Awaken the Genie Within

Excuses, Excuses, Excuses

How do you usually feel when someone keeps giving you excuses as to why something hasn't gotten done per your request or why it's taking longer than they said it would? How do you usually feel when someone keeps showing up late to a meeting with you and gives you a million excuses each time it happens? How do you usually feel when you want to see someone and they keep giving you excuse after excuse why they can't?

Frustrated? Hurt? Angry? Taken advantage of?
All of the above?

Just for fun, let's take the other person out of the equation and ask yourself this. How often do you make up excuses to yourself about your own life? The excuses you tell yourself while you're attempting to make any changes you want to make in your life and just don't seem to pull it off. The excuses you tell yourself as to why you aren't able to move forward with that project you've been promising yourself you'd eventually get to. The excuses you tell yourself why you're having such a hard time taking that leap to turn your heart's desire into a reality.

Here's what Don Wilder has to say about excuses: Excuses are the nails used to build the house of failure.

Don't allow yourself to treat yourself like you may allow others to treat you with their excuses. You deserve so much more than that. How about hammering in all the nails that will build your house of dreams.

P.S. If you're ready to turn some of your dreams into reality and get a taste of the practical steps that I bring coaching clients, you can hear my interview on WOW Blog Talk Radio at:
http://awakenthegeniewithin.com/html/wow-radio.html

It was great fun doing the show and I hope you enjoy listening to it!

Support Your Fears

There are two things I know every person on the planet has, whether they'll admit or not; Fears and knowledge. Fears are the one part of us that can often keep us from moving forward with our dreams or removing ourselves from a situation that isn't serving our highest good. Perhaps even a situation that is harming us.

Knowledge is another part of us that can help us with our fear. In other words, when you support your fears with your knowledge, you greatly increase your chances of moving beyond your fears.

Think about something in your life right now that you want to change but your fear is holding you back. Got it? Now think about the knowledge you already have or where you might find the information to turn into knowledge to give you greater confidence to move forward.

Now before you tell me that the knowledge you already have is the exact reason you're standing firm in your fear, you might want to consider gaining more knowledge that brings a new perspective and will in fact support you in a way that moves you forward.

Chances are you'll always have some fears, especially as you continue to up the game in your life. The good news is it's not necessary to completely eliminate them. The truth be told, most fears don't get eliminated until we're on the other side of them and then we get to really see how our knowledge supported us through our fears.

Here's a fun fear acronym I saw recently:
Forever
Expecting
Awful
Results

The part of you that's constantly expecting awful results comes from your lovely Gremlin. Remember, you're much more than your Gremlin! There's a little bit of knowledge to get the ball rollng!

Being Human

I was reading a book by Louise Hay & Friends, The Times Of Our Lives and came across a description of what being human means to author, Lesley Garner. When I read what she wrote the words just expanded my heart leaps and bounds.

Her description of being human was inspired from meeting a woman who fled her village with her 5 children when the Serbia militia had attacked. The family had been walking for 5 days straight. While Lesley was talking to this woman she asked what kept her and the children going and gave her such courage?

The woman answered with:
We do everything together. We give each other moral support. We are very human to each other.

Those last few words struck a chord in Lesley and she went on to write about her understanding of being human.

Here is what she wrote:
.....being human means being vulnerable and open. It means being in empathy with other people and knowing that you're not different from them. It means being part of one organism, not safe or separate. It means losing the need to control other people. It means being responsive to your environment and not shut off from it, let alone seized by the need to exploit and destroy it. It means reaching out rather than shutting off. It certainly doesn't mean discriminating, oppressing, excluding, and even killing.

If you've been struggling with your purpose in life consider just being human. It seems to me it's a very worthy purpose to aim for.

What Kind of Addict Are You?

I don't suppose that's a question you've been asked a lot over your lifetime or one that you would even associate yourself with.

You see, most people relate the word addict to things like, drugs, alcohol, food or even sex. These are the more obvious addictions. But there are other types of addictions that I'd like to bring to your attention. You may not think of them as addictions but I invite you to consider the possibility. Some serve our highest good and others, well....not so much.

For instance, I'm addicted to things like joy, uplifting books, laughter, gratitude, inner peace and silence. After reading that, you may decide you're someone who's addicted to these kinds of things too! Because of these particular addictions, my life just keeps getting better and better and I would imagine yours does, too.

Now with that said, there are other types of addictions that a huge amount of people in the world live with even though no one considers them addictions.

The need to please others, complaining, jealousy, gossip, being judgmental, pretending to always be happy, controlling, worry, illness or playing the victim. Those are just off the top of my head but I think it's enough to get your attention.

Take a moment to get quiet inside and then be honest with yourself before you answer these questions?

Do you spend more time than you would like to with any of those behaviors? Do you find yourself unable to stop even when you say you'll no longer engage in a particular behavior?

If you said yes, then you've just started on your road to recovery. The first step is to always tell yourself the truth. The next step is to consider how your life would be improved without any of those addictions. And the third step is to seek out ways to assist you in kicking the habit(s) so you can participate in addictions that add more happiness in your life!

