Rise Up

I like to think of myself as a helium balloon rising up to the holy grail of my potential in this life time. Yeah, maybe a bit out there, but it works for me. The kicker is, that attached to my helium balloon is a string with a series of weights that make the rising of my balloon a manageable and comfortable pace of climb so as not to shoot up too quickly only to explode under the pressure.

BUT, by committing to the climb (the ongoing pursuit of development and growth) in my life, there inevitably comes a time where the heaviest weight, stops allowing me to progress and starts to pull against my growth. This is not good. This shows up in things like: a job that no longer excites you and/or allows you to learn, a relationship with a boss or co-worker that you once saw as a mentor that now you look at with frustration, a gym workout that puts you through the motions, but no longer produces positive results. What does this all mean? It’s time to drop that heavy weight!

Letting go in life is tough. It means leaving what is, what you know, what feels safe and stepping in to the mystery of life. This is not easy. It requires consciousness, because only when you’re conscious would you even notice that something is weighing you down in the first place. It requires a commitment to make the necessary change. It requires a plan in which you’ll take the necessary steps to make the change and it requires bravery when you step out and start the movement of taking action.

Take a conscious look at your life this week and ask yourself – am I being ‘weighed’ down by anything right now? The clues will be in your feelings. If you are, commit to letting it go, create a plan to do so and step in to the mystery of life with brave curiosity. Only then, can you again RISE UP!

My Interview: Exceptional Women Northwest

I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by Doug Zanger on his Portland based radio show, Exceptional Women Northwest. I have to thank Danielle Laporte over at White Hot Truth for recommending me to Doug. This was my FIRST ever radio interview and it was such a treat!

Click the below link to listen in:

The Interview…

Vision Boards

A vision board is simply a pictorial representation of your own personal answers to the question: what do I want?  

I’ve been successfully using vision boards for over four years and they have been incredibly helpful to keep me focussed on those things which are most important to me.  There is some scientific research to support the fact that having specific goals in your life and referencing them daily (have your vision board somewhere that you see it everyday) will enable you to recognize opportunities and therefore reach your goals more quickly and efficiently.  But, more than anything, creating a vision board is a lot of fun.  It’s an opportunity for you to be creative and to be bold.  So what if you can’t afford the car of your dreams today; go down to the dealership, get a brochure, sit in the car, smell it, touch it, get a photo of you in it and then put all the material up on your vision board.

A vision board is an opportunity for you to remove the word “can’t” from your vocabulary and to go crazy as you answer the question: What do I want?

What do you want to be? (doctor, lawyer, singer, base jumper, author, actor, golfer, police officer…)

What do you want to do? (own your own business, travel the word for a year, enter a debating contest…)

What do you want to have? (your dream car, dream home, a new guitar, a scooter….)

What is stopping you from getting visual imagery of the things that you want most in your life, putting them up on a board and taking a look at them everyday?  If nothing else, it’s a “feel good” tool for you to reference daily and realize how many opportunities there are in this life.

There are no “rules” when it comes to vision boards.  It’s a personal thing and it’s an opportunity for you to do what feels right to you.  I have vision boards all over.  I have large poster board types that hang in my office, I use scrapbooks that I carry with me; they even have an application on Facebook where you can create a vision board right on your profile.

Be creative, don’t hold back.  Cut out pictures from magazines, include inspirational or motivational quotes that you like, you can print pictures off the internet that are of interest to you – it’s totally open ended.  The important thing is to DO it.  Just go out there, get yourself a poster board and make your first vision board today – you won’t regret it!!

Check out: My Inspiration Place for reference materials that will inspire!

Living your Dreams

There is one definite inevitability in life and that is, of course, death. Not usually a topic that most people want to talk about or frankly think about, but, nevertheless something that we cannot escape. Personally, my consideration of the concept is something that has given me an incredible amount of strength thus far. Whenever I have a desire to do something really big, there is the almost immediate reaction from my mind. Sometimes it tells me why I can’t do it, sometime why I shouldn’t, sometimes it just laughs at my plans. I’ve heard many theories about why this happens, why we get in our own way, why we stop ourselves from giving something a try? But the bottom line is, if we truly want to do whatever it is, have whatever it is, be whatever it is, and it is our true, inner hearts desire – we simply have to go for it!

