Power of Intention - and Trust

The little Intender's Hanbook is a valuable guide and I look forward to summarizing parts of it to share! I look forward to searching a Circle of Intenders and creating one on St. John!

The AH desire - trust - allow - manifest process really takes the pressure off. We are not in this alone and have such wonderful opportunities to support others and be supported.

This Code of Conduct is something I want to share as often as possible...and I will!

Event + Response = Outcome

Life and work are a constant flow of events. But success is not determined by the events you experience.

Success is determined by how you choose to respond. The best results are produced by those who take the most effective action.

With this in mind, here is a simple but powerful equation we will use throughout the R Factor Journey.

Events happen every day, you respond, and your response produces an outcome.

The R-Factor is a tool box that strengthens your ability to manage the R in the equation.

You don’t control the E; you don’t control the O;

you only control the R.

People who achieve better outcomes consistently choose better R’s. Successful people focus on maximizing The R-Factor

Press pause between the E and the R.

Before you respond, stop and think.

Don’t automatically reach for the familiar solution

or the easy answer.

When you fail to press pause, you often rush to poor decisions. Don’t let emotional impulse hi-jack your thinking. Take the time to be intentional about choosing an R that is most likely to produce the outcome you want.

Pressing Pause is a critical R Factor discipline. It will help you see situations with greater clarity, focus on the outcomes you want to achieve, and take more effective action.

E + R = O is how life works.

The challenge is to get good at it.

There are six skills that shape your R Factor. The skills are common sense, but they are not common practice. It is the application of these principles – not the circumstances you face – that enables you to respond effectively to the stuff of life. Make sure you manage the one thing you control.

1.Build a strong foundation

2.Develop self-awareness

3.Think strategically

4.Manage your emotions

5.Act with focus and discipline

6.Connect with others

...more on these in a minute :-)

Quarterly Focus: Abundance and Financial Security

Now that we have shifted to a quarterly focus, I wanted to share a funny story about how "Financial"was always the part of my wheel that created a bump in my otherwise smooth ride through life.

Quarterly Focus: Physical Health

This is one of the most important areas of Life Management. It can make or break all other areas and is multifaceted. It is more than simply what you put in your body, it is also how you move your body, and making sure you are resting your body & getting enough sleep. As you create your vision of 100% Physical Health means to you, consider some of these things to add to your Three to Thrive Action list:

Put things in your body that are good for you

• Don’t smoke. There is enough research out there to justify this advice. Smoking kills.
• Limit alcohol – Sure, wine is made of grapes; beer and liquor come from grains. However, the processing they go through take them far from that natural state and in excess, alcohol can be toxic, literally poisoning your body and your damaging organs.
• Drink lots of water. You’ve heard that most of your body is made up of water, and that drinking pure clean water is vital to flush out toxins from your body, but there is more. Thirst and hunger both originate in the hypothalamus and are sometimes hard to differentiate from each other. So drink a glass of water before you have a snack.
• Eat fresh whole foods including lots of fresh fruits and vegetables.
• Limit processed foods and meats
• Choose whole grains
• Get an annual physical, or at least your bloodwork done to determine your blood sugar, cholesterol. Keep track of your blood pressure and heart rate.

Move your body in healthy ways:

• Maintain good posture
• Exercise regularly –
• Strength
• flexibility and
• endurance –

Breathe fresh air – go outside and enjoy nature – enjoy the sun but protect your skin

Feng Shui; another way create balance in your life!

This Life In Balance series would not be complete without introducing the ancient art of Feng Shui. The best explanation I found was at About.com: Feng shui is an ancient art and science developed over 3,000 years ago in China. It is a complex body of knowledge that teaches how to balance the energies in any given space - be it a home, office or garden -  in order to assure good fortune for people inhabiting it.

As good fortune comes in many ways - better health, successful career, fulfilling love life, etc - feng shui has detailed tips for almost any area of one's life. You will see that one of the Feng Shui tools, known as a Bagua, looks like the Life Wheel we introduced to you early in this series. I like to incorporate this in my home as a whole, and in any room I spend a lot of time in, like my office!

Feng means wind and shui means water. In Chinese culture wind and water are associated with good health, thus good feng shui came to mean good fortune, while bad feng shui means bad luck, or misfortune. Feng shui is based on the Taoist vision and understanding of nature, particularly on the idea that the land is alive and filled with Chi, or energy.

The ancient Chinese believed that specific land's energy could either make or break the kingdom, so to speak. The theories of yin and yang, as well as the five feng shui elements, are some of the basic aspects of a feng shui analysis that come from Taoism.

