What about our personal core values?

Leave a comment

Core values and our natural strengths, for the most part, may not be something that we are aware of or ever really think about. We may hear about the core values of the companies we work for and may have even written up some for our own businesses.

What about our personal core values? 

For whatever reason a lot of the messages we hear throughout our lives are NOT about how to claim our power. We hear messages like, “don’t let your head get too big, that is egotistical, who do you think you are, don’t brag and quit being a show off…”

I know for myself personally the first time my coach asked me what my core values and natural strengths were, I had no idea. In fact, I was so frustrated with this question it even seemed I was refusing to claim what my core values or strengths were.  It took me months before I was willing to acknowledge them. I remember yelling at my coach and on one call even hung up on him. I was a tough client.

It has been a journey over the last 9 years to learn and explore, down to the core, who I am. I am still exploring.

I truly believe that the foundation to happiness, growth and success is understanding and acknowledging what gives us energy and fulfillment in our personal and business life.

Which is why I am introducing you to this formula:
Natural Strengths + Core Values x Purpose = Passion

What are you naturally talented at? Things that come so easily to you that you might not even notice them. Maybe they are things that others say about you.

“You are a great listener, numbers come easy to you, you are creative; etc… “

What are the things that give you fulfillment in your life? What puts a smile on your face? What gives you energy?

A purpose can be the purpose in the moment, the purpose in a goal, and yes, even the purpose in your life.

Are you ready to start exploring? Check in with yourself right now. Do you feel excited, nervous or maybe even a little desire to avoid? All are very natural feelings. Just know that if you were not ready you would not have read through this whole email!

Your coach and partner,
Corinne McElroy

 

 

Are You in a Habit of Action or Inaction?

Leave a comment

Action is fascinating because action is habitual.  You can be in the habit of action or the habit of inaction – both having dramatically different results.  The more you create the habit of action, the more action you take.  And the more you create the habit of inaction, the harder it is to get started.

Which habit are you in? What holds you back?  All it takes is that first step.  Then another step.

No one EVER said it has to be the right step because you can adjust along the way.  It just has to be a step,  and all the rest will work itself out.

What is the moral of this story? Do not wait until your perfect plans are made and your fears are gone.

The perfect time is now.   Take the first step, then make the other steps a habit.

To your success and happiness
Corinne McElroy

What are you Attracting?

Leave a comment

There’s a spring in Marissa’s step, and she simply radiates positive, upbeat, can-do energy. She’s “in the flow.” Good things continue to happen in her work and personal life with seeming effortlessness.

Contrast this with Kelly, who puts in twice as many hours at work-super-long, hard hours every day-yet rarely achieves what she’s striving so hard to create.

What’s the difference? Hint: It has to do with Marissa’s ability to attract what she wants. However, this kind of attraction has nothing to do with looks.

Rather, it’s about Marissa’s ability to attract abundance by living in a way that’s in tune with her purpose, her passions, her most vital and alive self.

The law of attraction. It’s not just some woo-woo theory, it’s scientific: like matter attracts like. It’s similar to a radio broadcast: when tuned into a particular station, you will only hear (attract) the frequency of radio waves that match that station’s signal. And when that happens, everything seems easy, not a struggle.

“Once you change the way you are inside, the outer world changes,” writes Joe Vitale, author of the recent best-seller The Attractor Factor.

Vitale is one of dozens of authors who write persuasively on the subject, as is Sonia Choquette, author of Your Heart’s Desire: Creating the Life You Really Want. Most suggest the same key ingredients for attracting into your life what you want:

* Get clear on what you want and why. It’s not enough to know what you do not want. It is much easier to get what you want when know what it is that you want! Getting crystal clear is where the “magic” of attraction all begins.

* Imagine it. See it as happening. “Conscious change is brought about by the two qualities inherent in consciousness: attention and intention,” writes Deepak Chopra. “Attention energizes, and intention transforms. Whatever you put your attention on will grow stronger in your life.”

* Keep yourself receptive. Enjoy life, play, relax have FUN. Stress, exhaustion, sluggishness, etc., can all interfere with attraction. In the radio station analogy, they become the “static” that interfere with the “frequencies” of that which you’re wanting to attract. Though taking a day off to relax rather than working frantically may seem as difficult as stepping off a precipice, it can be just what is needed. At times we get to slow down to speed up.

