From a Worm to a Butterfly

The steps a caterpillar takes in becoming a beautiful, colorful butterfly is a great metaphor. I often speak with my clients about the comfort of their "cocoon" and how the cocoon represents our habits, routines...what we know...whether it's working or not...it's comfortable and safe.

To EMERGE as a butterfly...leaving the warmth and safety of the cocoon, requires six steps.

1. Determination: How hungry for success or change are you? Your want or hunger will fuel your motivation to see the results or changes you want. How big is YOUR want?

2. Inspiration: Why do you want what you want? What is inspiring your to see the growth you desire? Where will you get inspiration from?

3. Vision: What is your vision for yourself? What are you trying to accomplish? How will life look different after you have emerged from that cocoon? (Flying like a butterfly instead of laying in a cocoon!)

4. Initiative: You must take action to make it happen. Ask for help, do research or just take small steps forward. Chew a little, rest, chew a little more, rest. Just start nibbling.

5. Network: Create strategic partners, create a support system - ask for assistance. Who can support you in making the changes and taking the small steps? How will you create the support?

6. Believe: Rid yourself of negative and limiting beliefs. Believe in yourself. You are no longer a worm, you are a beautiful butterfly. How will you accept this new belief? Write an affirmation for yourself and post it somewhere you see it everyday and repeat it to yourself constantly.

What's ready to EMERGE in you? What's keeping you in the comfort of the cocoon?
Imagine the possibilities living life as a butterfly...free to fly above the trees, take nectar and pollen from flowers...spreading your beauty throughout the land.

Top 10 Ingredients to a Successful Visualization

Anticipating an event, competition, or a stressful situation can cause people to feel anxious, uncertain or even fearful. Anticipating the start of race, giving a presentation or giving birth (flying in a plane) can all elicit anxious feelings. When we focus on our “what ifs” that can run through our minds the anxious feelings only increase. The “what ifs” also play out in our minds in not only words, but in pictures as well. Our “what ifs” are the movie we’re living. What you see is what you believe.

Many of our challenges in life, sports and in business can be handled by changing our “what ifs”. How many times have you imagined an outcome to a life event that you were certain would not be favorable? The event probably went just as you imagined, right?

Champions in life, sports and in business use visualization strategies to overcome feelings of anxiety, perform at their best and to increase their energy and enjoyment. Every visualization has 10 important ingredients.

1.Begin by relaxing.
A relaxed mind equals a relaxed body.
Quiet your body and your mind. Relax your breathing.
2.It must be real, right now, in the present moment.
3.Use all of your senses.
Actively engage what it feels, tastes, smells, sounds, and looks like to perform exactly as you would like to.
4.Use repetition and small doses.
Practice your visualization in small doses. Start out with 5 minutes. Stop. Then do it again for just 5 minutes. Try to increase your time to a maximum of 20 minutes, two to three times a day.
5.Use different perspectives.
Imagine seeing yourself perform through the lens of a camera. Try the zoom lens and the wide lens. See yourself from the front, the back, and the side. See it from your mind’s eye and as an observer.
6.Utilize your emotions
Feel your excitement, your pride, as you visualize your performance.
7.It’s time to be perfect
The best time to be a perfectionist is in your visualization. See yourself performing perfectly.
8.Use past successes to fuel and energize you.
Recall past successes. Recall the emotions, your senses to energize and build your confidence.
9.Incorporate affirmations
Utilize positive self-talk. Repeat affirmations to yourself.
10.Practice, practice, practice.
Like any skill the more you practice, the better you become.

Be a Victor, Not a Victim

It's so easy to get into the mindset of being a victim. Easy to ask yourself why this or that happened to you? To feel like the sky is falling. To get so easily caught up in your own negative dialog. Feeling like a victim.

Feeling like a victor requires a perspective change. A victor sees challenges as opportunities. Opportunities to grow, learn, and expand. Overcome...be victorious!

However, when life feels like you are constantly on the receiving end of the "short end of the straw," it's hard to not feel like a victim.

So how might you move from feeling like a victim to a victor?
Here's some ideas:

1. Are you grateful? Check your pulse.
Find 3 things each day that you are grateful for. It can be as simple as your own pulse. Because having a pulse means you have been blessed being here. I'm sure there are others out there that would love to have a pulse...for one more day...but they don't.

2. Go out and do something nice for someone else.
Doing for others helps plant seeds for happiness. It also gets you out of your own rut.

