The Simplifier #26 - Following Your Heart to Success
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Contents:
1. A Note From Shawn
2. Our Featured Quote
3. Article: Following Your Heart to Success—A Case Study
4. Your Simplification Tip
5. Simplicity In the News
6. Featured at ProjectSimplify.com
7. Keep Smiling
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1. A Note From Shawn
In Toastmasters on Tuesday, our club’s foremost wine lover was asked if his wine cellar was half empty or half full at 175 bottles. His reply received hearty chuckles, “Half empty until there are 200 bottles.” Mmmm, I love hearing about other people’s passions. One that amazes me to this day is the “horse” show. Did you know there are competitions for which you get a little horse statue, paint it, take a picture of it, and send the photo in as a contestant? Who’da thought?
I spoke with a friend today who has done quite a bit of radio in the past, but isn’t now. What he misses is the ever-present creative outlet that his radio show provided for him. That got me to thinking that sometimes we understand how our passions fill a need, and sometimes we don’t.
As a society in general, we tend to insist on justifications to do what we love. Nonsense! Go for it no matter what! It takes trust to simply follow your heart. I truly believe that the more we hear other people’s stories about following their hearts, the easier it is to follow our own. Share your stories! The world wants to hear them.
Enjoy,
Shawn
2. Our Featured Quote
““We tend to confuse the good life with a life of goods.”
-Simon Schama
3. Article: Following Your Heart to Success—A Case Study
By Shawn Tuttle
Translating your dreams into the day-to-day realities of life can be challenging. Some think they must follow the status quo to success in their careers and only then will they turn to serving others and living their ideal life.
Following is the story of a woman, Kalia Rork, who overcame a serious illness in 2001 to become the top real estate agent of her company in the highly competitive Santa Barbara area—through following her heart.
The goal-setting part of this article is based on a conversation I had with Kalia in November 2006, and the rest of the article draws from numerous conversations and observation over the last 11 years. Not only is Kalia a heartfelt human being, she is a long-time friend and co-coaching buddy.
Kalia’s Question: “Why am I doing this?”
Kalia worked hard in the publishing industry. Really hard. Ironically, she didn’t have much to show for it. Her dream of owning a house in Santa Barbara still eluded her and she wasn’t able to get her credit cards paid all the way down.
She worked so hard, her body finally protested by falling into a serious illness in June 2001. Being laid up and flat on her back for five and half months forced her to stop her workaholic tendencies. She dropped her clients and did the only thing her body would allow her to do, which was rest and take care of herself.
A year and a half before this happened, intuitively following her dream to buy a house through creative means (since she didn’t have a down payment) she enrolled in a real estate course. Thinking the course was simply geared towards people interested in buying real estate, she was surprised to learn it was a licensing class that culminated in taking the actual Department of Real Estate exam, an intense 3-hour test in Los Angeles. She passed the exam, top in her class. The instructor sagely did his best to convince her it would be a good career to pursue. Never having imagined herself as a real estate agent, Kalia let it go.
A year after passing the exam, a letter arrived stating, “Unless you sign up with a broker, you’ll have to retake the test.” All that grueling studying for nothing? No way! Although it still didn’t sound like a dream job, she was still interested in real estate investments for herself, so she signed up with RE/MAX and got a huge surprise. All the pieces fell into place. Working through her very first deal in 2002, she learned that the activities of an agent played right to all of her professional and personal skills—and she loved it! Maybe this profession wouldn’t be so bad after all…
Now, passing the exam isn’t any indication of how well you’ll do as an agent. That’s where your personal and professional skills come in. Buyers and sellers have countless agents to choose from. Without a name or reputation, it’s even more difficult to get clients. You have to work hard. But Kalia had to watch it. If she tried to do too much, her body would protest and come out of remission, effectively laying her up for days at a time.
What else is there besides hard work?
Kalia shares the three cornerstones of her success: goals, visualization, and positive intention.
Goals
Kalia had read numerous books on self-growth. She also read books about successful people. It’s not a coincidence that most of the successful people written about were strongly rooted in personal growth. They explained the importance of goals and that reaching them actually relies more on mental imagery than doing! After taking the time to identify core values and a personal mission statement, the goals that had real power were those in line with her mind, body, and spirit.
And of course she chose SMART goals—Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. Adhering to the SMART criteria increases the rate of success immensely.
Visualization
- Visualize your goals—see them, feel them, touch them, taste them.
- In your visualization, experience your goal complete.
- Keep index cards by your bed, with your goals written on them. Read them every morning and night. Adjust your cards as needed.
- Stay positive.
Positive intention Her goals were fortified with the practice of positive intention. Positive intention is more than “always looking on the bright side” of a situation. Two applications of positive intention include:
- being grateful for what you have (not focusing on what you don’t have), and
- stating your goals in terms of what you want (not what you don’t want)
Kalia said, “I’m constantly vigilant about watching my words. They really can affect my life!” She reminded me about a period in the fall of 2004 when several escrows fell through and she was feeling low about her new career prospects. Whenever someone asked her how things were going, she’d tell them! “This fell through, that didn’t happen, yadda, yadda, yadda.” With the support of her co-coaching buddy (me) she would stop herself whenever she heard herself repeating that negative story. Instead she’d say, “I’m doing great!” This shift in energy quickly took root. Within 3 months she had a full slate and within 6 months she was the busiest she’d ever been, with a maximum of 9 concurrent escrows. For the month of April 2005 she made the list of top 100 RE/MAX agents nationwide!
