Want to be yourself, have fun and sell a ton on stages and teleseminars?

When you speak, do you struggle with how to give great value but not give away the store? Are you tired of people loving your talk and then telling you they’ll be back to work with you “soon” (ie: they don’t buy!)

Queen of Sales Conversion Lisa Sasevich is shaking up the speaking industry and sharing her secrets on how she broke $2M speaking last year on stages and teleclasses doing the OPPOSITE of what’s being taught.

Reserve your space on this free call today: “Authentic Selling Secrets: How to be yourself, have fun and sell a ton on stages and teleseminars!” on March 17.

Register for this call here

Great Work Versus Good Work, What are you doing?

Busywork and infocr-p are two of the biggest enemies to you doing the work you’re here to do.

While I wield my powers for good in the infocr_p arena, my friend and colleague (also of the super power variety) Michael Bungay Stanier, is launching his new book today:

Do More Great Work: Stop the busywork and start the work that matters.

If you’ve been following me on Twitter you’ll have noticed him checking his Amazon ranking from the TEDActive Blogger’s Alley – see photo.

But wait a second… if his book is launching TODAY why would he be checking his Amazon ranking… last week?

Because…in true ‘walk the talk’ fashion…Michael’s book has ALREADY hit best-seller status in multiple places, a week before his launch.

That’s cool, in my book. (Ahem.)

I admire this book greatly, for its content, which includes:

- 15 “maps”, exercises to help you find, start and sustain your own “Great Work”

- Original guest contributions from people like Seth Godin, Zen Habits’ Leo Babauta, The Art of Non-Conformity’s Chris Guillebeau, and others

- Real Coaching tips scattered throughout. (Not pretend coaching tips, mind you. You know the ones that are just plain boring questions with the word ‘Coaching’ at the top of the page. Which makes sense of course because Michael was once voted Canadian Coach of the Year.)

- A full list of additional resources, including some free online resources.

But of course, there is another level.

This book is a great example of more than great content.  From it you can learn:

-   How to generate attention for something that started as outside the ‘mainstream’ conversation. Gain attention for something new. (Not an easy thing.)

-   How to create useful and appealing exercises people will actual do. When someone bought a book from Michael at the TED.com conference, she immediately flipped to the cool exercise pages and started filling them in. She said she ‘didn’t care’ about the rest of it necessarily, although it was nice, but Michael’s strength is in helping the reader integrate the learning.

Most of all, and I will say more about this later, but this book is an example of something you may not realize:

This book started as a little online document. It morphed into a self-published book. It then found a home at a publishing house where it now proudly resides.

‘Do More Great Work’ represents the best of all publishing worlds, and is the result of a doggedly creative mind.

Today is a great day to purchase it if you are so moved, and doing so gets you some carefully selected, non-overwhelming gifts.

Go here to order – a perfectly giveable, readable, useable and enjoyable book.

Congratulations to you Michael!

Highlights from 2010 TED Conference – Blaise Aguera y Arcas Demonstrates Augmented-Reality Maps

Would you prefer to see pictures of our future or the future of our pictures? (How about both?) And Do Microsoft Employees Really Have Crabs?

For a touch of ‘Blade Runner’ in real life, click to watch this 8-minute video which shows a live demo of a powerful piece of software called Photosynth, which many are describing as set to ‘utterly transform’ the way we experience digital images.  Say goodbye to rough, stuttering mapping or awkward stuck moments in your GPS. We’re talking about a beautiful interactive 3-dimensional space that renders reality almost…boring.

Here’s the thing to remember and watch. Innovation usually happens in leaps, so if you have been working on changing the way the game is played in your market, it pays to fuel yourself with inspiration to be bold.  Next, what will be fascinating to watch is how this new technology yet again gets adopted by users. The adoption curve on technology seems to get shorter each year – its communities are so ‘fit’ to try new things and spread them to the mainstream.  Exciting, even if frustrating at times, because of course not all ideas explode.

As for the business applications, shiny new technology provides a fantastic opportunity to stretch our practical imaginations.  See if these questions help:

What value does this technology add to life? If you can think of 3 ways, try thinking of 3 more. Keep going until you’re stuck.

