The way you use your time is the way you live your life.
Posted on August 26, 2010 by Paula, under Time and Energy, Time and Values.
Finding time to listen to yourself is so important, and sounds so easy … and yet, so often, it seems to be the last thing that we get to … or the first thing we let go of. Can you relate?
Picture your day unfolding. You have priorities and a plan … and everything is going along right on schedule. Then something unexpected happens and you need to re-prioritize.
What’s the most likely thing to get jettisoned? I’m guessing that it will be that half hour you had planned for meditation or journaling or for a quiet walk. Too often, the time slots we reserve for self care or reflection or for simply checking in with ourselves don’t carry as much weight as other priorities.
We tend to not see these things as our responsibility or as key ingredients in our life’s work …. but they are. In fact, I would argue that these activities – these opportunities to LISTEN to ourselves – are precisely what allow us to carry on our life’s work in the most meaningful, HeartBased and SpiritDriven way possible! Listening keeps you connected with YOU and with the deep and personal wisdom that you carry inside.
Here’s another scenario. Again, imagine that your day is buzzing along and you are accomplishing things left and right. Gradually, though, something starts feeling “off” to you. You are cranky, depleted, and can’t wait for the day to just be over.
What do you do? I’m guessing that many or most of us just plough through with whatever is on our To Do lists. But what if you stopped right then and took some time to LISTEN to yourself?
When you greet these unexpected and unplanned moments with compassion and curiosity, they can provide openings into deeper self knowledge. That’s because whatever is pulling at you ALWAYS has something interesting and important to say. It’s all in how you approach this inner voice. If you are annoyed and impatient, then, like anyone would, your inner voice is likely to clam up. But when you are interested and allow it space, you’ll be amazed at what you learn!
Want to explore your Wise Inner Voice more fully? The next interview in my Finding Time HeartBased and EducationRich Teleseries is at 7PM (ET) on Tuesday, September 14 with Soulful Coach Joanna Lindenbaum. Our topic? Activating Your Inner Wisdom: How to Bring Joy and Success into Your Life. Sign up and join us for this free, info-packed teleclass! When you listen to that wise voice inside, the sky’s the limit!
What if you could find another hour every day? You can! You are invited to sign up for your FREE Finding Time Success Kit. It puts 3 key tools for your time success right into your hands! Grab it and see how you can recharge your energy, reduce overwhelm and frustration, and come to learn that 24 hours really ARE enough!
Let’s explore time together …
Posted on August 17, 2010 by Paula, under Time and Energy.
Finding time to savor your life can become so much easier as you learn the skill of introducing simple attitude shifts to your day.
Very often, if you feel yourself slipping into a rut of fear, anxiety, or negativity, something as easy as pausing and asking yourself the right question will tickle your mind into exploring a fresh, new approach! As you practice and get comfortable with this skill, I think you will be amazed at how quickly and significantly you can shift your own perspective.
Here’s a great example: How do you act when an unfamiliar challenge pops up? Do you automatically brace yourself! That’s a very familiar response for many.
But did you know that tensing your body inhibits your creativity, too?
That’s because, just as fear freezes your body, it also calcifies your options. Likewise, anxiety creates a simplistic either/or scarcity mentality – not the best mindset for creative thinking! So you can see how, when fear takes the driver’s seat, you’ll find it harder to prioritize, harder to solve problems and make decisions, and harder to keep to a healthy schedule.
But there’s good news about all this! You can swiftly overcome this natural tendency with another natural impulse – curiosity!
Curiosity is one of the great antidotes to fear, and provides the perfect climate for learning. Mobilizing your curiosity also actually changes you for the better! That’s because you stop focusing self-consciously on the you-who-doesn’t-know, and shift into the you-who-is-eager-to-figure-it-out.
Give it a try! Any time you notice yourself apprehensively thinking, “What if … ?” try replacing that with “I wonder what … ?” It feels SO much better!
As you regain your inner balance with this simple question, you will find it much easier to ride the new wave of change with smart time choices. Try it and see … and let me know how it goes for you … I’d love to hear!
And don’t forget to leave room for curiously exploring your creative soul! Though the call with Artist and Creativity Coach Ellene Breedlove Davis is over, you can still access the FREE MP3 by clicking the link for: Finding Time to Be Creative: Portrait of the Artist. When you use your creativity to enhance your life, you will develop even more incentive for developing your best ideas and making them a reality.
What if you could find another hour every day? You can! You are invited to sign up for your FREE Finding Time Success Kit. It puts 3 key tools for your time success right into your hands! Grab it and see how you can recharge your energy, reduce overwhelm and frustration, and come to learn that 24 hours really ARE enough!
