Your Vision & Your Motivation

In business it's easy to identify how your vision for the business impacts the motivation of your employees but relating this to your personal life may not be an easy leap. How often to do you hear a concise response from those who choose to stay at home when they are asked "So what's your vision?" and more truthfully how often do they get asked?

We know that your vision statement describes goals for the business which then drives each department to determine what actions do they need to be conducting to reach and live the business's vision and mission. As an individual, outlining what your vision is or mission might be is more aligned with focusing on and identifying what your life goals might be and how your goals impact what your life looks like once you have achieved these goals.

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Life Coach and Business Coach Karen Kleinwort is the founder Therapy in Transition and is a Certified Professional Coach specializing in the integration of her clients' mind, body and spirit into her Personal Empowerment Coaching practice. For more information, visit www.coachkarenk.com. www.therapyintransition.org, www.empowermentforme.com or contact her at success@coachkarenk.com.

Your Needs Are Motivation

We all have needs and those needs, well need to be met. How we go about meeting our needs is what will either motivate us to continue to move forward in life or enable us to become paralyzed and feeling stuck. In the introductory video I ask our visitors to think about what has them "kicking off the sheets" morning and excited about getting their day started. Getting up and at 'em is already challenging when you are comfy, cozy snuggled in your warm bed; now add into that if life is throwing some serious challenges. What are telling yourself to get you moving and jumping up?

This self talk is the largest piece of getting ourselves motivated to move and jump into action each morning. It is through your self talk that you can begin to identify which of your needs is not being met and which needs are.

So what are your needs? We know on a large part to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs that there are five basic needs we have.

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Life Coach and Business Coach Karen Kleinwort is the founder Therapy in Transition and is a Certified Professional Coach specializing in the integration of her clients' mind, body and spirit into her Personal Empowerment Coaching practice. For more information, visit www.coachkarenk.com. www.therapyintransition.org, www.empowermentforme.com or contact her at success@coachkarenk.com.

Motivation at Work

Whether your life is that you are in business for yourself, you work for someone else or you are a Domestic Engineer (a title often associated with those individuals who choose to stay at home with or without children) staying motivated can be difficult if not outright challenging. There are two aspects to motivation and your workplace scenario – one is from the perspective of management and the other is from the viewpoint of the employee. As part of the ongoing series focusing on Motivation, today we are concentrating on motivation on the job.

Have you identified your specific scenario yet? Most of what we will be sharing in this article you will be able to apply to your specific situation.

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Life Coach and Business Coach Karen Kleinwort is the founder Therapy in Transition and is a Certified Professional Coach specializing in the integration of her clients' mind, body and spirit into her Personal Empowerment Coaching practice. For more information, visit www.coachkarenk.com. www.therapyintransition.org, www.empowermentforme.com or contact her at success@coachkarenk.com.

Motivation - A Hot Topic

The word motivation is not only a hot topic, buzz word or twitter trend, it is a word that when broken down can truly give us a guide to finding our inner fuel to achieving our goals. The simple definition can be found in any dictionary; Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary defines motivation as “the act or process of motivating.” (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/motivation) This definition really only opens up more questions, so let’s move to the root word of motivation - motive. Motive is defined as “something (as a need or desire) that causes a person to act.” (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/motive) Ah – ha! Now we are getting somewhere.

When it comes to finding motivation to achieve our goals there are some of us who just naturally have it and then there are others who struggle to locate and embrace it. As a person who is always highly motivated, I do find there are certain days where I wonder where my motivation has disappeared to. It is on these days I question if there is a way to actually measure my motivation levels in comparison to others days; outside of a knowing I feel more or less motivated. We know that motivation is the fuel that supports people to take actions necessary for them to achieve their goals.

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Life Coach and Business Coach Karen Kleinwort is the founder Therapy in Transition and is a Certified Professional Coach specializing in the integration of her clients' mind, body and spirit into her Personal Empowerment Coaching practice. For more information, visit www.coachkarenk.com. www.therapyintransition.org, www.empowermentforme.com or contact her at success@coachkarenk.com.

You and Your Stress

It does not matter if you’re in business for yourself, high powered exec or a stay at home mom ... stress can get to you. Your understanding and personal experience help you define what stress means to you. As an entrepreneurs you may be challenged with what it means for you personally the impact of stress from work and how difficult it can be to make strong decisions regarding starting your a new company. You know stress can be linked to making decisions about going into business for ourselves, heading back to school, and the impact (either positive or negative) on your financial wellness. All of these are great examples of "External Stressor" that you can experience and they differ from "Internal Stressors."

