What are your top 3-5 priorities right now, for what you’re consciously creating in the next 30-60 Days?

Once you’re done listing those out… Notice how this exercise was for you. What’s top of mind? Do you feel excited about all of these? Are there any that have been on your list for a long time and weighing heavy? What’s the flavor of your priorities… are they high-level goals to move your business forward, are they more geared towards improving something for you personally (e.g. leadership or hiring)?

Demystifying How You Get Derailed / Lose Focus

Where does your focus (aka YOU) get derailed?

Think of a time recently when your focus got derailed or even a task/goal you have no that hasn’t gotten done yet. Why? What happened? Tell the story (excuses are OK here… you can even exaggerate them to really help bring them into the light!). Go ahead and write them down.

What’s your pattern?

Can you identify one, or maybe a few? Think of a specific example that happened recently. A good way to sniff this out: What do you find yourself afraid of or complaining about? Enter your text here…

You are the pilot of your own craft.

“Life is like an airplane journey. From the time you take off, you will be off course 99% of the time. All airplanes are off course 99% of the time. The purpose and role of the pilot and the avionics is to continually bring the plane back on course so that it arrives on schedule at its destination.
In life, you are the pilot of your own craft. To reach your destination of health, happiness, prosperity and a good life, you must do as a pilot does. You must first of all determine your destination. This requires clear, specific goals, written down, with plans to accomplish them for each day.

Second, you must take off toward your destination with no guarantee of success. You must be willing to move out of your comfort zone and take risks continually, even though you know that most of them will not succeed, at least at the beginning.
The third part, and the real secret of success is that you must be prepared to make continual course corrections. Just as an aircraft faces headwinds, downdrafts, storm fronts, wind shear, lightning and unexpected turbulence, you will experience the same in the pursuit of any worthwhile goal.
The key to success is for you to keep your mind fixed clearly on the goal, but be flexible about the way of achievement. Be open to new inputs and ideas. Learn from every experience. Look for the good in every setback or difficulty.
Most of all, you must resolve in advance that you will never give up. Your ability to persist in the face of all adversity in the direction of your goal is what will ultimately guarantee your success.
You make your own luck through your own hard work and determination. Decide upon your destination, take off, and be open to the necessity to making continual course corrections until you reach your destination.”

Passage by Brian Tracy
Flight Plan – The Real Secret of Success

Commit to Re-Commit. Re-Align. Re-Focus.
(and be compassionate with yourself in the process)

Identifying Mis-Alignment

We often aim to work towards our goals with more efficiency and effectiveness, but if we’re still being driven from a core belief (e.g. we’re not enough), then you may be working out of alignment.

Which of these do you recognise?

Sometimes it can help to identify the Presenting Problem, also known as how we busy ourselves, waste time & energy…

Which of these do you recognise?

Re-Alignment: Essence

Do you sometimes feel like you’re operating from what you think you “should” be doing, versus what your heart truly wants?

This exercise can help you get back into alignment.

What’s the Essence of You/Your Company?
What’s the feeling you/your service emanates?
What do you want to be known for?

Think of this almost as if you/your company were a dance or an experience. Write out a bulleted list describing you/your companies essence. Do this quickly, within a few minutes… if need be, take a few minutes to close your eyes, source within and check in with your inner wisdom/heart truth.

Now that you’re done listing those out, ponder these questions…

Thinking of all the things that you just wrote, what would it look like to allow yourself to only do those things? (Versus all the things you think you/your business SHOULD be.)

How can you double-down on what you TRULY want to be/deliver?

What do you need to let go of?

I encourage you to continue to start to explore these inquiries here now, then continue in your own journal as more things arise for you.

Re-Alignment: Recovery Time

When you’re feeling out of alignment or totally derailed from your focus, how do you respond? Eat a pint of ice-cream? Grab a glass a wine? Take a nap?
Not to say those are ‘bad’, but often those actions are only further procrastinating or they’re an act of ignoring/stuffing your emotions. This extended ‘recovery time’ only delays your progress (sometimes weeks, months or years), can erode self-trust, and further reinforces the core beliefs that are operating.
Here’s an alternative that supports you in exploring, learning and getting yourself back to a place of alignment. Meeting yourself here with patience and compassion is honoring the fact that some part of you wants to be heard. What’s going on? How are you feeling right now?

Source within: Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and sense into the state of your emotions today. See if you can name a specific feeling. Adjectives and/or a short sentence about what your feeling is fine. The intention here is to simply presence ‘what’s going on?’ in this moment. Maybe you have a headache. Woke up sad today. Feeling stressed and/or overwhelmed. Take a moment to notice, then write it down.

What’s that about?

Write out some of the reasons why you’re feeling this way. This can be really exaggerated and extreme. Let it be whatever voice needs to be heard under the feeling.

Do you like feeling this way?

Notice how you may feel frustrated by this feeling or situation. Mad about it. Sad about it. Resisting and fighting the very place you are right now. Or maybe you are feeling great.

That’s fine too. Just notice and let yourself see it. State it as a fact, i.e. “I am feeling (1)_______________, and I’m (2) ___________________.”

(1)This first one is from the first question, “how are you feeling right now?”
(2)This second one may be how you’re feeling about feeling the way you do. (I know, so meta… but there are many layers, and there are treasures buried deep!)

Would you be willing to fully accept yourself for feeling the way you do?

We can shift when we’re in a place of acceptance. As long as we’re resisting, we’ll stay stuck.

“I fully and wholly accept that right now I am feeling (1) ________________________.”

or “I fully and wholly accept that I am feeling (1)_______________, and I’m (2) ___________________.”

Write it out for you and say it out loud (if you’re around other people, you can state it aloud in your head).

If someone or something else is involved in how you’re feeling right now…
How might you have contributed to this situation?

Get curious and keep asking yourself. Simply write down any part you played in creating this. Not as blame, just the facts and circumstances you were involved in up until now, no matter how mundane.

How would you rather feel?

Write it down

On a scale from 0-10, how bad do you want to shift from this state into how you want to feel? With 0 being “perfectly happy with sitting and stewing in this feeling forever” and 10 being “so ready to shift right now!!” Pick a number

If you were feeling this (preferred) way, what would be that story? It may help to think of another day or time that was better.

Do you believe you can feel this way again?

How soon would you like to feel this way?

Are you relying on someone else in order to feel better?
This can help reveal if you are outsourcing your joy or happiness.

What would it look like to feel the way you want to feel and separate this other person or situation from having an impact on your feelings of peace/joy/happiness? Write the story.

This realignment exercise is about looking at the problems and fully feeling the feelings, but it’s not about fixing them or getting rid of them. It’s about moving through them, in relationships with ourselves, so we reflect, cultivate awareness and insights (insourcing from our own inner wisdom), and create clarity to guide Heart-Centered Action.
We are not problem-oriented. We are solution-oriented.
We are not band-aiding. We are transforming.
This work, and the lessons therein, are what change us at a core/soul level, and the resulting freedom and clarity can give us the power to move mountains!