Attitude and Longitude

Goals: “Prepare To Take Detours In Stride”

Do an Internet search on successfully achieving goals, and you’ll come across plenty of wise insights about dealing with obstacles to achieving goals too. That’s because all the great goal achievers in history also had to deal with obstacles or mistakes they made along the way.

James Joyce said, "Mistakes are the portals of discovery."

And he’s right.

Obstacles, mistakes and failures are shifting points for course changes along the journey. Sometimes you have to downshift and look for a new path to reach your goal. How you view or handle the obstacles to your goals has a significant bearing on how easily or quickly you reach your goal.

Still, I have to remind myself of these things on occasion, like when I was especially revved up about a particular goal recently. I kept hitting speed bumps, and my frustration levels kept revving up too.

The goal was conceived in January when my colleague, Tom Cassidy, was visiting Austin (my hometown) from England. We enthusiastically agreed to plan and deliver a series of public workshops together in Austin this coming April. Tom, who is an inspiring big thinker, said, “Let’s pick a venue that can fit 200 people for one of the events.” Swept up in his vision for a large program, I drafted a budget and started to list the likely locations that could host it.

The planning process was humming along pretty well, and then I hit a snag regarding venues. The typical places in Austin that could fit 200 participants kept replying with "that date is not available." Turns out April is peak wedding season… duh!

After spinning my wheels in disappointment after disappointment for a couple of days, I finally decided to reset the goal to allow for a smaller event. It suddenly became a whole lot easier. I found a beautiful classroom-style venue that seats 90 at the AT&T Executive and Education Conference Center on the downtown Austin campus of the University of Texas. And we were able to reserve it for our prime choice date, April 21. Not only is the room well-suited to the seminar that Tom and I will be teaching, the location is centrally located and easy to reach. Additionally, participants can enjoy their lunch break in one of two eateries in the building or go to a variety of restaurants within walking distance. Success! And everything continues to fall into place smoothly and easily.

In one of our email correspondences, Tom reminded me of the “choose easy” rule of goal achieving: “A message I learned a while back is that 'business is not meant to be a struggle - if it is, then you're doing something wrong.' Sure - it's meant to be hard work, but not a struggle - it CAN be fun at every step of the journey.”

That’s true… and, after all, “easy” and “minimum willpower” goal achieving is what we are teaching in our 13x4 programs together.

As I’ve reflected on all of this, I see that our idea to plan a large program was not a mistake after all. In fact, it’s a really good idea… for the long term that is. Plus the original large program idea led to some major breakthroughs in two areas that I hadn’t known about before I hit those obstacles: 1) I realized that I needed to hire a freelance event promoter to assist me for this and future projects and 2) I realized that it’s better for me, at this time, to build toward the success of the big goal by achieving this smaller, interim goal first.

These aha moments all hit me last week, and then, over the weekend, I came across the following. From The Magic of Thinking Big by Dr. David Schwartz, in the chapter entitled “Use Goals to Help You Grow”:

…prepare to take detours in stride. If you are driving down a road and you come to a “road closed” situation, you wouldn’t camp there, nor would you go back home. The road closed simply means you can’t go where you want to go on this road. You’d simply find another road to take you where you want to go.

Okay, I get the message loud and clear. From now on, I’ll prepare to take detours in stride... and I’ll remember to choose “easy” too.

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Angela Loëb helps people rediscover and use their gifts so they bring who they are to what they do in life. To learn more, please visit: www.insyncresources.com
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Fitting In At All Costs... What is it really about?

Last night DeAnne Pearson taught us about how to find our core values.  It was a great teleclass, and even though I’ve been doing personal development work for more years than I care to reveal, I had a couple of new breakthroughs about myself. 

Note:  If you’re interested in hearing the program, you can still sign up at www.MindOpeningDialogues.com until February 3, and I’ll be happy to send you information on how to access the recording.

What I found especially compelling was DeAnne’s personal story about her quest to find her own authentic self.  I believe that many of us have bumped into the same sort of “you must conform” scenario while growing up.

In first grade, she had a teacher who would change her life’s course significantly, but possibly not in a way that you think.  

“Did I mention, I love to talk?...” DeAnne asked as she began telling us her story. “I remember spending a lot of time at the teacher’s desk, with some stern words and meetings between my mom and the teacher. So, I stopped talking. I didn’t answer the teacher’s questions, I didn’t even answer for attendance and was counted absent for days at a time in first grade.”

Her name is all one word, DEANNE.  Prior to first grade she had learned to write her name with a capital A in the middle.  But this was a big issue with her teacher who wanted her to change the spelling or have her parents separate it into two words. “No one does that,” the teacher said.  What DeAnne saw as unique was considered wrong by the teacher. 

Another challenge DeAnne faced that year was having trouble with recognizing the alphabet and with reading.  Turns out she had dyslexia. 

When another student asked why she never smiled. DeAnne recalled the teacher’s response, “I have no idea, I just don’t think she is going to make it.” 

So, DeAnne got the message:  It was not okay to do the things she loved, like talking; her uniqueness was not going to be honored; and she was “just not going to make it.”

And that’s when she began to do what she could to fit in at school.  

“By second grade I was getting citizenship awards, excelling in all subjects, graduating in the top 5 of my class with academic scholarships and awards all the way through graduate school where I studied education, and later counseling, all the time fitting into a very traditional and acceptable path of teacher, then school and college counselor. The whole time my stomach hurt and I knew there was something missing.”

Through her work, DeAnne has come to realize she isn’t the only one with a story of “doing whatever it takes to fit in.”  She says that a lot of her clients have been job seekers and people unhappy in their careers who have this common desire to fit in at all cost. 

One of DeAnne’s favorite questions to ask herself and her clients when moving through a life change, is “What it is really about?”

And her conclusion is that, in most cases, it’s about whether you are being authentic to your core values – whether you are being honest with yourself and fulfilling your unique destiny.

DeAnne’s bio contains a line that I think sums it up nicely:  “You are never more brilliant, more beautiful, or stronger, than when you are fulfilling your own unique destiny. It is the only way to live honestly and the only true gift you can give the world.”

