We come this way but once. We can either tiptoe through life and hope that we get to death without being too badly bruised or we can live a full, complete life achieving our goals and realizing our wildest dreams. Bob Proctor

Thinking it Through

Do you remember as a child that feeling of desire? Of wanting something and dreaming of having it so intensely that you absolutely knew it would be yours? Dangerous stuff right? I’m sure by now, since you are a responsible adult, you have safely cloaked, squelched and muted your desires. What a relief! You are protected from that dreaded feeling of disappointment. All is right with the world. Ha! What I have found working as a Life Coach, is that safely hiding your desires away is not safe at all, in fact it leads to a feeling of numbness and even depression, that often makes the dreaded feeling of disappointment a welcome visitor.

Desires are a map to our passions, our true path and if we have the courage to follow them they lead to a vibrant, joyful life. So how do you retrain yourself to follow your desires and find your path?

The first step is to get quiet. Take regular time to be still and think about what you desire. Be very honest with yourself even if your desires make you feel uncomfortable. Often our initial desires, especially if they are destructive or negative, are really just sign posts to our true desires. Take the time to be still and explore them.

Pick a desire, any desire and follow it. When you discover a genuine desire begin exploring. If the desire is not accompanied by feelings of openness, happiness, peace and growing interest then it isn’t your core desire. Follow the trail of your desires until you find an authentic one.

Let your desire be intention. Change your wishful thinking into a belief that you will get what you want. (What about disappointment? When you are following your true heart’s desire you enjoy the journey not just the destination. You will survive any disappointment along the way.)

Allow the path to your desire to unfold the way it wishes. You may be surprised where it will take you and that is part of the adventure. Don’t lock it into happening only one way.

As you explore always ask, “Then what?” “ I grow a successful six-figure business, then what?” If you are as excited by the “then what?” as you are by the goal then you have a winner.

Believe that you can have the fulfillment of your desires. Much easier said then done! You will need to frequently reassure yourself that step by step you will move towards creating a life around what you desire. As you take those steps it will be easier to believe.

Challenge

1.  What do you desire?

2.  What steps are you taking to explore that desire?

3.  What beliefs are getting in your way?

4.  What can you do today to move towards your desire?

Leanna Fredrich, Life Coach

PS:  Having troubles finding your passion or believing you can follow your desires?  Email me at Leanna@amazingmondays.com

“You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” Eleanor Roosevelt

“The only way to the Place beyond Fear is to do the thing you fear most. This is how to surrender to your best destiny.” Martha Beck

Thinking it Through

This weekend I went to a terrifying and wonderful seminar. Terrifying, because for three days I was forced to do the one thing that has always scared me most… SELL. I love teaching, coaching, listening but when it comes to asking for money I have a truck-load of beliefs holding me back. So here I was, forced to face my fear head-on. The first day I was sure I would lose the breakfast I didn’t have. That evening I knew exactly the beliefs I needed to shift.  I pulled out the tools I’ve learned to change those beliefs and got to work. The next day I begin to enjoy the process in a sick sort of way. More limiting beliefs showed their ugly little faces and that evening I worked through those. By the third day I was almost having fun with the selling process. I started to see it in a different light as I wrapped it in a soft blanket of service.

The whole weekend was a reminder that the quickest way to get past self-sabotage and fear is to face it. Jump in that fire and your limiting beliefs will fly in your face. You won’t have to wonder what is stopping you. You will know!  When you know, you can get the help you need to change those beliefs and move towards your dreams with freedom.

Challenge:

1.  Are you stuck in an area of your life?

2.  What can you do to jump into the fear?

3.  When you do this, what limiting beliefs show up?

4.  Write down those limiting beliefs and get help to change them.

Leanna Fredrich

Life Coach

PS:  What belief is keeping you stuck?  I can help.  Email me at Leanna@AmazingMondays.com



Leanna Fredrich, Life Coach

PS:  You may learn more about the book and purchase it at  https://www.createspace.com/3456853

Nothing changes until you do. Unknown

My inner world creates my outer world. T. Harv Eker

Thinking it Through…

We all have stories that we tell over and over. They are the stories that drive our family crazy as we share them at every public get together. However annoying those stories may be to our loved ones, they are usually quite harmless. Unfortunately, many of us have stories which we tell that are devastating to our lives. For example, a friend of mine is always saying how tired she is. (By the way, she has been thoroughly checked out by multiple doctors and has a clean bill of health.) One day I decided to count how many times she mentioned her exhaustion. After I hit a dozen in a half hour I was too worn out to continue! This behavior is called “Story Fondling” by the best-selling author and Coach, Martha Beck. We tell the same story out loud or in the quiet of our minds over and over and over. “I don’t have enough money.” “I’m old.” “I’m not smart.” Sadly enough we are programming our minds with these negative beliefs and as we do, the beliefs become a self-fulfilling prophecy. So often “story fondling” keeps us sad, discouraged and preoccupied with a mournful past or a frightening future. As we run that well-worn story track , we are missing out on opportunities and joy in the present moment.

