My current task of coming up with a logo for my new personal development firm, inner architect has brought me to probe a number of questions that I don’t often think about. I’m sure I’m not the only one who spends more time thinking about what I am going to wear than reflecting on these questions that address life at the very core. I wanted to toss them out to give you something to chew on:

1. How do you want to be remembered?
2. What ideals do you represent?
3. What image would you pick to represent who you are?
4. Do your choices and actions align with that image?

I delivered the pdf file for my upcoming book, Inner Architect: How to Build the Life You Were Designed to Live, to the printer this past Thursday. On Friday afternoon something incredible hit me. I am in the process of bringing life to my dream! Holy cow. Why did it take me so long to see clearly what is right in front of me? What was I thinking to expect that one single event would bring my dream to life? It really is all about baby steps.

Three years ago this month, I walked away from a successful 20-year career in the corporate world to follow a dream. It hasn’t been an easy journey, that’s for sure, and I’ve got a ways to go. But I can see now that I am on my way.

Your way to your dream can be found in these steps:

1. Recognize that you have the choice to create a different life.
2. Believe that it is possible to successfully build your dream.
3. Define the obstacles that are holding you back.
4. Replace your obstacles with ideas that support you.
5. Give credibility to the desires of your heart and learn to trust it.
6. Outline your training and development needs.
7. Crystallize your vision.
8. Identify your major goals.
9. Define the steps necessary to achieve your goals.
10. Stay committed to doing the necessary work.
11. Support your external work with thoughts that help to build it.
12. See yourself now in the beginning stages of your new life.

Worry is nothing more than holding mental pictures of things you do not want.

–from I Can, by Ben Sweetland

I found this passage yesterday in the very first self-help book I ever bought. I can’t remember when or where I got my copy of I Can. All I know is that it is the 1978 edition of the book originally copyrighted in 1953.

The memory of this book came to me as I was thinking about my dreams for my work life and fighting the doubts that were darting through my mind. It was as if I was wrestling with what I knew I believed about my own potential and possibilities intellectually versus the doubtful thinking that seems to come so naturally. I really do believe I can do or be anything. But why does it have to be so hard fighting off the demons trying to tell me otherwise?

Can you relate?

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I had an experience yesterday while strolling the streets of a very affluent town that has lingered with me. Tucked away in this community that has been home to Hollywood celebrities and rock and roll stars is one of the finest private college preparatory schools in the country. With tuition at $31,315, this is an environment where great care is exercised to help students to fully realize their potential.

Standing atop a large rock in the midst of a meticulously landscaped flower garden, I felt surrounded by an energy of excited hope. It was Sunday, yet a well-equipped gym kept a trail of students coming and going. To my surprise, I felt my heart pang. I found myself wondering what my life would have been like if I had been similarly prepared.

I was raised in a working class European family with old country values. As the only daughter in the middle of two brothers, I was handed down the inspiration to get married and have children. College was neither encouraged or discouraged. I’ve since discovered that guidance for life ahead was a rare commodity among many in my generation. Get a degree and find a good job is about as deep as it got.

I don’t think times have changed too much. With a ratio of hundreds of students per career counselor in public schools today, there’s not a lot of personal attention going around to help students discover what they want to do with their lives. It astounds me that we remain a culture that places so little emphasis on preparing its individuals to live fulfilling, rich lives. All too often without that supportive guidance early on, we end up in mid-life feeling the clock ticking away the time we have left to create a legacy we can feel good about.

There is some good news to all of this:

1. It is never too late to realize your potential.
2. Some of us work better under pressure anyway.

www.innerarchitect.com

Those of you who have followed me for awhile have probably noticed that I haven’t been writing much lately. I’ve recently launched a new personal development firm, Inner Architect, and I’m in the midst of writing a new book, Inner Architect: How to Build the Life You Were Designed to Live. The result is that I’ve missed sharing my voice, that inner spirit that I believe is within all of us.

I continue to be surprised at the popularity of my articles about raising your vibration. So I want to do more to service that topic, beginning today.