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Angela Loëb helps people rediscover and use their gifts so they bring who they are to what they do in life. To learn more, please visit: www.insyncresources.com
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To Get What You Want, Plan For What You Want - Schedule A Personal Planning Retreat

When I was in the middle of my corporate career, I was asked to turn in annual goals every January, and so I got into the habit of setting aside time on my birthday, which just happens to fall during the last week of the year (it was yesterday). I would take that day off as a personal vacation day and spend it reflecting on what I’d done the previous year and contemplating what I’d like to do during the next.

During my annual retreat, I would set goals, determine what books I wanted to read, what classes I wanted to take for personal and professional growth, etc. I looked at all areas of my life, not just the professional side. For example, when I decided to spruce up our home's master bathroom one year with new flooring and wall paint, it went on my plan.

Every year, I still do my birthday retreat. In fact, yesterday was my birthday, and I took the day off for my retreat!

I also do mini, half-day planning retreats quarterly. In fact, I recall one very powerful mini-retreat that I did in March 2008 that really catapulted me forward! That's when I set the intention that I would complete and publish the book that I'd been writing off and on over the previous 4 years. I pledged to have it out by September that same year. I wrote down all the action steps that I needed to take (along with any resources I needed for each step) to make this goal a reality. To stay disciplined, I put these steps on my calendar, picking realistic dates for each. Even though I was off the mark by a few weeks, I did, indeed, publish my book in October of 2008.

4 Tips For A Successful Personal Planning Retreat
1. Create uninterrupted space and time for yourself - put the date on your calendar and protect it like you would a vacation day. No kids, no managers, no employees, no significant others demanding your time. No electronics either... that is unless you are using a computer strictly for typing your plan. You must truly think of this as YOUR time.

2. It’s up to you how often you want to have your personal planning retreats. You can make this an annual event, perhaps on your birthday like I do. Of course, you might also find it useful to schedule your retreats more frequently. Like I mentioned, some people enjoy this process so much that they schedule bi-annual or quarterly personal retreats.

3. Ideally, give yourself a half day to a whole day away from the normal distractions. This is a time when you will do a lot of inner reflection, so I strongly advise you go to a different place where you can enjoy solitude if at all possible. Get out of the house or away from the office, turn off the phone and give yourself permission to think without distractions.

4. During your personal planning retreat, it's a good idea to start off by asking yourself questions to check in and see where you are. When you answer the question, you are making an affirmative statement, which is a powerful goal acheiving technique. For me this is almost like a journaling process. I'm pretty good at tuning in and asking my own personalized questions because I've done this sort of thing for more than a decade now. However, here are some general questions for you to consider asking yourself if you're not used to doing a process like this:
What is my intention?
OR, to be more specific...
What is my one big project to complete/problem to solve this year?

What do I need to reach success?
Break it down further...
- What knowledge/skills?
- What external support system?
- What physical needs/resources?

Set Timelines
It's one thing to state what you want to do and what you need to get there, but until you put some timelines on these items, it's all academic. I had a general intention to write a book for 4 years. It didn't actually happen until I wrote the dream on a piece of paper, broke down the action steps, and then put everything on the calendar. Let's face it, getting what you want requires a will to do it, but it also requires a plan with timelines!

I'm excited about what came of my retreat yesterday. The big commitments I made include building in more leisure time in 2012 (hey, that's a huge deal for me!). I added some new items to my bucket list. I'm also planning to publish my last book on job search in early 2012, and then I'll get started on the next one, which I've been dreaming about writing since 2009. It's about personal vision and purpose from a whole-life perspective. Look out 2012 - here I come!

What about you? What will you set your sights on accomplishing next year? It doesn't have to be big. You could keep it simple like my colleague Tom Cassidy teaches us in the 13x4 e-course... that is, just do on one thing at a time like practicing "gratitude" once or twice a day for a week and then switching to practicing "giving to others" once or twice a day for a week and so on.

Or maybe you want to do something highly ambitious with your career. Is it time to make that career move you've been putting off? If it's not quite time for the move, maybe it's time to make a plan for the move.

Or maybe you, too, can make or add to your bucket list. In 2012 I've committed to doing something on my bucket list that is actually very doable... go see the Rocky Mountains. I've put it off long enough, and I'm not getting any younger! (Yep, having a birthday tends to make you think about those kinds of things!)

Hey, if you've never done a personal planning retreat before, maybe that's the first thing you should be setting your sights on accomplishing next year!

Wishing you loads of joy, laughter and prosperity in the New Year!

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Angela Loëb helps people rediscover and use their gifts so they can bring who they are to what they do. To learn more, please visit: www.insyncresources.com
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10 Traits of Excellent Leaders

What trait do you admire most in a leader and why?

If you are a leader or an aspiring leader, this is an important question to answer for yourself.  When you analyze what you admire, you can consciously adopt those traits and incorporate them into your own leadership style.

In the organizational influence class that I teach, I always start the program by asking participants to answer this question.  It helps when I also ask them to identify what leader, famous or not, exhibits the trait they most admire.  It’s always a lively and fun group discussion, as well as a valuable exercise.

Over time, I’ve realized that 10 traits are consistently mentioned in these discussions.  There’s a good chance that you, too, have known leaders who embody these traits.

10 Traits of Excellent Leaders 
1. Trust
Trust, in this case, means being someone who people want to trust.  It also means trusting others (who prove themselves) to carry out their parts of the mission or in the relationship. So it’s being trusting, and it’s being trustworthy.

2. Honesty
Most people agree that if you don’t demonstrate honesty and integrity, then you won’t gain trust.  Being someone who keeps promises also engenders trust.  Some people also add that they admire a leader who “tells it like it is.”  Honest communication inspires followership.

3. Recognizing Others
Humbly acknowledging that, as the leader, you aren’t the only one with knowledge, skills and abilities is one way to do this. However, the fundamental expression of “recognizing others” is simply recognizing the accomplishments of others.  It’s the proverbial “pat on the back.”  Everyone agrees that this kind of morale boosting is a very important trait of an excellent leader. 

4. Courage
Some would say “fearless” here, but, actually, it’s not that the leader has to be without fear (in fact, no one can be human without possessing at least a little fear).  Having courage is doing what it takes and standing up for what is right.  Class participants will often cite famous historical leaders who stood with courage in hard times such as Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy.

5. Vision
Not only do excellent leaders provide a vision for those they’re leading, but they also have a strong personal vision for themselves.  They know who they are, what they stand for and where they’re going.  Their vision provides the foundation for them to be courageous when needed.

