rainbowsoverruins

5 STEPS TO PLAN YOUR NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS NOW

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No doubt about it, the holidays are in full swing in my life. Home and Family has just taped the Holiday Special which will air on Hallmark Channel Monday evening, November 24th at 8:00pm E/7p Central. We had over 40 guests on the show ranging from our daily hosts and family members to stars from Hallmark movies and American Idol, Acro Army and Aria. We cook and DIY, sing and break bread with one another in a wonderful celebration. Tune in if you can. We had a great deal of fun pulling this together for you.

On a more personal note, the holidays remind me to take a fresh look at my personal goals for the coming season and my New Year’s resolutions. It’s been a fabulous year and I am extremely grateful for the sense of joy and accomplishment I feel. If I were to create a blessings tree, I’d weave in thoughts of my book Rainbows Over Ruins, the foreword so generously written by Noah St. John, Noah’s live conferences, our appearance on the show to discuss the power of afformations, Home and Family’s second Daytime Emmy nomination, a most wonderful birthday celebration with good friends, family visits, hiring assistants, my virtual blog tour and being asked to be a guest blogger on CoffeyTalk.com.

Ironically, in the midst of all this, I felt a sense of completion. The activities that filled my spring and summer continue, however, the milestone map I had originally created to guide me along the path to publish had done its job. The next steps on the map were too vague and all encompassing. The result was that I felt a lack of forward momentum. I was confused about the specific actions that needed to be taken.

When this happens after an intense flurry of activity, we need to do some strategic planning on inner levels and work from the inside out. What’s that entail?

  1. Sit down and think about your vision of your dream project. Appreciate anything in your daily life that supports your vision. Challenge yourself to find 10 examples each day.
  2. Holding your vision, allow a movie to play across your mind. Ask yourself questions. If you achieve your dreams, what will it look and feel like? Why is it important to you? What are some potential strategies you might pursue? What could the next steps and levels be?
  3. Choosing from a variety of techniques, allow yourself to be guided to deeper subconscious levels. These techniques can range from contemplation, meditation, sitting for ideas, centered prayer, hypnosis, guided imagery, to quantum jumps. The technique is less important than the result – achieving a deeper state where your conscious mind is more still.
  4. Once you return to normal consciousness, be sure to write down any ideas you received. They may be clues to your options, specific ways to find resources and research, as well as descriptions of how to “chunk down” or “step out” a specific milestone you are seeking to achieve. Start to take these actions as soon as you can.
  5. As you go back to regular activity, be mindful about what is showing up around you. Next steps tend to emerge out of your daily activities or, as Thomas Troward suggested, they proceed in an orderly fashion from that which has gone before.

Things do show up around you, often from unexpected places. For instance, the other day I had a conversation with a friend who has been working with me on the show since it began. He revealed that it was not easy to grasp my grand dream, because he could not see how to receive any potential return on investment. I would have to be able to communicate that before he would consider taking action.

Wow! What a wakeup call! My ability to communicate my vision held a key to my success. My idea could be inspiring, however, it would be important to demonstrate to others how they get their money back (i.e., return on investment) or see a different return that helps them achieve their personal goals (such as seeing potential improvement in their own lives or the lives of others). This perspective shared by a friend raised my awareness that whether we are marketing to a client, pitching to a buyer or a financier, we need to know enough to tailor our presentation to their Why before they can see its value to them and take the action we are requesting.

This insight from a random conversation contributes to my strategic planning as I pursue my next steps to create presentations and content. I firmly believe that no matter the circumstances in which we find ourselves, we can use the power of our minds to improve them. My task is to get the message out. This year’s New Year’s resolutions will reflect these next steps that support my goals.

If you can make the time to do some inner strategic planning around your goals, by the time New Year’s rolls around, you may have created resolutions that support them as well. They are the kind of resolutions we are all more likely to pursue until they are achieved, no matter what.

I hope you will take some time to define your strategic New Year’s resolutions. If so, we’re going to have another fabulous year, all together.

To Your Success,

Susan

Two articles appear on the same day

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Having two articles appear in different online publications on the same day has me breathing rare air.  CEO Magazine is the publication this evening.  They asked me to write about how we reconcile our outer actions with our subconscious mind in order to find better success.

As in so many things, the answer can be found in the question.  And in this case, the vital word was “reconcile.”   I went to the dictionary where I found 5 definitions.  The one that grabbed me was “make consistent with ideal …reality.” That rang a bell.

So often we experience a gap between where we are (reality) and where we want to be (our ideal or true self).  So that’s what this article is about — how we can make the reality in which we currently exist and our true selves align.  That is the true reconciliation.  Hope you enjoy!

http://blogs.the-ceo-magazine.com/guest/reconciling-outer-actions-your-inner-game

To Your Success,

Susan

What if you had a “piano teacher” for your mind?

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Sharing the creative process and being what Noah St. John calls a “loving mirror” to others is similar to developing a pianist or fine athlete.  A piano teacher or athletic coach offers principles and techniques designed to teach you to make music or play a winning game. Similarly, a piano teacher for your mind teaches and offers constructive guidance to help you improve your life or achieve your dreams.

