Shake up your world—Again, not to minimize the Haitian tragedy, but rather in service to it,  here is an invitation to cause better outcomes in your life.  Shake up your world.  Pull your participation and energy from scenarios you have been unhappy with presumably for a long time.  Resolve long-standing issues, get out of commitments that are not working, change a few things that have been bugging you for a long time.  Watch how you will have new energy and you will cause new opportunities to arise.  Watch how you’ll grow into a greater contributor in your world. People have been holding on for dear life for a year and half riding out the recession, it’s time to let go and make your world move.

Namaste´

New Energy—Sometimes there is nowhere to go but up.  Certainly, there is the opportunity for hopelessness and the scope of the loss of human life and property is astounding.  There is no rushing through the mourning that needs to occur.  However, rock bottom, calls on the human spirit to rise like no other circumstance.  With each shaking of our lives, we can think the world is falling apart but it’s really coming to its senses.  Through the pain, we drop more of the non-essentials and get back to the core of our humanity and what is really important.  Have you ever noticed that after a cathartic cry, making up after a big fight or even after a child has a big upset, the aftermath is a renewal of love, a feeling of closeness or a calm that was certainly not there before?  That is a return to your core, where the most loving choices are made.

Resonance—9/11, Katrina, the Tsunami, Haiti, countless earthquakes, fires and even war have been resounding vibrations felt around the world.  So many in quick succession.  Many of the systems we have counted on in America and in our global economy, are undergoing tremendous change, which does not feel comfortable at all, and we are not even sure if it is for the better.  However, what I have observed is that there is also a quickening of evolution within people—a resonant awakening. We can no longer operate mesmerized by the hum of predictable routine.  We have to pay attention, we have to change more quickly, and we have to adapt.  The interconnectedness of all things seems more obvious now than ever and we are being asked to be more conscious of that.

Tomorrow…Part Three

New changes to the blog and my newsletter—The newsletter will now lead here for its articles and the blog entries will be shorter. Please return here for the remaining parts of this article or sign up for the feed and be sure not to miss it.  These changes were based on feedback from my readers. Thanks for your input!

We started a new year with a tragedy that has brought the world together to help out.  A huge humanitarian effort has mobilized. Without any disrespect to the horror that Haiti faces, there have been several parallels to our lives that have struck me as lessons to draw from the aftermath of the earth moving.

Infrastructure—Haiti did not have much of one and what it had was easily destroyed.  Without buildings built for tremors, systems that work, emergency or succession planning, there was little to be activated in recovery.  Without infrastructure our lives and our business can fall into ruins as well. Granted, natural disasters will have their way with us and perhaps make anything we have in play obsolete, but the possibility of recovery is faster when there is infrastructure.  Where does your personal or business infrastructure need to be sured up?

Opportunity—As some visionaries have already stated, the opportunity for Haiti to be better than it ever was before is a distinct possibility.  Although Haiti was on the radar screen of humanitarian causes, this plunge into complete collapse will make it more likely that help will come. However, it will take some serious leadership, strategy, global assistance, commitment and the end of corruption to make it happen.  A very tall order, but it’s a great vision to hold.  What vision is being called forth for you?  What opportunity presents itself despite any disguise of tragedy or unwanted circumstance? What vision of what is possible would you do well to hold right now?

More to come tomorrow…….

Originally broadcast, Saturday, November 7, 2009 in my newsletter, Living Wisely

A year ago, there was a prevalent spirit of hope and possibility as a fellow American broke through barriers and expectations to become the first black president of the United States. Now, that hope is tougher to come bye. (This is not meant to be a political commentary.) Change takes time and many people have faced tough circumstances in the last 12 months, so it’s been easy to lose faith. Soldiers at war, economic turmoil, personal savings shrunk or gone, jobs lost or in jeopardy, and the media, although claiming economic recovery has begun, also reminds us that we are a long way from personal recovery.

How was your year? Mine was far from tragic, but not one of the best fiscal years on record. Personally though, it was the year of the miracle as my youngest son’s 4-year seizure disorder, disappeared suddenly after a fever. That alone, makes any other worries pale in comparison. And that comparison is what I offer today as a way to usher out 2009 and clear the slate for the coming year.

My November newsletters usually focus on gratitude and this year is no different. However, the scope of gratitude has shifted to a larger, essential piece of living a prosperous life. There is always the effective energy shift that occurs upon listing all the things you can be grateful for, so by all means, make that list, but this year, I challenge you to be grateful for two things you may not have considered to be grateful for.

The first one is this past year. Some of you may obviously be grateful for jobs and opportunities that so many others did not have access to this year, but maybe you had some losses this year too. Dig deep and see if you can find gratitude for the worst things that came upon you this year. For example, someone I worked with this year had a devastating diagnosis and grueling treatment and yet she also declared that the tragedy brought a deeper bond with her husband and family and a stronger sense of purpose as she moves forward to assist others who have had to face what she went through. There is gratitude for the strange teacher her cancer was and her ability to thrive was multiplied.

What have you learned through your toughest challenge this year?
What skills have you developed because of it?
What internal and external resources did you learn you had?
What about the circumstance, springs up gratitude in you?