What businesses are needed before or after this innovation? What does this offering require, in order to exist? What opportunities for new business services sprout up as a result of this hitting mainstream? Think of this line of questioning as ‘x-ray vision for income streams.’

In my experience, people make the question of ‘how to make money’ far too difficult.  Wherever there is a problem, there is money to be made. Wherever someone is already making money there is more to be made before, after, beside, in and around.

Click here to view the video and contribute to the discussion…remember…all TED talks at the site are no-fee and just 18 minutes in length.

Come Up with Exciting New Marketing Campaigns in Just Minutes

“Imagine Being Able to Come Up with Exciting New Marketing Campaigns in Just Minutes” – Cool Tool For Entrepreneurs, Business Consultants, Coaches and more.(As seen in Springwise.com)

The perfect gift for entrepreneurial clients, I’m so delighted to have found Australian ChildsPlay Marketing which aims to help business owners create their own marketing campaigns without spending an arm and a leg hiring experts. Now that’s an idea I can get behind.

Toward that end, it now offers a set of cards containing 125,000 different marketing ideas. The first deck helps businesses identify the target audience for their campaign—first-time clients, journalists or passing traffic, for example. The second, meanwhile, offers a variety of potential offers such as promotional sales, samples or new services. The third and final deck helps business owners choose a communication vehicle, with options including cinema advertising, packaging or mail-outs.

Zeroing in on a card from each deck, then, guides businesses toward the best campaign to fit their needs.

ChildsPlay Marketing Cards are priced at AUD 69, including GST, or US 61.81. Check out www.childsplaymarketing.com to play the cards virtually and admire the fine online video work being created. Bravo!

Thomas Leonard in 2009: “What You See On This Table Represents An Entire Year’s Worth of Work”

Thomas Leonard, known to so many as the ‘father of modern professional coaching’ is also completely unknown to a multitude, as I found out in a rather rude awakening at the International Coach Federation (ICF) Annual Conference in December 2009. (Photos shown are from the exhibit hall there.)

Thomas was the first man to talk about this thing called ‘life coaching’ in a major magazine, Newsweek to be exact. And the first to be on a talk show about it, Donahue, in that case.

He formed the first coach training school, which is still now one of the largest and most well known. Indeed, he founded the first coaching association, the ICF itself. (Yet people attending the ICF conference had no idea.) He sold the first training school and opened another, which collided with the onset of the internet and grew like shrimp chips in hot oil. He personally led live training events in over 20 cities in less than a year. He even developed a coaching certification process through a second coaching association.

But what was the real secret behind all of these game-changing moves, in black and white? It only takes two words to tell you:

World-class content.

People who were part of Thomas Leonard’s world will recall that he often pushed aside compliments by saying ‘I’m just a fast typist.’

In other words, he was a writer.

He wrote incredibly, and if you haven’t yet experienced the impact of his writing, take a moment and go to www.BestofThomas.com and read just one thing for yourself.

For Thomas, really, the laptop was mightier than the sword.

I had the amazing good fortune to work with him. That experience left an indelible mark on me, and you could say that a little of his DNA rubbed off and stayed stuck.

So when I was given the opportunity to take the job of sifting through all his writing, all of his programs (all of his thoughts, really) and BECOME RESPONSIBLE for making THAT accessible to future generations (not just of coaches, but everyone) you would think it was an easy decision.

It wasn’t. Sometimes stepping forward to take a stand for something isn’t easy. It can be downright paralyzing in fact. I know this, first hand and in the marrow of my bones.

Sometimes, thought leadership means nothing more than doing the right thing, as it was, in this case, for me to do the work you see in these photos. What you see there, in fact, is all the materials that got packaged – with many hands on deck – using many hundreds of hours – over the course of an entire year.

It’s just the tip of the iceberg. And that, dear reader, is real grit in the oyster of MY life.

Thought leadership often means asking yourself ‘what can only I do?’ and without hubris or false humility, doing it, hopefully without too much whining.

What ‘right thing’ is sitting in your life, waiting for you to do?

What ‘thing that only you can do’ is evident in your business, waiting for you to wake up?

