What steps can you take to move your dreams out of your head and into the real world?

1. Know you can do this

If not you, then who?

Don’t undermine yourself by thinking you’re not smart enough, connected enough, or whatever you might decide makes you the wrong person to undertake your dream.

If you need someone to show faith in you and lend you some strength and belief, go get it – from a smart friend, colleague or coach.

2. Dream big

Intoxicate yourself with the vision of your dream manifesting. Get high on seeing how amazing it’s success will be.

Ensure the dream is big enough and write out a bold statement of intent that includes the benefits it’s success will bring. If it’s a book – what difference do you want it to make to others? If it’s a charitable venture – who benefits?

3. Get practical

This is the time to sit down and get very focused.

It’s important to stay inspired but it’s also vital to get on with the work of making it happen, step by step, day by day, week by week.

4. Inspire others

Your dream will require the support of others to make it happen.

Ensure your vision is not perceived as a ‘vanity mission’ but a grand, generous venture that will benefit all. Check that your colleagues all have a personal vested interest in co-operating on the mission.

Read over the chapter, Inspire Others in The 7 Rules of Success for more on this.

5.  Have fun now!

Don’t withhold relaxing and celebrating until some far-off completion date.

Fuel yourself along the way with minor celebrations of your success. When your team meet, meet in great places so the mission is anything but dull. Hard work doesn’t have to be grim.

Keep your morale strong by staying light along the way – however serious your mission.

Researchers have found that the average person thinks as many as 50,000 thoughts a day. Many of those thoughts are negative: ‘I’m not management material… I’ll never lose weight… It doesn’t matter what I do, nothing ever works out for me.’

Psychologists call this ‘victim language.’ Victim language keeps you in a victim state of mind. It is a form of self-hypnosis that lulls you into a belief that you are unlovable and incompetent.

To get what you want from life, you need to give up this victim language and start talking to yourself like a winner: ‘I can do it… I know there is a solution… I am smart enough and strong enough to figure this out… Everything I eat helps me maintain my perfect weight.’

Your subconscious mind is like the crew of a ship. You are its captain. It is your job to give the crew orders. And when you do this, the crew takes everything you say literally.

The crew (your subconscious) has no sense of humour. It just blindly follows orders. When you say, ‘Everything I eat goes straight to my hips,’ the crew hears that as an order: Take everything she eats, turn it into fat and put it on her hips!

On the other hand, if you say, ‘Everything I eat helps me maintain my perfect body weight,’ the crew will begin to make that into reality by helping you make better food choices, exercise, and maintain the right metabolism rate for you body.

This power of your subconscious mind is the reason you must become vigilant and pay attention to your spoken and internal statements. Most people don’t realize they are committing negative self-talk, which is why it is best to enlist another person – a friend or coach – to help you monitor your speaking.

2. Use Affirmations To Build Self-Confidence

One of the most powerful tools for building self-worth and self-confidence is the repetition of positive statements until they become a natural part of the way you think.

These ‘affirmations’ act to crowd out and replace the negative orders you have been sending your crew (your subconscious mind) all these years. When you wake up, lie still for two minutes and repeat the following:

• I am (bloody) brilliant
• I am great
• I am unique
• I am incredible
• I like me
• I am worth it
• I am highly intelligent
• I am attracting all the right people into my life.

Do this because no one else may say it to you during the day. Valuing yourself is the single most important thing you can do to make your life – and career – work.

3. Be Happy Now

Rhonda Byrne, creator of The Secret wrote:
‘I want to let you in on a secret to The Secret. The shortcut to anything you want in your life is to BE and FEEL happy now! It is the fastest way to bring money and anything else you want into your life.’

Don’t make the mistake of putting happiness on hold. And one of the quickest ways to get happier quickly is to count your blessings.

Absolutely. List ten things you are grateful to have in your life, right now.

And lifting your morale, raising your vibration, lightening your spirit, will attract more opportunities and good fortune than a miserable outlook. Funny that.

4. Get Over Failure

I have never thought I couldn’t do something. Not everything I’ve done has worked out. So what? I’d rather be a person who has a go than someone who’s too scared to try.

Be prepared to fail and learn from your failures. And, for goodness sake, park them. Don’t cart a failure/failures around with you as a warning to all or as a punishment to yourself.

You had the guts, spirit, ambition, motivation, decency, or whatever it was, to have a go. Brilliant. Respect! Lessons learnt. Onwards!