3. Know that being a victim is an option.
You don't have to buy into the feeling of being a victim. You have a choice. Start one small action towards overcoming your situation. One small step.

4. See the challenge as an opportunity to overcome and be victorious.
Close your eyes and visualize yourself overcoming the obstacles. See how you will feel when your are standing, arms raised in victory. See how your life will be different, feel your strength.

5. Get support.
Sometimes a little support and guidance in seeing challenges as opportunities is needed. Research, ask friends, hire a coach.

Preparing and Planning

Last night I gave a talk to a group of high school baseball players on the benefits of mentally preparing for both practice and games. Mental preparation for sports is a great parallel to life. Just as in sports it's important to prepare mentally for your day.

Mental preparation includes imagery, positive self talk, relaxation or arousal techniques. In athletics, these ingredients prepare the athlete for performance in allowing them to rehearse how they want their performance to go, stay relaxed and prepare a strategy. Having the mind rehearse the performance builds inner confidence, positive thoughts and thus a better performance.

In life use this principal to prepare for your day. Take the time each morning to lay out your day. See yourself handling a busy day with calmness, stay positive and work your plan. Visualize yourself handling the unexpected things with calmness and clarity. While you can't predict what exactly will happen in a day, you do have choices about how you react.

Your thoughts are in your control. Your thoughts direct your focus, confidence and performance. Think positively, direct your focus, plan your day, then confidently perform your best.

Happiness

Random thoughts, findings, and quotes about happiness:

*Happiness is not something that comes to you
*It's something you create, now, today.
*Waiting for something to change in order to be happy is waiting to live your life.
*It's not what happens that counts-it's how you react to what happens.
*Finding happiness is like finding yourself
*You can't find happiness - you make happiness.
*Do what brings YOU the most meaning and contentment in your life
*Know what you want. Not knowing what you want can be confusing and frustrating.
*Break-out of routine; routines can be an obstacle. Breaking out will allow you to see things differently.
*Know your personal values; and live by them.
*share your happiness. Make others happy and you become happy as a result
*The cause of unhappiness is attachment.
*"Attachment is an emotional state of clinging caused by the belief that without some particular thing you can not be happy. Again and again we need to let go." -Anthony de Mello
*We tend to look outside ourselves for happiness. (the right car, house, job, spouse, friends)
*Seek happiness from within; not outside. Happiness is a state of mind; a state of being. Not doing or having.
*"Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly may alight upon you." - Nathanial Hawthorne

Move Toward the ROAR!!

I recently heard a story about how lions hunt that is a great metaphor for life. The story goes like this: In Africa older male lions will line themselves up so that they are standing along side Gazelles. The younger male lions will place themselves in the opposite direction. When the older male lions give a loud, "ROAR", the gazelles turn and run the other way; right towards the younger male lions who will chase them down and kill them.
The interesting thing about this story, is that if the gazelles ran toward the ROAR, they probably would be safe. The older male lions could not chase them!

In life, when we embark on making changes in our lives. Our fears and our own voices get louder trying to have us stay where we are. Our loud voices and fears cause us to run the other direction. However, when we move towards the ROAR...we quiet the voices and move in the direction we really want to move in.

Move towards the ROAR! The pay-off is much bigger than the ROAR itself.

The Magic of Thinking BIG

I've been having a great time hosting DreamBoard Nights. I think it's important to have a vision for ourselves. And, I like to challenge others to THINK BIG! Create a BIG vision for yourself. The real challenge is letting go of the "how tos" and the "I can'ts" and just let your imagination fly. Create the ideal life. Afterall, anyone can think small; most people do. Most people see themselves in the same place in life, doing or not doing the same things all because of limited beliefs or conditioned thinking.

Don't think about what is possible, think about what might seem nearly impossible, that would require you to grow, move, and shift beyond who you currently are. Think about what you have always wanted to do or have in your life!

"If you can dream it, you can achieve it." - Walt Disney

Thinking big equals going big. Thinking small means staying small. We all have the choice of how we think. I believe we have one shot at this life, so why not make it great? Make your life something that you are proud of.

Thinking big...or creating a DreamBoard does not mean "pie in the sky"...like suddenly having all you want or doing unbelievable acts. It simply means stretching yourself to grow into a bigger picture. Believing that you are capable of being all that you are.

DreamBoards and Thinking BIG...are a way to stretch yourself, your mind and your beliefs to grow into something you already are...but are afraid of.

So, why think small when you can think big? Thinking big opens all kinds of new, endless possibilities.