1. Develop a clear vision: Knowing specifically what you want to create or achieve enables you to play an active role in building it. Vague goals don’t give you anything solid to believe in, visualize or reach for.
2. Give yourself permission to be prosperous. Financial success comes from thinking that prosperity is your natural right, just as much as breathing. Work on making this belief your habit if it isn’t already.
3. Adjust your beliefs about your life with what you want your life to be. Become keenly aware of that little voice that is constantly telling you what it thinks is possible for you and make the commitment to override it with statements about what you want to be true for you.
4. Understand the power of visualization and use it to create the reality you want. Think of yourself as a co-creator of your life and see visualization as your tool for molding your creation.
5. Make a habit of consciously creating your life. Start each day focusing on your vision, be sure that your beliefs are aligned with your vision and follow through with a visualization that brings your vision to life.
6. Approach your work with positive expectations. Believing in your potential to succeed will inspire you to follow through with the right actions.

I share this personal story because I know that so many of you are feeling the hard times. I encourage you to look at whatever might feel fallen apart in your life and see the opportunity to approach that something differently. So often we keep on trying to force something to happen in the same old ways, without considering that it’s not working because it no longer fits.

If you’re not getting the results you want in your career right now, ask yourself this question:

Why is this not working for me?

Then give yourself permission to look honestly and trust your instincts to point you in the right direction.

If what you’re doing right now isn’t working, what do you have to lose to try something different, or at least a different approach?

If this message speaks to you, yet you don’t know how to begin to experiment with something different, please feel free to contact us. Dean and I want to do whatever we can to support you.

Why?

You are unable to focus on your vision for success when you are focusing on disaster.

I don’t know about you, but I prefer focusing on my vision for success because I’ve learned that what I focus on is what grows.

Here’s how:

• Choose to believe that everything will work out fine. I’m not suggesting that you put your head in the sand and do nothing. Rather I mean that you accept adversity as an invitation to grow instead of a threat to your well being. Whether we like it or not, isn’t that what life is all about?
• Create a vision of what you want to achieve in your life, and absolutely, positively convince yourself that you are capable of bringing your vision to life.
• Begin each day focusing on your vision. Read this brief article about how to visualize.
• Create a plan for achieving your vision and outline the necessary steps.
• Think of your vision constantly throughout every single day.
• Your focus on your vision will motivate you to execute the steps every single day as tasks on your to-do list.
• At the end of each day, revel in the steps you’ve taken and acknowledge that you are that much closer to bringing your vision to life.

REMEMBER THIS: You may not have any control over the stock market, lay-offs, or bank lending, but you hold all the power over the actions you take to achieve what you want.

]]> http://innerarchitect.com/2008/10/09/how-to-survive-peacefully-as-the-stock-market-crashes/feed/ 0 http://innerarchitect.com/2008/09/29/how-to-make-your-paycheck-bigger/ http://innerarchitect.com/2008/09/29/how-to-make-your-paycheck-bigger/#comments Tue, 30 Sep 2008 05:01:09 +0000 susan hanshaw http://innerarchitect.com/?p=1233 Dean and I had the honor Saturday of presenting to Job Connections, a wonderful group that supports unemployed Bay Area professionals. I lead the group through an exercise intended to bring their ideal career vision to the surface. Afterwards I asked what obstacles get in the way of pursuing that vision. The first reply was one I hear every time: MONEY.

There is no doubt that those of us who are not independently wealthy are more concerned with making enough money than nearly anything else. Yet most of us lose sight of how much control we do have over the money we make. Think about it this way. You are like a store that offers your skills and talents in exchange for money.

The amount of money you make is driven by:

1. The marketability of your skills and talents
2. How well you get the message out about the value of what you have to offer.
   

This holds true whether you want to maximize your earning potential working for a company or working for yourself.

If you are someone who has been a victim of a layoff, acknowledging your power over your paycheck may seem like positive thinking propaganda, but it’s not. You may be temporarily without a paycheck, yet you’re not without opportunities to increase your marketability and get the word out about what you have to offer.

In our quest to support individuals to create the careers they desire, Dean and I have recognized the real need to help people get beyond the fear of money. We have decided that we can do this better by expanding our training to more fully educate you in the hard skills that are necessary to be successful in today’s business world. For example:

• Learning how to be a more effective networker will enable you to exert your power to get the word out about what you have to offer.
• Learning how to blog will enable you to better promote your expertise to potential hiring managers or potential customers.
• Learning how to customize an inexpensive web publishing platform will give you the power to build and change your storefront without paying someone else to do it for you.

We’re in the process of adding this training to our event schedule. We are very excited about our mission to inspire you to reach for your dreams while educating you on how to use Web 2.0 technology to make your dreams reality. We’d love your suggestions on what kind of training would inspire you to take steps forward towards your vision.

Louise Hay sits at the top of my personal list of examples. In 1976, Louise Hay wrote a small pamphlet which grew into a book she self-published in 1984. With more than 35 million copies in print in over 30 languages, this book, You Can Heal Your Life, now a movie, launched Hay House, the publisher for over 130 authors, including Deepak Chopra and Wayne Dyer.

Louise was born to a poor family, dropped out of high school at age 15, got pregnant at 16 and gave her baby up for adoption. Louise learned much of the principles about the power of your thoughts that she is famous for while recovering from the devastation of her husband of 14 years leaving her for another woman.

Clearly Louise Hay is an example of a self-made success that has contributed greatly to our world. Whether or not you think of yourself as self-help enthusiast, a woman who has overcome hardship to build an empire has insights we can all learn from. I heartily recommend you invest the five minutes to watch this video and receive the wisdom of a legacy.

