Random Acts of Kindness

December 2nd, 2010
The Beach in front of Ruby's Hotel

The Beach in front of Ruby's Hotel

Video:  Random Acts of Kindness

I was in  San Pedro, Belize for 4 days and I was the recipient of numerous random acts of kindness.  It appears that it just part of their culture here in Belize.

The random acts of kindness started with Island Divers who I did my scuba diving lessons with last year.  I had kept in contact with my dive instructor and when I showed up at the office, Rudy the owner immediately starting thinking of who he knew that might have apartments for rent.  When I came with a list of people to call who had placed advertisements in the local paper, Rudy was more than happy to let me use his phone.

I spent the rest of that day being toured around from apartment to apartment.  I viewed the full range of housing from tourist grade condo’s tol third world apartments for the locals.  Some were possible options and others were out of the question.  I waited to find out if I would be accepted at a couple of the tourist grade places, because they normally only accept a 6 month rentals and I am planing on staying for 3 months.

The next morning when I woke up in my third floor hotel room, which has a big deck over looking the ocean, I felt how grateful I was for all the help that I was receiving.  Plus I realized that I could stay put in this hotel room if necessary.  My room at Ruby’s is clean, I am safe and I have some friends who are helping me.  Plus I have 3 decks to choose from for my office depending upon how much shade I need.  What more did I want, I was in heaven.

I already have my local cheap and good restaurants where I am a regular client.  Coming home from breakfast that morning two guys who do condo sales for Captain Morgans started chatting with me.  Before I knew it they had commandeered a golf cart, the local mode of transportation here, and were touring me around to every property management place they could think of.  They called ahead to people to find out who might have space available.  They found me a brand new apartment about a mile out of town, which was a great option and the owner was willing to rent it right away.

First I wanted to speak to Bob from Coral Beach Reality who had showed me a place the previous day.  It turned out his client did not want to accept a shorter term rental.  Bob however had heard about an apartment in a building where a friend of his lived.  Bob picked up the phone and tracked down the owner and then drove me over to meet the owner.  The owner had wanted to do some work on the apartment and didn’t really have it on the rental  market, but it was perfect for me.  It was at the far end of town so it would be easy for me to walk to the stores and to the local bar to go dancing on Saturday.  And it is just outside of the hustle and bustle of  the main part of town, plus from my deck I can see the ocean as it only 2 buildings away from the beach.  It was perfect and I took it on the spot.

What was in it for all these people to help me?  Nothing other than the joy that it brought to their hearts to undertake a random act of kindness for a Canadian woman wanting to write a book in the sunshine.  These people have shown me how to open my heart even more to be generous and helpful just because I can.

Are you setting intentions?

November 23rd, 2010

Video:   Sharing Intention from Toronto

When we want something to happen in our lives it is powerful to set a clear intention of what we would like to have happen.  When the time is right the universe will often create an opportunity for our intentions to become reality.  The trick is for us to recognize when the universe comes knocking.  To recognize these opportunities we need to listen to our intuition and know when to say “yes”.

I set an intention 18 months ago to use my finance skills again and opportunity knocked to become part of a great project with 9D Structures who want to build homes in Chili for earthquake survivors.  I am very excited to be part of this project.

What do you want in your life?

Video:  Rebuilding Chile http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvaIpIg9QYU

Cafe Owner Shares Business Success Tips

October 22nd, 2010

Melanie from Zoots Cafe on Dundas Street in Toronto shares her key success tips for anyone in the cafe, restaurant or service industry.  The cafe has a warm and inviting atmosphere with up beat music playing and the pastries are wonderful.

Zoots Cafe

Zoots Cafe

Melanie shares her tips from Zoots Cafe

Melanie’s business success tips are as follows:

  • Create an elegant environment where customers feel comfortable
  • Personally greet your customers within one minute of entering your location
  • Be a “war bride” count your pennies in the back of the house by reducing wastage as much as possible.

Having provided bank financing for ten years in my previous career it is evident to me that Melanie’s tips are great for anyone in business.  May they be a quick reminder for you to ask:

  • How does it feel to enter the door of my business?
  • What is my level of energy when I greet clients?
  • How can I support my staff to be better?
  • How well am I controlling costs?
  • What expense can I reduce or eliminate?

How does Intention Work?

October 21st, 2010

Jacque speaks from Edmonton

Jacque speaks from Edmonton

Video Link: Divine Divorce Journey 1

Setting an intention and having it come to fruition can be easy or hard depending upon how you approach it.

