Thanks to my friend, Rebecca Newburn, the Visionary Educator, I discovered something called afformations.

Yep, I spelled it correctly.

I am constantly interested in The Secret, the Law of Attraction, and anything about shifting energy to be positive.  Our thinking does create our reality, and our dominant ideas are all-too-easy to follow…that things need to be difficult, for example.

So, I am excited about a way of looking at those challenges in a new way. It has to do with the way we ask ourselves questions.

If we want wealth, we try the affirmation:  "I am rich."  If we want a great appearance, we say "I am slim." If we want love, we say "I have a great partner." 

OK, so these affirmations are all in the present tense, they are all positive…so why aren’t they working?

In the book, The Great Little Book of Afformations, authors Noah St. John and Denise Berard tell us that we’re asking questions that send the mind on a quest that isn’t in our best interest. 

We bemoan our fate with expressions like "Why aren’t I rich?" 
If we
want a thin body, we wonder "Why am I so out of shape?" 
On a so-called quest for love, we sigh, "Why can’t I find the person I want?" 

So, our brain, doing what it does with WHY questions, starts seeking the answer.  We’re asking the wrong questions…ones that take us down a negative spiral. 

I might change those three original questions to…
"Why am I so rich?"
"Why do I feel radiant and healthy?"
"Why do I receive such perfect love for me?"

Aaah, I notice how my body feels when I ask this second set of questions…open, relaxed.  My breathing is deeper.  I have an inner ease.

Try afformations.  I want to hear what they do for you, so let me know!

Wondering why do people tell me about their afformations…?

Are you using The Secret? 

If so, I’d be curious to know…in what areas of your life are you applying it? 

Last week, Miami Herald reporter Fred Tasker contacted me, because I offer a free teleclass on using The Secret in your career and he was writing a story about how people are using The Secret.

The jist of his story is about how The Secret gets overused for material purposes.  I happen to agree with that perspective.  What about you?  Do you think that too many people are using The Secret to "get stuff?"  You know, like cars and necklaces?   

I find that when people mention the material things they want, there’s almost always a deeper need or want that they are striving to fill.  In the case of compensation at work, people often use their salary as a gauge of their own worth.  But really, are you going to pin your self-worth on a number?  The deeper need with money, beyond self-worth, may be freedom.  Or, when someone wants a higher title, what they’re really telegraphing is "I want to be seen and appreciated." 

What do I think people really want at work?  Tasker’s article, entitled, The Secret, a self-help book, focuses on quick fixes quotes me as saying:

”I’m a little concerned that it’s so overly focused on material things,” says Susan Bernstein, a career coach in Mill Valley, Calif., who uses The Secret in training classes for young managers. “I don’t think that’s what people want — a necklace or a fancy car. The biggest thing my clients want is to feel connected to the people they work with.”

Are you seeking greater connection at work?  If so, I’d love to hear about it.  I’m writing an article about the desire for meaningful connections with our working colleagues, and would welcome your input.

Secret-Enhancing Suggestion:  Whenever you set out an intention, whenever you visualize what you want a la "The Secret," you ask yourself, "What’s behind my desire?"  And then, ask again.  And again.  Until you really get to the source of what you are wanting.  It’s usually a very fundamental human desire, like meaning, joy, harmony, or something essential, along those lines.

I’d love to hear from you about your use of The Secret.  What works for you?  What doesn’t?

With care,

I love the Law of Attraction.  I found this inspiring video that relates to Law of Attraction courtesy of my friend, Keesha Mayes, hostess of the Coach K Radio Show. 

watch video

If you like the Law of Attraction — if you’re attracted by it — I imagine these words will move you the way they move me.

Enjoy!

Are you tired of hating your job?  Do you want to create a career that you love?

One of the most enjoyable ways I know to create a life that works for you — including your career or livelihood — is to utilize The Secret.  Lately, so much of my attention has been on integrating The Secret into my life, and sharing this life-affirming practice with others. 