5. Get On With It

Imagine I’ve waved my magic wand. You believe in yourself. You have a deep-seated feeling that you can do it. You are good enough. Now what? What do you want? Not sure?

Grab a pen and a scrap of paper – right now. Without thinking about it, write this down – ‘If I believed in myself I’d ….’

Complete the sentence as often as you like. You might get one answer; you might get heaps; you might get one or more repeated. Now what?

You decide.

I’d encourage you to get on with it. The need for fulfilment won’t go away because the country is having an economic downturn. And, at the risk of repeating a cliché – you’re more likely to be successful and prosper doing something you enjoy and your heart is in than sticking at something that makes you miserable – ‘for security.’

Having a spring in your step, having a sunnier disposition are all phrases taken from nature and translated into a way of being which impacts your attitude to everything you do.

So here’s my question for you,

“If your attitude was contagious, would I want to catch it?”

If your answer is ”No” or “Not sure” in any area of your life, then read on!

It’s your choice

Viktor Frankl, the concentration camp survivor who wrote Man’s Search for Meaning, famously said “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

I hope than none of us will ever have our attitudes tested under such outrageous circumstances, but one thing’s for sure, we all have our own personal tests throughout our lives.

So what’s your current attitude to your life? Are you a person who makes things happen, do you watch things happen or do you simply say “what happened” as life passes you by.

Your attitude is the personal choice that you make about how you are going to react and what action you will take in any given situation. Every day stuff is happening to us and around us. Our reaction to what happens and what we make it mean creates our attitude to how we will respond.

Just like choosing what to wear each day, you can choose to “wear” whatever attitude you want.

Yet as a coach, I know that choosing your attitude is the biggest struggle people have. Why? Because it means taking full responsibility for your life, dropping the blame, dropping the guilt, dropping the self-sabotage and deciding on an attitude that gives you the results you want.

Discomfort Zone

I’m pretty sure that you have had a time in your life when you have leapt up and said, “That’s it! I’ve had it, I can’t take it anymore.”  Whatever is going on is just too uncomfortable to live with any longer.   Isn’t it amazing how at that point your attitude changed completely?  Suddenly you found the strength, courage and determination to stand up and say, “I’m worth more than this.” At that moment life changes.

Only when you decide it’s time to expect more for yourself and your life are you ready to take on an unstoppable attitude.  So the question is, how do you get to that place and then stay motivated to sustain it through thick and thin?

Living the dream?

My personal example over the past two weeks may shed some light on this.  For years my vision has always been to own a home by the sea. I want to be able to walk down to a rocky beach and swim in the med and sit on my quiet terrace watching the sunset over the sea, glass of wine in hand.  It’s so clear to me that I can see it and smell it and taste it.  But what kind of an attitude would I need in order to make that dream a reality?

How can I, a single parent, with two expensive teenagers even be selfish enough to pursue my dream?  Things like that don’t happen to people like me. Besides, I’ll never, ever be able to afford it.

With that attitude I knew I would never attain my dream.  My attitude had to change.  It had to be powerful enough to break through any obstacles, it had to be determined enough to find a way and it had to be courageous enough to let me go for it.

So here’s what I did. I held on to my dream. I knew my outcome in detail.  I didn’t know when it would happen exactly, but instinctively I believed I would know when the time was right.  I researched the property market for two years, I worked harder and smarter than I’d ever worked and I rearranged my finances and looked at every possible scenario that might arise.

I took full responsibility for my dream and full responsibility for the impact it would have on others. I created an “I can and I will” attitude which I wore at all times.

And then two weeks ago I went to Majorca and on my second day found my dream home. It was everything I wanted. It had the terrace, the beach the pool, the privacy, the trees, the space, the lot!  I should have been excited, ecstatic and elated.  But suddenly, my unstoppable attitude took me on a roller coaster of emotions that ranged from dizzy to feeling sick, from excitement to sheer terror and culminated in me visiting the loo at every possible opportunity.

The test

What was going on? I could never have predicted nor have even prepared myself for such a rigorous test of my attitude.  For the next 9 days I observed the phenomenon.   My dream had manifested itself; everything was as I had planned it, so how was it that I was lurching from one attitude to another?