6. Humor
Humor under pressure is a hallmark of many great leaders.  For example, while being wheeled into surgery after he was shot, President Ronald Reagan said to emergency-room staff, "I hope you're all Republicans." People appreciate when leaders show a sense of humor even when it’s not pressure time.  Humor makes a leader more accessible and relatable, and, when used wisely, it improves morale because of the good feeling it stirs in others.

7. Positivity
Being positive doesn’t mean being unrealistically so.  It means that you are willing to learn and grow from mistakes and challenges rather than let them beat you down.  Also some of the best leaders are win/win focused.  They act from a sense of what is the best solution that benefits the good of all concerned.  They also plan for success and exhibit a healthy dose of optimism.

8. Willing To Work
Many people admire a leader who is willing to step off the top of the ladder for a moment and do the actual work if necessary.  When it comes to crunch time, excellent leaders will ask, “What can I do to help?”  They “roll up their sleeves” and pitch in or work to obtain whatever resources are needed.  A leader who shows a willingness to work inspires others to do the same – he or she leads by example.

9. Listening
Listening well entails being fully present with the person who is speaking.  Excellent leaders practice the skill of active listening, which leads to loyalty by followers who feel respected and relevant.  However, this trait also reflects another aspect that is important to followers.  You should also be open-minded.  Be willing to listen to suggestions and input so that you can be highly responsive to changes and needs.

10. Passion
When you have a vision, you will usually have passion.  They pretty much go hand-in-hand.  Passion doesn’t have to look like Adolf Hitler pounding his fist fanatically during a speech even though that is one way passion might look to followers.  Passion is demonstrated in the sincerity of your words, the consistency of your actions and the clarity of your communications about your vision.  Basically, this trait means that you have to believe in what you’re doing, and the expression of that will come out naturally as passion.        

Earlier I used the phrase, “if you are a leader or an aspiring leader…”  I’d like to point out that leadership comes in all shapes and sizes.  Of course, leading typically refers to elected or appointed executives in a government, institution or organization.  However, it also means being a parent; being an older sibling; mentoring, teaching or coaching children or adults; being a volunteer leader; leading a study group or a project; stepping in whenever the boss is unavailable, etc.

Where in your life do you fill a leadership role, even if it’s temporarily?  And how would you answer the question, “What do you admire most in a leader and why?”  I’d love to know if you come up with any other outstanding leadership traits besides these 10.  

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Angela Loëb helps people rediscover and use their gifts so they can bring who they are to what they do. To learn more, please visit: www.insyncresources.com
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O Tannenbaum by the Vince Guaraldi Trio - Merry Christmas!

As far as I'm concerned, Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas without Snoopy, Charlie Brown and the gang... and here's the best-ever jazz Christmas song: "O Tannenbaum" by the Vince Guaraldi Trio

 

 

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Angela Loëb helps people rediscover and use their gifts so they can bring who they are to what they do. To learn more, please visit: www.insyncresources.com
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Everyone Is Gifted

A wise person once said, "Everyone is gifted, but some people never open their package."  

Do you know what your gifts are?  It's a valid question.  There are so many people on the planet either living in automatic mode out of necessity or out of habit.  They're not very aware of the "tools" they've been gifted with and don't actively and consciously rise to their own potential. 

I suspect that if you're reading this, you already have some awareness or at least have a yearning to know.  And it's possible, too, that if you've dropped out of automatic gear to carve out time to reflect, you might be finding it difficult to see what you're trying to see.  You might be struggling to step back and look at yourself objectively.  If so, that's perfectly normal... you live in the skin you're in, and it's the only viewpoint you've known for a long time.

That's why an inquiry process is so useful.  When the person is open and willing, I've seen it bring extraordinary clarity.  It's not very hard to do as long as you're asking yourself good questions and you trust that you DO have the answers.  The idea is to let the answers come forth so that your left brain can notice patterns and do the analyzing work it's meant to do for you.

Below are a few excellent inquiry areas that will help your left brain do its job well.  

Think about what energizes you... 
A popular question among career consultants and life coaches is “What do you like that doing so much that you lose track of time?” That’s a great way to look at it.  Another variation of this question that I like to ask is, “What are the activities and tasks that you do and still feel energized at the end of the day versus those that drain your energy?” 

Look into your childhood...
What are the talents that have always come naturally to you, even when you were young?  Maybe we’re not as naturally gifted as Mozart, who understood music at age 3 and was composing at age 5 – but you have something that stood out about you.  Were you always taking apart appliances and putting them back together again?  Were you the one who everyone came to when they need a friend to talk to? If you can’t think of anything, reflect on what kinds of things strongly captured your imagination.  What were your dreams when you were a kid?  Did you want to be an astronaut, a ballerina, an archaeologist, etc.  The qualities which attracted you about those roles reveal clues about your gifts.  

Consider the dark side...
There are clues hidden in the dark side, too.  Being all about positive attitude and optimistic outlooks, the dark side isn’t a place where I usually suggest we go.  However, I’m not asking you to go there to stay there.  I just want you to think about it for a moment because it’s important to look at this from all the angles.  The truth is that our greatest strengths can also be our greatest weaknesses.  What are the negative labels that you’ve been called – such as bossy, compulsive, daydreamer, etc.?  Your gifts show up in your life no matter what you’re doing because they are who you are.  Consider how your gifts might have been misunderstood, misapplied or would be considered weaknesses when used at the “wrong” place or time.  

You are gifted and you are driven to open your package.  Don't delay!  The world is waiting to see what's inside, too!

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Angela Loëb helps people rediscover and use their gifts so they can bring who they are to what they do. To learn more, please visit: www.insyncresources.com
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The Unconscious Language You Use

The main source of your unconscious language – both spoken and unspoken – which I believe holds the key to career success, job search results, happiness in your home life, quality relationships with friends, etc., is your attitude.

Your Attitude Affects Your Body Language
What’s going on in your internal landscape affects body language from the inside out.  Is your body language saying what you want others to hear?

Jan Hargrave, international body language consultant & author of Let Me See Your Body Talk says, “Research suggests that only 7 percent of the meaning in any conversation is contained in the words spoken.”

Okay, so doing the math, that means that 93% of what you say is not the actual words you use.  Most of what you what you “tell” people comes from your facial expressions, your tone of voice… and, yes, your body language!

