Tag Archives: Intention

How Full Is Your Glass?

We all know the idiom: “Is your glass half empty or half full?” It is used to determine how someone sees or experiences their circumstances. Half full and the view of the experience is optimistic; half empty and the view is pessimistic. When life has handed me challenges, I have often used this phrase to determine not only how I was going to handle the situation but how I did the actions either cheerfully from a half full perspective or grumpily from the half empty perspective. I suspect in the past, you might have used this phrase too, to determine your mood in facing a challenge.

There is no right/wrong in viewing your glass half empty or full. There is another way which seems more powerful to me. What I am talking about is the phenomenon of breakdown/breakthrough. Marshall McLuhan said it this way: Any breakdown is a breakthrough. We all know what a breakdown is. What is a breakthrough? Webster-Merriam says it’s: a sudden advance in knowledge or technique.

When we see our challenges as breakdowns, and we start to create solutions for the breakthroughs highlighted by the breakdown, we begin to advance ourselves and our intentions.

If we refuse to see breakdowns as a part of breakthroughs, we lose our spark and our interest in life. We long to return to the safe past and live our safe life and have our safe, uneventful and most likely mediocre businesses.

If you are stuck in a breakdown and can’t see the breakthrough in it, please contact me. I am always here to help. I promise not to fill you with false optimism and a useless pep talk. Instead we will develop a plan for having a breakthrough and the results that you want.

You Want To Quit? Why?

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One of my clients just realized one of his biggest intentions. He has been accepted to show his work in a prestigious art festival. It is a juried show; has hundreds of applicants from across the United States; and fewer than 20% of the applicants are accepted. He sent me an email announcing his win with a cartoon doing a happy dance. Indeed! Time for celebration!

This intention has been on his list of things to be accomplished for several years, but he has never been selected, or judged by this show panel—not because he isn’t a good artist, but because this was the first year he applied for acceptance. You see, he always quit before he tried to enter. He didn’t think he could ever make it in so he just didn’t enter.

So, what are you holding back from doing? What is it that is on your to be accomplished list that has been there forever? What is it that you don’t think you are good enough to accomplish even though you would be thrilled if you did? Why?

I am not being bad with you when I ask the question Why? I would really like to know and I think that your answer to that question does beg to be examined. In fact, usually your first answer to that question is never really the answer. It takes asking that question 5 times, always going deeper with each answer, to really find out what is happening with you that is keeping you from moving forward toward that bright dream you are afraid to reach for. Usually what you find out is that what is holding you back is so small and doable that you will then forge ahead.

Try this Why exercise for yourself, with something that you really want to accomplish, and see what happens. Most likely you will discover that what is holding you back disappears. You might even discover an easy way to win just as my client did.

Call Me…

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Like most of us I like hearing good news, and I love hearing breakthrough news from coaching clients. Yesterday, I heard breakthrough news that is so exciting and over the top that I am sharing it with you. One of my clients just closed a quarter million dollar contract. She was excited. I was over the moon pleased for her.

This contract wasn’t just going to happen. This was not a lucky break. She made it happen. And she made it happen just like you can with taking the steps that are necessary to provide world class service to your clients.

Here are the qualities that produce breakthrough results:

A passionate belief in yourself and your ability to provide the services.
A clear vision of the core services you provide.
The ability to communicate clearly about your core services.
A continuing dedication to education about the latest developments in your field.
Knowing your target market like you know your best friend.
Keeping your word.
Planning your work and working your plan.
Communicating fully and honestly if you cannot keep your word. Renewing a new “by when” for keeping your word.
Being willing to create a measurement for your results which includes “by whens” and promises and “go fors”.
Being willing to fail and to learn from the failures.
A refusal to be a victim of failure.
An unstoppable tenacity and persistence.
Having someone you trust hold you accountable for results.

Again and again I see these qualities in clients. They are the people who have extraordinary results in their lives and in their businesses.

If you feel stuck. If you feel like you can’t reach high enough for the breakthrough results you are longing for, please call me. Together we can make your intention come true by clearing away what is holding you back from making that same kind of excited triumphant,” I did it!” telephone call to me.

I will look forward to hearing from you.

– Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

What Will You Do To Get The Result?

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Driving to yoga class on Tuesday I stopped at a red light. A man stood on the side of the street. He was holding a sign, and he had something around his waist. Was that a catheter bag? YES! His sign was asking for money. Oh my god! Really. How could he be so graphic with his need for money? The light changed and I drove on to yoga. I was repulsed and angry with him for putting his plight in my face. An hour later, there he was again . He had moved to the divider in the middle of the wide street, standing on the grass. Same sign, same catheter bag—now almost full.

My revulsion changed to realization, admiration. He was a real living example of intention, determination and getting the job done. He was going to raise money to pay for his medical care in the only way he had. His purpose was clear and his actions were aligned with his purpose. He was not stopped by glares from drivers, nor by a cop trying to move him along. He was going to raise the money.

