I coach creative people who are interested in discovering their true passions in life.  What I’ve found in the process is creative people are often filled with enormous amounts of curiosity and can easily get side tracked and lose their focus.  It’s an honor to inspire creatives to define their passion and live a full life.

5 Steps to uncover your passion:

1. Awareness

Make time to take inventory of what you love about your life. What Are you involved with that feels right.  What crazy-making areas of your life can you let go of? Stop bumping around and start paying attention to your daily actions. When you’re aware of your actions,  you can make mindful choices leading to a future filled with purpose and passion.

2. Positivity

Begin to train your brain to become more positive. Begin now.  Our thoughts can often take off like a runaway train ending up in a pile of debris – should we choose to let our negative thoughts and emotions get away from us.

If what you are doing now is stale and uncomfortable, try focusing on the parts of your job that you love.  How can you look at your current job with fresh eyes? Many of us have to take “combat pay” for a period of time in a position that no longer suit us.  If you are in this situation, do what you can to improve your current reality by exploring your options outside of you current job. Sometimes the exploration process will balance out your discomfort. You may even uncover opportunities within your environment that seemed hidden before your introspection.

3. Reality

If you are working for people who are disrespectful and your daily life is a living hell, it is time to move on.  Your life is more important than you can imagine. Years ago some of my peers thought I was straight-crazy to want to leave my cushy job. What they didn’t understand is that no amount of cushion can absolve an abuse of power. Sometimes you have to save your own life and move on.

4. Clarity

What do you want for your life?  Have you taken any time to dig deep and answer this question? What are good at? What do you enjoy doing? What would you learn If you were to ask your closest family and friends what they see you strengths are.  How can you use your strengths to answer the first question.  Get Clear. I recommend reading the book Callings by Greggory Levoy. You are also welcome to contact me anytime for a complimentary life coaching session.

5.  Creativity

Have fun diving in and exploring your options by playing with a creative process like mind mapping (visual brain storming) to uncover your career options. Keep the activity light and fun. There is no room for judgment here. Just let your ideas flow and get them down on paper.  After this process is completed you can begin researching your options.

Discovering your path with passion includes awareness of what you love as well as what you can release, cultivating a positive attitude, being realistic about your current situation, allowing for time to get clear about what you want for your life,  and creatively exploring your options.

Discovering your groove and creating a luscious life is all about allowing for grace through your next transition.

Shann Vander Leek is the Founder of True Balance Life Coaching and Co-founder of Seize True Success. She is a Coach Training Alliance certified professional coach, and certified yoga instructor. Shann is a prolific blogger, published writer and co-author of the Best Selling Book – Wake Up Women BE Happy Healthy & Wealthy. Shann’s personal style and direct approach have guided and inspired many in overcoming personal and professional challenges. Her background in sales, marketing and client development, along with leading a talented sales force for many years prepared her for the business of professional coaching. Shann inspires women in transition to create balance in their lives through personal coaching, yoga and creative expression. Telephone and email consultations make her accessible to clients all over the world. To find out about her Coaching Programs for Women, call Shann at 231.668.111 or visit www.truebalancelifecoaching.com

Do you know how good it is to wake up in the morning, get your coffee, flip on your computer, log in to your twitter account and find that YOU are the person being twittered about?  I do, it’s great!   It is exactly what happen to me last week. There were a great many “mentions” on twitter about my being listed as one of the Top 100 Women Bloggers to Watch.   I was surprised and honored.

It is the second time that I have been listed in a Top 100 List and both times I have been surprised and honored. I know that I am not the best blogger on the net and I am not the most prolific, but I do blog from a place that I have passion. As I said in a previous post, passion draws people to you like bee’s to flowers.

That being said, I also spend time on my social networking sites promoting my blog.  If you too are new at blogging use some of these tips to help drive traffic to your site.

1. Comment on other peoples blog – comments let bloggers know that you are reading their material.  It is always a morale boost when I get comments from others even if they do disagree with me.

2. Post your blog on your Facebook account and tweet your link now and then, let people know when you have posted new material.

3. Add links to other peoples blogs. If you are writing on a topic that others have written on, link back to them. It will build visibility and credibility for both of you.

4. Put your blog link on the bottom of your email, on your website, and even on your business card. It is a great way for others to get to know you.

5. Be brief, people do not take the time to read the long rambling blogs.  Say what you have to say in 300-500 words you will get more people to read your content.  And blog frequently, that has been a challenge for me this summer.

I am a novice blogger compared to many on the internet and I am sure there is so much more for me to learn, but I am proud to say that I have made to 2 top 100 list and I can’t wait to see what happens when I get really good at this.