Let’s explore time together …
Posted on August 16, 2010 by Paula, under Time and Energy.
Finding time that feels spacious and energizing lifts you out of the doldrums!
So how can you find quality time that frees you? Sometimes it’s simply a quick change in attitude that brings the sunshine right inside you.
Here’s one mantra that I’ve found helpful:
Engaging fulfills me, acquiring depletes me!
This is a powerful perspective to cultivate. Shifting your goal from acquiring to engaging expands both your vitality AND your sense of time! Here’s a quick example of how this works in practice:
Let’s say you must meet with people you don’t know well. Perhaps they might help advance your career. You nervously wonder if you have what they’re looking for. If only you had more time to prepare! Your energy starts to drop.
Then, you remind yourself; you’ll manage well enough regardless, AND you have an idea you’d love to share with them. Suddenly, your energy and enthusiasm return! As you relax, you enter into spacious time.
How did you achieve this turnaround? By “rediscovering” your inner abundance!
With a seemingly small shift, you moved yourself from a scarcity perspective, where you felt anxious to acquire something, to an abundance mentality. Coming from that mentality of abundance, you remember that you have something that you want to offer. When you are acting from that place your energy is very different – not constricted and anxious … rather, it is expansive and freeing!
This is the daily magic of wholehearted engagement. It’s like diving into a wave and letting it carry you forward as it crests. Your desire to participate fully in life and in the moment opens your heart and your mind. You fully savor the moment, where all of your power of choice resides!
You are far more likely to feel contented at the end of a day of open-handed involvement. Try it and see … and let me know how it goes for you … I’d love to hear!
And don’t forget nourishment for your creative soul! Though the call with Artist and Creativity Coach Ellene Breedlove Davis is over, you can still access the FREE MP3 by clicking the link for: Finding Time to Be Creative: Portrait of the Artist. When you use your creativity to enhance your life, you will develop even more incentive for developing your best ideas and making them a reality.
What if you could find another hour every day? You can! You are invited to sign up for your FREE Finding Time Success Kit. It puts 3 key tools for your time success right into your hands! Grab it and see how you can recharge your energy, reduce overwhelm and frustration, and come to learn that 24 hours really ARE enough!
Let’s explore time together …
Posted on August 11, 2010 by Paula, under Time and Energy.
Wow – what an exciting call we had last night! Artist and Creativity Coach Ellene Breedlove Davis shared secrets, suggestions and solutions about … “Finding Time to be Creative: Portrait of the Artist.”
On the call Ellene offered fantastic tips about creativity, learning to plan your time and set boundaries for yourself, and starting to joyfully welcome your creative energy into your life! I was especially interested to hear her talk about the connection between her physical space and her creativity … and thought of an exercise that we recently shared in our Finding Time E-zine that will be very helpful as you open yourself to your creative energy … so read on!
Finding time to gently elongate your body in a simple, 30-second stretch opens up your inner spaciousness, making room for your feelings and ideas … for YOU! Reaching outward from deep inside reduces your urge to push your pace into a headlong rush, too! As you take time to stretch, you’ll gently see and feel how your understanding of time is intimately linked with how you live in your body.
It’s really quite remarkable. When your body is cramped, your perceptions, feelings, and energies will narrow, too. Shallow breathing and constriction will almost always ratchet up anxiety. This, in turn, generates a false sense of urgency. When you are cramped and constricted and urgent, your creativity is not likely to flow!
Compare that to how you feel when your body is well-stretched and humming with vitality. Naturally, then, you are living in SPACIOUS time … and your creativity has room to breathe and blossom!
So celebrate the ever-present miracle of your body unfolding. Try this simple, potent exercise and “Grow Long Arms” to enrich your awareness of the moment in any undisturbed location:
Whether seated or standing, simply stretch out your arms to either side. See how moment by moment, your arms reach further… and further. Now relax, and bring your awareness within. Notice how exploring this outer space has increased your sense of INNER spaciousness, too. As you oxygenate your body and stretch your muscles, a new calmness and relaxed appreciation of time suffuses your being.
Often it’s these quick treats that help us the most, because we can engage in them so easily … anywhere, at any time of day! So indulge and be the stronger for it… give your body all the love and oxygen it so deserves, and enjoy entering this special flow of time. And please drop me a line and let me know how you’re doing with stretching your body and your sense of time … I’d love to hear!
And for more nourishment for your creative soul, though the call with Artist and Creativity Coach Ellene Breedlove Davis is over, you can still access the FREE MP3 by clicking the link for: Finding Time to Be Creative: Portrait of the Artist.