But don’t think you can “beat the system” by doing something outward to cover up what’s going on internally. You can practice the mechanics of sitting this way or making eye contact that way all you want, but if you’re not “feeling it,” you will most certainly sabotage your chances for a successful interpersonal encounter. 

Your Attitude Affects The Words You Use
How are you using words? What are you uttering when you refer to your circumstances?  Positive words or negative words?  Pay attention. What you say aloud can tell others what’s going on internally even when you’re not realizing that you’re telling them. 

I come across this all the time. Earlier this year, I gave a presentation to a group of job seekers at a local church. Afterward, an attendee approached me with a question. She began with, “My problem is that I…” After I answered her question, I pointed out that she’d used the words “my problem” when talking about her situation. Her eyes opened wide as she told me that she didn’t even realize that she had said “my problem.” She agreed with my point though… Say you have a problem, and, sure enough, you have one. Say you have a challenge, and it sounds more like a puzzle to be solved. Just a small shift in thinking and projection, but it’s one that could make a huge difference… like a ripple effect. 

Once you pay attention to your language and then consciously choose the words you use, watch what happens. And I mean internally AND externally. 

Beliefs --> Destiny
I believe it was Gandhi who said, “Your beliefs become your thoughts. Your thoughts become your words. Your words become your actions. Your actions become your habits. Your habits become your values. Your values become your destiny.” 

Time to ask yourself… how are you shaping your daily situation? And, consequently, how are you thinking and speaking your destiny?

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Angela Loëb helps people rediscover and use their gifts so they can bring who they are to what they do. To learn more, please visit: www.insyncresources.com
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The Keys to Managing Conflict

One of the classes I teach on behalf of The Professional Development Center at the University of Texas at Austin is on conflict management.

There is an exercise that we do in the class... everyone splits into small groups to discuss a case study in which a manager and his employee no longer like each other due to a previously unresolved issue over work schedules. The employee thinks the manager is "out to get him" and the manager thinks the employee is lazy. Before long, the employee does, in fact, start acting as if he is lazy and uncaring, and the manager actually begins to act as if he's out to get the employee. The original reason for their conflict is all but forgotten, and now respect has totally dissolved between the two.

After the groups finish discussing this case study, they come back to the class at-large to share their findings. We talk about issues like... How would they define the conflict based on what we've learned so far? What was the cause of the conflict and what could have been done to resolve it? They are also asked how they think the personalized conflict can be resolved.

Inevitably, each group easily concludes that if the manager and the employee had resolved the initial conflict over hours in a reasonable way, things wouldn't have gotten out of hand. Yep, that's the logical approach alright. Yet we wonder if could they resolve it now? Maybe. But that would require the two parties to have enough respect left for each other to sit down at the table and discuss the initial issue... and that they would even remember the initial issue at all.

We discuss how this scenario might conclude in real life. Some in the class think that the manager would or should fire the employee. Some speculate that, perhaps, the employee would quit. These are both realistic probabilities. Many managers and employees in real situations such as this do, indeed, end their relationship and, therefore, avoid resolving the conflict rather than take steps to resolve it non-emotionally. Heck, many friends, family members and spouses handle conflict this way, too.

During the lecture part of the class, I stress that the main key to effective conflict management is awareness. Awareness comes up in several ways. I emphasize the importance of being aware of your own preferred style when it comes to conflict; being aware that there are many approaches available to you other than the one you prefer when you’re in a conflict situation; and that having awareness of the other person's style and point of view is paramount, too.

"But how can you get two people who don't like each other to sit down and talk?" is an important question that someone in the class will ask at this point. Yes, that is the dilemma, isn't it? One way the two parties could do this is to try to recognize something they have in common. Maybe that would be a common desire for a resolution or a common desire that the business operations succeed. Maybe it's the desire of the employee to keep his job and the desire of the manager to not have to start from scratch to hire and train someone else.

Those are certainly good places to start. But there's another level of awareness that most find challenging to see until it's pointed out plainly. And it’s far more subtle than figuring out commonality, which might or might not work.

What if the employee and/or the manager practiced two tenants of the wisdom taught by Don Miguel Ruiz in his book, The Four Agreements, "Don't take things personally" and "Don't make assumptions"? Ruiz says that adopting these approaches in human interaction will change your life. I know that the efforts I have made to use them have certainly changed mine!

So, let's say that the employee and/or the manager use these approaches. If the employee started to feel as though the manager was coming down on him like a ton of bricks, he might pause to ask himself, "This manager and I used to get along. What has changed?" To do this would take a distinctive lack of attachment to the emotions of “he doesn’t like me.”

Likewise, when the manager started to think the employee was lazy, he might ask himself, "What this employee is doing needs to change, but I'm not going to take this personally, nor will I make assumptions. I wonder what's going on with him?" As you can see, this requires emotional detachment, but it also presumes that the manager doesn’t dislike the employee but, rather, dislikes the employee’s behavior.

If just one of them did this, the other might then begin to feel heard and respected. Then a dialogue under more ideal conditions might follow. Intriguing scenario, AND it’s very possible. I've personally tried it, and it works.

Sometimes it takes patience to get there. Often, it takes a moment of humility and putting aside a self-righteously charged ego to look at things objectively. Usually, it requires recognizing that there is another angle – another’s point of view in the mix – and making the decision to find out what that is. Stephen Covey thought this last aspect to be so important that he listed it as one of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: "Seek first to understand, then to be understood."

Awareness is the main key to managing conflict… just as it is the main key to so many other facets of the human experience. And its supporting cast is respect, willingness and a certain level of detached curiosity.

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Angela Loëb helps people rediscover and use their gifts so they can bring who they are to what they do. To learn more, please visit: www.insyncresources.com
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Dear Great Pumpkin

Linus: (writing) Dear Great Pumpkin, I am looking forward to your arrival on Halloween night. I hope you will bring me lots of presents. Everyone tells me you are a fake, but I believe in you. Sincerely, Linus van Pelt. PS - if you really are a fake, don't tell me. I don't want to know.

In gratitude to Mr. Schulz. He made Halloween a lot less scary.

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Say, what do YOU believe in?

Do you believe in angels?
Do you believe in demons?
Do you believe in ghosts?
Do you believe in God?
Do you believe in Intelligent Design?
Do you believe in science?
Do you believe in yourself?

And, if what you believe in is all a fake, do you want to know?

