Recession, Schmecession – We’re in Transition, Baby!
August 14, 2009 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully, Wealthy Woman | By Gaia Hart
There are a couple different ways to look at what the economy and most Americans are going through right now – a recession or a transition. I’ve always chosen to see what we can learn from a situation and the more positive outcomes of a not-so-positive- at- first-glance situation.
As my mentor, Million Dollar Wealth Acceleration Coach, David Neagle explained to us one day, it’s merely the winter season in the life of the economy. We’ve had our excesses, our Spring and our harvest and now is merely a time to re-group and transition the way we do our life, the way we do our business in order to thrive. Some won’t make it through the winter and some will thrive as they adapt to it. You can catch a part of his teachings through his complimentary 4-part audio series The Art of Success. It will whet your appetite for more learning on the new way of doing business in today’s economy.
I figure it’s similar to the ‘mid-life crisis’ – you can either look at it as a crisis or as a mid-life metamorphosis and a transition into something different and yes, even better complete with all the wisdom you hopefully gained in the earlier years. So crisis, schmisis, I say let’s look forward to change and transition and making us pay attention and shake things up. It’s a time in your life where you get permission to go crazy, do things out of character, try something new and different, be who you want to be regardless of what anybody else things. Age gives us that permission.
Having moved 26 times in the past 30 years in Europe and the US, I’ve experienced a few transitions. My advice would be to travel light, be flexible, keep an open mind to learning and how to adapt to your new environment. Look around at your new space and only keep what serves you best. If it doesn’t serve who you are currently or who you are becoming, jettison it immediately. The same in business, if it isn’t working, then move on to something new that still stays true to your authentic self and your higher purpose. All the other stuff is just noise and distraction and holding you back.
How are you doing your life differently now? How is your business or marketing changing to fit the new times? How are you thinking differently to adjust? Times have changed and we need to change with them if we expect to embrace the new economy. Cash is still flowing – I see it in Vegas every day. High-end products are still being sold and bought and those with the right perspective and insight will see their way to the next season. Stay tuned for future teleclasses, VIP Sessions and Energy Escapes I’ll be hosting on how to Energize Your Life at Every Level.
Are Your Working Out of Inspiration or Desperation?
July 29, 2009 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully, Wealthy Woman | By Gaia Hart
Here’s the thing – if you’re working out of desperation, it drains your energy, wears down your psyche and saps your soul. If you’re only working for the money, it won’t work for you. It’s not fulfilling. Work was never meant to do just for money. Work was something performed so we could fully express whatever it was we needed to fully express and the pay was the by-product of sharing our knowledge, skills, abilities, gifts and talents. Working out of inspiration builds our resilience to what the world throws our way. Working out of desperation drains our resilience reserves.
If you’re working out of inspiration, your energy soars, your soul sings, you feel fulfilled and you share your gifts and blessing with the world and give value and in return you get value back in many different forms. Yes, that includes money.
Money is currency and currency is energy so when you give out lots of energy, you receive it back, because energy never goes away, it just changes form. It’s about giving of ourselves, giving our inspired energy and giving value, then let the energy flow back as it may.
I’ve found I need to be working out of inspiration and have chosen to align myself with companies that inspire me and that offer a way to make a living through GIVING vs. GETTING. That’s why my heart work (not hard work) is through www.BizBuilderCards.com because I get to do my art, be creative and fully express my message and feelings to make people’s days and help make their dreams come true.
What do you get out of the relationship with your job? Why do you show up each day and what do you want to accomplish? Do you have a master plan for showing up for life, or are you just clocking in and clocking out? I’m sure you know of colleagues who have retired years ago, but they just keep showing up for work each day to collect a paycheck.
What can you do to get inspired about your work? Make a list of what you do and don’t like about the different qualities and characteristics of your profession or your job. What can you change about it to make it more inspiring? What can you do to inspire others. As Zig Ziglar, the famous grandfather of motivation speaking so eloquently states: If you help enough people get what they want, you will get what you want.