When we lost the patriarch of our family 5 years ago I think we all felt the tug of ‘I don’t want my life to pass me by, having not lived my dream’. Myself, my 3 siblings and my Mum have all since gone on to do some of the most incredible things. Though the pain of loss that we all endured will forever shape the way we view the world and though we’d all love to have him back, even just for a day, to ask a certain question or extend that special message of gratitude – I also believe we saw the opportunity in our circumstance and each of us embraced it and our lives are better, richer and more fulfilled because of it.

Whenever I’m scared about whatever leap I’m contemplating taking, or when worry tries to take over my mind I watch the below video. The man on the video, Randy Paucsh, is now famous for his message The Last Lecture. He had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and given only months to live. And in this, his last lecture, he gives a moving, practical, matter of fact speech about how and why to live a life in pursuit of your dreams. There is no time to put things off – we have to pursue those things that we have a desire to – we have to live our dreams!

Winds of Change

I recently had the great opportunity to meet up with Jivi Khehra, the face, voice and spirit behind the phenomenon Winds of Change. Her philosophy is simple – embrace change and celebrate the possibilities in life – talk about right up my ally!

She wrote the most incredible blog post about our first encounter where she described me as “the most charismatic, full of energy, and business savvy person I have met” WOW – what a compliment! – read her full post here.

And you can check out the Winds of Change TV Show Here:

Set a good example

We’ve become obsessed with popular culture in such a way that some of us have started to lose sight of the awesomeness that comes with just being a human being. When you really think about human beings as a species, as a civilization; the things we are capable of, the triumphs, the accomplishments, the success, the passion – it’s unbelievably amazing! Why is it then that we beat ourselves up, concentrate on the things that we don’t like about ourselves, the things that aren’t perfect? It’s very much a bad habit – fueled by the media and popular culture.

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But, for starters, if you’re caught in this trap of comparing yourself to others, get out. By constantly looking outside yourself and trying to find things to identify with, you miss the essence of yourself. The real you is on the inside. Secondly, get out of the habit of looking for the things that you don’t like about yourself. Instead, even if it’s only 1 thing, concentrate on the things that you do like about yourself. Quantum physics has continued to teach us that everything is energy, even our thoughts. So, if you give your energy to the things that you don’t like about yourself – by nature they will continue to grow, even if it’s only in your own head. If there are things that you don’t like about yourself, don’t give your energy to them. Instead, do one of two things: shift your energy to the things you do like about yourself and stop giving your energy to that which you don’t or put your energy into making a change in order to eliminate that which you don’t like. Don’t get stuck in the trap of insulting and hurting yourself; it’s just not worth it.

Love yourself; be your best friend because it is you who sets the example for how the rest of the world will treat you.

Best Affirmation Ever

Blessing In Disguise?

It finally happened…..3 years in to my MacBook and over the weekend the battery (or at least what I thought was the battery) died. Couldn’t get the thing to turn on. At first, I was simply grateful that I had indeed stuck to my plan of finishing off all my loose ends on Friday before starting the long weekend. But, after I made a trip to the apple store, came home with a brand new battery, popped it in, and then it still wouldn’t work – this was when the subtle panic and body sweats began. OMG! What’s wrong with my computer?!?!?

So, what’s a girl to do? Simple answer – genius appointment booked at the Apple store the following day….

So there I was standing outside the store waiting for it to open (I got the first appt. of the day) and I started to notice my fears that were bubbling up subtly. And at the bottom of all the little “I wonder what’s wrong” thoughts, I noticed I was simply afraid that I was going to have to shell out a bunch of cash that I hadn’t anticipated on spending. That was the bottom line.

But this presented an even bigger dilemma. Having been a student of various coaching and training programs, and have read hundreds of books on personal development, the law of attraction etc. I knew I couldn’t focus and dwell on that which I did not want!!!

