Promoting Health & Wealth - Understanding, Connection and Appreciation

One of the greatest impacts in our success and ultimate joy in life is People. Today, I had a wonderful, meaningful conversation with a true friend and mentor. His approach I am sure I will not totally be able to capture but I would like to synthesize into 3 simple concepts.

• Understanding
• Connection
• Appreciation
  

First, he sought to help me clarify and understand what was causing me so much confusion. He listened with a level of intensity, interest and empathy. He asked questions,

Why are your doing what your doing?
What is it your trying to accomplish or change?
How can you become more effective in this situation?

This stretched me, guided me and allowed me to hear myself. Yes, some of it was too much drama. And yet, these challenges that as I am confronting them so close to home and heart, I realize that I need to allow myself to be aware of how I am feeling and responding to significant changes in my life and my world. It was wonderful to have someone understand and listen to where I was coming from.

Second, he shared that he was dealing with life and changes very similarly. Allowing our selves to be aware that we are impacted by events and situations that affect those close to us is important to notice. But, it is also important for us to know that we need to allow others to deal with their lives in their own manner. The realization for me was that connection is not defined as control. Rather, building a connection in any relationship needs to be empowering, not enabling and that is growth.

Finally, he said something really profound. I appreciate that I am in the perfect place at the perfect time. Be grateful that these perfect events, issues, and situations show up, understand the role we really play, rise to the occasion, take care of self, support and be with others in a healthier manner.

Wonderful words of wisdom - thank you dear friend.

All the best in health and wealth,

Laura

Promoting Health & Wealth - Mastering ATTITUDE is Everything

Attitude is Everything.

Anonymous

Attitude as defined by Brainy Quote: Position as indicating action, feeling, or mood; as, in times of trouble ...; one's mental attitude in respect to...

Of all the components in the external side of the Wheel of Life, attitude is the most difficult to identify and yet imperative to Master. Every thought, every feeling, every behavior is totally linked to our attitude - which surprise, surprise we choose. Shakespeare said it all when he wrote, The choices we make dictate the life that we lead.

Moving forward, we can choose an attitude of excitement and joy and begin each day, each week, each month, each season and even year appreciating how life has much to offer. Or, we can choose an attitude of poor me, not enough money, people are going to mess up my day.

Starting today, I would like to set the stage mastering our attitude with some questions:

• How am I approaching my life, my learning, my loving, and the legacy that I want to leave?
• What is the one action that I will do today to help me optimize these essential components within my inner control?
  
• What is affecting my focus, my time, my goals and my attitude?
• What is the one action that I will do today to help me optimize these essential components within my outer control?
  

Master our attitude is one of the four major components of our external wheel of life, I am convinced that if we master our attitude our outer and inner world will definitely come together.

All the best in health and wealth,

Laura

Promoting Health & Wealth - Performance Reveals the Person

Circumstances don't make a man (a person), they reveal him(/her).

James Allen

I felt this quote was definitely worth repeating because I realize how much Mr. Allen's words of wisdom have helped me in many tight and challenging spots. Another way to describe this advice is to think of the concept Spheres of Control/Influence. Experts such as Stephen Covey have described the spheres in such books as The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, still a classic read.


Circumstances show up and we now need to perform (or not.) For example, it's late June, plans for spending the day in sun and water and wake up to find it's raining outside.

Immediate response might be.

Great - Now my day is ruined!

Are the circumstances within our control? Absolutely not! This is one of those Out of Control situations. What do we have control over - our response - that is our responsibility. How we respond to a situation reveals us. Do we move into reactive mode and take it like a small child or do we respond with ability like an adult.

Circumstances show up in our sphere of influence. Companies make changes, jobs change, economy changes - this certainly influences us and once again we can react like a two-year old or we can respond like an adult.

Circumstances are show up in our sphere of control. We take a job, enter a relationship, make a commitment - we hold direct accountability for the results of these situations. Do we again react like a child, a victim or do we respond like a professional and accountable person.

Circumstances certainly don't make anyone of us, but they do reveal us.

All the best in health and wealth,

Laura

Promoting Health & Wealth - My Performance Nets My Results

As we evaluate our Wheels of Life, what becomes even more evident how much thought, or lack thereof, goes into how we are performing to achieve the results-The Success - that we want out of life. Our performance is directly related to our level of competence. Even more importantly, our performance is absolutely linked to our belief in ourselves and our abilities to accomplish what we really want.

