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About the Author:
Sherry Lowry is a Austin-based business coach who works nationally and
internationally with executives, manages, business owners other coaches,
psychologists and therapists. She brings experience to her clients as a
founder and developer of 7 businesses, including one non-profit organization,
as a consultant and trainer, and professional mentor. Co-leading group
telecalls (via regular telephone connection) and telegroup series is a
speciality....with other field experts on corporate marketing, using public
speaking as a marketing took, marketing with heart, and offers with Diane
Menendez special teleclasses for mental health professionals transitioning as
coaches. In 1996, Sherry founded and continues to host The Coaches’ Showcase,
a free theme-based telegroup exchange with some of the industry’s most
experienced coaches. Also useful is her online collection of The Lowry Notes -
free to the public at her WWW site. She holds two traditional graduate degrees
and has completed the Coach University curriculum. She is on the Board of
International Coach Federation and is a member of Professional Coaches’ and
Mentor’s Association and Texas Executive Women.
Contact info:
Sherry Lowry, MCC
Austin, Texas, USA
Ph: 512-527-0097
Email: sherry@sherrylowry.com
Web site: www.sherrylowry.com.
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Your Personal
Declaration
of "Essence"
Do you remember how important the Declaration of Independence was to the
founding of the U.S.? That one document put a stake in the ground for
a new country. It DECLARED that the U.S. existed and what it stood for.
It pulled a collection of random territories into a country with 13
states. It gave birth - brought into being - a whole new way of governing.
On the path to The Seamless Life™ you must make a DECLARATION for
yourself. You must claim, by DECLARING it, "the Essence of Y.O.U."
It's a set of stands that you take, standards that you hold yourself to,
for the life that you are creating. It reflects the past and sheds
light on your future in a personalized way. It's a powerful, 1-2 page
statement that includes potent statements of 10 key life and work areas.
This article contains a brief overview of the whole of this DECLARATION.
In the next several articles, we'll be describing in depth how you
create this Declaration and implement it in your life.
You'll get to use all you've discovered so far through your SeamLess
Life™ fieldwork. (If you've missed reading some articles -- they are
archived in the Table of Contents.)
So far, you've:
examined the arenas of your life and noted where you spend most of
your time and energy now vs. your ideal
learned that "the long view" of your life is at least as
important as the "to do's" and deadlines of today
swatted a few "gnats" you were no longer willing to tolerate and
identified several "sufferings" you don't deserve
identified your 5 current,
primary Needs and the understanding of how
these drive you if you are not satisfying them
discovered your core Values and what you'll want
to have in place to live your life through these
determined your gifts and most important, satisfying
talents-and the place they need to have in your life and business.
If you've done all of this, you've done some in-depth exploration of your
current situation. It's now time to "trim your sails," capitalize on all
you've learned by letting it become part of how you chart the next leg
of this journey. You're ready to move on into creating your future.
You're ready to create your Declaration of Essence of Y.O. U. - YOU in your
work, YOU in your life.
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About the Author:
Diane Menendez, Ph.D., is a business and personal success coach. She has been
coaching since 1983 when she began the High Performance Coaching process as an
internal staff coach at AT&T. Since 1988 she has coached more than 250
business executives in Fortune 100 companies and has provided leadership for
company-wide efforts in executive and leadership development. Menendez’s
special niche in executive coaching is providing support to leaders of rapidly
changing industries who are committed to transforming their personal
leadership styles. She has successfully also transferred her skills to work
with entrepreneurs, other business owners, family owned business leadership,
and non-profit executives and their organizations. She created Results-Focused
Leadership Development, an intensive, creative and empowering process that
influences and inspires client to fully develop their leadership potential
while supporting their company’s mission and goals. Her passions are inspiring
the success of family business members, entrepreneurs and therapists and other
professionals in transition. Her www domain name, HeartDance.com, is an
expression of her belief that, "Our work can bring us joy as well as financial
rewards." Yes, that’s what she means -- real joy, enough to make your heart
dance.
Contact info: HeartDance, Cincinnati, Ohio USA, 513-474-1137
1-800-882-9383;
Email: diane@heartdance.com
Web Site:
www.heartdance.com.
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When you've completed your Declaration, here's what it will contain:
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Your vision: A statement of the world in which You want to live.
