3 Breakthrough Shifts to Activate Your True Potential…

Using Your Wild and Beautiful Forces

Traveling around the country, speaking, I feel the newness crackling everywhere. We are living in times of change. And each of us is a change-agent, whether we know it or not.

The weather is changing. The economy is changing. And these are not the times to stand still. Settling will lead to chaos now. It’s time to make your contribution. Sing your song. Climb your mountain. Save your life. It’s show time. You were born for this time and now more than ever before, there is Unseen Support for you to do this.

St Francis of Assisi said, “There are beautiful and wild forces within us.” It’s an evolutionary time, and life supports that which supports life. Trust your irrational, inspired desires. It’s time to walk beyond the iron gates of control and conservatism and into the fertile rain forest of listening to your own fresh instincts. It’s a new world, baby.

You keep feeling like there’s something you’re supposed to do. And you’re right.

The times are calling for divine servants. The times are calling for new problem solvers, deep divers, and ambassadors of invention. The times are calling for you to live your calling—in a way that is so organically you, you wouldn’t have believed it was possible. This is what is taking the world by storm. You will find unexpected support now for the things that support your soul. The times are calling for your wild forces.

So, as a career and success coach for over 20 years, I’ve learned what blocks people’s creativity, career-karma, highest potential, wildest love songs, and contributions. I’ve heard the fears, and I’ve learned what sets people free to liberate their potential.

I’m going to share 3 Breakthrough Shifts with you here. But first I want to tell you:
WE ALL HAVE SOMETHING TO GIVE.

“Your gifts aren’t just for you,” I tell clients. They sound dumbfounded on the phone. They think I have already forgotten the part where they told me they feel like crap, inept, unusable, frightened, trapped by a 30 year mortgage, student loans and Volvo payments. I didn’t forget. I just don’t allow the wounded self to guide us to the light.

You’ve been invited to the pot luck of humanity I remind them. And we need you to bring something real to the table. We’ve all been assigned something. Maybe you’re here to bring the pecan pie, the sour pickles, or the organic kale. Or maybe you’re here to visit Bali and drool on a massage table until you remember your secret promises to yourself or maybe you came to paint pink flamingos. I don’t know. I do know there is something you are meant to do.

I’m not saying you have to join the Peace Corps or run for office. I’m not even saying that you need to run from your office, though some of you certainly will. I’m saying we need your contribution, the thing you ache to do with your time…because it feels right, true, fun, meaningful or holy.

You may think it’s no big deal. But, dear amazing soul, there are no small gifts or huge gifts. Every act of love counts. Every act of love is a fire lit on the planet. Every act of service creates more strength in the collective. There is only obeying the divine calling or ignoring it. And every time you listen to the truth inside you, a child smiles in a distant country, feeling a warmth in the breeze and a hope in the air and a tyrant stubs his toe.

And now the shifts:

Breakthrough Shift Number One: YOU DO NOT NEED IDEAL CIRCUMSTANCES. DOING WHAT YOU LOVE CREATES IDEAL CIRCUMSTANCES.

What if you don’t need ideal circumstances to do what you love?

What if doing what you love will make your circumstances ideal?

In my book Inspired & Unstoppable: Wildly Succeeding in Your Life’s Work! I tell a story about teaching a class out of my small bohemian low rent apartment in an urban-hippie neighborhood to high-powered executive women and entrepreneurs. I felt rabidly self-conscious and to make matters worse, I had this one stain on the wall that would never come out and it represented for me, all that was ruined about my life. I felt squishy about offering the meetings in this setting, but it was the only setting I had. Otherwise I had to wait until I could afford a sexy, grown-up type space, and that may have taken lifetimes.

But I made a courageous decision that catapulted my career forward. I began—where I was. And I made this my mental mantra: I can focus on the stain or I can focus on the love.

I could obsess over my inadequacy, but that was so “been there, done that, —gave the tee shirt to Good Will” already. Or I could focus on the energy and new life that wanted to come through me. I could be a representative of Passion and Possibility. I decided to focus on my excitement about sharing creative strategies with others. That group had no choice but to enter the tractor beam of my calling. There were so many insights, realizations, comets and fireworks flying around, not to mention the outrageous freak show of my offbeat sense of humor, I doubt anyone ever even saw walls, much less a fading stain on the highest part of one.