Behavior studies show that our mind functions between the conscious and subconscious level - once again, I'd like to reiterate that on average we operate only about 10% in the conscious realm. Our performance therefore is generally 90% in the subconscious or HABITUAL state. Keeping this information in mind, I realize that treating results achievement as a process rather than random events actually increases my degree of success and positive outcomes. Very simple concept which takes a tremendous amount of focus, planning, personal accountability, flexibility and honest reflection.

For me, the most important competency is honest reflection can be summed up by in the words of James Allen, author of As a Man Thinketh, English poet and philosopher.

Circumstances don't not make the man, they reveal him.

How we respond to circumstances, events, situations that show up for us is a direct correlation to how successful we will be in our work and life.

One how to that I practice daily is to journal about my results. I use my time with a journal to write, reflect, evaluate and measure to become more conscious of those behaviors that I own which have caused me to fail and/or succeed. One of those behaviors that I find shows up for me, and as I work more and more with others I find it is showing up for them too, is that our response often times is defensive (again, think of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs - the need for safety and security.) Whenever I perform from a defensive position, I immediately sense that I am at a disadvantage and my results are certainly affected. Therefore, it becomes important for me to think and act more proactively.

Let's think about the word proactivity (defintiion according to The Dictionary by Farlex)

1. tending to initiate change rather than reacting to events

2. (Psychology) Psychol of or denoting a mental process that affects a subsequent process

This simple how-to approach is to Act As If. This becomes great way for me to net very different and much more successful results.

Act As If:

• I am willing to learn from mistakes
• I am excited about the new job, new assignment, new idea
• I am a great leader, team player
• The other person has a right to their opinion.
• That others have great ideas too

Practicing this Act As If approach often transforms my results most times almost instantaneously. How about giving it a try and let me know how it works for you?

All the best in health and wealth,

Laura

Promoting Health and Wealth - Take Charge and Get the Results You Dream About!

Results are the outcomes and things that we want and need in life and work. The problem with results is we pretty much attain what we think about.

What does that mean? you ask.

We want to go on a vacation to the Bahamas. Our thoughts next take us to the planning and Suddenly, we find ourselves doing research for hotels. planes. sites to visit, beaches, clothes, the money it will cost and this is just for starters. The big picture (the focus) is this wonderful time in the Bahamas and yet suddenly, all the details start to become a new focus and guess what our results start to change. Passports, transportation, weather - more and more information comes in and some how this trip doesn't seem so important. How do we keep our BIG dreams - our BIG Results alive.

Amazing how much work goes into planning a vacation - nice to do - but is that really the most important objective in our life? When we do some assessing of our motivation with identifying the costs and benefits of the objective our entire chemistry changes literally and figuratively. A mentor of mine once said, the greatest distance a person will travel is from their head to their heart and back again. When we have a enough internal interest and passion, we will think and find a way to make anything happen! The bigger the feelings and emotions - the more our thoughts change and look out - here comes that life style, that job, that relationship, that health!

A problem we encounter when identifying our results is that we don't paint a clear enough emotional, mental, visual and written picture of what we want. An even bigger problem is we start losing control and perspective. If we start acting as if we the Result - is truly important- and we place our focus and goals in the direction of achieving those results - guess what happens? We start acting as if we are actually going to go on that trip, find the job or career that fills us with passion, joy, hope and interest.

Identify what results you are looking for and refer to the Internal and External Wheels of Life.

Evaluate each element on the internal side and identify some key results that you want to ensure happen and go for it.

Want better health?

More money?

Better job?

A promotion?

A vacation?

More joy and happiness?

What comes to mind are my favorite lines from my favorite poem Invictus by William Ernest Henley...

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

I believe Henley was telling us to master our minds and be the captain of our passions and feelings, then we get the results we think and dream about.

All the best in health and wealth,

Laura

Promoting Health & Wealth - Own Your Goals - own your life

I practiced with a group an exercise w using the Wheels of Life. It was amazing how quickly people discovered that they needed to look at ALL the key elements of the personal and professional (organizational) Wheels of Life as they checked in with their goals. Next they identified that s when connected with the essential Skills and Knowledge (S&A) element is a powerful process.

As we worked with these Wheels of Life, people realized that they now could also appreciate that their goal setting experience had helped or hindered them in their work and life. For example, many had completed their education, achieved certificates, attained degrees and/or landed jobs. This helped to validate to them that they had at least a basic understanding of goal setting. They also came to understand that they didn't realize how setting goals is not necessarily aligned with goal achievement. But it certainly is a great start.

