Momentous occasion!!

The new and improved Natural Professional website is up!

I am soooo happy. And for more reasons than it 1) looks Super Duper, and 2) makes me smile ear to ear.

Namely, investing in this site represents my recent 100% commitment to the Natural Professional (NP), which is no small thing, I assure you.

Looking to the Project Simplify archives, the first article about the NP was back in July 2008. Three and a half years ago??!?!

Wow, it’s taken that long to fully embrace this concept? Considering that I’ve known this is my destiny, that almost hurts… but hey, timing is what it is and who am I to question the mysterious ways of the Universe?

Let’s just get back to partying with excessive exclamation points and effusive gratitude, eh? =)

A big shout out of Thank You!! to Lisa Wood of Sprout New Media for the fresh design and amazingly speedy turn-around. This woman knows how to make it happen.

In addition to the About page for what this site is all about, check out Continuing the Journey for the big vision leading the charge.

I hope you love the new site and infusion of energy into the Natural Professional. We are going to be making serious waves in unexpected ways!

XO

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Photo credit:
Fireworks – 5th November 2011 by Dark Dwarf

Daily look for the following within you. Then, playfully explore the suggestions:

1. A desire to slow down
(This is your True Self; listen to it.)

2. A yearning to be quiet
(Rest inward and let your awareness move toward the quiet; you can do this—trust your inner ability to go toward the right place.)

3. Wanting more sleep
(It’s natural to sleep more in the winter; enjoy healing your body and being.)

4. Wanting more time for yourself
(You will find the time if you give up your excuses.)

5. Less interest in the world around you
(Take a break from what’s not necessary; question what you believe is “necessary.”)

6. Less drive
(It’s OK to do less for a while; your world will not fall apart. As you recognize your inner quiet as part of who you are, you will naturally learn how to get more done with less effort.)

7. A simple happiness that is not based on anything in particular
(It’s in you. Notice, however, that it can be obscured by excessive thoughts or emotions. Choose to awaken this happiness; it is found within your Heart Presence.)

You can use the above as a daily practice. The more time you give it, the greater and more permanent the rewards.

Jeff Krock is dedicated to helping people thrive in the 21st Century. You can find him at JeffKrock.com.

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Photo credits:
Snow scene, Doe Lea valley by foto footprints

We drink in the confident energy of the woman on stage, beaming face helping us feel seen. We obediently filled out the worksheets in the guidebook. We play along with the dancing at the end of each break. Life in the Banquet Hall can get pretty surreal…

On the second morning, we’re ready for a breakthrough of some sort.

She’s encourages us to expand. We do an exercise to identify what’s keeping us small and preventing us from believing in the value of our services.

It’s a touchy subject. From one perspective, you could say this is the real reason we’re all there. A fear of claiming the value of what we give our clients. It was mine, in any case.

She walks us through the steps that get me to quickly identify an experience from 6th grade that has quietly held me prisoner for the last 30 years. (Am I really going to write this?!? Crikety.) Ok, here goes.

The Incident.

In the 6th grade I started wearing a training bra. It really was just for practice because there was nothing there. It was awkward, embarrassing. I was sure everyone would notice.

It doesn’t sound like that big of a deal, but please understand that I was painfully shy and terribly insecure then. I was the youngest and smallest kid in the class. Always the last one picked for kickball. I had changed schools in 4th grade and had never found my place in my new class. I ate lunch by myself every day. That was me.

So during recess, another girl in class saw one of the straps peaking out from under my shirt on my shoulder. This girl wore a real bra, no training variety necessary for her. She was totally comfortable with it—it was no big deal.

I clearly remember her towering over me. With a big smile and maternal pride on her face she said, “You’re growing up!” and she reached over to tuck the strap back under my shirt.

I was M-O-R-T-I-F-I-E-D.

Not only did someone see my training bra strap, she called attention to it. Deer caught in headlights—Wham! I shrunk into the smallest hole I could possibly find. My worst self-conscious fear had been realized. I was ready to die right there on the spot.

