Tuesday Truth or Dare: It's a Doing Thing

Truth:  How many times have you said "I wish ......"?   I wish I could travel more.  I wish I had a better job, more money, self-confidence, my own business, and so on.

Some wishes are about feelings or fears.  I wish I was braver, empathetic, happier, less anxious.

Wishing doesn't make it so.  Wishing won't make it happen.  If you want to travel, then you have to change your wishing to doing.

Turn your wish into a goal and then DO the steps to achieve it!

Dare:  A wish is a dream without any goals.  It will remain a wish until you put in steps to do it.  

Think of one thing that you really wish to do - travel, move, be an entrepreneur, singer, actor, writer, artist, go back to school.  Write it down.  Set the date you will DO IT!

Look at the date and start writing your steps.  Your first step will be small and create the foundation.  Move forward. Set a goal. Make a plan, then move forward. The steps may be small, but move forward. That's the only way the dream becomes a reality. Move forward. 

Each step will build until your wish becomes your do.

When you finish one of your steps, celebrate!  You are one step closer to achieving your dream.  You are gonna DO IT!

7 day Challenge: 

Wake Up and Smile!

Write down one wish: I wish I could travel to Paris

Set the date you will be in Paris

Write out the steps to get you there

Celebrate each successful step you take

Have Fun In Paris 

 

Celebrate your ballsy spirit!

Make it a Great |Day!

Want Your Life to Change? You Have to get Naked First

It's impossible to change your clothes without getting naked.  You have to strip down to your bareness in order to rebuild your outfit. Once you strip down, you can add the layers of clothing that "feel right for you".

The same applies to your life!

You may have no idea what is making you feel depressed, angry, sad, confused, hopeless.

That's the time to start stripping!  Layer by layer - stripping off to find all the shit you're really holding on to.  What baggage you're dragging around with you.  What it's time to let go of!

When you want to achieve lasting change, you have to strip away your life-layers!  Peeling each one away to get them off once and for all.

Look in the Mirror

Your naked-life begins with your Personal Discovery Session where you ask yourself:

• What is not working in my life right now?

Write an honest, open, naked assessment of what is not working in your life.  Relationships, career, friends, children, finances, family, health, fun, leisure, personal growth and learning.  

Start Stripping

Here's where the ripping off the layers begins.  Ask yourself "Why" it's not working for you.

Why?  Is it because you're still angry or upset about something that happened at some point in the past?  Is it because you feel you were hurt or disrespected in some way?  Is it because you feel you are unworthy of something better?  Do you feel you are justified in your why?

Answering your "why" requires honesty and sometimes painful introspection.  You will be asking yourself how did I get here and what were the events in my life that had a significant impact.

Our lives are built from experiences.  Some are happy, some are sad and some are traumatic.  Each adds a life-layer and as time goes by, we start to feel weighed down by our baggage, what we're carrying around with us every minute of every day.  

The Naked Truth

Now it's time to truly look at your "why" to discover the naked truth.  To get to it, ask yourself:

1. What am I holding on to this for?  
2. What purpose does it serve?

The answer will show you how you are robbing yourself of happiness now by being overloaded with baggage from your past.

Now that you have a snapshot of what you're holding on to and why, you can see clearly where you are now and where you would like to be.

Take Naked Action

Commit to taking action now while you're naked and ready to change into a brand new and improved you.

Write 3 quick goals or actions you will take that will have a positive and lasting impact on your life.  Choose the areas in you life where you discovered you have the most baggage. 

Give your goals a timeframe - I will complete action 1 by ____date___.

Keep going, keep letting go and opening your life up to new adventures and opportunities.  

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and Spring Clean Your Life

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About Susan Ball:  Susan inspires her clients to live the life of their dreams with passion, joy, and love. Susan is an experienced international Life Coach helping people Live a Baggage-Free Life.

Learn more about Susan by visiting her Online, on Facebook

Susan inspires her clients to live the life of their dreams with passion, joy, and love. Susan is an experienced international Life Coach helping people discover and live a Baggage-Free life through NLP, Mindfulness, and G.R.A.C.E. Learn more about Susan by visiting her Online, on Facebook

Keep it Small & You Will Shine

It's that time again - New Year's Eve.  It's a time when we sit back and say "I need to change something"; "I need do something about ......"; "I really should......." etc.

I know that you're thinking about changes for the new year because I am too! Changes that will have a positive impact on your life and ultimately, make you feel better, healthier, and happier.  Yes, I want to make those changes and so do you.

The question is how do we make our changes last longer than a day, a week or a month?  How do we make it a true "lifestyle" change?  One that will have impact and we'll be able to actually celebrate?

Here Are the 3 K.I.S. Tips for Success:

Keep Your Changes Small - smaller - smallest

I want to lead a more active life - yes, I do.  But just saying that makes me feel a little stressed.  What does that mean?  How will I measure my success?

In order to succeed, I'm going to make my target small - smaller - smallest:

• I will take a leisurely walk on three mornings each week; or
• I will choose one night a week and make it a tv-free night; or
• I will commit to having a meat-free meal once a week; or
• I will choose to set the table and eat a proper sit-down meal at least one night each week; or
• I will only eat potato chips on Saturday nights while I'm watching the hockey game!