How do the goals we set actually do more than just nudge us in the direction of accessing our skills and knowledge? Or, do our goals actually position us for achievement, success and powerful results?

What if we have a great deal of challenges with conflict, personally and professionally. We set a goal to increase our knowledge of conflict and we will read a book. This is a nice goal, even a good goal, but then what? Remember applied knowledge is even more powerful and setting a goal that will lead us to do something MORE than just read a book takes more work and planning but nets us even greater results. So we set a goal to read a book specific to conflict management such as Crucial Conversations;Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny,Ron McMillan & Al Switzer in the next 30 days. After we read the book, .will identify at least one tip or take away, put that tip into action and then evaluate the effectiveness of that tip.


We just created a WHY -Written, Habit-forming and YOURS, SMART goal - Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistically High and Timed. Each individual pen the goal and decided to own the goal- no one gave us the goal - we each penned our own. Someone else may write. After reading the book, I will teach one technique to my team.

The more we own the goal and make it apply to what we need to enhance with our skills and knowledge the more likely we will be to succeed.

Using the Wheel of Life to help us to identify at least one area for growth or enhancement a month over the course of 12 months will help us to build new habits.

The biggest tip I can give for goal setting is make the goals your own and change your life!

All the best in health and wealth,

Laura

Promote Health & Wealth - Appreciate How Much You APPLIED Your Skills & Knowledge (S&K) to Achieve Your Goals

I've come to appreciate how much skills and knowledge (S&K) people apply in their lives each and every day to survive and then ultimately thrive. This element of the organizational or work wheel of life is one area that I believe we don't fully understand how much it helps us to achieve our goals and ultimate success. Even in infancy, we learn to communicate and then apply our S&K to indicate our needs. The goal is to be fed or to be dry. That goal is met and we move up.

As we grow and mature, we expand our S&K by learning to read, write, math, science... This list is becoming quite extensive, almost overwhelming if we stop and evaluate what we skills and knowledge we have gained over the course of our lives. The mind is a truly wonderful place as it stores virtually limitless bytes of information that we retrieve consciously and subconsciously every second of every day.

Taking some time to identify our specific Skills and Knowledge is something only we can do for ourselves. Whether we earned this S&K formally or informally is not relevant. What is relevant is that we have learned to APPLY this S&K to some degree. Could we be more and do more, certainly, but I'd like to suggest that we start with taking stock of our current success and appreciate that the only place we can go is UP.

Here's 2 key questions...

What skills do I currently possess and how have those skills helped me achieve my goals?

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What knowledge do I currently possess and how has that knowledge helped me achieve my goals?

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Taking time to appreciate that we already possess a great deal of Skills and Knowledge moves us to an entirely different level of confidence and self esteem in our work and life performance. This is one exercise that I believe is essential to add to our weekly, if not daily habits.

All the best in health and wealth,

Laura

Promoting Health & Wealth - Focus Your Time and achieve a 10!

On June 4, 2010, John Robert Wooden died just a few short months of his 100th birthday. He was a basketball coach, one was the first of three men to be admitted to the Basketball Hall of Fame in two categories - first as a player and then as a coach. When asked how he achieved 10 national championships he shared this formula.

10 = C + F + U (Conditioning + Fundamentals + Unity)

Steve Jamison, co-author with John Wooden for several books, wrote in the Preface of Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization, Coach Wooden's secret to success was a simple focus - follow this good habits curriculum. He worked with his team players from the inside how. He helped them focus their natural and developed talent to achieve their individual and collective purpose to be the best in their chosen field and team - basketball.

John Wooden was a sports coach, today, organizations are applying his practical methods of focusing on character and inner strength to direct time and enhance results. I would like to suggest that this concept can be applied to families, communities, causes...

What is your 10?

Is it having a loving and contributing family?
For me a 10 is a family that works, plays, laughs and cries together.

Is it having a successful work and career?
For me a 10 is meaningful work and team.

Is it...
Now it's your turn - what would you like your 10 - your focus to be?
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Let's break down Coach Wooden's formula, clarify our focus and identify how we will invest our time.

