Your Vibrant Business: Mind/Body/Spirit at Work

YOUR VIBRANT BUSINESS

Mind/Body/Spirit at Work

Created by Laura Orsini and Karen Gridley

CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS:

Sunil Ahuja

Samuel N. Asare

Zena Contreras

Natasha Deonarain

Karen Gridley

Shel Horowitz

Connie Kadansky

Albert Mensah

Kevin Mogavero

Maya Nahra

Laura Orsini

Sandy Sue Rector

Nancy Sanders

Cover design by Laura Orsini

Copyright 2013 by YVB

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

At the time of publication, the websites and resources were accurate – but please do let us know if you uncover broken links (links@yourvibrantbusiness.com).

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1. The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Waste! Turn Mediocrity into High Performance and Skyrocket Profits into Overdrive

Chapter 2. How to Create Authentic Relationships in Your Personal and Professional Life

Chapter 3. KEEP Your Gains: How to Shield Your Nest Egg from Stock Market Dips but Make Money When It Rises

Chapter 4. Fearless Job Search – Fabulous Work

Chapter 5. Unleash Your Power to Heal

Chapter 6. How to Create Messages That Catch the Green Consumer

Chapter 7. The Inner Game of Prospecting: How to Overcome Sales Call Reluctance

Chapter 8. Thriving in the Midst of Change

Chapter 9. Three Building Blocks to Leadership

Chapter 10. 82 Healthy, Balanced Snack Ideas to Fuel Your Vibrant Life

Chapter 11. Practical Philanthropy: How ‘Giving Back’ Helps You, Your Business, and the World Around You

Chapter 12. Feng Shui in the Workplace

Chapter 13. Creating a Mind/Body/Spirit Marketing Plan That Results in Sales!

Chapter 14. Nothing Happens Without YOU! How to Take ACTION to Catapult Your Vibrant Business

Introduction

It’s a busy world these days. Whether you own your own business, have a 9-to-5 job, or are a stay-at-home mom, chances are that you’re experiencing some overwhelm. Our goal when we created the Your Vibrant Business Virtual Summit – the event that prompted creation of this book – was to bring together a group of experts who would provide tips, tools, and techniques to help you reconnect the three essential aspects of mind, body, and spirit. After listening to the seminar presentations from all 13 presenters, we can honestly say we believe we have succeeded!

Each chapter of this book was authored by a presenter from the Your Vibrant Business Virtual Summit and is chock-full of practical advice and ideas. This book is not just theory, but brimming with steps you can begin taking TODAY to begin shifting your life and create the vibrant business you’ve always dreamed of.

Coach and mindset expert Karen Gridley gets things started with some advice about how to get your thoughts, words, and actions in alignment so that you can receive and act on the rest of the great content in this book.

Sunil Ahuja is a relationship, personal development, spiritual, and leadership trainer, coach, and public speaker who offers advice about practicing the conscious communication that will enable you to create authentic relationships.

Samuel N. Asare is a nontraditional financial advisor who may shake up your impressions about retirement planning as he turns conventional wisdom on its ear.

Are you looking for a job – or do you know someone who is? Zena Contreras, a recruiting expert, offers tips and techniques to make your search simple and successful.

Natasha Deonarain is an M.D. unlike any you’ve ever met who offers a new perspective about health.

Shel Horowitz is greener than Kermit and he’s got info to help you change your messaging so that you can reach the green market.

Albert Mensah is a powerful speaker, author, and trainer with an amazing story and a gift for helping you understand how to be your best in the midst of change.

Maya Nahra, a nutritionist who’s had her own food struggles, offers 82 healthy snack recipes that will amaze you with their simplicity, creativity, and yummy factor.

Laura Orsini is a self-publishing consultant who shares her message about the importance of infusing every aspect of your business and your life with the concept of giving back.

Former spa owner Sandy Sue Rector offers some fantastic feng shui tips that will help you organize your space to create great energy flow and vibrancy.

Marketing expert Nancy Sanders gives you the tools to create a spiritual marketing plan you can implement today to catapult your business.

And Karen Gridley wraps things up, helping you to prioritize all the info from these great experts to begin taking the actual action steps necessary to create the most vibrant business and life possible.

May you read this book, become inspired, share it with a few people, live a vibrant, joyous life.

Wishing you continued peace & prosperity –

&

Laura Orsini, Champion of Visionary Causes and

Karen Gridley, the Excuse Removal Expert™,

Creators of Your Vibrant Business

Chapter 1

The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Waste! Turn Mediocrity into High Performance and Skyrocket Profits into Overdrive

by Karen Gridley

Hello. My name is Karen and I’m a Recovering Excuse Maker™. What does this have to do with the topic of the mind being a terrible thing to waste? Everything! Mediocre, at best, was my level of functioning before becoming a Recovering Excuse Maker™. Note the word recovering, versus recovered, as I receive a daily (or momentary) reprieve, based on the choices – or excuses – I make. You can read more about me in my bio.

Let’s jump right in!

I saw a statement on the Internet that mindset is a set of beliefs or a way of thinking that determines one’s behavior, outlook, and mental attitude. What does mindset mean to you? Do you have a mindset that allows you to achieve your goals and live a fulfilling life? Or are you settling for mediocrity?

