Posts Tagged ‘Smart Women’s Coaching’

“The light from one small moment of honest self-inquiry is more powerful than the
accumulated darkness of a million years of doubt. ~ Guy Finley

In his book, Design Your Destiny, Guy Finley says that, “Each of us is created with the power to choose our course of destiny. To be able to do this, you must first learn how to access the place where your future is being created: the present moment. The concept of the present moment, while hard to grasp and live in, has complete power over what happens in our future. That moment is our destiny.

How can living in the moment and creating a vision which seems like a far-off point in time be mutually dependent? Being in the present moment means that you are not thinking about regrets over something that happened in the past. Nor are you thinking about what might happen in the next moment. You are, without thinking, experiencing the feelings, sights, and sounds within and around you right now. If you are truly in the present moment, within your being, you won’t be thinking about which direction is best for you. You won’t have to choose from the old patterns that produce limited beliefs. New alternatives will appear as your inner vision. These messages from your true being will guide you.

Let me tell you a story of how I discovered the true sense of living in the moment. A few years ago, I went on a week long raft trip down the Rogue River in southern Oregon. Never having tried an inflatable kayak before, I decided to give it a go. The first leg of the trip was relatively calm, with a couple of class two rapids, so I was able to get a feel for the craft and the river before we headed into more significant whitewater. At one point, I found myself caught in a small eddy, a river current at variance with the main current that causes a whirlpool-like effect in the river. I struggled to paddle out of the eddy, and when I finally pulled away, found myself floating backward down some rapids. I began to panic. I am a strong person, but was unable to bring the kayak around to face down river. Fortunately, the current carried me up against a medium-sized rock. From there, I was able to push off of the rock and bring myself around in the right direction. At the next still water, I paddled to the edge of the river and caught my breath.

In those moments which seemed like an eternity I had an epiphany. Being on the river was like paddling through life. As the current carried me, I realized that to safely navigate the channels and rapids that I would encounter, I needed to be fully present. I might have a few seconds to make a decision about a direction to take, but ultimately the current would take me where it wanted. The more I struggled with the direction I wanted to take, the more difficult the trip became. When I stayed in the moment, trusting that I would make the decision necessary at the point I needed to, I began to see the entire river more clearly. I began to see how the water broke against the rocks and how the current changed directions. Staying in the flow instead of resisting its direction gave me a sense of calm, even in the much more serious rapids we encountered later down the river. What control I had was limited by the power of the current as it channeled through the canyons and over the rocks. The more I fought the flow, the less success I had and the more effort I had to expend. The river became my guide, just as my creative self guides me when I am present and in the moment.

In the present moment you merge with your self-expression. You don’t question your next move, or your choices, or what the results will be in the end. You are in the natural flow. When this happens, all of your experiences are affected. You will know what you need to know, when you need to know it. You will not have to think about your vision; it will come to you.

As your trust in the moment increases, you begin to experience less anxiety about the past and the future, and are more in tune with your surroundings. There synchronicity. Inspiration and enthusiasm increase, and as they do, you feel happier. When you are happy, you become more spontaneous, creative, and productive.

This is not to say that we should ignore action and achievements. Doing and having, as well as being, are a part of the creative process. Logic, goal-setting, and management of objectives is important. However, the first step is to be self-aware and present, which expands your understanding and provides more clarity of the process. Then you can begin to streamline objectives, which ultimately brings more enjoyment to each task and accomplishment.

Marilyn Schwader is a Smart Women’s Contributing Expert and Awakened Life Coach
***Join Marilyn and me for a free teleclass, Thursday, October 14 at 8 pm EST called,
Awakening Your Purpose, Passion and Prosperity at www.AwakenedLifeEvents.com

To order Marilyn’s book, “A Guide to Getting It: A Clear, Compelling Vision“

Ruth Klein Head shot

Are you feeling overwhelmed with all the work you have to do; all the products or services you want to start; finally use or reuse the previous products and services and maybe even re-launch them? Plus, are you wondering how you will find the time to do all of this work so that you can start monetizing your existing material, products (new or old), services, etc. ?