Conditioning:

What process do I have in place to help me become mentally, physically, financially, socially and emotionally fit?
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Fundamentals:

What basic tenants and principles do I live by that help me to take the moral and ethical high road?
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Unity:

Whom do I have in my team of life and work that helps me to maintain my focus and promote joy, health, prosperity and contribution for all?
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I was saddened by the passing of Coach Wooden - a truly remarkable man. He lived almost a century - strong men wept openly with his passing. And yet, with his passing another legacy has been passed on. I've had this book on my book shelf for several years - it's time to not just read but study and apply.

All the best in health and wealth,

Laura

Promoting Health and Wealth - Focus and Time in Just 12 minutes

Time is something that, all too often, I have take for granted. I also know that I have wasted more time in a day, a week and even life to date, than I care to admit too. As I ask myself, "How do I focus my time?", I realize that I often am NOT focusing this valuable resource at all. That doesn't mean I'm not busy but that busyness translates into activities not planned, purposeful action.

A valued colleague, Leanne Hoagland Smith, author of a great sales book called - The Keys to Unlocking the Sales Success be the Red Jacket in a sea of gray suits - introduced me to a concept of 12 minutes a day. She asked the question of a group she was facilitating how many in the audience wasted 12 minutes a day. One hundred percent of the group raised their hands.

Her next question - So, if you wasted 12 minutes a day, in 5 days how many minutes have you wasted?

The group's response - One hour!

Leanne then asked, What if you identified one area that you wanted to improve, wrote a one year goal and entered this goal into your calendar (electronic or manual) for 12 minutes every day. How much time would you have committed to this goal in one year?

The group's response - Fifty two (52) hour!

Can you read a book or two for 12 minutes per day for 52 hours? she asked.

YES!

Can you exercise for 12 minutes per day for 52 hours?

YES!

Can you write an article, a blog, a book for 12 minutes per day for 52 hours?

YES!

The energy in the room was palpable. That day Leanne changed my appreciation for 12 minutes a day. From that day forward, I do a minimum of 12 minutes a day on writing, reading, exercise, following up - whatever, I want to change into a new habit. I can tell you I NEVER do less and almost always do more.

I share this exercise with all my clients, friends and family. I generally have at least one person who decides to take on this habit. Later, they tell me how it changed their lives.

Before you start a project, the first project to tackle is you. Is it worth your time, to invest 12 minutes a day for at least a month or two to identify your FOCUS, what is really important to you? Find your focus and you will find lots more time.

Leanne, thank you for the great tip once again you helped improve my world and my success! For more information about Leanne Hoagland Smith, you can visit her website http://www.processspecialist.com/ or her blog http://processspecialist.com/increasesales/.

All the best in health and wealth,

Laura

Promoting Health & Wealth - Design Your Work for Flow

The organizational or "work" side of the life wheel is once again divided into four major components or quadrants:

1. Focus
2. Goals
3. Results
4. Attitude

I realize that these are relatively simple, everyday words. But, as I continue with this exploration of the Flow - life becomes much easier if we at least start with a mutual understanding of these words (or any words for that matter). So here are basic definitions compliments of The Free Dictionary by Farlex

Focus - A center of interest or activity.

• Time - A period necessary or available for a given activity

Goals - The purpose toward which an endeavor is directed; an objective.

• Skills - Proficiency, facility, or dexterity that is acquired or developed through training or experience.
• Knowledge - The sum or range of what has been perceived, discovered, or learned.

Results - The consequence of a particular action, operation, or course; A favorable or concrete outcome or effect.

• Performance - The way in which someone or something functions.

Attitude - A state of mind or a feeling; disposition.

• People - Humans considered as a group or in indefinite numbers.

Exciting and really interesting topics. Until tomorrow - back to research and discovery.

All the best in health and wealth,

Laura

Promoting Health and Wealth - To Leave a Legacy

Legacy according to Brainy Quote

1. A gift of property by will, esp. of money or personal property; a bequest. Also Fig.; as, a legacy of dishonor or disease.
2. A business with which one is entrusted by another; a commission; -- obsolete, except in the phrases last legacy, dying legacy, and the like.

To leave a Legacy, is more than just leaving behind the tangibles such as money or debt, treasures or junk. This component of the life wheel speaks to the inner hearts and even the souls of humanity. So much comes to mind in our current world - the war in the Middle East, the BP debacle in the Gulf of Mexico, our National Debt, just to name a few.

Mistakes are made, big and small, but if the intention behind the actions that led to the mistakes is ethically, morally and socially sound, then one legacy we can leave is to take the high road and FIX IT! As I continue in journey, I am increasing my personal accountability and am stopping the blame game and focusing on what I can be and do to work with others to solve problems.