At it’s core, The Secret implores us to understand that we attract experiences into our lives.  If we find that things we’re not as healthy as we want, don’t have the relationships we want, dislike the job we have — these are instances where we need to look inside and see what energy we are putting out.  Basically, our energies are matched by others, so when we are thinking negative thoughts, we tend to get negative experiences.  Vice versa, too.  When we think positive thoughts, we tend to get positive experiences.

In my last posting, I explained the Law of Attraction and how it works in your career.  I’d like to go deeper with that and highlight a companion law, the Law of Deliberate Creation. 

The Law of Deliberate Creation implores us to look at what is happening in our lives, and to notice whether we feel more positive or negative about it.  We’re standing at a crossroads, facing a choice in how we react, in how we create the energy that attracts our experiences.  If we’re not getting what we want, the good news is that we can make a choice to gradually shift our thoughts, so that we feel better and attract more positive people, circumstances, and things into our lives. 

Of course, it would be incredibly taxing to monitor our thoughts all day long…."What am I thinking now?  And now?  And now?"  OY!  Just taking the energy to do that would probably be exhausting, and when you’re drained, it’s hard to get what you want.

The simple way to monitor your thoughts is to pay attention to your emotions.  Your emotions act as an internal guidance system.  Start to notice and feel those — they give you the feedback you need to know whether or not your thoughts are in alignment with what you are wanting.

For example, let’s say you want to work with people who are positive, happy, upbeat.  You notice that when you are around a certain person in your office, you feel angry.  Instead of blaming that person, notice your emotions.  "Hmmm.  I’m angry.  That’s not what I want.  What’s the next-best feeling I can have?"  Sometimes, that feel is "flat, neutral."  I’m not expecting you to fall madly in love with the person who seems to provoke anger in you.  You might choose to walk away from the person.  You might choose to tell yourself, "Hey, I didn’t like what that person did, but I’m hurting myself by staying angry.  I think I’ll go for a quick walk and cool off." 

If you’re feeling something negative — something that feels bad — consciously choose to move your focus to something else that feels good.  It’s like deliberately taking another road.  It might be that you get out of the office for a moment, call a friend, work on a project you like…just shift the energy and attention.  You’ll feel emotionally better.  Then, you’ll be sending out positive emotions.  By shifting your energy, you re-ignite your ability to attract more positive experiences. 

So, what do you do when your emotional guidance system tells you that you are in negative territory? You can change your circumstances and the dialogue in your head and begin experiencing things more positively. This is deliberate creation — deliberately attending to your emotions, enhancing your thoughts and experiences, and getting more of what you want.  Then, you have the energy for re-focusing on what you DO want.  Bring that vision to mind as clearly as you can. 

Do you want learn more about this process of deliberate creation? The book I love most for sharing tools and techniques for shifting our thoughts into a more positive zone is Esther & Jerry Hicks’ book, Ask and It Is Given.  I have read many, many books about positive thinking over the years, including those by Norman Vincent Peale, Maxwell Maltz, and others.  However, the Hicks’ seem to have found a simple yet profoundly powerful way to relate to what we really feel and think in a given moment, and show us ways to transform that energy into something more positive. 

I wish you well with creating a career — and a life — that deliberately meets your deepest desires.  Let me know how it goes for you!

Would you like to create a more satisfying, energizing livelihood?  You can!  One tool to help you is the Law of Attraction.  I love introducing this to clients, and I’m happy to share it with you.

The Law of attraction basically states that your thoughts matter.  And, your thought are matter.  Yep – they are a form of energy.  Well, before we create something we think about it.  Like let’s say you want a new job.  Your thoughts focus on this.  If you didn’t want a new job, one wouldn’t just drop into your lap.  You’d find yourself searching for opportunities on job boards.  You might start networking with friends.  You might even find that people tell you about great jobs even before you ask. 

The Law of Attraction first implies that when you think and when you speak, that magnetic energy creates something.  And, that energy attracts people and circumstances into your life.  Have you ever noticed that you are thinking of a friend, and then all of a sudden your phone rings, and it’s your friend!?!  Well, Law of Attraction would say that your thoughts created that call.  You had an energetic vibration, and your friend was magnetically pulled in, because his or her vibration matched yours.  It’s the idea that like attracts like. 

