Are you clear about who you are?

This is the newsletter that went out to my subscribers the week of August 10, 2009.

Enjoy!

The Inner Genius Zone Newsletter!

Are you clear about who you are?

Please forgive me for not getting this newsletter out earlier in the week. I had a busy week with those that took me up on my offer for a complimentary strategy coaching session. Make sure you do not miss out on your opportunity: http://www.budurl.com/accw

This week in the Inner Genius Zone we are talking about clarity.

The last couple of weeks, I focused on a couple of client profiles. This week I would like to talk about myself just so you can get a first hand feel for what the clarity process looked like for me as I transitioned out of the practice of law for 20 years. I do not mean to be egotistical by talking about myself. Think of me as another client profile because I was my first client.

Clarity is about getting clear and focused on who you are and what you want.

Every professional woman wants to get into the annual habit of taking stock around all six pillars of her life:

~Physical and body;

~Emotional life;

~Spiritual life;

~Financial life;

~Mental life; and

~Relationships.

Each of these areas have a sub area. For instance, in my mental life, I would look at my learning and my creativity. So do not leave out your creativity. In addition, I would look at my learning. Steven Covey calls it, “sharpening the saw.”

Now, I did not do this entire process for many years.

Once I became an attorney, I thought I had done all my hard work. I thought that it would now be smooth sailing so I focused on finding the best way to move forward in my career. I worked at a couple of jobs and after a few years, I started my own law firm.

I soon discovered that I was petrified of courthouses! Can you believe that? I get hives just driving past a court house. I had a couple of “disastrous encounters” in court and although the cases turned out ok, I did not! I developed this fear of litigation.

Well, now from coaching, I know that the fear was an indication that this was not the area to focus my career on. I discovered that I was not high functioning in an adversarial situation. Instead, I discovered I love transactions. I love bringing people together and helping them negotiate and create harmonious results where everyone got what they wanted. I was good at that. I really enjoy win – win encounters.

So I did it. For about 20 years, I worked as a transactional attorney. I was busy. I was an over achiever. I enjoyed owning a law firm of my own. With real employees and other lawyers. I enjoyed having clients that I served. I loved my freedom.

When I look back, I was not happy but I did not even know it.

Are you happy? Genuinely Happy? Do you have multiple belly laughs each day? Do you have moments of day dreaming about what is going fabulous in your life? Do you enjoy relaxing?

Well, I did not.

I just kept pushing myself further trying to make my practice a success. I gained weight. I got into debt. I divorced my first husband. I went to church and I went out for dinner with friends but I was not happy.

Then my dad died. I thought the world had come to an end. I was devastated. He was such a loving wonderful man. I love, love, love my dad. I still do. Then my mother died! Too much! I loved my mother. She was the smartest person I ever met. Brilliant Genius.

I felt that I lost my true North. I felt that I had no focus. I then came into the realization that I was unhappy; in a chronic way.

I got married again and my sweetie was by my side when I lost both my parents. He was amazing! If I ever complain about him, ignore me. He was with my mom when she took her last breath.

As I watched lives that meant so much to me slip away from me, I was able to begin to take stock of my life:

I was able to confront the fact that my work had become routine and non-challenging.

I was unfulfilled in my work life. As I started to look at my values, or should I say rediscover my values, I realized that my business was not crafted around my values.

As the economy declined, I got into so much fear about meeting payroll and keeping the business overhead. As I talked to my sweetie about it, he said, “Babe, the business is an albatross around your neck. What do you really want to do?”

I felt obligated to practice law because that education cost so much money, it would be a waste to not practice law. It felt like I was throwing away money. I made a choice to follow my heart instead of that limiting belief. Who knows, I may chose to practice law later. But, seriously, I really do not care whether or not I do.

My Sweetie pointed me in the direction of clarity.

I hired a coach and she helped me get clarity.

As I got clear about who I am and what my purpose is, I got clarity.

She kept asking me, “What do you want to do with your life?”

I realized that I did not feel that I was contributing to others in a significant way.

I realized that I had some baggage to unload like relationships, personal and professional where we no longer served each other.

I realized that I felt my business was not aligned with my spiritual values.

