Step Two was about writing your own affirmations to help you stay positive.

Step Three got you off the sofa and exercising your right to be fit and trim.

Step Four was all about taking the time to meditate and getting centered in your universe.

Step Five found you getting silly and feeling better for letting your hair way down.

Step Six You know what it is. No, well then get quiet ask your Intuition.

Step Seven is about empowering the world when you volunteer.

Step Eight gave you permission to whine a little bit. Just a little bit.

Step Nine taught you that “Just” is just another four-letter word.

Now that we are on Step 10. I hope that you will all keep your eye on all the things that make us grateful to be alive at the beginning of 2010.  We have come a long way. We know that having a fulfilling and fun life (yes, life needs to be fun for adults also) can mean shattering the glass ceiling or painting it purple. We have seen the rewards that hard work can bring, and we should always look forward to changing or reinventing ourselves whether it is where we will live, whom we will love or what laws and social mores will work for us. Or need to be changed.

Some days, gratitude shows up; some days, we have to dig deep for it, but it is there. At the end of a long day,  go over all the things you are grateful for: your child’s smile, an opportunity to help someone, the weather did not cause a bad hair day, your husband’s offer to cook (or bring home take out) and a foot rub that will bring a perfect ending to a day that started out 18 hours earlier. Keep the knowledge that in the days to come, you will see glimmers of happiness and potential as long as you stay alert and open to what life will throw your way and know for sure that the good news is that there is good news in our lives.

        

Step Two was about writing your own affirmations to help you stay positive.

Step Three got you off the sofa and exercising your right to be fit and trim.

Step Four was all about taking the time to meditate and getting centered in your universe.

Step Five found you getting silly and feeling better for letting your hair way down.

Step Six You know what it is. No, well then get quiet ask your Intuition.

Step Seven is about empowering the world when you volunteer.

Step Eight gave you permission to whine a little bit. Just a little bit.

My hearing (or lack of it, according to some people) has become highly sensitive to the expression that begins with, “I’m just….”

Maybe it comes from years of personal experience, but I try to be so careful about what I say about myself —either to myself or to the general public.

Most women don’t say the words, “I’m just” and follow it with…“fabulous,” “so excited about my job (or future),” “so mindful of my own goodness,” “a healthy person with so much energy” or phrases like, “I am just so grateful to be able to get up each day and explore new options.”

No, nowadays it seems to proceed, “I’m just not getting anyplace with this job”; “I’m just never going to move ahead with my life”; and my least favorite, “I’m just not good enough to matter.”

You can change the way you view yourselves by adjusting the “just channel” in your heads. It won’t happen overnight, but you can start by becoming aware of their self-defeating slogans.

Try to look at it this way – when we were kids, we couldn’t say certain words or else we would suffer some nasty consequences. Start to think of “I’m just” as a phrase that could cause your dear great grandmother Tillie to faint dead away. Or even better, utter those words and have a “time out corner” dedicated in your name. Let “I’m just” start to taste like Irish Spring on your tongue. I can still taste it, but that’s a whole different story.  Mmmmm…good.

One way to strike it rich before “I’m just” leaves your repertoire is to keep a jar handy and every time you say that dastardly expression, throw in a dollar. You just might jet off to Europe for a month’s vacation, all expenses paid, or you just might end up with moths flying around the jar.

I am just so sure that we can change the way we think about ourselves.

Ralphie from ‘A Christmas Story’ said he became a connoisseur of soap because his mom so often stuck bars of soap in his mouth.  I wonder if it was for saying “just?”

        

Step Two was about writing your own affirmations to help you stay positive.

Step Three got you off the sofa and exercising your right to be fit and trim.

Step Four was all about taking the time to meditate and getting centered in your universe.

Step Five found you getting silly and feeling better for letting your hair way down.

Step Six You know what it is. No, well then get quiet ask your Intuition.

Step Seven is about empowering the world when you volunteer.

Okay it is time to take off the sweet persona that we show to the world and whine, but only for less than five minutes. Otherwise, it starts to get ugly.