Hazel M Walker, owns three award winning franchise’s. She is a 10 year owner of two BNI Franchises where she teaches members how to leverage their time and network to build each others businesses. She is also a Referral Institute franchise owner and teaches Business Owners how to harness the Science of Referrals to develop Referrals for Life. Hazel is a published author in New York Times best sellers Masters of Networking and Masters of Sales. As a member of the National Speakers Association she travels the world speaking to businesses and women’s organizations on the topics of networking to create a life you love.

The publisher sent me this book a few months ago and I was immediately drawn to it. I put it, cover facing forward, on my book shelf because I knew it was something I should read soon. Due to my very busy schedule though, I didn’t pick it up until a desperate moment of feeling out of balance by working too much.

I feel blessed to have a pretty amazing life. Most of the time I get to do what I want and pursue a career in line with my passion. Because I have the ability to manifest work opportunities easily, I often generate more work than I can handle. I create something and then it arrives. And a lot has been arriving lately, which has made life very exciting and sleep and rest a thing of the past.

Okay … breath Tiffany. It was the right time and I picked up the book. I couldn’t help but laugh hysterically as I read the inside cover. It was so true of me in particular.

“Do you feel need to do everything yourself and can’t ask for help? Has it become so extreme you feel like you are on a runaway train and don’t know how to use the emergency stop? You are not alone. Author Peggy Collins, is a reformed self sufficient, so she understand exactly what you are going through.”

Then my favorite part …

“This is the first life-enhancing guide designed to help people like you who can’t or won’t ask for help: … the overwhelmed super-mom who picks up the kids while closing the biggest sale of her career on her cell phone.”

Haha – that is me! I really did close one of the biggest sales of my career on my cell phone while volunteering at my son’s Co-op preschool and trying to find a quiet spot away from the kids loud play. Too funny!

I read on. And my laughter turned to tears. Oh goodness, this is me and this is a problem I need to solve. Thanks Peggy for the tips. My life did improve a bit after your slap in the face to wake up and stop doing so much.

This is a description of the book by the publisher. Buy it today if you are an Over-Self-Sufficient (and what mom isn’t?).

It’s great to be self-sufficient, isn’t it?Not if it’s costing you your sanity.

Okay, so you’re responsible, hard working, and independent. But you’re also stressed out, overwhelmed, and reluctant to ask anyone for help. Why should you? You’re perfectly capable of juggling work, family, and other obligations all by yourself, thank you very much. But ask yourself-and be honest:

Are you constantly trying to “do it all,” all by yourself?
Do you avoid delegating work because you don’t trust others to “do it right”?
Are you afraid you’ll look weak if you ask someone for help?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you could be suffering from Self-Sufficiency Syndrome–and you might be heading for major burnout. The good news is: Help Is Not a Four-Letter Word. This groundbreaking new book by professional speaker Peggy Collins will show you how to recognize the signs, ease the demands you put on yourself, and start enjoying your work, your family, and your life.

Help Is Not a Four-Letter Word helps you:
Identify the signs and symptoms of Self-Sufficiency Syndrome
Break the cycle of extreme self-sufficiency
Ask for help when you really need it
Learn who and who not to ask for help
Balance your personal and professional life.

Tiffany Bass Bukow is the CEO & Founder of the #1 Personal Finance Website for Women and Families – www.msmoney.com. My life mission is to help people and the world thrive through creating companies that provide money, career and life skills education.

When I got sick, one of the first things I had to do to get better was learn to give myself shots in the stomach. The very first time I had to do it, I sat on a hospital bed with Johannes across from me and the nurse beside me, and I cried. And when I say cried, I mean I bawled harder than I have ever bawled in my adult existence. My whole body heaved with the impossibility of the task.

Johannes sat cringing next to me. He had just spent four years studying to be a doctor, and for him, this was like opening your eyes in the morning. For me, it was like the nightmares I have where I’m falling and don’t know where I’ll land. It was pure terror.

I couldn’t do it. The nurse left the room, and Johannes looked at me with disgust.

And then.

And then, something inside me flipped. I stopped crying. The nurse came back in. She handed me the needle, and I did it. As simple as pushing a button into the button hole, I pushed the needle into my stomach. And when I got home, I had to lie on my couch and do it every night all alone, and I did it then too.

After this, there were several more visits to the ER, an eventual surgery, and when it was all done, when it was finally all finished, I felt euphoric. Euphoria enveloped me for all that I had been through; for all that I had fought against and won.

You have to work hard, and sometimes you have to gloriously muck something up to be really successful later. Why we’re always so afraid of conflict, diversity, adversity has never made sense to me. I have no patience for people who are sanctimoniously happy all the time. It means they haven’t taken enough risks.

Success is directly related to how hard you push yourself.

I write about how difficult the process of becoming a leader is, the problems I’ve had transitioning, how life is just plain hard sometimes, to illustrate that once you find your passion it’s not all about birds chirping and bunny rabbits frolicking.