A Special Day For A Special Project

It’s not often you’ll read an announcement of this kind from me, so I’ll get straight to the point.

There is a person from behind the scenes of Thought Partners International, formerly Multiple Streams of Coaching income, who has been largely unsung,yet steadfast as an advocate of my work. I daresay without her, you very well might never have heard of me or be reading this!

Among many things, she walked my team through the then-labyrinth of self-publishing countless books and products, organized workshops, exhibit booths, even put out fires when it came to shipping of books, and more.

This very special person is Lynne Klippel, and today she is cresting an Everest of her own with a new book called ‘Overcomers, Inc. – True Stories of Hope, Courage and Inspiration.’

‘Overcomers, Inc.’ is coming out with great verve and fanfare, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed watching her team at work, cheerleading vociferously if virtually…”Wow, wouldja look at this field of flowers blossom in a feast for all the senses!”

It is with deep joy and gratitude that I get to return a little good karma to Lynne by introducing you to her achievement.

If you are…

– interested in a genuinely moving set of stories (not fluff, hastily cobbled together and called a book)

- hope for those most difficult of times (not pablum that your eyes slip over, these examples are sticky – gripping, really – in the best sense of the word)

…you might very much like to add this book to your collection.

In my library, it will take pride of place next to my Pema Chodron ‘Comfortable with Uncertainty’ which I regularly prescribe to coaching clients, family, friends AND MYSELF when times are hard ‘Take two chapters of Pema and call me in the morning…or not, if you don’t need to anymore.’

While a very high calibre of extra goodies are available as part of this special birthday, all that remains for me to say is – I don’t much care. Sorry! Not to be rude to the gracious and great folk who’re participating. The point is, Overcomers, Inc., the book itself, the actual pages with the words written on them, immortalizing these 37 individuals, is a treasure and worth every red cent spent on copies.

As the world turns, ordering a copy today, Thursday October 22, 2009, makes a BIG difference to Lynne and her team, and so I ask you to do so instead of waiting for another day.

Simple instructions are here:

http://www.overcomersbook.com/booklaunch

I’m looking forward to sending these out as gifts at the end of the year for the whole gang, including friends and colleagues overseas. Overcoming adversity with grace is not a pie-in-the-sky concept – so much pap concocted by the self-help world. With this book, we now have incontrovertible proof that we can access by turning to our bookshelf.

Thank you, Lynne and team. I am proud to know you and be associated with your launch!

Off to Amazon I go…

To comment and congratulate Lynne, do so below – I’ll make sure she sees it … I know you may know her from her contributions and activity in the coaching and writing communities…

If you teach/mentor/coach for a living, these tough questions are for you. Starting with…does anyone else wonder if we’re in a Self-Help Bubble about to pop?

Have you heard the news of two people who passed away, mid-exercise, while attending a self-help retreat on Saturday? I first heard the news on Twitter.com, and there’s been quite a bit of mainstream news coverage since, including a piece in the NY Times.

Watching the story break – not to mention what actually happened – made me go very still. The leader of the retreat, Harmonic Wealth founder James Arthur Ray is not personally known to me, but is the client of someone I work closely with. What happened will have a direct impact on our fall and 2010 endeavors, I’m sure, and if I have my druthers, we’re going to be proactive about it.

And yet…I couldn’t help but notice that save for the news outlets, and a few voices such as @duffmcduffee there hasn’t been a lot of commentary.

Where are the other self-help leaders, workshop-givers, retreat-holders?

Putting myself in Ray’s shoes, I ask myself…

What do I do now?

How do I course-correct, move forward?

How do I best serve?

Back in my own shoes, I ask…

What is the worst thing that could possibly happen at a workshop I held, something inconceivable, and how could I prevent it, or be prepared for it?

What is the worst thing that someone could say about my work, and presuming it isn’t illegal or immoral, am I okay with where I stand? Are my feet comfortably and cleanly planted in what I stand for and what I do?

How clean is my house?

I’m curious if other people are asking these questions, or if it’s ‘business as usual’ and ‘it didn’t happen to me, so I don’t need to care about it.’

What would you do if something like this happened on one of your retreats?

