A life that is best described:  Juicy?

Create Your Juicy Life is a practical, hands-on approach to creating just that – a life that is full, ripe and delicious!

For a limited time, I am offering the first section of this new book online to you FREE.  Simply complete the contact form with your name and email and I’ll gladly send it your way.  I can’t wait for you to start designing YOUR juicy life.

In this book, you will be provided with exercises to create your juicy life.  Take stock of your current reality – and then CHOOSE.  Notice. and Act.

This book is great if you are feeling stuck, need a nudge, or just want to experience more joy in your life.

If you could get more JOY in your life – what might that be like?  Well, now you have some practical tools to use to answer the question – and EXPERIENCE the answer.

1. Clarity. Being able to set you aim and focus on something specific helps you to achieve your result.  The more specific, the more likely you are to be successful with achieving your result.  First, What do you want? Get yourself really clear on what this is.  A deeper question that might be helpful to explore is Why do I want it?
2. Chunk it down. Now, I don’t need any study to show me that being able to take bite sized bites of something is easier to swallow than taking one large bite.  When a project is too big, too hairy, to scary – I don’t do anything.  Chunk your goal down into bite sized pieces.  What are you doing every day that gets you closer to your goal?
3. Action. To achieve your results, there needs to be action not just thoughts, not just “try’s”  (i.e. I’m going to try to do it) – but deliberate actions.  What are you doing?

Use the 2Day 2Achieve Worksheet to move you closer to your goal.  Action by action, day by day you will start to see what you are doing to create your own success. You can use this form at the beginning of each day to plan out what actions you will take.  Or, you can use the form at the end of the day and reflect on what two actions did you take today?  Either way you can’t go wrong when you are using this tool.

Just 2 a day.  What do you choose?

More importantly, what are you getting from the actions you’ve taken?

“Be Olympic.” And then I quickly sipped my coffee and rushed out the door.

As I proceeded to be in the hum-drum of my drive, I thought, what does it mean to Be Olympic?

These 3 things will allow us to show up in a way where we can Be Olympic in the competition of our daily lives:

• Find your courage - Look to the home town gal, Joannie Rochette, who’s mother past just two days before her time on the ice.  She didn’t just “show up” she is sitting in 3rd place after the short program.  How do you find your courage? If you were to be able to stand in your Courage what results might you ahceive?
• Prepare for your moment – If you were like Aussie skater, Cheltzie Lee, you might not even have thought the 2010 Olympics would be your moment.  She got the call two weeks ago informing her she could compete after the skater from Israel was not going to be at the games.  Cheltzie skated the best short program of her life in the brightest spot light for her world. What daily habits do you have that are preparing you for your moment?  What do you still need to be doing so that when the spot light hits, it’s shining on you?
• Get out of your own way – The Korean women in first place, Yu-Na Kim, took a nasty spill in practice the day of the short program.  A fall on her left side, from which I understand is not common and can be quite jarring – to the body and the ego. Going into her jump during the competition she let it happen – and landed it perfectly.  Where do you find yourself getting in your own way?  What landings might you stick if you could simply move yourself out of the way?

Everyday we make choices about how we show up – some conscious and some completely on autopilot and so far from our own awareness to detect that it was even a choice. How might you Be Olympic today?

Better yet, what might you get as a result?

The Story.  Yep, the story.

I’ve been to a number of different personal development sessions where this concept comes out – Landmark Education, Coaching Certification, and the book Language and the pursuit of happiness.  This concept of story is something very powerful when you can just stand with it.  Live with it. Own it.  And then get to choose – how is it serving me?

Think about that relationship in your life where you might benefit from a deeper connection.  Maybe it’s your brother, you boss or barista at your favorite coffee shop.  What’s the story you have about that relationship?

Once you’ve become aware of the story that you have – get yourself clear about what it truly is. What if the story was written a different way?  (your brain might shift to autopilot and convince yourself it’s can’t possibly be another way than it currently is today, or it’s not possible to change – because they aren’t going to change!)  As a coach, I’m not really interesting in spending the time and energy around why it can’t change – I’m interested in “if you want the story to change, what can you do to rewrite it?”  Here’s how:

1. Create the story you want to live in.  What is the story that would make you jump for joy, throw your hands up, pee your pants because – holy crap, I never knew it could be that good.  Describe that story.  Write it down.  What is the story you want to create?
2. If you got to live in that story – what would be different for you? What does this story sound like? look like? smell like?  What does this story evoke in your heart, head and soul? (write down a few notes about this)
3. And if you had that, what would you have? It might be a fuller relationships, a sense of letting go, peace, harmony…what else might it be for you?
4. Move to action to live in this story.  Identify 25 things YOU will do to show up in a way that lives this new story. (BTW this list is about you, not the other person)

Doing this simple exercise to repair, renew, revive a relationship in your life might have a profound impact.  I don’t know if it ends happily ever after.  I just know today might be uniquely different from days in the story of the past.

What’s it worth to you to see how you can rewrite the stories of your life  - or better yet, what are you risking if you don’t?

It was in the elevator at work today that I heard a colleague say “Isn’t it a great day out today?”  I’ve spent the last number of years in MN so I eagerly nodded and said, “Yes, it’s amazing what the bright sun and crisp glare of fresh snow can have on a day.”  That, and we both loved that it was 35 degrees today.  Yes, 35 degrees (F)!

Why is it, if you are reading this in sunny SoCal, you must think we have lost our minds.

Or, if this was June, and all things being the same:   35 degrees, sunny with fresh dusting of snow – I’d sound like a loon.

