My Life Design Studio

In my line of work I am privileged to have quite a few people come into my life that absolutely WOW me with their gifts and talents. When I hear people talk about their ideas, goals, dreams and aspirations I can literally feel how their spirit comes alive and I too get all fired up for there is nothing more energizing than witnessing someone ‘being in Spirit’. Being that I too am a creative being I love being able to assist my clients in brainstorming and conceptualizing and getting to support people in playful creativity. There can be so much fun and excitement in the air when people fearlessly visualize their beautiful future which only seems to scream; Potential, Joy, Power and Creativity!

Yet, when the time comes to get REAL with the ideas and strategize on implementation steps people sometimes tend to step down from that fearless launching pad to Greatness and begin scaling down their dreams and aspirations. They literally feel overwhelmed by their own magic and power and start playing much smaller… just to be safe. “Maybe this isn’t such a good idea”, “The economy isn’t so great, perhaps now isn’t a good time”, “What if I can’t do it!?”, “If only I had more time and/or money” , “What will other people think?” and so on and so forth. Endless thoughts of limitations show up which can almost automatically nudge people towards a smaller state of mind. This is of course where my service comes in handy and I get to play out my role fullblown as a Transformatonal Life Coach. A great Life Coach can usually guide his or her clients around and then above and beyond perceived limitations and assist them in stepping back into their Greatness. But, not everyone has a personal life coach that can meet them in the exact moment that “little me” shows up. When the doubtful voices of the ego show up we feel uncomfortable, and truth be told, we really don’t like feeling uncomfortable! So, we either run away from those feelings or choose to set them aside and play a safer ‘game’, perhaps believing we can always step into our Greatness some other time. We allow our egos to move towards temporary comfort and let “little me” have its way scaling down all of our hopes and dreams. At least then we won’t feel so overwhelmed and we won’t run the risk of living with disappointment, or worse, disappointing someone else!

But somewhere in there “BIG YOU” will keep on calling and by living your life as “little me” you will never be as fulfilled and happy as you can be. So the cycle continues… but how do we stop it?

The number one reason to why people fail to live BIG is not because they lack knowledge, talent or resources but simply because they quit! Quitting is often experienced as ‘less’ than failure, and therefore a more comfortable feeling because if we don’t even try, how can we possibly fail!? Winners never quit! Accept that setbacks are a given. See every obstacle as a test for you to discover a creative detour, there really are no dead ends. Winners are simply ‘losers’ who still kept on going!

A typical reason to why people avoid living BIG is because we want to be loved, whether that means being liked and accepted or “fitting in” in some way. If we play it ‘small’ we don’t draw a whole lot of attention to ourselves and we don’t run the risk of being judged and critizised… hence the payoff is that we get to avoid the unpleasantness of feeling un-loved. Accept that not everyone has to like you, and realize that all great minds/inventors/creators and the like have at some point been judged and critizised. Living BIG makes people pay attention and notice and not everyone may appreciate you being bold enough to step into your Greatness for it simply is a reminder that they too can step into their own Greatness. They just don’t want to be reminded. Many people are stuck in their “small me” comfort zone and you playing a bigger game is a nudge to them to step out of that comfort zone. They would rather see everyone else stay there with them. Realize that those are the ones who may judge and critizise. Play BIG regardless! Dr. Seuss may have said if best when he said; “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”

Another common reason to why people fail to live BIG is because they focus on the BIG-ness or on the ‘Grand Finale’ but not on the joyful journey that gets you there. Instead of breaking their Grand Goal up into several managable goals and steps they see it as one enormous mountain to climb and not several smaller hills, and in focusing on feelings of overwhelm people paralize themselves from taking creative action. In order to avoid the uncomfortble feeling of overwhelm people often choose to… yes, you guessed it QUIT, and they usually do so before they’ve taken any major steps towards reaching their goals. The truth is that just getting started means you’re already halfway there! Someone once told me, “Life is not a sprint, it’s a marathon!” Do not allow yourself to feel like you have to get there and get everything done all at once and in record time! Just keep going… simply keep taking one small step after the other. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”.

People who truly live BIG know and appreciate that ‘work’ is always required because ‘Rome simply wasn’t built in a day!’. Good things come to those who persist! If you are continually persistent and focused in your efforts and continually work on resisting limiting thoughts and behaviors you are destined to reach what you are aiming for. Winners never wait for things to happen, they make things happen!

People who live BIG keep it simple and are real with what they want. If you try to chase ten jumping rabbits all at once, you’ll catch none, but if you go for just one, you will catch it, 100% guaranteed! Then, you can go after the next one, and then the next one… and before you know it, you will have caught all ten! Dicipline is focus in action. Success really is no rocket science… know what you want, focus on it and create steps to get there.

People who live BIG believe in themselves and they do so by choice! They choose to believe they CAN accomplish what they want to accomplish and know they CAN make their dreams come true. They believe they are the owners of their lives and accept full responsibility for their actions and outcome. Nobody else is to blame. They are never victims to outside circumstances. Outside circumstances may sometimes create detours but are never dead ends. Nothing can hold you back as long as you hold on to your convictions and keep creating focused action.

BIG YOU is calling…. are you listening? Is it time to play a BIGGER game?