Let me give a working example so you can better understand the difference of these two types of stress: "You make a change in priorities and as a result you begin to have less than healthy levels of nutrients in your diet, you forget to exercise and/or your sleeping patterns change all of which impact your metabolism. The impact is your body's inability to metabolize food properly and burn any excess fat and begin affecting your internal organs' ability to work properly. Wow! Just imaging what happens over the course of months - what is happening to your internal body will affect your ability to make decision. Staying motivated and empowered during times of stress allows you to be able to identify potential stressors and stay healthier.

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Life Coach and Business Coach Karen Kleinwort is the founder Therapy in Transition and is a Certified Professional Coach specializing in the integration of her clients' mind, body and spirit into her Personal Empowerment Coaching practice. For more information, visit www.coachkarenk.com. www.therapyintransition.org, www.empowermentforme.com or contact her at success@coachkarenk.com.

Were You Born to Teach?

All my life, I never thought I was a teacher. I thought I didn't have the patience to teach students, since my idea of being a teacher meant I would be standing in front of 25 or more fifth graders all talking at once, and my brain would immediately begin to smoke from mentally trying to control my patience. Then I moved through life and learned that being a teacher was more than just the formal academic style of teaching; it actually meant I would pass along my knowledge and expertise to those who want it, need it or request it. Wow! How empowering to think I have something to teach another individual. I must say that I highly respect those who teach in formal setting, and my hat goes off to them.

When I realized this, my personal philosophy began to adjust, transform and expand. I made the effort to become conscious of when I was "teaching" and when I might be "learning." It wasn't long before I understood that I was easily and instantaneously flipping between these two roles without interruption. I knew then we all were born to teach, and our teaching careers begin with our first breaths. As we journey through life, our "student" and "teacher" selves are invoked based on the experience or situation we happen to find ourselves in and at which point one of these two energies becomes primary. I was able to discern when my teacher role kicked in, which was when I was being asked to share any knowledge I had to another individual and realized that when I was in "listening" mode my student self stepped forward.

My question to you is, do you believe you were born to teach? If so, what is your personal teaching philosophy? I've spoken about this topic in previous blog posts. But with this new year, the new vibration and the new energy, we're all being asked to step up our teaching games. I didn't quite believe by how much until recently when I was asked to partner with an amazing woman and collaborate on teaching courses. Within the next four weeks I not only will be passively invoking my teacher self but actually standing in front of a classroom teaching. My younger years perspective of teaching is becoming a reality. (Not that I will be teaching fifth graders, but I will be teaching adults. And no, that doesn't mean I'm smarter than a fifth grader!)

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New Year, New Goals

Last year you took the leap and started your own business, or maybe you embraced your inner entrepreneur and set out to start your own business this year. Either way, you've been focusing on what it means to look to the future and set goals. This has been a hot topic with clients over the last month: looking to 2012 and going for it. Whatever "it" is, this is the year they want to step out and step up their game. The challenge, it seems, is knowing the limits, length and distance they (and you!) are willing and wanting to go to create the career of their (and your!) dreams.

Working for yourself, starting your own business provides a great amount of satisfaction; but it's a lot of work to get started. The underlying emotional fear that's holding you back may just be related to money. Do you have the financial means with which to start your own business? From where will the money come if you don't have savings from which to draw? Is your business idea good enough to convince other people to invest in you and your new business? These are all valid questions because it's important to know your own relationship with money, abundance and all things financial.

Your relationship money will definitely dictate how you will perceive the "value" of your idea as well as the "value" you personally bring to the business itself. On the upper level of consciousness you may believe you love money (Who doesn't?!) and the idea of being wealthy. But what has been holding you back until now to step into going after earning this type of wealth?

Your level of self-confidence (for one) and your ability to be honest with yourself (for another). Understanding your relationship with money requires more than just you looking at your past to learn how your spending habits have affected your ability to save or gaining the clarity of why you buy certain products and subscribe to specific services. Having the confidence to honestly admit your inner most thoughts regarding money is the space you want to visit during time of reflection or meditation.

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Happiest Time of the Year…Or Is It?

We've all heard the Christmas song "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" by Andy Williams. Being that the holidays are in full swing, I'm sure it's one of many you'll hear over and over again, whether on the radio while you're driving or in the shopping mall looking for last-minute gifts. The song sticks with you, and you can't get it out of your head—even when you seem to be overstressed and in a bah humbug mood.

No judgment with regard to the mood, Christmas and the holiday season as a whole are stressful. It's also an emotionally challenging time for people. With the current economic situation it can be downright depressing, even for those who have a great deal for which to be grateful.