When the going gets tough
Experiencing stress illuminated the difference between being heart driven vs. head driven. Kalia learned that following her heart isn’t just about setting the right goals, it’s just as much about daily action in the world and interactions with others. Switching from (head) “what’s in it for me?” to (heart) “how can I serve my client?” improves the mood in a situation and causes it to go more smoothly.
As human beings, we are motivated in the long run by that which moves the heart, not head. They say that a person on her death bed won’t look back on her life and say, “If only I’d made that one more deal!” Nope. She’s more likely to say, “I wish I had treated all my clients like best friends.”
In a short amount of time, Kalia has shown us that a positive, values-based life begins now, not later. Henry David Thoreau wrote:
I have learned, that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
I hope this glimpse of one woman’s life inspires you as it does me.
When I asked Kalia, “What are some of the values that guide you professionally,” she provided the following list:
- Service is about being as knowledgeable and competent as I can for my clients.
- Reviewing all the paperwork for them first.
- Attending all meetings.
- “It’s not about me.” Ever.
- I give away information all the time. I help people with no expectations (but know that when I do a good job they will refer me to their friends).
- Being patient and attentive.
- Doing the best I can.
- Being authentic.
- Telling the truth.
- Goal to be a trusted real estate advisor, not just an agent for a particular transaction.
You can visit Kalia’s real estate site here.
—
Shawn Tuttle is founder of Project Simplify
4. Your Simplification Tip
Keeping Your Eye on the Ball
In support of the goal setting theme of this week’s article, our Simplification Tip is a metaphor on focus.
Take any hand-eye sport involving a ball and a device with which to hit the ball. Being a tennis player, I’ll use tennis for my example.
You can try to think about foot position, the angle of the racket head, and where you want the ball to go, but if you take your eye off the ball, the rest doesn’t matter because the ball just flew past you. You have an awareness of the court, your opponent, and your physical abilities but you don’t focus intently on these either. You move your feet to get across the court, raise your racket in preparation of the swing, move the racket to make contact with the ball, yet again, too much focus on these various elements will cause a poor hit.
When it comes right down to hitting the ball over the net, the one key element is to keep your eyes focused on the ball.
Achieving a goal takes effort, vigilance, and encouragement. However, all the elements fall into place when you keep your eyes glued on that goal.
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5. In the News
If you know of something in the news that should be featured here, let us know!
Letting it all hang out (The Chronicle-Herald - Nova Scotia, Ca.)
URL: http://thechronicleherald.ca/AtHome/544852.html
Writer Janice Wells reflects on her experience in decluttering: “…it appears that maybe all people like me need is a better understanding of how our brains operate and a few tools and tips to work with, and that’s where a session with a professional organizer can make your good intentions succeed and your fantasies of organization come true.”
Coming clean (Sacramento Bee)
URL: http://www.sacbee.com/107/story/84210.html
This article looks into what the state of cleanliness in your house may say about your state of mind. Then it discusses what it can do for your state of mind.
Bonus: On The Web
Squalor Survivors
URL: http://squalorsurvivors.com/
This is a site by and for people who live in “super-duper-messy” homes. It’s a recovery and support group really, to help show folks who feel overwhelmed by their mess and their bad home-maintenance habits that one can find the way out of that state. If you have a major case of C.H.A.O.S. (Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome), this site will show you that you’re not alone, and that you can recover. If Pigpen can do it, so can you!
6. Featured at ProjectSimplify.com
The Project Simplify Museum and Gift Shop
Ok, so it’s really just a gift shop…but wouldn’t it be cool if there was a Project Simplify museum? We could have the old antique website and blog on exhibit…and we’ve already got galleries, and an archive. That’s museum-y, right? (museum-ish? -ic?)
And we could all sit in the big, feng-shui’d lobby with the giant Project Simplify timeline painted onto the walls, and reminisce about all the good times we’ve had simplifying our lives together over the past two years. (”I remember when we could only simplify our lives in black and white,” you’d say, and we’d all laugh. Oh, memories.)
And then, we friendly Project Simplify enthusiasts could head over to the colorful and, dare I say, therapeutic Gift Shop, where we would buy all sorts of coffee mugs, stickers, and other memorabilia. Why? Because the only thing better than Project Simplify is Project Simplify in your home. Right there on your desk. Or stuck on your fridge, or your notebook. Or even right under your mouse hand, right over there. Yeah, that one.
In all seriousness, we really do have a new gift shop, courtesy of CafePress (gift shop provider to the world). And you can get all sorts of hip, dope, phat, stylin’, {insert word the kids are using today} stuff there, with awesome — I dare say, therapeutic — designs based on photos taken by our humble founder Shawn Tuttle. (That’s her picture up above the museum reception desk.)
Check it out: Buy cool stuff at our new Project Simplify Gift Shop here!
So now you know what to get everyone you know for Christmas. Another problem solved by Project Simplify. :-)
7. Keep Smiling
Pictures Taken at Just the Right Angle
These pictures speak for themselves. Enjoy!
(Apologies to the photographers - we don’t know where these come from…they’re being passed around the Internet unsourced.)
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Thanks for reading!
Publication Information
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The Simplifier is published by:
Project Simplify
P.O. Box 597
Nevada City, CA 95959
phone: 530.205.5775
web: www.projectsimplify.com
e-mail: (newsletter@projectsimplify.com) newsletter (at) projectsimplify (dot) com
