Archive for taking action
Waiting For Magic
Posted by: | CommentsTuesday felt like a good day. I made my commitment to my project and moved from one thing to the next and it all seemed to fall into place. Since then I’ve been spinning my wheels, waiting passively for something external to move me onto the next thing. Waiting for magic.
I’ve been thinking, it’s a bit ironic that I’m saying I’m committed to creating a workshop about what to do when you don’t know what you want, and here I am, not being able to identify, in the moment what it is I want to do, and getting very stuck in that. Perfect, of course.
One of the ideas I want to get across is that everything you need is in your life right now. So, if I apply that idea to my life what do I see? What opportunities have I been missing while I’ve been waiting for something else to jump up and bite me on the bum?
Remember, I’ve taken advantage of the cosmic hint to write an invitation letter (described in my post about little struggles), and then got hung up because I couldn’t seem to finish it. Then the waiting started. I’ve been making a note of the 30 day challenge “homework” but haven’t taken any action related to it, because I didn’t know what to do. And then it struck me, I didn’t know what to do next because I didn’t have a plan.
OMG The “P” word.
And then the s**t really hit the fan and I came face to face with the truth that is my fear of running this coaching programme. Having a plan suddenly makes it real.
I’d forgotten the difference between intention and commitment and how “You’re not really committed until you’ve proved it by putting in place a supporting structure. Until you do, anything you think you want remains an intention without the power of true commitment and, consequently, is unlikely to materialise.”
So, now I have a choice, do I want to stay stuck and pretend to be playing the game or will I take the next step and create a plan? I choose to re-engage in my project and create a plan. So, once again, I reset my commitment to enrol 10 people on my 6 month coaching programme called – ‘When You Don’t Know What You Want – Make It Up!’.
Little Struggles are Toxic Too
Posted by: | CommentsOne of the rules I set for myself in creating my 28 Day Challenge is: “I will not struggle nor suffer”. Now, when I wrote that I was thinking of the times I’d gone round and round in circles, sometimes for weeks on end, trying to work something out or make something happen. And one thing I am sure of is that struggle never gets me anywhere but stressed, frustrated or feeling depressed. Hence, the rule.
So, on Day 1, everything was fresh and exciting and I was open to possibilities and very much living in the present. I set my goal and then let go of it, while I got on with the business of taking action from the moment – just doing the next thing. Eveything was hunky, dory. The next thing came and went, listening to the audio of ’Creating the Impossible’, responding to emails, putting my intention out into the world by writing about it etc.
After lunch I wasn’t sure about the next step so decided to go for a walk and then go for a coffee where I would brainstorm some ideas of what the coaching programme might actually look like. But just as I was leaving I received an email from my coach, responding to my 28 day challenge. It said:
“Gillian. For one thing, you’re a very persuasive and beautiful
writer…you can really express yourself well….SO create
a POWERFUL letter of invitation…I filled a mastermind
group of 20 people at $10,000 each, and I did this
twice, by sending a letter.”
So, there was my next step.
I went for my walk, went for a coffee and sat with my pen and paper made my first stab at a letter of invitation. Now, what was interesting was, I don’t really know what a letter of invitation is but I just settled myself down and wrote. My first few attempts weren’t good but I reminded myself that ”this is just a game”, “I don’t actually have to run a seminar if I don’t want to”, “this is all in the future and all I’m doing is playing around with an idea right now”. Then eventually a “letter” began to emerge and I had fun creating it.
So, fast forward to yesterday, when I listen to the next Impossible Challenge audio and settle down to do the next thing. But yesterday’s “next thing” just didn’t seem to flow and, I realise now, that that was because I’d unknowingly already decided what that next thing was. My invitation letter was only half written so I’d simply assumed that the “next thing” would be the completion of that. And, all day, on and off I struggled with trying to write it. But it was very subtle. I wasn’t sitting down and saying to myself “this letter must be finished” but I was, unconsciously, thinking that and, as a consequence I probably missed an easier “next thing”. And by easier I simply mean, one that flowed more. And, I didn’t get much further with the letter.
So, today I reset my commitment to enrol 10 people on my 6 month coaching programme called – ‘When You Don’t Know What You Want – Make It Up!’ and I reset my commitment to doing so without a struggle – be it little or large.
Hmmm. So what’s the next thing? . . . Breakfast. Easy!
28 Day Challenge
Posted by: | CommentsThere’s 28 days until I fly back to Phoenix and to the final weekend of The Coaching School and I want to draw together all that I’ve leaned so far and set myself a new challenge.