A part of me has been arrested in that moment for the last 30 years. Irrational? Entirely. Impactful? OMG.

There, in the Banquet Room of the Holiday Inn, images start flying across the screen of my mind. 30 years worth of experiences contorted to protect this humiliated little girl.

The problem with being small.

Simple. When we play small, we cannot realize our full potential.

I know this because when I feel small, it physically hurts. It shows up as a constriction in my chest area. My shoulders pull forward in a little hunch of protection. There’s a tightness in my throat—representing the desperate desire to sing my song loudly and beautifully to the world! Instead, I’m squeaking out some pathetic noises under my breath.

Signs point to the reality that I’m good at what I do. In fact, I know I’m good. BUT that immature part of me insists that I’m not yet ready, my stuff isn’t developed enough. Therefore, people won’t find it helpful. They’ll skim through it, discard it, and feel like it was a waste of money.

This voice keeps me small (surprise!) It prevents me from setting a date for the online version of my program. It prevents me from even working on converting it to its new form. I move at a snail’s pace.

Every day I hang back, my gifts stay with me. My arms are tired of carrying them. The bountiful baskets in my imagination aren’t so pretty anymore. The fruit is rotting, the cheese is molding, the bread is getting stale. Everyone who would benefit from my bounty is denied.

It is so ridiculously and tragically ironic. The flame of my passion to help people work differently burns—yah, burns and scars my hands rather than lighting the sacred cauldron in the Temple of my Purpose, blazing strong and bright as a beacon to others.

Tools to let that crap go.

The beauty of that kind of childhood trauma is that, once dealt with, it becomes a deep pool of goodness to share with others—empathy, compassion, understanding, a different point of view.

How to let it go? Here are the steps I followed. And wow, did I feel relieved once I had done this! These are a combination of steps from the class I took with Vrinda and my work with Dr. Don.

1. Identify the situation.
2. Forgive any other people involved.
3. Forgive myself for reacting in the way I did.
4. Identify the lessons learned, and/or
5. Identify the gifts received from the whole situation.
6. Wish the other people involved well and then imagine them walking away.
7. Come up with a replacement phrase/vision to neutralize the old memories.

A few final thoughts on the replacement phrase: I use mine whenever that sneaky, habitual Gremlin attempts to creep in and sabotage my work. It helps me stand tall, in my skin, and courageous enough to proceed in the face of lurking insecurity.

The world does not benefit from your playing small.

What’s YOUR training bra incident? How is it holding you back (no pun intended)? Maybe it’s time to stop being victimized by it?

Be Big
Be BOLD.
BE DELICIOUS!

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Photo credits:
Bra by saturn ♄

Here’s a quickie on the topic with New Technology, a spiff sounding mic! No longer do I sound a million miles away from the mic. Yippee! It’s a Blue Yeti.

Creatives, entrepreneurial types and thought leaders tend to have a plethora of brilliant ideas inspired by others’ websites, articles, offerings, images, blog categories, and so on.

Let’s be realistic. Ideas are not all created equal. Some are good, some are lame, some are beautifully and wonderfully inspired and some are merely stepping stones to other, more useful ideas.

Life is fluid, it moves quickly. Ideas get stale quickly. This year’s income should be 6 figures, not your website bookmark list.

Two problems with the epic bookmark list are:

1. lack of useful organization, and
2. sites saved without knowing how they might remotely be useful in the future.

In other words, too much noise and you tune out—the good and the bad. Discernment is a necessary proposition when faced with, what’s essentially, infinite potential.

Enter mindfulness—a useful tool in oh-so many ways.

MindLESS wandering (passively taking in images and words) around the internet = waste of time.
MindFUL wandering (retaining an awareness of You and what you are about) can result in discovery of resources and connections relevant to your endeavors.

(Mindfulness is also useful in knowing when it’s time to stop meandering the electronic topography.)

For the most part, we want to think in terms of catch and release: Appreciate the cool website you found and release it back to the deep, dark depths of the world wide web secure in the knowledge that you’ve gleaned what you were meant to have gleaned.