Or, perhaps you have seen that when you are having a good day, everything goes your way.  And, when you’re having a bad day, nothing seems to go your way, right? 

So, according to The Law of Attraction, you manifest in your life a mirror of your internal thoughts and emotions.

The Law of Attraction implies two major premises: 

1. If you want something, but you don’t yet have it, your thoughts and feelings are not aligned with your desire. 
2. If you have something that you don’t want, your thoughts and feelings are aligned with the very thing that you don’t want.

OK.  What does this mean, in a practical sense, for your working life?

Let’s imagine that you hate your job.  Your boss regularly screams at you.  You find the building where you work downright drab and ugly.  Payday is never close enough and the check is never big enough.  I could go on and on, but you get the general idea.

Law of Attraction would imply that you created those circumstances because of your thoughts.  What?  Excuse me?  Are you blaming me?  Well, no.  I know, I know, that whole premise might sound absurd.  But, if you’ll pay attention, you’ll notice that when you keep thinking negative thoughts, you attractive negative people and circumstances. 

Some people might say, "Well, tell the boss she’s mean" or "Decorate your workspace."  Those would probably take a lot of effort.  It’s generally quite hard to change other people and easier to change ourselves.  So, if you’re hating your circumstances, you need to envision the working situation you do want, rather than the one you don’t want.

In fact, by saying "I don’t want this crummy boss" or "I don’t want to work in this awful building," you are setting up the circumstances to keep the crummy boss and the awful building.  Why?  Because our brains don’t really understand "no" and "don’t" when it comes to what we’re envisioning in our future.  Additionally, according to the Law of Attraction, whatever forces align to make things happen, they really don’t know what to do with requests that are phrased with what you don’t want. 

So, imagine that your requests are like talking to a waiter in a restaurant.  You order, and tell the waiter, "I don’t want the crummy salad."  So, what does the waiter do?  Does he start bringing everything else on the menu?  No.  He asks, "Well, what do you want?"  Oh, you say, "I’d like the banana split."  You need to do the same with your work.  Get clear about what you do want, not what you don’t want. 

So, turn things around:  "Oh!  I want a supportive manager, a beautiful work environment, and great compensation."  How does it feel to say that?!  Aha!  Better, right?

This process is not just Pollyanna-ish positive thinking.  Not at all.  It’s about knowing and envisioning what you do want.  Getting clearer and clearer about that.  When it comes to your working situation, it’s much easier to shift your circumstances when you’ve clarified what you do want. 

Even small shifts in your clarity can help bring relief and change.  And, lest you’re prone to start putting the pressure on yourself, saying, "Oh, gosh, I need to know that I want a job at XYZ Company with the title of Such-and-Such Manager," hold your horses!  You can state whatever little things you do know.  And, if you’re wanting more clarity about what you want in your working life, just ask for that!  Imagine, envision, and play with pictures in your mind about this new life.  Let it be fun!

So, try it out as an experiment for yourself for a week.  I’d love to hear how Law of Attraction has worked for you in your working life.  Please send back your comments! 

Law of Attraction has helped me to attract new clients, and to really feel upbeat, energized, and excited.  I’ll be sharing about two more "companion laws" in the next week or so.  For now, I invite you to play with the Law of Attraction, and share your comments here!

Here’s to your positive attraction,

Susan

The year 2007 is just days away.  If you’re like me, you start thinking, "Oh, no.  I know I’m supposed to set resolutions, but then, sooner than I’d like, I’m not fulfilling them.  So what’s the point of making them in the first place?!?

I know, I know.  New Years resolutions scare some of us, because we feel we’ve fallen down on them in the past.  The word "resolution" comes from the Latin resolutionem which is "a breaking into parts."  I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time breaking some projects into their parts.  This is especially true when I’m working on something really new to me.  You know, the kind of project where you don’t know all of the steps in advance, and you’re still looking for an expert to help you.

Rather than teach you yet another way to break your resolutions into parts, or manage them like any other project, I want to offer you a gift — a chance to look at four actions you can take to make your resolutions more enjoyable and to reduce barriers to their completion.

