You live in a very fast-paced world that fills your days with endless tasks and responsibilities.  Part of creating a business or mission that reflects your purpose requires an occasional ‘time out’ from life.  It is critical to take some time, get away from your routine, and go on what I call a treasure hunt of Self-Discovery.  

I suggest you start by going someplace beautiful and peaceful, away from all the chatter.  A long weekend away would be a great first step.  Spend time alone in order to calm your spirit, and begin to receive the clues that are available to you for unlocking the truth of who you were uniquely designed to be.

You have the keys to success already inside you.  You have everything you need to succeed, but perhaps you just haven’t really tuned in to who you were created to be outside of other influences.  You may be lacking clarity or focus because of all the static surrounding you.  It’s time to turn that dial and get a clear channel for success.

Here are 5 things you can do during your time away as you commit your life to being true to YOU and your business:

Are you frustrated because...........

• you know what you have to offer the world will impact and change lives, but you aren’t sure how to design a profitable business around it?
  

• there are so many online ways to market your services but you don’t know where to start or they don’t feel authentic to you and what you are offering?
  

• You know deep inside your purpose is bigger than you, but limiting beliefs and fear of becoming visible stops you from taking action to promote your services or products?

As a purpose-inspired entrepreneur, I know how you feel. 

I always knew I was destined to make a global impact that empowered women to be free to pursue their deepest dreams, but I wasn’t getting the results I expected after learning everything I needed to know about internet marketing and sales. 

I struggled with marketing my message in a way that felt authentic to who I was, and expressing the value of what I had to offer in a clear and concise way.

Regardless of where you are on your entrepreneurial journey, the Breakthrough Secrets in this new teleclass will give you the tools for mindset & marketing strategies you need to discover your unique voice as you stand out from the crowd with a powerful, authentic message & business that expresses your true value.

Click here to find out more

One of my guilty pleasures on a cold winter weekend is to settle in and hold my own private classic romance movie marathon.  These gut-wrenching, heart-warming tales of regret, love lost and love found, still move me to tears no matter how many times I watch them. 

No matter what the era, the classics usually come full circle and the boy gets the girl in the end.  Love triumphs, and everyone lives happily ever after.  I like happy endings.  Life is meant to be full of happy endings.

I recently watched the newest remake of the movie “Jane Eyre” starring Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender.  One of my favorite lines in the movie occurs when Mr. Rochester first speaks to Jane, the newly hired governess, and asks her “And from whence do you hail? What's your tale of woe? All governesses have a tale of woe. What's yours?”

As women, so many of us have our own ‘tale of woe’ that surfaces periodically.  We hang on to certain limiting beliefs so long that we actually start believing them to be true.  These limiting beliefs keep us from being fully present in life.  They keep us from experiencing the happy endings and new beginnings life has in store for us.

Click here to read more of my article, as featured in YourTango.com......

It’s time for a new paradigm shift for women entrepreneurs, experts, and leaders for finding your Voice, your Strength, and the Beauty of your Purpose as a heart-centered, spiritual woman in business, or a leader in the community.

Becoming a leader of change for the next generation of women will require a reverse engineering of sorts, especially for those of us who have been a part of the masculine dominated corporate world for the past 20 years or more.  

Below are a few examples of the shifts I believe it will take to move forward and recapture the more nourishing female spirit of collaboration, community, and connection that is inherent in the most influencing women I know today:

• Weaving your business and life with compassion, cooperation, and a tenacity that transforms lives

• A new definition of feminine power, leadership and success as we bring balance back to the world

• Reconnecting to our values as woman of substance, and engaging in social transformation, one person at a time

Women who choose to emerge and engage in 2012, both in business and in life, will need to become visible as the expert, step up and find their voice, their strength, and the beauty of their purpose.  Here's how:

I recently met a very accomplished and inspiring woman, Christine Clayburg, who was giving a presentation on telling your story to the media.  She shared that in today’s crazy fast-paced world of news media & social media you really only have 4 seconds to get the attention of your audience, and a minute and a half to entertain, inform, and inspire them.  In short, 4 seconds to change the world.

I believe the same is true for entrepreneurs.  You have 4 seconds to draw in your audience of clients and prospective clients, and a minute and a half to entertain, inform, and inspire them to want to seek you out, learn more about who you are and how you can serve them by solving a specific problem or need. You have 4 seconds to change the world with your message of hope and service to those you are called to connect with, and here’s how:

I’m going through some exciting shifts in my business right now, and even though things on the outside appear to be moving forward, I noticed recently there were some things on the inside that were bubbling up and creating some anxiety and unrest in my soul.   I decided that I needed to take some time off to dig a little deeper and find out why I was feeling what I was feeling.