I realized that I had developed an unhealthy attachment to the label of “attorney.”

I realized that I expected that I would have reached a certain level of success by a certain age.

I realized that I did not define that level of success; others did.

Looking back, I was so blessed to have an amazing family and an amazing spouse that helped me see that I was unhappy and that the ball was in my court to create more happiness in my life.

When I got clear about my values, I could no longer hold on to the law practice as it was. I had lost the zeal that it takes to run such a business from a place of integrity. Integrity is one of my important values. This is what I discovered about myself.

I have very strong values around self expression.

I have to write everyday. I wish I can tell you how my fingers are flying as I type this. It is nothing for me to write my newsletters. They flow from my brian like water gushing out of a fountain. It just gushes out of me ~ easily and happily.

I love helping others.

I love helping others know their value and that what they want is valuable and wonderful.

I love reminding others that they are God’s children.

I love learning.

I love sharing what I learn with others.

I love putting stuff I have learned together.

I love talking to people and connecting with them.

Notice, these are core things in me that I can even trace back to my childhood? None of these things have anything to do with a $100,000 education from Georgetown University Law School.

When I got clear that this is core of who I am, I had to embrace me. It had nothing to do with practicing law. So, getting clear on who you are, has nothing to do with your educational background.

Today, I can tell you that I know who I am and I am completely and totally in love with myself. I like me. I like my company. I like what I do. I like how I spend my time and I like who I am. I love what I do professionally. The highest honor in my life is for a client to be unmasked with me and her heart is genuinely open and I help her see her beauty and her power.

Please do not get me wrong. I do not have any regrets about having my own law firm. It was wonderful and gratifying and I am proud of myself for what I have made with my life.

However, I am glad that at this time, I have chosen to look at what makes my heart sing and create a life around my purpose.

With clarity, you have the power of choice.

Gaining clarity helps you make choices wisely and remember that not making a choice is a choice in itself.

I made a choice to retire from law because I could not figure out a single thing that I really wanted to do as a lawyer.

I made a choice to work from home and not deal with the over head of the office.

I made a choice to be a life coach that helps executive and business boomers just like you get that clarity, refocus on their life purpose and create a powerful life.

I have done it and so can you.

As I discovered my Inner Genius, I got clear and I am living a much more fulfilling life coaching wonderful amazing people just like yourself.

How clear do you feel in your life?

Do you want to gain more clarity in your life?

What specific step are you going to take to gain more clarity?

Here is an opportunity for you:

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Wanna gain more clarity in your life?

Well, I have a special offer for you.

Are you ready to unleash your Inner Genius to create passion, purpose, profit and power in your life?

Here is how it works:

Schedule a complimentary one hour strategy session in one of the two time slots on:

Tuesday: August 18, 2009 from 10am, 11 am 12 noon, 1 pm, 2 pm Eastern

Wednesday: August 19, 2009 from 3 pm, 4 pm, 5 pm, 6 pm, 7 pm Eastern.

Go here right now to reserve your spot:

http://www.budurl.com/accw

All sessions times are available on a first come-first serve basis.

In this strategy session, we will talk about your goals and outline your course of action to accomplish these goals.

With the Inner Genius process, you will be amazed how you gain more control of your life and maintain emotional mastery over yourself. You discover your purpose and experience more happiness.

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Other stuff I am cooking up just for you…..

Join me on my blog at http://www.AuthenticChangeCoach.com where we are having a wonderful time this past week exploring laughter and clarity.

Guys, if you want to have a conversation around such issues as addressed in this ezine, please join me on the blog. I post a couple of times a week and it is also a valuable coaching resource for you.

Make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed and it will even email you the blog posts when they show up.

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Also, most Thursdays, I have an hour long radio show at 12 noon Eastern.

Please join us or listen to the archives at my radio show.

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If you have gotten a benefit from this ezine, the greatest compliment you can pay me is to forward this ezine to as many people as you know.

Thank you!

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About Iyabo:

Iyabo Asani is a Business and Executive Life Coach, and founder of Authentic Change Coaching. She loves helping her clients discover their passions and create a purposeful marketplace presence by teaching them how to harness the energy of attraction and discover their Inner Genius.

