How does one find the profession that projects the true inspiration?
Watch Nic Askew’s short movie about Joan C. King, career and personal life coach.

‘MORE’ from Nic Askew on Vimeo.

Emotion: No need to change anything. No judgements of good or bad. it just is and it’s OK. It is beautiful as it is. I have and enjoy everything as it is.
According to the law of cause and effect:

Thought (cause) = Emotion (effect)/ Emotion (cause) = Action (effect)

Thinking:
All is well;  Everything is beautiful;  Everything is OK;  Everything is unfolding as it should;  I accept you;  I have what I need as I need it; I love you just as you are;  It’s all coming together;  We all have a contribution to make;

Acting
abundant; accepting; appreciative; balanced; benevolent; caring; clear-sighted; co-creative; compassionate; devotional; embracing; empathy; friendly; gentleness; gracious; insightful; intuitive; magnanimous; naturalness; non-judgmental; orderly; receptive; satisfied; tenderness; understanding; warm; wonder

Remember the acronym AGFLAP-CAP:

Apathy/ Grief/ Fear/ Lust/ Anger/ Pride  -  Courageousness/ Acceptance/ Peace

and monitor how you shift on the scale of action. After the AGFLAP and reactive cycle CAP brings you to the proactive behavior. Often we mix Apathy with Acceptance, Anger with Courageousness and Pride with Peace.

How do you feel when you accept things as they are? What would happen if you accepted yourself as you are? Let people in your life know that you love them just as they are.

“The only thing that will make you happy is being happy with who you are, and not who people think you are.” Goldie Hawn

I was setting the office location on the Google Maps yesterday and got stuck when they asked me about the business description. I typed coach in the appointed field and the following categories came out: bus charter, bus station, bus tour agency, horse trailer dealer, outlet mall, outlet store, sightseeing tour agency, swim club, travel agency, swimming instructor. Oddly enough I found swimming instructor the closest to the description of what we as coaches do and started to giggle thinking of Dory in Finding Nemo and her positive dive into the deep with a tune: “Keep on swimming, keep on swimming”

I eventually put “consultant” as the description of the business hoping it will not create confusion. Regardless, Google Maps is helpful with the handy too and looking forward to see you in our office for a free coaching session.

View My Saved Places in a larger map

I found a very simple and handy tool on the web: www.habitforge.com. This is how it works:

* Sign up for a free account

* Write an action you want to become your habit, for e.g. Exercise for at least 20 minutes every day

* Choose a category where your habit is (multiple choices) and

* Input personal motivational factors

After that only thing you need to do is to DO your habit every day. Every day an email is sent to you with a question: Were you successful at …[exercising for at least 20 minutes every day?] . If the answer is YES your clock starts ticking and you are moving to the 20 (19, 18, 17, …) more days left to create the habit (days crumble as the feeling of success kicks in). If the answer is NO your clock starts ticking back from the day 0 and you are reminded of your motivational factors. Frankly speaking it is interesting to observe personal response as own words pop up on the screen: guilt, looking for excuses, trying to ignore all together what is there written… Eventually I felt empowered to start from the day 0 realizing that it was much better to do that than to stop working on the creation of the habit completely. It just meant that it will take a bit more time to create the habit.

What is a slightly challenging but achievable action that will increase the quality of your life if it becomes your habit? Do it for 21 day and then re-evaluate.

A while ago I wrote about acceptance and in another blog about Stacy Charter. Tonight she inspires me again.

This quote is for all who are willing to step up and get in touch with the Authentic Self.

“Another fresh new year is here . . .
Another year to live!
To banish worry, doubt, and fear,
To love and laugh and give!

Small Steps Team

“Over the years I have developed a picture of what a human being living humanely is like. She is a person who understands, values and develops her body, finding it beautiful and useful; a person who is real and is willing to take risks, to be creative, to manifest competence, to change when the situation calls for it, and to find ways to accommodate to what is new and different, keeping that part of the old that is still useful and discarding what is not.” Virginia Satir

Are you a human being living humanely?

Who are you when you are creative, take risks, live your competences fully?

How do you feel in your body? When was the last time you appreciated yourself for who you are?

What are your strengths? How do you behave when you live from the perspective of your strengths?

What are your weaknesses? What information or skills do you need to obtain in order to minimize effect of your weaknesses at your work and personal life?

To find out about your VIA Signatures Strengths go to  http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/questionnaires.aspx and register. This interesting questionnaire takes about 40 minutes to do and gives insights how to build your life based on strengths. You can also purchase a book “Now Discover Your Strengths” by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton or take their http://www.strengthsfinder.com/113647/Homepage.aspx online test.

“Success is achieved by developing our strengths, not by eliminating our weaknesses” Marilyn vos Savant

When your power of perception penetrates every corner, are you capable of knowing nothing? Laozi

While searching for inspiration I found a quote from Stacey Charter. I have seen her quotes before but never really knew who she was. So I Googled her and found a site where somebody curious asked the same question: Who is Stacey Charter?  Right below the question there was a response:

Hi I am Stacey Charter.  Not famous though my quotes end up in places that say I’m famous.  Cancer Survivor, divorce survivor, attack survivor and all around positive person.  Still learning to love myself 100% and thrilled that others have  discovered the little pieces of myself I’ve placed on line.  And yes – It’s really me and yes I really did write those quotes.  And someday I’d love to write a book filled with quotes and stories and tears and laughter.  Thanks for asking! staceycharter@yahoo.com

Stacey, thank you for the inspiration!

” Life is filled with so many exciting twists and turns. Hop off the straight and narrow whenever you can and take the winding paths. Experience the exhilaration of the view from the edge. Because the moments spent there, that take your breath away, make you feel truly alive.” Stacey Charter

The cure for boredom is curiosity.  There is no cure for curiosity.  ~Dorothy Parker

Did you know that dopamine regulates feelings of enjoyment and reinforces motivation to proactively perform  activities? It’s functions also include important roles in behavior and cognition, voluntary movement, motivation and reward, sleep, mood, attention and learning.  Simply, the more dopamine our brain produces the faster we learn. Until last week, dopamine was connected with the pleasure system of the brain – the belief was that the more pleasure we experience, the more dopamine brain produces. The latest research in Positive Psychology reveals that dopamine is actually a byproduct of curiosity and the pleasure kicks in only if there is an element of curiosity involved. Do you wonder why that is so?

Enjoy exploring!

Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton asked why.  Bernard Baruch