(1) Feel the energy:  Too often, we write resolutions that don’t go anywhere.  They’re so flat, dull, boring.  They don’t motivate us.  Instead, they obligate us.  Perhaps part of that comes from our American puritanical work ethic that tells us we’re doomed to hard work.  That’s just a belief.  It doesn’t have to be true.  Here’s a better way to write your New Years resolutions…

Once you’ve written the resolution in an energizing, engaging way, let’s look at how you can invest your life energy to ensure you give it the time it deserves.  Our resolutions are investments.  Let’s look at three steps you can take to growing the investment in your future — in other words, three ways to look at the time you have and see how you can leverage it to accomplish what you desire.  Here are three questions you can ask yourself — and use the answers to make important changes that can help you to have more of what you want in 2007.

(2) Ask yourself:  What can I STOP doing?  In other words, what are the activities that cause me to leak my time?  Consider where you are using your time or your money in ways that are out of alignment with your intentions.  When you regain that time, you’ll be able to invest more of it in achieving your goals for 2007.  Here are some common time leaks and what you can do about them… 

(3) Ask yourself:  What can I START doing?  Review your New Years intentions, and look at what activities, especially small ones, you can start doing now that will help you create momentum towards your goal.  What will energize and leverage your time so that you can get what you want?  Let’s explore this a bit deeper…

(4) Ask yourself:  What can I CONTINUE doing?  Some things you are doing right now may be just perfect in terms of leveraging your life energy to help you achieve your New Years resolutions.  You’ll want to continue them.  This is a great time of year to acknowledge yourself for what you’ve been doing that works.  Here’s an activity that can help you feel great about yourself and help you reap the rewards you want in 2007…

I hope you enjoy all of these activities!  Visit the Work from Within website to find more resources for you and your life, career, and financial well-being!  You can also read two years worth of helpful newsletters and sign up to your receive your complimentary eNewsletter each month.   

Wishing you all the best in 2007 and beyond,

I love reading the fortunes that come in my fortune cookies.  I love imagining the possibilities that these miniature missives create in my life.  I’m inspired by a fortune cookie story from one of my clients.  I really appreciate that she took the time to share her story with me.  I’ve asked her permission to share it more broadly, because I know how powerful those little slips of paper in fortune cookies can be. 

I’d like to share how a fortune cookie can help you manifest what you want in the world. 

Last week, one of my clients emailed me and said that she had gone to eat Chinese food after one of our coaching sessions.  She opened her fortune cookie and it said, "You have the strength to overcome obstacles on your way to success."  Somehow, that message felt aligned with a coaching conversation we had had about her work/life circumstances.  Later that week, she ate Chinese food again.  This time, her fortune cookie message was "You will conquer obstacles to achieve success." 

I got a great laugh and an uplifting burst of energy when I read this client’s "fortune cookie" email.  Why?  When I go out for Chinese food, I crack open my fortune cookies with an air of mystery and playfulness.  I wonder what will be inside?  What is coming in my future?  I keep the best fortunes and post them on my refrigerator.  These little missives feel like a reminder of the things I want for myself.  I read the words regularly, and they increase my energy.  They include messages like "You have the strength and determination for great accomplishments." 

So, here’s a thought.  What about making your own Manifestation Cookies? I encourage you to gather a group of friends and write your own words of wisdom and motivation on colorful slips of paper.  What is it you want to manifest?  Ease?  Prosperity?  Connection?  Fun?  Whatever you want, write it in the form of a brief message, with fortune cookie sensibilities, like "You will soon be united with the life partner you deeply desire" or "You are about to go on a fun and meaningful adventure."

You might each of you write own batch of motivational messages and then bake them and take them home.  Or, you might randomly put the messages into the cookies you bake.  Then, you can mix up the final batch of fortune cookies and exchange them with others, so you each receive a whole set of doses of inspiration from the group. 

You don’t have to wait until you eat Chinese food to enjoy these positive affirmations.  Let them nourish you in a moment when you need them.  Give yourself the time to taste and digest the cookie, and time to sense and imagine the reality you are creating from the affirmation you’re taking in. 