Is It Really Spiritual Growth Or Rememberance?

The more I work with my clients, the more I've come to understand that each person is absolutely already whole and complete and a beautiful Spiritual Being who needs no improvement or spiritual growth.

The only thing that's really needed, in my humble opinion, is the ability and courage to keep pulling back the layers that are covering up the Soul so each person can finally see, feel, and remember what's always been a part of them and who they really are.

Because of this, I believe we're not necessarily experiencing spiritual growth as much as we are experiencing spiritual rememberance. I would bet that every one of you reading this has had an experience when you said, "Yes, that feeeeels right." "I have no idea why." "I can't explain it." "I just know it to be true."

That is spiritual rememberance and there's no words that can possibly do justice to the feeling you experience when you are in it. Every time you are brave enough to pull back another layer, and really feeeel what there is to feel, you're getting closer to reconnecting with your true essence, your Soul and there is no greater gift you can give yourself.

Building Your Spiritual Muscles

Everybody knows that the best way to strengthen physical muscles is by using them. You've got lots of different muscles and depending on which ones you feel needs more strength, those will be the ones you tend to focus on and build upon.

If you want stronger arms you work on your biceps. For a stronger stomach, abs. Mid thigh, your quads and of course there's always the "favorite" of so many woman, the buttocks, which means working on the gluteus maximus.

Without the effort there's not a whole lot of changes that are going to take place. The funny thing is though, the same is true when building another set of muscles. Problem is, most people aren't as willing to put in the effort, even though they really want to experience the change. I'm talking about your spiritual muscles. Those would be your, courage, authenticity, self-esteem, truth, compassion, forgiveness, self-love, non-judgmental and patience, to name a few.

If some of those muscles are weak for you, then it's worth finding a source of support to make them stronger. When building the physical strength, the gym or personal trainer is often a source of support. The support for the spiritual muscles may be reading inspirational material, listening to motivational tapes, hiring a coach, learning to meditate, going on a retreat or meeting regularly with a group of spiritually minded people. Whatever it is, it needs to feel right for you, because if it doesn't, you won't stick with it. Just like anything else you're not in alignment with.

Building your spiritual muscles is not a whole lot different than building your physical muscles. They both require your willingness, commitment, proper support and consistency. Without those ingredients, it's just too easy to quit before you've experienced any real change.

Tonka Strong; Built To Last!

Yesterday I had the pleasure of hearing Lisa Nichols, one of the teachers from The Secret, speak. Her talk was so wonderful and inspiring that I wanted to share with you some of what she said.

She spoke about when her son was 2-years old that he always managed to break a new toy after 14 days because he was so rough with them. Finally tired of this scenario, Lisa decided to only buy him toys that cost no more than $14.00. I guess she figured a dollar a day for the life of the toy.

One day, while looking at the less expensive toys at KB Toys, she felt Spirit guiding her to the more expensive toy aisle. She argued her point (yes with Spirit) about spending that amount of money on something that would be broken in 14 days.

But, as we all know, when Spirit speaks loudly enough....... Eventually she gave in, and much to her chagrin, she bought a Tonka truck for $44.00.

While she waited for that truck to fall apart within 14 days, something different was showing up. It seemed that no matter what her son did to the truck it never broke or stopped running. She even decided to rough it up herself, but it kept on going. That truck was eventually passed down to her nephew and it even outlasted him.

She went on to share that the way Mattel built that Tonka truck is the same way God made us; built to last!

I loved that comparison so much, that in that moment I knew I would be sharing it with you in this blog. In spite of all that we go through in our life, our tendency is to still keep going even against great odds.

You are absolutely stronger than you may believe in this moment, because the parts that are your true make up come from the greatest Creator in the Universe. How you use and care for those parts emotionally, spiritually, physically or mentally is totally your choice. But the bottom line is, you were built to last! So keep that in the forefront of your mind and keep on truckin'!

The Wind Is Blowing In The Wrong Direction

That was said to me by a woman I passed by while on my walk yesterday. Actually, her exact words were, "This is terrible! The wind is blowing in the wrong direction."

In that moment it struck me how our filter system will have us viewing our circumstances as good or bad. I was walking in the same wind direction as she was and all I thought to myself, prior to passing this woman, was how invigorating it is having the wind in my face and making my walk harder, allowing me to work my muscles even more as I tackled the hill.

I loved it! She hated it!

Two completely different experiences in the same environment.

She chose to tell herself a story that had her struggling with the environment. As far as I could tell, the wind wasn't stopping any time soon and no matter how much she hated it, she was going to have to deal with it. I sooooo wanted to go back to her and share my perspective but I figured she'd think I was nuts. And besides, who am I to think she should have a different experience than the one she was going through!

So I continued on my way feeling grateful for the ability to be able to move through a challenging walk and allowing the wind to just be, no matter what direction it was blowing!

I really encourage you to pay attention to the stories you tell yourself that cause you struggle and see how you can turn them around to shift the experience you are having, so you can find a way to embrace the experience and ease the struggle.