Rita Perea Consulting

The Power of Personal Transformation

"When deeds and words are in accord, the whole world is transformed."

Chuang Tzu (c.360 BC - c. 275 BC)

Source: The Book of Chuang Tzu (Arkana S.), Page: 101

Leaving a positive impact in the world begins with personal transformation.  Right action, right speech, and right intention every minute of every day.  This is the modern-day "transparency" that the media touts.  Being who you say you are and doing what you say you will do- when "words and deeds are in accord".   

When we are out of integrity, our words and deeds don't match.  We are incongruent.  And, on an energetic level, people can tell.  Have you ever met someone at a cocktail party and left with the feeling that something wasn't just quite right?  I call it failing my "skin-crawl test".  These are people who we can sense have something to hide.  Their words and deeds don't match up quite right.

But when you operate with transparency, with integrity, in alignment, people intuitively sense it.  They will want to be near you.  They will want to support you.  Doors will begin opening.  Personal transformation happens. And it feels incredible.

Make up your mind that just for today your words and deeds will be in accord and you will be in integrity.  Then do it again tomorrow.  And the next day, and the next day. 

What do you have to lose?  Nothing but bad karma.

Mindstorming for the Masters

So, I am in Florida on a retreat this week. The sun is welcomingly warm. I am spending time looking at my own path to self-actualization, spiritual development and exploring my beliefs. As leaders I think it is important to identify our beliefs and how they impact our actions. Wow!  What a week it has been! 

Have you ever spent time getting the junk out of your closet?  That's what this feels like...clearing out the junk that I have spent an entire lifetime accumulating between my ears. 

I am calling this process "Mindstorming".  It is a lot like "Brainstorming" in that I am listing the beliefs that I am becoming aware of.  It is also similar to "Mindmapping" because I am trying to trace how I came to believe what I believe.  Where did these beliefs come from?  How did I accumulate them?  Is one belief connected to another? 

The resulting process has been a Mindstorm- the junk in my closet has been all stirred up, just like a bunch of desert dirt devils, as I sift and sort my beliefs.  And, boy, is it  ever dusty in here!

Photo from Flickr

Will the Real YOU Please Stand Up?

In a previous post, I shared that January is "Reach Your Potential" month.  Well, how are we doing so far? 

Part of the challenge of reaching our fullest potential is to uncover who we really are- our authentic self- and then live that life.  I call all of that uncovering our "personal excavation work".  Just like using a great big backhoe in a rock quarry, we need to dig deep into our internal bedrock to discover who we are, what we believe and how to behave to create what we want.

Now, instead of a backhoe messing up your living room, you can use some other tools for your personal excavation work.  A tool that I love to use with my clients to help them  move closer to becoming their authentic selves is to have them tell "their story".

Telling "their story" can be done on paper or by talking it through.  The purpose is to identify their own pieces of the authenticity puzzle. Is there one major theme in their story?  What are the high points of their story?  What are the lessons to others from their story?  Is there a new part to the story that they want to add; to create?  Are their behaviors aligned with the story? 

After we do our personal excavation work, the task then becomes living in congruence, every minute of every day, with what we know to be true.  Living our authentic life- our real life.  Getting closer to that potential we are trying to reach.

It is oh, so juicy and satisfying!

Reach!

January is known for a lot of things- New Year's resolutions, cold weather, new exercise and diet programs.  But did you also know that January is also "Reach Your Potential" Month?  Since I am in the business of helping people find and reach their true potential, both personally and professionally, I love having a special month as a reminder to do this.  How cool is that?

What is "potential" anyway?  It is "the inherent capacity for coming into being".  I love that.  Take a minute and reflect on the resolutions and intentions that you have set for this new year.  What are you deliberately creating in your life so that you are living your capacity to come into being each and everyday? 

The name of the game in reaching your true potential is living deliberately every second of every day.  Choosing what you believe, feel and, thus, experience. 

I think that this quote by Alan Loy McGinnis says it very eloquently: "Focus on your potential instead of your limitations." 

What do you need to focus on today, this month and this year to move closer to reaching your potential?  Figuring it out is the key to living a healthy, happy life.