Your mindset controls how you function in all aspects of life and in business. Do you feel like no matter what you do, you seem to get nowhere or you end up someplace other than where you’d like to be? Do the demands of life and/or business bog you down? The answers to those questions are determined by your mindset.

Think of someone you admire or would like to emulate. What would your life and business be like if your mindset were aligned with the person you admire or desire to emulate?

In order to develop a successful mindset, you must first lose your excuses. Removing excuses is a requirement, versus an option, for creating a vibrant business and live a fulfilling life.

Which excuses are holding you back? More importantly, when will you let go of them?

The word M I N D S E T serves as a valuable tool for developing seven empowering ways to elevate your performance – and your bottom line. Each letter represents a tip, a concept, or a technique for building a successful mindset in life and in business.

M = Master the TWA (see the next section) formula.

I = Identify and modify language that weakens you.

N = Navigate through the stages of the learning process.

D = Discover how habits are a blessing and a curse.

S = Shift the mindset that making mistakes is a bad thing.

E = Excel with four keys to success.

T = Take responsibility for your mindset, your skills, your life, and your business.

M = Master the TWA formula.

You may recall an airline years ago named TWA. Our TWA is something else entirely. In this case, the letters stand for thoughts, words, and actions. The combination of your thoughts, words, and actions always, always, ALWAYS produces your results. There are two types of results: results you like and results you dislike.

You can only achieve results you like when your thoughts, words, and actions align to produce desirable ends. When you are in alignment, there is flow, there is ease, you embrace your rights, and you value yourself. To be clear, when you embrace your rights, you take responsibility for your choices and your outcomes. Everything fell into place and That opportunity came out of nowhere are typical phrases one uses when they are aligned.

Results you dislike, however, come from a place of misaligned thoughts, words, and actions. When you are misaligned, there is strain and resistance, it feels as if things are being forced, and you experience what we call dis-ease. Phrases often used when one is misaligned include, Nothing ever works out, Everything always goes wrong, and If it weren’t for bad luck ... I bet you can finish it that one: …I wouldn’t have any luck at all! Are there any results right now in your life or your business that you dislike?

A common mistake people make when they get results they dislike is to examine and scrutinize the results to the point of practically dissecting them, as if doing so will change the results. The only thing that will shift results you dislike to results you like – or move you from misalignment to alignment – is a change in the combination of your TWA. Once again, TWA is the combination of your thoughts, words, and actions.

Notice the feelings that occur in misalignment. They are the clues. The tendency for many is to miss or ignore the feelings as insights into our experiences. Instead, the untrained mindset is consumed with the emotion of the moment and simply wants to feel better. Typically, that is, unless we consciously develop our mindset, when the feelings are surging through us, the result is that we subconsciously yet automatically turn control of the driver seat over to the feelings. (See Albert’s chapter: "Thriving in the Midst of Change.") As a result, we’re unable to think clearly at these times. Have you ever thought of something you could have said or done after a situation occurred?

When we’re annoyed at our feelings or the situation, we are looking outside of ourselves at our issue(s). From this vantage point, everything is beyond our control, and we function from a victim mindset. We feel that others, our spouse, our business partner – the whole world – is the source of our problems. If only they would change, everything in our lives would improve. The problem with this sort of thinking is that this approach leaves us disempowered and unable to respond effectively.

A mindset developed to sustain a vibrant business, on the other hand, is aware in the moment. Awareness is the first step to overcoming excuses and creating the foundation necessary for producing results we like, as it allows us the opportunity to choose how we respond.

Think of something you recently complained about, or a time when you said I wish… Complaining or exclaiming I wish… are indicators of results you dislike. Results you dislike let you know where you are misaligned. It simply is a matter of choice to stay stuck (misaligned) or move in the direction of alignment. Note, I said simply – not easily. For the record, this shift requires a commitment and continual practice.

I = Identify and modify language that weakens you.

A widely accepted breakdown of the aspects of communication is that only 7 percent of communication involves the actual words. The other 93 percent is attributed to body language (55 percent) and vocal qualities like pitch, speed, volume, and tone of voice (38 percent). What we are talking about here is the impact of the words themselves.

Kinesiology is the testing of muscle strength under various conditions. Research has shown that certain words physically weaken the body. Based on the premise of a mind/body/ spirit connection, words play a key role in your performance and your results. Words like can’t and try literally weaken the muscles in our body, whether they are spoken or merely implied. (You may want to Google kinesiology for further explanation, as well as exploring YouTube videos.)

One of the valuable exercises I use with my clients (whether in a one-on-one coaching situation or facilitating in a team environment) is shifting the focus from can’t to can. I get it; there are a lot of things beyond our control, things we are unable to do anything about. Even though that may be the case, focus on identifying the things you can do (e.g., actions, thoughts, plans, etc.). When we place our attention on what we can do, we cause an energetic shift within, as well as extending that energy outward. In addition, no one wants to hear what can’t be done. This is a key component of exceptional customer service: always share what you can do for the customer.

For example, I was once working with a team w hen the sponsoring organization made a request to the team. One team member’s immediate response was, I can’t because… I interrupted her, mid-sentence, to ask "What can you do?" She gave me a perplexed look and froze for a moment. Has that ever happened to you? I will tell you right now that there have been a number of times I responded the same way this woman did. Has someone ever asked something of you, and you found yourself responding from a very narrow lens, limiting your answer (and therefore the possibilities) to the literal specifics of the question? Imagine