What are you doing to help other people get what they want and get where they want to go? Are you embracing empathy and kindness into your day? What would you do in emergency situations and how far would you go to do the right thing?
Are you working out of inspiration or desperation? What would it take to be inspired? Are you inspiring those you work with and work for? Are you inspired by them? Are you filling up your resilience reserves by keeping inspired and finding more ways to be inspired? Or are you phoning it in, waiting to clock out and retire? What would need to change for you to be living an inspired life?
Edit, Add, Appreciate, Energize
October 20, 2008 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
Sunday evenings seem to be a time to get revved up for the coming week. It’s at this time when I tend to think about these 3 simple things that will energize me for the coming week – moving me forward in creating the life I want to lead.
- Edit: What can I edit from my life this week? A material object, thoughts, habits, behaviors, people, work or activities that don’t serve me well any more. It could be an article of clothing, a negative perception, a food, an annoying or sniggly trait. Let it go and move on to greener pastures. What is holding you back or what is causing your stress that you need to edit? Where are your bottlenecks or frustrations? Do you have excesses in your life that you need to edit or dial down? How about unfettered consumerism, debt, or unbridled shopping or retail therapy that is out of control. Edit your perspective on your point of enoughness, your needs and wants.
- After all my moves, I’ve realized you can’t just edit once and be done with it for material things. Life changes and your needs, wants and priorities change. That’s why I keep going back to re-edit and simplify. Pare down to the essence of what it is that creates joy and happiness in your life and edit out the clutter – internal or external clutter.
- Add: What can I add to my life that will bring me more joy, happiness, energy, health, wealth or whatever. Reinvent one thing such as perceptions, creations, activities, objects, recipes, people, business contacts, a route to work or walk, a new friend, new music or a new book. How about adding new beliefs or trading some of the old beliefs that may not be true to you now for what works for you as an adult. Take inventory of what your parents taught you that worked when you were 8 or 18, but not when you’re 48. Times have changed and our thought processes and perhaps some beliefs should change as well. Our beliefs rule our behaviors and our results. What can you add or edit in that area? What might be missing in your life that you’d like to add for a fuller, richer experience on Earth?
- Appreciate: What or who needs more appreciating this week? More fully appreciate someone or something and say your gratitude out loud or to yourself for these things. Act on your promptings. Send a card right now to somebody who needs to hear from you: send me an email and I’ll show you how to send a free card at Gail@BizBuilderCards.com. The more you do it, the more it gets ingrained into your brain. Do this one on a daily basis for even more impact than weekly and this can become a new habit that you add which adds to other people’s lives. Appreciate your surroundings, show your acknowledgement to those who serve you, rejoice in your beautiful environment. If it’s not so beautiful – add to it or edit to make it so. Who needs to hear from you today or who needs appreciating?
Decision Making: Fear-Based or Faith-Based
September 25, 2008 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
If you are faced with personal or professional decisions and feeling stuck, or if you feel that your decision may not have turned out how you would have liked; take a look at what may be keeping you stuck. Are you mired in ambivalence or scared to make a decision because you are fearful of the unknown? Is it sucking the energy out of you going over and over in your head about “what if” when faced with a big decision?
Don’t allow “what if” to stop you by thinking of things you fear happening. Let “what if” help you sprout wings to soar beyond your imagination can take you. Ask “what if” to bask in possibility thinking and dwell in the realm of creative, faith-based thought. Having faith that what you desire will be met with the resources to make it come true.
We waste loads of emotional energy on decision making, whether it be for work or for our well-being. We know emotion is actually energy in motion and emotional energy makes up about 70% of our total energy. That’s why you may still feel tired after getting much rest if your brain is working overtime dealing with emotional issues.
Are you making your decisions based on fear or faith? We usually get stuck because we are paralyzed by the fear of the unknown and the fear of letting go of what once was and moving on to what could be. We’ve got to reach a point where the fear of the unkown is much less than the current situation. Having faith that your decisions will met positively, faith in yourself for making good decisions based on your instincts and information gathering, and faith that the universe is abundant and will provide for you, if that’s what you desire.
