My Blog

Grace verses A Busy Lifestyle

04/09/2012 12:04:00

Take the below inventory and than answer the questions at the bottom:

Busyholism Inventory

Rate yourself from 1-5 on each item below.

1= not true , 2= mostly untrue, 3= don’t know, 4= somewhat true, 5= true

I am tired much of the time.
I always seem to be in motion.
Most of the people in my life don’t really appreciate all I have to do.
I get frustrated if I can’t finish a task or if I’m interrupted and have to put it off until later.
On my day off I have a list of things I must do before I can play or rest. I rarely get to the play and rest part.
I can see I am not spending enough quality time with those I love.
By the time I do something I like, I’m too tired to really enjoy it.
I feel guilty when I am resting or just taking it easy.
When I go on vacation I either run around to as many sights as possible or collapse in a heap somewhere on a beach or in my room.
When I’m doing something (such as watching my child/children/ grandchildren play football) I often miss out on the fun because I am answering emails on my electronic device.
I use substances (caffeine, sugar, alcohol, etc.) in order to prod myself into action or to calm myself down.
I may want to have important life goals, but I am too busy to think about them right now.

If I lead a busy lifestyle, what does it cost me in terms of my energy (money, time, creativity, physical vitality, enjoyment and relationship)?..

What would it be like to have all the energy you need?

Inventory created by Maria Nemeth, Phd. of ACE

April Event

04/09/2012 10:44:00

Certainty to Propel Your Dreams A workshop that provides skills for success no matter the environment

Don't miss out on an opportunity to learn tools that you can implement to have your dreams come true!

Unable to attend?

Think about someone to pass this email on to; someone who could use a little clarity, focus, ease, and grace in their life

Event sponsored by

California Cakebites

Date: Saturday April 28, 2012

Location: 1900 Point West Way
Course Room Next to Ste #122
Sacramento, CA 95815

Time: 9 am - 5 pm

Cost: $125.00

Included: Materials, Beverage (Coffee, Tea and water) and Healthy Snacks for the day.

Register: 916-519-6080 & to pay by credit card

Email: coachcyn@sbcglobal.net

Certainty to Propel Your Dreams

A workshop that provides skills for success no matter the environment

Ways to calm our hearts and nurture our spirits. Tools to bring us success in whatever endeavors call out to us. This is my promise.

Maybe you are at an important crossroads and you are looking at what is next for you. I promise you clarity and a renewed faith in your own abilities.

You might be looking at learning skills to boost your capacity to bring out the best in others. I promise you proven tools that have worked to foster the success of thousands worldwide in the fields of financial planning, counseling, law, coaching, ministry, education, leadership, and community service.Tools & Skills that will put you squarely on your path.

Empowering you is my top priority.

Cynthia Farrrell combines her 22 years of successful management, training and leadership experience with coaching expertise to provide cutting edge training and coaching. She is a highly trained Life Coach and Licensed Organizational Development & Training Specialist for The Academy for Coaching Excellence.

Goals Worth Creating

03/15/2012 09:08:00

I am sure that most of you have heard of the acronym S.M.A.R.T while setting goals, and yet I would like to talk to you about this method from a little different approach -

What would it be like for you to create goals that truly reflected what has meaning for you, goals that are connected to why you are here, and what it is that you want to contribute and be known for?

When you utilize the R in this process as "Relevant" you can with ease design goals that are connected to Intentions you have for your life. Does this interest you?

Many people that I have talked to or worked with over the years have a lot of to-do's and tasks aligned with goals and they get a lot done, but at what cost I ask?...most of them are exhausted. Would it be of service to you to learn how to still accomplish all that you wish to, and yet not be exhausted?

This is what I guarantee through my coaching - and seminars - I guarantee that you will be successful in attaining the goals that are connected to what has meaning for you, you will eliminate drains of energy and you will do more with ease - would that be of value to you?

I would love to have some of your feedback and thought - make this a conversation with your responses....

Self Limiting Conversation

01/09/2012 11:20:00

What are you entertaining? Ones that move you forward with ease or those that are limiting you.

Thoughts that move you toward your goals have a sense of spaciousness about them, are clear, there is no experience of got to have it now...