Again, some interesting questions come to mind from the last two elements of the Wheels of Life - Social and Ethical.

Social

What community, statewide, national or international topics have caught my social interest?
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What am I doing that helps me to support this social interest and serves a greater good?
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What habits will I need to change, modify, eliminate or enhance in order to enhance this social element of my wheel of life?
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Ethical

What is my definition of ethics?
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How do I define my values and code of honor?
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What behaviors will I need to change, modify, eliminate or enhance in order to strengthen this ethical element of my wheel of life?
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To Live, to Love, to Learn are valuable components of the Wheels of Life. These are the internal, and quite frankly the more self-serving (as they should be) components of life. That being said, to Leave a Legacy, now this is the component that causes me to run into my day with open arms, heart, and mind. The social element gives me hope and passion, the ethical element holds me accountable in my leadership responsibilities both locally and globally.

All the best in health and wealth,

Laura

Promoting Health & Wealth - To Love in the Flow

To Love, is the component of the Wheels of Life that I perhaps sadly have taken for granted. Assessing how one shows family that they are appreciated and loved for me becomes perhaps the most challenging all. Treating those closest to me with total love, appreciation and respect needs to be on their terms as well as mine.

"Seek first to understand and then be understood." is a quote that helps me in my work. But, I am not so sure that I keep these words close to my heart as I flow in life with those the most important to me. Therefore I need to review this element of the wheels of life with the greatest discernment.

Family

How am I currently behaving to ensure that my family sees Love is front and foremost as I move towards my dreams and aspirations in my life and work?
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What am I doing that limits my closest relationships and fails to help them see, feel and hear my love?
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What habits will I need to change, modify, eliminate or enhance in order to enhance this family element of my wheel of life?
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Investing this time to assess our personal relationships is invaluable. This element is a great source for strength and success, even if it doesn't always seem that way.

What do you think?

All the best in health and wealth,

Laura

Promoting Health & Wealth - Enjoy today - It's Sunday!

Promoting Health & Wealth - How to LEARN in Our Dreams

I have come to appreciate that our mind is an area of exploration that has tremendous potential. It's always with us. No matter what other parts of our physical body may limit us our mind allows us to move forward and even blossom into so many wonderful areas. If we approach learning as a great motivator in life our lives become richer, more robust and certainly more meaningful.

Knowledge for knowledge sake may be interesting, but is it truly useful. After all, with internet access, libraries and unlimited easy access to information. Having knowledge is nice but applying knowledge is tremendous!

Mental
What have I learned from dreams that I have fulfilled in my life and work?
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What do I need to learn to help me achieve future dreams?
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What do I want to learn, it interests me, may even scare me, and yet leaves with a strong sense of urgency that I must learn it?
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What habits will I need to change, modify, eliminate or enhance in order to enhance this mental element of my life wheel?
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To learn and this mental element of the life wheel have amazing opportunities. Once we learn, the next best opportunity is to share it and apply that knowledge. No matter the age, we always have the ability to share and teach someone else and that takes our lives to an entirely different level.

All the best in health and wealth,

Laura

Promoting Health and Wealth _ How to LIVE Our Dreams

Helping us to understand WHY we have our current state of health, wealth and work becomes imperative to our success and joy in life. Answering the questions I recommended yesterday ...What dreams do I have for my physical, financial and career health?,What does extraordinary physical, financial and career health look like, feel like, sound like for me?, How do I behave to ensure that I achieve the level of health that supports my total physical, financial and career health as I move into my flow? and What habits will I need to change, modify, eliminate or enhance my physical, financial and career health?, is a great way to start.

However, even these few questions are more than a one hour, one day event. The key in any assessment process is to really dig - identify your baseline. Now let's go back and really look at each of those questions and look for some additional information.

What is your current physical status - weight, pain/discomfort, doctor visits, any diagnosed disorders or diseases?
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What is current financial status - savings and checking account balances, major debts, credit card debt, assets, income
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What is your current career status - meaningful work, promotes passion and energy, mentors, growth, contribution?
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Learning HOW we live will help us to understand WHY we have our current physical, financial and career elements in our wheel of life. Once determined, we now can, in words of Thoreau,

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.”

All the best in health and wealth,

Laura

Promoting Health & Wealth - How to Live?

