Stress, It’s a FACT of Life
The Importance of Play in Our Day
www.associatedcontent.com/article/5767790/the_importance_of_play_in_our_day.html
Reward, Recognize and Re-energize Your Enterprise:
www.associatedcontent.com/article/5767876/reward_recognize_and_reenergize_your.html
Fun Shui: Organize to Energize Your Work and Your Life
www.associatedcontent.com/article/5766954/fun_shui_organize_to_energize_your.html
White Space in Your Life Margins: Busy-ness a Badge of Honor?
August 19, 2010 | Posted in Leading Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
Have you noticed how some books are easier on the eyes to read, you can get through them more quickly and your eyes get less tired? Or how vastly different The Wall Street Journal design is from USA Today? The reason is white space. The margins where there are no words. The graphics that are bold, separated by space where your eye can rest. If there are too many words, typed too small and too tightly packed, it’s daunting and your eyes don’t get a rest. No wonder USA Today breaks sales records as a most-read newspaper – it’s fun and easy to read and we get our info in quick snippets in an entertaining way.
It’s the same with our lives. We need white space. We need space between our words, between our activities. We need bigger margins in our lives to breath, rest, accommodate unexpected opportunities, spontaneity, unanticipated visits, friends in need, surprise social invites and other things that pop up without plans. If you are so over-scheduled that you can’t embrace an unplanned phone call from a friend, then you may need to eliminate some things to expand the wiggle room in your schedule.
Research has shown that we build more resilience to stress when we have more leisure moments in our lives. This could be a 10-minute tea break, or a trip to Tahiti. It seems that busy-ness has become a badge of honor these days. I hear people part complaining; part bragging about how busy they are. Especially when I’m around my Professional Speaking buddies at conventions. I never fail to hear about how much they’re on the road and how many dates they’ve booked and they don’t have time for family or friends. Well, whose fault is that? We can say no.
I’m in the continuous improvement loop for widening my margins in my life and making room for me, for leisure, for unexpected moments. Some people personally have a hard time saying no, then they blame it on their schedule and say “I’d love to, but my schedule is packed”. Make room to go with the flow and honor what you feel like doing in the moment. If I know a meeting will take 30 minutes, I schedule it for 60 so I have some prep time, follow-up time and some wiggle room before the next appointment. I’m less stressed. I don’t keep my next appointment waiting because the earlier call ran long. I manage myself in my time allotted and I allot more time.
Widening our margins gives us a break. Making room for more white space, then not filling it up again may go against the grain of the success-driven society, but it will help us live longer, be more productive, be less-stressed, less cranky, more healthy and generally more enjoyable to be around. If we don’t protect our own energy, then we won’t have any to give to others. If we give away all our energy, then when something really great comes up, we won’t have the time nor the energy to say ‘yes’.
Take a look at your calendar. Take stock of how you handle unexpected people/things that pop into your life. Are they welcome or are they stressful? We need time to think, to recharge, to reboot ourselves so we’re more productive and more present for the things that matter. So listen to yourself talk to others about how you do your life. Are you complaining/bragging about your busy-ness, or are you happy with the flow? Busy-ness is not necessarily a badge of honor. It may be a sign of mismanagement of your time and your life. Take the wheel and drive your schedule the way you want to go, instead of letting your schedule drive you.
Create some wiggle room, some white space and widen your margins. All the people around you will be glad you did. And you can stop complaining/bragging about how busy you are and enjoy a phone call, a play date, a cup of coffee with a colleague or take advantage of an unexpected opportunity. More ideas to energize at our talk show The Energized Entrepreneur Show.
Your Life Purpose is in Your Hands – Decode it Now
July 28, 2010 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully, Wealthy Woman | By Gaia Hart
I’m excited to tell you about an incredible experience available to you! Baeth Davis, aka “The Palm Pilot for the Soul of Your Business,”(tm) is a hand analyst who provides NON-predictive, scientific hand-analysis for spirit-rich entrepreneurs to help them identify their spiritual business blueprint from their hands!
This experience is NOT to be missed!