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Angela Loëb helps people rediscover and use their gifts so they can bring who they are to what they do. To learn more, please visit: www.insyncresources.com
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Realigning With Your Co-Creating Power

Co-creating only works if you KNOW you are empowered to co-create.  It has nothing to do with worthiness.  It’s your birthright as a child of Source to be able to co-manifest that which you desire.  You are made of Source Material and are designed to be aligned with the stuff of Source Material. 

It is your thoughts of “I am less than…” that have misaligned you.  And, by the way, this is the real “fall of man” - that is the fall into Rule By Ego/Rule By Mind.  The ego/mind has thoughts of "I am less than..." Thoughts such as "I am less powerful than him and so am his victim." Or "I am less appealing than him because he has more money than me." Or "I am less attractive than that movie star so I'm not loveable."

And down, down, down you go... into a dark place where you believe that you are powerless.

Your Mind Is A Tool
However, your ego/mind is not bad at all.  It is a tool and should be used, but used wisely.  Your mental focus would be best applied to realigning with your co-creating power by changing limiting beliefs and overcoming fears.

Use your mind/ego for its imagination in invoking the feelings needed to help you align with your co-creating ability.  How does it look, what does it sound like, how does it feel, etc. when you’ve obtained what you desire? 

Your mind/ego can also help you analyze whether you must grow into the person you need to be in order to align with that which you desire.  In other words, can you see yourself as the kind of person you must be to get what you want? 

Be Aware... Snags The Mind/Ego Can Cause in the Co-creating Process
Free Will:  Your free will or the free will of others can alter results.  Free will comes with an inherent flipside.  In order to have the power to co-create – to will something into existence – you must have freedom to decide what or what not.  Freedom to decide can change the alignment with what Source is co-manifesting, especially if the free-will decision is counter to the original thought.

Affirmations:  Affirmations are helpful in training the mind/ego in the early stages of the co-creating process.  Wallace Wattles, author of The Science of Getting Rich, says that it’s better to train the mind to remember its alignment to Source rather than attempting to use a string of words to magically conjure the things you want.  In fact, I've observed that the ego/mind is tempted to take over and inject doubt each time these mind exercise are done.

Realigning with our co-creating power starts with the disciplining of your mind. And I mean "disciplining" in the Latin root meaning of the word...that is from the verb "Discere" meaning "to learn."  Be aware of the possible snags and coax your ego/mind into helping you get what you want.

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Angela Loëb helps people rediscover and use their gifts so they can bring who they are to what they do. To learn more, please visit: www.insyncresources.com
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Let's Make Goal Setting More Fun

To get what you desire in life, you must do goal setting. Goal setting is just a grown-up way to describe what it is that your imagination wants to create and manifest into reality. However, too often, when we engage in the goal-setting process we're expected to do it in rather unimaginative ways. No offense to my friends who adore creating Excel spreadsheets, but, that's boring to me. It's so ... "corporate" is the best word I can think of.

For many people, it’s hard to get excited about setting goals. They are either not good at it (and simply need instruction) or they’ve been conditioned to dislike the process entirely. Many of us who have had to turn in goals to our managers have been conditioned to think of goal setting as an unpleasant experience. Maybe it's even a painful experience because of failures associated with past goals not being met and the punitive consequences that followed.

In the programs I deliver to everyone, whether aspiring business leaders, young adults trying to find their way beyond school, seekers of their purpose in life or experienced professionals looking for jobs, I aim to inspire people to dive into goal achieving with enthusiasm. How? By making it more fun.

Here are 3 fun techniques that I recommend and use frequently:

1. Compose fill-in the-blank, "Mad Lib" type affirmation statements that envision what it will be like in the future once the goal is achieved. This can really tickle your inner child, especially if you hit on all of your senses and use descriptive, colorful words. For example: When I accomplish this _____ goal, I will see _____. My friends will be saying _____ when we _____ together. I will feel _____ when I finish the _____...

2. Another affirmation style format that's fun to do is very visual yet uses words, too. At the center of a piece of paper, write "I am" and then complete the thought with affirmative statements. Use different colored pencils, markers or crayons for each statement. Your statements should radiate out from the center, forming the rays of a starburst on the page. Make these statements as descriptive as possible. "I am attracting and working with ideal clients who value my contribution, both virtually and literally, who are cooperative and fun to interact with."

3. Creating a vision board has always been a great method of goal setting, and it was made very popular when "The Secret" movie and book came out in 2006. On a surface such as a wall, a bulletin board, a poster, the back of a door, your refrigerator, etc. arrange images that either accurately portray or symbolically represent what you desire. If you want a particular make, model and color of a car, then post this on your vision board. If you desire a positive, healthy relationship with a loved one, find an image that represents that to you and add that to the board.

We've all got creative ability which we use unconsciously all the time. But, when it's time to consciously get creative and get goals achieved... let's not think of it as drudgery. Let's make goal setting more fun!

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Angela Loëb helps people rediscover and use their gifts so they can bring who they are to what they do. To learn more, please visit:www.insyncresources.com
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The Power of Listening

The Power Of Listening is a module I developed as part of the Paths To Organizational Influence class that I teach through the Professional Development Center at University of Texas at Austin.  I’ve rolled it out and offer it now as a lunch & learn session for groups and organizations.  

Recently, I had a wonderful experience presenting this information to a group of professionals during their lunch break at their workplace.  I had always thought that the power of listening was that it increased communication effectiveness, and it definitely does that.  However, my time with this group and they way they asked questions led me to an additional conclusion that I hadn’t considered before.  Active listening, which is one of the names for this powerful communication technique, helps to increase mindful awareness.  Each time you consciously use active listening methods, you create an open space for your mind to be focused in the present moment.  

What Is Active Listening?
From Wikipedia: 
When interacting, people often are not listening attentively. They may be distracted, thinking about other things, or thinking about what they are going to say next (the latter case is particularly true in conflict situations or disagreements). Active listening is a structured way of listening and responding to others, focusing attention on the speaker. Suspending one's own frame of reference, suspending judgment and avoiding other internal mental activities are important to fully attend to the speaker. 

Did you get that last part?  “Suspending one's own frame of reference, suspending judgment and avoiding other internal mental activities are important to fully attend to the speaker.” 

At the heart of it, that’s the aim of active listening… to give your full attention to the speaker while suspending your judgment and other mental activities. 

