Friday Intention ~ Leaning Into Purpose

by Katherine on February 5, 2010

I‘m finding something really amazing is happening regarding these Friday Intentions. As I ask for the words to materialize each week, the answer arrives from somewhere. This week it came from a friend who is going through a fairly major shift in her business. She reminds herself that as she gets more clarity, and her business transforms into more of what she wants to experience, she is always supported.

So the intention for this week is:

As I lean into my purpose and allow more and more clarity to come, I appreciate the support I receive at all times.

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The Creative Bow Wave

by Katherine on February 3, 2010

I just enjoyed a fabulous week on a cruise ship. The cabin that I was in on the starboard side of the ship (that’s the right side, for all non-nautical people like me). Standing on the verandah, I spent a fair amount of time just watching the boat cut through the water, creating wave after wave as it took us closer to each destination.

It made me think of a session that I had with my coach several months ago where she compared the bow wave – the first wave that ripples out from the bow of the ship – to the reason behind the day to day choices I make.

For me my bow wave is creativity. It’s the constant that flows through my projects, my friendships, my financial situation, my resources, my outlook on life.

It’s the why behind my what.

Bow waves don’t happen when boats stay in the safety of the harbour. Waves rock the boat. They shake things up. They ripple out to the vast ocean, disturbing the surface of the water.

The same is true of creativity. Creativity demands more of us than playing it safe. It shakes things up. It takes us to different destinations and makes us view life from a different perspective. It requires course corrections. It makes our completed projects different from what anyone else in the universe would create, even if they started with the same idea.

Creativity isn’t just about producing something artistic. It’s about taking creative inspiration and flowing it through your business, your book, your article, your day, your conversations. It’s about enjoying life by playing with ideas. It’s about knowing that your thought is creative and choosing what you will do or won’t do.

Celebrate and ride the bow wave!

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Friday Intention ~ Shifting to Inner Security

by Katherine on January 22, 2010

Today I’m leaving for a week long cruise around the Mexican Riviera aboard the Sapphire Princess. I’m so excited because I’ve wanted to go on an Abraham-Hicks cruise for years.

As a result I’ve been thinking about safety and security when traveling in what are viewed by many as uncertain times. When we say goodbye, we say safe trip. On car trips we are advised to drive carefully. The traditional send off for journeys at sea is bon voyage. Such phrases certainly show our caring. They also demonstrate how much emphasis our culture places on safety and security.

The more I study and learn, the more I feel that the real source of security is inside me, in my connection to the Source of All That Is. So I plan on carrying my internal feeling of safety with me, along with my suitcase full of the usual travel items.

It doesn’t matter whether you are at home, on holiday, or driving to the corner grocery store, this intention is for you.

I know that no matter where I am, at home or abroad, when I tap into Divine Intelligence I am guided and protected at all times.

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Friday Intention ~ Course Corrections

by Katherine on January 15, 2010

shiptack2 300x225 Friday Intention ~ Course CorrectionsOne of the books that I’m reading for a course right now is the Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Written during the 1800’s, the language is – well, lets just say it’s not what I’m used to reading in current language.

I find myself saying, “Wait a minute, what did he just say?” and re-reading the same paragraph or sentence. A lot.

But ah, there are the gems. Words that leap from the page and sink into my being. Phrases that have become part of our language today, which is just one indication of why his wisdom has endured for over 100 years. This particular quote was one of them.

I’m not a sailor but my cousin is and he explained to me what tacking is several years ago. When the wind is not in the right direction for a journey of a straight line, a sailor tacks – using the wind to zigzag back and forth to maintain the overall direction of the journey. Which is pretty much what life. We do zigzag, we do course correct constantly. I chose the quote as the basis for this week’s intention, which is more of an affirmation, because I want to celebrate the richness and diversity that ‘tacking’ brings to life.

I appreciate each course correction and zigzag in my life as part of my growth, and I celebrate my life journey of a hundred tacks.

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Can You Begin Without Knowing the End?

by Katherine on January 12, 2010

Thanks to Alison Maslan for writing this post. I appreciate you, Alison.

Is striving for perfection choking you? Are you living your life to the fullest at this moment in time? Do you have the life that you have always dreamed of? If so, congratulations! Meditate a few moments each day on the goodness that you have experienced from your great fortune. If your answer is no, it is never too late to start. So many of my coaching clients tell me they don’t reach their goals because they want everything perfect before they move forward.

They are striving for perfection and it is killing them. They want a perfectly clean house, to say the perfect words and to do perfect work at all times. What is the point of “perfect” anyway? Pressure filled expectations are a sure way to turn any goal into a ball and chain. Many people resist attempting new challenges or setting new goals because they are afraid they will not perform to their ridiculous level of expectation.

