My partner Lynne and I set the intention two years ago to work easy.  Since then we have worked collaboratively to teach people how to release their emotional baggage quickly and easily, giving them back their life.

Working collaboratively has been invaluable for both of us in our business. The benefits we have received are as follows:

Less Money

I knew I needed to do more to promote my coaching practice but believed I would need to invest more money to do so.  Working together we combined our resources for Maestro Conferences and Constant Contact to promote our businesses.  Plus we invested in the development of the www.workeasy4lifebalance.com blog.

Saves Time

We joined forces to collaboratively promote our businesses by jointly writing a monthly newsletter and blog articles.  In less than an hour each month we were able to quickly outline each month’s newsletter.  Developing the articles felt like a breeze. Plus jointly developing and delivering our Emotional Hot Button Removal Workshops, rather than competing, saved both of us a lot of time.

Creativity and Productivity

Working together we came up with more creative ideas to promote our services. Instead of struggling on our own through the process of coming up with ideas for articles, in conversation knowledge that we want to share freely flows out of us. We decided to start the free monthly Catalyst LIVE! tele-call to share our expertise for living magical lives with listeners.  Working collaboratively greatly increased productivity as well as enhancing the quality of ideas generated.

Learning

We each have unique talents and strengths that we can share as partners. I always learned something from Lynne who has spent 20 years exploring spirituality in both formal and informal learning settings.  I bring a vast knowledge of business to our relationship that Lynne can draw from for her business and to support her clients who are entrepreneurs.

Support

Mastermind partners are a huge source of support.  This is especially true for Lynne and I as we are both coaches.  We use our coaching skills to support each other’s personal growth and business development; especially if either of us is emotionally triggered. We are able to use our unique coaching techniques to bring our emotional reactions to completion and keep moving forward. I know I have certainly benefited from all the coaching that Lynne has provided me.

Accountability

Our agreement to meet regularly every Monday morning has kept us on track to keep building our businesses. Our commitment to one another has been invaluable to take on new challenges.  Over the last year I was very dedicated to writing my book “Divine Divorce” and without our scheduled meetings it would have been very easy to lose my focus on the promotion and development of my business and to let our workshops lapse.  Most of our business meetings start with a check in, allowing us to clear anything that might keep us from being at the top of our game.  Our partnership has kept both of us focused on all aspects of our business.

Fun

Finally, another intention we set was to have fun and do work that we love. This way work would feel easy rather than hard. By bouncing ideas off each other we inspire each other, giving us more energy to pour into our work and life. We have fun, get things done with ease, and produce better work together than either one of us could have done on our own.

Working together really has made our lives easier and given us life balance. Who could wish for anything more for their life than inspiring work they love and a sense of balance in their life?

Who could you work more collaborative with?

To have healthy balanced lives we also need to take time off and unplug.  After six months of focused work I completed another milestone on my book Divine Divorce.  Through this period of time I worked with focus and took very little time off to play, which is what work is like for many of my clients.  Many of us are working very long days, sometimes six days a week and then having to find time for the family.  Life is hectic and we are on the go all the time with very little time for ourselves.  Doesn’t it make sense then to take some time 100% for ourselves and unplug?

During my two week break from technology; no internet, no land line, no cell phone, and no texting.  I was 100% out of communication, except for the people that were immediately in front of me.  I had many nights of ten hours plus of sleep.  My body needed the rest and relaxation to rejuvenate and be fully ready to take on the next project that I design for my business.  When we take time off we give ourselves a break from the everyday pressures of life, our brain and body begin to de-stress allowing for more creativity to occur.

I was actually astounded at how much sleep I needed to allow my body to rejuvenate. My project inspired me to get out of bed at 5am each morning and keep working to meet the deadline I had set. Even though I got the minimum 7 hours of sleep a night, I was still tired.  Sleep deprivation is a major problem, with sleep disorders affecting 40 million people in the US, 1,500 people die of motor vehicle accidents and 40,000 are injured from falling asleep. If we are tired or injured we are not as productive at work or happy in our daily lives.

Take a little downtime, unplug on your next holiday or even for a whole weekend;  be healthy, happy and safe.

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.

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