Most small businesses, authors and professionals I work with have answered a resounding “yes to these feelings of overwhelm and frustration…and they find themselves procrastinating and not getting much of anything done.

Our reality is our perception which is made up of our thoughts and experiences. If your thinking and hence, your perception is one of being overwhelmed with all your past and present products, writing, books, seminars, services, then you are overwhelmed. The response to feeling overwhelmed is often procrastination, anxiety and stress. There is another option and that is changing your reality in this moment.

Rather than the perception of overwhelm, you can change your thoughts right in this moment toI have a “treasure of stuff that I’ve created and now I have the opportunity to reuse, modify or re-launch them and update my Personal and Business Brand in the process.

So, how does this all tie into your Personal and Business Brand? Here are six ways that you can take your overwhelm feelings, many “old and “new products, services, ideas and books..update them and then re-launch them with a focus to an updated Personal and Business Brand. I hope you like my new Brand look in this issue.

1. First, give yourself permission to spend one to two hours a day for the next two weeks to “find all your past seminars, webinars, videos, speeches, different types of writing, blog posts, MP3′s, testimonials, pictures, special discounts and promotions that worked well in the past

Tip: I assure you that the time you spend “gathering will shorten the “hun later.

2. Organize all this information into what you believe would be worthwhile to use now. You will be amazed at all the great “stuff or as I prefer to say, “treasures you will find. Congratulations for doing this, because now you will save so much time and stress moving forward in sorting, discarding and re-launching your ideas, products, books and services.

Tip: This is the perfect time to gather all of your old as well as new material. Why reinvent the wheel? Chances are good that your “older works, material and writings have gems in them and can easily be used and updated with what you’re doing now.

3. Now, it’s time to make a list of everything you have found and put the “treasures into categories, and then create neat piles. Do this for all the good stuff you’ve found. Create complimentary stacks, if necessary.

Tip: Place these stacks of treasures in large plastic containers and list the contents on a sheet of paper that you keep on top of each of the stacks makes for easy reference and saves a ton of time moving forward.

4. Okay, now that you’ve taken the time to pull everything, identified what everything is; put them into stacks of similar content; made a list of everythingnow, it’s time to identify the top two (yes, only two) areas that you are passionate about and want to focus on in your business. Those are the two (yes, only two..) areas that you will now focus on and this becomes your new updated Brand. Chose the “treasures from the stacks that feed back into your top focus areas.

Tip: Choose those two areas that you most enjoy doing and look for ROI (Return on investment in terms of time, money and energy)

5. Commit to spending four focused hours a day on the two primary areas you’ve chosen and watch how your Personal and Business Brand starts to come alive for you as well as your new clients. It has to work as it is a Universal Law that which you focus on most will be that which shows up most in your life!

Tip: “Focused time” in this case is referred to as Marketing. The life blood and engine of your business is the marketing that you do four focused hours a day is worth more than ten hours of work with interruptions including interruptions such as email and reading e newsletters! Go ahead and read emails but NOT during your focused time.

6. Enjoy your new treasures and the wealth of new opportunities and options available to you…which all equates to attracting your ideal clients with your updated products, services and brand.

Tip: The Universe needs what you have to offer. It’s not about you, it’s about your contribution that is the issue here.

Ruth Klein is a Brand Strategist and Time Managment Expert for Smart Women’s Coaching. Post your questions and comments about this article here – we want to hear from you.

If you are interested in taking your business to the next level by creating your Soul-Centered Brand…then join Ruth and me live in October for her G 4 Branding Summit.  Click here  to learn more.  Hope to see you there!

We had a terrific time at Fleming’s Steak House last Friday night as we celebrated and raised funds for Smart Women’s Empowerment with a delicious wine tasting event hosted by Fleming’s Steak House, Livonia!  Not only did we have fun raising funds for our Women in Transition Scholarship Fund, but we recognized one of our donors, Deborah Miesel of Seed Foundation,with our Generous Spirit award for all the work she has done over the years helping individuals empower thier lives with her personal time and effort as well as financial donations.   Thank you Debbie and everyone who helped to make this event a success!