Who said a dream recognized would mean a life without annoying interruptions? I know better than to utter those words.

We live here and we can’t all go move to a deserted island. Oh, some could, but then we’d have a lot of people wanting to visit and that would get annoying. Insert whine.

Since we are all living on this planet, the deal is to let everyone live in peace, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get crabby once in a while. It’s alright.  It’s our right.  We need to know that to whine is divine as long as something good comes out of it. It could be the end of a relationship that has been toxic, a new idea cropping out of all the venting, or a feeling of cleansing and freedom.

If it’s good for the soul than I approve.  In fact, I feel a whine coming on right now. Four minutes and 27 seconds.  I just beat my best time and I feel so much better.

Whine on!

        

But sometimes quiet can be nice.

I finally had to bring in our latest and oldest cat, Mickey, to the vet. Mickey had been living under the false pretenses that litter boxes are for other cats.  I explained that our peaceful home had become a battlefield (and bathroom) due to a few personality clashes. $300 later they agreed with me. Could have saved a lot of money (translation- more shoes) if they listened to me in the first place. We both coughed up a fur ball but not before getting prozac for Mickey. Tuna flavored.  Was told it goes well with red wine.

It is amazing what we will do to get some peace and quiet. All those products from ear plugs to 3 months on an ashram. I couldn’t do the latter without a razor and gum. And red wine. With a side of tuna prozac.

FYI – both Duncan and Mickey are on prozac but the fighting goes on. I find it does take the edge off for me.  Walter, the quiet man, is getting used to my tuna flavored prozac breath.  

        

I am lucky to say that I live with a wonderful ex-chef who makes fabulous meals.  He has agreed to help me out (after about 6 days of begging but whatever works!). I bought the Flat Belly cookbook and he even “post-it” a few recipes but said most of them are about portion control.

I realized sadly that I normally eat twice my weight when my chef takes a night off and we order take out. So I told him no more take out and on the evenings that he deserves a night off, I will find myself in the kitchen and putting together something that resembles food. So this was good news. Today is Day One. Yesterday was Moe’s Mexican food.                      

The other thing I realized that is has to taste so bloody good for me to go off this new way of eating – my new lifestyle. If I am going to have the best Mexican food again it will be from the Mexican deli on Valencia in San Francisco. It will also be a very expensive meal since I live in NY. So I will let you know when hell freezes over.

I did more work on the coaches on the edge’s book proposal and got some of it back from my copyeditor friend. Once these sections are done – we will be that much closer to getting it out to overly eager literary agents who will get us a great publisher who will give us anything we want. That’s legal.

I am keeping this short and I hope you will join in and let us know how you are doing and how we can help keep you on track. One of the things I want to do is take better care of me. So I did 2.14 miles on the treadmill and now I am off to have a HOT, smoothing bath. Here is NY the wind is whipping and the temps are really dipping below zero.   

So do tell!

        

elizabeth: Some voices come with the sugary, succulent juice of kindness slipping off the chin. And some voices look at the seeds of a fried jalapeño pepper as their daily multiple vitamin.

We all have a voice that the world needs to hear. Some of us bellow from the rooftops while others talk right into their chests allowing only their heart to hear. Those are the people who drive me to distraction and back. To deny one his/her voice takes away from what the rest of us have been hammering home about.

A wonderful Italian proverb makes its case against silence: Silence was never written down. I say don’t leave this planet without the benefit of your voice being heard. If you are willing to see how your voice sounds, your words could change the world.  Can you imagine a world without Sylvia Plath, Tennessee Williams, Lennon/McCartney or myself?  I always wanted to be in the same sentence as with John Lennon. See what having a voice does? It gives you permission.

Annie: We need to be proud and speak without fear.  Our biggest fear is of not being liked or accepted.  Isn’t that silly because not everyone can like us.  When we stay small and don’t dare to rock the boat with our words we live in a wizened little world.  Like a crazen (a dried cranberry raisen), we feel a little more trapped every day.