I know many of you ARE planning workshops and retreats…

What will you do differently now, benefiting from the challenges the Harmonic Wealth team are going through at this moment?

Over and above my own work, or that of yours, I wonder, what is the ugliest thing that someone could say about the self-help world?

Is it that two people died on retreat? Or that no one talked about it and moved forward from it differently?

I think most of us would answer ‘both.’ But we can only do something about one of those things.

What say you, about this? What can be done? What will we do? What will you, leader in your field, do?

All this, in addition to grumblings about the inflated cost of certain training and mentoring programs this fall, has me wondering about economic bubbles, booms and busts.

I’m not an economist, and probably neither are you, but for the basics, there’s always Wikipedia [red font is my addition]:

An economic bubble (sometimes referred to as a speculative bubble, a market bubble, a price bubble, a financial bubble, or a speculative mania) is “trade in high volumes at prices that are considerably at variance with intrinsic values”.^[1][2] (Another way to describe it is: trade in products or assets with inflated values.)

While many explanations have been suggested, it has been recently shown that bubbles appear even without uncertainty,^[4] speculation,^[5] or bounded rationality.^[6] It has also been suggested that bubbles might ultimately be caused by processes of price coordination^[7] or emerging social norms.^[6]

Because it is often difficult to observe intrinsic values in real-life markets, bubbles are often conclusively identified only in retrospect, when a sudden drop in prices appears. Such a drop is known as a crash or a bubble burst. Prices in an economic bubble can fluctuate erratically, and become impossible to predict from supply and demand alone.

Sudden incidents having a negative impact on the market can trigger price drops.

What are your thoughts about this news in the self-help world? Does anyone else wonder if we’re in a self-help bubble about to pop, and what is there – constructive – to do and say about it?

Bodily Incompetence | Ignoring what’s right in front of our noses. Or Ignoring our noses, actually. Free ‘Deshrimping’ Call Tues Oct 13

This thought-stream was originally sent out to members of the Columbus Group whose comments and questioning have infused this recovering meat sack.  New members welcome at the above link. The topic today is…bodily incompetence.

Yes, I said incompetence, not incontinence, though one might lead to the other in some cases.

Dear reader, has it ever occurred to you how much we don’t know about our own bodies?

Individually, sure. (Can you, for example, without looking, draw a map in your mind’s eye of all your major birthmarks or moles?)

But also on a general basis, how much we don’t know about this ‘thing’ this ‘flesh’ that we carry around with us, or is us, or…you get what I mean.

I’ve been marvelling at how unconsciously incompetent I am at being a human being. It’s fun, actually, and kinda funny.

I use this body, certainly, and sometimes to great effect, like when I pull out a splinter from the ball of hubby’s foot. Or eat a bowl of congee with chopsticks while the dog lies on my feet, and I read a book.

Really, life is a regular Cirque de Soleil, some days!

But lately, I’ve been asked some consciousness-raising questions. Questions like…

(1) For what reason do we have a skeleton? Why, please, do you think we have a skeleton? Really.

(2) When you think of your foot, and you think of the action that your foot makes when walking, you doubtless
know that your heel strikes the floor and your foot rolls toward the toes.  Where in your forefoot does the skeleton provide the most support for walking, do you have a sense?

(3) What shape are your leg bones, both your tibia and your femur? (Tibia – shin bone; Femur – thigh bone. Good enough for conversation.)

One thing I’ve noticed without prompting, you know, on my own… desk jockey and lover of laptop-screens I seem to be…is that I spend a lot of my life in ’shrimp position.‘ You know it, I’m sure, where the head falls forward of the shoulders, the back rounds and the chest drops in on itself? It’s uncomfortable, and yet, I’m very stuck in it. My body doesn’t know what else to do.
It dislikes so-called good posture, too, and can’t hold that either for more than a few seconds without attention.

So, what is a girl to make of this stuck place in my body?

Do I ignore it, stay asleep, and year after year, become more and more calcified into shrimp position? (Might we say lobster-like, even?)

How do I react when I see a significant newspaper advertisement saying ‘Having trouble wiping?’ showing an older person unable to reach around himself? I don’t make these things up, you know.