Your purpose: How you define what you'll do (your intentions and your actions)
to create the type of world you want to live in. Your compelling reason for being.
Your mission: Your map or plan to carry out your purpose,
and the specifics of how to implement it.
Your touchstones: Observable and measurable signs and signals that
Are indications that you are fulfilling your purpose and mission.
Your attributes: The special qualities or gifts you carry into your work and relationships.
Your benefits: How others benefit through what you create in your work and your life
Your credo: A distinctive belief you hold and are identified with,
one that underpins what you do and how you do it.
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Why do this?
Like the writers of the Declaration of Independence, staking out your
territory will actually bring it into being for you. Here are reasons
that our clients have given for undertaking this act of Declaration:
"I am selecting my own life view-and letting go of others' expectations."
"When I lose sight of my destination, I regain it quickly."
"Being focused becomes easier. There's not time to do it all, and my
Declaration surfaces my priorities readily and naturally."
"I've avoided burn-out! I know what to choose, and my engagements are values-based."
"When all else gets in the way or I drift, I can reconnect with my True North through my Declaration.
"I've gained a clarifying lens which I now own for life. I know what my calling is."
All of these endeavors -- actively creating your own Vision, Purpose,
Mission -- increase your sense of your own destiny. You get the courage to
live more into and through your values. You may become aware of beginning
to live from a deeper place. You feel more spontaneous pleasure, a sense of
universal connectedness with others, with nature and with your world.
The Michaelangelo Effect
Michaelangelo's greatness as a sculptor came from his gift of "seeing"
into the marble. He said that what he did was carve away everything that
was NOT the true figure that was already in the stone. In effect, his
work was to release the greatness that was already there.
When you write your Declaration, you are releasing your life-another work
of art which is confined within stone-- from its constraints.
Uncovering your gifts and talents and letting the plan for your life
unfold.. The art with which you apply them will become your technique and
style. We can help shed extra light on the arenas for chiseling, sanding,
and the refining of your life -- and your willingness and investment in
the sculpting of YOU will carve and direct the shape of your future.
Start by identifying your point of power.
Have you reached the point in your life where you realize
clearly what cannot continue to go on? This is what Robert Fritz called
your Point of Power. Your Point is something which has served you in
your past. Now it's your point of departure and the place to which you
never want to return. It's your "backstop" - you can count on and push
against it to help develop your future.
Joan, a consultant to Fortune 500 Businesses, identified her Point of
Power: She wanted to escape the tyranny of her calendar. As much as she
loved the career she'd created, she traveled too much and spent too much
time away from home. Her career was running more than its share of
her life. She couldn't go on this way. She decided to recreate her life
and her work.
Here are examples of first drafts of her new Vision, Purpose, Mission .
Joan's vision:
My vision is that people will be able to live life from a choice
position -- selecting day-in and day-out out how to do that in the way that
matters most to them.
Joan's purpose:
My purpose is to support and partner professionally and personally with leaders and others who create profitable businesses that support human spirit.
Joan's business mission
My Mission is to have my own Needs met sufficiently enough,
My own Values clarified
So I can be my best self
When I partner with clients
To create the environment where they can do the same.
I will do this through coaching, consulting, training, facilitating,
mentoring, co-leading, speaking and BEing -- through the heart.
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In upcoming articles, we'll show you the specific process by
which Joan--and you--arrive at a complete Declaration.
Our invitation to you is to create these for your own life. Like the
writers of that other Declaration, you'll go through several drafts of
your work. You'll reflect on what you have. On what you want. On what
you don't need any longer. And, you'll bring into being a powerful
manifesto of your life and your work that will be rich, real, and
long-lasting.
Coming Attractions!
Next week: another installment of Tips in Leading the Seamless Life™
"It's YOU that counts, not the 'stuff'."
August 17: a special feature entitled The Path in Reverse
in the spirit of living life "in reverse" we'll compile previous tips in a printer friendly edition.
August 24: back to the regular bi-weekly series
E-Mail us with questions or suggestions.
Sherry can be reached at sherry@sherrylowry.com.
Ph: 512-527-0097
Diane and Sherry's book, Discovering Your Best Self Through the Art of Coaching, can be ordered at http://www.sherrylowry.com/book.htm.
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