How Do You See Yourself?

Most of my reading is in the area of personal development. I attend conferences, listen to podcasts and generally immerse myself in learning how to 'mind my mind'. While I don't consider myself a pessimist, I don't always see the glass as half full. I've come a long way in my mindset after years of working on it. I listen to audiobooks in the car and while I exercise and they are always either about topics to enhance my coaching or to enhance myself. I've come a long way baby.

It wasn't all that long ago that I had a hard time telling people what I do. When I worked in my corporate job, that was easy. I was Director of Tax Audits for a multinational corporation. What I do now was a little tougher for me to talk about. Don't get me wrong. I love, love, love what I do but I was hesitant to let people know what that was. I know how it all fits together but I didn't want to appear scattered and unprofessional.

I have my hand in several things. I am first and foremost a health and nutrition coach. I am also a WomenHeart champion community educator. I am also a social marketer for three health and wellness product lines. This is really where I have a hard time. These products are sold through multi-level marketing (MLM) from very legitimate companies. Because of the often unjustified stigma attached to MLMs, I don't want to de-legitimize myself in someone else's eyes if they don't know enough about the industry to realize that it really is a great way to develop multiple streams of income and have access to high quality products at prices far lower than you would pay in a brick and mortar retail store for the same or lower quality. But I have gotten over that story through personal development.

Here are some of the benefits you might enjoy by practicing a little personal development yourself:

• Self awareness - Get to know you. Find out what makes your heart sing. What is your true purpose? Why were you put in this life at this time? What are your dreams? What completes you? You learn to listen to your inner wisdom, your intuition, the voice of God...whatever you like to call it. If you follow your true voice, it will never steer you wrong.
• Direction - Once you find your true purpose through self awareness, you will want to decide what you need to do to make that happen. You'll learn what it is you're doing that doesn't get you closer to your goal and stop doing it to free yourself to take the steps necessary to accomplish what you set out to do. Simplifying your life by getting rid of the distractions will make your goals much more attainable.
• Clarity - Once you have determined your objective(s) and gotten rid of many of the distractions, the path forward becomes much clearer. With personal development, you can become much more focused and 'keep your eye on the prize'. You can assess each activity for the value it brings to the process of reaching your goal. When you decide which steps to take to get you closer and can see the end result, you are much less likely to be dazzled by distractions and more likely to stay on your path.
• Motivation - As you gain the clarity of your objective and your path forward, your motivation can soar because you know what you're doing and how it will get you closer to achieving the result you want. One of the things that derails us in achieving the goals we set is the size of the goal. If it seems too large, it will seem overwhelming and unattainable. As we learn through personal development, attainment of the goal is only part of the journey. The learning is in the process of achieving the large goal. The steps we take to the end are where the learning occurs. You don't need to be motivated to accomplish the whole goal. You just need enough motivation to get through the next step.
• Resilience - We all walk through storms. That's a part of life that nobody can avoid. Whether it's a problem you caused through a mistake or lapse in good judgment, or something that happened that had a profound effect on you, it's your reaction to the situation that determines its impact on you. What I have found is, while there are some occurrences that may still trigger me, I am able to rebound much more easily from situations that might have kept me in a downward spiral several years ago, for much longer. Life is 2% what happens and 98% how you respond to it.

Personal development has changed me in ways that are apparent and in ways not so apparent. I have much more ease and confidence when I speak about what I do because I can now proudly own it. I can confidently coach people and know that I'm helping them. I don't need to please anyone or live up to anyone else's expectations of how I should live my life. I am happy and optimistic most of the time and have a very full and abundant life for which I am very grateful. Really good things happen for me and to me often. I don't think my luck has changed but the way I look at things has changed. You can see all the good or you can see all the bad in life. Whatever you look for you will find. So look for the good...always look for the good, in yourself and everyone else.

As a health coach, I work with women who are facing serious health challenges like heart disease, metabolic syndrome and diabetes or who have been diagnosed as having a precursor to a serious health issue such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol or high blood sugar. I help them make food and lifestyle changes so they can get healthy, live longer and enjoy a fuller, happier, more energetic life. If you would like to have a free consultation about the health challenges you have and the improvements you would like to see in your health, click here to schedule a no strings attached call.