There were so many new friendships and connections made during the two hour wine tasting event.  At one point, Peter Travis, Operating Partner of Fleming’s, auctioned off a fabulous bottle of 47 Diamonds wine (priceless) along with two hand carved wine glasses.  This caused a huge bidding war which was finally won by no one else than my former nanny and now successful business woman, Greta Myers!  What a hoot!

I created the Smart Women’s Empowerment Foundation to help women who are temporarily down on their luck due to an unexpected death, divorce, domestic violence, job loss, disability or other transition.  These types of transitions affect women from all walks of life and economic levels.  Our goal is to offer the short term support and funding to help them get back on their feet with confidence and financial independence.

To learn more about Smart Women’s Empowerment, visit our site at www.smartwomensempowerment.org

I hope you are enjoying your summer! The days are sooooo long right now, it’s been amazing. Next Monday is the Summer Solistice, which means that at 7 pm, the sun will still be high up in the sky and won’t set till around 10 pm. Amazing! I’ve created a little video for you to give you a tour of my gardens…they have really matured this year!

Then over the next couple of weeks, I will be posting little 1-3 minute videos here from the lake with tips on how you can live more authentically, with joy and abundance. I hope you enjoy them!

Experiencing Joy in Panama with Mark!

I had such a fabulous evening last night when I attended the Detroit Symphony Orchestra concert with my husband, Mark.  He plays the French Horn, and this weekend is the last concert series for the year. 

The concert hall was packed with lots of young people and I was thrilled.  It must have been because they had this 16 year old boy soloist named Peng, Peng playing a List Piano concerto.  He was fabulous.  He started taking lessons at 5, and did his first recital at 8!  Then at the end of the concert, they played Stravinski’s Firebird Suite.  (click on the link and you can actually here this pieces…you will recognize and know why I was brought to tears when it finished!)  Every time I go to a concert with my husband, I find myself in this state of joy and gratitude and this energy stays with me for days.

What are you doing every day to create a state of Joy and Gratitude in your life?  I ask this because our mental, emotional and spiritual state will have a direct effect on how much wealth and happiness you have in your life.  I have created a daily series of rituals which I call, My Perfect Life Practice.  By scheduling these practices into my Perfect Life Calendar, and following them daily, I am able to stay rejuvinated and operating at a whole new level.

My morning Perfect Life Practice includes yoga, riding my bike along the wetlands (this is the best!), reading spiritual books (right now, I am reading Awakened Wisdom by Patrick Ryan), and enjoying my morning coffee next to the lake every morning with my husband, Mark.  What is it that you do to raise your energy vibration and and help keep you in a state of joy and gratitude, so you can attract more abundance into your life?  Share you Perfect Life Practice with us below. Thank you!

You can take my free 7 part audio mini course, Your Perfect Life Focus, where I share the entire process I use to create My Perfect Life!  Enjoy!

Looking back over the last 25 years, it’s exciting to see how far we have come as women. I was watching Meet the Press on Sunday and was thrilled to learn about the new report just released by Maria Shriver and the Center for American Progress called, A Woman’s Nation, showing that women now make up 50 percent of the workforce and are the primary breadwinners for the family. (Four out of ten women are the primary breadwinners, while an astonishing 62.8 percent are “co-breadwinners.”)

We have been aware of these issues here at Smart Women’s Coaching and invite you to participate in our poll by telling us, “What is the Single Biggest Challenge Holding you Back from Living Your Perfect Life?”

In fact, we are just now launching our new Free Video Training and invite you to sign upto receive your free Twitter training video and Brian Tracy’s free report, The Way to Wealth.

The Smart Women’s Café is a forum where women can receive live coaching on their most pressing issues related to life balance, finances, time management and creating lifetime passive income while following your passion. Visit the Café now to learn what’s new!

