by Karen McMullen on March 24, 2010

Welcome to your Life. There are no Instructions.
How to Live your Life’s Purpose.

by Karen McMullen

To live your best life there is no road-map. There is no guidebook. There are no instructions. You can’t paint by numbers and those who try to tell you where to go can’t possibly know which destination is best for you.

There are instructions, guides and maps on how to follow someone else’s path but that’s not what you want anyway. Once you decide to step into your unique life purpose, the only one who can guide you there is you.
Your challenge as an adult is that you’ve experienced years of conditioning that suggests that you don’t know what is best for you.

Instead of learning how to masterfully listen to your own inner guidance, in school you learned through a “paint by numbers” approach: “If you simply graduate, get a degree, specialize in a profession, then you will get result B: a house, car, career and a family.” According to this model, your only job is to follow the steps laid out for you, to paint in the numbered blank spaces and you will achieve the desired outcome.

For some this approach works. However, if you are reading these words, you have arrived here because there is something MORE nagging within you, a calling to express your deepest purpose. And there is no Masters program that can teach you that. There is no “How to be (insert your name)” course that will tell you what is the highest and best use of your specific talents.

Since there are no directions, maps or guidebooks, it’s no wonder that you may feel lost at sea in your life. With no one to tell us where to go, and no mastery in guiding ourselves, it makes sense that less than half of North Americans have chosen work that they enjoy or that expresses their purpose for living.

Fortunately for you, you already have all the navigational equipment that you need to guide yourself to a fulfilling, abundant and successful life path.

Your Navigation Tool #4 Follow your Bliss

Because your end goal is to enjoy your life, you can’t get there through hard-work and suffering. The old paradigm says, you need to slog your way through a, b, c, and d before you get to sit back and enjoy your life.

This is simply not the way the world works. You don’t achieve freedom and happiness, through hard-work and suffering. Suffering begets suffering. When you are caught in the feeling-place of slogging, you don’t have access to the solutions and circumstances that will align you with your best life and highest potential.

Think of it like a radio station. When you are tuned to 98.5 FM, you don’t expect to pick up the tunes on 101.3 FM. Radio frequencies don’t work that way! In the same way, if you want to live a purposeful and passionate life, you have to attune your own radio dial to the energy of purpose and passion. From the radio station of “slogging-through-another-day-at-work”, it is literally impossible for you to access the inspired ideas and circumstances that will guide you to purpose and passion.

When you decide to follow your bliss, you are well on your way to living your life’s calling. Do whatever it takes to tune your radio channel to feeling good. When you feel crappy, “following your bliss” might mean hunkering down for a night of TV and chocolate. It doesn’t matter what you do. Make one of your guiding principles, a commitment to feel good now. When you reach that good-feeling place, your calling is ready and waiting for you.

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The Joy of Sustaining: 3 tips to keep you keeping on!

by Karen McMullen on January 9, 2010

Are you a day-in day-out routine and reliable kind of person?
If so, you are likely quite comfortable with “sustaining”. The ability to sustain means that you can continue with a project, career or goal for an extended period of time without interruption.

What is the point of keeping on keeping on? When you stay the course of any project or path you create the possibility for mastery. Without the capacity to sustain something, your world would become a spring garden of sprouts with no fruit or flowers.

The question is: Are the projects/career that you sustain on a daily basis leading you to mastery in an area that sustains you? Whether or not you like it, you are becoming a master in the areas where you devote your attention over time. Are those areas rich and fulfilling to you?

Sustaining becomes a slog when you lack vision, forget to enjoy yourself and are doing the wrong things for the wrong reasons. So here are three tips to enhance your sustain-ability.

#3 Create a compelling vision.

A vision is a clear view of where you are and where you are going. A compelling vision is one that inspires you towards it! Shackleton and his crew were able to sustain themselves while stranded for a year and a half in the antarctic because Shackleton provided an unwavering vision of rescue and home. Without an enticing vision of where you are going, the mind says “what’s the point in all this effort? Bah!”

To create a compelling vision, ask yourself: “what would an exceptional scenario look like for my career?” Get a sense of the big picture. How many people would you work with? Where would you work? How would you be contributing? Draw it, write it or tell your friend about it.

#2 Include JOY.

Without the ‘good stuff’ of joy, fun and love, sustaining becomes a slog. This is not to say that their won’t be times of hard-work and perseverance. Even so, the overall balance must be tipped in the direction of enjoyment for your path to truly sustain your mind, body and spirit.

To include enjoyment in your projects make a list of instant-joy-makers. What brings you joy instantly and reliably? Now, how can you bring that into your work-day?

#1 Do the right things for the right reasons.

The most valuable asset that you have is your time. All the money in the world won’t serve you if you have no time to enjoy it. Anything that you do that takes up hours of your day needs to be important enough to you to warrant regular participation.

As a serial creator, I find it very helpful to consider two questions prior to initiating a project:

“Is this creation worthy of my time and attention over an extended period?”
“Is this creation something that I am willing to tend to and care for until it’s full fruition?”

When you choose projects/a career that compels you in the direction you want your life to go, is pleasurable and important to you, sustaining becomes natural and easy. The energy that you spend becomes sustainable because you are fueling your own fire.

Join us on the free tele-seminar, 3 secrets you need to know to Rock 2010 with your passion for life and plan a 2010 that is truly sustainable. For details go to http://tinyurl.com/y8t8pwv

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Start Now: Initiate!

January 9, 2010

To initiate is to “cause a process or action to begin.” When we initiate, we become the cause of something that wouldn’t exist otherwise.
To me, initiating and creativity are intimate partners. The best part is that initiating is a practice that can be learned! Here are a few easy steps to get you going:
1) Notice [...]

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From hesitation to creation!

January 9, 2010

Picture this: 10 people. Each kneels before a large blank paper. In everyones hand is a mop-sized paint brush oozing black ink and poised to mark the page. Creative tension presses heavily. It is the moment between the nothingness of the blank page and the somethingness of the mark.
We are at a calligraphy workshop with [...]

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Start Now: From brain-clutter to clarity!

January 9, 2010

Step 1: Inventory of incompletions:
Make an inventory of everything that you have left undone in your life. Leave no stone unturned!
What significant communications have you left unsaid? (Hint: if you think of it three times or more, it is a significant communication)
What debts/or money owed are lingering?
Are there any feelings that you are avoiding?
Do you [...]

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Start Now: A friendly step into the Drop Zone

January 9, 2010

This 5-10 minute activity will assist you in identifying areas of your life that are best dropped entirely and then, how to face your fears and come up with creative solutions.
Step 1: Inquire.
Take a full breath from the belly to chest and let go of your exhale. Do this a few times, focusing on letting [...]

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The Drop Zone: Free fall to Butterfly!

January 9, 2010

“How does one become a butterfly?” “You must want to fly so much you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.” (Hope for the Flowers)
For many of us, we choose to stay caterpillars until life circumstances force us out of the cuccoon. We prefer to stay within the comfort of the familiar, rather than [...]

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