The man became my hero. A real life illustration of what it takes to make purpose become reality. First we have to want something so much that we are willing to risk our dignity. We fail; we feel humiliated; we are sometimes mocked—but if we are willing to face the obstacle we can win.

I think in the end, we as entrepreneurs are creative and courageous; we demonstrate that we have what it takes to get the job done. Just like the man with the bag, we are willing to do what it takes to cause the result. We are the heroes of our business story.

Please use the space below to comment. I look forward to hearing from you.

What Are Your Intentions?

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“What one does is what counts. Not what one had the intention of doing.”
― Pablo Picasso

When you are designing your 2015 business plan, your plans will be influenced by the elements we have previously discussed: what worked and what didn’t work in 2014 and what it is that you intend to provide to your clients by looking ahead to what they will want from you in 2015.

The plan that you design will be informed by two powerful elements: intention and commitment. These elements are found in any noteworthy human endeavor. Let’s look at what each element means and how they work together to build a powerful business plan.

Intention: the thing that you plan to do or achieve: an aim or purpose

Commitment: a promise to do or give something

As you can see by the definitions from Merriam-Webster, the two words are dependent on each other as the intention calls forth the action from the commitment.

Your plan requires both intention and commitment to succeed. The plan is weakened by just having one of them.

As you continue to design your plan be mindful of having both. A simple example is your plan to increase your client base by 20%. The intention is the idea to increase the client base; commitment generates the actions you will take in order to achieve it. You may be committed to blogging each week or going to two networking meetings a month. The point is that the committed action follows the intention logically.

You do not have to make a year-long plan. You may want to make your plan each quarter of the year. That is a perfectly great idea and will allow you to design the year building on the shoulders of the previous quarter. It also permits you to commit to small baby steps in order to achieve the intention of the first quarter.

In the space below, please share your first quarter intentions and commitments. I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Has Your Business Purpose Expired? How To Know

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“Money like health, love, happiness, and all forms of success that you want to create for yourself is the result of living purposefully. It is not a goal unto itself.”
- Dr. Wayne Dyer, best-selling author

This quote from Dr. Dyer is chocked full of good advice and most likely he is right BUT what if you do not know what your business purpose is? Or perhaps you had a purpose a long time ago when you started your business and now that particular purpose has expired. Maybe you have not even noticed that it has expired. So, you are slogging along not feeling particularly energized or enthusiastic about your business anymore.

This is a good time of the year to reassess your purpose and see if you are in business with a purpose which is not as Dyer says just to make money. Making money without having it be informed by your purpose is the booby prize for a business owner. When your purpose has expired you experience a tiredness that rest will not resolve.

What do you do if you do find that your business is without purpose or has expired? The first step is to declare your former purpose complete. Complete meaning that it is whole and without flaw. You give up the right to use it against yourself. What I mean by that is characterized by beating yourself up for not noticing that your purpose is finished. Those first two steps sound easy to do when they are on paper but are very hard to do in real life. This is something that you must work on with yourself. You will know it is complete when you feel a certain space and lightness of being. When you are really complete with something a space opens for you in which you can create again.

Revising your purpose or creating an entirely new purpose will fill you with energy and intention; it will lead you to new places and new business adventures. It will also, as Dyer promises, give you results that provide happiness, and all forms of success including money.

This is an appropriate step to take during the fourth quarter of the year. This step will set you up to create new actions and intentions for your business in 2015.

Use the space below to declare your purpose complete and share your new revived purpose. I look forward to hearing from you.

In Praise Of Resistance

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“Resistance is a powerful motivator precisely because it enables us to fulfill our longing to achieve our goals while letting us boldly recognize and name the obstacles to those achievements.”
― Derrick A. Bell , Author

We often resist what is next for us. Resistance is a powerful ally, familiar to us in our daily lives. It is misidentified by the words: “I don’t want to.” We use them to explain to ourselves and to others why we are resisting something.

Resistance is different than want. Resistance is: refusal to accept something new or different: effort made to stop or to fight against someone or something: the ability to prevent something from having an effect. -Merriam-Webster

Want is: to desire or wish for (something): to need (something): to be without (something needed) -Merriam-Webster

As you can see from the definitions, resistance is more powerful, active and decisive than wanting or not wanting something.

Of course, both are valid if we know that they are different and represent a different part of our selves. The problem lies in thinking that because we don’t want something, it’s valid to assume that it does not have to be examined more closely. As Derrick Bell says, resistance can be a powerful ally. It allows us to examine what we are intentional about achieving. We can analyze what obstacles are in our way and be strategic about how to handle the obstacles. We may not want to take the actions necessary, but analyzed, we find that our goal compels us to take them anyway.

This is a valuable distinction for business entrepreneurs. By examining our resistance, we can then decide if and how we will move forward. With resistance as our guide, we will not linger in the dark recesses of indecision. Resistance is not only our guide, it is a powerfully ally.

I look forward to hearing from you and what you think about resistance and wanting. Please use the space below to comment.