As you may know, I was in Brazil for the last three weeks on an education retreat.  It was a wonderful experience and I have created new friends from all over the world:  Dubai, Hamburg, Belgium, Sweden.  It was amazing to me how many of these individuals were heading off to more time off trekking in other parts of South America for another 30 days or so.  We Americans really don’t take enough time off.  Do you know that it is mandatory to take time off regularly in many European countries?  Their employees are encouraged to talk multiple weeks off at a time too.

All I can say is that it was wonderful having time off for almost 3 weeks in August.  How many of us never make time for ourselves to really rest and rejuvenate?

What did I learn in Brazil?

I really learned how to relax and to be a person…to really have conversations on non work related topics, to sit an contemplate nature for hours at a time, to eat three sit-down meals with stimulating conversations, to eat really healthy and take long, long walks in the woods, beaches and quaint, resort fishing towns.  Today, before starting my day, I am going for a long bike ride where I can be in nature and get the blood flowing to my brain.  My goal is to stay in the state of rejuvenation.  I will also be joining a yoga class two mornings a week.  What simple actions can you take to create more balance and joy in your life?

Update on our event:

I returned home with just one day to prepare for a fundraiser for the HAVEN.  It was interesting; I just trusted my team and my husband to make sure everything would work out perfect, and guess what…it did!

Last Saturday at 5 pm, our home began to fill up with wonderful supporters.  As our guests entered our home, they were welcomed by the sound of soft live jazz with DSO trumpet, Bill Lucas and some of the top jazz players in the country.

Thanks to Jill Jordan and Barb Kopacs we had a very successful silent auction.  I had decided to cater myself, and between my husband’s awesome shopping, some generous food and wine donations and our terrific kitchen staff, not only did we have a wonderful concert on the lake, but we were able to raise some nice funds for both HAVEN and our foundation—The Smart Women’s Empowerment Program.

In addition, we are giving $1000 in cash to the HAVEN, plus awarding four women who have come through HAVEN a $1,500 scholarship each along with the support of a personal mentor/coach.  Next week, we will announce the four mentor/coaches who have volunteered for this wonderful project.

Take Time to Dance! By the way last night, just as the sun was setting, my husband, Mark and I  were picking up the yard from the event while listening to Bill Lucas’ promo CD with some of the   music from Saturday’s concert.  It was so beautiful, that we decided to take just one more dance as   the sunset.  Remember…take some time to enjoy the music!  Life is too short and it’s meant to be enjoyed and savored!

Thank you to all who supported us!  Again, we want to thank our sponsors Bill Fox Chevrolet, Fleming’s Steak House and the Seed Foundation for their generous support as well as our support team; Agatha Wolkowicz and Megan Russett who helped make the event happen.  If you are interested in learning more about supporting Smart Women’s Empowerment or the HAVEN, please feel free to email me at katana@smartwomenscoaching.com

I am taking a much needed vacation for almost three weeks in Florianopolis, Brazil! It’s a gorgeous island near Rio De Jeniero. I had no idea how gorgeouos this place is. Watch for my videos and photos, that I will be posting in our new free community at the Smart Women’s Cafe and create your free member profile so you can connect and access all our free resources. I love Latin America and have been to Costa Rica five times, although, I have never been to Brazil. Let me tell you it’s absolutely a paradise here!

In planning for my trip to Brazil this month, I made sure that my airline ticket included both trip delay insurance, as well as baggage delay insurance. When travelling outside the country, it’s extremely important to plan ahead and pay the fee for the extra insurance.

Originally, my trip was scheduled for July. I had to reschedule my trip because my daughter became ill. The trip delay insurance I purchased, allowed me to reschedule my trip several weeks later. When I went to rebook the ticket for August, I found out it would cost me an additional $1400 because the tickets had increased in price above the $250 exchange fee! I ended up going a day earlier so it was just $950 more. The insurance company is reimbursing me up to 100% of the original ticket price which was $958 via Hotwire.com.

It’s funny, we all hate to pay for insurance premiums, but in this case, it was a blessing! Watch for my next post to hear about the rest of my trip to Brazil!

Do you have a good travel insurance story?