Those thoughts that are limiting are making you right and others wrong, have to have it now, and keep you swinging from worry to doubt & back to worry again. There are as intelligent as you are & yet might seem to have the maturity level of less than a 9 year old...

A few favorite symptoms of these self limiting thoughts/conversations you might be engaging could be "being vague" sounds like : Maybe I'll do it sometime next month..; "Solidifying" sounds like: My opinion is rock solid. I have low self esteem - that's just the way it is; "Being a victim or martyr" sounds like I tried so hard and gave so much, but nobody responded... These are but a few of the over 20 symptoms of self limiting conversation...and here's one that really interesting: "Fragmentation" sounds like: There's a part of me that doesn't have a clue or this one: "Deflection" which is making a joke that deflects/derails the conversation and takes the attention off of you....Hey I know I have money in the bank I still have checks....or something like that.

If you find this interesting and would like to know more about self limiting thoughts/conversation - lets do some coaching together and see what might be your favorites that are keeping you from reaching for what you want in life or what you want your life to stand for. or just engage with in on this blog and find out more...

Driven Behavior Wastes Energy

12/20/2011 14:51:00

Following based on Information from The Energy of Money by Maria Nemeth, phd and founder of The Academy for Coaching Excellence - with some of my own wording - the message is viable especially now. Money, Time, Physical Vitality, Creativity, Enjoyment and Relationship are energies available to you in Physical reality - all of these energies are utilized and yet Driven Behavior can waste all of them.

Many of us use the "just do it" or "going for it" mode and try powering our way through everything. If something doesn't work we may even try to do more of whatever we're doing - just a little bit harder. Running full speed down your path may not be the best path to take. You might want to know how to use your energy wisely.

We can't reach our dreams by just any action - our lists, our goals, our plans or our endless activity will get us to sleep deprivation, exhaustion, and more but they won't get us any closer to our dreams. Activity in physical reality that is not anchored in Intentions we have for our life or Life Intentions is what creates the endless cycle of driven behavior. It's like buzzing in fast circles on a hot day; produces a lot of noise and activity but leaves behind nothing of substance. Without connection to our purpose, direction, aim or dreams all the activity in the world (driven behavior) will not get us any closer to realizing them...

Authentic Action verses driven behavior and how to observe the difference: Authentic Action either moves you forward toward a goal (demonstrates a dream or idea or vision and an area or object toward which play is directed in order to score) or clears or cleans something up - release more energy for use and there is a since of "joy" - it just seems right, and it's deeply satisfying. Driven behavior on the other hand will look like this: repetition,limited satisfaction and perfectionism. You do or think something over and over even if it causes you trouble or needless effort. As Rita Mae Brown put it " "Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, expecting different results"

Have you had enough of that would it be all right with you to experience a little more joy?

Encountering Miracles

12/16/2011 11:49:00

Are you willing to have miracles in your life? Did you know that you can encounter them on a regular basis? How you may ask. Well consider the following definition for "miracle" to begin with - Willa Cather writes in Death Comes for the Archbishop. "Miracles rest not so much upon healing power coming suddenly near us from afar but upon our perceptions being made finer, so that for a moment our eyes can see and our ears can hear what has been there around us always".

You & I have conclusions about everything in life, don't we. We can enlarge our term from conclusion to structure of knowing. A structure of knowing is a mental model that involves all of our thoughts, theories, opinions, and beliefs about something. We have structures of knowing about everything even about what constitutes a real Thanksgiving meal, How the tree should be decorated or do you even have a tree. If not this, you have other structures of knowing, how to take care of a car or even which way the roll of toilet paper must go on (over or under)...Outside of our structures of knowing are so many other possibilities - they are what we call miracles, and they are really just ordinary events that are outside our current structure of knowing. Everything that is ordinary in your life today at one point was a miracle. (like going from a tricycle to bicycle, driving a car, or being the owner of your own business) Your structure of knowing expands and the miracle becomes ordinary. In order to encounter miracles in your life, you must be willing to question everything you think you know. People who are successful and by successful I mean - doing what you said you would do consistently with clarity, focus, ease and grace, question even their most closely held beliefs. Nothing will harm you when you question what you know. It's uncomfortable, but it leads to clarity. Structures of knowing can outlive their usefulness and they can keep us from seeing new possibilities. You'll know it's time to shift to new possibilities when your current structure of knowing is being used as an excuse for not keeping your promises, to keep old grievances alive, and when there is no joy or satisfaction in everyday events. You must first observe that you have a structure of knowing to dismantle it, once dismanteled you can shift the focus of attention to other possibilities and therefore encounter miracles.