By day 10 I had finally figured it out.  It’s not enough to just choose your attitude, you have to commit to it. Not only do you have to ‘wear’ your attitude :it has to fit you like a glove. It has to be part of who you are and you have to live in to it every day of your life.   The moment I was able to create a committed attitude I was able to embrace my dream and go for it. Now there was no turning back.  Whatever the way forward presents, my attitude is that I will handle it.

I also know that as coach, unless I consistently walk my talk in every area of my own life, I cannot expect my wonderful clients to do the same.

Your attitude defines the quality of your life on a minute-by-minute daily basis. Choosing your attitude has the power to bring you fulfilment and happiness or have you looking back at a life half lived.

So what are you waiting for?  How long will you wait to live your dreams?  You have in you huge resources to face any challenge life offers you. Choose your attitude right now, and decide to live life your way!

Five Steps to a Great Attitude

1. Get a clear picture in your mind right now of the results you want to achieve? What dreams do you want to fulfil? How do you want your life to look? “The result/dream I want to achieve is: ”

2. Once you have the picture in your mind, ask yourself: What is my present attitude about achieving this? What attitude would I rather have about this result?

3. Try on this new attitude. Wear it for a while and see how it “fits.” Is it helping to deliver the changes you want?

4. Review the change in you and your circumstances. Do you need to change your attitude or add another attitude?

5. Commit to your new attitude, follow through. Keep choosing your attitude everyday and you will be choosing a future that works for you.

I’ve compiled five steps to get you moving in the right direction!

1. Fear is good

The more scared you are of a work or calling, the more sure you can be that you have to do it. Henry Fonda was still throwing up before each stage performance, even when he was seventy-five. In other words, fear doesn’t go away. The battle must be fought anew every day. Master fear and you conquer Resistance.

2. Don’t self-dramatise

Creating soap opera in our lives is a symptom of Resistance. If your life lurches from one spine-tingling episode to another, you won’t get a damn thing done.

3. Wean yourself off television

Stephen King, one of the world’s most prolific writers, calls it “the glass teat.” Too much telly can be your way of giving in to Resistance and Fear. It just takes up too much time and is one sure way to rob you of time and energy that could be going into your schemes and dreams.

4. You will feel like an impostor

Everyone does. As soon as you step out and decide to go for it and declare your intent, you’ll feel like an impostor for a time. Years ago I got promoted from a waitress to a maitre’d. For a few nights I felt an impostor. It passed. Everyone who has a body feels like an impostor sometimes. It will pass.

5. Make your contribution

Fulfilling your true potential and highest calling is your gift to the world and every being in it. Don’t cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you’ve got.

You have a choice at times like these -  you either buy into the paranoia and put your dreams and desires on hold or you develop new strengths, new skills and new ways of looking at life.

Don’t give up on your goals and dreams, just because ‘the time isn’t right.

1.Turn off the news

At the very least reduce your exposure to bad news and the media’s job is to report – overwhelmingly – bad news, on the worst conditions possible.

Unless you are already a master of your mentality and can filter out the news, turn it off. Otherwise you run the risk of feeding powerlessness and victimhood.

2. Stop listening to others

Friends and colleagues can reinforce what’s going on in the media. Don’t argue with them, but don’t buy into their interpretation of the world.

If you’re contemplating a brave move, seek the opinion of another brave person – not one living in fear. It’s also not fair to ask another to tell you what to do. That’s your job to figure out and take responsibility.

3. Believe, believe, believe in yourself

This is the time to get behind yourself and forge on with dreams and desires. I find that many people will never take action toward their goals and aspirations because they simply don’t believe in themselves, nor that they deserve whatever it is they want.

If you are going to be successful in spite of a recession and create the life of your dreams, you have to believe that you are capable of making it happen.

You have to believe you have the right stuff, that you are able to pull it off. This is an article in itself, which I’ll do shortly.

4. Concentrate on service

Don’t make it all about the money. Focus on the contribution that you can and must make to others. What are the services and gifts you have that others need. Your world needs you. Give, give, give.

5. Don’t go it alone

Choose a great, inspiring influence to support your highest ambitions and grandest version of yourself. I would personally work with any and all of the coaches here on my site.

If you’re not sure who is best for you, email me with a short description of your circumstances and I’ll recommend one, fiona@fionaharrold.com

If that’s the case then we should also expect other aspects of our life view to change. Sometimes to rediscover that zest need only be to reconnect and update whatever values and beliefs we might have, since they also change and develop as we do the same.