In my unique process, The Sparkle Effect, the first principle I teach about Mindset & Marketing Secrets is to Spend time alone Unlocking Your Truth.  I needed to take my own advice and Unlock my Truth to figure out what was going on with my mindset that was holding me back from stepping forward on my next big adventure.

One of the projects I am working on right now will require me to become more visible, transparent, and outspoken as I refine my message and prepare to boldly share my expertise with a wider audience.  Normally, being outspoken wouldn’t scare me at all, but this time was different.  After a lot of reflection, I had cleared my mind from all the daily clutter of running a business, and was able to hold the space open for my heart to be free to express what was going on deep down in my soul.

Taking the time and space necessary to reflect on these feelings, I suddenly realized that the anxiety I was feeling was coming from a place deep inside that still held an open wound from a previous position I had resigned from a few years ago.  That was one of the most hurtful life events I have ever experienced.

Most of my life I have struggled with the idea that I am even close to being Amazing, much less beautiful, courageous, brilliant, etc. I have always been able to see others sparkle and shine, and be amazing in who they are and what they do in the world, but seeing myself in their reflection was different. I felt ‘less than’ and ‘not good enough’ than everyone else. After spending a lot of time devouring God’s word, and journaling about who I am in Christ, I suddenly had a revelation that changed my whole perception about being called Amazing.

That’s the cool thing about the Bible, the inspired word of God, the living word. It comes alive to me every time I read it, and since we know God is the same yesterday, today, and always, His word for us is true even today. Did you know that you were born to be Amazing? That’s how God designed you. In Isaiah 9:6 (MSG) we are told of the gift of a child to be born, and given to us, to be called Amazing Counselor, Strong God, Eternal Father, Prince of Wholeness. As daughters of the Most High God, we’re also created in His image and our journey is to become more like Christ in our character. If I believe God’s word to be true, then I am also called to show up in the world, be visible, and help others by being Amazing, Strong, Eternal, and Whole. I was born to be Amazing, and so were you!

Are you disillusioned by dreams that haven’t become realities? Have you settled for life as it is instead of life as you hoped it would be?  It’s never too late to act on your dreams.  In 2011, discover and live the dream God has for you.  Here are 10 Life Coaching Tips for living large, passionate dreams.

1.      Face Your Fears

Fears can immobilize us and cause us great angst.  It can even make us feel as if we’re caught in a spin-cycle of life—and desperately trying to get free.  Do your fears include fear of failure, success, rejection, abandonment, being alone, or public humiliation?  Whatever your worries might be, take one step today toward God and away from one of your fears.  He wants to help you.  He longs for you to live an abundant life, fulfilling the passionate purpose for which He created you.

2.     Learn To Exhale

Shallow breathing makes for shallow living.  It shortcuts all of the goodness in God’s plan, which is extravagant, abundant, broad-reaching, and life-giving.  It robs us of our chance to “soar on wings like eagles” (Isaiah 40:31). A slow, deep inhale-exhale makes all the difference to us physically and emotionally.  Try it right now, several times.  Feeling better already?

3.     Honor Your Deepest Longings

Some people think they don’t have time to dream.  We don’t have time not to dream!  Dreaming leads us to say no to other people’s agenda for us.  It cuts down on the waste and nonsense in our lives because it allows us to stay focused on what’s really important to us.  It teaches us to stop filling our time with activities that numb us into a false sense of happiness or with things that cause us to stuff down our feelings of hopelessness.  God created you to live out His dream for your life, not spend all of your time in the doldrums that weigh you down.

No, I’m not talking about Tom Cruise, but I have to admit that once I wrote the title for this article I couldn’t help but remember that famous scene in the movie where Tom Cruise’s character is home alone, rocking out with his air guitar and sliding across the floor in his underwear.  At the time, that scene was risky business!

What I’m talking about is the risky business of coming out of hiding, and finally taking the risk to define your life as your own, not someone else’s life.   As women we are naturally designed to care for, and nurture our relationships, but what happens when the focus of our life becomes unbalanced and centered on everyone around us, and we no longer keep up with our own emotional or spiritual well-being?  
Things change and  life suddenly becomes empty, lacking passion, enthusiasm and joy.  We have become so accustomed to living a safe and comfortable existence that we lose sight of who we really are.   We let others define what our life should be and haven’t taken the risk to find out who we are and what we want.  Most of the time it happens so gradually that we wake up one day and don’t even know how we got there.

Here is one way to jumpstart your life and start to live life fully: