Have you ever walked a labyrinth? It’s an interesting experience. It’s an activity that I think imitates life. My business development seems to have been like walking a labyrinth, a circular path that gets ever tighter and closer as I progress. I’m inviting you to join me on this evolutionary journey and see how it mirrors your life.
Phase I
This may be the first you’ve read my work. You may have been with me from the beginning. I created Live In Focused Energy with the notion that people would have a better life if they’d focus their thoughts and energy on what was at hand, and on their dreams and goals. I believe that when we pay attention to our mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual energies we create a life of more integrity. The thoughts we allow and encourage, the feelings we nurture, the food we eat, and the way we live in the world weave together to make us who we are. The question is, is that person living up to their own standard and living into their best self?
Do you live in focused energy? Are you living up to your own standards and into your best self? If not, do you know what your first step should be? That’s why you’re here: I can guide you in those steps and the plan for the subsequent steps. That’s the kind of leader I am.
Phase II
Coming from the hospitality industry, where I spent 20 years of my life before launching LIFE, I understood that innkeepers and those in other areas of hospitality could also benefit from focusing their energy and attention — and money. I love the hospitality industry and appreciate those who step into that way of life. I understand their challenges and joys. I knew I could continue helping them be better innkeepers and people with my LIFE program.
You may not be in the hospitality business yourself, but you may be a small-business owner. Either way, the focus of your life is vital for your health and wealth, for your joy and sense of accomplishment and freedom. Are you as free and joyous as you want to be? How can you have more of that in your life? Ah, you’re in the right place again! This is where I shine, guiding people to free themselves and gain more joy.
Phase III
Maybe you discovered me when I was focusing on working with ADD entrepreneurs. After discovering the impact ADD had on my life because of my husband’s and my “different flavors” of ADD, I realized that many others with that special brain wiring also struggled. Focusing energy still applied to helping ADDers, as I call people with ADD, learn to master their mind and ADD characteristics to make the differences in and contributions to the world they were made for.
The interesting thing about talking with ADDers and others who feel different is that everyone benefits from the same lessons. Everyone benefits from proper nutrition, sleep, movement, and mental exercises. Everyone benefits by focusing on their strengths rather than their weaknesses. Do you feel like a misfit? Do you take proper care of yourself? How can you do better and in what area(s) of your life? Ooooh! Ooooh! I know the answer to that — and will be glad to help you reach that answer too.
Phase IV
Then I walked the Camino de Santiago. That could be when you came into my life. What a transformative experience. And that caused a slight shift in wording in my message to my audience. I realized from my Camino that you can transform your life when you learn to overcome your obstacles, manage your challenges, and clear your chaos. That transformation takes focused energy.
While relatively few walk the Camino de Santiago, “life is like a Camino”, and you get tested in the same sorts of ways the Camino tested me. Life has its hills and valleys to traverse. Life has varying weather conditions to be handled. You can learn to simplify your life or stay burdened. You can learn to go through life one step at a time — or try to take shortcuts, or have someone else do the walking for you, only to learn that it can really only be done by you step at a time. Have you learned how expectations negatively impact your life? Aspirations lift you and move you forward, while expectations bind your heart and mind, weigh you down, and hold you back – a reality I witnessed time and again on the Camino and in others’ day-to-day lives.
Phase V
When my storytelling coach and mentor invited me to figure out the “enemy” I help my clients fight, I realized that fear was my foe. This may be the point where you met me. Fear, I believe, is the driving force of all that holds us back, or the negative force that drives us forward. I further believe fear is a dark energy that can be overcome. You deserve a life of joy and celebration. That’s impossible with fear wrapped around you and coursing through your veins. When you focus your energy on mastering your mind, and building your self-confidence and self-love, you can start to transform your life.
When you get a handle on your own story you better understand how you fit into your world. It’s good to learn how the stories you tell yourself shape your world and create your reality. Are you telling the right stories, the best stories? Are you focusing your energy on fact or fiction? How much does fear make up your life? Are you ready to change that?
The Unfolding
The evolution of Live In Focused Energy has been gradual. I’ve loved it! But, it may have confused my followers. Those who couldn’t connect the dots of “Focused Energy” to the topics I was writing about or to what was written before or after when they discovered me drifted away. They couldn’t see how my words applied to them. That’s my bad for not speaking for clearly, more plainly or connecting the dots for people.
But really, each step is interrelated and might reflect where you are on your journey. You’ve probably been walking alongside me for some of it!
Live in focused energy is still my mantra. When I look more closely, I see it takes shedding fear and breaking out of the resistance that binds us to live most joyously in that focused energy.
Ultreia is a word I learned on my first Camino and connected with on my second Camino. It means onward and upward with joy. That’s my new battle cry. It beautifully describes how a transformed life feels.
Ultreia!
As I continue to walk the LIFE labyrinth, I get closer to the more precise message I want to share and teach. Getting close to the center is giving me the tools and words to help people make more of their lives. Everyone can benefit from a coach, a guide, a leader. We can’t see what we can’t see. We’re too close to our own situations. We have a blind spot in our vision. We get so familiar with our own routines we can’t see where we are going wrong or how we could do and be better. That’s what my writing, teaching, coaching, and speaking are about — helping people be more of who they can be.
You’re walking your life labyrinth too, even if you don’t recognize it. The challenge I have for you is: are you getting closer to your core of understanding and purpose? Will you know if you are hovering on the outside of the labyrinth or honing in on the core? That’s what you need coaches or guides for. The first step is free. You fill out a questionnaire and we talk about your answers for about an hour, and then see where you want to go from there. Click here for the questionnaire.