My #1 Tool For Success

Full disclosure: I am a highly ambitious woman. I have always known what I wanted and usually got it because I would do anything to get it (it’s the Capricorn in me). Success is a theme in my life and I love climbing to reach it. However, back in my 20’s I got a little too concerned with what I thought I was supposed to do and I created a life that wasn’t truly me and perpetuated a constant state of burn out and overwhelm from all the hustle, work and denial of myself. Ambition seemed less appealing as life went on…that is, until I learned about intentional living and how that is the magic of success.

Years ago, as I was fed up with all the masculine type energy that I lived in (read: all the productivity, doing, achieving, climbing, working and busyness), I discovered the enchanting possibilities of the feminine energy (read: just being, pleasure, receiving, surrender, intuition, beauty, flow, softness and playfulness) that helped me start to cultivate the success I was looking for in all areas of my life and became the catalyst to my work as a coach. I learned that magic existed and was sourced in intention.

Intentions come from our desires, our dreams, even our pain. We want change or growth and so we can intend to do, think, be or experience something different. They allow us to make a decision (a powerful practice in general) and open up room for magic to occur. Intentions are way more authentic, playful, thorough and magnetizing than simple ‘goals’. 

Instead of focusing on achieving something, like a normal goal would be, Intentions create an overall experience with room for an even better outcome than we might imagine. 

See, focusing on the end result, although important, feels too rigid, masculine centered and boring to me. It sure doesn’t get me jazzed to make moves towards it. I need MORE to be motivated. I need to feel constantly INspired. I want feel into the reality of my desire, how it makes me feel on all levels, how it will help others when I achieve what I want (win/win), how it will impact other areas of my life and how moving towards it will benefit me immediately. When I am tapped into all of that, I am completely connected to the manifestation of it or something better. Even if the specific intention doesn’t come to fruition (which is rare now because I can identify the purity of my desires), whatever results occur are always an improvement in my life in some way. 

What I love about intentions is that it gets us thinking about WHY we want what we want and WHY we should focus our energy there. No more “should’ing” ourselves out of obligation or societal standards. Those results will be unsustainable and make us resentful. Before we can be motivated (masculine energy) we need to be inspired (feminine energy) and we access that through our intentions. The clarity we have will yield the result we experience. Intentional living creates INSPIRED ACTION which is beautiful blend of masculine and feminine energy, the kind that fulfills our needs, gets results and sustains our life balance.

Where and what you can set intentions for

• All of your dreams, desires and goals
• An important event or meeting
• A vacation or travel experience (like on a plane, train or boat)
• Anything you create: a piece of art, a website, a book, a blog post, a program, a schedule, etc.
• Your home
• Your car
• Your energy, persona or reputation 
• Your career
• Your health
• Your family or relationships
• + more
   

How to set powerful intentions

Remember, intention setting is a magical process because it takes you out of a linear format and connects your body, mind and soul. This is where you tap into your underlining why, your senses, your potential, your impact and of course your overall experience or quality of life. This is where you get to viscerally feel the desire being real and how you can recognize when the intention is happening or has happened. Ideally, you want to write out your intentions because writing clarifies more than thinking and declutters your mental state. Saying intentions out loud is also an extremely suggested act because it becomes a declaration. Finally, if you can put the intention as a statement of the past, as if it already happened, that is ideal but not necessary.

Ask yourself these questions:

• What is it that I want to experience or achieve? What is the purpose?
• What do I want to feel, emotionally and/or physically? What are the sensations?
• What do I want to see while I’m doing it or after it’s been achieved? What am I looking at?
• What do I want to smell or taste during or after?
• What do I want to hear from myself, from others or in general? What are others saying? What noises are present?
• What is motivating my desire? How will this impact my life and future?
• What kind of support do I want to receive?
• How could this intention coming true help other people?
• In what ways will me taking steps towards this intention benefit me immediately? 

Now, before you give in to any potential overwhelm with this formula, just know that this is a WAY to set powerful intentions. How bad do you want it? How real can you make it? You by no means have to include every single one of these points in every intention you set. Just keep them in mind and pick the points that speak to you. Sometimes the most simple intention is the most needed. Other times, we need all the specifics we can get. I trust that you will be able to discern how to set your intentions that will enliven and excite you and help you to cultivate the magical power that resides in you. 