As a result, they give up before they ever begin. Then the feelings of disappointment and failure set in. I started taking modern dance in my 30s. The room was full of young women and men that had been dancing since childhood. My mind was aghast as the dance instructor got in front of the class and proceeded to dance several eloquent steps that we were supposed to immediately mirror. I knew I was in trouble as the class was spinning one way and I was tripping the other way (Picture I Love Lucy and the Rockettes).

Through this experience, I learned to laugh at myself and let go of the notion of doing it perfectly. It was not possible for me to keep up with these experts; and attempting to do so was way too much pressure. Once the light bulb came on that I could do something for the fun of it, I relaxed about the outcome. And wouldn’t you know it, I was able to perform in several dance presentations and I had a blast.

If you are not putting yourself out there, reaching toward what you really want because you are afraid of not being perfect, you are missing out on the juiciness of your life. It is the non-perfect part that will be most memorable and uniquely you.

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Allison Maslan, HHP, CCH is a homeopathic physician and the author of Blast Off! The Surefire Success Plan To Launch Your Dreams Into Reality. As a life and business coach, she helps people create a new business and the best chapter of their lives.

The exciting launch of her book, Blast Off! The Surefire Success Plan To Launch Your Dreams Into Reality is coming Tuesday, January 19. To find out how you can buy the book and receive more than 20 beautiful mind-body-spirit gifts during the launch, go to My Blast Off.

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Friday Intention ~ Change as a Gift

by Katherine on January 8, 2010

Yesterday I spent the day planning some changes to two websites that have only been up for two months.

In making notes for my Virtual Assistant about what I wanted now, I had a quick grumble about having to make these changes so soon.

But these changes reflect something important. They are the result of getting clear on my branding message and having new designs done by Pamela Wilson of Zurek Design. Getting clear about my message was something I’d been trying to do for approximately two years.

After allowing myself ten seconds to grumble (there, that’s done!), I decided to look at the changes as a gift. As my thought is creative, even the changes of two months ago were part of the process of getting to where I am now. And who knows where I could be two months into the future?

Looking at change as a gift is the theme of this week’s Friday Intention.

Icelebrate change in my life as a gift. I am open to what it brings, and accept that it happens as a result of my own personal evolution.

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Creating a New Form

by Katherine on January 6, 2010

Usually at the beginning of each year, I do a vision board for the coming year. It takes in every aspect of my life: spiritual and personal growth, health and well-being, financial abundance, business and career, social life and friends, primary relationship, and creativity. (Yes, I give creativity a whole section by itself.)

This year I decided to try something different. So I pulled Tony Buzan’s Mind Mapping book off my bookshelf. I discovered the book several years ago and have done many mind maps since then, some on large bristol board and some small enough for a postage stamp. Well, maybe not quite that small, but pretty small.

It’s very pleasing to me to observe the idea of mindmapping showing up over and over in mainstream business. I’m seeing it everywhere. I even got an email the other day where a mindmap was one of the bonuses for buying a particular business program.

This is a perfect illustration of how we are moving away from focusing on business and life with only goal-oriented left-brain thinking and moving towards a more co-creative, non-linear, whole brain approach.

I cheer and applaud and sometimes even chuckle each time I see evidence of that shift.

When I first brought the book off the shelf, I was going to do a mind map instead of a vision board. However as I worked on it, lo and behold, it started to morph into something that was not a mind map or a vision board but something that merged the two forms.

Is it a vision map? A mind board?

Whatever the name it seemed to bring about a flow of ideas and my hand could hardly keep up with my thoughts.

I started by drawing this form on my piece of white bristol board.

visionmap 150x150 Creating a New Form The seven sections became the categories of spiritual and personal growth, health and well-being, financial abundance, business and career, social life and friend, primary relationship, and creativity.

Starting from the centre of the board I worked out toward the edge writing words and ideas, and adding a few pictures and other items I cut from magazines and newspapers. Yesterday I completed two of the seven sections.

What is so wonderful about this kind of activity is that it has multiple layers. Here are just a few that I thought of.

  1. It will give me a direction for the upcoming year.
  2. It sparked a lot of ideas.
  3. It helped me see where a lot of things intersect and connect.
  4. It will be a piece of art worthy of hanging on a wall in my office.
  5. It’s FUN! I look forward to completing it.
  6. It brought about a new form.

And you know what? I bet I will start seeing vision maps in other places now. Synthesizing two or more ideas into a new form is one of the most powerful ways we create and bring about innovation. The best part of all is that many individuals could combine mindmapping and vision boards, and each would be unique according to each individual’s perspective and purpose.

That’s worth cheering about too!

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