We gotta take risks to speak what isn’t spoken. I like to call it speaking raw and real.  Do you want people to get the fake you or the real deal?  It’s up to you.

elizabeth: Fear is one of those roadblocks that prevents a pile up of thoughts from going

anywhere. Blogging has allowed me the freedom to say whatever I want. Okay, I am one of these people who will never hurt or put down (except for a few politicians and then I can’t help myself) others but I will tackle an idea that rubs me the wrong or right way.

I will be sassy, sarcastic and over the top but then there are those moments (and they are rare) where I will be loving and selfless to the point where my family and friends won’t recognize me. But if it calls for it, then I can allow that writing side of me out of the trapdoor. And then I am only too happy to lock it up again.

So I am a blogger who lives to find the right phrase or word that can turn someone’s life around by making them stop and think. And making them laugh out loud. So if that makes me a lover of five alarm hot sauce, then please pass me the bottle. 

Annie: I will pass you the bottle as soon as I’m finished with it.  Ok here it comes, I just

poured it all over my computer to make sure that I don’t skimp on the spice in my blog.  I

dare to say it raw and real because that’s what the world needs . Even though it is scary, hey I like to be liked too, I’d rather risk than die unlived. And that’s what happens when we don’t speak truth.  We die with bundles of words tied up inside of us.

There is a story about an Italian mailman who felt his mail bundle was too heavy.  Every day he would stop by his house and drop off a few letters so his load was lighter.  Years later they found a mountain of undelivered letters at his house!  Don’t let your words go undelivered. Take courage, team up and go for it.  Spicy, hot, sweet, straight and juicy.  That’s our style and we hope it makes a difference in your world.

Yours in speaking loud and proud,

Annie and elizabeth!

Annie Hart, NLP Trainer, Ericksonian Hypnotherapist and Storyteller Extraordinaire, helps individuals and businesses to harness the power of change through story. She is fun, funny, fiery and out of the box. Annie believes that Stories Change the World and she can be found wildly and passionately blogging at: www.anniehart.com.

elizabeth cassidy, certified life and career coach for women who are looking to reach and surpass their dreams, is the founder of Branching Out Life Coaching. She is the Co-Creator/Founder of Coaches on the Edge – a blog that mixes wit and wisdom with life coaching. Visit us at Coaches on the Edge. Along with her blogging partner, Laurie Lawson, they are national bloggers for Skirt! and their blogs have been featured on USA Today.com, Daylife.com, NPR.com, NBC.com, Treehugger.com and The India Times. You can read elizabeth’s own thought provoking and amusing blogs at Branchingoutlifecoaching

        

it’s such a wonderful time of the year. My husband is snoring to the 12 days of Christmas, my lab is jumping up and letting me know that she is not naughty but nice, my 2 male cats cornered another male under the tree and he left sugar plums. Yum. Where are the Halls when you want to deck something?

Maybe mine need some schooling on how to get along.

Nay, they like to mess around with their nine lives!

        

Step Two was about writing affirmations to help you stay positive.

Step Three got you off the sofa and exercising your right to be fit and trim.

Step Four was all about taking the time to meditate and getting centered in your universe.

Wonder what Step 5 can be about? I would like you to throw your own party. The theme? What’s a party nowadays without a theme?  Let’s try Celebrate Me party! Throw it for 100 or just light a few candles and treat yourself to a lovely repast. Maybe dessert by candlelight. I can make that one. Make fun invitations and send them out to your family and friends who already know how fabulous you are! Tell them on the appointed date that they are invited to come and celebrate you. Feeling generous? How about telling everyone attending to bring a list of the 100 best things they have ever done in their lives? Okay, make that 10.

The world can be an unforgiving place to live in and some days the moods of our loved ones are more down than up. You have the power to lift your spirits and those around you and you don’t need fairy dust. It gets into my hair. Do something silly. One of my favorites is having everyone show up wearing a feather and rhinestone encrusted chapeau. Not your style? Well have everyone show up in any hat as long as it’s not a baseball cap (or football or basketball). Help people stretch beyond their everyday lives and watch them become the creative souls they have yet to discover.