Read: The Yin-Yang Theory in Feng Shui

The main tools used in a feng shui analysis of any space are the feng shui compass and the bagua. The feng shui energy map, or bagua, is an octagonal grid containing the symbols of the I Ching, the ancient oracle on which feng shui is based.

Knowing the bagua of your home will help you understand the connection of specific feng shui areas of your home to specific areas of your life. For example, you have a love and marriage area in your home, a career area, a health and family area, etc.

There is a total of 8 bagua areas in your home that can be worked on in order to improve the areas of your life that are connected to these bagua areas. Read: All About Your Feng Shui Bagua

Feng shui offers a variety of cures to improve your life. From the feng shui use of aquariums to attract prosperity to the feng shui use of crystals and fountains; from the right feng shui use of colours to the feng shui use of clocks, there are many ways you can improve the energy in your home or office with solid, good feng shui. Read: 25+ Popular Feng Shui Cures for Your Home

Although some levels of feng shui are easy to understand and apply, the core knowledge takes years of study. Just like the Traditional Chinese medicine, the feng shui knowledge is deep and complex. The more you know about feng shui, the more there is to explore!

That is one of the things I hope you get out of this series...a desire to explore things you might not have considered before! And while we are on the subject of energy, here is a book that I found fun and you might want to check this out ... Inside are a series of experiments you can try to see how you might be affecting energy. I look forward to hearing about any personal experiences you might have. Mine were mind blowing!

Dream Team Development

Almost every successful person I know has a team of people who stand behind and beside them ... and many cases, in front of them! These people are what I refer to as a Dream Team.  

A dream team is a loose collection of people you look to for advice and direction about how to accomplish things you want to do, how to live the type of life you want to life, and how to be the kind of leader you want to be; personally and professionally.  These are people you want to to turn to for their guidance and to learn from their experience.

Joelle K. Jay says, “Think of your dream team like Fantasy Football team. You never actually assemble these people; in this respect they aren’t a functioning “team.” However, like a real dream team, every member of this group has been hand-selected because together, they represent the best of everything you need to be the leader you aspire to be.”

To set up a dream team, you brainstorm all of the people who you think would be good members of a team whose sole purpose is to help you win at the “game” of achieving your vision. You take some time to analyze the different ways they might be able to help, make a plan for eliciting their support, and start meeting with them one by one to see what you can learn.

To create your Dream Team, use these six steps.

1. Choose the “game.” “Choose the game” means get clear on specifically why you want a dream team. What do you want to learn from meeting with your dream team members? As always, the answer should be tied to your vision. The focus of the game is learning. On your dream team you’re the rookie, if only in this one area of your life.

2. Pick the “players.” “Pick the players” means being thoughtful and strategic about who gets on the team. This is not the time to hang out with good buddies and old friends; it’s a time to branch out and build new relationships with people from whom you can truly learn. Among the group, it is helpful to have:

Advocates. Advocates champion you, encourage you, and contribute directly to your success, perhaps by introducing you to other helpful eople or making you a part of their team.

Experts. Experts have information and knowledge you need to be successful. Instead of learning it all the hard way, experts help you jump to new levels of awareness by sharing their experience.

Inspirations. Inspirations are people whose accomplishments make you want to be better yourself. As you watch a person who inspires you – whether that person is your most courageous colleague, a person who has risen to the top of her field, or just someone whose approach to life you admire – you are moved to a higher level of contribution and achievement.

These roles will often cross. In fact, people who can play more than one role on your team are often your strongest supporters.

3. Set the “rules.” The “rules” of your dream team game are how you want to play. If you don’t set up the process in a way you’ll enjoy it, you’ll be less likely to see it through. Do you want your team members to meet with you for informal conversation? Are you looking for a five minute meeting in person, a fifteen-minute phone call with another, a meeting over lunch? It’s a good idea to decide how you want the process to play out so you can put your best foot forward and figure out what you can bring to the table for them too!

4. Define a “win.” What is the best case scenario for this dream team? Are you hoping to develop long term relationships? Do you just want a lot of information fast? Do you want complex information and are willing to talk to as many people as it takes to get there?

This step is important, because it respects the time of the people whose advice you’re seeking while also meeting the goals that matter most to you. If what you want is concrete advice on how to do one specific thing, you can get it in a series of short, one-shot interviews. On the other hand, if you want to become steeped in the topic of inquiry, you’ll want to develop deeper, more substantial relationships with the people whose work you admire in that particular area of interest.