What does the future hold for my body and the mind that lives within it, unchecked? What about the body-mind of my cherished coaching clients – how do I begin this conversation – do I begin this conversation, with them?

What habits is YOUR body in?

What benefit would you get from noticing these? Is there a compelling reason for you to become more interested in your body, or is it a ‘whatever’ and I lost you at ’shrimp?’

What general thoughts about bodily incompetence do you have – personally and/or generally?

What else does this trigger, for you?

More another time, including thoughts about the three questions posed about the skeleton, the foot and the legs,
above.

Meanwhile, the second no-fee movement-based class I’m holding (by teleconference call) is tomorrow, Tuesday morning October 13. You can sign up here.

It’s completely no-fee, and 100% adventure, as this will be another practice lesson I’m teaching as part of my
practitioner-training.

Come to think of it though, be warned please, as the lessons are rather subtle. Think “am I doing anything?” level of subtle. And yet, therein lies some of what I consider cool magic that might just be an answer to the bodily incompetence you may feel. Later!

More Narcissism! My Story as Extracted by @NicolaBird in No Fee Call Next Tues

Nicola Bird is founder of More Than Your Time, where she helps coaches and consultants create and market ways to sell more than their 1:1 time. She’s launched a new series of teleseminars, in which she’s interviewing coaches with successful businesses, finding out what makes their business models so good, and what we can all learn from their experiences.

In the first call of the series taking place next week, Nicola will be dragging the truth out of yours truly on any number of topics, so she says. I think I may be nervous, but hey, I’ve been known to divulge underwear colors to make a point, so…hold onto you hat!

“My business was inspired by reading Andrea J. Lee’s book Multiple Streams Of Coaching Income, and I know many of you have already listened to my teleclass with Andrea called ‘How To Sell More Than Your Time’. If you haven’t listened, you should quite frankly, as this will radically change the way you think about your coaching business. Get your free copy of How To Sell More Than Your Time here.

Now join me as I interview Andrea as a great example of a coach with a highly successful business. What could you learn from her experiences?”

Here are the kinds of questions Nicola will be asking me:

• What my current business model is and how I got there
• Where the idea for ‘Multiple Streams of Coaching Income’ came from and where it’s going to
• What I learned from working as General Manager to Thomas Leonard at CoachVille
• What 3 mistakes I made on the way and how you can learn from them
• Where I’m heading next

Call details are here – note this is a free call series and Nicola is one of those talented souls that lands great guests, not me, I was her easy one I think. Nice going, Nicola, and thanks for all the effort!

Tuesday 13th October at 8pm GMT/ 12pm PST/ 3pm EST

Click here for details and to register.

Me, Inc. | What My Day Looks Like In Pixels (Warning: Some Narcissism Ahead)

From time to time, I get asked what my day looks like. I guess it’s a useful question, though certainly a shade narcissistic-feeling to answer. But the client today put it this way ‘I’m looking to model your peaceful productivity – how can I do that without being a fly on your wall?’  So just this once anyway, and ripe for introspection or boredom, your preference, here is my day in pixels…

I worked with three coaching clients:

- An hour with a long-term client in North America who’s gathering a very nice head of steam towards the 7-figure breakthrough

- An hour with a newer client in Europe who’s making space in his environment so he can create a passive stream of revenue. Lots of juicy stuff here as the 1-1 trap really makes itself known in his life.

- A long-term client in Canada in laser coaching format – 10 minutes twice today – helping him craft verbiage for handling the influx of new clients.

Consulting:

I have a late afternoon 30-minute appointment with a consulting client who’s also in Canada, working on a lawsuit he’s preparing.

Partnership projects:

I also spent about 2 hours prepping a conference/exhibitor strategy, new ‘coaching company’ project and product launches for the Thomas Leonard and CoachVille side of things. A good part of this was spent in the joyful activity of delegation and project management.

I’ll spend about an hour on new product launches for Thought Partners International this evening. And another hour on new product creation, some email wrangling, and planning for strategy meetings with my Money and Meaning and Online Biz Manager partner Tina Forsyth.