Being Understood
Stephen Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, says that effective people develop the habit of seeking first to understand, and then they seek to be understood.  When it comes to listening, this means centering your full attention on the speaker so you that you can truly hear and understand the person.  He says, “When you really listen to someone in depth until they are understood, you are communicating their worth, their potential.  You are affirming them.  It is so therapeutic, so healing that they cannot fight you, and they gradually become more and more open.”   (http://youtu.be/HUxi-Zc45tA) 

Yes, we all like being heard.  When you are being fully and attentively listened to, don’t you feel respected – don’t you feel understood?  Additionally, the state he describes – “they cannot fight you, and they gradually become more and more open” – happens because you are modeling for them.  You shift the energy of the moment.  You are open and so this allows them to trust and become open, too. 

Consciously Practicing Active Listening
The group and I discussed how the methods of active listening might already come naturally to them.  In fact, when they broke into pairs to do an exercise for one of the verbal techniques of active listening, I observed (and pointed out) that just about everyone unconsciously used various nonverbal methods of active listening.  

However, now that they know the four primary methods for active listening, they will be consciously observing themselves whenever they listen.  Now, they can actually improve their listening skills by simply bringing awareness to how they are communicating – how they are listening.  

4 Primary Methods For Active Listening
Below are the four primary methods for active listening.  Three of them are verbal in nature, one of them is a nonverbal method.

1.  Paraphrasing – to confirm understanding
Paraphrasing is a way to confirm you understand what the other person is saying by rephrasing it.
For example...
Speaker:  I don’t understand.  One minute she tells me to do this.  The next minute she tells me to do another thing, and it’s just the opposite.
Listener:  It sounds like she really confuses you. 

2.  Interjections – to confirm your focus is on the conversation
You can use specific interjections while being careful that you don't interrupt.  During pauses, you can say a simple, “Mmm” or “Ah ha” or "I hear you" from time to time. 

3.  Clarifying Questions – to avoid misunderstanding
If you miss something the other person said, or if you don’t really understand, don’t pretend that you do. If you get lost, say “Sorry, I didn’t get that. What did you just say?”  Pretending that you understand when you don’t will usually only lead to confusion and misunderstanding.  It could also lead to the other person feeling like you don't care enough to be focused on him or her during the conversation. 

4.  Body Language
Did you know that 93% of your communication is not what you say… it’s your facial expressions, your body position and your tone of voice?  To demonstrate good active listening skills, use this powerful communication factor.  Position your body language to reflect the speaker's body language.*  If the other person's hands are folded and placed on the table before him or her, do the same.  

If the person's ankles are crossed, try to do the same.  You can show the other person that you are listening and focused on the conversation by nodding in response to what he or she is saying, by maintaining eye contact, and by varying your facial expressions, such as using an eyebrow raise or smiling. 

For other great advice and information about body language in communication, check out the book, Let Me See Your Body Speak by Jan Hargrave. 

*Exception:  Is the other person's body language closed?  For example, maybe his or her arms are folded, which usually indicates an unwillingness to talk.  Of course, you won't want to fold your arms too.  When you're trying to get someone to open up to you, use an open body posture, such as hands open, relaxed, visible and unfolded.  You can also try to relax them with soothing statements such as "I'm here for you." or "It seems like you're upset.  Let me help you." 

The Power of the Now
Whenever I teach The Power Of Listening, from now own, I will be sure to point out that besides increasing your communication effectiveness, active listening brings you into the present moment. It brings you into a full awareness of what is happening right here and right now.  Even if temporarily, you suspend your thoughts and worries about what is happening in the future… what bills have to be paid, what work needs to be done at your desk or where the kids have to be at 4pm for soccer practice.  You suspend your thoughts and regrets about the past… what if I had done it that way, what did he think when I said that yesterday or I forgot to pick up the dry cleaning this morning. 

It’s what Eckhart Tolle would call the “power of the now.” He rightly points out that the past and the future are mere illusions and that there’s no real power in those time conceptions.  What happened yesterday is no longer reality because it is over and gone.  You have no power to change it either.  The future hasn’t happened yet, so it’s not real yet.  The only reality that you can control and where there’s any power at all is in the here and now. 

When you practice the methods for active listening, you have to be present-focused or you are not performing active listening.  Each time you practice, you are waking up your awareness.  Your mind must empty to some degree so that it can be open to listen and truly hear the other who is speaking.  The power of listening is that you connect better with the other person with whom you are communicating, and the power of listening is that it helps you grow in awareness of the power of the now.

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Angela Loëb helps people rediscover and use their gifts so they can bring who they are to what they do. To learn more, please visit: www.insyncresources.com
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Thanks To The Troops on Independence Day

Thanks to the troops on Independence Day!  This story on ABC News really got me...  2:28 minutes.

 

 

 

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Angela Loëb helps people rediscover and use their gifts so they can bring who they are to what they do. To learn more, please visit:www.insyncresources.com
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Dr. Wayne Dyer - Looking For Answers

In this video Dr. Wayne Dyer points out the absurdity of looking outside ourselves for the answers that are clearly inside us. 

He also hints at the quantum mechanics concept that whatever you expect to be your reality to be will, indeed, be your reality.  Something physicist Tom Cassidy explains in his video on career design, "It's Based On Science" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q72J8nsM4Ao | "How you think about things actually affects them.").

Dyer shares some amusing anecdotes and timeless wisdom during these 3 and a half minutes... definitely worth your time!

 

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Angela Loëb helps people rediscover and use their gifts so they can bring who they are to what they do. To learn more, please visit:www.insyncresources.com
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Taking A State Of Mind Vacation

This past week I took some time off to spend a few days at the beach with my husband and my daughter (who will soon be leaving for college).  It’s something we’d not done since she was in middle school.

And I learned a valuable lesson about myself. 

Vacation for me means taking a vacation from my usual state of mind.  Apparently, for me, it’s a temporary break from being creative and productive as well. 

You see, I often change my physical surroundings by going to a coffee shop or to one of several nearby parks so I can imagine and plan.  Thinking that this trip would give me such a change in physical surroundings, I brought my notebook with the vague intention to do some personal vision brainstorming while we were away. 

Well, the intention remained so vague that it never happened!  Not once did I open that notebook to jot down any ideas.  And that is ultimately how it needed to be for me.  I truly needed this “state of mind vacation.” 