Trained by Leadership University and the B-Coach program, Iyabo, brings a unique coaching perspective to the lives of her clients by loving them, believing in them and helping them create the space for miracles in their lives.

After twenty years of practicing law and being involved in helping clients resolve legal problems, Iyabo discovered that she was particularly gifted about helping her clients discover the energy patterns that led to the manifestation of the legal issues. Once the clients experienced epiphanies about the underlying energetic templates and patterns of thinking, their legal issues resolved themselves easily.

Naturally, her law practice flowed into a coaching practice as she crafted her coaching practice around her passions and purpose.

It is all about energy!

This is the newsletter that went out to my list the week of August 3rd, 2009. If you would like to receive this ezine weekly via email, then subscribe. This and other goodies await you!

It is all about energy!

I have had two clients this week talk about how frustrated they are about getting their small businesses off the ground. They are both highly educated women. One was laid off from her corporate job and the other is a retired school teacher who is trying to grow her small business to supplement her retirement income.

I was struck by how similar their stories are. They both are very talented and have very strong, clearly defined skills. However, they were both feeling challenged by translating those particular skills into a viable business that produces both sustainable income and emotional fulfillment. They both echoed the same sentiment:

“What is it all about?”
“What is the purpose of all this?”
“What is wrong with me?”
“Why can’t I get this right?”
“I have been so caught up in this, I have lost sight of who I am!”

Boy, I really felt for them because I have been right there in that same exact spot.

You see, when you are highly educated: MBA, JD, Ph.D, M.D., even a college degree, you have been programmed to believe that once you get your degree or degrees that the path becomes easier as you are clearly focused on what you want to do professionally.

However, gone are the days that all you need is a skill. The marketplace is changing drastically. Technical know-how to do a job is not all that will carry you forward and create success.

You really have to be convinced of your own value beyond just your skills and you have to enter into the heart of your clients to really propel your business forward.

These days, it is those that have a calling and hear the voice of that calling clearly that are able to navigate the marketplace and experience fulfillment and satisfaction in their work.

For both women, I inquired as to what was going on with their energy.

Energy?

Quantum physics says we are 100% energy. Everything is energy. The Dictionary defines energy as “the ability or capacity to do work.” It is “life force.” More energy equals more ability or capacity to do work.

Energy can never be created or destroyed. It can only be transmuted or changed from one form to another. Think of it this way: Water can change from liquid to steam to ice. The same matter but in different states.

Bearing in mind that matter is energy, energy is constantly in motion. It moves. Its movement is called vibration.

Vibration is the measurement of a particle of matter or energy as it oscillates  between states periodically.

When it comes to us human beings, I teach my clients that we are concerned with three types of energy: Receptive, Active and Magnetic.

You have to go through each of these cycles periodically both personally and in your business.

As I coached my two clients, we observed that both clients were in active energy mode. The only type of energy that their business was experiencing was active mode.

Please note: I firmly believe in taking action: Inspired Action, that is!

What is inspired action? After a time of being receptive and taking in what it is that you want, you act from a place of inspiration and deliberately use your magnetic energy to guide you and move you forward with active energy.

Often times, receptive energy is considered feminine energy and active energy is considered masculine energy. I have never heard anyone say it before, but I consider magnetic energy the glue that ties the other two energies together.

According to the philosophy, yin and yang are complementary opposites within a greater whole. Everything has both yin and yang aspects, which constantly interact, never existing in absolute stasis. (Wikipedia).

Understanding yin and yang also helps us understand our natural energy cycles. It is natural to be receptive and natural to be active.

OK, going deeper into energy:

Physical: If you do not have physical energy nothing else works. Our physical capacity has four components: nutrition, fitness, sleep and recovery or renewal.

Emotional: The quality of your energy. This is about your emotions. How you feel profoundly affects your energy.

Mental: Focus of energy is mental and we do our best work when we focus on one thing.

Spiritual: The energy of the human spirit. This the energy derived from the experience of purpose and from an alignment between what you say is important in your life and how you live. The better that alignment, the more powerful the source of energy available to you. ~ Tony Schwartz

The Spiritual energy is the “why” energy and the others are “how” energy. The “how” energies are fuel for the spiritual “why” energy.

