Time = Money = Life Energy
June 29, 2007 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully, Wealthy Woman | By Gaia Hart
Forget the Euro, time is the currency of the new millennium. Unlike money, which can be earned back and recreated after it’s spent; time cannot be earned back once we spend it. So we need to spend it wisely and in alignment with our values, goals, wants and needs. Be purposeful about the use of your time and guard your time as you would guard your vault, it’s more precious.
We all know that time = money. But it also equals our life energy. When we spend time doing something, like work, we are exchanging our life energy for money. Being aware of how we are spending our life energy will help us decide whether or not we are making good choices with our time and with our life.
Rethink your spending habits of your time and your money. For instance – if you make $10 per hour and want an item that costs $100, then you would need to exchange at least 10 hours of your time for that item. Is that item really worth at least 10 hours of your life to have? In essence, you make far less than your official hourly wage, when you consider the time it takes to commute, buy lunch, buy work clothes, buy gas or subway tokens to get to work. It really boils down to maybe half of your official hourly rate, so that item for $100 realy is costing you about 17 hours of your life….is it worth it?
Make wise choices on how you spend your time and how you spend your money and you will reap richer rewards in the area of your life energy. Be very aware of your boundaries for your time and spend your time on the things and with the people that matter.
Your Transitions, Your Calling, Your Energy
June 28, 2007 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
In the past two weeks I’ve received a dozen phone calls and emails from others telling me of their life transitions and seeking a bridge from what they’ve been doing to what they want to be doing for the next phase of their life. Many have been doing what they think they ‘should’ have been doing, they either studied it in school, they were good at it, or they just got very comfortable, but now bored with it. Three of these people just quit their jobs and others told me they couldn’t believe how much energy they felt after their last day. It’s called FREEDOM. I just received an ezine that stated: employees commisserate and entrepreneurs brainstorm. Enough said on that one.
Note to self: just because you are good at something doesn’t meant you should be doing it as a career.
How do you know you are doing what you should be doing or to stop doing what you’ve been doing? It can be summed up from a passage from The Seat of the Soul:
“When the depest part of you becomes engaged in what you are doing, when your activities and actions become gratifying and purposeful, when what you do serves both yourself and others, when you do not tire within but seek the sweet satisfaction of your life and your work, you are doing what you were meant to be doing. The personality that is engaged in the work of it’s soul is bouyant. It is not burdened with negativity. It does not fear. It experiences purposefulness and meaning. It delights in its work and in others. It is fulifilled and fulfilling.”
As a person experiences “flow”, where their knowledge, skills, abilities and talents are met with the appropriate challenge, all time and space stand still – they are in the zone. That is when you know you are on the right path. When you take the Tingle Test – when you think about your profession and you get chills and tingles just thinking about a career move or an experience, you are on the right path. If the thought of that experience doesn’t move you or thrill you, then you are probably not moving towards your calling.
When you get antsy with your job, then start researching and journaling and finding the delicious intersection of what you love, what you’re good at and what the world needs and will pay for. When you’re on target, it will ignite your energy like you never dreamed.
Lighten Up: Your Energy, Your Light
June 25, 2007 | Posted in Leading Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
Continuing with this light theme and how your energy and light are intertwined, I found a passage from the book “>The Seat of the Soul that is paraphrased below.
You are a system of light and the frequency of your light depends upon your consciousness. When you shift the level of consciousness, you shift the frequency of your light: negative feelings bring on a different frequency of light than positive feelings. Emotions are energy in motion and are currents of energy with differnt frequencies. When you choose to replace a lower-frequency current of energy such as anger with a higher-frequency current of energy such as forgiveness, you raise the frequency of your light.
When you choose to feel negative feelings, despair, worry, or other lower-freqency emotions, then your body feels physically depleted because it has merged with an energy current of lower frequency. Whereas a joyous person abounds with energy, feels bouyant and is running with a higher-frequency current of energy pulsing through their system.
Your thoughts create different emotions, thus different energy and a different light through you. Lower-frequency system pull energy from higher-frequency systems. If you are unaware of your emotions and your thoughts, your frequency will be lowered by and you will lose energy to a system of lower frequency than your own. By choosing your thoughts and by selecting which emotional currents you will release and which you will reinforce, you determine the quality of your light. You determine the affects that you will have upon others, and the nature of the experiences of your life.
