My partner and I have recently bought a small cottage (after all those years of kayak camping, it is indeed a treat to plug in a kettle and flush a toilet. Ah, the joys of plastic and porcelain!) Anyway, I’ve taken off a lot of time as we’ve settled in and today I wanted to work. So I am. And it’s feeling good. To me, that’s what being self-employed is all about. Being able to decide what to do when. It’s one of the advantages of being independent!

Because it’s Canada Day today and the US holiday on July 4th, I want to celebrate independence.  Being independent means that we are the ones in charge of our lives and that’s an awesome thing–it’s a privilege not everyone has! Yet if you’re like me, you sometimes give your power to be independent away.  Debbie Ford, a new age teacher, has written what she calls a “Vow of Emotional Independence” that I think you’ll enjoy.

Here it is:

The Vow of Emotional Independence

I, ______ ________, am committed to living free of the strangulating grip of fear, shame, doubt, worry, anger, and sadness.

I promise to give my power to the force greater than myself rather than some food, substance, bad habit, or disempowering craving.

I will stand for my highest expression rather than allowing others’ judgments to define who I am.

I will always make sure to please and take care of myself instead of succumbing to any people-pleasing habits.

I will listen to the voice of my soul rather than listening to the voice of my critical internal judge.

I will find joy in each and every day of my existence rather than get caught up in the insanity of my world.

I will take care of my planet and let my voice be heard instead of waiting for someone else to do it for me.

I choose to make choices that leave me feeling inspired by myself and will graciously let go of my self-defeating behaviors.

I take this vow NOW as a positive stand for my soul’s highest expression and set myself free.

I ask the powers that be to support me in living this vow each and every moment of each and every day.

I surrender my will for the higher will and trust I will be guided from my darkest thought to my greatest dream, from my head to my heart.

Today, I commit to living in full accordance with this vow.

And so it is.

___________________

I just said this ‘vow’ out loud. It gave me

The experts have suggested a variety of strategies that will be helpful if SUA happens to your car, and I’ve added some ideas about how those suggestions can be helpful in life.

1. Stay Calm: Staying calm isn’t just a good thing to do–your life may depend upon it. Survivors of major disasters always have this one trait in common. They didn’t panic.  This is great advice for when things go crazy in our lives as well. If you need help with this, I’ve just posted some short, but calming meditations on my Happiness Anyway website–check them out by going to MEDITATIONS

2. Don’t turn off the engine: Think of it–the engine provides power to the power steering and brakes, so if you turn off the engine, you’ve just cashed out of any chance of buying yourself a different outcome.  It’s the same with relationships, and jobs–don’t turn off the engine. Stay IN the situation and figure it out. That’s the only long term way of being successful.

3. Apply uniform and consistent pressure to the brakes: Don’t pump. In life, we need to be consistent about saying “No”, consistent about our goals and habits. Doing them sometimes and not others (pumping) won’t do it.

4. Shift into neutral: I like this suggestion a lot, because it’s one area where I see people botching things up. Don’t keep at a conversation when the other person has clearly tuned you out. Don’t keep pushing for a solution when your body is exhausted. Don’t say or do more until things ease up a bit.

5. Move to a side lane: Pulling over (but not exiting) a situation is often a wise choice. It will allow us to get a break from the chaos, reassess and call in the help we need.

TWO AWESOME RESOURCES:

Bob Proctor, a Canadian entrepreneur who’s been hugely successful, is offering a daily video series for a buck. You can cancel for no reason if you like at the end of a month. I like Bob Proctor so I signed up and I’m loving the videos. They are 6 minutes each and delivered to your box every day and talk about everything from creating wealth to handling difficult emotions. Here’s the link.

https://sixminutes.infusionsoft.com/go/SM2SV4/inic1984

LAST BUT NOT LEAST:

This is your last opportunity to enter the Month of Free Coaching Draw. To be eligible, all you have to do is sign up for my blog at my new Happiness Anyway site. Not only will you get lots of tips and tools for being “Happy Anyway”, you’ll create a chance for yourself to win a free month of coaching. If you’re interested, do it today as I’m picking the winner tomorrow!

Rich thinking isn’t just about money — it’s the kind of thinking that makes us feel lush and able. And poor thinking is the opposite–it makes you feel limited and not able.

If you want to find out what your default kind of thinking is, watch yourself the next time you hit a glitch. Like I did this morning.

