Inner purpose
I just did my Week 9 class of the Eckhart Tolle/Oprah class on A New Earth since I was out on Monday night and missed it live. This is the chapter with what must be my favorite quote of the book because it speaks to me so:
When you become comfortable with uncertainty, infinite possibilities open up in your life. It means fear is no longer a dominant factor in what you do and no longer prevents you from taking action to initiate change.
Also, something Eckhart said in the webinar was very powerful:
The mind can do many wonderful things when it no longer controls you.
Amen and amen.
Finding and giving direction
Today’s Game Plan column on FOXBusiness.com is about child and family advocate and coach Tracey Serebin, who has a New Jersey-based business called A Child’s Voice. I like her story and how she paid attention to signs to find her way. Check it out:
Quotable Cameron
I am writing my butt off over here. Entrenched in all things Julia Cameron. And so, a favorite quote from The Artist’s Way that feels particularly apt this week:
Leap and the net will appear.
Vocation, all I ever wanted
I got two new life coaching clients today. One brand new one who is looking for coaching on her writing. A dream assignment for moi. The other is a person I really like who I did a consultation with a few years ago and she just decided she’s ready to take action in her life now. This, too, jazzes me to no end.
Also had a terrific session with an existing client today, one who ended our hour with these words — “This is the best money I’ve ever spent on myself.”
This — all of it — is why I do what I do.
Full circle?
How’s this for Universal Flow? I interviewed Julia Cameron tonight. I had a bit of a motor mouth thing happening. I mean, her work has changed my life and I continue to use her tools in my life coaching and, well, there we were talking about all of it.
This is going to be a very special column. Stay tuned.
More on balance
Friday’s Game Plan column on FOXBusiness.com — about work-life balance has been getting an interesting response from readers. I think because it doesn’t espouse the popular notion of trying to have it all, but rather make some hard choices, it has touched a collective nerve.
Honestly, writing that column has given me a sense of personal freedom about my own choices to use my gifts and get paid for them and love every moment of that. I wouldn’t presume to impose that same decision on others, but it works for me and that’s what the column was all about. Has that way of living affected my personal life? Yes. Would I change any of it? No.
However, moving forward, I have a renewed vision about this. Perhaps instead of assuming a meaningful relationship might get in the way of professional growth, the idea is to find someone who understands with a capital ‘U.’
Last night I was watching the ABC series Brothers and Sisters and there was a moment that crystallized this. The Rob Lowe character, Robert, is a senator who wants to be president and he is married to a character named Kitty played by Calista Flockhart. They met because she was working on his campaign. While he didn’t get the presidential nomination, he was asked to be the running mate of the man who did. Kitty, very focused on their infertility issues, didn’t approve. But he explained he had ambition and she had fallen in love with the man with that ambition. It was still there. He hadn’t changed just because he had lost this round or because he had married her. He wound up turning down the offer to be vice president for the right reasons. She eventually assured him they were on the same page.
Fiction or no fiction, it was a real work-life balance moment.
Ripple effects
Received a great email from a client named Terry today. She wrote to coach Cheryl Richardson, who has a show on Hay House radio, and offered some advice to a guy who had called in about feeling overwhelmed because he was a couple of years behind on his taxes. Richardson read Terry’s email on the air! With her permission, I present it here:
Dear Cheryl:
I listen to your show on Hay House, and heard Paul – the musician with the tax issue. I have a life/writing coach as well. I put my writing on hold to deal with my tax situation because until you take the matter into your own hands, your creativity is stagnant.
I owe an additional $1300 to the irs. It is overwhelming. I could not move forward until this was taken care. I decided to forgo my coaching sessions until my finances were on track. I have a great coach behind me.
On top of the $1300 that I owed in taxes. My car over the last four months had to have repairs in excess over $1500. I don’t make as much as I used to because I decided to get out of the corporate world and focus on my writing. I have a steady job.
Although its a financial struggle at times, I feel if I can offer Paul some advice to overcome the anxiety: get a project management style notebook. Start listing what you think you owe. Getting everything out on paper helped me get a real about what I owed. Looking straight at finances helped me become less overwhelmed.
What was down on paper was scary however, I refocused my attention on getting clear with the taxes. I worked out a payment schedule with the government and found I eliminated the pressure that was pounding on my head and the tears pouring from my eyes on a NIGHTLY BASIS. I went an extra step to refocus my financial goals and found a writing community on line so I can get my creativity back on track.
REFOCUS PAUL YOU CAN DO IT!
best to you and love your show
ms. terry
What I love about this is that it really positions Terry for success. Facing down the finances, setting up a real plan and then sharing it and reaching out to someone else.
Good stuff.
Up a notch
The other day at the gym I had to raise the weights on the leg extension and leg curl machines for the first time in a LONG time. I wasn’t feeling challenged enough and wanted to feel the burn.
Today I had to increase the speed on the treadmill for the first time in a while because I wasn’t working up a sweat.
You’ve gotta love the metaphor.
Redesign
So happy to see the newly refurbished FOXBusiness.com homepage, which feels a little newsier and is much easier to navigate than the previous one. It still has six stories leading the section, but users can see them all at once.
Also, the search box on top of the page allows users to find specific topics (or columnists, wink, wink) whereas before it only searched for quotes. So, to all who have contacted me with concerns about being able to find my Game Plan columns, it has just become a cinch. Either catch them fresh on the homepage every Wednesday and Friday or plug my name into the search box and they’ll come up.
As always, they’re also listed on my website: http://nancola.com/pages/press.html.
I love streamlined communication. Yeeha.
Thanks for reading.
Another place
Some truth. Lately I haven’t been as forthcoming in this blog as I might be, likely because I feel like something is happening that is large and mystical and it’s hard to explain without sounding all woo-woo.
But honestly, it doesn’t feel woo-woo. It feels real and very natural. A few months ago, maybe February, I stopped making lists each week to determine what tasks I would do each day. I feared nothing would get done, but I paid attention to my gut anyway because this was a strong urge. As it turns out, this has opened up my days, my eyes, my consciousness, my life.
I am working harder than ever, joyfully and enthusiastically, but it feels like there’s been a shift. I am better able to see what comes up in the moment and address it. I am somehow more open. I am detached from results way more than ever, which is so liberating. I am more tolerant and patient. I feel like I’ve cleared away fog.
In the midst of this, no coincidence I’m sure, I have been reading and studying A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle and learning to be. There are two weeks left of the web class with him and Oprah and I am excited that I have stayed with it and started to pay considerable attention to stillness.
I just today began reading Steering by Starlight by Martha Beck and it appears that once again The Universe has aligned things perfectly. I feel awakened and ready to go through the three stages she presents in the book — dissolving, dreaming, daring.
In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve already begun.