Light represents consciousness – are you walking around unconscious or fully aware? Are you on auto pilot, commuting to the same work day after day and not feeling that it matters or that it’s not making a difference. Or are you completely conscious of your energy, your activities and the meaning behind them? Are you consciously attracting the things you want into your life and giving thanks for them with your attitude of gratitude, or are you just showing up for life each day? What kind of light is radiating from you? What are you doing to illuminate more in your life? What would it take for your light to shine brighter?
You Make the Call – Gruntled or Disgruntled
June 24, 2007 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
We always have a choice – a choice to be an energy radiator or an energy drain. We also have a choice to either accept or reject somebody else’s energy they are projecting onto us. We have a choice to take it personally, or to mirror back their energy, or to let our own light shine onto them whether it will be connected to their own bright light or overshadow their dark light. When we let our own light shine on, we increase our resilience and cast a light on others.
Light opens up darker spaces, so I choose to let my light shine into some of the shadows that may come into my life. For instance, I once spent a blissful holiday in Santa Fe at a B & B that fell a little short of the expectations for the room, but the breakfasts were aaaaaahmazing. Their chef on the first day was simply charming, had incredible food and was a delight to be around. It set the tone for a perfectly heavenly day with divine company on a glorious sunny day in their courtyard. Her light shown onto her food, her guests, and you could feel it in the air.
The next day a different chef put a decidedly negative flair to the whole affair. Her demeanor was much more of one who had to be there for her job, rather than one who delighted in serving her artistic creations to others and bask in their delight. Her edgy, prickly attitude tried to sneak into my deliriously happy day and get me cranky.
We have choices to be either gruntled or disgruntled, to live our life and invite work into our life we are leading anyway, or to make work out of life. One chef shared her love of life through her cooking and the other just worked at it, and it showed that she had to be there to pick up a pay check.
When you have a choice, why not choose between being happy and deliriously happy instead of happy or grumpy. We don’t always have control over what comes to us (in fact, very little control over what comes to us.) but we do have a choice in how we react to it. How are your reactions lately? What do you choose to be… gruntled or disgruntled…it’s up to you. You can make the call and you decide on your energy level and what to do with it and how others affect it. You can mirror back their light or let yours outshine the darkness. Focusing on shining your light will boost your resilience when you decide to be gruntled.
Are You Crazy or Lucky – How’s Your Energy?
May 8, 2007 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully, Wealthy Woman | By Gaia Hart
I just returned from an amazing week in Cabo – among some of the finest minds I’ve ever witnessed. The energy in the conference room of 250 entrepreneurs, wealth builders and investors was palpable. Most of our guest speakers commented on the energy in the room. Being a professional speaker, I could relate to what they were saying about feeling the energy of the room. It’s electric in some crowds and void in others. The reason why this crowd was vibrating on a higher fequency was that we all knew that we are in charge of creating our own future and we have a plan to get there.
Unlike so many other audiences who are joined together because of an employer, this group was there by choice and they were in tune because they have the wealth road map. It’s amazing how much more energy you have when you are on the path to wealth and life’s riches – not just money riches, but prosperity in all forms.
One of our speakers was a developer in Los Cabos – on the Baja Penninsula – owning a reported huge percentage of the land down there. He said when you do things against the norm of the masses, you are considered crazy. When it begins to see that things are working out for you, then you are called a visionary. One of our other speakers was Steadman Graham. You may have heard of his significant other, Oprah. He also spoke on the belief in yourself and your vision. See photo of me showing him my vision board I created on a card to carry with me at all times at www.BizBuilderCards.com.
When all is said and done and your pathway has lead to success, you are considered lucky. So are people calling you crazy? Are they calling you a visionary? Or are they telling you that you’re lucky? That may just be the evidence you need to show just how far you’ve come.
When you’re on your right path, your energy will soar. My hair stylist today said now that she has her own shop, she bounds out of bed and comes to work early. She said her old co-workers would never believe it because she was always late when she worked with them. It’s amazing the energy you find when you work for yourself and are in charge of creating your own future.