Personal stuff/Environment:

During the day I walked our dog Reka at the beach, did some banking errands and fed hubby and I lunch. (Fresh figs, plums, our favorite smiling cow cheese and crackers. Light lunch, which explains why I’m getting hungry.)

Today I’m working from our guest bedroom on the bed. I like the way the sun streams in through the roses and casts shadow art on the walls.  The two large whiteboards – 3 by 4 feet each, are in here, which is always pleasing for me. All in all a peaceful and fast-moving, productive day.

Feelings around getting things done:

And yes, I pretty much always have something else to do at the end of the day.  Always. But I resist the temptation to swing my ‘bat’ at everything that crosses my mind, or my desk. If I were an all-star baseball player I wouldn’t either, right? I’m comfortable with and excited by the greater truth of entrepreneurialism: ‘It’ll never be done.”

Relaxation/Recreation:

This weekend, we’ll be leaving for a Friday to Monday trip to one of the inner islands north of here, home to our favorite white-sand beach on a swimming lake. Mike bought a new kayak Monday, and it needs must be christened. Bad luck not to, you know! On the way up, our new find of the month – fried oysters the size of Yorkshire Puddings, or so it seems. Yum!

I have about 20 hours of time pre-committed to others per week, the rest is at my discretion:

Overall, the above 6-8 hour day is pretty typical of my Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, though with fewer client appointments. Monday is thinking/creative project time, as are many evenings, especially when it’s harvest time on a new project, as it is right now. I watch hardly any TV at all to speak of.

Early jump on the weekend and the work week:

Fridays and Saturdays are as close to a total non-working days as they come, for me, when we get outside, and stay there, as much as can, visit with friends, listen to loud music, read, take baths, and more.  I workout MWF with a trainer and this fall am looking at adding either kickboxing, rock climbing, dragon boat racing, or something else in preparation for adventure racing next year. Sunday is the day I like to get a jump on work/projects, catch up, get ahead, etc. It’s my ’secret weapon’ to feeling great entering the week.

If there’s anything I’m looking at improving in this, it’s integrating more with Mike, who also works from home, so that we have more stolen time through the day. And, definitely more moment-to-moment ‘going with the flow’ when it comes to writing…as with this post.

Breaking Through to Thought Leadership | Get hold of YOUR best thoughts…it’s worth the effort (PG-13)

What if you could reliably have access to the best thoughts you have inside you, that maybe you don’t even know you’re capable of yet?  You know, the most inventive and most valuable to your market, the ones that make everyone around you go ‘Ooooh, how did you come up with that??’

And then starts a rash of ripoffs?

What if, like a woman’s eggs, we are born with the number of unique thoughts we’ll have available over a lifetime, and if not birthed in some shape or form, these unique-to-us treasures of DNA are lost?

What is the sound of an intellectual clock ticking, I wonder?

In my spare time, I’ve been thinking a lot about thought leadership for business owners who want to be of service as information marketers. If information is our offering, doesn’t it pay to think about the quality of it, and kaizen the process once in a while?

Things like how to ‘do’ thought leadership and be a leader to whom people turn for inspiration, for example. To take the place in your tribe as the ‘one’ who nourishes the minds of others, the thought-mother-ship, from which others derive their work?

What if you had access to the antidote, homeopathic of course, to the fate of the mass-produced expert who, clinging to the conviction that if you only read 20 books on a topic, it gives you the right to teach it. Have you watched these dinosaurs slowly but surely become irrelevant if left alone without fresh input?

Considering this, does it become important then, to learn how to nourish your mind as the performance machine it is, setting up your environment so your best thoughts flourish, and care, tenderly, for the ‘unbirthed eggs of your mind?’

I think you’d agree – the vast majority of people don’t have much clear thought. They confuse their thoughts with themselves, with no separation in between. Their emotions permanently short-circuit the masterpieces that would be their thoughts, if they weren’t umbilical-cord plugged into the television, etc.

There’s a giant chemical soup bowl of toxic, inbred thought in the room, and we aren’t talking much about it.

So what are some of the ingredients in the recipe for getting hold of YOUR best thoughts? It’s not exactly a well trodden road, but I’ve found it fascinating and worth the effort.

Here’s some of the thought-stream to start:

(1) Your best thoughts are sexy.