Of course, that’s part of it; right now, for instance, I am really excited. I just had a great meeting with those in my organization. We’re getting closer and closer to rocking out. You know, like, the lip-singing-dancing-around-the-living-room-jumping-for-joy kind of rocking out. But in a Board Room.

And that makes me happy. Especially because I worked hard to prepare for that meeting. Really hard. Our database hates me with a vengeance hard. Sixteen or seventeen meetings a week hard. Like, my apartment is messy an hour after I clean it hard.

I generally spend every waking moment thinking and acting on how we’re going to rock it. So when things go well, that feeling of euphoria – of happiness to the point of enlightenment – is because I’ve pushed myself farther than I’ve ever gone before. Just like when I was sick.

So, it’s hard. And it’s work. And sometimes it’s pure terror. But that’s passion in a nutshell. You wake up and you can’t imagine doing anything else. You do it because there is no other way to be.

Be working to be rocking.

“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live,
mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time,
the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn,
burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across
the stars” — Jack Kerouac

The secret ingredient to success in anything we do is to find the passion in it. The kind of passion that makes you want to jump out of bed in the morning because you can’t wait to begin your day.

Many of us have lost touch with that kind of passion in our lives. We have settled along the way for just getting by, surviving, making do with what we have, not expecting too much, just in case we’re disappointed.

Some of us have completely given up on our dreams. In fact, we don’t even remember what those dreams were, feeling they were just too out of reach, not worth the effort that we think is necessary to make them come true. And, as a result, we have lost our passion for life, our reason for living in the first place. We have settled for mediocrity and sold our souls in the process.

May just reading the following piece about Passion stir up your soul today, and ignite the fire within you. That fire may have dimmed, but the light hasn’t gone out. As long as you are alive and breathing, it never will. It is waiting there where you last left it. Can you remember where that was?

Passion

The difference between a job and a career.
The difference between an actor and a star.
The difference between a song and a symphony.
The difference between a painting and a work of art.
The difference between caring and intimacy.
The difference between romance and rapture.
The difference between intelligence and genius.
The difference between living and being alive.

Passion
Wanting to jump out of bed in the morning.
Wanting the night to never end.
Wanting the moonlight to last forever.
Wanting to reach and touch the sky.
Wanting forever to be longer.

Passion
When everything tastes like Champagne.
When everything smells like Freesia.
When everything looks like Christmas.
When everything sounds like Mozart.
When everything feels like Velvet.

Passion
When heaven is not a place to go to, but a place to be.
When success is not a thing, but a feeling.
When love is not an offer, but an acceptance.
When music is not a sound, but a resonance.
When life is not an existence, but a celebration.

“Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” ~Will Rogers

It occurs to me there are humans who have absolutely zero interest in continuing to grow and learn.

Perplexing isn’t it?

Picture this.

You are the most current super swank operating system on the market today. A well programmed machine destined for enormous productivity.

Until one day …

Glitches and bugs begin to slow you down, you limp along looking  for “work arounds”  and do your best to stay the course.

Maybe you even create a patch to address some of the bugs in your personal operating system.

BUT

Before long …

A new and improved operating system is available, threatening to make your original POS obsolete.

Do you just blow off the opportunity for Improved performance?

Do you stick with the idea that the once shiny version of you is acceptable forever?

Seriously …

Have you ever experienced what it’s like to compute several updates or OS’s behind?

Do you enjoy the slower, stickier version?

The upside to this metaphorical blah blah is easy.

You must embrace the upgrade.

Ride the Leading Edge

-Become an expert in your chosen passion
-Learn what’s new and how you can become more productive
-Pay attention to what is going on in the world

Remain Forever Curious

-Have you always wanted to learn how to play the piano? Take some lessons.
-Curious about social media?  Take class or sign up for a tele-seminar.
-Want to travel abroad?  Start researching your adventure.

My challenge to you is shake off the fossilized version of yourself and get curious about being alive. Upgrade your personal operating system by discovering a new interest or hobby.  Create some time to reinvent even a little part of you.

Becoming obsolete is a personal choice.

What are you going to do about it?

Begin upgrading your personal operating system today.

Shann Vander Leek is the Founder of True Balance Life Coaching and Co-founder of Seize True Success. She is a Coach Training Alliance certified professional coach, and certified yoga instructor. Shann is a prolific blogger, published writer and co-author of the Best Selling Book – Wake Up Women BE Happy Healthy & Wealthy. Shann’s personal style and direct approach have guided and inspired many in overcoming personal and professional challenges. Her background in sales, marketing and client development, along with leading a talented sales force for many years prepared her for the business of professional coaching. Shann inspires women in transition to create balance in their lives through personal coaching, yoga and creative expression. Telephone and email consultations make her accessible to clients all over the world. To find out about her Coaching Programs for Women, call Shann at 231.668.111 or visit www.truebalancelifecoaching.com

A few weeks ago, I met a twenty-something pursuing an advanced degree in Political Science to become a professor, although he had no real-world experience in politics. I listened to Mr. Poli Sci and then I said, “How can you possibly teach something you haven’t experienced?”