You will discover your Life Purpose -the reason you are here on the planet AND your Life Lesson – which triggers the core fears that can get in the way of your progress. Baeth will show you how to break through your blocks so you can get paid for your passions, claim your fame and BE the change you want to see in the world.
Let me know if you have any questions about this life-changing experience! I was skeptical at first, but after interviewing several friends who had gained Baeth’s insightful guidance and after hearing one of my mentors who charges $25K – $1M per person for his coaching sessions requires his mentees to have a session with Baeth before he will event accept them into his coaching programs. That’s when I knew I had to do it to validate what I’d believed most of my life to be my purpose.
Knowing your true life’s purpose is the key to the kingdom, the combination to the vault, your compass for pointing you in the direction to do what you were put here to do. When we are acting in alignment with our purpose and doing what we are supposed to be doing, the Universe conspires in our favor and life becomes easier. It’s when we get the bright, shiny object syndrome, running around chasing the wrong things that life gets out of hand and doesn’t work for us. We know when we’re off track.
Only after having a session with Baeth, then attending her Life Purpose Summit, did it all really click that I was, in fact, on the right path as an Artist and Messenger in the Community Spotlight. Creativity is like oxygen to me, I need it to live as a fully expressed individual and I need audiences for my written and spoken word, need to be in the spotlight to share insights and inspiration with the world. I create community to bring like-minded people together and help them fully express themselves and enable their potential. It’s all in my hands – something I intuitively knew to be true. It just felt right and when I went off path to chase other opportunities, things didn’t work out so much. I know what Baeth gives us is a true gift.
Do you consider yourself a “conscious” or perhaps a “spiritually-minded” entrepreneur? If yes, I am super jazzed to pass on a call series from none other than Baeth Davis. You might know Baeth – she’s the “Palm Pilot for the Soul of your Business(TM), and one amazing entrepreneur! Baeth has created a 5-call series specifically to show you how to discover your unique Passions, People and Platform so you can Summit your business and your life.
The call series is totally free and runs now through August. Calls that are complete are available for instant download – no waiting – including the call everyone is talking about: “Discover Your Unique Media Path”.
Register now to reserve your spot on Baeth’s calls or schedule a session: http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?Clk=3840091
You will also hear a bit more about the entrepreneurial event of the season, Baeth’s Life Purpose Summit happening in just a few weeks.
I’ve experienced so much growth personally from Baeth’s insightful guidance and I hope you can too. She can steer you in your right direction if you don’t have a clue as to why you’re here, or validate your true calling if you already have an inkling. You’ll learn about your life school, your life purpose and your life lessons (Those bugaboos that bite you in the back and are always the core of what’s holding you back.)
Once you learn your life lesson, you can recognize it when it keeps showing up, acknowledge it and strategize ways to work through it or around it. I can’t say enough about what you’ll learn from Baeth’s session and her summit. It truly is a life-changing experience that can knock years off your learning curve and keep you from ambling through life without feeling ‘this is it, this is what I’m supposed to be doing’. Knowing your lessons, your school and your purpose make all the difference in the world to put more meaning into your work and your life, because our work is supposed to be all about expressing our true purpose. That’s what it’s all about.
Register now to reserve your spot on Baeth’s five freecalls or to schedule a hand reading with her: http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?Clk=3840091
To Your FUNomenal Success!
How Are You Adding to Your Personal Economy & the National Economy? Special Offer for Entrepreneurs
July 22, 2010 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully, Wealthy Woman | By Gaia Hart
I’m feeling generous and want more people to realize they can create their own economy through the right entrepreneurship. I’m offering $250 scholarships for a limited time for a 1.5 hour coaching session with me where you will get your personal blueprint of your work style, communication style, conflict management style, entrepreneurship path along with personal customized coaching. I want us entrepreneurs to change the vibration of this nation by doing the right work and creating your own economy.
A US Federal Reserve survey shows that the average household net worth for entrepreneurs is 5 times that of conventinal employees. That means that entrepreneurs are 5 times more likely to come out of this downturn unscathed and even stronger than before because they’ve created their own economy.