To your true, sustainable and enjoyable success,

YOUR TURN! 

What is the first intention you want to set after reading this?

Set Yourself Up for Success with Soulful Goal Setting

Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How was your 2015? I am hearing a mixed bag of rock bottom and the best year ever. Regardless of what happened this past year, you are more wiser and capable to continue moving towards your ideal life & space NOW (which is TOTALLY possible, btw). I feel strongly that it's up to each of us to create the life that we want to experience and that it really takes a lot of support to uphold such dreams. Why not start the year off doing both ~ dreaming my dreams and supporting you, my tribe.

I believe in fresh starts and powerful intentions to create the reality that we all want. New Years resolutions have a bad rep, so I would love to offer you a simple framework to banish overwhelm yet still challenge you to reflect, focus and start planning your year now while the energy is high, in order to set yourself up for success later. This is a ritual that is customized to YOU, based on what I personally do every year both on NYE and New Years Day. If we don't put effort into planning in a way that feels easy and aligned with who we are, nothing will ever get done. So, darlings...take some time right now to set yourself up for a successful 2016. Think of this as soulful goal setting. When you're done, comment below as I would LOVE to hear what you came up with and hold your intentions with you.

Reflect

We can't claim our future without completing our past. Similarly, we can't complete our past without reflecting on the realities and events and understanding them fully. Look back on your year and actually write out what happened. Reflective journaling can be a powerful exercise to clarity. What went right? What went wrong? Was there an overarching theme that was present? Where were you out of integrity? When were you proud of what you did, and why? and most importantly, what did you learn?

Celebrate

List out your accomplishments from the year and celebrate yourself! I KNOW there is at least 15 accomplishments you can come up with easily, but try for 20 or 30! Challenge yourself to see more of the good, the positive, the glass half full than you have before. Open your own eyes to the power that you have come into. These can be anything from a career advancement to something good you said to something you didn't say (that's a hard one, huh?) to a challenging situation that you accomplished. Month by month, revel in the magnitude of your amazingness. One rule: NO thinking about failures here. Focus on celebrations. 

Release

You may already be thinking about your failures or shortcomings...now is the time to transform them into lessons and use them as fuel to fire up your confidence in 2016. What are you ready to release about yourself: your beliefs, your environment, your relationships, your commitments or your actions? Write them down. Bonus points if you burn them for significance sake! Remember, don't judge any emotion that comes up either. You are completely allowed to grieve here.

Intend

Now that you have clean energy, you can move forward into your desires. WHAT DO YOU WANT?! Claim it by setting powerful intentions for this coming year, as if they already happened and you are reading them on NYE 12/31/16. Keep them positive (as in avoid any terms that include "not" doing something, debt or losing weight, as these automatically imply that there is something wrong with you, which there isn't). Bonus points for adding in specific details and descriptive words that make the intention viscerally palpable. Then make sure you remind yourself of these intentions often. Energy flows where attention goes.
(This is the kind of thing we do every month in Monthly Moon Magic with Michelle.)

Symbolize

Using your top 1-3 intentions, dial down to the feeling those intentions bring you. What's the essence or vibe they give off? In other words, imagine yourself fully immersed in the reality of each intention...what does that feel like? What are the descriptive words that represent that reality? Write these down. Next, what physical items represent these feelings or descriptions to you. For example, I wrote down that my intentions for my career feel like flow, light, connecting, easy and sparkly. I thought about that and found a beautiful mirrored glass mobile that I can put outside my front door to represent all of those vibes! I was so excited. What's closest to us has the most impact on us, so why not surround ourselves with our intentions in tangible form? 


I hope this gives you some simple framework for setting up your goals in a way that feels possible and inspiring. Again, I would love to hear your goals and intentions, so please do share them with me if you feel called. 

Sending you lots of sparkles today, as you set the tone for the year to come.

PS: If you are interested in joining me for the Virtual Group Feng Shui Program, we start in January and there are only 4 spots left! Also, the tuition is still on special sale!