Do you remember those early lessons? Scales repeated every day, reaching for chords that stretched the flexibility of hands, learning to read the notes on the page, and beginning to discover the voice and tempo of a simple composition from clues written on the sheet music… In the beginning, it seemed mundane and arduous; a chore set before you by parents and teachers alike. 

Yet over time, with much daily practice and many weekly classes, we developed a certain agility. Our hands flowed more smoothly over the keys. We made fewer jarring mistakes and we made music. People noticed the improvement and started to appreciate what we were doing.

As long as we kept practicing to maintain these skills and get into the rhythmic feeling of the compositions, the piano yielded its treasures. We mastered them first for ourselves, then gradually shared them with our families, a school band or concert orchestra.  Perhaps we expanded our reach and participated in plays, on a team, or made movies.  We developed resiliency and strength to perform under the pressure of public presentation.

Why do others care about our music or creativity? Why do they come to watch or listen to our performances? Why do they value it? It’s my contention that we express our feelings through our craft and the audience listens because they like the way we make them feel.  And in return, we value the appreciation we feel when they respond to our work.

Our piano teacher is often the first one to guide us to this experience, supporting us through the early developmental stages, providing constructive criticism to help us improve and cheering us on as we achieve new milestones and try our hands at something new.

The analogy here is that the way we think needs to be nurtured in much the same way. We have a mind and we go to school to learn skills that we can use throughout life to help us survive and live a comfortable life. If we grow up in a spiritual home, we learn to pray, attend services or meetings with others and come to value service to our fellow beings.

But without the guidance of a “piano teacher of the mind,” we may not be fully aware of how we may coordinate these two aspects of the mind to create the life we desire. A teacher would help raise our awareness of the qualities of the conscious and non- or subconscious mind. In the materialistic world we do not always recognize the value of the subconscious mind – its open, receptive nature and ability to connect with what quantum physics calls fields of all possibility.  A teacher can help us learn techniques like afformations in order to collaborate with the subconscious mind’s inherent nature and obtain desired results. Anyone who can ask a question can learn to do this.

As a teaching guide to the mind and conscious creativity, my task is to show you the basics and raise your awareness that the subconscious mind does not judge. It accepts what come to it whether good or bad – and reacts in kind.  Your results depend upon both your conscious thoughts and the effect of your feelings as well.  With regular practice you can learn to use tools and techniques to manage both in order to influence the subconscious for your benefit. You can set up a daily inner routine for the mind that is even more powerful than what you do in your outer activities.

Your personal process requires practice, just like learning to play the piano. It also benefits from regular interaction with the teachers who support your growth and others with similar interests. It is inspired by companionship with those who express their joy and speak of discovering new awareness. It benefits from the presence of others who help us see what we may have missed and then help us adjust.

I have long since lost contact with my first piano teachers and my fingers are not so nimble on the keys these days.  Perhaps if I had stayed in touch, my musical skills would be far better. But I know the value of such teachers and apply it in my daily practice routine for my mind.  And I am grateful for interaction with those who keep my skill set up to date now.

If you want all the benefits to be gained through knowledge of the mind in order to get the results you desire, may I suggest you ask for your piano teacher of the mind, learn the basics of the creative process and practice regularly.  With your loving mirror nearby, you can clear the way and enjoy the full expression of your creativity.  Let me know if I can help.

Reporting in: I am where I am and it’s okay

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I am surprised to see how long it has been since I last posted here. Life has taken me off on a creative journey that has consumed every waking moment – and probably quite a few sleeping moments as well. I am happy to report that I am pleased with where I am now. It has taken several years to move from the night of the landslide through the rebuilding process, yet today, I stand at a place of infinite possibility.

You would think it would be enough to have found a ranch to replace the one we lost or to be part of a daily morning show like “Home and Family” that airs on Hallmark Channel. But that was only a piece of the puzzle.

Along the way, I became fascinated with the creative process. What did we do to make the ranch a reality? How could I learn to do that consciously? How could I help others do it too? I had studied to become a life coach, then refined my studies to understand the power of the mind and success principles as one of Bob Proctor’s LifeSuccess Consultants. Bob encouraged each of his students to write a book, but who was I to write? What could I write that would have meaning for anyone else?

In the end, I decided to translate an outline of the creative process into real life experience. The old adage held true – if you really want to know a subject, teach others about it. I set out to live what I was learning and share that journey. It was painful at times as I wrestled with the application of new ideas on old paradigms. Whenever I hit a roadblock in my understanding that interfered with the writing, new experiences would crop up to help me learn what was needed to move forward.

It took time to write, but after working with the editors at Balboa Press, I expect to place the resulting book titled “Rainbows Over Ruins” in physical production shortly. There will also be a free e-workbook available for anyone who would like to be mentored on their own creative journey while reading my story.

“Rainbows Over Ruins” is what one of my colleagues calls a Siddhartha journey. Along the way, I learned that the creative process embodies success principles. Creativity is an intimate dance with quantum consciousness, the interplay of conscious ideas, questions, and feelings with the power of the subconscious mind to take action and get results.

As I prepare to update listings to reflect my new status as author, I feel a bit like Indiana Jones, about to step off at a leap of faith location. I am so grateful for the support of my many mentors and colleagues. We have to do things on our own, but we do not do them alone. In that spirit, I offer the following question to get your juices flowing. Why do you want to create what you want today?

To Your Success,

Susan

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