When I got back to the UK in July I was creative, brave and playful. And high energy. I followed the twists and turns of my process through the Coaching School, sometimes feeling low and others excited and then landed, most recently, in a place of giving up trying to make things happen. Here I found a lot more peace and a deal of appreciation for what I already have. But I also felt reactive rather than in charge. So now I’m going to experiment with combining the two.
I want the energy of playing big combined with the peace of living in the moment. I want commitment to a goal but without attachment. I want to live from no history. Just today – anew! Just me and My Way. Whatever this game of life is or isn’t, I’m going to play My Game by My Rules.
To give me some structure to make this easier I’m going to do Michael Neill’s Creating the Impossible Challenge again. That way I will have a focus each day so, if I get stuck, I can more easily get moving again.
These are My rules:
- I will not struggle nor suffer.
- If it’s not fun I will find a way to make it fun or not do it.
- I will not care what others think of me.
My Impossible Goal is:
To enrol 10 people on my 6 month coaching programme called – ‘When You Don’t Know What You Want – Make It Up!’
That seems pretty impossible from here since the programme doesn’t exist yet. So it’a a good choice.
Part of the challenge is to take 100 steps towards your impossible goal so this is Step 2 – announcing my commitment on my blog. Step 1 was announcing my commitment to the Coaching School group.
Expect more soon . . .
Finding Life Purpose – Day By Day
Posted by: | CommentsSince writing my blog post on finding your purpose, I’ve been rereading Gregg Levoy’s book – Callings. I went to a seminar of his 8 years ago and was surpirsed to see that the things I’d written in my notes then were pretty much what I’d write today, with the exception of wanting to live somewhere else. This maybe suggests that these were indeed “callings” that I was getting in touch with.
In my earlier post, I mentioned the idea that we may have a choice in respect of finding life purpose. Similarly Gregg Levoy notes: “Calls are in our minds, big, and we feel we have to respond in a big way, which, of course, can be paralyzing. It is therefore important to remember, first, that a call isn’t something that comes from on high as an order, a sort of divine subpoena, irrespective of our own free will and desire. We have a choice“.
Also, “few people actually receive big calls, in visions of flaming chariots and burning bushes. Most of the calls we receive and ignore are the proverbial still, small voices that the biblical prophets heard, the daily calls to pay attention to our intuitions, to be authentic, to live by our own codes of honor”.
“The great breakthroughs in our lives generally happen only as a result of the accumulation of innumerable small steps and minor achievements. We’re called to reach out to someone, to pick up an odd book on the library shelf, to sign up for a class even though we’re convinced we don’t have the time or money, to go to our desks each day, to turn left instead of right. These are the fire dirills for our bigger calls”.
I find relief in the idea of “innumerable small steps”. It is something I can do now and ties in with living my life on purpose even when I don’t know what it is I want to do. Having said that, I notice that 3 days have passed since I wrote the post about my 4 week experiment about getting on with life when you don’t know what you want. And, although I have taken some action on using the opportunites that are in my life now, to consciously enjoy the present and create the future, I have been consistently ignoring the small still voice that is calling me to have more coaching conversations.
Today I will step up and attend to that voice that I am pretending not to hear.
Michael Neill’s Ultimate Time Management System
Posted by: | CommentsI’ve been thoroughly enjoying Michael Neill’s ‘Creating the Impossible in 30 Days‘ although I haven’t had much time to do many of the exercises as I’ve been busy with “work” from the Coaching School. So, appropriately, I’m going to spend the day experimenting with his Ultimate Time Management System.
The idea behind it is that time is not something you have or don’t have. You are the source of it. You make as much of it as you want.
And the system works like this:
1. Take 2 pieces of paper
2. On the first page write “The only thing I have to do today is . . .”
3. On the second page make a comprehensive list of everything you want to get done in the next week or so. Include, all you regular “to dos”, everything you’ve got to do for work and at home, as well as the things you think you’d like to do if you had more time.
4. When it’s time to do the things on your list just choose ONE item. Choose the one that appeals to you most and write it on the first page. Do it as though it’s the only thing you have to do today.
5. When you complete it cross it off both lists.
6. Choose the next thing that appeals from the second list and transfer it to the first page.
And keep repeating.
When I first heard this my mind went straight to the place of “this won’t work because I’ll never do the things that I don’t want to do but have to be done”. But the other possibility of course, is that when it really needs to be done it will the one that most appeals because I will want to relieve the stress of the consequences I would face if I didn’t do it.
We’ll see. I’m off to play now.
Leave a comment and let us know how this system works out for you . . .