Think for a minute… Do you spend time “story fondling?” If you are not sure ask a very honest close friend or family member. Is that story serving you in a positive way? My droopy-eyed friend is served in a way by her “exhaustion story.” It gives her a ready made excuse to cop out on life and go to bed. But at what cost? She is missing out on so much and the world is missing out on benefiting from her unique gifts and strengths which she is too tired to share. Take this month to notice your stories and change them to serve you. You are the author of those stories after all so it is your right to change them!

Challenge:

1. What stories are you fondling?
2. Are they serving you in a positive way?
3. If not, then how can you change your stories to positively impact your life?
4. What stories do you need to tell yourself to easily create the life you desire?

Dance with Joy,

Leanna Fredrich
Life Coach

PS: If you are trying to change your stories and find yourself stuck email me at Leanna@AmazingMondays.com.

“The great tragedy of life is not death, but what dies inside of us while we live.”
— Norman Cousins

“And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight in a bud was more painful then the risk it took to blossom.”
— Anais Nin

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild
and precious life?”
– Mary Oliver

“It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.” Alan Cohen

Thinking it Through…

Have you ever noticed how often people over forty talk about old age? When I really started listening, old-age conversations were everywhere! For example, I was at my son’s Taekwondo school talking to one of the mom’s. She told me that she had always wanted to take Taekwando but now she was too old. Had she ever noticed the couple attending the same school , in their 70′s, enthusiastically earning their black-belts? She had not, because her beliefs about what you can and can’t do after age forty were blinding her. If I had a dollar for every time I heard that someone was too old to start a business or a new career I would be a very rich woman. I was completely shocked as I had a conversation with a healthy, 40ish woman who said that although she would love to travel she was too old to take those kinds of risks! I’ve heard all kinds of “too old” beliefs… I’m too old to fall in love, enjoy amusement parks, learn a new sport, exercise, go back to school… the list goes on. How sad. It is like dieing before you’re dead!

The truth is as a generation we are living longer. Many of us will live to be well into our 90′s. Do we really want to start playing it small and safe when we have fifty more years of life to go?! The way some people are headed by the time they are in their 60′s they won’t leave their houses. I think it is past time to take a look at our beliefs about aging and get clear on how we wish to use the next 50 years. It is so sad to see people shrink and play it safe at the very time when their lives are full of such potential. Usually during the second half of our lives we have more freedom. Our families are almost raised and on their own, we have a wealth of life experience, we know more about ourselves and the world. This is the time to really come into our own and play big. We need to have adventures, take risks that are meaningful to us, and grow, grow, grow. Live while you’re alive!

Challenge:

1. Where in your life are you playing small?

2. What are your beliefs about getting older?

3. Are your beliefs growing or shrinking you?

4. What new beliefs do you need to adopt in order to live a big, meaningful life ?

Dance with Joy,
Leanna Fredrich
Life Coach

“Mind is the master power that molds and makes,
And we are mind, and evermore we take
The tool of thought, and shaping what we will,
Bring forth a thousand joys, a thousand ills.
We think in secret, and it comes to pass,
Our world is but our looking glass. James Allen

“…Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.” Napoleon Hill

“The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: decide what you want.” Ben Stein

Thoughts…

People throughout the ages have discussed how powerful thoughts are and how they can change your life. Often the explanations can get very deep or scientific as they talk about quantum physics and energy. While all of the discussions hold truth , there is a far simpler explanation of how your thoughts change your life. It all begins with a part of your brain called the Reticular Activating System.(RAS) This diminutive part of your brain has an exceedingly huge job to do. It’s job is to filter through all of the stimulus we receive every second of our lives and then let us know what is important for us to focus on. Without this part of our brain we would go crazy trying to pay attention to everything from how our socks feel on our toes, the hum of the refrigerator to the sounds of a child crying outside. Everything would grab our attention equally and the result would be major overwhelm. Thankfully this beautiful part of our brain offers up to us only what we have decided is important. And that is where the power of our thoughts come in. Whatever we think about over and over especially with emotion, that is what the RAS shows us.

I just heard a fascinating example of how this works … John noticed that everyday when he looked through the mail it consisted of bills and useless catalogs. “I sure wish my mail was full of checks instead.”he thought. John decided that he would imagine many times per day checks filling his mailbox. Each evening when he walked in the door he would ask his wife “Did I get any checks today?” Everyday the answer was “no” and his kids started thinking dad had really lost it. Months went by as John trained his RAS to look for ways to get checks in his mailbox. Then one morning as he walked into his office where he worked as a journalist the secretary said, “John, people keep asking for some of your old articles do you have any I could share?” John’s RAS started screaming! Here’s a way to get checks in the mail! So he took some of his old articles and put them in a small booklet to sell. That was the beginning of John receiving checks in the mail almost everyday . He had let his brain know by his consistent imagining that getting checks in the mail was very important. The RAS started scanning his environment for anything that could bring him checks in the mail and kept at it until an answer was found. John used this process to bring more money in, my friend Debbie used it to lose weight and keep it off, the possibilities are endless. Using the power of your thoughts is not complicated but it requires daily imagining and the ability to remain curious rather then always asking if it’s working! So here’s to the RAS, imagining and curiosity! Start using the power of your brain today.

Questions…

1. What do you want to create in your life?

2. What will you imagine?

3. Are you curious or desperate?

4. Commit to spending time everyday picturing what you want.

Dance with Joy,

Leanna Fredrich
Life Coach