History has repeatedly demonstrated that new companies and entrepreneurship are the way to bolster a flagging economy. It’s the passion, power, enthusiasm, creativity, nimbleness and sheer determination of entrepreneurs to be quick to market and adapt to the changing national economy that can help uplevel their personal economies and the national economy.
A Gallup poll found that 61% of Americans say they would prefer to be their own boss. Another poll by the Decipher firm found that 72% of all adult Americans would rather work for themselves than for a job and 67% think about quitting their jobs “regularly” or “constantly”.
Wow. What does that say about our corporate workforces and public agency employees? Leaders need to take heed of these findings and figure out ways to empower their teams to be more entrepreneurial, take responsibility for their projects and performance and ask them what they want out of the relationship with their job. Once we know what people want, we are better equipped to give it to them. Ask your team about their personal mission, vision for their job, what their ideal job or position in a company would be. Or if it’s outside the company – maybe working on their own as a consultant to the company.
Entrepreneurship is not for everybody. I’m thrilled it’s for me. Couldn’t and wouldn’t have it any other way. Entrepreneurs get to create their life on their terms and create the work they love to support their full expression of their purpose. They get to use their talents, knowledge, skills and abilities to the max if they’ve, in fact, created the right company to match their passions and purpose.
If you’re not yet an entrepreneur, or if you’re an emerging entrepreneur, there is help and guidance to assist you in discovering more about your skill sets, your motivation behind your behavior, your work styles and what type of business is best suited to your unique set of characteristics. Some people are better suited to going completely on their own, partnering, being a part of a bigger team, network marketing, being in business for yourself but not by yourself, or being a lone wolf.
What type of entrepreneur are you or do you aspire to be? How can you add to the national economy and your personal economy with your talents and skills? As an Energized Entrepreneur Coach and Relationship Awareness Facilitator (measuring your motivations behind your behaviors, your communication and work styles and conflict management styles); I can help you figure out paths best suited for you.
As your economic stimulus package, I’m offering a preferred investment of $125 for a 1.5 hour session to help you figure out your style and what type of entrepreneurship is best suited to your style. I’m giving you a scholarship of $250 for this session. You can use these results to improve your personal and professional relationships, to figure out the best type of environment for you, what types of work that best suits you and much more. You will get a clear, concise blueprint of your style. Send me an email at Gail@GailHahn.com to set up your appointment by phone.
I’m so excited about helping you create your own economy, I can hardly stand it. I’m thrilled to be in a position to offer you a scholarship to make this personal coaching and enrichment session available to more people who are wanting to quit their jobs or at least start something on the side to help their families and help themselves. This special offer won’t last for long. I’ve got to keep my economy going too. 🙂 Take advantage of the limited scholarships for the next 2 weeks and grab your spot.
Here’s to helping you create your own economy and economic stimulus plan so you can help the natonal economy. And to all of your entrepreneurs already doing it – cheers to you for turning things around!
Personal Well-being Before Your Professional Well-being
July 19, 2010 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
An organization can only be as good as the people who run it. We do business with PEOPLE in an organization, not the organization itself. If the people behind the organization aren’t feeling well, treated well, doing well or being well, then the business isn’t doing well either.
If you’re part of a larger organization, the team members must bring their best self to the job. One person can drain the energy of the work group and clients alike. People like doing business with people who like doing business. If you don’t bring your best self to the marketplace, it’s a downward spiral.
Taking care of our personal well-being is essential to organization well-being, whether it’s a solo-preneur operation or a multi-national organization. We can’t focus on work if we feel lousy, have anxiety about our mortgage, worried about our kid’s safety or our family’s health. We need to get our priorities in order and take care of ourselves first, watch out for our well-being so we have the energy to look out for other’s or our organization’s well-being.
Here are some qualities of well-being. How do you measure up?
1. Is your life purposeful with direction? Do you have a bigger vision and purpose and is it fulfilling to you? Are you in alignment with it? Does your work foster your purpose?
2. Have you experienced life transitions and have you handled them with aplomb, in your unique or creative way. You can solve problems and have others for support in times of need and transition. You can weather the storms of life, or at least know how to dance in the rain.
3. You feel optimism for your life and believe the universe conspires in your favor. You feel more optimistic than pessimistic and experience gratitude over disappointment.