At other times however, we know it’s time for a change, a “stop the world, I want to get off” routine, at least for a while, before we rejoin for what might well be another course. Or as the late, great Judy Garland once said, “Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.”

Allowing ourselves time to think and consider what our needs are, before asking the question “where do I go from here” can be both a revelatory as well as energizing time.

I asked David, one of my current clients, himself having been through the scenario of burn out and wondering “what else?” to share experiences of his “journey’ from re-evaluation to recharge.

David’s Story…

“When Mike asked me if I’d like to write about my experiences whilst coaching and the way it’s assisted my life during the last year I must say I almost declined. Then I realised that would have been an action the old David would have taken, whereas the new one would most certainly relish the challenge. I might also add that by “old” I mean the passed tense version of who I am today, and also “old” in that nowadays I feel a good ten years younger than I did this time last year.

“I called Mike as a last resort. A friend had been insistent that I at least try something new, and to be honest I didn’t know what else to do. I worked as a trader in the city for more than ten years, and built a very successful and accompanying lifestyle to go with it. However the stress and constant high-pressure environment took their toll, leading to depression and incredible mood swings that would take me from my usual happy and light self to someone nervous and at odds with themselves and the world around them. I was prescribed anti depressants, and when they didn’t work, to be honest I worried I was suffering the beginnings of a nervous breakdown.

“For some months I simply cocooned myself away at home, spending whole days in bed or simply watching television. I saw no future, and just to get through a day was an achievement. A friend began to buy me motivational and personal development books, which after leaving them to gather dust for some time I began to read, including Mike’s book.

Voyage Of Discovery

“I emailed Mike, and then right away resolved not to actually book or do any coaching. Thankfully he wrote back in such a way I knew I could talk to him and he’d understand. He followed up with a call, and that is when I started the journey I still find myself on today. I call it my ‘voyage of discovery.’

“Mike encouraged me to look at my beliefs and what I thought about the world I lived in and had created. With the softest of approaches, Mike helped me take responsibility and accept my own reality. Through many weeks, countless smiles and sometimes a lot of sweat I have laid firm foundations from which to build my future life on. Now I plan to succeed, instead of plan to fail, which I now know was my old way of working.

“I have decided not to go back to the city, but to begin a business of my own. I’ve begun to invest in the property market, buying and renovating otherwise old houses nobody else would want to live in. Before banking, carpentry, painting and decorating were something I always enjoyed and was good at. Banking just came out of an innate feeling that I should ‘get a proper job’ and a respectable career (all self beliefs, I know).

“Life is still a voyage of discovery, though one I relish with the start of every new day. My work with Mike is ongoing, since I now feel I’ve only just begun this new life of mine. How did I achieve it? By taking action (one of Mike’s mantras), and by believing I could be more than I had become. I would encourage anyone who doubts that changing their life is possible for them, suspend your disbelief and try it anyway!”

Listen And You Will Hear

David knew that working in the city was no longer right for him, because his body told him. Whether were in touch and listen to ourselves or not, eventually our body shouts out loud and we have to listen. But what can you do to prick up your ears and listen to your needs now? Follow my 5 top tips to a greater understanding… of you, now!

Five Tips to Re-evaluate & Recharge

1. Attitudes

How have your attitudes changed over the past ten years? Are you more tolerant, or less? More inclined to speak your mind, or stick your head in the sand until whatever it is blows over?

2. Be “Real”

Are you “real,” in that are you being true to yourself? Do you hold and use your personal power with pride, or hide it away, afraid to shine in case it makes you stick out like a sore thumb or even worse, have you handed responsibility to someone else, your partner, work, society, even the government?

3. Take Responsibility

Assume control of your own destiny. It’s never too late to start. List 20 ways in which you could demonstrate, to yourself, your own sense of personal power in the next week. Or, in the words of the great Dale Carnegie, “If you want to be enthusiastic, act enthusiastic.”

4. Go For Gold

From now on, given the choice between the mundane and extraordinary, chose the extraordinary every time. Make it a new life rule that from this day on you will never again shrink from a challenge or an adventure.

5. Find The Indiana Jones In You!!

…and with that new sense of adventure, what would be the first thing you would do? Go on, make a decision and commit to taking a new action now. Whether it is training for and resolving to raise loads of money for the marathon next year, canoeing in Australia, or simply to go for and create the life you want, be brave, take a deep breath and do it. Recharge your life!