To move along in this process - breaking the to live portion of the personal wheel of life becomes the first area of concentration helps me to explore and assess. Drilling down more specifically in this process - we will look at 3 specific components - physical, financial and career to help us determine how do we want to live.

Physical
What dreams do I have for my physical health?
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What does extraordinary physical health look like, feel like, sound like for me?
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How do I behave to ensure that I achieve the level of health that supports my total well being and helps me as I move into my flow?
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What habits will I need to change, modify, eliminate or enhance in my physical health?
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Financial
What dreams do I have for my financial health?
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What does extraordinary financial health look like, feel like, sound like for me?
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How do I behave to ensure that I achieve the level of finance that supports my total well being and helps me as I move into my flow?
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What habits will I need to change, modify, eliminate or enhance in my financial health?
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Career
What dreams do I have for my career and work?
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What does extraordinary career/work look like, feel like, sound like for me?
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How do I behave to ensure that I achieve the level of career and work that supports my total well being and helps me as I move into my flow?
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What habits will I need to change, modify, eliminate or enhance in my career?
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These questions are very personal and specific. Each of us has our own level of health, wealth and work that helps us LIVE!

All the best in health and wealth,

Laura

Promote Health & Wealth - Dreams to Goals to Flow

Is is my experience that getting into the habit of dreaming, goal setting and being in the flow takes the same amount of energy as any other habit/behavioral change we hope to accomplish. The good news is, everyone, and I do believe everyone, is already better at goal setting than we are aware because goals help us to meet our basic needs. And I do believe, we are just rusty at dreaming and getting in the flow because we tell ourselves dreams and being in the flow are wants and not needs. So we push our wants (and our needs) down because we have made a decision to live our lives in fear and have only our basic needs met.

Let me give you some examples. We wake up in the morning and decide to stay in bed or get to the bathroom. Urgent need and we get there. This is a basic behavior, but a goal none the less. So guess what, 100% of us get there in one way shape or form.

Next goal, do I go back to bed or get started into my day? The more I am aware of my dreams and my desire for being in the flow with health, success and contribution will be a direct correlation to how much energy I put into my goals for the day as I move into my work.

Are we getting the idea. This may seem simplistic but I can guarantee you that the bigger our dreams and the more clear we are on how extraordinary our lives can be the more likely we will be to treat D.G.F. dreams(D)to goals(G)to flow(F)as a process.

Now let's go back to the life wheel. Can you see now how assessing what is important you will help you to engage in this DGF process.




Just for today, let's start with the broad categories on the personal side, outer rim of the wheel:
1. To Live
2. To Learn
3. To Leave a Legacy
4. To Love

The first example would fall into the physical category on the outer wheel. The second could actually fall under all 4, if we really think about it. It depends on our D.G.F.dreams(D)to goals(G)to flow(F)- a process. and this becomes for me a DGF- Darn Great Focus for the day! I'm starting to work on it right now. What about you?

All the best in health and wealth,

Laura

Promoting Health & Wealth - From Dreaming to Goals

All men dream: but not equally, Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible. This I did.

* T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1922)


As I continue to study and research, I found the above quote by Lawrence of Arabia. What makes these dreamers by day dangerous? They turn their dreaming into a process. How do people become dangerous? They are the exceptional people that take a dream, clearly define what it means to them, helps them set a positive vision. A vision for greater health in communities and nations, more sensitivity to our environment and natural resources, more respect for our collective assets and talents.

As these dreams become more focused, we can use this dreaming process to establish goals and then act with deliberate purpose and passion. The bigger the dreams the more we need to appreciate our life wheels.





We need and want to keep these life wheels in balance to stay in the flow and live a health-filled, wealth-filled life. Again, let's keep writing down our dreams. Let's make them big enough to capture our talents, our passions, our resources, our values and our joys.

I filling as if today I am already getting into the flow. Dreaming is a great start. Tomorrow, we'll start with goals to build that bridge for the flow into success.

All the best in health and wealth,

Laura

Promoting Health & Wealth - How & What do I DREAM?

"Dreams are a bridge."








As I spend some time yesterday re-reading The Dream Manager by Matthew Kelly, this line struck a cord!

Needing more insight, I researched and found these two definitions for the word Dream from The Free Online Dictionary by Farlex:

A series of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations occurring involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep.

A condition or achievement that is longed for; an aspiration.