Mr. Poli Sci became quite defensive at this point claiming he had objectivity (!) since he wasn’t personally involved. I tried to think of one successful person in politics that attempted to stand on both sides of the fence. Politics is about having an opinion. It’s the very definition of passion.

In talking to Mr. Poli Sci, I realized he had committed two common Generation Y sins. One, he had a vague interest in a topic, but no passion, fostering an apathetic approach towards life. Two, he went to grad school to fix it. Life is better with experience. Here’s why:

1) Grad school is good on paper, but barely. An education doesn’t allow your competencies to be realistically measured, or allow you to be differentiated among other candidates. An education simply signifies that you have completed a degree. It doesn’t provide the full picture of your marketable skills.

Moreover, an advanced degree may bring you more money, but it’s not guaranteed. What is guaranteed is the extra stress your additional student loans will create and the regret you’ll feel for wasting your efforts when you don’t end up using your degree. Seems barely worth it considering “grad school is a confidence-killing daily assault of petty degradations.”

2) Employers look for experience, so should you. Real-world experience reigns supreme over schooling. Every time. Your experience in the real-world interacting with real people and real situations allows you to be uniquely suited towards a particular position. Of course, you need education and knowledge to put places on a map. But then you have to go live life to arrive at a destination.

Sure, Mr. Poli Sci would be a good professor, but never great. Great professors have fervent opinions, they know intimately the subject matter upon which they speak, and they have formed a deep respect for the other side. Most importantly, they’ve formed these opinions as the result of real-world experience.

3) Objectivity gets you nowhere. It’s easy to be objective when you haven’t risked anything. But success in business is not objective. Decisions are based on the relationships you have with others, and the emotions of how you’ve lived life up until this point. The facts can be laid out in front of you, but it is ultimately the experiences you’ve had that determine an outcome.

4) It’s better to do something, instead of just learn about it. Why, exactly, are so many of us in such a hurry to re-institutionalize ourselves? I spent years in college yearning to be done with school. Especially the flash card part.

Going to grad school is not having the guts to get on with life. You’re not telling corporate America anything by indulging in a larger map. You’re just making it harder to figure out which road to take. Want to give the finger to the establishment? Go blog. Go start your own business. Go to work every single day and rock every single day.

Preparation is hesitation. Action is change.

Are you happy at your current job?

Do you enjoy waking up every day and going to work for your employer?

If I asked you what you are passionate about could you give me an answer?

The sad reality is most people I’ve talked with are not happy where they work and have NO IDEA what they are passionate about.

What in the hell happened to us?  How did we create a career or work environment where the status quo is acceptable,  maybe even preferred?

“I just want to do an honest day’s work for a honest day’s wage.”

What does that mean?

Do you have a pulse?

Bring in the crash cart!

If you are in a dead end job that is no longer challenging or you are working for a company stuck in the “old guard” way of doing things,  you have an excellent opportunity to dramatically change your reality.

No more excuses.

No whining.

No settling.

Prepare to leave the job that is killing your soul.

Imagine if you decided to let all of the drama fall away and began to take stock of your strengths, and true interests.  What if you could immerse yourself in a training program, class or book to learn more about your discovery?

What if you could become the most amazing version of yourself to to date?

A part of self exploration involves making an investment in YOU by taking some time  to map out your dream.  You’ve heard me talk about mind maps, vision boards and dream quests.  What do you have to lose by taking a closer look?

Stop putting up with corporate satism and shake yourself off like the big dog you are!

Uncover your options.

What is it about you that makes you special?

What do you want to do?

Seriously, If you could do, be or have anything you wanted,  what would that look like for you?

Do you really plan to wait another two, three, four or five years to make a change?

WHY?

Are you a masochist?

Corporate loyalty is an illusion.

If you are ready to leave the job that is killing your soul, begin with the following actions.

• Identify your strengths and talents.  If you were to ask 5 people that know you well; what would they tell you about you ?

• Explore how you can apply your strengths to your career interests – do some digging. Immerse yourself in this research.

• Discover a mentor and create an opportunity to have a conversation with her.

That’s it …

Identify, Explore and Discover.

GET TO IT!

“Your life is worth much more than you know” – Maya Angelou

Read about how I made my transition from corporate leader to coaching entrepreneur in the best selling book co-authored by me.   Wake Up Women, BE Happy, Healthy & Wealthy