Making decisions based on fear means not going down the path you really want, your outcomes fall short, you short-change yourself, you’re not really truly satisfied – you feel you’ve settled. You are left with a wanting something better. You’re playing not to lose instaed of playing to win. Decisions based on fear leaves you still wanting for more because it isn’t exactly right – there is lack.
Making decisions based on faith keeps you moving forward. Making decisions based on faith may seem awkward at first, but then becomes powerful beyond belief. Decisions based on faith feels like you arrived, it feels right and it feels good. It is empowering. Fear is only in our minds anyway – it’s only a perception, so let it go. Thank it for making you aware and then release that feeling and move forward in faith. It will energize you to no end.
So what is holding you back from a big decision? What decisions would you make if you could do no wrong? What would you do to move forward in your personal or professional life if you had the faith it would work out? I may have mentioned it before and it’s worth repeating: It all works out in the end. If it’s not working out, it’s not the end.
“I’ve Had It” Moments
September 5, 2008 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
Have you ever had any “I’ve Had It” moments? Those moments that you know are the turning point of your not tolerating something one more time? It’s the time you make a decision that your life will change from that moment on. It all starts with awareness, then a decision, and finally action towards something else.
I’ve experienced several of those moments recently and looking back at turning points in my life, they stemmed from those moments that I decided in faith and not in fear that I would no longer tolerate the current status quo.
Here are some of my moments:
- Saying goodbye to the W2 life of a j-o-b and hello to the entrepreneurial lifestyle. You don’t get vacation days, you don’t get sick pay, you don’t get your medical insurance covered, but you get your life. I preferred not to be held hostage to other people’s policies for a dental plan to gain my freedom and create my own security.
- Ending toxic relationships – business partnerships, bosses from hell, jerks, personal connections, firing clients. If people are making your life harder rather than easier and they bring you more stress, hurt, hardship, and disrespect than peace, love, happiness and support; then I make some hard decisions and walk. If your sanity or self worth are short-changed in the presence of particular people, lace up your running shoes and exit stage right. Some people are meant to be in your life for a reason, a season, or forever. It’s our task to decide which one it is and gracefully let go if the answer is not forever.
- Not tolerating airport shuttle vans. After over 20 years of traveling 3-8 times per month, being herded like cattle, whiplash at every turn and being subjected to every hotel and terminal stop, I decided to ride in the backs of cars and hire a sedan service from now on. My nerves, my time, my comfort are all saved because of it. What is your time, comfort and sanity worth to you?I’m thinking I should have made this wise decision about taking care of myself in this matter years ago.
- Never again staying at hotels with slippery polyester bedspreads and deluxe velux blankets. Life is too short not to be ensconced in down with nice sheets and pillows. It’s worth it to me to feel supported and cared for when I travel. If we don’t take care of ourselves, who else will do it? I’ve decided I like how I’m treated at some properties over others and I just feel better when I’m in that type of environment. Being welcomed into clean, fresh, polite, friendly, lush environments is rejuvenating after a stressful day.
- I will only live in an inspirational environment that supports who I am becoming as well as who I am now. I won’t tolerate being trapped in my home because of the hot or cold climate. That means surrounding myself with beauty, peace, quiet, great climate,wonderful people, fabulous views and with a simplified palette of the things that bring me joy – namely photos of people and places from a life well lived. How does your environment support who you are now or who you are becoming? Or is it a mere reminder of who you used to be, old ways of thinking, old styles, past lives of who you used to be? I once craved a house full of European antiques. I collected them when I lived in Europe for 10 years and then had to build a house around all of them when I returned stateside. After living with my dream for 20 years, I recently decided they weren’t me any more and divvied them out to friends and dealers. Now I enjoy my fun, simple, minimized furnishings that speak to my style of Comfortable Vitality. It’s refreshing.