5. Get in the game! “Getting in the game” means approaching the people you admire to be on your team – asking them to meet with you, talking to them, and applying what you learn as you work toward your vision. If a meeting with one of your dream team members turns out to be beneficial, great. Ask them if they would mind meeting again. If not, fine. You’ve made a good connection. Some of these conversations will turn out to be a waste of time. Others will turn into the kinds of mentorships that last a lifetime. These are genuine, respectful conversations with people you admire to request the support you would be willing to give someone who asked it of you.

You’ll eventually find you can achieve more, and faster, when you are supported by a strong and experienced team.

For guidance on creating your Leadership Dream Team, use the free Dream Team Planning Guide. (Click here or go to www.TheInnerEdge.com, click on Worksheets & Audios, and scroll down to the 7th Practice for more free guides.)

Time Management & Perfect 10 Day Worksheet

How do you schedule your days?

DO you define your outcomes or get lost in a long to-do list?

Do you account for your time so you deliberately spend time doing the things you SAY you want to do, or do you lose hours in Escape mode?

Make sure that you give some thought, or take some action in all the important aspects of your life. Do something, ANYTHING, in each category because once you give it attention it will gain its own momentum! So what if you worked all day, give a friend a call to say hi, send a postcard a family member, give silent thanks to the world for being alive, do 10 stomach crunches. If you do something in each category, you get a point...for A Perfect 10 Day

Bonus categories are for you to pick a personal project you want to accomplish so you can give thought and action to it everyday. Print this Perfect 10 Day Worksheet, or write in the comment box if you want a customized sheet with your own Areas of Life Management.

Goal Setting

To start managing time effectively, you need to set goals. When you know where you're going, you can then figure out what exactly needs to be done, in what order. Without proper goal setting, you'll fritter your time away on a confusion of conflicting priorities.

People tend to neglect goal setting because it requires time and effort. What they fail to consider is that a little time and effort put in now saves an enormous amount of time, effort and frustration in the future. Mind Tools has two great articles on goal setting that are must-reads for everyone. If you are serious about time management, we suggest you start with Personal Goal Setting and The Golden Rules of Goal Setting . We also recommend Treasure Mapping .

Prioritization

Prioritizing what needs to be done is especially important. Without it, you may work very hard, but you won't be achieving the results you desire because what you are working on is not of strategic importance.

Most people have a "to-do" list of some sort. The problem with many of these lists is they are just a collection of things that need to get done. There is no rhyme or reason to the list and, because of this, the work they do is just as unstructured. So how do you work on To Do List tasks – top down, bottom up, easiest to hardest?

To work efficiently you need to work on the most important, highest value tasks. This way you won't get caught scrambling to get something critical done as the deadline approaches. For information on how to start prioritizing your tasks, see Activity Logs , Prioritized To Do Lists , Prioritization , The Action Priority Matrix , and Eisenhower's Urgent/Important Principle .

Managing Interruptions

Having a plan and knowing how to prioritize it is one thing. The next issue is knowing what to do to minimize the interruptions you face during your day. It is widely recognized that managers get very little uninterrupted time to work on their priority tasks. There are phone calls, information requests, questions from employees, and a whole host of events that crop up unexpectedly. Some do need to be dealt with immediately, but others need to be managed. Our article on Managing Interruptions discusses how you can minimize your interrupted time.

However, some jobs need you to be available for people when they need help – interruption is a natural and necessary part of life. Here, do what you sensibly can to minimize it, but make sure you don't scare people away from interrupting you when they should.

Procrastination

"I'll get to it later" has led to the downfall of many good intentions and goals. After too many "laters" the work piles up so high that any task seems insurmountable. Procrastination is as tempting as it is deadly. The best way to beat it is to recognize that you do indeed procrastinate. Then you need to figure out why. Perhaps you are afraid of failing? (And some people are actually afraid of success!)

Once you know why you procrastinate then you can plan to get out of the habit. Reward yourself for getting jobs done, and remind yourself regularly of the horrible consequences of not doing those boring tasks! For more help on recognizing and overcoming procrastination see our guide to Beating Procrastination .

Scheduling

Much of time management comes down to effective scheduling of your time. When you know what your goals and priorities are, you then need to know how to go about creating a schedule that keeps you on track, and protects you from stress.

This means understanding the factors that affect the time you have available for work. You not only have to schedule priority tasks, you have to leave room for interruptions, and contingency time for those unexpected events that otherwise wreak chaos with your schedule. By creating a robust schedule that reflects your priorities and well as supports your personal goals, you have a winning combination: One that will allow you to control your time and keep your life in balance. To learn specific scheduling skills, see our articles on Pickle Jar Theory and Scheduling Skills .