Have you noticed the trend where people are copying each other’s work?  I don’t mean looking over their neighbor’s shoulder to copy answers, I mean literally copying an entire business, workshop, product, etc.  Perhaps the folks doing this have been influenced by all the marketing programs that say to model your business or your marketing after someone whose business and marketing works really well.

However, there’s a big problem with this: that kind of copying leads to a business or strategies that don’t come from your core, from who you truly are, and, as such, they will lack the magnetism that can come only from the heart, from the core of who you are.  This, in turn, will affect your success, and your organic flow- you have to keep copying in order to grow your business.  You can not lead; you are relegated to being a follower. Even more important from my perspective, it’ll affect whether you’re fulfilled and satisfied, whether you’re growing and being connected to the source of your power and brilliance.

From that place, work is a chore, it’s hard work, constant efforting and striving,……exhausting!

How different it is when we are moved from within by the unfolding of our souls, allowing THAT to give us direction, purpose, inspiration, motivation, and JUICE! Then work can be a delight, constant discovery and expansion, not so much like work……more like adult play.  You wake up excited to get to work.  Your work moves you rather than you laboring to move your work along.  It’s like having the wind at your back!  From this place, the possibilities are limitless; YOU are limitless.

How would it feel to have your work be like this? What would that do for you?  If you want your experience of work and life to be like that, contact me for a free consultation: http://www.moneymissionmasteryfinancialcoaching.com/appointy

What do Olympic Gold Medalists, Academy Award Winners, and CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies all have in common?

They all…

….are intensely driven.

….have a passionate obsession with excellence.

….have been trained how to achieve at the highest levels.

….have a coach that knows how to bring out their very best.

Now, suppose for just a moment that you could gain access to a coach who specializes in helping people get out of their own way, achieve their best, and SOAR!

Do you think you might be able to learn a few things and change a few things that would improve the condition of your life and career and change your future?

Conquer your bad habits, or they’ll eventually conquer you.   Dr. Robert Gilbert.

Constructive habits support us to resist temptations such as the temptation to procrastinate or to avoid a challenging situation. When we exercise constructive habits, we develop an internal muscle to support our Will and support our true intentions. When we allow ourselves to be complacent with unconstructive habits, we allow ourselves to stay put right where we are.

Don’t like where/how you are?  Develop a few new habits.  I suggest just one or two at a time.  Give each new habit at least a month to take root.  Then add one more new habit. Keep adding one new habit each month as long as you don’t feel overwhelmed.  If that happens, don’t add anymore until you feel stable.  You may even need to place some on the back burner if you’re seriously overwhelmed.  That’s ok; it’ll happen in good time.  Trust this.  The important thing is for each new constructive habit to root firmly.

Adopt the practice of observing your behavior and your mind and of catching yourself being tempted to do something or not do something that isn’t constructive for you. It may not be easy at first to notice and observe much less to resist the temptation to fall back into old behavior, but if you are diligent and consistent about it, you can not only break a bad habit, but even form a new positive habit.

What is one habit that is holding you back? Which habit is holding you back the most?  Which habit, if it were eliminated, would improve your life the most? What constructive habit would best replace it? How can you put a plan in place to overcome that bad habit? Smoking cessation experts have used things like snapping a rubber band on your wrist, moving one of those silicone wrist bands from one wrist to the other each time you notice the inclination for the old habit, positive affirmations on the mirrors or make an arrangement to call a friend for support. What can you put in place today to transform the most critical habit you identified? Take the first step right now.  Let me know how it goes.

Concerned about regarding your work as spiritual practice?  Yes, it’s messy and inconvenient at times, but what a growth opportunity! (Second in opportunity only to parenting or marriage.)
However, my deep abiding love of the truth outweighs any inconvenience, messiness or pain.
I would have the truth at ANY price!  I’ve been willing to inquire into the truth about myself, my circumstances, my relationships and this has caused me to grow enormously as a person and as a professional. I won’t suggest that it’s been easy, but it’s been completely worth it! This is part of the process of Mastery.

