The Art & Science of Deliberate Creation
7th Installment
Are You Ready For 2011?
Have you taken time out to review 2010, what was great for you, what wasn’t, what you would change, what you would retain? Are you pleased with where you are at right now? What’s happening within you and what’s showing up in your life? Are you ready for more? Are you ready to take a quantum leap, to do and experience whatever it takes in order to make real changes in certain or all areas of your life? If not now, when?
If you haven’t already spent some time in solitude to take stock, schedule an appointment with yourself to do so. If you know how to meditate, do so, as the information you get from within is often very different from when you are mentally figuring things out; it’s much wiser and more accurate. If you are not in the habit of meditating, take time off to be in nature, when you are much more in tune with your wisdom and can access the clarity you need.
Self-Coaching Questions
Ask yourself these self-coaching, soul-searching questions:
1. What do YOU need to change in order to have and enjoy the results you wish to create in your life? This applies to you as an individual and it’s equally relevant in the workplace (simply change the word “life” to “workplace”, “business”, “department”, “team” or “organization”).
2. Are YOU willing to make the necessary change/s within yourself (and within your team/organization, if this is applicable)? Don’t focus on anyone else, just you. Only when you change, can you lead others to change as well. If you take an “I’m right, you are wrong” stance or “I’m the boss, you will do as I say” strategy, it won’t work, at least not for long, if at all.
3. If you are aware and honest enough to identify any resistance to change and taking responsibility for change, ask yourself, what is it that is making you feel insecure, threatening you in some way or downright scaring you completely?
If you can’t do this yourself, go to someone, a friend/relative/executive or life coach/counselor/religious advisor/etc whom you respect, someone who is EVOLVED and LOVING enough, who would not judge you, who would support you to step up to be your Greatest Self (rather than someone who would influence you according to outmoded rules that are limiting him or herself).
If it’s for an entire team, group or organization, engage a powerful coach or facilitator to get everyone in alignment with your team/group/organizational/business goals/objectives/strategies, unless you are adept at this yourself.
Map Out & Clear The Path
Next, you need to not only map out the path to consciously, deliberately creating a whole list of desired results that you want for 2011, you MUST clear the path to be sure you (and your team/group/organization, if applicable) are not standing in your own way and stopping yourself/yourselves from receiving all that you wish to have and enjoy in your personal and work life (and your organizational life, if applicable).
Do so such that you will allow even more than what you’ve dreamt of to materialize.
Here are four areas that I highly recommend that you pay attention to:
1. Once you’ve created your list, go through them one at a time and visualize you (and your group, if applicable) already enjoying the desired results. If you have difficulty in doing that, check what emotion you are experiencing when you attempt to visualize the perfect end result.
Whatever the primary emotion that emerges is the one you must pay attention to. It’s your Inner Wisdom communicating with you and asking you to take a close look at what’s creating a block for you. Usually, it’s a buried fear of some kind, an emotional imprint from the past that is holding you back from creating anew and getting you to repeatedly create more of the same experiences you’ve had.
2. If you need help with the above, again go to someone you trust and respect. In this case, I would highly recommend that you go to a professional who’s very good in this field. Otherwise, you could simply go round in circles and be hugely set back. We do this work effectively, powerfully and relatively quickly for both individuals and groups/organizations (very quickly with clients who collaborate fully and less quickly with those who resist but generally quicker than most other methodologies available, as per feedback we get from our own clients).
3. Understand that this is a process, a path, a journey you embark on to get you to move closer and closer to being Who You Really Are, to being your Greatest Self. It is a journey of preparing you to raise your vibration, which simply means that you continuously shift towards being the magnificent being that you are, not out of strict moral codes imposed on you but just so that you are claiming ALL that belongs to you, your legacy and birthright, and expressing that True Self naturally and spontaneously.
4. The word, “ontology” comes from the Latin word, “ontologia” which means the “science of being”. ** This is a great part of our coaching methodology, which focuses not only on the whole person or persons, in the case of working with teams and organizations, but also on (1) helping people to access their core being, their most powerful and wisest self, which is their true being (2) helping them lay the foundation to be this True or Greatest Self rather than their limited, sometimes helpless and fear-based self.
People have been conditioned to focus on taking action, to fill their life with activity, to chase after badges of material success in order to feel fulfilled and happy. Back in 2002, I was privileged to coach 11 multimillionaires, one of whom has become a billionaire and was featured in Newsweek last year as someone whose businesses are positively impacting the poor in his country. Except for him and one other person in the group, the rest were wealthy but far from fulfilled and happy.
In fact, one of them confessed to having a poor self-esteem. Kudos goes to him for being so honest and courageous to have admitted this in front of his mates. I feel privileged to have coached them, not because they are wealthy and some of them famous, but because, I witnessed up close and personal during the two days coaching them, just how true it is that material wealth and success do not necessarily equate with happiness and fulfillment.
And if Aristotle is correct in saying that “Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence,” then, surely the majority of human beings have been going about life the wrong way for centuries! My message to both individuals and organizations is to FOCUS FIRST on being who you want to be and know you really are, instead of insanely launching into activity after activity, just because everybody else is doing it and has been doing it for centuries.
THINK FOR YOURSELF. DARE TO BE DIFFERENT. DARE TO BE YOU. THE REAL YOU.
Who is the person hiding inside of you? How GREAT is he or she? Being the factory churned-out you compromises you in a big way. YOU are much more than that. When you dare to be the true you, you will embody all the virtues and qualities of the greatest human BEING, a most magnificent soul. We will immediately have great leaders who can run happy homes, organizations, countries and the whole world.
** Here’s the link to an article called “Creating Leaders: An Ontological Model” written for the Harvard Business School’s newsletter on faculty research, by HBS professor emeritus Michael C. Jensen and coauthors on their ontological approach to creating leaders in which leadership emerges through spontaneous and intuitive natural self-expression. The working papers were published very recently on December 3, 2010; and we’ve been delivering our own brand of ontological coaching and leadership development for several years now.
DARE TO BE CURRENT, UP-TO-THE-MINUTE and yet, utilizing ancient wisdom. We are not making maximum use of our potential, our innate talent otherwise. Commit to tapping into what I call the “Power of Alignment” by aligning or becoming one with your Greatest Self, with your objectives and desired results, with your family, team or organization, whichever and whatever is applicable to you.
Be happy and grateful for all that you already do have. And get ready to receive even more. The more you have, of yourself firstly and the material wealth secondly, the more you can joyously give!
HAVE A BLESSED CHRISTMAS, A HAPPY NEW YEAR AND A HIGHLY TRANSFORMATIVE 2011, where you and your family/team/organization will transport yourself/selves to new levels of awareness, evolvement and real success!
Come to us, if you need help, if you wish to collaborate and if you simply want to have a chat to explore possibilities. I personally would be delighted to hear from you; and to those I know and have coached, to hear your news as well!
Create a WORLD OF ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES!
Helen Lee
December 13, 2010