Now I can celebrate my accomplishments.  Much nicer than feeling horrible that I haven't accomplished this huge, unmanageable goal and then quitting.

Tell Your Truth

Stop lying to yourself!  Be honest and tell yourself the truth about what you will and won't do.

I did this exercise and now I'm completely comfortable knowing that I will never set foot in a gym - yuck; I will never completely stop eating junk food but I can accept only eating chips on Saturday.  What a treat to look forward to!

Be crazy honest with yourself.  If you want to change something about your life, what are you willing to do and what aren't you prepared to do.

Now, breathe a sigh of relief because you are on your way to success, honestly!

Allow Flexibility

Be flexible!  Flexibility lets you bend a little.  When you are flexible and you can bend, you won't snap and break your promise to yourself.

Let's say I wake-up on one of my leisurely walk days and it's raining cats and dogs.  I have two choices:

1. go out in the rain, get soaked and cold, be miserable, not joyous and feeling good about myself; or
2. Choose Flexibility - I will stay home today and walk tomorrow and I'm okay with my choice.

Choosing to be flexible will inspire me to keep going.  

Think about your goal 

Make it small - smaller - smallest

Tell Yourself the Truth 

Be flexible - bending so you won't break

You've got this!  

Happy New Year.

About Susan Ball:  Susan inspires her clients to live the life of their dreams with passion, joy, and love. Susan is an experienced international Life Coach helping people discover and live their ideal life through NLP, Mindfulness, and G.R.A.C.E.

Learn more about Susan by visiting her Online, on Facebook

How Distorted Are You?

Do you over-generalize?  Think that there is only black or white solutions?  Dwell on one little negative thing so that you ruin your overall enjoyment of an experience?  Are you a fortune teller?  Or do you see catastrophe at every turn?

Grab your copy of my Cognitive Distortions worksheet so we can discuss all the unique ways we distort our experiences.

"Cognitive Distortions" are so common and you are not alone.  These distortions negatively impact our daily interactions with others and ourselves.

Recently, a client came to me to overcome childhood sexual abuse by a close family member.  We discovered that she had not discussed what happened with any of her immediate family members effectively isolating herself from her circle of support.

She had applied the big cognitive distortion - Jumping to Conclusions which includes Mind Reading and Fortune Telling.

She had convinced herself that sharing her story would result in those closest to her treating negatively in the future.

I'm happy to say that with encouragement and understanding of her personal distortions, she shared her story and discovered that her sister had also been abused.  40 years later they are closer than ever and they have each other to talk to and that's healthy and healing.

Look at your copy of the Cognitive Distortions worksheet and then openly discover how you distort your experiences and effectively, sabotage your happiness.

When you realize how distorted you are, you can start the journey to change and positive experiences.

More on this topic will follow - it's a big change that will have an incredible impact on your life.  Pay attention to your distortions.

Dreaming, Planning and Doing

“Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.”  Gloria Steinem

Just a few hours to go and I'm so excited! 

2014 is the year I set my dream in motion and make it my new, amazing reality!  My visualizations are popping with colour and sound and textures and motions.  They are a whirlwind of activity.

What am I up to you ask?

Living in a small, quaint village in France for 6 months every year.  I want to successfully rent a small cottage and write, relax, enjoy good food and learn every nuance of French language and culture.

My success will depend on planning through goal setting.

Let my journey begin!

What dream to you want to make reality through planning and doing?

Happy New Year, Susan

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Welcome to winter in Canada.  We are experiencing a blast of arctic air that is set to stay with us for the next 10 days!  I may be proudly Canadian but these cold blasts can be miserable!

That being said, the cold snap got me thinking about my goals for the future.  Oh, I have several and I'm a firm believer in setting goals for your life, career, business, relationships and health.  Small goals that are easy to achieve and celebrate are my favourites.  Each day I celebrate a goal that I successfully completed.

Larger goals are wonderful but if you forget to create an action plan to achieve your big dream type goal you will begin to feel discouraged.  This may lead to giving up on your dreamy goal.

Today, I was looking out my picture window and I started to daydream and a new dreamy goal came to my mind.  My new goal - Every Winter I Will Spend a Minimum of 3-Weeks in a Hot, Hot, Tropical Climate.  Fabulous goal and I want it to be successful so I set about creating an action plan.  I will be in Costa Rica or other tropical paradise from January 22, 2014 to February 15, 2014....period.

My action plan created the steps I want to take to make my goal a reality.  First, finances - how much will I want?  I divided that amount by 52.  So much easier to look at dollar values when they are small and it makes it doable!

Second, what do I want to change in my business to ensure the extra funds are available.  I set about writing action steps to increase my income.

Third, hubby.  Okay, he pretty much loves whatever I plan so I'm good there.

Done!!  I set a goal and developed the action steps to make it a reality.  As a bonus, I created new and fantastic action steps to grow my business.

The benefits of Goal Setting and Creating an Action Plan are enormous.

So, get out your pen and paper, start daydreaming, jot down notes.  Dream big and choose one to make a reality.  You will have a new sense of accomplishment, confidence and an event in your future to look forward to.  How great is that!