There I was, doing a bit of clean up on my website (I took a great website creation workshop last spring that I’m going to tell you more about next time) when I must have pressed the wrong button, for suddenly, all the content in my widgets disappeared. And I couldn’t get it back!

This was bad. And what made it worse was that this was the second time I’d done this.

The ‘poor’ thoughts were right there. “You don’t know what you’re doing.” “You keep screwing up.” “You’ll never get this right.” As these thoughts played through my mind, all I wanted to do was push my computer away and give up.

Luckily for me, I recognized this and substituted more expansive thoughts. They were far kinder:  “You’re just learning, it’s okay to mistakes, sometimes over and over.”  “You’ll get it right.”  “It’s great that you’re even trying to do this yourself.”

Needless to say, these thoughts felt good, and created enough energy so that I went right back and fixed the mess I’d inadvertently created. It didn’t take as long as I thought.

This thought substitution is something one of my clients does very, very well. In fact, she’s so good at it, she’s now teaching other people. Her new course, called The Rich Thinking Way is starting soon and I wanted to tell you about it.

It’s a  12 week teleclass, starting March 3rd and she’s offering people the chance to try it out for 2 weeks– free!

We all know we should think more richly, but Jane’s course will teach you how to do that on a very deep level, so that it becomes part of who you are, not just something to try to do now and then.

In the course, youll get an in-depth experience of not only how you currently think, but how changing your thoughts  will change your life.  She’ll also teach you how to  align your soul with your business, charge what you need to charge for business success and much, much more. Jane’s rich in all she does, so what you’ll get will be wonderful.

To sign up or find out more, here’s the link! Tell Jane I sent you. She’s awesome!

http://www.richthinkers.co.uk/align-with-soul/?utm_source=karen&utm_medium=email&utm_content=ad-text&utm_term=email1&utm_campaign=RichThinkingWay2010-01

It’s Okay Not To Know How!

Sometimes we put ourselves under a lot of pressure to know ‘How’ to do something. Sometimes we even stop ourselves from proceeding because we don’t know ‘how’.

Don’t!

Reassure yourself by realizing that many, many highly successful people have started businesses, relationships, projects etc without having a clue how they were going to pull the task to completion. In fact, sometimes not knowing ‘how’ gives us the freedom to explore in entirely new ways.

Take Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook. Do you think he knew anything about how to set up a social networking site? No way! He started before the term ’social networking’ site even existed.  In fact, his motivation for the site initially was to create a place to meet girls! Now, according to an annual list published by Forbes magazine, Mark is the youngest ever self-made billionaire. The magazine put the

former Harvard student’s personal wealth at 1.5 billion dollars.

So, don’t worry about not knowing how.  Just get started.  Set out. You’ll figure it out as you go.  Don’t get me wrong. You still have to be clear about what you want. That’s given. But if you worry about the ‘how’, you’ll stop yourself before you’ve even begun.

Don’t even worry if your business, relationship, project is failing. Even if all looks lost, that doesn’t mean you can’t  figure it out and turn things around. Think of Thomas Edison who had over 10,000 filed attempts at the light bulb.  Or, Richard Bach, the author who wrote about a seagull! He was turned down by 18 publishers for his 10,000 word story about the soaring bird before Macmillan finally published it in 1970.  By 1975 it had sold over 7 million copies in the U.S. alone.

It’s even okay if you find yourself questioning your ability to do what it takes–you’re in good company:

* Beethoven was told by his teacher that he handled the violin awkwardly and called him a hopeless composer.

* Charles Darwin, was considered a very ordinary boy with nothing special going for him.

* Henry Ford went broke 5 times before he finally succeeded.

* Walt Disney was a cartoonist who liked to draw mice–who would have ever thought he could make millions from that?

What made these people successful?

1) Having a clear vision.

2) Taking action. Over and over again.

3) Staying positive when their attempts did not work.

Life gives us all the feedback we need about whether we’re on track. So, as Tony Robbins says, you want to take what he calls ‘massive actions’ so you can get the feedback you need to be successful. The more actions you take, the more feedback you’ll get. And the more feedback you get, the more you’ll be able to guide yourself along the path to success.

ALL THESE PEOPLE FIGURED IT OUT—YOU CAN TOO!

And if you’d like some expert help in figuring out ‘how’, try me for a free 30-minute over-the-phone “Idea” session. I love giving them and of course, there’s no obligation to go further. Everyone who has one always tells me how helpful