Making decisions based on the faith that your situation will be better for it, that you can manifest what you need that supports you better and believing you deserve it can take you to a new level of living. Making decisions based on fear that you can’t afford it, don’t deserve it, what will people think, who do you think you are, or fear that if you let go of one thing another something better won’t appear, doesn’t serve you well.
Become aware of your “I’ve Had It” Moments and recognize when your tolerance level has hit the high water mark. Then take action to change it so you can energize your life for the better. You can’t live to your greatest fulfillment if you keep tolerating things, people, places, situations that don’t support you in your true path. I believe these things are put in our lives to irritate us into making a decision to choose otherwise and to choose our right path that leads us to a better life.
What are you choosing to do? What are you choosing to walk away from or not tolerate any more? What are you choosing to walk toward after you’ve experienced one of those moments? What are you scared of if you are ambivelant about walking away? When you feel stuck, it’s usually because you won’t yet let go of the old before embracing the new. Recognize any patterns of your stress or physical, mental or emotional discomfort. If the patterns continue, those are clues leading up to an “I’ve Had It” moment…. you will know what to do. Then make a decision and take action.
Your Thoughts Reside Outside Your Head: Complaining vs. Engaging
July 22, 2008 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
Your thoughts are not only in your mind, they are in your body and in your environment as well. When you change your mind, you change your energy, and when you change your energy, you change your life. Your thoughts can help you bounce back, pull you out of a slump, and increase your resilience or decrease it. You also change the environment around you and influence how people treat you.
When you are caught in a downward energy spiral of complaining, you are focused inward and miss the outside world. You are essentially trapped in your negative energy and your perception is creating your environment to a degree. Dr. Masaru Emoto has scientifically proven that thoughts and feelings affect physical reality. In his book The Hidden Messages in Water, his subjects focused different intentions on frozen water molecules. His mesmerizing findings showed that the water labeled with kind, loving thoughts formed beautiful, symmetrical, snowflake-like, colorful crystals. While the frozen water exposed to negative thoughts and visions formed distorted, incomplete and dull crystals.
Our thoughts do, indeed affect our environment and people around us. Our bodies are 75% water – imagine how our thoughts are affecting the water in our bodies. Our thoughts affect our outcomes.
Research has shown that 70% of our thoughts are negative. Imagine what may happen if you change those thoughts to a positive perspective. When you are lost in complaining or negative thoughts, you miss what’s going on around you. Complaining puts stress on your body, telling it that “what is” is not what you want it to be. Stress affects our bodies with an increase in cortisol – a stress hormone which increases abdominal fat. No wonder American’s are so obese – we’re stressed out!
Be aware of your present moment, your surroundings, your thoughts and be fully engaged in what’s going on now. Pay attention to who you’re with, what you’re doing, how you’re feeling, what you’re thinking and practice being alive and engaged in the present moment. Being fully engaged means bringing your total presence to what you’re doing: mental, emotional, physical and spiritual energy all working together in total participation. This does not bode well for multi-tasking. Practice staying out of your head and into your life. Practice focus, practice positive intention, practice being present and see what happens. Being mindful with positive intentions and positive focus on the future helps us increase our resilience.
Love: Energize Yourself, Your Connections & Your Business
July 11, 2008 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully, Wealthy Woman | By Gaia Hart
I’ve been taking the most amazing teleclass about the 7 Mindset and Manifesting Secrets of Multimillionaires as well as reading much about the keys to success. Always open to learning more about the way people operate. What keeps popping up is the word LOVE. When we operate from love, everything else falls into place. When we operate from a powerful center of love and not from fear, everything is where it should be.
As my friend and business partner Mandy told me – everything turns out in the end and if it’s not turning out, it’s not the end.
My friend and business partner Jennifer told me the reason she got into the Send Out Cards business with me is that she always saw my happy, smiling face and the happy people around me at my trade-show tables. She said it looked like so much fun that she wanted to have that in her life. Because I LOVE what I do – almost always have and when I didn’t, I made changes to do what I did love to do. It shows. I can see huge differences in my energy when I’m doing what I love and helping other people do what they love.