So instead I thought about how much I loved my MacBook, how amazing a partner it has been in the development of my business, how it has facilitated my life for the past 3 years, with banking, blogging, facebook and twitter and how it had allowed me to connect with and meet so many amazing people. I sent it love and light as if it was a friend with the flu. Consoled it by assuring it, we were at the doctors to get it checked out and make it all better! Crazy you think? Here’s what happened next…..

The gentleman in the Apple store whom my genius appointment was with was awesome! He checked over everything and yes, it was simply the battery. The new one that I had bought the day before needed to be ’set up’ which I had done incorrectly (shocker) and he did a couple of other things that made it work beautifully again! And then he said…”did you know we can replace that?” (“That” was my dash that had been cracking over the past couple of years where the magnets attach). “No, I didn’t, how much is that?” I innocently asked. “FREE” he said. FREE??!?!?!??!? Is anything free anymore?

So of course I said “YES”, please fix that for me for free! Then he checked with the back and they could do it right away, which they did and 30 minutes later I was back in the store to pick it up. And I had apparently misunderstood what they were going to do because they replaced the entire keyboard including a new track pad and click bar (like my technical terms for computer parts?). The entire thing looked brand new – all the dirty keys, evidence of 3 years of use, were gone, replaced by white, clean, glistening keys.

The joke around our house for the rest of the weekend was “remember when you went in to the Apple store to get a new battery and came out with a new computer?”

The whole experience just reminded me about ‘blessings in disguise’, because part of me was genuinely upset about the copmuter dying. Not that I was mad that I had to get a new battery, but, more so, the not really knowing what was wrong, and if it could be fixed and how much it would cost etc. But instead, as a result of having the battery die, I ended up with this new facelift for my beloved bessie mate (my MacBook) who is now all nice and clean and has a brand new battery! Yay! And now I can honestly say “thank you” to that old battery for dying because I got all this because of it.

Let this be a lesson to all (including myself). Sometimes things look a certain way – and may appear to be negative in their circumstance, when beneath the surface lies a blessing in disguise.

Anyone had a similar experience?? Share your story….

All the best,

H

You’ll See It When You Believe It

Join eWomenNetwork Vancouver on Tuesday April 13th at The Coast Coal Harbour Hotel (click for details) Here’s a blog post that I wrote after returning from the eWomenNetwork conference last August. Hope to see you on the 13th – Heather

When I nominated myself for the EWomenNetwork 2009 International “Emerging Leader of the Year” award, I was never expecting to win. But when the email came a few months later announcing that I had indeed beat out all the other young, talented women in Vancouver BC and was being flown to Dallas as one of the twelve International finalists, you can imagine, I was stunned, excited and a little scared all at the same time. Since I was a little girl I dreamed of a day like this, where I would be up on stage in front of thousands of people, being honoured for achieving a level of success that set me apart from my peers. And as I stood on that stage and looked out to the crowd of 2500 people, introduced myself and gave thanks to my sponsoring chapter and managing director I experienced one of the happiest and most proud moments of my life. READ MORE

Mastermind Groups

Napoleon Hill, one of the greatest thinkers of all time said: “No two minds ever come together without, thereby, creating a third, invisible, intangible force which may be likened to a third mind.”

Mastermind groups are one of the most effective and efficient ways to use synergy to propel your life to the next level, regardless of the area.  The number one reason that clients come to me for coaching is for accountability.  People who are serious about making changes in their life – quickly – understand the importance of accountability.  The mastermind group does this in a very inexpensive and productive way.

What is a mastermind group you ask?

A mastermind group is simply a group of like minded people coming together, supporting and encouraging one another as individuals work towards specific and measurable results.  There are, however, key elements to establishing and executing an effective and successful mastermind group.  I’ve listed the most important points below.  If you are interested in joining a mastermind group – email me – heather@2020communications.ca and I’ll let you know when the next group is starting.

Mastermind you way to Success:

- Mastermind groups should have 6-8 people
- They can be conducted live in person, or, over teleconferece
- You must have an established leader who is able to direct the call/meeting efficiently
- Stay on time (if your call is 60 minutes long end it at the top of the hour)
- Set your call up by having each member share their biggest “wins” or “successes” since your last meeting
- Open the floor for each member to share any needs/wants/brainstorming to accomplish certain goals

Good luck and have fun!