The second aspect of gratitude that I’d like to add this year is allowing gratitude to be your red carpet to new results. Be grateful not only for all you have but also for all that is to come. Give thanks for things coming to you the way you WANT them to be.

This sounds like a bit of magical thinking. So what if it is? It took magical thinking for President Obama to run for the office and produce an unprecedented win! Spending our time in worry and ingesting fear through the media helps our logical mind reason us into a paralysis and the extinction of possibility and opportunity. Spending our mental energy and time on being grateful for the good we want to create for ourselves will be much more productive. That doesn’t mean you would be in denial, but it would mean that you are going to extremes to avoid catching the despair that many are feeling. People go to extremes to get flu shots(even two this year to cover H1N1)so that they don’t catch the bug but when it comes to our success we are willing to be infected with the fear-strain of the day because it seems like denial not to. That’s absurd!

Just this week, I was leading my new teleseminar, Doing Business Buddha’s Way and we were covering ‘Right Speech’ (one step in the Buddhist Eight-Fold Path) stressing the importance of watching what we say about our businesses. We were exploring using only words that spoke of the good we are creating through our business and the creative plans we had for building them. (Your word is the harbinger to what you’ll create.) The class had just been assigned to avoid any negative talk of their finances, business being down, or the economic forecasts,when one of the students shared passionately about nothing changing if credit and loans were not given to business owners and a picture of long-term gloom and doom was painted for us all with what seemed liked biting accuracy. The virus had been let loose in the room, so to speak. We could all give in and catch it or we could ratchet up our immune system and keep feeding ourselves properly, take extra vitamins, and get extra rest. In business, that means still making plans, visioning what is possible and acting accordingly. Could we still catch the virus? It’s out there so sure we could, but our chances are much lower when we operate as healthy, whole and complete.

Using GRATITUDE as your usher into the new year will do just that. You’ll be operating from ‘healthy, whole and complete’ versus from lack, fear and justification for failure. Who would you want to do business with? Who would you want to go out on a date with?! Someone ‘healthy, whole and complete’ or someone full of worry, anxiety, lack and excuses? Which one is more attractive? Which one will get you the results you want?

If you want success despite the odds, prosperity, satisfaction and fulfillment, ride on the ‘magic carpet’ of gratitude. Give thanks this Thanksgiving for all you have and all that is coming your way. “Gratitude is the vibration and feeling that is in harmony with prosperity”.*

I am grateful for your continued readership and solidarity.

* Mary Manin Morrissey

This article is also today’s Living Wisely Newsletter offering http://www.laurabermanfortgang.com/newsletter.html

As our president works to implement a plan to create jobs by investing in the country’s infrastructure (roads, bridges, schools and buildings) so could we stand to look to our own infrastructure. During my coach training many moons ago, we used the term ‘Personal Foundation’ for this concept. Before embarking on going for what we want, we are well served to strengthen our foundation (infrastructure) under us. Relationships, immediate environment, money, and physical health could all stand to have a tune up before heading out on the journey.

With most people stressing over a big loss in their financial infrastructure, attention to all the other areas have been ignored. It’s understandable, however, one of the best ways to prepare to endure the economic uncertainties we face is to strengthen the foundation under the other areas. Taking care to communicate honestly in relationships, cleaning up your immediate environment and tending to your physical health could all go a long way to getting through this time and being in great shape to run with the ball when things improve.

Here’s an example from my own life. Readers of this newsletter or my blog know that I have been complaining about my back for months. I have an annual bout of severe back pain but this time, it has not relented since August 2008. After X-rays, MRI’s and multiple physical therapy sessions, I still had little relief or an answer as to the cause. Just as I was desperate enough to begin the process of allowing cortisone injections to be shot into my spine, I spent three nights in a hotel and noticed that my back felt pretty good. On the fourth night, I was at home, in my own bed and the pain was excruciating. Eureka! My mattress needed to be replaced! I had thought of this before but who wanted a major expense right now? Well, as luck would have it, the money showed up unexpectedly and I invested in the best mattress I could buy. Would you know that in one week, I was exponentially better? And now, three weeks later I am 90% pain free which is a HUGE improvement. I was doing other things to take care of myself, but the investment in my infrastructure is what made the difference that will make working and living so much easier moving forward.

Whether it’s something in your small business or your home or in your family life or primary relationship, now is the time to nip a problem in the bud and invest in the long term. I know it may seem counterintuitive especially on things that may cost money, but where possible, investing in infrastructure will go a long way to avoiding a crisis later on. Remember that bridge that fell in Minnesota (August 2007) on a normal or even light traffic day? That is what awaits when we don’t take care of infrastructure because we don’t think it’s that important in the short term. In that case it was support gussets put in in 1967 that no one bothered to improve on as they added weight to the bridge with paving and other short-term maintenance.

Where do you need to rebuild? Where do you need to simplify to be able to manage life better? Where could you stand to put support in place as if you were about to whether a storm? Make the investment in your infrastructure and watch the ‘ride’ smooth out even in these uncertain times.