And don’t forget to invite me. I can party with the best of them. I have had a little practice. 

federico stevanin / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

FreeDigitalPhotos.net

        

I was one lucky intuitive coach wanna be when I heard about Tara Roth.  She is clever, insightful and brings much to all who want to learn more about their intuition and how it will make their lives better.

Tara just posted her first You Tube video and I wanted to share it with you all. More to come, but you knew that.

        

Once upon a time, people wrote letters, peeled a stamp off their tongues and recited a silent prayer that their words would make it across the world or across town. While man wrote on cave walls and woman doused their love letters in cheap perfume, it was inevitable that one day all that would come to pass.  In its wake would arise communicating in a nanosecond with your friends, family and the world at large. I don’t know if you got the announcement but your computer gave birth to a weblog in 1998.   They call it blog for short. It’s a family name. 

Now for those of you (and you know who you are) who think blogging is for everyone else – think again. It used to be that Facebook was for 20 somethings, but now their parents and grandparents are taking over. There is power in numbers and in our words.  We’ve got to get hip and we’ve got to get on the wave of the future.

Below are some of the reasons why you should be blogging. Read them now.  You’ll blog us later.

From Annie:

1. First of all, we ole’ folks need to get on the wave.  We don’t want to be out of it or left back in the dust with the dinosaurs right? If you’re over forty or fifty in my case and you feel freaked out by blogging then I suggest you take a class, read a book, take a course or call me or Elizabeth. We’ll convince you that you can do it.  Blogging and social media are the hip tools of today.  Ok, so I know the word hip is dating me but how about this – it’s cool to be a blogger.  Listen if we can do it, so can you.  While you’re at it get rid of the out-of-date platform shoes in your closet (for women) and (for men) dump the old leisure suit that you’re never going to wear.  If you’re going to blog, you at least need to look decent.

2. You want to get your message out to the world right?  Well then this is simply the best way to do it.  Enough said.

2 ½. It’s fun.  Believe it or not, once you get over the hump, it’s actually enjoyable  :>)

From elizabeth:

3. We all have thoughts and opinions on what is going on in our lives, our neighbor’s   lives and the world at large. So let us know how global warming, mixing plaids with stripes or how the political scene is shaping up or destroying your world. Pick a subject that keeps you up at night and blog about it. When you write with passion, the world will beat a path to your door. Okay, they may knock at first, but people will come back for more when you tell us what you think, why you think it and how you plan on enlightening us in the future. Not a heavy  thinker and  have been known to crack a joke or two at the wrong time – like science class or in the middle of performing an emergency appendectomy? Then write a blog that will make people laugh and let your readers stumble upon it, follow or share it, tweet it with everyone they know.  Just write your blog as if the world depended on your voice getting out there.  And some days, you never know, it just might.

4. You are blogging up a storm and you are getting a following without starting a cult.  It feels great to have people clinging to your every word and your mother is thrilled to see how many people are leaving comments. But you just keep blogging and you forget to respond to the people who take the time to praise or scorn you. You remind us of those guys who promised to call but never did. After a while, you just start to fade from their collective memories and you are blogging to yourself. Do take the time to respond to those who take the time to let you know that you impacted their lives. Start a conversation and give people a platform to be heard.  More than likely someone will say something brilliant and viola’ – you got yourself a new blog.

Annie Hart, NLP Trainer, Ericksonian Hypnotherapist and Storyteller Extraordinaire, helps individuals and businesses to harness the power of change through story. She is fun, funny, fiery and out of the box. Annie believes that Stories Change the World and she can be found wildly and passionately blogging at: www.anniehart.com.

elizabeth cassidy, certified life and career coach for women who are looking to reach and surpass their dreams, is the founder of Branching Out Life Coaching. She is the Co-Creator/Founder of Coaches on the Edge – a blog that mixes wit and wisdom with life coaching. Along with her blogging partner, Laurie Lawson, they are national bloggers for Skirt! and their blogs have been featured on USA Today.com, Daylife.com, Treehugger.com and The India Times. You can read elizabeth’s own thought provoking and amusing blogs at Branchingoutlifecoaching

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