The biggest thing I noticed is that this vacation vacated thoughts of future concerns from my mind.  It meant that I was living in the moment.  The only forward-focused thoughts I had were “I should probably put on some more sunscreen lotion.”  “I’d like to refresh my drink.”  “Mmm, I’m getting hungry.  Wonder when and what we should eat?” 

What a different and great state of mind to be in!  I wasn’t concerned about my calendar next week.  I wasn’t thinking of the to-do list on my desk.  I wasn’t looking forward to the exciting projects I wanted to complete over the next few quarters.  Okay, I do admit that I glanced at my emails a few times, but, oddly, nothing seemed as urgent as it usually does. 

We were gone between Monday and Thursday, but by our return on that Friday, my focus sharpened up pretty quickly.  So quickly, it was like I had flipped a light switch back on.  The calendar, the emails and the knowing that everything’s “back to normal” – all that was definitely turned on again.  Yet, even now there still lingers a remembrance of the contrast between how I lived in those 4 days compared to how I am now.  I remember the feeling of being in the moment.  I think that’s why “urgent” still isn’t as “urgent” as it used to be.

I’m grateful for the opportunity to experience these contrasting states of mind.  And one more thing I learned… I’m not waiting another 4 years to vacation again!

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Angela Loëb helps people rediscover and use their gifts so they can bring who they are to what they do. To learn more, please visit: www.insyncresources.com
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Memorial Day - Gift By Woman Comforts Families Of Fallen Military

This story touched me... what a wonderful thing this woman, Marcia Bonifas, is doing to help children of fallen service men and women.  Thank you to all who have given so much to ensure our freedom. And, thank you, Ms Bonifas, for comforting the little ones.

 

ABC News Video: 1:47 minutes. 

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Angela Loëb helps people rediscover and use their gifts so they can bring who they are to what they do. To learn more, please visit: www.insyncresources.com
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Access Your Inner Whispers, Use A Self-Inquiry Process

In the majority of my workshops and one-on-one consulting, I use a self-inquiry, writing process.  There’s something about sitting down and writing the answers to questions in long-hand that sparks the internal flame.  Answers start to flare up as you unclutter your mind and make room for creative solutions.  I think that this is because you are able to “hear” the intuition coming out of the right side of your brain.  Then you capture it with the left brain’s language and analyzing ability.

 
Using a self-inquiry, writing process has always been my way.  When I was a kid, I wrote to sort out my emotions and the events going on in my life.  At 8 years old, I read Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl and was captivated not only by her story but also with the concept of recording thoughts into a diary.  I was inspired, and, like Anne, even gave my diary a name and wrote in letter mode…. “Dear Delilah…”

This was the beginning of what has become, for me, a life-long technique of “journaling” my way through challenges.  I hesitate to call it journaling though.  Except for occasional pockets of months here and there over the years, I’ve never really been dedicated to it.  I only sit down to write in a sort of journaling style when I need to find answers to why something is bothering me or when I want to organize my thoughts strategically (which is much more introspective than merely making a to-do list).  I don’t “keep a journal.”  I have 4 or 5 notebooks where I might write out my self-inquiry process when I feel the need – there’s no systematic order to when and where. 

When I think of journaling as a practice, I think of Henry David Thoreau.  He began keeping a journal on Ralph Waldo Emerson's suggestion.  He wrote of his philosophy on society, spirituality and life in general.  Being an avid natural history lover, he recorded his observations about the flora and fauna he encountered on his walks through the countryside.  Sometimes he wrote of the mundane events of his life, and sometimes he wrote poetically of sublime concepts.  His entries were dated.  He didn’t write every day, but almost.

In trying to define what I do, it might be more along the lines of what Ignatius Loyola required of his Jesuit brothers… what he called the “Examen of Conscience.”  Loyola’s Examen isn’t a journaling process though.  It’s the daily, self-reflective habit of refocusing on your priorities and extracting the lessons from your successes and your failures.

I like the term “expressive writing” that James W. Pennebaker, Ph.D. uses.  He’s a pioneer in the research of the power of words and the effects of expressive writing on health – both mental and physical.

His conclusions tell us that no matter your cultural background or personality type, when you write about meaningful or traumatic events, your immune function, hormonal activity and other indicators of stress or disease improve.  Apparently it's not merely the venting or expressing of the strong emotions that induces such a change.  When you write a coherent, reasoned story about the emotional event, you'll attain closure and gain a new perspective and understanding about the situation.  This gives you the ability to get past the negative emotions.

In her book, The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron prescribes a daily practice of what she calls “Morning Pages.”  She believes that writing 3 pages every morning helps you to see the differences between your real feelings and your official feelings, the ones that you show the world.  I love her reason for why it’s successful.  And, even though I don’t do daily morning pages, this is exactly what happens when I sit down and delve in with my self-inquiry, writing process:

“The process of identifying a self inevitably involves loss as well as gain. We discover our boundaries, and those boundaries by definition separate us from our fellows.  As we clarify our perceptions, we lose our misconceptions.  As we eliminate ambiguity, we lose illusion as well.  We arrive at clarity, and clarity creates change.”

I love helping people shift their boundaries and arrive at clarity so they create change.  Especially since as they change their awareness, my purpose is fulfilled.  And as they become more conscious, my own consciousness grows.

“Conscious people are aware of the influence and guidance available through these inner whispers.  The directions for our quest most often come from within.” – Christina Baldwin, Life’s Companion: Journal Writing as a Spiritual Quest

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Angela Loëb helps people rediscover and use their gifts so they can bring who they are to what they do. To learn more, please visit: www.insyncresources.com
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Are you reaching your highest potential?

“Oh Man! There is no planet, sun or star could hold you, if you but knew what you are.”  -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Are you reaching your highest potential? 
If not, what’s holding you back? 
If so, what’s your secret for pushing yourself to reach higher?

I’ve done both... held myself back and pushed myself to reach higher.  I seem to use the same mechanism in both cases, too.  I am one who counts my blessings.

I count my blessings when I’m holding myself back, saying things like, “Well, it could be worse.  I think I’ll count my blessings and stay put right here where it’s safe and sound.” (“safe and sound” – right!  What an illusion!) 

I count my blessings when I’m pushing myself, too.  Whether I’m succeeding or “failing” while pushing myself, I see the blessings coming forth from the effort.  And to me they are blessings because I don’t believe in luck.