4. You have a Life List (similar to a Bucket List, but couched in more positive terms) and you have attained many things that are on your goals list. You feel accomplished in different areas of your life and are a life-long learner. You list may grow larger are you grow older and learn there is so much more to learn about the world. You have a sense of discovery, adventure, curiosity and joy about life.
5. You are coachable, remaining open to learning more about yourself and the whys and hows of your decisions. You are interested in not only personal development but enrichment and have a willingness to share your lessons with others to enrich their lives. You share yourself with the world through your abilities, gifts and talents.
6. You have love in your life from friends, partner, pets, family, clients and colleagues. You have mutual respect, support, admiration, loyalty, friendship and companionship.
7. You have laughter in your life and seek the humor in situations. You choose to laugh through things now rather than wait until time passes to see the humor. You bring laughter to others.
8. You are resilient to stress, criticism, bad behavior and the little annoyances in life. You have learned how to masterfully handle life’s irritations and know how to diffuse stress in your own way.
9. You are physically and mentally healthy, taking time to practice self-care, eat healthy and live a healthy lifestyle. You choose health and incorporate daily rituals and practices to keep your spirit, mind and body strong and flexible.
10. You keep things in perspective, have an open mind, and keep fear at bay. You dwell in the realm of possibility and positivity. You think the best of yourself, others and situations. You let things flow and believe in the rhythm nature. You believe in the power of the Universe, Source and Spirit to work things out how they are supposed to be. You believe the Universe has more control than you and you let go and let it flow.
Keep in mind these key areas to creating your well-being so you can go out and do well in the world. Keep your balance so you may bring your best self to your work and to the world.
Do You Inspire Your Clients – Are You an Inspired Entrepreneur or Exec?
July 9, 2010 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
Are you inspired by your work? Are you inspired by how you serve your clients? If not, why not? Inspiration is different than motivation. Both come from within with the energy and feeling of spirit inside. Inspiration spreads outward, so if your work isn’t inspiring to you, there’s no way others would pay to work with you or want to be around you. If you don’t give a hoot, then neither do your clients or colleagues. You’re just marking time and time is our life energy. So you’re just wasting your life if you’re not doing something that inspires you towards a greater good.
I hear from so many clients that they’re not liking their work, but don’t know what’s wrong. I would ask that you compartmentalize your work into segments dealing with who you’re serving, how you’re serving them, who you may be working for (your boss, organization, yourself), what you’re serving, what the big picture and outcome is of your product or service.
Sometimes pinpointing that you love your mission, but don’t like the distribution channel, or you love the actual work, but not the person you’re working for or the location, or the population you’re serving. If you can figure out how to take the good parts of what you do, the inspirational parts and separate them out from what is not inspiring; you’re on the right track.
When you’re feeling inspired, it will resonate with others. Those feelings set off vibrations in others that compel them to work with you or repel them from being around you. They may not know it, but it’s just an uneasy feeling.
Your clients feel inspired by you when you help them feel successful and fabulous about themselves, their work or their organization. You light them up. When they feel inspired, it activates possibilities and transformation in their lives. If they feel uninspired, they do nothing to uplevel their business or their lives.
Create your work to first inspire you, then it will inspire others. Power and passion resonate from inspirational people. Mediocrity and busy work resonate from uninspired workers. What are you doing to inspire yourself, inspire your team, inspire your clients?
What You Think is Right, May Only Be Cultural
July 5, 2010 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
It was on the Ivory Coast of Africa while facilitating teambuilding and communication style workshops with members from 34 different African nations who all worked for the same international organization. Bringing some assemblance of order, cultural understanding, corporate culture adherence and just plain getting your point across was no small feat.
The main point was that what we think of as ‘right’ may only be cultural. It is our belief, our values, the way we think nad behave based upon what we learned from our parents, society, supervisors and general socialization. We can take this further in business and in life by saying what we think of as the right thing to do may be based upon regional, national, familial, political, gender specific, religious or corporate cultural norms.