Along the way, one of the many things I wrestled with is self-care.  I wasn’t raised with any value on self-care.  I was raised with a survival ethic: nose to the grindstone, sacrifice, etc.  The person or Self was not important.  Meeting expectations, productivity, advancement, etc. all were key to survival and thus valued above most everything else: the Self, the family, happiness, enjoying life, etc.  Through trial and error, I’ve come to KNOW wholeheartedly that when we care for ourselves FIRST and put ourselves ahead of work and business, we are not only able to do more, be more productive, do a better job, etc., but also are able to offer our work from a place of fullness, wholeness, love, generosity and service. Being able to do this is key to my soul’s purpose.  It’s not enough for me to be good at what I do and offer something useful to society and the world.  HOW I offer myself and my services is of paramount importance to me and to my soul’s purpose.  The more I care for my Self, the more I have to give, the more brilliance comes through my work, the more love I experience and clients and colleagues experience.  This is part of the Meaning of Life for me.  Additionally, I feel this is key to sustainable entrepreneurship and to THRIVING. What does/would self-care look like for you?  Are you at your best if you begin your day with meditation, exercise and wholesome food?  Allow the time for a real lunch break for healthy fresh food and fresh air?  End your work day with enough time to exercise and connect with your partner, family, or friends over the evening meal?  What are the limiting beliefs that arise as you read those questions?  What do you believe you can have?  What do you believe will happen if you do those things?

While those limiting beliefs are very real, I’d like you to know that that they can be eliminated (this is one of the aspects of my work with clients) and that you can actually have MORE as a result of eliminating them and allowing excellent self-care: more productivity, more income, more satisfaction and fulfillment, more energy, more vitality, more sustainability, more THRIVING!

From my perspective, self-care is KEY to sustainability and sustainability is a KEY to thriving. Many people that I know and associate with have a desire to truly thrive!  However, I see our culture at a critical crossroads on many levels.  Business culture too.  Many aspects of our culture are anything but sustainable! I see people, entrepreneurs and corporate professionals alike, burning themselves out, wearing themselves out with insanely long work hours, poor nutrition and self-care, excessive caffeine use, lack of sleep, insufficient community, connection, and renewal.  How does your lifestyle rank in terms of sustainability?  What adjustments can you make to improve the sustainability of your lifestyle and move towards thriving?  Is this important to you?  If yes, how will you make this a priority?  Many people need support with this.  I’m here to help!  Contact me for a complimentary consultation: http://www.MoneyMissionMastery.com/appointments

One aspect of sustainability and thriving for me is connection and transparency.  I see transparency as one of the hallmarks of the new paradigm in business. The entrepreneurs that I’ve really connected with on Facebook, Twitter and locally all embrace  transparency! THIS has made it possible for us to connect over the internet, communicate in meaningful ways and enrich each others’ lives. As a matter of fact, just yesterday I was deeply touched and a bit surprised by how much love and appreciation has been expressed for me and my work on my Facebook wall recently; and I was reflecting on what a difference this expression is making for me as I endeavor solo, but no longer alone in my business as a soulpreneur. This love, appreciation and connection are nourishing, comforting, enlivening, and sustaining at moments when I really could use such a boost. I have given generously and shared transparently and people  are responding beautifully from their hearts!   THIS is the realm in which I choose to do business.  THIS is part of thriving and mastery!

In love and service,
Kamila Harkavy
Founder of Money*Mission*Mastery
http://www.MoneyMissionMastery.com

Living in the modern world can be stressful.  It’s your choice.  A choice you make many times each day when you choose how to react to things that happen.   There’s no shortage of research proving that it’s HOW we REACT to life’s events that determines whether we experience stress and how much stress.  Two people experiencing an identical set of life circumstances but making very different choices about how to react will experience different degrees of stress.  One may experience extreme stress; the other may experience no stress at all.  A few of the stress determinants are whether you feel a lack of control or victimized, whether you feel your survival or identity are threatened, and whether you choose to be affected by the circumstances or their outcome.  We’ve heard the expressions “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff” and “like water off a duck’s back”; both of these directives yield a no-stress outcome.