There are numerous studies to understand the meaning of our involuntary mind and what happens when we are asleep. While I am sure this is a valuable exercise, to interpret or evaluate the meaning of our sleeping dreams, I am going to focus on the conscious, waking dream, that achievement or aspiration that becomes a bridge to promoting our health and wealth.

Research has shown that the mind doesn't differential between what we actually experience and what we think (dream) we experienced. If this is true, and I'd like to believe it is, then making dreaming a conscious, purposeful action is imperative.

Let's start with some questions...

How do I dream?

How do I plan for dreaming?
How do I use dreaming to help me problem solve?
How do I use dreaming to help me grow and prosper?
How do I use dreaming to escape?
How do I use dreaming to overcome boredom and drudgery?
How do I use dreaming to help me overcome fear?

How do you dream?

and

What do I dream about?

What vacations do I dream about?
What health issues do I dream about enhancing or changing?
What income or wealth opportunities do I dream about?
What talents or skills do I dream about expanding?
What significant contribution that might benefit humanity do I dream about?

What do you dream about?

How I dream, is early every morning before the world wakes up and I approach the day with hope, energy, purpose and passion. What I dream about is working with people to expand our extraordinary potential.

Thoughts, ideas, comments?

All the best in health and wealth,

Laura

Promoting Health and Wealth - The Power of Dreaming

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined!"
Henry David Thoreau




When I first started writing this blog, I wanted to treat this year as an adventure. With each adventure, it is much better to start with a map, something that I didn't always do in the past. Surprise, I'm learning,growing and love using tools that help me to get into the flow to promote health and wealth for myself and others. Below, I will be using the Life Wheels graphic as a MAP to help in this journey.

The Life Wheels - Start with Dreams














Dreaming sounds easy. I am finding from personal experience and in conversations with others that it's becoming a lost art. In my travels, I came across a great source in 2007 by Matthew Kelly called The Dream Manager. This book has become a fundamental resource in to my library. To quote Matthew Kelly, here's why - "Dreams are invisible, but powerful. You cannot see them, but they keep everything going."

I opened blog with a quote from Thoreau. The questions now becomes - "How confident are you or I in going confidently in the direction of our dreams?"

My experience is helping me to discover that our conscious mind seems to think we are moving confidently towards our dreams. However, our subconscious is busy holding us back. How can we move forward in confidence and flow? Move our exploration inward first and the outer journey will exponentially grow too.

Let's start on this journey with Dreaming! Let's take time today to review our dreams.

All the best in health and wealth,

Laura

Promoting Health & Wealth - Assessing How to Start in the Flow

With so many challenges and options, where does one begin to identify the best places to start. Once we identify where we start, what we do next becomes so much easier. In this Assessment step in my process, I have found a valuable method to assist me...

The Life Wheels





Many of you may have seen variations on this concept and perhaps have even used it to help you prioritize. What I appreciate that I learn when I use this approach is that it is visual. One can "plot" where we think we are on these wheel and then target the area(s) that may need the greatest attention - take a few minutes and study this graphic

Investing time to honestly evaluate where we are am on these wheels saves me time, energy, frustration and certainly helps me focus and prioritize.

Tomorrow, I'll share more information about the different components of life wheels process and we can get started.

All the best in health and wealth,

Laura

Promoting Health & Wealth - Gathering Info

In the past few years, I have been working on creating a process to help me and others called ACTS(TM) - To Liberate Our Potential. There are many ways to gather information and/or assess our wants and needs. ACTS(TM) is an acronym for four simple steps that I use to serve as a guide to happiness, health and success.

The A represents Assess. This is information gathering stage. All too often, I have found that one will attempt to jump into solving a health, life or wealth problem with an obvious or superficial solution, only to find it is not the best solution. This step of ACTS causes us challenges because it takes time, effort, reflection, patience and trust. To effectively appreciate our current situation, we must be willing to patiently research and investigate the real cause of our distress or discomfort.

There are many approaches and tools and techniques one can use to gather the appropriate data. The value of using some type diagnostic or psycho-metric approach helps to give us a starting point.

An example is the DISC instrument. According to Wikipedia, DISC, is the four quadrant behavioral model based on the work of William Moulton Marston PhD (Harvard University) to examine the behavior of individuals in their environment or within a specific situation. It therefore focuses on the styles and preferences of such behavior. This tool gives one an understanding of their style of behavior - Decisive, Interactive, Stabilizing and Cautious. We all have an element of each but we each have a natural styles that dominate.