Both clients were working hard and their energies felt as if they were drowning and spluttering in a swimming pool. A lot of active energy going on with no direction or focus.

They were functioning in the “how” of their business energy and not the “why” of their business energy.

When we discussed how nothing was going on with their receptive and magnetic energies, they immediately relaxed as they both could clearly see that they could not truly move forward without considering their magnetic and receptive energies.

I asked each of them to take some time off from the activity of work and reconnect with their vision of their business and the vision of their ideal customer.  That was their home work.

The ying and yang of business is this: You must care for your client’s needs from the heart for your client to respond to you and buy from you.

I have since received emails telling me that they are seeing gaps in their marketing activity and also opportunities for expansion. One client has seen an increase in the sale of her jewelry since the session that day.  She said she got in the space of visualizing her jewelry on the necks, arms and fingers of women in her city as she walked down the street. She saw the enhanced beauty of these women just because they put on her jewelry. As she walked, she vibed beautiful in high demand jewelry.

As these women reconnected with the vision of their business, reconnected with the value that their business provides to others and reconnect with their own personal value, they were able to take control of their lives and their business.

Now, I ask you, how is your energy around your business?

Are you taking into consideration all three forms of energy?

Are you nourishing your body, emotions, mind and Spirit?

Is your “why” energy clearly defined?

If you have issues around any of these issues as addressed in this newsletter, then please contact me at coach@AuthenticChangeCoach.com for a complimentary strategy session.

Are you feeding your left brain?

This is the newsletter that went out to my readers on the week of August 4th, 2009.

Hi there,

How are you?

Can you believe that in Georgia school starts next week? Why do I think it is too hot for kids to start school next week?

Anyway, I am just thrilled that  the two American journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling have been  reunited with family and friends upon returning to the United States with former President Bill Clinton, whose diplomatic trip to North Korea secured their release nearly five months after their arrests.

This is particularly thrilling to me because, since I grew up half way across the planet, family means the world to me.

This week, I am going to tell you about Monica and the struggle she overcame with her business and her kids.

My client Monica has a podiatrist practice in Florida.  To put it kindly, when she contacted me, she was overwhelmed. She hates to do her medical charts. She loves working with her elderly clients and really pays attention to giving them a lot of personalized attention.

However, the fact that she is not running her business at a profit has come to a head.
She needs to make a decision as to what her next step is. She contacted me depressed and lethargic. I noted her energy level because I was picking up that she was not enthused about her practice.

She charted out what she felt were her two options based on feelers that she had been putting out there and wanted some coaching around how to make the right decision for herself.  She felt her only options were going into partnership with someone else or
leasing a cheaper space, letting one employee go and keeping a more streamlined practice. However, neither option seemed viable to her.

I told her she had jumped a step.

This surprised her.

I asked her what she did before she became a podiatrist and it turns out that she had worked for seven years as a nurse. She also disclosed that she had been practicing podiatry for seven years and her two kids were seven and fourteen.

I asked her what she made of all the sevens and multiples thereof showing up in her life.

She said she had never noticed it.

When I asked her to reconnect with the vision she had for her life as a podiatrist seven years earlier, her slow, lethargic tone changed to one of animation and excitement as she talked about how she loved caring for her clients and loved seeing patients improve.

When she discussed what else was exciting in her life, she started crying. She said she felt pulled into too many directions.

She felt that she was not spending enough time with her kids. She constantly felt guilty about working so many hours. As it turns out, she felt angry with her business because it took so much of her energy. She had also spent a significant amount of time in the last couple of years seeking complementary healthcare options for her menopausal symptoms and hot flashes.

After a few sessions, Monica became acutely aware that the alternative medicine research she had done excited her immensely because she was using her left brain and “sharpening her professional saw” as per Steven Covey.

As I taught her the language of her emotions, she discovered that following her “feel good” always pointed her in the right direction of what she needed.

Over the next three months, she followed the things that made her feel good and learned to listen to that. She realized that she needed a major change professionally every seven years.