The group kept growing in energy and numbers, and finally, one young architect offered her sleek downtown conference room– free of charge. We took our passion into the plush. The “perfect” circumstances arrived to support my contribution. But that was after, I’d made my contribution.

Breakthrough Shift Number Two: YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE PERFECT. YOU NEED TO BE DEDICATED.

I had a reader write in recently wanting to lead an “Inspired Success Circle,” the free support groups I suggest, after having read Inspired & Unstoppable. He asked a question I’ve heard before in other contexts. Basically he asked, “How can I lead if I’m not yet living this fully myself?” It’s a question I field often.

Basically it assumes you can’t step into power or authority if you haven’t yet transcended the human race, been knighted, sainted, sanctioned by Jesus or Oprah or made a bazillion dollars before you have permission to begin.What’s a poor schlepp to do?

So do you want to lead? Leadership isn’t about perfection. It’s about dedication. Are you dedicated to learning, growing, doing your own work to live your highest potential? Then step into your contribution right now.

When I first began teaching A Course in Miracles 20 years ago, I made it clear to students that though the material was all about living in love instead of fear…I still lived in fear—a lot. But I was dedicated, night and day, to working with my inner guidance. I was going to do this for the rest of my life. And I was going to share what I was learning and experiencing. I invited people along for the ride. I didn’t offer them perfection. I offered them connection, sincerity, and the struggles and triumphs of truly living an inspired life. I still teach the course. And it’s still packed. I found that others want truth more than they want superiority. The new expert is reporting live from the mud, not from behind the veil of perfection.

Oh and by the way don’t wait for the crowd. Give your gifts to the one person who comes, and don’t cancel your chances to show up. There are no small circumstances for great gifts. Your love makes every circumstance a fluid, alive event. Rock the house, even if it’s an audience of one.

Breakthrough Shift Number Three: YOU DO NOT NEED TO HAVE A PLAN TO TAKE ACTION. YOU NEED TO TAKE ACTION TO HAVE A PLAN.

“I want to be an inspired leader,” said my client, a VP of Big Deal Stuff. She was hoping to motivate her stagnating team in new ways. “But I don’t know how. I don’t know the steps to take.” She craves vibrancy in her work. But she wants to “do it right,” as in avoid risk. That’s like wanting to hit a home run without going up to bat. It doesn’t work that way. “Move fast and break things.” It’s a quote from another inspired leader, Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO of Facebook. Zuckerberg posted this motto on office walls to remind his team of tech execs and wunderkinds to be more afraid of stagnation than of mistakes. He knew if they were learning, they were staying ahead.

Smart, ambitious people don’t like to make mistakes. They want guarantees. They like winning. But if you really want to win on every level, then learn to surf uncertainty with impunity. Risk is the new safe zone. When you’re risking, you’re growing and growth will always lead to strength. Learn how to take chances, and take them less seriously. Life is not a test. It’s a playground. And you’re smarter than you think. You will figure things out on your feet, not in your head. Go ahead and experiment. Application will give you information. And inspiration.

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Jump into your real life now. It’s waiting for you.

Remember, when you give your gift– you become stronger. When you do not give your gift– you become weaker. So while you’re not giving your gift, you may feel as though you have nothing to offer. But when you start to move forward, you’ll lose that baby fat.

This month start using your gifts. I want you to coach the waiter at the breakfast café, if you don’t yet have a client. Write the first lines for that screen play. Break the hermetic seal. Walk past your fantasies, the dim ones, and the over the top ones, and enter the atmosphere. I want you to have real life experience, because life is so much more amazing than anything you can ever imagine. And it’s going to pick up speed. Because life is about to move faster for your now, in the right direction.

There are wild and beautiful forces about to support yourwild and beautiful forces.

Copyright © Tama Kieves  All rights reserved.

Tama J. Kieves is the bestselling author of THIS TIME I DANCE! Creating the Work You Love (How One Harvard Lawyer Left It All to Have It All!) and is a sought-after speaker and career coach who has helped thousands world-wide to discover and live their true work in the world. Visit her at www.ThisTimeIDance and sign up for free inspiration and support through her monthly e-newsletter or download her Free Transformational Report on “Finding Your Calling Now.”