It’s all a matter of perspective – we simply got too comfortable in the deep freeze. And it wasn’t until we could thaw out that we could shift our perspective and see something from a different point of view.

Want to add some new ideas, new way of looking at things – shift your perspective.

Ask yourself these questions to glimpse into a new perspective:

• What would someone from Minnesota say about that?
• How might Olympic Gold Medalist Lindsey Vohn approach it? (also from MN)
• What might the courageous you say to this?
• How might (insert anyone other than yourself) do in this situation?

and let their perspective shape yours.  Who’s perspective would you like to learn from?

I typically start my workshops off with some sort of goal setting by the participants.  I’ll ask individuals to set a goal they have for themselves as a result of attending the session.  My intention is to have them answer the dreaded what’s in it for me question.

I have the participants write this down on a 3×5 card or a giant post-it. Something they can keep in front of them during our time together.  After they have completed this, I then follow it up with these simple instructions:

“Now, listen for this as the content of the workshop starts to unfold.”

This simple instruction can create a filter, a perspective, a point of view in which to hear everything from.  It’s the easiest – and quickest – way for me to get learning to stick for individuals and tie back into the goal they have created for themselves.

When we start to LISTEN FOR something, we start to make connections.  We also start to be engaged as learners.  As learners we start creating meaning for the content that is being shared.  It’s when learners can create context and relationship where real change in performance can occur.

So, what are you listening for today?

My response was, “You know what, you get to be right.”

That’s the funny thing with attitude.  We DO get to be right – each and every time.  If you believe it “won’t work” and “we don’t have support” you will undoubtedly find 59 ways between now and tomorrow to reinforce your point of view. And then, yep, you get to be right.

The same thing works if you said, “This is really easy, I can see how this fits.”  And yep, you too get to be right.  You will also find 59 ways to reinforce your belief.  That’s the crazy thing about our beliefs we will work really hard to prove ourselves right.

I’m not asking you to be pollyanna.  Just be USEFUL.  Is what you have chosen useful?  If yes – keep it.  If no, choose again.

Whichever attitude we choose to wear, there is going to be great comfort in that.  It’s like your favorite sweatshirt, it feels so good. The best thing about attitudes, is we can change it – just like that sweatshirt.

Try it out.  Today, choose to believe your day is going to really hard, rough and tough.  Just for the next couple hours, see how many times that can be reinforced.  Then just before your breaking point, CHOOSE to believe that the rest of your day is going to an absolute piece of cake, everything is going your way, and it’s really effortless.  And then, just be aware.  (a good clue is going to be watching all the traffic lights greet you with the bright glow of green!).

What will you choose?

ps…you’ll get to be right!

During the mid-afternoon break – I called this the Make The Difference break and set the intention for the next 15 minutes.  The intention was that everyone would be able to enter the room and in some way, shape or fashion would have had their day made.  I let the group know I was going to ask them when they came back from the Make The Difference break who was able to have their day made.

This was going to take ACTION. The kind of simple action that literally can change the way you and I think about things.  It’s the kind of action – that also heightens our awareness to the very presence of noticing and being aware.  So for the next 15 minutes educators and administrators buzzed about.  This was different.  I could feel something happening.  I felt the energy shift, but I didn’t know if the intention could be realized.

When people came back in the room.  I asked them to stand up if there day had been made, if someone engaged them differently over this break than before, did someone notice and make an effort with you.  And – really, to my surprise as this was the first time I tried this exercise -  200 people rose to their feet.

200 people decided to act. When I asked, “what occurred?”  one participant stood up and said I decided I was going to make the difference for people.  And it happened. By a simple decision to CHOOSE.

And 200 people noticed a difference that was made – in just 15 minutes.  Can you imagine the impact this can have on a district of kids?  Can you imagine the impact this can have on us all? And it stemmed from a simple CHOICE.

Take your own Make The Difference break today.  See what happens. Create that intention for you and those around you.  What do you have to lose?

Better yet, what do you have to gain!

We make meaning of the language we use. 

The words we use don’t have meaning, it’s how the situations occurs to us that creates this meaning.  This might be why there can be so much miscommunication when information is announced.  This of all the elements that shape the way in which we hear the actual words said.  

When an organization, or individuals, have a high level of trust things occur in a way that is very different when trust isn’t present. The same words can be said and we can leave with very different interpretations depending on our level of trust with the sender of the message.  

So, in essence, what’s not said is equally as important.  Trust is something that is not said, and provides a thick filter for us to hear this message.   

The key here, is are you present to this filter?  Do you have the awareness in place on how language occurs differently for each of us?  When you do, you can better communicate with others because you know how things occur might be different for different individuals.   

Addressing the unsaid is one of a number of steps we can do to increase our performance. It’s easier to talk about it once you bring it to the surface, isn’t it?  The other choice is to make your own meaning of the unsaid and be unclear.  Doesnt’s clear expectations = better performance?  

Zaffron and Logan state, “…articulating the unsaid creates the room to say something new.” It allows us to use language to create something new as well. Within here lies the increase to our performance. 

What are you creating?

Today’s session provided for a really great opportunity to think about work and the choices one makes – or chooses not to make.  If we can talk about the difficult choices – like simply doing nothing, or choosing another job – doesn’t that empower us?  Empower us because we have choices?  

I hope that it does, because what I can’t hear, is “i have no choice, no matter what I do things won’t change.”  I don’t know about you, but this stops us in our tracks and puts us right back into that default future.   And then, yes, you get to be right – nothing will change.

Is that what you want? Not me, I choose to play a different game. One where the options – all of them, even the ones I don’t want to say out loud exist.  That’s the game I play.  How about you?