Persuade with Power
Discovery No Comments »Do you believe that every one has a life purpose? How many believe that? How many don’t care? Perhaps you do, perhaps you don’t. Regardless perhaps after reading this blog today you will be persuaded to think differently.
About 6 months ago I was in a coaching session with women named Edie. She knew there was something more for her than her current job in Corporate America. What had happened to her dreams of becoming a lawyer? Of all the hopes and plans her family had for her as she was growing up in Bizbee,
I suggested she work with me on this process we have been talking about here. The process was created by Laura Berman Fortgang called, “90 Days to a New Life Direction” or for short, “Now what?” This workshop provides a simple yet effective process that is made up of two parts. The first part helps you determine the direction or next moves of your life by asking you to look in unexpected places. The second part of the process gets you into action and helps you redesign your life to accommodate the changes you are thinking of making. So what’s in it for you to take on such a venture? Perhaps you already know your purpose and the way to get there, but what if you don’t? Listen on! The Now What? process contains 3 practices that support identifying your life direction.
Developing Your Intuition is one part. What does that mean? How do you know when you know something in your gut? What is that like? How did you know you should join Toastmasters? Marry your spouse? Give that speech that won you best speaker? Everyone possesses intuition, your challenge is to tap it, trust it and use it to your advantage. I coach someone named Tim that has a knack for knowing who to hire for our High potential program at work. He can see talent and capability in applicants while visiting at the local colleges. So far all of those he has selected and coached through the program have been winners. I asked him what he attributed to his high success rate. He responded, “I’m not sure, it something about the way they respond to my questions, engage in dialogue, I just know it when I talk with them. I just get a hunch.” He realized at one point that he had made a shift in how he looked at intuition, it wasn’t just for women, he learned to trust it which now allows him to continually tap into it. Sources of your intuition are your emotions, mood, energy level and physical sensations.
Once you begin to tap into your intuition you will see many hidden beliefs that may be holding you back. During this 90 day process this is what you learn to tackle next, managing your beliefs. As anyone who spends Sunday night preparing for a speech in Toastmasters knows, beliefs are very powerful, they either empower you to write that winning speech that makes you feel great or they stop you dead in your tracks and have your pacing your room all night for a topic. They shape the way you see the world and influence the actions you take. Truth be told, most limits are self-imposed. Limiting beliefs operate just below the surface of your consciousness. I want you to find and remove the counterproductive beliefs standing in your way. Learning to surface, name and shift limiting beliefs to empowering beliefs is a skill that takes attention and focus to master. One of my coachees, Kristen changed her limiting belief about what she could and could not achieve by asking herself, “ What do I hold true about getting this job in HR that is counterproductive,” and then replacing it with, “What can I hold true that would be more productive?” Today she is working her dream position in recruiting high potential candidates for our ACE program.
Once you start to tap into your intuition and manage your limiting beliefs, creating possibility is possible. The dictionary defines possibility as “a potentially favorable result.” Possibility is often confused with probability, which in turn is defined as “relatively likely but not certain”. Probability is more of a measurement which by definition is limiting. Possibility is based on abundance and has no limits. Possibility arises out of vision. Vision can be broken down into a picture of a future that has not yet happened. Use vision as a framework for creating possibility I asked Andy what did he dream about or hope for in a professional future? When you answer that question, don’t edit what comes up, these are the possibilities for your future. In Andy’s case he had a vision of becoming a manager despite the fact that there were seldom opportunities in his current environment for that to happen. He continued to develop this possibility and almost as if by plan, the manager in the IT group decided to change careers and try her hand at Real Estate. Andy was primed and ready for the role. Today, that is the position he enjoys.
What if you were to brainstorm the possibilities for your life, in this program participants have the opportunity to create what is possible in fiction. Whatever there wildest intentions can create, write it down, capture it, revisit it, what does it say about how your life can look?
Excavating your Life Blueprint is a nonlinear journey. You must be ready willing and able to expand your self awareness, surface and face your blocks and expand your possibility creating ability. Then and only then can you put yourself in opportunity’s way where synchronicity, coincidence and luck can show up and guide you. Another name for luck? Preparation meeting opportunity.
So what about you? What questions about your life keep you awake at night? Better yet, what you long to do about it? Grab the opportunity to know your purpose and redesign your life to live it. There may be many ways to do that, my suggestion is Laura Berman Fortgang’s “90 Days to a New Life Direction.” Remember to check out the free preview call on Wednesday, August 29th at 7:00 EST by dialing into 1-218-486-1300 access code…248877.