She got stuck there for a while as she did not feel she could let go of  her medical training that she spent many years procuring. Once she realized that this all or nothing thinking was not serving her, she realized that she could practice medicine without the HMO’s breathing down her back.

What does her life look like six months later?

• She does not work weekends so she feels tremendously reconnected with her children.
• She works on her Wellness practice two days a week. Her background as a nurse and podiatrist gives her a tremendous amount of street creds.
• She found a gig in a Caribbean Island where she goes for five days every six weeks and makes a chunk of money treating podiatrist patients there.
• She works one day a week for a traditional podiatrist where she transferred all her clients to.

I will admit that she had a hard time letting go of her clients. But after several guided meditations and more brainstorming, she was able to come up with this final solution to keep her hands on the pulse of her existing clients.

So, count it up:

• She eliminated her overhead.
• She worked to place her two employees with other doctors.
• The opportunity in the Caribbean fell on her lap out of the clear blue sky.
• She has actually seen her kids play soccer, basketball, baseball and she takes them to swimming classes at least once a week when she is home.
• As she pursued her alternative medical practice focusing on menopausal women, she was fed that part of her soul that needed to learn something new every seven years.
• She and her husband have date night at least once a week.
• She has connected with several old friends and is more sociable and outgoing.

All this from coaching for six months?

Truthfully, no.

It was all in her all along.

She merely needed someone to remind her of who she really was.

What thrilled me is when she cancelled an appointment with me and the voicemail said, “I have to reschedule with you because today I am spending the entire day with my kids, sitting on the floor, eating organic popcorn and watching movie after movie and I do not feel like doing anything else.”

I was thrilled to reschedule that appointment!

So here are my questions for you this week:

Are you so settled in your professional skills that you have not learned anything new lately?

How can you stretch your learning, professional or otherwise, this week and feed your left brain that has an unquenchable thirst for knowledge?
Do you realize that your feelings of overwhelm are an indication that you want to slow down and pay attention to what is important in your life?

What is your Inner Genius?

One of my favorite things in the world is to share with others, how I see them. Yes, it sounds funny but really that is what my calling is.

You see, from the time I was a child, I had the ability to perceive beyond my five senses of what I could see, touch taste, hear or smell.

I have always had the ability to see people beyond how they see themselves. It is so easy for me to see the value in others. This is the key to my love of coaching.

I do not care who you are and where you are and whatever you do, you have all the solutions to each and every problem you have ever faced within you.

My job is to remind you about who you really are.

In these times, with all the news about the economy and everything else that we hear, it is easy to feel down and look at the external circumstances as others interpret it. Your greatest problem is not the stress you are facing. It is understanding how wonderful and valuable you are.

Within each and every one of us as a unique, incredible human being that deserves all that you can imagine.

The Solution!

If we humans could just understand how much lies within us, we would be shocked and we would never look at problems the same way. We are incredible multifaceted beings with amazing resilience within us and we just have to learn to tap into our Inner Genius to create wonderful life affirming solutions.

Fear holds us back from achieving the things we want. We stop living because fear clouds our judgment and inhibits our wisdom.  Fear is a natural protective response. When our brain processes information that threatens our survival or our family, the fight or flight response is activated.  That system is still active in our lives although we do not live in the wilderness among tigers and lions.

Modern day stresses of financial issues, health issues, relationship issues, and work stress all trigger that flight or fight response. When our brain and entire body is flooded with the chemicals triggered during the flight or fight response, we are reactionary and not proactive. We are unable to call upon all of our wonderful resources within to create the life that we want.

This is the key point for you to understand. You have been unable to create what you want because your brain is flooded with the chemicals that are telling your entire body to fight back or to run. You are in survival mode. When last did you not feel that you should do something or that something just needs to happen? That is survival mode and you cannot create beauty, luxury and calm from a place of stress.

Please understand: Fear can be wonderful. It helps you when you are in danger. However, when you are not in danger, fear is not your friend.  Listening to the news and talking about how awful things are will trigger the flight or fear response in your body.

We know to turn off the TV and not read the news papers. We know to focus on what we want, not what we do not want. We know to use the law of attraction to our benefit. We know to make lifestyle changes that we know will help us.