That’s right, identify what it is you want to achieve. As Stephen Covey stated in the famous quote above, to know your outcome gives any work you may need to do much greater focus.

So, get focused, and get writing with what it is you want to achieve. Don’t worry if you can’t yet dream the big stuff yet, start small and I promise you’ll be moving on up to the bigger pictures sooner than you ever imagined!

2. Get a plan

If you knew where you wanted to go, the next question would be, “how are you going to get there?” What would you need to do first in order to be “on course” to succeed? Be practical; fit your planning in with whatever time you have right now, but push just a little bit.

3. Chunk

Chunking is that age old way of achieving what may first appear impossible, simply because it’s just too damn big. Chunk down, plan “baby steps,” and again before you know it you’ll be looking like a giant.

4. Challenge those fears

Whatever comes up and stops you achieving, challenge. Ask yourself;

• Is this for me?
• Is it what I really want?
• What do I need to change in order to get success?
• Do I need to enlist anyone else’s help or take some training?
• What would I need to believe to win?
• What can I do to re-enforce that new belief?

5. The secret ingredient…

…and the secret? There is no secret; just TAKE ACTION. There’s only so much dreaming, planning, refining, challenging, chunking, reviewing (blah blah blah) a person can do and then you need to take action.

Nothing -let me repeat -NOTHING will build up your motivation quicker or more solidly than following through on your actions. Remember your mantra, from today it’s “do it, do it now!”

I know what you’re probably thinking – it can’t be as easy as that. There must be a catch.

The catch is that you must be100% absolutely clear on what it is you want and be in no doubt whatsoever that you will receive it!

The Right Focus

If you only think you want something, and you’re doubtful as to whether or not you’re ever going to get it anyway, be that a fabulous relationship or the ideal job, no amount of focusing is ever going to “pull” it towards you -as you are more than likely focusing on the doubt, which in turn will only pull more doubt in your direction which will repel what you truly want.

Let me give you an example: exactly 2 months ago I suddenly had a huge desire to spend a month in Ireland. Not as a holiday, but working as an actor.

As my focus sharpened on this picture in my head I “coincidentally” started to hear Irish accents everywhere; on the TV, on the radio, on the street! I started to visualize myself walking down the city streets and walking into rehearsals.

I absolutely knew I was going to Ireland for a month. I had no idea how,  I hadn’t worked in theatre in Ireland for 6 years. I didn’t need to go, but my focus and desire was so sharp that I had a “knowing” that I was going.

I even began to mentally pack my bags and decide what shoes were coming with me. Now that’s focus!

Offer

But here’s the “weird” bit. Only a couple of weeks  later I received a call from a Theatre Company in Kilkenny, Ireland offering me 5 weeks work! Needless to say I accepted immediately.

• So what pictures are you creating in your head?
• Why do you want it?
• Do you really believe you deserve to have it?
• What do you focus on every day?
• Are you allowing yourself to pull-focus from what you truly want?

Make no mistake about it – when you focus on the reasons why you can’t achieve your goal, you just pull yourself further and further away from it.

But don’t take my word for it, experiment by  “pulling” something you really want towards you and have fun!

Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.
George Bernard Shaw

Take Billy for example. Billy was the second of four children who was always shy and unassuming.

He had a difficult time in education due to the late diagnosis of dyslexia and a lack of tolerance from teachers at the locally nicknamed “Our Lady of Perpetual PMT” primary school.

Billy left school at sixteen and worked through a range of unskilled jobs, bought a house and lives happily with his lovely girlfriend.

Will’s Story

On the other hand Will was the only son born into a house full of adoring sisters who lovingly refer to him as Golden Boy.

Will’s sunny nature, handsome face and quick humour meant he built up a great network of friends and he could always find work to pay for the pursuit of his dream to be a musician.

Will can pick up any instrument and make it “speak” within minutes.

He writes and performs his own songs with his band, has played live on Capital Radio and to an invited celebrity audience at the 100 Club London. His band is building up a fan base and he is doing what he loves.

Yes, you guessed it - Billy and Will are one and the same, it just depends on which aspects of his life we choose to focus on, that makes the difference.

Your Focus

How often do you fall into the trap of focusing on the negative aspects of your story?

Are you constantly playing the video of your life’s failings and misfortunes in your head – with you in the starring role, of course?

Does it often feel like the world is out to get you?