When you’re ready to bake your batch of manifestation cookies, here’s a fun fortune cookie recipe from Cooks Magazine.  Enjoy!

Happy, yummy manifesting!

It’s Thanksgiving time here in the US, so I’m
feeling inspired on two levels. First, I’d like to express my thanks to you,
and I’d also like to share a activity that can help you to cultivate prosperity
in your life through the continuous offering of thanks.

Give
Thanks & Cultivate Your Inner Prosperity

I love
Thanksgiving — seeing family, eating great food, enjoying the crisp fall air.
But I know it’s easy to get away from the spirit of the holiday. As I see it,
this holiday is a reminder to express gratitude.

I invite you, at this time of
year, to consider all the rich bounty in your life for which you can give
thanks.

• People (family, friends, colleagues)
• Places (your home, spots in nature)
• Events (special times, recurring meetings)
• Feelings (emotions that bring you joy)
• Body (your health, your ability to move & breath)
• Abilities (your inner gifts that create outer wealth)

I encourage you to think about
this: Do you give thanks for yourself? All too often, we focus
attention others. What about you? In his book, The Power of Now, Eckhart
Tolle, writes “Get the inside right, and the outside will take care of
itself.” Consider your gratitude for the inner gifts you have — perhaps
your care for others, your creativity, your sense of humor.

BE inspired. Take a moment to
breathe in and acknowledge your inner richness. If you take just one minute to
do activity each day, you are sure to see an increase in your outer prosperity.
I’ve been doing this practice now for over six months, and I am so thankful for
all the friends, clients, ideas, events, and inspirations that have appeared in
my life. When we consciously recognize and value our inner gifts, we manifest
prosperity in all that we see and touch. I know this is possible for you, too.

I’m so very thankful to have you
as a reader of this blog, and hope you find some inspirations within. I’m also
thankful for my new worth
from within money coaching skills. Moving forward, I’ll be sharing more
with you about my own sometimes rocky journey with money and prosperity. I’ll
open up about why I am adding this very meaningful coaching (that has benefited
me greatly) and how it can help you to enhance your self-worth and to manifest
inner and outer abundance.

I care deeply about helping
people to achieve true abundance by getting unstuck about issues and patterns that are
blocking them from living the life they desire. Thank you for giving me the
chance to share my skills, talents, and knowledge with you.  If you’d like to learn more, especially about
teleclasses you can join, click here to preview upcoming Work from Within events.

In the meantime, I wish you,
your family, and friends a very Happy Thanksgiving. Be well!

Have you heard about "The Secret?"

I heard about this amazing, inspiring movie from some friends less than three weeks ago.  Then, I was in Santa Cruz less than two weeks ago, to hear one of my coaches, the effervescent Tama Kieves, speak about "creating the life you want" at Gateway Books.  A friend joined me.  After Tama’s talk, we walked around the bookstore and fawned over at all the magical gifts and books and trinkets.  I bought some fairy stickers for my friends’ children.  At the checkout counter sat "The Secret" video.  I did something rare for me.  I bought the video on impulse.  It was like I was drawn to it.

I decided to invite some girlfriends over to my house to watch "The Secret" together.  Interestingly, most of them had already heard of it and felt it was destined that they’d be invited to see it.  I know someone who’s watched The Secret 12 times in the past few weeks.  It’s that powerful!

You may be thinking, "Wow, this description sounds rather sensationalistic.  What’s this movie about?"  Well, I don’t like to spoil surprises, but suffice it to say:

This movie teaches the secret for how to create the life you want. 

The method is simple.  And you may already know it.  Even so, the movie is inspiring and will help you to manifest incredible people, events, and things into your life.  For me, The Secret returns me back to my childhood wonderment and helps me remember the power of being imaginative and allowing myself to daydream. 

I really believe that The Secret works.  I’ve been sharing some of the principles from the movie with my career coaching clients.  All I can say is WOW!  They are experiencing incredibly positive changes at work.  One went from feeling totally dejected and depressed to excited and enervated.  She’s even laughing at her manager’s kooky, quirky behaviors — the same ones that used to make her angry and upset. 

Check out The Secret.  I’d LOVE to hear what you think of it. 