]]> http://innerarchitect.com/2008/09/25/lessons-from-a-woman-who-has-built-an-empire/feed/ 0 http://innerarchitect.com/2008/09/08/from-procrastination-to-progress/ http://innerarchitect.com/2008/09/08/from-procrastination-to-progress/#comments Tue, 09 Sep 2008 06:37:26 +0000 susan hanshaw http://innerarchitect.com/blog/?p=628 Like many people, I am guilty of procrastination. While I can be uncommonly disciplined in some areas of my life, I wait until the last possible moment to address others. This weekend it hit me that I have kept one of my most important business projects on the back burner for well over a year. I got up close and personal with myself trying to understand what was holding me back and what I needed to do to get beyond it. I want to share my process in a way that I hope you can benefit from.

How to Stop Procrastinating on Something Important:

1. Identify an important project or situation that you no longer want to keep putting off.
2. Get clear on the excuses and obstacles that hold you back. Write them down.
3. Look at each obstacle and ask yourself what you need to do to get beyond it. Write down what additional work, learning or change of mindset will overcome the obstacle. Consider these ideas as your action plan.
4. Review your action plan and recognize that it can be incorporated into your current life if you make the commitment.
5. Take responsibility for your action plan by breaking it down into small steps you can take. Assign these small steps to your calendar for this week.
6. Repeat step 5 until you have totally executed your action plan.

Honesty check: Are you allowing yourself to believe that you can stop procrastinating on this important thing? How willing are you to hold yourself responsible for taking the necessary steps?

“It is that American spirit, that American promise, that pushes us forward even when the path is uncertain; that makes us fix our eye not on what is seen, but what is unseen, that better place around the bend. That promise is our greatest inheritance.”

— Senator Barack Obama, National Democratic Convention 2008

These sentences inspired me to leap off my bed to grab a pen so that I could scribble words that would later remind me of a message I did not want to forget. How often we take for granted the most valuable benefit of being a United States citizen—our freedom to strive for a better life.

I speak to so many people who are afraid to make a new choice; afraid of taking a risk, afraid of taking steps backward in order to move forward, and afraid of making a big mistake. As someone who has been there, too, I’ve learned that the one thing that keeps me pushing forward is believing that the better place does lie around the corner and that I can get there if only I keep doing the necessary work.

How to move forward through uncertainty and risk:

1. Believe that the achievement you want is possible for you.

2. Acknowledge that what you have to gain is far greater than what you have to lose.

3. Begin every day focusing on a vision of your success.

4. Don’t allow yourself to dwell on thoughts of failure.

5. Believe in your ability to stay committed to the necessary work.

6. Hold yourself responsible every day to take the necessary steps.

A: Hold yourself personally responsible for your success.

Personal responsibility is one debilitating obstacle that gets in the way for many of us. We recognize that unwanted pounds don’t melt away on their own, the love of our life isn’t delivered to our front door and our dream career doesn’t materialize overnight. Yet while we act responsibly to promote our employer’s success and our family’s well being, we often don’t maintain the same standards in pushing forth our own desires and dreams.

Consider these reasons to hold yourself responsible for your success:

· Control: You shift from a mindset of “I want greater success” to “My actions will create more success.”

· Opportunities: You recognize that it is your role to initiate your opportunities. You are not passively waiting for opportunities or good luck to land in your lap.

· Accountability: You see that the only thing standing in your way of creating success is yourself. You recognize that external challenges can be overcome with your focus and dedication to doing what it takes.

Steps to take this week to take responsibility for your success:

1. Consider your desires and dreams at the same priority level as your family responsibilities and job. Just like you wouldn’t ignore requests from your boss or fail to provide your child with health or school needs, don’t allow yourself to slack off on the steps you need to take to create your success.

2. Schedule time for the building of your success. You are in control of how you spend your time; don’t let it be your excuse. Put your necessary steps on your calendar and commit to them. Think of time as being the most important asset you have and invest it wisely. Always ask yourself if what you are doing is leading you to where you want to go.

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How to manage this challenge:

1. Remember that a successful life is not all about the money. Look for other non-monetary ways to define success.

• Are you helping people?

• Are you growing as an individual?

• What are you contributing to your community or to the world that does not involve money?

2. Look back on your life to periods when you weren’t making as much money as you are now. Believe that you have the capability to increase your income level once again.

• Is this an opportunity to start something new that could lead you to a better place?

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The underpinnings and support you build for yourself when you begin to implement change in your life are first challenged and often thwarted by what you perceive as obstacles that get in the way of your transition. If you can become aware of these obstacles, you give yourself the permission to change the meaning of the very obstacle(s) that stand in your way. Begin by redefining the word “obstacle”:

“The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out; the brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. . . the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. . . they’re there to stop the ‘other’ people.”

–Randy Pausch, Carnegie Mellon Professor and author of The Last Lecture

In Susan Hanshaw’s Inner Architect: How To Build The Life You Were Designed To Live, Phase 3 “Breaking Through Fear” contains a very important tool when considering your obstacles: Step 8 “Define What Lies Between You And Change.”

3 Common Types of Obstacles:

1. Fears: Your thoughts about your ability to successfully create change

2. Limited Beliefs: What you think you are capable of acheiveing or becoming

3. Lack of Commitment: Not being completely dedicated to the work involved with the necessary steps

Ultimate Responsibility:

Accountability for your actions and efforts is the ultimate responsibility we all have to ourselves.

“We can commit to becoming accountable and responsible to our jobs-careers, to our family and friends, yet we often don’t make that same commitment to ourselves.”

–Susan Hanshaw, Founder/CEO and author,Inner Architect

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