Enabling the dreams of others and creating connections, building relationships, helping people and using communication – speaking, writing, Send Out Cards, books, blogs etc. is what gives me energy. People and my relationships to them give me energy. I send several cards every single day to people letting them know I appreciate them and building connections in my life. I know that love surrounds me – beauty surrounds me.
That’s why I moved to the beach. Walking on the beach 3 times per day with my dog Madison – I love it, she loves it. It’s inspiring. It makes me happy to see her happy. She was a rescue who was a puppy mill breeder. For 5 years she lived outside in a 10 x 10 pen in Missouri with no shelter, 5 other dogs with a cement pad and chainlink fence. She never had the pleasure of feeling her legs run. She never had the joy of romping more than 10 feet. Now when I see her face light up as she chases waves, squirrels, birds, bunnies – it brings me such joy. We have a connection that we both love our freedom to roam and run and romp as we choose.
What more can you put into your life that you love? What can you remove that you don’t love? What connections can you make to add more love into your life? Where can you live to do what you love? What connections can you sever in order to move closer to love in other areas of your life?
My friend and business partner Paul sent me this profound 3-minute video that’s all about love and connections. I’m a sucker for animal stories and this one is quite moving about the power of love. Get out your hankies – I’m pretty sure it will move you to tears as it did for me. Click HERE to watch it.
What’s Your Happiness Factor?
July 6, 2008 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Wealthy Woman | By Gaia Hart
Do you expect things to go your way – is the universe conspiring in your favor?
Do you have loving, supportive relationships?
Do you lead a purposeful life and live consciously?
Do you feel like you have some control over your time, your stuff, your space, your situation, your life?
Do you feel like you are in the flow of your work or personal interests – challenged enough to be interesting and enjoyable?
Do you have a positive outlook and practice some form of spirituality?
The more questions you could answer with a resounding YES, recent studies show that you are more likely to be happy than those who couldn’t answer an affirmative. Happy people exude energy. Energy begets energy. If you are not at the peak of your happiness factor; take a look at the areas in your life you could change. Surprisingly simple internal factors such as having a healthy self esteem, a sense of optimism and hope, gratifying relationships and meaningful purpose in your life have the most influence over your well-being.
Let go of the things that are out of your control and practice these bliss-booster tips to improve your happiness quotient:
- Upbeat attitude. When you change your mind, you change your energy and when you change your energy, you change your life. It all starts with a thought – make it a positive one. Setting your intentions to desired outcomes makes all the difference – we attract what we most think about. Where intention goes – energy flows.
- Create a loving, supportive network of your favorite people – get connected – see #5 below. To get good friends, you need to become a good friend. What are you doing to cultivate your relationships and make people’s days? A sense of belonging is not only good for us personally, but professionally as well. Having a good friend at work is one of the key essential elements of a good working environment.
- Hone in on your purpose – know why you are here and act in alignment with your purpose. Purpose brings passion.
- Think solutions – not problems. Your brain will answer any question you offer it. Instead of asking “What else can go wrong?” or “How did I get into this situation?”, ask “How can I turn this around?” or “What is my lesson and how can I learn from this and avoid it in the future?”.
- Cultivate an attitude of gratitude. When you’re grateful, you’re not fearful – count your blessings. Send a card to somebody to let them know you appreciate them at www.BizBuilderCards.com.
- Find your flow and get into it. Become engaged and focused in your activities – where challenge meets knowledge, skills and abilities.
- Cultivate healthy habits – eating, sleeping, exercise, spirituality and smile about it. When we smile, it stimulates the thymus gland, which makes us more resistant to disease. This little practice also tricks our physiology into thinking we are already happy and boosts our mood. As a Certified Laughter Leader, my research has found that laughing and smiling do indeed aid in your happiness factor.
Now take your own inventory and see which areas in your life need a boost. We create a happy life by stringing together happy moments and feeling in control of our life. Take control over the areas that are less than desirable in your life and go get happy. As Eckhart Tolle says, “Unhappiness is unintelligent”.