How Can I…?

Funny how the universe works…when I’m paying attention, listening and opening myself up to the messages and lessons I’m meant to hear.

Even if it is over and over again!

You see, even though I’ve spent many years making personal development a priority in my life and I’ve developed a self-care practice that I know keeps me grounded, AND supports me to live a life I love, I have to admit that sometimes I allow myself to wallow in my old bad habits and tune into noise and distraction rather than to inspiration.

Negative messaging has been a part of my life forever.

I have fun saying that it is “hardcoded in my DNA”, and that’s not just an expression of mine, I believe it to be true.

Some patterns die hard… and up until recently, my personal replay button has been stuck when it comes to negative messaging.

What do I mean, negative messaging?

I mean that wallow around in the muck s%#t that drags me down. I mean that “I’m having a lousy day” stuff that sounds like:

It’s too hard

I can’t figure this out

Life sucks

No one will help me

I’ll never make it

I just can’t

I’d do it but…

If only I had…then…

I”ll never get there

It’s just not right

But it’s not exactly the way I wanted it

They don’t care anyway

I’m too ___________!

It’s all because of _______________.

I GIVE UP!

Maybe I’m not saying “I’m not good enough” verbatim, but these messages have just as much stopping power as any other. And when I allow them to, they stop me in my tracks. 

And before I know it, I’m sinking in the quicksand of stuck-ness!

Sinking…sinking…sinking…

Then, almost miraculously, the hand of universal energy reaches out for me, extending a lifeline that I grab to pull myself out.  And when I first wrote this post, the lifeline looked like this: Living Your Truth, w/ Elizabeth Potts Weinstein

Back then, I was part of a group program called “Live Your Truth”. I joined the group because I felt a real connection. It reminded me that I founded Wise Well Women based on the tenet of living authentically, speaking my voice, and encouraging others to do the same. So, through this program, I was practicing defining and declaring “my truth” each day.

My truth is I am a coach. Specifically, I am a Creativity Coach, and as such, I help women entrepreneurs with every aspect of their creative life and business.

When I first began, I wasn’t comfortable with the word, coach. Nonetheless, it is who I am. Before I even knew the term, mentoring and supporting others was a key part of my personal and management style. It is what I’d always done. When I worked for someone else in the corporate world we just called it something different. But the deliverables were the same.

Exploring my truth at that time, I posted a question on my FaceBook Fan page: (on what was called the discussions page)

What do you expect from a coach?

And one of the responses was to “call me on my S#@T!” Boy, did that resonate with me that day!

Obviously, I was deep in the muck then, and just not quite ready to come out.

Then a day or two later I pulled out a CD from a business growth coaching program I’d completed previously in the fall,

EnergyRich Business Boot Camp, and Marketing Mastery with Heather Dominick.

I popped that CD into the player in my car and heard Heather say, (as if she were speaking to me and me alone):

Ask yourself the question, “How Can I…?”

Activate the energy of creating possibilities, not limitations, she said.  The message was exactly what I needed to hear. She was absolutely “calling me on my S#@T!”

How can I? How can I use what I have in place, this moment, to step up and do what I know I have to do to be successful?

If I’m stepping up, as I declared I was doing at the beginning of 2010, then I’ve got to take inspired action. No whining and wallowing allowed!

When I’m Living My Truth, I’ve declared I’m stepping up, and I’m deliberately working the self-care routines that I have developed to support me.

When I’m self-coaching, I’m calling myself on my S#@T! And, I stop wallowing around in the muck of stuck.

When I’m effectively managing and marketing my business, I’m asking myself “How Can I?” and taking inspired action to get things done!

Wow! Boy does that feel good-like the weight of the world was just lifted off my shoulders…

Does this mean I’ll never sink into the muck of stuck-ness again?

Certainly not. (Remember, it’s hard coded in my DNA :-))

But what it does mean is that I have affirmed once again, that I have everything I need to pull myself out when it does happen (and you can, too!)

So, ask yourself today…do you have the self-development tools in place to support you?  If so, do you use them regularly? What kind of support could you use to help avoid wallowing around in that quicksand of stuck-ness forever?

Share your thoughts with me here in the comments section below. Don’t be afraid to reach out.

Your lifeline is ready!

In the spirit of wisdom, wellness, and prosperity-

I wish you well-

Nanette

P.S. My biggest breakthroughs toward Living My Truth came when I found my voice. This blog is the evolution of my truth, which began as a simple journal. Sandy Grason, an author of Journalution, gently encouraged me to rediscover my identity and my power on the pages of my journal in the early days of my healing. Without her support, I never would have had the courage to make my thoughts public on this blog. For your inspiration, Sandy, I am eternally grateful.

Open up your journal and write something in it today. And then do it again tomorrow. And the next day. And the next…

I promise you, amazing things will happen.

Note: first posted in 2010, this post has been updated in 2014 to reflect mindset shifts and eliminate links/references that are no longer valid.