In Chinese, the word for stress is made up of 2 characters: danger and opportunity.  I love this.  Seeing opportunity in any event or set of circumstances is KEY to responding proactively rather than reacting in such a way that creates stress in the body-mind-spirit.  We can take a huge lesson from this.  In fact, I have.  I’ve long made a practice of looking for the learning or growth opportunities in difficult, challenging, and undesirable circumstances and events.  This has transmuted the feeling of no control in these situations.  It’s also led to a lot of growth and learning.  I can’t say that I’ve been as successful in not personalizing.  SIGH.  Perhaps someday.

I recently heard a story about some Tibetan monks who had been imprisoned and tortured by the Chinese for a long period of time.  Now free, these men are happy and show absolutely no indications of the sort of PTSD one might expect to find in such survivors.  No PTSD whatsoever.  In fact, they are sweet, kind, gentle, loving, happy, fully-functioning people.  This is so exceedingly rare in P.O.Ws.  How can they be so unscathed?  They responded to the torture not by feeling victimized, nor by feeling a complete an utter lack of control; they responded by having immense compassion for their torturers who they perceived as deeply troubled souls; and they did not personalize the experience- they did not believe the torture was in any way a reflection on them personally.  They did not agonize about whether they deserved it or not.  They did not ponder what they might have done to deserve this kind of treatment.  They did not resist the reality of the situation either; they accepted the fact that it was happening.  They did not attempt to minimize it nor did they become stoic.  They did not experience the intense stress of hating their captors night and day.  They suffered, but they didn’t suffer in the same ways and to the degree that you or I might because of their attitude and response.

The next time you find yourself in a challenging circumstance, I hope you’ll remember that you have a choice about how to respond and a choice to look for the learning and growth opportunity in the experience.  Please let me know how it goes for you.

Fears, unacknowledged shadow, and karmic stuff  is coming into the light of consciousness to be dealt with NOW! Wherever we’ve taken short cuts, avoided doing what we needed to do, or just plain sat on our butts, the Universe will now challenge us to make amends and clear it out.  Those able to detach from ego and acknowledge the karmic reckoning are able to move through this time with wisdom, grace, and a light at the end of the tunnel. Those who are clinging to ego and perceiving the cause of these circumstances as being about everyone else but themselves are stuck in suffering.  It will serve each of us well to look at present circumstances to see what part we’ve played in them.  Inquire about how your past actions (or lack of actions) or attitudes contributed to your present circumstances.

The point in this is not to berate yourself, but to take responsibility!  Taking responsibility is one of the fastest ways to change your experience, change your outcomes and change your destiny. Detach from the ego who needs to feel perfect and in charge; and look through the eyes of the Soul, accept that you’ve made mistakes, fallen short, etc.  Be compassionate with yourself as you accept the truth about your past and your present and your role in their circumstances. This is coming up now because you’re fully capable of dealing with it and clearing it out once and for all.  You may not feel capable, but if you dig deep, you’ll likely find that you are or will be by the end.  To be able to see your own shadow and change yourself is a hard-won ability that will serve you really well and open the horizon of your future in ways you may not even imagine.

“When you ACCEPT your inner divinity you discover your inner genius. When you DISCOVER your inner genius you reveal your inner excellence. When you REVEAL your inner excellence your release your inner joy. When you RELEASE your inner joy you receive your inner peace.”

“Perhaps the greatest gift in life is to BE who you actually are and to DO what only you can do! The pressure is always on to trade your uniqueness for compliance and conformity. The temptation is always there to trade your genius for mediocrity, your extraordinariness for commonness, and your wings for chains. Revel in your ORIGINALITY!” (c) Divinitudes by James L. Giles, 2010.

If we are to be happy and thrive, we must live an authentic life- a life that’s authentic and meaningful for us alone. It’s none of our business what anyone else thinks about us. To have an authentic life, we must arrange, re-arrange, re-design our lives as needed to become in accordance with our values. We must be true to ourselves….true to our truest selves. The more congruence there is between who you really are, what you value, and what you do with your life, the happier and more truly effective, truly successful (by MY definition of the word), and the more peaceful you will be. When the level of that congruence reaches critical mass, you begin to THRIVE! Life becomes a great experience. Synchronicity and grace are then more likely. Life becomes quite delightful when this happens.