Foundation for Goals

12/02/2011 16:44:00

I have found through my training and through working with clients and groups that there is such a wonderful difference in connecting goals to a dream, vision or intention that has meaning for you verses just setting up a bunch of goals with no foundation. Without Foundation you can not build a very strong structure so why would you want to design goals that have no foundation - if you are doing so you are creating a to do list or tasks - goals that are built upon what has meaning for you can be "fun" and they can fully demonstrate who you are and what your here to accomplish -

Being a coach is not about creating goals for clients and pushing them to do anything - being a coach is about creating an environment in which your client or clients can explore or discern what has meaning for them either personally or professionally, and designing goals that are reflective of that. Its about providing them tools that they can use even when they are no longer seeing you - tools and principles that can fully shift how they experience life!...The experiences created that just say "it doesn't get any better than this"...

That's what it was like for me as a student of these principles, and that's what its like every time I have a client, and we jointly create a space or environment in which they see something so clearly that has always been there...It's just the best and such a privilege to be part of.

Energy of Relationship

11/21/2011 19:22:00

Relationship, Support & Tonglen

When we seek connection, we restore the world to wholeness. Our seemingly separate lives become meaningful as we discover how truly necessary we are to each other." ...Margaret Wheatley

"Someone who is willing to step forward and help is much more courageous than someone who is merely fulfilling the role."...Margaret Wheatley

As taken from the book "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying" written by: Sogyal Rinpoche - "One modern figure who dedicated her life to serving the sick and dying and who radiated this joy of giving and receiving was Mother Teresa. I know of no more inspiring statement of the spiritual essence of Tonglen than these words of hers:

" We all long for heaven where God is, but we have it in our power to be in heaven with Him at this very moment. But being happy with Him now means:

Loving as He loves,

Helping as He helps,

Giving as He gives,

Serving as He serves,

Rescuing as He rescues,

Being with Him twenty-four hours,

Touching Himin his distressing disguise."

"A love as vast as this cured Geshe Chekhawa's lepers of their Leprosy; it could also perhaps cure us of a disease even more dangerous: of that Ignorance, which life after life has hindered us from realizing the nature of our mind, and so of attaining liberation."...Sogyal Rinpoche

Safe Place Creation Steps (no matter where you are)

11/19/2011 16:41:00

Willing (a call to being) Who are you willing to be?

Dismantle (a call to observation) Discern which thoughts are worth focusing on.

Demand (a call to surrender) to all the lessons available to you.

Guarantee (a call to action) that who ever or what ever coaches you is successful as you demonstrate authentic action based upon the interaction and by doing what you said you would do (when you notice your not - simply be willing to do it)...

More Drama or Dreams Come True

11/16/2011 21:22:00

What is it that can observe our thoughts and not just think them? Is it truly who we are? If we can observe our thoughts than we are not our thoughts we are more, and it's a good thing - can you imagine if you truly were only your thoughts? Think of all the thoughts you've had and all the thoughts your going to have that even in the moment of having them you wished to didn't!

Like the experience of driving and all the thoughts about yourself and other drivers on the road that you come up with - can you imagine if your were those thoughts? I can imagine and I know for certain I am not my thoughts and yet which thoughts, beliefs, conclusions and opinions I choose to focus on (which you & I can do ) - not only limits our vision in seeing all the evidence available as it will have us only seeing that which proves it, creates how we show up in physical reality, and creates the experiences that we have with others, and what their experiences are with us.

So do we want our experience of physical reality to be a reflection of all those thoughts about our Drama or Drama's or that of our Dreams, vision and what we are meant to contribute? Who are you willing to be, what thoughts are you willing to observe in order to move beyond how they limit you, Are you willing to surrender to all the lessons that are available to you, and once you have done that are you willing to take authentic action towards that which reflects who you truly are, and when your not doing that are you willing to begin?...