At the same time, when a resource for your business or info for an article you’re working on crosses your path, you want to capture it.

Time to get practical. There are beaucoup methods for storing useful info. Due to the nature of most research these day, i.e. online, I use Evernote.

I appreciate its platform flexibility: Mac, PC, online-based, Android, Blackberry, iGadgets (iPhone, iPad).

Share-ability: Your assistant can add research to it, you can share a list with a partner.

Cost: Nada. Love it.

Then there are close to a gazillion plug-in functionalities that I won’t even pretend that I’ve scratched the surface on.
Disclaimer: I typically ignore plug-ins because bells and whistles often are fun but become often time sucks. I’m zeroing in on organizing info that will benefit your business and projects.

OK, enough said here. If you haven’t created your Evernote account, go do it here. Play around with it a little and then come back for the next post on the subject: Specific ways to maximize use of Evernote to organize lists for your small business.

For details on organizing in Evernote, see:

• Get the Simplified Version of Evernote, and
• Specific ways to maximize use of Evernote to organize lists for your small business.

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Photo credits:
Web Activity Flower Graph by saintbob

“Whoa there, Nellie,” I cautioned. “We need to set the stage first, identify some context, explore the parameters of the endeavor, cool?”

So I started with a vision board, image here in the post.

The process

I quickly looked through magazines (three or four Inc. and Fast Co. magazines plus one Toastmasters magazine) and tore out images and words that caught my eye. Wanting to feel the paper and not metal, I didn’t use scissors, just fingers to tear and tape to attach.

Once I had a good number of tear outs, I did another pass to pull out any that didn’t really want to be there, then started taping. There were four images that I wanted to make sure were on top, so I set those aside to put on last.

The result

Considering the limited magazine sources, I’m pretty stoked with how it came out. It’s relatively small so will be easy to make space for on the wall, it’s colorful and has a nice combo of words, images and people.

The next step is to write about it.  I want to consciously understand what it represents, which will give more depth and power when glancing at in the future.

Taking some time to decipher it now will also make it easier to communicate to others. I probably won’t describe the vision board per se to other people (besides here!) but I may come up with some insights into this next phase that the board represents, i.e. the eCourse creation phase of Project Simplify, that’d I’d like to be able to articulate well.

The deciphering

Starting with the items that wanted to be in the forefront:

Living your values - That’s what this business is all about! Great reminder to stay connected with this intention of honoring my own values while helping others live in integrity with themselves.

Organizing principles - The means, baby, the means. This is what we don’t get in our education at school. Not having these as part of our foundation is what slams us daily, makes us feel ineffective and stressed out.

I also feel really strongly about helping people understand the principles rather than just the How To. The How To is useful in particular situations, while internalizing the principles means that you can apply them in all kinds of situations.

So we want to cover the principles as well as the How To, which is represented by the “How do you” image in the lower left.

The image of a bunch of people around table – I’d like to see people do these eCourses with others—friends, colleagues, co-workers. It’s sooo easy to let stuff slide when it’s just you, your computer, and a big ole To Do list. When you have others for accountability, support and sharing ideas, it’s so much more lively and doable!

My last workshop group didn’t want to stop at our 6 weeks. They wanted to keep meeting because they felt the strength, camaraderie and power of the group.

The words, “They did it” (above the “How do you”) represents the success these folks will have in learning and applying the work. And therefore, they are accomplishing their goals and intentions!

The image of the flower/globe – I love this image of dual awareness: staying connected with the exquisite detail and harmony of nature while remaining aware of how our actions affect everything and everyone on the planet. The eCourses must get into nitty gritty detail while staying attuned to the needs of the participants. In other words, it needs to have immense value, be entertaining, and respect your valuable time.

The disco ball – Have fun, dance much, and get groovy =)

Woman with the tats holding the cupcake (she was featured for her successful business selling vegan cupcakes in D.C.) – savvy, edgy, true to her values, not trying to please everyone—focused on making a great product.