AKA “Creativity is a fundamentally sexual act.” — Deepak Chopra

Wow! Have you ever thought of what you do, creatively, as sexy? It’s still not common to speak plainly about sex in business circles (though Marie Forleo certainly breaks that taboo) but there is a definite, concrete correlation between the energy and chemistry of sex, and creativity…a fun avenue to explore, with sometimes surprising, and quick, results.

(2) Your best thoughts dislike certainty.

“Learning is what happens when you really (really) don’t know what to do.”

Knowing, or being certain, in my experience, suffocates the best thinking. Think about it— being absolutely, positively, incredibly sure about something is the giant full stop at the end of the creative sentence.

Instead of knowing all the time, or seeking the comfort and security of knowing, what if you sought the opposite?

Into the space of not knowing, I wonder if some of those thought-eggs would see fit to hatch?

(3) Your best thoughts need you to forget.

In my imagination, there is an illness in which the patience can’t forget anything. Everything that happens, they remember, and store, all the data. Feelings, thoughts, sensations, actions. Every day, they are prevented from leaving the confines of their prescribed familiar space, because to do otherwise would require them to remember more things.

So many of us spend energy attempting to stuff our brain with more facts, as if our brain, that lovely, lobed, moist thing, were a storage unit in a continent full of mini-storage complexes.

What if you could get where you want to get not by remembering more, but forgetting? What if it were essential?

Which brings us to the adventure of  ‘remembering to forget.’

Stay with me here, as there is a short but highly telling exercise in Feldenkrais, the revolutionary learning system that uses the body, that dramatically highlights remembering to forget:

“Stand up and go to touch your toes. Don’t force it, it’s not a gym class. Just make a movement that takes you closer to your toes.” In the class, various stages of reaching ones toes can be seen.

“Now, without pushing forward, without straining, make an adjustment in your body to release the muscles of your back.” One by one, some, not all the participants, but many, find themselves dropping closer to their toes.

In the parlance of Feldenkrais, this is all about excitation and inhibition, the two things that make up every waking movement. To move toward something, in this case your toes, you need to stop your back muscles from holding you up. Otherwise, you are fighting your back muscles by pushing on the muscles of your front, in a tug of war of effort to get somewhere.

In other words, to achieve the goal, stopping doing something is just as important as doing something. Breaking through to your best thoughts requires you to stop doing things, so the right things can start.

This one thing alone has been one of the most valuable lessons of the year for me, in terms of productivity, creativity and freedom.

And that, to paraphrase Forrest Gump, is all I got to say about that. At least for now. Perhaps we might we hear from you, next, if you remember…!

What about this idea of breaking through to YOUR best thoughts strums you? If we explore further, will it help make your work easier, the quality of your offerings shine? What do you think? What sticks?

Yours in thinking about thinking, I remain…

Everyone we meet becomes part of us | I can’t be that bad

Just back from an 8-day jaunt to Taiwan to celebrate my grandmother’s life, forge new bonds with Mom, and, if it’s true that…

“Everyone we meet becomes part of us…”

I’ve become a wildly more interesting, wonderful, adventure-filled and charming person, thanks
to the Taiwanese.

Catching up, I’ll have lots of photos to share very soon, but here’s one to tide us over.

That’s me in the town called Dansui at the Fisherman’s Wharf outside of Taipei, just before a blissful seafood dinner.

We capped the evening off with a walk through the teeming night market along the water, thick as oil, it seemed, passing temples beside stalls of fried things, beside skyscrapers and miniature gardens filled with dating couples coming out in the cool of the night.

And then, from nowhere, a giant waterfront Starbucks at the end of it all. LOL.

I did say it was wildly interesting, didn’t I?

Congratulations to our friend and colleague Michael Bungay-Stanier of BoxofCrayons.biz

“My moment of glamour: front cover of Productive! Magazine”

In a world of many players, it’s always an extra pleasure to fete someone who achieves success doing great work, but is also just ‘good people.’ I’ve been challenged and entertained, delightfully, and call fellow Canadian coach Michael Bungay-Stanier a friend. Notwithstanding, he’s a great – walk-to-your-own-drummer – model of many things, and I invite you to join him in his latest success. In his own words:

“It’s been a mystery to me for years why a man of my extraordinary good looks has yet to be approached to be a fashion model and icon. Still, I’m now half-way there – my first magazine cover.