My soul’s purpose is to learn how to completely thrive and to guide and support others to do the same if they are so inclined. Discovering and pursuing your own soul’s purpose is a key to truly thriving. My work is designed to address both discovering and pursuing your own soul’s purpose. I have adapted and combined some very graceful yet very powerful tools to facilitate this for myself and for you.

Although my work is called Money*Mission*Mastery, ultimately, It’s really not about the money itself. However, money, or what you believe about money, is one of the biggest obstacles to living an authentic life- the life you are meant to lead. THAT is the main reason, for me, to address money issues. Money is a microcosm of the macrocosm.  Interestingly, as I work with a client on their money issues, their whole life transforms and becomes more authentic, more effective, more delightful.  This shows that our lives are hologram: we address one part, make changes, catalyze transformation and your whole life transforms.

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest
accomplishment.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

I read a blog post http://www.jaredyellin.com/what-is-brandentity/ by a leader in one of my many LinkedIn groups for NLP.
Here is a snippet from that blog post that I offer for you to ponder the idea that to truly thrive, you must truly be yourself!  The bolding is mine:

The Time is Here and the Time is Now

What I have learned is that in order to thrive in life you need to accept the fundamental principle of giving for the sake of giving, but in order for this philosophy to have the type of impact that I have envisioned for all of the members of the IDENTITY REVOLUTION, the first person that you need to give to is yourself. That is the underlying purpose and goal with Brandentity because once you make the choice to identify with yourself and become the real YOU, then all of your hopes, dreams, and aspirations will begin to come to fruition. This journey is not for the faint of heart, but what I will tell you is that those who decide to join BRANDENTITY and experience the adventure will begin to realize that tomorrow can be even better then today. As Dr. Gabriel Cousens MD once said, “The Personality is a Case of Mistaken Identity!..We Are Born Originals-Why Do So Many Die Copies?”

Want to move forward toward being truly yourself and thriving? This can be very challenging.  I have tools to facilitate the process and make it quite graceful. Contact me for a free consultation; I’d love to help you. Go to http://bit.ly/dgSmH2 to schedule a complimentary consultation.

ONE . Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully, willingly- they can tell the difference. Under-promise and over-deliver.

TWO . Marry a man/woman you love to talk to and be with. As you get older, their conversational skills will be as important or more important as any other attribute.

THREE . Don’t believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want. Exercise integrity in these areas.

FOUR . When you say, ‘I love you,’ mean it. Say it as often as you can while meaning it.

FIVE . When you say, ‘I’m sorry,’ look the person in the eye and acknowledge how you hurt/affected them.

SIX . Be engaged at least six months and together at least 3 years before you get married. It takes 3 years to really know a person. Anyone can be on their good behavior for a year, but in 3 years you’ll see their “stuff” and how they really live. Make sure you really know who you’re committing to be with.

SEVEN . Believe in love at first sight. Trust your gut, but follow #6 too.

EIGHT . Never laugh at anyone’s dreams.

NINE . Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it’s the only way to live life completely.

TEN . In disagreements, fight fairly . No name calling. Be respectful. Say only what you wouldn’t mind everyone knowing you said.

ELEVEN . Don’t judge people by their relatives .

TWELVE . Talk slowly; give yourself time to evaluate what you’re about to say; it’s easier than trying to make corrections after the fact.

THIRTEEN! . When someone asks you a question you don’t want to answer, smile and ask, ‘Why do you want to know?’

FOURTEEN . Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk. Remember #9.

FIFTEEN . Say ‘bless you’ when you hear someone sneeze .

SIXTEEN . When you lose, don’t lose the lesson; spend some time reflecting on the lessons in the experience and you may not need to have an experience like that again.

SEVENTEEN . Remember the three R’s: Respect for self; Respect for others; and Responsibility for all your actions.

EIGHTEEN . Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship; find the courage to repair the situation .

NINETEEN . When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it. Apologize whenever necessary. See #5 .

TWENTY . Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice .

TWENTY- ONE . Spend some time alone. Keep a journal. Go for walks. Have time for stillness. Most of us DO too much anyway.

