It's already November! This year has flown by - filled with upheaval, change, and plenty of uncertainty. Back in January I went on a spiritual pilgrimage to India. Upon my return I set an intention to focus on the abundance in my life and to stay steady in the midst of the impending financial storm. This intention has informed my life in ways I could never have imagined. As we approach Thanksgiving, I am gratefully harvesting the results of my intent, and celebrating my most successful year in business.

For the past ten months I have coached my clients - and myself - to stay steady and focus on what really matters. It has been imperative that we pause, clear out distractions, re-evaluate, and let go of strategies that worked in last year's economy. When business has been slow, we have taken advantage of the time to collaborate and create, complete unfinished business that might be holding us back, and rest. We have been making space to prepare for new growth and financial recovery. And in truth, work has been anything but slow!

My clients have consciously walked through their fears to take courageous action: They have opened up new offices, consolidated staff (or hired new employees), started business partnerships, resigned from positions that were intolerable, returned to school, chosen new careers, facilitated change in their workplace, written books, developed new workshops, overcome fear of public speaking...and grown their businesses. All the while, many of them have been shaking in their shoes.

We have been pushing through what Gay Hendricks calls in The Big Leap¹, our Upper Limit - consciously breaking through personal and professional barriers to reach our Zone of Genius. This is the arena where we chose to engage in activities we are uniquely suited to do, and we do them with ease, grace, and effortlessness. We experience flow and a deep sense of purpose - and it leads us to previously unimaginable degrees of success in all areas of our life.  

However, as we push through our Upper Limit we often encounter a familiar behavior that derails us - such as procrastination, missing a deadline, picking a fight with our partner, or getting sick. Or we may stop ourselves with a harmful thought - "This will never work" or "I can't afford to do that," supported by evidence from the past that affirms that this thought must be true!

When my clients encounter these limiting thoughts or behaviors, and find themselves swinging - as one client calls it "like a pendulum" - from success and excitement to despair and hopelessness, I invite them to pause, examine their thoughts, and reframe their perception. Rather than call this pendulum swinging a failure or proof that they cannot move forward, I invite them to see it as what my teacher Faisal² calls the 'rebound' effect - and part of their forward movement. For example, the day after a client gave notice that she was leaving a miserable job, she found herself feeling anxious and wanting to overeat. When I gently asked if she might be in a rebound, she immediately relaxed and was able to bask in her accomplishment. Within several days she was contacted by a recruiter and subsequently hired for a dream position in a new company.   

As we challenge ourselves to surpass what we know so we can receive what we want, we are given ample opportunity to face and master our fear. One of my biggest accomplishments this year has been to stay steady in the midst of this tremendous global economic turbulence and "Trust that still inner voice that says, this might work and I'll try it."³

~ Linda

This book and audio CD, developed over years of Linda's work with clients, will teach you how to cultivate the power of pause. When we learn to pause, even in the most stressful situations, we can rest in the moment, shift our perception, clearly see our truth, and take right action to create an authentic and fulfilling life.

Price: $19.95
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¹ The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks, Ph.D, published by HarperCollins, New York, NY
² Faisal Muqaddam, The Diamond Logos Teachings
http://www.diamondlogos.com
³ Diane Mariechild, author