The Big "P"- Find Your Voice and Speak Your Truth

We all have it. It's in there- somewhere Our challenge is to journey inward to excavate it. Once we find it, we need to blow off the cobwebs and then proudly live it.  It's important to find our voice and speak our truth about it.   

What is it? Why, it's PASSION, of course. 

Webster defines passion as "intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction."  We can have passion for ideas, practices, people, our higher power, making money, social injustices.... whatever stirs our soul. 

And that's the key question- what is it that stirs your soul?  What gets your creative and "take action" juices flowing? What do you wake up thinking about at night?  What makes you jump out of bed in the morning? That is where you find your passion, and in the now famous words of Hillary Clinton's riveting victory speech in the New Hampshire primary, find your "voice". 

I don't know about you but I have seen people who said they had passion but you sure couldn't tell it by how they were acting. There was no spark in their eyes. Just a distant emptiness as they went through the motions. And I have seen people so passionate about they work they are doing, the group they are leading, or a belief they hold that if you stood too close you would get burned from their fervor. Now, that's the kind of passion that I'm talking about!

As for me, I have a passion for helping people get their acts together in their work, their relationships, their business, with their money, their careers, and perhaps most importantly, with themselves.  I love seeing the twinkle jump into a person's eye when the light bulb goes on and they have unearthed their true passion.  And I love helping them create strategies and action plans to ignite their passion in the world. 

Passion.  It can be quite contagious if we live it, find our voice and speak our truth about it.

"How can one not speak about war, poverty, and inequality when people who suffer from these afflictions don't have a voice to speak?" -Isabel Allende

Someone in Your Corner

Ok, I admit it.  I am a health nut.  A real self-improvement junkie.  I have practiced yoga for years and years. I eat organic. Take great supplements. Meditate.  I am working on a degree to become a Naturopathic Doctor. And I hired a personal trainer to work out with for one hour each night. You read that right- five nights a week. I feel good.  I feel healthy.  I feel together.

My personal trainer is Angela Gallagher of Fit 4 Life.  She is quite a ball of unbridled energy, unconditional acceptance and enthusiastic motivation.  She pushes me to the limit and makes me feel happy about it. And I know that she is 100% commited to my success.  I like having someone in my corner.  Somehow I don't feel so all alone as I strive to reach my goals for a better life.

Last night during my cardio workout, as my heart-rate monitor was beeping wildly, a lightbulb went off in my head! It dawned on me that hiring a personal coach to help you achieve your business, career, financial and relationship goals is alot like hiring a personal trainer.  The work that I do with people as a personal and executive coach is very similar to the work that my personal trainer does.  While Angie focuses only on the body, my work focuses on integrating all components of a person's life to achieve on-going life success.  There is a reason that my clients call me "The Diva of Life Design".  Just like Angie in designing fitness programs, I do my job of helping people design their life success programs.  And, I do it very well.

So what about you?  Are you ready to dip your toe in the water of hiring your own personal coach to help you live your best life?  With just a little bit of thought and research, you can hire the right coach to meet your unique needs (one size does not fit all!).   

Stay tuned for future posts to find out how to locate the very best coach to guarantee your success.

For now, it's back to the treadmill!

Photo by Flickr

A Note From Rita

Dear Colleague:

Thanks to my own involvement in business, I can identify with the questions you may have about selecting an executive coach or leadership consultant. Will I feel comfortable with this person? Will we get real solutions or canned consulting cliches? And ultimately, will we realize a substantial return on our investment?

I wish I could reach out to you, at this very moment, look you in the eyes, and speak to your concerns. In fact, I hope you and I can chat one-on-one very soon. You see, there's a lot I simply cannot communicate in a company brochure or web site. I can't adequately express in words the true nature of my personal bond with my clients. Or the "extra mile" I'm willing to go in supporting these individuals and organizations.

I invite you to get in touch with me at 515-577-5666 or rita@ritaperea.com. Let's talk about what's getting in the way of your unbridled success and how I might bring a fresh pair of eyes and a proven set of ideas to address your situation.

It's my sincere wish that you achieve your full leadership potential!

Warmest Regards,

Rita Perea