When you use your creativity to enhance your life, you will develop even more incentive for developing your best ideas and making them a reality.
What if you could find another hour every day? You can! You are invited to sign up for your FREE Finding Time Success Kit. It puts 3 key tools for your time success right into your hands! Grab it and see how you can recharge your energy, reduce overwhelm and frustration, and come to learn that 24 hours really ARE enough!
Let’s explore time together …
Posted on August 3, 2010 by Paula, under Time Choices, Time Priorities, Time and Energy.
Finding time to let your creative spirit develop and come to fruition can be a lot like tending a garden. At least that’s a useful metaphor for me! As much as art is a matter of inspiration, it’s also a matter of being steady and doing the preparation work that allows our inspirations to take hold and grow, whenever they actually come.
I am very excited to be putting the finishing touches on my upcoming teleclass with Ellene Breedlove Davis. Our topic? Finding Time to Be Creative: Portrait of the Artist. This is a free call, and you can join us at 7 PM next Tuesday, August 10th!
Ellene is an Artist and Creativity Coach, and she’ll be sharing her own experiences with making room (in both time and space) to nurture and sustain her art. As you’ll see and hear from Ellene, art and creativity are not matters of magic. They are better thought of as a melding of passion and skill … and readiness!
In a recent blog post, Ellene wrote: “In my studio, I have a small blue chair that just calls me to create. Most of the time, I get my sketch book or journal, a favorite pen and just put the pen to paper. The ideas start to flow as soon as I relax, as my creative imagination starts to write or sketch.”
So, if we want to see our creativity take root, blossom, and produce fruit (moving back to that garden metaphor) … we need to give ourselves the time (and space) to tend it through its various stages! We need to develop and practice the skills of our chosen craft, AND we need to give ourselves some version of Ellene’s blue chair, where we let ourselves open to our muse.
I would add that it is helpful and important to think of creativity in very broad terms. Art takes many forms, and if you are limiting how you think about it, you are limiting the possibilities of your creative self!
I look forward to exploring creativity more fully with you in the coming days … and hope you will join Ellene and me on our call on August 10th!
In the meantime, do you have thoughts or questions about the creative process that you’d like to share? Please drop me a line … I’d love to hear!
What if you could find another hour every day? You can! You are invited to sign up for your FREE Finding Time Success Kit. It puts 3 key tools for your time success right into your hands! Grab it and see how you can recharge your energy, reduce overwhelm and frustration, and come to learn that 24 hours really ARE enough!
Let’s explore time together …
Posted on July 28, 2010 by Paula, under Time Choices, Time and Energy.
Finding time can begin with finding your heart. That might seem counter-intuitive, but think about it. So often, when we are busy, the connection to our heart feels fainter. That, in turn, can start a constriction that leads straight to urgency, frustration and feeling that there’s simply not enough to go around.
When you feel yourself tighten like that, don’t panic. Instead, know that you have found the perfect time to transform your world from the inside out!
Here’s how: BE gratitude.
This dramatic shift in consciousness generates instant fulfillment. It may sound unbelievable, but give it a try. ONLY when you experience how gratitude transforms your approach to life will you truly come to understand. You already possess EVERYTHING that you need in order to live with joy. And that is abundance!
In my last blog entry, I discussed courageous prioritizing. As you simplify your schedule and set aside time to look within, you can tune in to how you feel. Notice how you can make healthy decisions for yourself more easily. When you do this, positive builds on positive, and your circle of appreciation just naturally grows!
You may be familiar with the “3 Gratitudes” Exercise. Try writing down 3 things you are grateful for every night. Pay particular attention to how the time choices you make contribute to these blessings in your life. That’s YOUR power at work!
Moving from “scarcity time” to “abundant time” is a journey. Some rewards are immediate. Others come slowly, with patient, surefooted steps. Nightly rituals like writing down 3 blessings carry a triple benefit (I call them the “3 E’s!”):
By transitioning from the illusion of scarcity to the reality of inner abundance, you enter a flow.
Multiple rewards from wise time choices will become more common. Your creativity has fertile ground to flower, and you feel freer to experiment. “Mistakes” reveal themselves to be the lessons they always were.
It’s like waking from a spell!
Drop me a line and let me know how you’re doing with seeing and experiencing the abundance in your finite time … I’d love to hear!
What if you could find another hour every day? You can! You are invited to sign up for your FREE Finding Time Success Kit. It puts 3 key tools for your time success right into your hands! Grab it and see how you can recharge your energy, reduce overwhelm and frustration, and come to learn that 24 hours really ARE enough!
Let’s explore time together …
Posted on July 27, 2010 by Paula, under Time Priorities, Time and Energy.