* Listen to your intuitive nudges. Attraction isn’t about sitting back and waiting for it all to come to you. Action is always required to meet goals and make dreams come true. Vitale writes: “Your job is to ask for what you want, and then to act on the inner nudges you get to do things, like make phone calls, write letters, visit a certain person, or whatever.” Don’t worry if your “nudges” do not make immediate sense. The “why” will reveal itself later.

* Surrender control. This means to let go and trust. Let go of the particular way in which things will happen. Let go of fear, doubt, worry and disappointment. Let go of the notion of struggle. Trust that the outcome will be just right.

So whether it’s a job promotion, landing that huge client or buying a new house, claim your dream.

It’s yours if you want it!

To your success and happiness
Corinne

In Loving Memory

Leave a comment

Somehow it doesn’t feel right saying “Happy Memorial Day”.

Happy is not how I would describe remembering the deaths of almost  1.4 million Americans that died while in service to our country during one conflict or another.

I’m happy to be alive. I’m happy to have friends and family to spend my life with. I’m happy for the day off so I can have a barbecue. I’m happy that I can pursue even more happiness because of the freedom that was won and is still fought for by those serving today. Even more than happy I’m grateful.

I’m happy, I’m proud and I’m grateful, to be and live in America.

Remember the fallen, thank those that have served, pray that those now serving come home whole, and in gratitude, fly the Flag on Memorial Day.

Have a Grateful Memorial Day. Celebrate the pursuit of happiness.

We will too.

The team at Edge of Change

 

The Flip Side of Personal Growth

Leave a comment

The Flip Side of Personal Growth

flip-side-of-personal-growth

I have been guilty of it too many times to count. When I am working on a tough, deeply personal  goal that involves changing something about myself, I tend to get wrapped up in my own challenges. After all, it is my struggle. Nobody else can experience the frustrations or victories I feel in my pursuit of this goal, yet I know that everyone will feel the benefits of my success. Whether I am working on creating a successful business, earning a promotion or breaking a bad habit, I am motivated by the thought of creating a better life for the people I love. Chances are, you too get stuck in this train of thought too. Unfortunately, this focus on our own quest to achieve a goal often proves to be the one thing that prevents us from achieving it, and that’s because like everything else in life, personal growth cannot happen in a vacuum.

As we all know, personal growth involves getting outside of our comfort zone. We have to get out on the skinny branches in order to achieve something new and we can sometimes become blind to other people when we are busy charting a new course. Our focus on getting our of our own comfort zone makes us forget the flip side of this – that our comfort zone has become a part of the comfort zones of other people and we probably forgot to ask them to step out of their comfort zone with us. For example, when my daughters were young I started to lose weight. As a person who has struggled with weight most of my life this was a huge accomplishment for me and I was feeling fabulous. Then my youngest told me that I didn’t feel like mommy anymore and I started to believe that my husband wouldn’t like the thinner me either. I had lost a number of bonding activities with my girlfriends as I had been spending more time at the gym than I had with them and it suddenly felt like achieving this goal wasn’t worth everything I felt myself to be losing. So I gained back the weight, and some extra, and now I still have the goal of getting to a healthier weight and the guilt of a previous failure along with it. Additionally, I know that my loved ones would have loved the new me anyway.

Over the years of coaching I have seen many other people quit on their goals for the same reason I did. Fear that the achievement of it would come at too high of a cost, a fear that can only infect our thinking when we have forgotten to invite others into our change process. We need to recognize that our personal decision to change will make other people have to change too. They have to change their reactions to our behaviors, their estimation of us and they have to redefine themselves in relation to us.

Understanding this before and during our growth process makes the achievement of our goals exponentially easier. By thinking about the impact we have on others and asking them to join us in our quest to be a better person we simultaneously accomplish two things. We have shown the respect to those in our lives by inviting them in and we have created a support system for us as we start to climb our own Mt. Everest.

Coaches Challenge:

Whatever your mountain is think of everyone who you want at the summit with you. What considerations do you need to give them as you start your change process and how can you enlist them in the process? What concessions do you have to make for others to be a part of your team? Remember that the involvement of those that love you will be the one thing that makes achieving your goal possible.