We can take this to personal relationships and how we run our families and households to how we celebrate traditions or how we offer ourselves to the world. We see this play out in corporate culture not only among different nationalities, but in every single individual and what ideologies and work ethics they bring to the workplace. The clash between Baby Boomers, Traditionalists and the New Generation X and Y’s is a classic example of who holds what important and how they get things done.
Blending your personal cultural values with your corporate culture or even if it’s your personal corporation for entrepeneurs can be a tricky minefield. When you catch yourself saying ‘they should’ or ‘he shouldn’t’ or ‘that’s a stupid rule’, you may need to take a fresh perspective on the situation. Whenever you hear the words ‘should’ come out of your mouth, it’s a red flag that you’re in somebody else’s business or placing your way of ‘right’ onto somebody or something else.
Managing the ‘rightness’ of how things are done in your partnership, in your work, with your coach, in your family or in moving through the world takes awareness that your ‘right’ may not be somebody else’s ‘right’. Seeing the world through a different pair of eyes gives us a new perspectice. Even is that someone else is a new and improved you.
After working with coaches, I am continually gaining new insight and new perspective on how I do my life and my work. I find where I once saw the ‘right’ line, is now a more flexible noodle of a line. It’s softer, more flexible, more gray and moveable. I find myself saying ‘isn’t that an interesting way to look at things’ much more often. Who is coaching you to take a look at what’s right or what doesn’t work in your life and in your business? Is your ‘right line’ bold, straight and immoveable or does it have some play or is it open for discussion?
I invite you to be more open and aware of different ‘rights’ that pop into your life and take a gander, then ask yourself ‘who says it’s right?’.
ACTUAL Social Networking with Clients, Colleagues, Friends & Family
June 22, 2010 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully, Wealthy Woman | By Gaia Hart
A recent TV commercial for Coleman camping equipment stating that they were the original social networking site with their little green stoves reminded me that getting back to ACTUAL socializing has become a lost art.
Don’t get me wrong, I believe digital social networking is aaaahmazing and blogging is freedom of expression in its purest form. I also believe the lost art of actually visiting with people face to face and not just through facebook is a pretty cool thing. I also think that the art of sending cards and gifts through the snail mail postal system is another art that isn’t near extinction yet, but it’s been fading into the background.
Research shows that only 3% of our mail is personal and the rest is filled with marketing, logos and bills. More data suggests that 83% of people would rather receive a paper greeting card than an electronic greeting card. It means the sender spent a little more time thinking of you and spent a little extra care in creating or selecting the card. What would happen if you sent more greeting cards and gifts to friends, family, clients and colleagues?
What would happen if you became more social and invited them to lunch or to coffee to connect? What about sending them a Thanks a Latte card wiht a $5 or $10 Starbucks card in it and invite them to join you to catch up, to actually socialize and network.
The greeting card industry shows that most people send about 10 cards per year, but they have a need to send about 70 cards per year. Now you have a system at your disposal to actually send actual greeting cards, gift cards, gifts and postcards in a couple minutes from your computer for less than the cost of a retail greeting card. You can completely customize your cards with your handwriting and photos. When you click the SEND button, your card is printed, stuffed, stamped and mailed for you in 24 hours. I’m in love with this system of sending out cards and gifts.
It allows me to connect with my tribe on a regular basis and allows me to express how I feel about them simply and easily. The best part is it allows me to acknowledge and appreciate them and make their day. I know appreciation wins over self promotion every single time and what I send out comes back to me exponentially. I choose to send out positive vibes every single day to stay connected.
How are you choosing to stay connected with your network? How do you choose to socialize and actually meet, greet and make other’s days? I choose to add love, light and joy to my day by sending positive thoughts through pictures, words and deeds.
How are you making the days of your network? If you want to brighten somebody’s day, my treat, and test drive this vehicle for the Law of Attraction; send me an email at Gail@GailHahn.com and I’ll set up a gift account for you to send a card on me. Let me know how it works out and how it feels to make somebody’s day with an unexpected social card.
Check out this and other videos on the page to view the power of gratitude and appreciation and how sending out to give can change lives:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi5kxE57Oio&list=PLtUVv9eXCdIKmF4MMCOVMBuzeZ1nrrUQF