Depression hits us when we least expect it, and the holidays can trigger some deeply rooted emotions which we've yet to deal with, admit to or let go of. A few people have good external reasons to be depressed. Let me share an example: a true story that was shared with me this morning.

A family with four young children just used its savings to move from a two-bedroom apartment into a four-bedroom, two-bath apartment with the intention that they can provide a more comfortable living situation for the children. It's nothing extravagant and both parents are employed, so the leap of faith was taken.

The wife left to spend the last few days with her dying brother. She came home grateful for what she had, which wasn't much. But she had her children, husband and job. Within a week of returning and moving into their new apartment, both she and her husband lost their jobs. Now, just a few weeks before Christmas, they have no income and virtually no savings, and they're looking at not being able to make the rent at the first of the month.

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Holiday Spirit and Your Stress

There is not a more stressful time than the holidays. And, well, I can't name one person who actually enjoys the stress associated with holidays. The stress of dealing with family, the politics that comes with buying the right gift—or worse, making the decision not to buy the gift at all! Let's not even mention the stress of dealing with other stressed out holiday shoppers all vying for the "last" of whatever is the hot ticket item.

Fortunately, in this age of technology the shopping is not so bad as it once was; with a few clicks of a mouse, you can purchase your much-needed item, have it shipped to you, and all that's left is the wrapping. I'll admit, I did a lot more online shopping this Christmas than for Christmases past, and I liked it.

The truth about stress is that a particular amount of stress or anxiety is healthy. As a Crisis Coach I deal with clients who are moving through not just this heightened holiday stress level that comes but once a year—which, by the way, we are more emotionally, physically and psychologically ready for than we might realize since we "know" about the upcoming stress and the triggers that get our blood boiling: triggers like line cutters, not getting the "good" parking spot, or missing the extra 20% discount by an hour.

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Be Paid Your Worth in 3 Easy Steps!

Business is competitive. Period. You go into business to make money and be your own boss: to set your own schedule and work with only those clients who are in alignment with your philosophy.

Because of the high level of competitiveness, there is a chance in the beginning you are going to charge less than your closest competitors; and in the beginning, this is for most of you the best decision. You need to get the doors open and buyers in. But for how long do you continue to charge a fee that is a "steal"?

Yes, the economy isn't the greatest, and people still have their purse strings tightened. But those who are in need of your goods or services are ready to jump on board with you and invest the fees necessary. You know what sets you apart from your competitors, and the key to convincing a client or customer to choose you is what you offer that no one else does.

Ideally you want to charge a fee that can withstand whatever the current market will bear but still be considered a good deal. So what stops you from establishing a fair market value for your services and provide your knowledge for less than what it's worth? Simply stated: Your confidence is impacting your ability to be paid your worth!

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Are You Financially Balanced?

Is your business growing? Or has it stagnated during these last few years due to the economic downturn? Like most of us who own their own business, going to the next level is always a big step: a step that takes more than just courage, optimism and a great concept.

It also takes money. Purse strings are tight, and to reach out and ask for financial help can be more than a little scary. The big question is what type of financial help you want—I mean, other than just asking for money. Are you open to giving up part ownership? What about paying interest on the money you receive?

The two means of financing available for your company are:

1. Debt Financing, which is when you borrow a set amount of money for a predetermined period of time and pay a predetermined interest; and
2. Equity Financing is receiving an injection of funding in exchange for an ownership stake. The percentage of ownership is based on the amount the investor is paying per share and how many shares he's purchasing.

But how do you determine which form of financing is right for you? Both of these financing options have advantages and disadvantages. Before we go any further, let me clearly state this: Your final decision, before doing anything, needs to be based on education and knowledge. Your specific business situation is unique to you and your financing options, no matter which path you choose. It is unique to you, and there are two professional resources you need to seek out and tap into before venturing into the wild world of financing. Those two resources are a CPA specializing in financial investment and associated tax laws, and a lawyer specializing in fundraising and associated state and federal business laws.

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Scuffling with Physical Success

'Tis the holiday season, and it's a season of shopping, eating and celebrating. Most of us are taking advantage of the year-end discounts wherein stores are doing their best to lure us into their establishments with the hopes of dropping a few of our hard-earned dollars. We are celebrating the end of the year, which has hopefully been filled with great memories, wonderful successes and goal achievements.

The additional piece we are inundated with is eating. The holidays mean a time of splurging on the excess of sweets, cakes, home-cooked meals and beverages. If you're like me, then splurging means an extra visit to the gym or longer walks with dogs. I will admit that I do envy those fortunate individuals who are able to eat whatever they want, when they want, without adding on any or very little weight this season!