Woman with airplanes reflected in her glasses – Travel! Get the word out! Meet with people all over to share my work.

Woman with the binoculars with flag that says “Go Team” – Dual meaning. The first being that creating these courses is to be a team effort—I don’t have to do it all on my own (Phew!!). Second, the teams of people working through these courses together. In both cases, we get to help, support and be encouraged by each other.

Now is the time to reinvent yourself – Interesting one this. I read it as encouragement to embrace this new phase of my career as a trainer and course developer (rather than organizer/workshop leader).

Wrapping up…

There’s a bit more on the board, but I think that’s enough for now.

This is the first public manifestation of the project and I love it!

She’s having a crazy amazing “big fat moving sale (but really it’s an art sale in preparation of moving). A little extra cash for the move and what a great opportunity to unload some inventory!

This is the one I got. It’s called Legend of the Moth King.

Isn’t it gorgeous?!?!?! Crikety. I’m THRILLED!

Anya’s article is mostly about Ron Alexander, a therapist and coach, and his work. He works with creatives in the So. Cal. world of glitz and glamor.

If you think you don’t have time for meditation (or some kind of mindfulness practice) AND you fancy yourself to be more than a cog in the wheel, think again.

If you don’t need convincing, Kudos! You can stop reading, do a little mindful breathing and then go on to the next thing in your day. If not, stay with me.

While the article is primarily about the potential of meditation paving the way for creativity, calming the mind and gaining more control over your chatter brain goes even further.

For the natural professional desiring your work and life to be infused with purpose, there’s not many ways to stay more clear and tuned in to your calling when the going gets rough than to quiet the mind.

A daily practice is beneficial for two main reasons:

1. The more you do it, the easier it gets. When you catch chatter brain taking over, the faster you can reign it back in and resume your flow, the less disruption to your day.
2. You want creativity inspiring your awareness on a daily basis, right? A daily practice helps keep your channels open and ready to receive.

Resorces:

• Here is Ron Alexander’s Method for Mindfulness Meditation.
• Here is my 5-Minute guided relaxation mp3.

If you were compelled to read this, just think, you could have spent that time doing a mindful breathing exercise. In other words, you have the time when you really want it. Want it! Desire it! Yearn for it! The sweetness gained will be sooo worth it.

Thanks, Anya, for bringing this subject to Fast Co!
Here’s another link to her article.

Great question!!! As much as I don’t want everything cordless (and thereby adding more little invisible waves of mystery flying through the air), I fantasize about ditching all the cords on my desk.

Remaining in fantasy land leaves us committed to some late 20th Century technology and exploring the wondrous world of cord management.

Here are 4 types:

You can bind cords together with velcro ties, available at Staples (in store) in multi-color packs.
$3.99 for 5

There are also reusable cable ties. $14.29 for 25 pack

The around-the-house version of these are twist ties and pipe cleaner.

For easier access to the cables, for ex. if you end up moving them somewhat regularly, then a split device is good.

The flex tube looks like a corrugated tubing except that it’s split all down the side for easy access. $10 for 6 feet

They also have a clip variety. $3.79 for a 6 pack

The around-the-house version of this one is using empty (or not!) paper towel or toilet paper roles. And you can decorate these for a bit of creative expression, to match the decor, or just for fun.

Design-y options are available, too, especially for smaller and individual needs. Here are 10, 9 of which I’d never seen before, in a blog post on Mashable.com called 10 Cool Cable Management Solutions. There are some cable ties, the phone holder at the outlet doo-hicky, and some clever little gadgets to hold individual cords from slipping off the desk.

I currently have on my desk a raised dealie that the cords can pass under, thereby keeping them somewhat contained and sort of hiding them from site.

Wrapping it up (pun originally not intended but we’ll call it intentional for now), once you start making good progress on the clearing of your desk, you may find that the site of cords rambling across your desktop is now offending your aesthetic sensibilities.

Know that you’ve got options. You can spend big bucks or no bucks—whatever floats your boat. You’re in charge.

Beware and behave unruly cordage!

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Photo and image credit: Shawn