Sure, it’s not Men’s Vogue, but I’m pretty thrilled to be gracing the front of Productive! Magazine. It’s the third edition, and the first two were fronted by David Allen and Guy Kawasaki – pretty fantastic company for me to be keeping.”

The PDF version of the magazine is no-charge, contains a very interesting crowd-sourced format that’s accessible to anyone packaging their intellectual property, and you can download your own copy here. Head on over to see what all the fuss is about won’t you?

To congratulate Michael, click here and leave a comment.

What Being Home Feels Like | ‘Fundamental Richness’

I’ve been home a day now, almost to the minute, and unfortunately at this hour, not sleepy. Was I ever, this afternoon, but alas, that demon jetlag has its grip on me! To fall to sleep, I’ve been counting, not sheep, but blessings. 

After a whirlwind trip with mom to bury grandma, my day has been filled with conversations: 3 big-hearted and intelligent coaching clients, 2 internal meetings, an upset brother, and one business meeting with struck-with-dental-pain-but-grinning-and-bearing-it husband. I feel tremendously lucky.

Locals in the Comox Valley often ask ‘why’d you move here’ from Calgary, to which I like to reply, ‘what’s not to like?’ Tonight, picking wild plums (yellow and red, the yellow are sweeter), buying a plate of swollen figs from a Portuguese neighbour near the estuary, then laughing at Reka eating blackberries off the vine, I reaffirm – it’s sweet to be home. 

Flossing my teeth in my own bathroom tonight, Chapter 13 ‘Fundamental Richness’ from The Pocket Pema Chodron sang to me, so I share it here with you:

“Fundamental richness is available in each moment. The key is to relax: relax to a cloud in the sky; relax to a tiny bird with gray wings; relax to the sound of the telephone ringing.

We can see the simplicity in things as they are. We can smell things, taste things, feel emotions, and haev memories. When we are able to be there without saying, ‘I certainly agree with this,’ or ‘I definitely don’t agree with that,’ but just be here very directly, then we find fundamental richness everywhere.

It is not ours or theirs but is available always to everyone. In raindrops, in blood drops, in heartache and delight, this wealth is the nature of everything. It is like the sun in that it shines of everyone without discrimination.”

—-

How are you fundamentally rich in this moment? What does being home feel like to you? Does home feel like its where you are now, or elsewhere? If fundamental richness doesn’t feel accessible to you now, what DO you feel? To feel something different, it’s often helpful to feel what you feel right now first, fully…

*Timely* Open House (no-fee) call with Milana Leshinsky

3 Biggest Mistakes Coaches Make…

• Do you feel like you’ve been doing everything to build your coaching practice, but without any significant progress?
• Are you tired of constantly being rejected by potential clients?
• Are you concerned about the growth of your coaching practice especially when today’s economy is forcing many people to cut back and put their personal and professional growth on hold?
• Do you wish there was a way for you to stop chasing clients and for clients to find YOU?

Then You Don’t Want to Miss This One-Time Free Teleseminar Where You’ll Hear the Truth About Why So Many Coaches Struggle, and What YOU Can Do to Build a Thriving and Profitable Practice.

Milana Leshinsky, the author of “Coaching Millions”, has been working with coaches over the last 9 years and has been closely following the development of the coaching industry.

She also pioneered the first global Coaching Telesummit, has been hosting her annual Coaching Super Summit, published the “New Coaching Manifesto” document, and has been called the “MEGA Coach” of the industry.

Join Milana on August 20th at 1pm EST (10 am PST) for a FREE 60-minute teleseminar and she will share:

The 3 biggest mistakes 91% of coaches make that make their practice building efforts soooooo darn hard!

How making just ONE simple mindshift can double or triple your coaching practice in a few short weeks!

How tweaking your business model can put a stop to those dreadful questions about fees and credibility forever!

How shifting your focus can keep your client “pipe line” full and bring prospects to you to you!

Click here to register.

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