And I’d love to hear your questions about how to apply The Secret to your career.  What do you want to know about how to create a working life that is deeply satisfying, energizing, and works for you? 

I’m a big advocate for what I call the "self-expressed career," meaning doing work that reflects who you are and what you care about.  For me, that involves assisting others with transforming their passions into their professions.  I help them to work from within, listening to their inner impulses, trusting their instincts about how to make a livelihood.  Some of my clients go to work for big and small companies.  Some go back to school for a period, and others start their own ventures.

I regularly hear from people who are following their own authentic career path, "So, I’m doing the work I love, but where’s the money?"  You know, Marcia Sinetar’s classic book, Do What You Love, The Money Will Follow should add the word "EVENTUALLY" at the end.

The path requires an appreciation of abundance.  And patience.

I’ve wailed many times, wondering when I’d have the shower of money rain down on me.  Sometimes, my former salary from my management consulting days looks enticing.  But then I think about going back into that world, of 80-hour work weeks, out-of-town, serving stressed-out clients, missing friends and family, chowing down on calorie-laden room service, and basically having no life.  Almost immediately, my stomach clenches up.  I feel anxiety crawl all over my body, locking me up in a box of worries.  I remember those days.  I was so anxious to do a good job for my client that I neglected myself.

No more of that tortured lifestyle.  I have true abundance.  I set my own hours.  If I want to take a day off, I plan it.  When I want to take a class, I schedule my clients around it.  I make some time for writing my dissertation at least two days a week. 

What abundance do you have?  What can you be thankful for?

So, the other side of the equation is patience.  I want everything now, now, now, now, now.  So I look at my amazing self-expressed venture, Work from Within, and I ask myself, "Am I rolling in dough?  I mean, is this company making me a zillion dollars a year?"

No.  Not yet.  Time to practice the fine art of patience. 

And yet, if I follow the Law of Attraction, I realize that I visualize and intend for prosperity regularly.  And I’m doing my part to create it.

I discovered a interview relevant to the topic of abundance and right livelihood by book editor and author Randy Peyser on her website.  She speaks with Esther Hicks and Abraham, who authored Ask And It is Given.  Her interview is entitled, "Opening the Doors to Bigtime Prosperity."  Now, there’s a title that speaks to me!  And here are some of Abraham’s quotes that speak to me from Randy’s article.  Abraham is saying that people turn around from their dreams when they get only part of the way there:

"People do that relative to their financial gains in this way: they get hopeful, and vibrationally speaking, they are well along the way to their destination. But then a bill comes, or they get tired, or feel overwhelmed or overworked, or stop and take score. Then they turn around and head in the wrong direction."

Then, Abraham offers this advice:

"To obtain vibrational alignment, you have to consistently keep the faith, focus upon what you want, and speak about it in ways that make you feel good about it. Disappointment, anger or frustration mean you are headed in the wrong direction. Feelings like hope or elation mean you are going in the right direction."

If you are contemplating a career change, and it’s got some risk to it, listen to your heart.  Do you want to pursue a particular direction and just really feel the energy of it?  Then somehow, some way, things will work out.  I know that sounds nutty.  I have an MBA.  I’m supposed to know how to write business plans.  But business school does not generally teach you to follow your passion.  I’m following my passion and noticing my energy and vibration, and generally, it keeps getting higher and the rewards get sweeter and sweeter.

Yet I have what feel like occasional setbacks.  It’s then that I need to trust.  You too?

I do trust that I’ll be enjoying greater financial abundance in the very near future.  I’ve been at this new career path a little over four years, and really less than two years on a full-time basis. 

What else helps me to trust that what I’m doing will bear financial fruit?  Well, many things energize me and help me to know that my vibration is set for attraction.  These accomplishments add to my strong vibration:

• I continue to bring out new products (yippee — a lot of work — yet fun to create!)
• I continue to add new clients, especially for career transition assistance
• More and more people continue to sign up for the free Work from Within eNewsletter

What helps YOU to know that what YOU are doing is on the right path for YOU?  What do you do or say or believe that helps you to trust that the financial rewards are coming for you?