Energize Employees Through Appreciation with a Twist
April 30, 2007 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
When supervisors dole out praise, it’s often very vague and focused on the entire group such as “You’re doing a great job, keep it up.” Sometimes managers just don’t know what to say or how to say it. After all, you don’t want to say the exact same thing to each person – it can sound contrived. Take a clue from the flight attendants who have mastered the many ways to say hello and goodbye to hundreds of passengers a day. Put a twist on how you praise. These sentence stems should get your brain jump started:
I’m impressed with…
What I particularly liked was…
Our team is better because of your…
You’re on the mark with your… (or the British would say, “You’re spot on with your…”)
You can be proud of yourself for…
I’ve noticed the quality of your work, specifically…
Your contribution of……on that last project was amazing
One of the things your customers rave to me about you is….
Your colleagues have sung your praises about…..
I’ve been noticing your attention to detail and in particular….
How awesome are you to do…..
You rock! Would you like to share some of your trade secrets with our managers….
You really made a difference by….
Our top management has been noticing your work and have commented on….
Take the rest of the day off for your fantastic effort with the…..
One of the things our team enjoys most about working with you is…..
I appreciate your….
You make my day by….
You’re quite a role model because of your….
I’d like to acknowledge your specific role in doing…
This place would not run as effectively if it weren’t for you and your…
That should get your started – go ahead and print this out for your cheat sheet and then write down each of your team member’s names on a day of the week in your calendar and use one of these sentences with each person on their day. Make it a habit.
Now goodbye, see ya, bye now, bye bye, so long, thanks for flying with us, tootles, adios, ciao, auf wiedersehen, see you soon, see you on your next flight….
Beat Boredom at Work
April 23, 2007 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
Have you ever been bored at work? I can’t remember being bored for the past decade since I became psychologically unemployable and started my own company. But I do remember those days in my W-2 job where I would be chomping at the bit to do something meaningful, take action, talk to customers or just have some forward motion. I’m thrilled to be interviewed for a recent article in Vitality Magazine – www.Vitality.com on the topic of how to beat workplace boredom.
My article isn’t shown on their website, so if you want a copy send me an email with the subject of Vitality and I will send you a copy of the article to help you energize your workplace environment. I would also suggest my card deck 51 Winning Ways to Have Fun at Work. It’s a real card deck that has a fun tip on each card, so you can play Go Fish and select an idea to improve workplace morale. And if that falls through, then you can always win some cash by playing a rousing round of poker with the cards.
Here’s a tip to beat boredom – find work that is in alignment with your authentic self, your values, your beliefs and the big picture you envision for your world. What is your big picture and how do you fit your knowledge, skills, abilities and talents into that big picture? Where is that delicious intersection of what the world needs and wants and your special gifts? Find that intersection and you will never be bored, in fact, there won’t be enough time in the day to do everything you want to do to move your vision forward. You may even find it hard to sleep because your mind is racing with new ideas of expanding and growing your dreams and desires.
Check out my other articles on fun in the workplace and improving motivation, morale and meaning at work at: http://www.funcilitators.com/resources.htm. Let me know what else you are doing to beat boredom at your workplace. I’d be delighted to hear from you.
Energize Your Life Through Job Satisfaction
April 18, 2007 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
How happy are you in your job? What is your job satisfaction? Duke University’s study found that job satisfaction was listed as the #1 factor in living a long life. Job satisfaction beat out 788 other factors as the key to longevity – beating out good health habits and good genes. Now there’s more evidence. The 2006 General Social Survey (GSS) at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago cites the most satisfying jobs are mostly professions, especially those involving caring for, teaching and protecting others and creative pursuits after interviewing over 27,000 workers.
Top 10 most gratifying jobs and the percentage of subjects who said they were very satisfied with the job:
Clergy—87 percent percent
Firefighters—80 percent percent
Physical therapists—78 percent percent
Authors—74 percent
Special education teachers—70 percent
Teachers—69 percent
Education administrators—68 percent
Painters and sculptors—67 percent
Psychologists—67 percent
Security and financial services salespersons—65 percent
Operating engineers—64 percent
Office supervisors—61 percent
10 least gratifying jobs, where few participants reported being very satisfied:
Laborers, except construction—21 percent
Apparel clothing salespersons—24 percent
Handpackers and packagers—24 percent
Food preparers—24 percent
Roofers—25 percent
Cashiers—25 percent
Furniture and home-furnishing salespersons—25 percent
Bartenders—26 percent
Freight, stock and material handlers—26 percent
Waiters and servers—27 percent
How satisfied are you with your job? What can you change if your current position if it’s not the most satisfying? What do you love to do and how can you incorporate that (appropriately) into your work? How about not having a job at all? How about making a living without a job? More on that topic later…..