By martha beck from O Magazine
In the past 10 years, I’ve realized that our culture is rife with ideas that actually inhibit joy. Here are some of the things I’m most grateful to have unlearned:

1. Problems are bad. You spent your school years solving arbitrary problems imposed by boring authority figures. You learned that problems suck. But people without real problems go mad and invent things like base jumping and wedding planning. Real problems are wonderful, each carrying the seeds of its own solution. Job burnout? It’s steering you toward your perfect career. An awful relationship? It’s teaching you what love means. Confusing tax forms? They’re suggesting you hire an accountant, so you can focus on more interesting tasks, such as flossing. Finding the solution to each problem is what gives life its gusto.

2. It’s important to stay happy. Solving a knotty problem can help us be happy, but we don’t have to be happy to feel good. If that sounds crazy, try this: Focus on something that makes you miserable. Then think, “I must stay happy!” Stressful, isn’t it? Now say, “It’s okay to be as sad as I need to be.” This kind of permission to feel as we feel—not continuous happiness—is the foundation of well-being.

3. I’m irreparably damaged by my past. Painful events leave scars, true, but it turns out they’re largely erasable. Jill Bolte Taylor, the neuroanatomist who had a stroke that obliterated her memory, described the event as losing “37 years of emotional baggage.” Taylor rebuilt her own brain, minus the drama. Now it appears we can all effect a similar shift, without having to endure a brain hemorrhage. The very thing you’re doing at this moment—questioning habitual thoughts—is enough to begin off-loading old patterns. For example, take an issue that’s been worrying you (“I’ve got to work harder!”) and think of three reasons that belief may be wrong. Your brain will begin to let it go. Taylor found this thought-loss euphoric. You will, too.

4. Working hard leads to success. Baby mammals, including humans, learn by playing, which is why “the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton.” Boys who’d spent years strategizing for fun gained instinctive skills to handle real-world situations. So play as you did in childhood, with all-out absorption. Watch for ways your childhood playing skills can solve a problem (see #1). Play, not work, is the key to success. While we’re on the subject…

5. Success is the opposite of failure. Fact: From quitting smoking to skiing, we succeed to the degree we try, fail, and learn. Studies show that people who worry about mistakes shut down, but those who are relaxed about doing badly soon learn to do well. Success is built on failure.

6. It matters what people think of me. “But if I fail,” what will people think of me. “But if I fail,” you may protest, “people will think badly of me!” This dreaded fate causes despair, suicide, homicide. I realized this when I read blatant lies about myself on the Internet. When I bewailed this to a friend, she said, “Wow, you have some painful fantasies about other people’s fantasies about you.” Yup, my anguish came from my hypothesis that other people’s hypothetical hypotheses about me mattered. Ridiculous! Right now, imagine what you’d do if it absolutely didn’t matter what people thought of you. Got it? Good. Never go back.

7. We should think rationally about our decisions. Your rational capacities are far newer and more error-prone than your deeper, “animal” brain. Often complex problems are best solved by thinking like an animal. Consider a choice you have to make—anything from which movie to see to which house to buy. Instead of weighing pros and cons intellectually, notice your physical response to each option. Pay attention to when your body tenses or relaxes. And speaking of bodies…

8. The pretty girls get all the good stuff. Oh, God. So not true. I unlearned this after years of coaching beautiful clients. Yes, these lovelies get preferential treatment in most life scenarios, but there’s a catch: While everyone’s looking at them, virtually no one sees them. Almost every gorgeous client had a husband who’d married her breasts and jawline without ever noticing her soul.

9. If all my wishes came true right now, life would be perfect. Check it out: People who have what you want are all over rehab clinics, divorce courts, and jails. That’s because good fortune has side effects, just like medications advertised on TV. Basically, any external thing we depend on to make us feel good has the power to make us feel bad. Weirdly, when you’ve stopped depending on tangible rewards, they often materialize. To attract something you want, become as joyful as you think that thing would make you. The joy, not the thing, is the point.

10. Loss is terrible. Ten years ago I still feared loss enough to abandon myself in order to keep things stable. I’d smile when I was sad, pretend to like people who appalled me. What I now know is that losses aren’t cataclysmic if they teach the heart and soul their natural cycle of breaking and healing. A real tragedy? That’s the loss of the heart and soul themselves. If you’ve abandoned yourself in the effort to keep anyone or anything else, unlearn that pattern. Live your truth, losses be damned. Just like that, your heart and soul will return home.