What keeps you motivated to stay healthy, eat and exercise during the holiday season? As you age your metabolism slows down, which means the level of calories we can consume is lower as you age—so you need to seriously increase you level of activity to offset the imbalance.

Have you formulated your list of motivators for what is going to keep you physically healthy this season? How about being able to achieve your business or career goals easier? Would becoming more financially abundant be a motivator?

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Steering Yourself to Victory

The end of another year is just about to arrive, and you are most likely caught up with the excitement of the holidays, shopping and spending time with those you love. It's around now that you begin to set intentions and goals for the upcoming year.

In business you are establishing budgets, identifying sales goals, and trying to locate potential expenditures on which to cut back. In your personal life you're looking at your level of happiness with your work, where you are in life, what you might like to change about where you live, or (if you're like the majority of us) identifying personal health goals.

When we establish goals for ourselves personally or professionally, it can be overwhelming at times since we think we know ourselves and like to believe we can do more than what's realistic. This results in your being overconfident or unrealistically confident. When you become overconfident, as bold and brazen as it sounds, you're actually lacking a certain amount of confidence of a particular kind. I'm sure you're wondering what I mean when I refer to "kind of confidence."

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Holiday Mindset Melt-Down

We're just a week away from the busiest shopping day of the year – Black Friday – and it's also the beginning of the most stressful time of year: the days between Thanksgiving and the kick off of the next year.

For most it means a time of family, friends and great fun, but for others it could mean something quite entirely different. Stress does funny things, but this time of year we're emotionally triggered by numerous types of events and easily fall into the pit of allowing ourselves to become victims.

Victim mentality is a common and hot topic these days, and it bodes well to play the victim role when we need an excuse for certain types of behavior, or we feel we need to be right and validated. Take a minute and think back over the last several months to see if any of these statements have been true for you:

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Confidence + Goodwill = Success

Asking current clients for referrals can be difficult, but for moving forward it is an absolute necessity. What holds you back from asking? Your confidence: that's what! So how do you move through this confidence challenge? By looking back and identifying which of your clients had the greatest success. These individuals will be (and will continue to be) walking testimonials and advertisements for you and your business. Here are three tips to improve your business confidence and savvy while increasing your client base!

Take Stock & Boost Confidence
Your first priority is to gather all the positive feedback, comments and notes from current and previous clients you can find. Next, make a list and read through it a few times. Reading over your list of positive feedback will allow you to establish a mental and emotional connection based on positive thoughts and experiences. This allows you to reach out to each of these individuals more confidently. Asking for help is never easy, but when we make a positive emotional connection with those to whom we are reaching out, we can design a new thought pattern. With a new pattern in place, you create new beliefs—and your new beliefs increase your confidence level!

Using the positive comments from your clients in your communication, remind your clients of how much they appreciated what you have done for them. Then ask them for referrals to associates, family and friends who could use your services.

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Women, Business and Confidence

Recently there has been quite a bit chatter in the news regarding women, business and women's inability to move ahead. A report recently on MSNBC cited the following two key elements for the reason:  "Glass Walls" and confidence (specifically, a lack of confidence).

When I was watching these news broadcasts, the lack of confidence resonated with me, as I believe we've all had our confidence shaken and challenged more than once as well. Similarly, I connected with the reference to the Glass Walls. I never personally believed in the Glass Ceiling excuse, but I do see the truth within these newly identified walls.

What confines us behind these walls are the following three parts, as set out in the news broadcast:

• Doing everything
• Lack of network support
• Thinking small

But I would like to add a fourth part: emotional trust.

The first three are obvious in their definitions, but the fourth—emotional trust—may not be so obvious since it also contains a few elements of its own. Being part of the human race means we're emotional beings; we use our emotions to learn, experience and grow. As women we embrace our emotions on an even greater and deeper level, resulting in our having a larger emotional investment in all that we do. When our emotional investment causes us pain or we experience negative backlash, our emotional trust is challenged and we become more cautious regarding where we place this trust in the future.

All our decisions are based on where we stand emotionally with regard to...

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Postivity Tools for Your Business

Separating what is happening in your personal life from your business life and vise-versa is difficult during the best of times. Working through times of challenge or crisis can make keeping the two separate nearly impossible. We all agree that your outlook in life doesn't need to be positive 100% of the time, nor do any of your family, business associates and friends expect you to be "up" all the time. When you're confronted with challenges that look bigger than life itself, having a few tools in your emotional balancing kit will allow you to dance through the challenge with a feeling of balance and grace instead of stumbling.