Again, this is only one example - assessing our IQ, personality, thinking style, motivators, emotional intelligence..., this list can get quite lengthy. Enjoy the journey and have fun the greatest unexplored terrain to date - the human behavior.

Throughout the course of the year, I will be sharing the rest of this simple ACTS(TM) process.

All the best in health and wealth,

Laura

Promoting Health and Wealth - Problems and Questions

In reflection, I realize that one of the biggest reasons that I started this journey is because I wanted to work on my personal accountability. In the past, I have worked very hard on helping others increase their personal accountability and achieve success. Then it dawned on me, if I develop my own personal accountability, I would definitely improve my health and wealth.

Our bodies are wonderfully designed - our body is a reflection of all that we put out in the world, even if what we put out is only a thought. For example, I am fortunately a really healthy person, rarely get sick. For most of my life, however, whenever I would move into a mode of working excessive hours, pushing, pushing, controlling projects or events, I would end up with a terrible cold and then acute bronchitis. As I dug deeper into the cause of this problem, I became aware that my body was telling me to slow down, enjoy the ride and pay attention to the beauty of the experience rather than just plowing through. My body gave me the message loud and clear.

You're working too hard!
This job or project is not for you!
It's time to take a break!

I still didn't totally get the message for other aspects of my life that might be holding me back.. I wasn't really consciously making the best decisions but at least when a cold cropped up, I knew it was time to stop and ask what I needed to change or do differently.

One great resource for helping me in this process to improve personal accountability to help I me to enhance my strength in the questioning arena is great book by John G. Miller, called QBQ - The Question Behind the Question. In my opinion, this is one of the best books in the market today on personal accountability.

This book can be read in about an hour and can help one master the art of questioning. I don't want to give away the essence of the book, it is well worth the investment in time and money.

What about you, any suggestions on how to enhance this questioning, discovery process to help promote extraordinary health and wealth.

All the best in health and wealth,

Laura

Promoting Health & Wealth - Prioritizing Goals, Think Critically

Concentrating on clearly defined purpose and goals, already is making life more simple . As I keep my purpose to work with people to liberate their potential, my one clear goal to expand my expertise with human potential is helpful, but can really not be the best priority at this time. After all, I realize that communication, motivation, decision making/problem solving, just for starters now become imperative issues to address. How can I set goals so quickly? How can I use better critical thinking skills.

In a great conversation with a colleague and a master of critical thinking, as always, he helped set me straight - I really had a long way before jumping into setting goals. For starters, he actually helped me to formulate four questions:

1. What questions do I have or problems to be solved that will help me to stay on purpose?
2. Have I gathered enough relevant information to select and prioritize goals?
3. What conclusions or solutions will I select and how will I test their relevance and value?
4. How will I communicate to others my plans and decisions and receive input without allowing ineffective influence?

Well, as you can see it now become imperative for me to do a lot more exploration and fact finding to be sure that I make the best decisions and goals in this process of flow. Otherwise, I'll still be doing busy work that actually distracts me from my mission. I wrote early on today that my life would be simplier with clear purpose and goals, but it sure isn't easier.

I have a ton more work to do. Any thoughts?

All the best in health and wealth,

Laura

Promoting Health & Wealth: Clear, Quality Goals Help

Now, that I have defined my purpose, the next big step in getting the Flow is setting clear goals. I used to believe that I was a great goal setter. I would come up with a long list of goals and work hard, sometimes like a crazed person even, to achieve all the goals that I would set.

Now, I am coming to realize that the quantity of goals has absolutely nothing to do with how successful or happy I am. In fact, for me often times those goals were busy work and activities that actually would keep me out of my Flow. In reality, the quality of the goals is one of the keys to successfully getting into my Flow.

Let's do a little goal setting 101. For a goal to be successful it must be W.H.Y. S.M.A.R.T. - Written, Habit-forming, Yours (written by the person who selects and designs the goal), Specific, Measurable, Aligned with Purpose, Realistically High, and Timed. For example, my purpose is to work with individuals and organizations to release their extraordinary potential. A goal I set for myself is to enhance my knowledge and experience with human potential by researching and studying at least one leader in field such as Abraham Maslow and learn more about one of his models - Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs - Motivational Model by June 30, 2010. What do you think, does this goal meet the WHY SMART Criteria?

Would love your thoughts, ideas and suggestions about clear, quality goals.

All the best in health and wealth,

Laura