For years I did it the hard way.   I would sit down once a year with myself for a planning session, set goals and then start diligently working towards the goals, being disappointed when I fell short of the goals.  What I missed seeing was all the work and progress that I had made along the way.  I was judgmental of myself for not producing the results that my mind planned twelve months prior.   I usually did a great job of keeping the target in focus and worked hard to take the appropriate actions to get there, the results just weren’t the planned ones.  Life often has a different plan for us than the one our mind makes up.  If we use our intuition to pay attention to what life is showing us we can produce amazing results in a relatively short time with ease and have more fun.

Over the past two years after going through divorce I changed the way I approach life.  I made the change because I did not have the energy to keep pushing myself while I was going through the divorce.  Life showed me that to survive, let alone thrive, I needed to cut back, stop pushing and take things one step at a time.  Using the Emotional Hot Button Removal Techniques I released the emotional energy that got in the way of me using my intuition.  I started to let my intuition guide me on where to focus my energy and how much energy to expend in any particular area.  I started to say No to activities where before I felt like I had to say Yes.

In conjunction with using my intuition, I set my intention for how I would like to” feel and experience life.”  My intention is to have fun, be vibrant and have a thrilling business.  I used this intention to help guide my direction and actions.  My intuition has made it clear that I am to write a book about my experience going through divorce and I am to share the Emotional Hot Button Removal techniques.  As a result of this knowing I started to write my book in January of 2010.

I also know that life for me is about adventure.  I went to Belize in December of 2009 and had the best vacation ever.  On the vacation I was being vibrant and had a ton of fun learning how to scuba dive and meeting the local people.  Because of this experience everyone asked when I was going back.  I just shrugged my shoulders, I had not thought about it.   Within three weeks all barriers that might prevent me from going to Belize to write my book disappeared.   I would now have to manufacturer a reason why I couldn’t go.  Which after being a coach for ten years I know this is a common occurrence for people, called sabotage.   So instead of manufacturing an excuse I used my wonderful mind  to figure out how I could have a virtual business and set this as another intention.   I figured out the technology required to continue coaching my clients and then I just let the rest unfold.

Over the next several months all the pieces for the adventure fell into place with ease.  Here is a video clip from the first leg of my journey.  Video Link: Divine Divorce Journey 1

Eliminate Your Emotional Reactions

August 30th, 2010
Feeling a little frustrated?

Feeling a little frustrated?

How much EASIER would your life be if you did not have to constantly manage your emotional reactions?  Imagine having a positive impact on your relationships with others, without expending as much energy to do so. It is finally possible to resolve the emotional energy that causes emotional reactions. What are Management Strategies? Management strategies use your ability to think.   Almost all personal development, coaching and counselling are based on exploring and changing your thinking.  In the coaching and personal development work I’m most familiar with, our conversations explore the following areas:

  • Taking 100% responsibility for everything that happens in your life and not being a victim or blaming others.
  • Habits – choosing things to positively serve your body and your life rather than doing things which suppress emotions and have negative impacts; such as too much sugar, alcohol, smoking, lack of sleep, too many hours in front of a TV or computer, to mention a few.
  • Attitudes – recognizing whether you experience things from a positive perspective or negative perspective.  Is the glass half full or half empty?
  • Beliefs – challenging what you believe to be true about the way the world works.
  • Control – attempting to redirect your emotional reactions; stopping yourself from being upset and having a negative impact.

Managing all of these areas takes focus and energy, and over time you will change some of your habits, attitudes and beliefs. This allows you to live a happier life, because you are more resourceful in the moment,  able to control your emotional reactions and you can take more responsibility for what is happening in your life.  Life will be better.  With practice and continuous work it certainly was for me. And there is something even easier: resolving energy. What is RESOLVING? Resolving virtually eliminates the need to constantly be managing and controlling your emotions.  What you were previously managing becomes easy, and upsetting emotional reactions virtually disappear over time.  You get to experience more bliss in life. Resolving the energy that causes emotional reactions is like draining old sludge out of your battery to make room for more vibrant energy to fuel your life.   It is the old sludge energy from past emotional conditioning that causes you to have emotional reactions such as frustration, anger, anxiety, worry and fear.  By resolving you are eliminating energy from your body rather than adding new thinking or learning.  It is like deleting a virus from your personal human hard drive. I was recently doing this work with a friend of mine and his relatively new big flat panel TV stopped working one day.  His normal reaction would have been to get angry and upset.  Instead he very calmly dealt with the situation, finding someone to help him take the TV in to be serviced on warranty.  He didn’t have to expend any energy on being angry or on trying to control an emotional reaction.  He just took care of business. When is it good to Manage? Being able to manage your emotions is very useful in the moment when situations occur that push your emotional hot buttons (associated with unresolved underlying energy).  When you are resourceful in the moment your actions will have a positive impact on the people around you.  Having a positive impact is always a good thing in my books! Then at a later point in time you can sit down and resolve the energy. How do you Resolve the old energy? We will show you how in the Emotional Hot Button Removal workshop.  Click Here for more information