The truth is your life, like Billy and Will’s, can look totally different depending on your focus.

If you spend most of your days focussing on what you lack you will create a bleak reality.

Evidence

The “fanatic in the attic” of your head will send off the “fella in the cellar” of your subconscious to seek out evidence of how life is stacked against you, how you don’t have what it takes to live out your dreams.

That fella in the cellar loves a rule to stick to and he will bring back just the right evidence.

If your focus is aimed fair and square at the unique gifts and talents you possess and you expect to see opportunities that fella in the cellar will oblige.

It only takes a few days of coaxing the fanatic in the attic to focus on the positive aspects of your life for a new video showing to emerge.

No longer disaster movies playing 24/7, but inspirational dramas, romantic comedies, stirring tales of derring-do and triumph.

The radio station of mind music will gradually shift from the Shock Jock of criticism, to coaxing whispers of support.

It’s Your Choice

You hold the remote control - what’s it to be? Choose your focus, what can you lose by trying it for a month? You could be in danger of losing the old story and creating a new one of course.

In his book “The Success Principles” Jack Canfield explains how his mentor, W Clement Stone, was known as an “Inverse Paranoid.”

Instead of believing that the world was out to get him he chose to focus on a world that was providing opportunities to enrich and advance him, even when they came disguised as difficulties.

How would your life change if you chose the same focus and belief?

So, if you fancy changing your focus why not commit to a month of:

• Counting your blessings – keep a gratitude journal writing down three things you are grateful for at the end of each day
• Starting an achievement log – identify at least one achievement each day, think about what skills and attributes you needed to achieve it and make a note of where you can use those skills in future
• Become an “Inverse Paranoid” – begin each day committed to focusing on a world that is out to support you and bring you wonderful opportunities.

I had been standing on that ladder for a couple of years trying to figure out how to move it on to a better wall without falling until I joined Fiona’s recent Success Group.

It all seems so obvious now; just step off the ladder, and put it against the right wall.

Support

Simple but scary. I needed to work through the 7 Rules of Success with the support of Fiona and the group to really believe that this was a risk not just worth taking but one I had to embrace if I wanted to be true to my real purpose and the vision for my life. Just as Covey says

“If the ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step we take just gets us to the wrong place faster.”

I have worked hard for years to build up my qualifications and experience to forge a career in the NHS.

I left school without taking any exams, and always felt limited by my lack of qualifications. So after having four children in as many years, I decided it was time to put that limiting belief to rest.

I took GCSE and A levels and was totally shocked to find I was accepted at Sheffield University to take a degree in Psychology. Post-graduate studies, Coaching qualifications and NLP practitioner qualifications never convinced me I was clever enough.

The Wrong Wall

Getting one promotion after another until I was working on a major national NHS programme at the top of my field still didn’t fill the lack I felt. I was just getting further up the wrong wall.

The Success Group helped me to really challenge those self-limiting beliefs and identify my purpose, passion and destiny. In the first week, Fiona spent about ten minutes with me and my passion was bubbling.

Every session I went to after that I was working on that passion but always holding back knowing that the one risk I needed to take was impossible; to give up my well-paid job and follow my heart inspiring people like me to reach further than the limitations they have set themselves.

Perseverance

On week six we started on the rule of perseverance and everything changed. Mike Blissett, Fiona’s assistant, and my fabulous group members really challenged my beliefs.

They helped me to recognise my uniqueness and the value of vulnerability in someone working with others to grow. Fiona had started the session with the quotation from explorer W H Murray that I had read a million times but it had never before had the potency it had on that day:

“Until one is committed there is always hesitancy, the chance to draw back always ineffectiveness. The moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too.”

I took on all the actions I had committed to at that session and within a week I had resigned from my job to start out full-time as a coach and workshop facilitator.

Providence has certainly moved in. I have gathered lots of support and opportunities and the scary feelings have turned into excitement.

I can honestly say I feel truly alive for the first time in years.

I know I have taken a major risk but I also know I could never have authentically coached anyone to live the life they dream unless I was doing that myself.

“Boldness has genius, power and magic in it”

Whatever you are dreaming of I would urge you to take up Fiona’s challenge of accepting the risk that is right in front of you.

We all get to decide what our own interpretation of a success ladder looks like. Once I took the risk of climbing down from the wrong one, I can now see all the other walls that is possible for me to climb.