Finding time for abundant living becomes much easier as you embrace your power to change your mindset. That’s because it’s not only WHAT you do, but it’s HOW you do it that makes all the difference!
Yesterday we looked at how the first step toward abundant living is to fully accept that time is limited. When you stop trying to cram 2 days of living into one that means far fewer painful “time blisters” along the way! But of course, that act of letting go can leave lots of your plans in limbo. What will you do about those?
Try this: Create CRYSTAL CLEAR PRIORITIES for yourself. Once you fully grasp that each day is finite and can’t be stretched, it’s much easier to see that you MUST set clear priorities.
Creating a clear hierarchy of priorities is a cornerstone of developing an abundance mentality. It’s like strengthening muscles you needed all along, but never knew you had. One muscle you develop is the all-important skill of distinguishing your “wants” from your “needs.”
Simplicity’s reward: When you can tell your “wants” from your true “needs”, it’s easier to simplify your life WITHOUT feeling deprived! When you truly accept that some letting go is essential, your resistance to making tough decisions will gradually give way to inner contentment.
It may sound paradoxical, but try it. It’s like living inside a deep, relaxed breath. Feel your shoulders soften! You will feel the space inside your body relax and expand as you stop trying to wedge yourself into a too-tight schedule! Feeling more relaxed does a LOT to contribute to a feeling of inner abundance.
Here’s another paradox. PRIORITIZING CREATES MORE YOU. Simplifying is challenging. You commit to making do with LESS of what you WANT to fill your day with. When you do this, you develop an inner resourcefulness. That’s why I call simplifying COURAGEOUS PRIORITIZING.
How does courageous prioritizing bring freedom and spaciousness? Because making these difficult decisions and living by them CREATES MORE YOU!
That is when your own INNER ABUNDANCE really shines. This is something you can practice any time, any day. See for yourself how changing your mindset and strengthening your resolve eases your sense of stress and scarcity. The more you practice, the more rewards you enjoy!
Ready to give it a try? Drop me a line and let me know how you’re doing with courageous prioritizing and with managing your finite time … I’d love to hear!
What if you could find another hour every day? You can! You are invited to sign up for your FREE Finding Time Success Kit. It puts 3 key tools for your time success right into your hands! Grab it and see how you can recharge your energy, reduce overwhelm and frustration, and come to learn that 24 hours really ARE enough!
Let’s explore time together …
Posted on July 26, 2010 by Paula, under Time Choices, Time and Energy.
Finding time to live fully engaged puts you in the flow. You’ll see new possibilities materialize as if by magic. It’s delightful! And it’s good for you, too.
Working from an abundance mentality promotes your well-being, sparks creativity and enriches your relationships. You feel spacious. And life feels like a welcoming adventure
But have you noticed how easy it is to fall into a scarcity mentality? Scarcity thinking ties you up in knots, and it sours your perspective. Worst of all, it’s so common that you may not even realize you’re ensnared in its vicious cycle.
Are YOU caught in a scarcity trap without even knowing it? Here’s a quick quiz to find out:
Quiz: Abundance or Scarcity Mentality?
How often would you answer “True” to these statements? Would it be sometimes, or even often? Well, the good news is that you can dramatically improve your outlook, and boost your energy and productivity. The key is to focus directly on your scarcity mentality and learn how to overcome it.
Today I’d like to share what I’ve found to be the best way to START breaking free from this mind-numbing trap.
And it may sound like a paradox … The very first thing you must do to generate abundance is to ACCEPT … deep inside your core … that TIME IS LIMITED.
How can this be? Why would your making abundant time choices start with FULLY ACCEPTING that time is finite?
Well, think of it … It is SO tempting to try to squeeze just a little more into your day than you can comfortably fit. And that keeps you stuck on the treadmill, chasing after opportunities that always beckon just out of reach.
To use another analogy, if you try to stick your feet in shoes that are a size too small, they will feel cramped and chafed as soon as you start walking!
What a deceptive illusion it is to act as if there are more than 24 hours in a day! When you subscribe to this, you’re disappointed daily, and overextended, too.
So make plans that are a good fit to your day by EMBRACING the reality of finite time! The more fully you accept that you can’t stretch time, the less you will try to squeeze more in and create “time blisters.”
Notice how much easier it becomes to move through your day.
Once you’ve accepted that time is finite, what do you do with those OTHER plans that you no longer try to squeeze in? I’ll be talking about that very soon … and in the meantime, drop me a line and let me know how you’re doing with managing your finite time … I’d love to hear!