Counting blessings is some sort of survival mechanism, I guess, because it’s what I do to make sense of this place.  Sometimes I feel like I’m an alien who was dropped off here at birth.  Sadly, I’m not from a planet with denser gravity.  Otherwise, I would fly like Superwoman.  And the whole Earth is like one big piece of Kryptonite – whatever superpowers I had when I got here have certainly been affected by the atmosphere here.

As implausible as it sounds, I sometimes doubt my humanness.  I mean, how could I possibly share DNA with the human race?  But I obviously do.  In those moments, I also realize that I not only carry the weirdness of this lifetime around with me, but I am heavily influenced by the memory of what went before.  There’s always a dark side to blessings on Planet Earth. 

Take money for example.  Several years ago, I did Suze Orman’s exercise on recalling my earliest memories of money.  Well, that was a pretty yucky assignment – my money memories are not very happy ones. 

My mom hiding cash in the lining of her purse for the lean days, which came all too often. 

That time I went with my dad to the supermarket, and he indiscriminately put brand name foods in the cart.  He was highly annoyed with me as I replaced whatever he chose with the cheaper store brands we were used to buying. 

The Christmas my mom couldn’t afford presents for us kids because my dad blew his paycheck at the pool hall, so she gave us gifts from her own possessions, crying the whole time.  Yes, I know, it sounds like a sappy movie from the Hallmark channel, but where do you think script writers get their ideas for those movie plots anyway? 

I even have food stamp memories.  Hiding, hoarding, scarcity, shame – such lovely recollections about money...

But that’s some of the stuff from my life.  Let’s dial it back a couple of hundred years and take a look at some heavy societal stuff going on with money at the time.  Stuff that influenced the human consciousness in a big way and makes me wonder... what the heck is up with getting your head chopped off for having money? 

We are taught by historians that during the Reign of Terror (1793 to 1794), mobs, gripped by envy and weary of living in a bankrupt economy, killed aristocrats and their kids.  We are told that getting rid of the "haves" seemed to be the main motivation of the "have-nots" at first.  Eventually, other reasons came to the fore because in actuality, only 8% of those killed were aristocrats.  The rest were whoever else Robespierre and the other sick, twisted crazies who seized power decided were enemies of the state.  They supposedly killed these enemies and their families in order to bring “freedom” to France. 

“The rich keep getting richer, and the poor keep getting poorer” is a refrain from my childhood memories.  Today when I recall that saying, I think, “What a load of crap!”  But, hey, 217 years ago, they were probably saying the same thing in the streets of Paris.  But I digress...

So, here I am.  Potentially hemmed in by my own personal experiences about money, as well as those of the human race at large.  (The aforementioned French economic backlash being only one episode in human history making its merry contribution.) 

How do I break out of that to realize my own potential? 

For me, aside from counting my blessings, it’s embracing the drive to discover what I am.  And so far, what I’ve discovered is that I’m not necessarily a human at my core after all.  At my core, I’m a spiritual being having a human journey and not the other way around. 

I join Emerson in knowing that beyond this temporary condition called "human life," we truly can't be held here on this plane.

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Angela Loëb helps people rediscover and use their gifts so they can bring who they are to what they do. To learn more, please visit: www.insyncresources.com
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Expressing an Attitude of Gratitude

Last night was our annual Attitude of Gratitude party for the Launch Pad Job Club – a nonprofit for which I’m grateful to volunteer as a board member.  The annual party brings job seekers, job finders and their families together with friends of the club so we can have fun and celebrate the contributions and blessings of the year. 

In addition to Andrew Lippert sharing his beautiful voice by singing grace over our meal, the wonderful Kathyrn Hume performed her hilarious Sister Katrina act for us.  Before she left the floor, Kathryn delighted us with some very funny celebrity quotes about the upcoming U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, as well as a couple of profound ones about gratitude. 

This gave me the idea to share some of my favorite gratitude quotes here today.  I couldn’t resist adding in the funny one at the end that Kathryn read to us last night – classic Bombeck!  Enjoy! 

Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all. – William Faulkner

Only a stomach that rarely feels hungry scorns common things. – Horace

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it. – William Arthur Ward

When you are grateful fear disappears and abundance appears. – Anthony Robbins
 
I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice. – Meister Eckhart

Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence.
– Erma Bombeck

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Angela Loëb helps people rediscover and use their gifts so they can bring who they are to what they do. To learn more, please visit: www.insyncresources.com
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Truths - there's nothing new under the sun

What has been will be again,
   what has been done will be done again;
   there is nothing new under the sun. – Ecclesiastes 1:9

The older I get the more I see that the truth is the truth, period.  There's nothing new under the sun, and you can tap in and get the truth even though you've never directly "heard" it before.  Maybe it permeates into the consciousness through other means.  People saying the same thing but in different ways.

During the World Changers program I attended at The Wizard Academy back in 2007, Roy Williams aptly pointed out that our writing style in the moment can be strongly affected by whatever we are reading at that time.

I can relate to that, so when I was writing my job search book, What You Need To Know To Get A Job Now!, I totally avoided the career section in the bookstores for more than two years.  I wanted the voice of the book to be fresh and totally my own.

But that's about the style of the message.  What about the content of the message?

A friend once told me that he purposely avoided reading any books while developing a career tool he's invented because he didn't want to be influenced by anyone else.  He wanted the tool to be as original as possible.  He's an innovator type of person, so that makes sense.  However, he did have to build on existing models to get where he ended up, so is it really "new"?

Yesterday, I was having lunch with a friend, and I told her about a "new" truth that I've discovered through meditation and reflection.  I had decided to call it "The Law of Abundance" and told her that it was simply this:  When we deny our inborn gifts, we deny our birthright of abundance.

She replied, "Oh, yes, I've heard that too.  It's in one of Deepak Chopra's books." 

Interesting!  I know of Deepak Chopra, but I've never actually gotten around to reading any of this work.  So, the truth is the truth, right?  Did I access that through my subconscious mind, having heard it said in some other way so that my mind formulated it the way it did, or did I actually tap into to some Superconciousness or Universal Mind?

There's nothing new under the sun, and so does it really matter how I got it?  I have it - this truth.  And this truth has rekindled a fire in me - halleluiah! 

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Angela Loëb helps people rediscover and use their gifts so they can bring who they are to what they do.  To learn more, please visit her website: www.insyncresources.com.
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