What Happens When You Combine Tough Circumstances With Responsibility?

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Last week’s blog was about taking responsibility at the time you initiate an action not just when you get caught. (When Do You Take Responsibility for Your Actions?)

One of the responses to the blog was a surprising answer and it pointed to the value of taking responsibility. Responsibility is defined as: the state of being the person who caused something to happen (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)

The response was from a reader who has been very ill. Recently, her adult daughter died. She was communicating about that in direct response to the blog. What she said points to the value of taking responsibility, in real time vs in theory, “I am in a place where I need to work hard in my life, and I will do it.”

Clearly, this person is willing to be responsible for her life NOW, not in the some far off future. This type of responsibility gave her direction and the ability to move forward. It provided a “not going to happen anyway” possibility for her life.

Does this drawing a line in the sand take courage? Yes. Will there be pitfalls as she moves forward? Of course. But, because her intention and responsibility are palpable, there will be other people standing with her. Her communication is so real and raw that there is no way that her intentionality can be missed.

I will be there cheering her on. This is exactly what coaching and mentoring are for. A coach is a committed listener who knows that you are totally capable of accomplishing your goal, especially at those times when you forget. A coach is the one who stands beside you as you move forward towards a solid vision that will make a difference in your life.

Although, it took a dramatic life changing event to open up a path for this woman, a change in your life does not have to be so dramatic. What it takes is seeing what is missing, saying what action you will take, and then being responsible for taking that action.

I look forward to hearing your comments. Thank you, as always, for taking time to respond.

What is Your Purpose?

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Does this question bug you? What is your purpose? It does me. Hell, I don’t know, maybe make money? That is my reaction—on a good day. On a bad day—bug off!

So first of all, although we do have our own interpretation of the word “purpose”, let’s look at it from the view of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary which states:

Purpose, noun:

: the reason why something is done or used : the aim or intention of something

: the feeling of being determined to do or achieve something

: the aim or goal of a person : what a person is trying to do, become, etc.

There is quite a lot of breathing room for “purpose” when looked at strictly from the dictionary’s point of view. Here one is given a way to utilize “purpose” in both life and in business. What it points to is not some lofty goal but simply our intention in doing something with determination. It also points to the possibility that we may achieve it without the pressure of having to achieve it. It is a far more reachable outcome. We can try to achieve or become it as the dictionary says.

Perhaps, in looking at purpose as not a result but as an action, it can be achieved or at least worked on. Being asked the question “What is your purpose?” can then be answered in a way that makes sense. And if we are puzzled by someone’s actions, we could ask them the question, “What’s your purpose?” It may open up some interesting conversations that clarify the puzzling actions of other people.

The next time you are confronted by another person’s actions, ask them the question about purpose, and listen to what they say without judgment. You may find some common ground you didn’t think you had.

My purpose for writing this blog is to make you think and to make a difference today in your life.

In the comments below, please tell me about your purpose or purposes. I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Are You Using These Simple Questions to Bust Up Your Blocked Creativity?

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Does this ever happen to you? You have a great idea. You know it’s going to change the way you do business or live your life. You know it’s going to be great.

But—and this is a big BUT—you are stuck. How do I start? And how do I deliver on this great new idea? All of us have been there.

Well, here’s a tip to get you moving. Ask yourself these questions: What is my purpose? What are my three intentions in achieving my purpose? Write out your purpose and three intentions for the project. If you know both the purpose and intentions, the planning to execute it will come naturally.

Of course, you do have to do some critical thinking. It sounds easy at first, but at second glance maybe not so easy. The best way to go about it is to brainstorm the purpose. I doubt seriously if your first purpose is the one.

Here’s an actual example from one of my clients. She said to me that she was stuck in her email campaign for LinkedIn contacts. She didn’t know where to begin the email after “Dear”. She knew she wanted the contacts to know about a new program she had created; she wanted them to know how this program would enrich and enhance their lives, and she knew she wanted them to buy the program. But what could she say that would communicate what she wanted to say? The more she talked to me about it, the more upset and stuck she got. She was stuck in a loop of thinking about it, getting more upset (therefore even less able to think clearly) and thinking about it some more.

I suggested that she brainstorm with me about the purpose. She immediately said well, to make more money from having sales in the new program. Really? Is that the purpose or the end result? “Oh,” she said, “That would be the end result.” So, then let’s look at the purpose. Suddenly, it was as if the creative gates opened up. She said the purpose of the email was to introduce the new program to her list of leads, to tell them the about the availability and the benefits of the new program. That was it. That was the purpose. After landing on her clear purpose, the beginning of the email started to flow. The intentions were also clear. Her intentions were to build trust and relationship, to inform, and to create interest in her program. If she accomplished those three intentions it was a sure bet that they would contact her, and from there she would be able to enroll people in her program.

When you are stuck, please use this simple tip: Ask yourself “what is my purpose and what three intentions do I have?” You will find that this action will move you toward your goal with ease.

I look forward to reading your comments.