What if you could find another hour every day? You can! You are invited to sign up for your FREE Finding Time Success Kit. It puts 3 key tools for your time success right into your hands! Grab it and see how you can recharge your energy, reduce overwhelm and frustration, and come to learn that 24 hours really ARE enough!
Let’s explore time together …
Posted on July 15, 2010 by Paula, under Time Choices, Time and Energy.
Finding time when you are so busy that you feel like you can’t squeeze in one more thing is a big, daily challenge for many of us. I am guessing that you probably know THAT feeling very well!
The reality is that time is concrete and unchanging. We have exactly 24 hours each day. But sometimes a day feels luxuriously long … and other times it just flies by. Sometimes it feels productive and satisfying … and other times it feels like you just can’t get out of your own way to get ANYTHING done.
Know what I mean?
That’s because how we FEEL about time has a fundamental impact on how time FEELS to us.
Let’s step back and look at a single moment. Picture yourself working on a project. Your deadline is a week away and you are behind schedule and beginning to feel overwhelmed. You’ve got half an hour until you need to leave for an appointment. You’re frazzled and tired. What do you do?
The first thing is to remember that you have choices. Every single moment of every single day, you make choices about how you feel and what you do. You may not have control over what happens, but these choices are always in your hands.
Second, you need to MAKE your choice.
If you make the first choice, that will lead to increased worry, lack of focus, frustration, and ongoing feelings of overwhelm.
Choosing the second path, you will find that you are able to focus on your task, your ideas flow more freely, and you are much more productive than you had imagined you could be in half an hour. In this second scenario, you come to see and experience your time as expansive, rather than something that is limiting and constricting your possibilities.
Which choice do you usually make? Would you like to move toward greater abundance?
If so, you’ll love the article we’ll be sharing in today’s Finding Time E-zine. It’s titled “3 Time Choices to Free You from the Scarcity Trap” and if you sign up for our FREE Finding Time Success Kit before 11:30 AM today, you’ll receive a copy of the E-zine hot off the press!
How do you find time for what matters most to you? What gets in your way? Drop me a line … I’d love to help!
What if you could find another hour every day? You can! You are invited to sign up for your FREE Finding Time Success Kit. It puts 3 key tools for your time success right into your hands! Grab it and see how you can recharge your energy, reduce overwhelm and frustration, and come to learn that 24 hours really ARE enough!
Let’s explore time together …
Posted on July 14, 2010 by Paula, under Time and Energy.
Finding time to de-clutter is something that is often on our To Do Lists. It can be one of those items that keeps getting moved from list to list – never quite making it to the top.
Why is that? There are many reasons. Other tasks can often seem more pressing and take priority. Add to that the fact that many of us have difficulties with letting go, and you have a sure-fire recipe for procrastination. I would add that when a task like de-cluttering becomes a “should” in our minds, then that alone can often bring out enough rebelliousness to keep the activity shelved!
Last night when I was putting my work away and getting ready to leave my office, a guest post by Barrie Davenport on Zen Habits caught my eye. Titled “How to Simplify When You Love Your Stuff,” it offers ideas and insights about simplifying and simplicity that I found very intriguing – most especially her comments on mindfulness and balance.
Many of us like the idea of simplicity in practice but sabotage our implementation by confusing asceticism with our interest in simplifying. As with so many things, starting small and striving for balance will go a long way toward helping you realize your goals. Letting go is difficult for many of us, so be gentle with yourself and start small.
Try this. Stop reading and look around the room you are in right now. Do you see things that you seldom or never use or enjoy looking at?
Pick up 3 of those things and put them into a bag. Put the bag in your closet. Keep adding to your bag, repeating this exercise every day for a week.
Do you miss the items that you removed? Did you discover that you actually do need them for something? Then by all means, return them to their places.
However, if you find that, after some predetermined span of time, you never give these items a thought, then I suggest that you can happily either give them away, sell them, or dispose of them.
Slowly, your landscape will change as you let go of what you really don’t need. As this process evolves, notice how you feel. Does your breath come more easily in your decluttered space? Do things emerge that had been hidden? Do you have energy and ideas that you hadn’t known were “in there”? You will be amazed at what you find as you journey on your path of discovery!
Is simplicity already a part of your life? Do you want to start finding it? It needn’t take a lot of time. Go easy, and see what evolves … and drop me a line – I’d love to hear how it goes for you … it’s a wonderful exploration of yourself!
What if you could find another hour every day? You can! You are invited to sign up for your FREE Finding Time Success Kit. It puts 3 key tools for your time success right into your hands! Grab it and see how you can recharge your energy, reduce overwhelm and frustration, and come to learn that 24 hours really ARE enough!
Let’s explore time together …