However, we find it impossible to make these changes. Why? Because everything in your body is saying it is time to run or time to fight. Turn your body chemicals into your friend. Tap into your Inner Genus and create authentic change in your life. Easily and gracefully move from fear based reactions to proactively creating a lifestyle that nourishes your total person.

Your incredible Inner Genius has all the wisdom you will ever need for your life. The key to activating your Inner Genius is awareness.  As you dwell and live in the awareness of this space within you, you will thrive and prosper in every area of your life.

As you live from your Inner Genius, your energy becomes very clear and clean. Your vibration becomes naturally higher and you discover incredible capacity to manifest what you want. Living from your Inner Genius shifts your focus to what you want, not what you do not want and you thereby cause the Law of Attraction in your favor.

Your Inner Genius is the Intersection of five key components of you:

1.    Your left brain:  All the knowledge and reasoning you have accumulated experientially and academically. This includes your organizational and analytical skills.

2.    Your right brain:  Your creative, imaginative and holistic side.

One side of the brain is not more valuable than the other side of the brain although you probably have a tendency towards one side of your brain. It is important to note that the goal here is to have whole brain synergy. When you have both parts of your brain working in cooperation and concert you produce wonderful results.

If you are a left brained analytical person, make sure you take time on a regular basis to be creative and to appreciate music. If you are a right brained person, you may want to read more and listen to audio recordings more often. Activate your analytical side.

We all tend to be a little too rigid. The left brainers think the right brainers are airey fairey and are not smart and the right brainers can be rather condescending to detailed analysis and sequential thinking. However, both parts are in all of us and we honor our Inner Genius when we support both sides of our brain and when we are more aware of which side we are leaning towards.

3.    Your emotional heart: This is the center of your feelings. Your emotions are a guidance system. They are not who you are.  We tend to identify the sum total of who we are by our emotional expression. We say, “He is an angry man.” However, anger is an indicative emotion. Our negative emotions are there to let us know that whatever we have experienced is not positive and does not help us. However, many of us hold on to negative emotions and identify ourselves with those emotions. Our positive emotions are to us as sunlight is to plants and flowers. Our positive state is our natural setting. We are meant to be happy and to feel good. When we feel good, our bodies are healthier and others are happier around us.

Listening to your emotions and factoring how you feel and how you want to feel in designing the life that you want is a powerful tool.

4.    Your Somatic body:  This is your physical being and chakra system.  Your body is also intuitive. It speaks to you. You feel a lot of feelings in your body but you may not be aware of it. The Chakra system is an Ancient Sanskrit tradition that addresses the flow of energy in the body. Each of the seven chakras speak to where emotions can lodge in your body energetically. As you understand the seven chakras, you will understand the wonderful hidden messages that your body is communicating to you.

Your Chakras are corresponds to critical components of our lives that we may often overlook.

This is not an in depth study of the Chakras. However, regardless of your spiritual background, it is important to study the body and how it holds energy. Prolonged stress, fear and negative thinking have a negative impact on the corresponding Chakra. Allowing negative emotions to flow through the body and discharge is important to your emotional  health

5.    Your God connection:  This is your spiritual and non-physical consciousness. This is sacred. Regardless of your religious background, we can agree to this mysterious connection that we all have with Source, Universe, The Divine, God, Divine Intelligence and whatever name you may choose. Inviting the sacred into your daily life and tapping into that Universal Intelligence has to be a part of your daily life to design the life that you want.

In Conclusion

Now that you are aware of these various components of you, be aware that together, they want to communicate with you and help you create a life that is filled with goodness and wonderful things. As you gain awareness of all these parts of you, and deliberately engage them, you are living and creating from your Inner Genius.

As you meld your right brain and your left brain and seek whole brain strategies, check in often with your emotions, listen to your body speaking to you and factor in the Source component of your life, you will have amazing courage and abilities.

Remember, we have just described you: This amazing wonderful synergy of all those five parts. Keep your Inner Genius in mind when you want to create powerfully and raise your vibration. Pay constant attention to your Inner Genius. Do not leave any part out.

I ask that you contact me for a complimentary coaching session to further understand your Inner Genius and how to create an absolutely amazing life living from this place.

Here is to your greatness!