Several reports show meditation supports a healthy standard of living, and it's considered one of the best habits to decrease stress. When our worry is reduced or handled effectively, our outlook on life improves. This, in turn, results in an upward spiral in all areas of your life. Individuals practicing meditation on a recurring basis understand how meditation directly supports their ability to improve their mind's tricks, resulting in a more peaceful, calm and focused point of view.

Basically, the human mind is the key to reducing pressure. With the aid of meditation we're able to feel calmer and more relaxed while experiencing increased clarity, better mental focus and a boost in a sense of harmony. As we meditate our amount of random feelings diminishes, as will our attachment to those feelings and identification with them. This is because we're generally not conscious of all the mental goings-on in which we're engaged. Like with any inspiring method in which we engage ourselves, our ability to allow ourselves to "just be" emerges when our inner artist flourishes. Our ability to create from nothing is a knack with which we're all born but only a few permit themselves to embrace. When we allow our authentic selves to step ahead and bask in the glow, our outlook effortlessly improves. With an optimistic outlook we're able to step into action through the most complicated of times and crisis situations.

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Where Your Truth Goes, Your Confidence Follows

So you now know how confident you are, right? I mean, when ranking yourself regarding your confidence level, you were truthful, right? Oh, you mean you stretched the truth a little? Oh well, that’s okay because we all do it: stretch the truth, I mean. But if you can’t be honest with yourself, then with whom can you be honest? Knowing your truth is the second critical piece to being confident. The first was realizing that all your actions and reactions to life's events and decisions impacted your confidence level. Truth is what empowers you to step out of your comfort zone confidently and take the actions or steps necessary in life.

In the first part of this three-part series you were introduced to your two main life accounts into which all your actions, decisions and experiences are either made deposits into or taken from as withdrawals from your integrity and confidence accounts. Remember that both these accounts affect your level of success in your career, your relationships, and your overall personal wellness.

Your confidence level will dictate how you handle and manage your stress. Some stress is important in life, but extreme stress can be hazardous. Your goal is to be able to handle yourself regarding decision-making during times of crisis as well as you do during normal circumstances. With a lower confidence level it becomes more difficult for you to make effective decisions.

Examples of normal stress or daily triggers of your stress might be balancing your checkbook, creating employee schedules at work, or arranging a food drive for the local food bank. While moving through these situations, your physical, emotional and mental bodies are working according to plan. There may be emotions you experience such as frustration due to trying to coordinate others' schedules and availability, but these frustrations are easily worked through and released. There are no residual emotions floating around; in other words, you've let them go and moved on.

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Emotional Crisis? Emotional Infidelity

When we hear the expression "infidelity" in reference to a relationship, we frequently don't even think about anything outside of a physical interaction. But emotional cheating can be as damaging to a relationship as unfaithfulness. The difficulty, though, is that unlike infidelity, emotional infidelity isn't simple to catch, confirm or even admit! Very often the majority of people aren't even conscious of the fact that they are cheating on their partner emotionally.

Emotional cheating typically starts when one develops an emotional bond with a person of the opposite sex and begins sharing more with that person then with his or her partner. These relationships may or may not lead to physical intimacy; in either of the two cases, the existing relationship of the cheater suffers.

In the majority of cases, emotional cheating begins as an innocent friendship but develops into a "more than friends" relationship without the physical intimacy. It therefore results in being simple for people to convince themselves and others that they only share a special friendship and nothing else. A person might even equate it to the sharing of information or time with that of two best friends.

With the age of technology and the ease of "meeting" new people and connecting with "old friends," it's easy to figure how sometimes people develop meaningful emotional bonds with their online acquaintances. It's this kind of emotional infidelity that's even more difficult to identify and admit. The clandestine nature of these relationships, along with the benefit of mystery the World Wide Web provides, makes the dynamic of emotional infidelity even more complex.

So how do you know whether you're cheating on your companion emotionally? The following are a few of the biggest tell-tale signs:

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What's Your Confidence Level?

If someone were to ask you to state how confident you are, what would be your response? Ten? So very confident that you easily articulate your point of view, present ideas as required, make decisions swiftly without a lot of second guessing? Or zero?  You have no confidence at all since you believe others have desire to hear thoughts and you are hesitant, can't make a decision without wanting to know at least three people's opinions. Or is it somewhere in between?

I was shocked to learn recently there is a crisis in self-belief running rampant among women these days: not just professionally, but in their personal lives as well. Women, it seems, are missing the self-confidence to articulate or offer up their two cents or receive acknowledgment for a job well done.

Sounding at all familiar? At first the thought seemed foreign to me, but then I started looking around at the ladies in my life and I realized that yes, the truth of the matter is that a good number of my conversations with friends and associates indicate they lack the confidence to move out and into doing more than just merely existing in their lives. Wow!

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