Raising your vibration is not about esoteric ideas that you can employ every other Saturday during meditation. It’s all about making little shifts in how you show up in ordinary life that transform the energy of what you put out into the universe.

Today’s tip for raising your vibration: Watch Your Language

My father, who I adore, spent his career as a longshoremen on the docks of San Francisco and Oakland, so I am very familiar with “colorful” language. My dad has mellowed over time, and now retired for over 10 years, I honestly can’t recall the last time I heard him swear. Words that used to shock and embarrass me are gone. What remains is an energy of peace and a willingness to share life experiences.

Without even knowing, my father has raised his vibration in a way that influences everyone he meets.

Giving credibility to messages from your heart is a key step to happiness in all areas of your life. Yet most of us have not been taught to lead our lives this way. We may recognize that a fulfilled heart is the key to a happy life, yet we don’t often trust our hearts to lead us there. It is as if we expect that our heart is going to lead us down an irresponsible path of whim and wild.

How to trust your heart more than your analytical mind:

1. Allow your heart to play a role in all matters of your life, just as you allow it a significant role in your personal relationships.
2. Acknowledge that your heart is the center of your spiritual essence. As such, it is the most knowledgeable entity about who you really are at the core and what is right for you.
3. Believe that your heart always has your best interest in mind.
4. Practice following your heart for simple decisions so that you can build the experience to trust it in larger issues.

Money is such a driving force in our lives. It makes us do things we hate and holds us back from doing what we love. Have you ever thought that it’s not the money that holds the power? It’s what you allow your mind to believe about money.

This one-minute video is the first of a three-part series which showcases common erroneous views about money, and how you can change those views to free your mind.

Ask yourself…which of the following do you believe is the truth about money:

1. Your ability to generate money is tied to your job. Lose your job, lose your ability.
2. Opportunities to generate money are everywhere. You just need to open your mind to the possibilities.

Stay tuned for more.

http://www.innerarchitect.com

“The only lack is the fear of lack in the mind of man.”
—Charles Fillmore, Co-Founder of Unity

I am grateful for having been introduced to the spiritual laws of prosperity for they have shown me a very different way to view money. These views helped me to release my fears that kept me clinging to a job that no longer fit.

It is possible to let go of the security of a paycheck and not live in a constant state of fear. Stay tuned to my continuing video series, Becoming an Inner Architect, and you’ll be shown how.

View Part 1 of the video series

View Part 2 of the video series

http://www.innerarchitect.com

You don’t get to choose how you’re going to die or when. You only get to choose how you’re going to live. —Joan Baez

One of the most difficult ideas for many of us to accept is how much choice we have in our lives. Yet an awareness of choice is so important because choice is the precursor to change.

So many times I hear people share how stuck they feel in jobs that no longer fit. I’ve been there myself. Yet there really is no such thing as being stuck because we always have choices.

If you are in a job that no longer fits, it’s time to focus on your options and make a choice:

Option #1: Stay in the status quo. Take no action and feel no differently.

Option #2: Make an adjustment somewhere in an effort to influence positive change

Option #3: Let go of your job and find something that fits you better.

Give yourself freedom to choose the option that best supports what you want to experience. Don’t limit your choices to the option that seems easiest. Remember, you are in control.

This video #2 in my series, Becoming an Inner Architect, supports the idea of choice and the options now in front of you. I elaborate more on these concepts in my upcoming book, Inner Architect: How to Build the Life You Were Designed to Live. For details on how to get a free copy of the first chapter and enter our Apprentice Contest, click here.

http://www.innerarchitect.com

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world”
—Gandhi

“If anybody wants to keep creating they have to be about change.”
—Miles Davis

“Things do not change; we change.”
—Henry David Thoreau

It’s all about change this presidential year. Things aren’t working for us, so we’re embracing the choice to bring in a new leader. Here’s an invitation to take this scenario and apply it to your personal life.

What’s not working for you? And what are your options for change?

Change is all about doing something differently. It’s about making a different choice in what you’d like to change.

What would you like to change?

What different choice can you make today?

Make that choice and take a step towards change.