One Shift Can Change Everything

Here in Florida, we are still recovering from the aftermath of Hurricane Irma. 

As of this morning, over a million people are still without power. A quarter of the homes in the Florida Keys were destroyed. The death toll stands at 30 people across 3 states. By any measure, last week was a tragedy for my home state and my heart is with all of those affected in South Florida.

And yet, we also know the outcome could have been so much worse. 

Had Irma tracked ever so slightly to the west, the storm would have stayed over the warm waters in the gulf, maintained a high intensity, and destroyed the entire west coast of the state. If the hurricane made landfall in Tampa Bay area as a category 3, experts say the damage would have been worse than Hurricane Katrina and become the biggest natural disaster ever recorded in North America.

What was the difference? A small two-degree shift in the path of the storm.

What does this have to do with your personal development?

The Universe works the same way.  An equally small shift in thinking or behavior can massively change your outcomes as you face life's metaphorical storms.

I get it. There are times when it feels like SO much is wrong, it's hard to believe you could be one new decision away from a life of freedom and opportunity. It's easy to become so overwhelmed by problems in your career, relationships, health, and finances, you forget an important truth.

When you shift one negative behavior or thought pattern, you'll improve every aspect of your life. Because you are every aspect of your life.

The transformation can happen quickly too.

When Pam and I started working together 6 weeks ago, she wasn't sure how her life had seemingly fallen so far off-track. She was 40 lbs overweight, stuck in an unfulfilling job working for a boss who disrespected her, and spinning her wheels in a relationship where she and her fiance felt like roommates. In addition to the responsibilities of raising her son, she felt as if she was having to be the parent to her own parents, both of whom struggled with addiction. 

She wanted to make a change but felt unsure of where to begin. She wanted to feel safe in a relationship where her man would step up and take the lead. She wanted to leave the real estate team she was part of to work for herself as an independent agent. She wanted to lose the weight so she had the energy to meet life's challenges. She wanted to feel the confidence to set boundaries with family members who took advantage of her. Ultimately, she wanted to live life on HER terms instead of everyone else.

So what was stopping her?

In our second session, we uncovered a hidden block where she believed she couldn't ask for what she needed. Growing up in a home with two alcoholics, she had to play the role of parent from an early age. She was rewarded for putting her needs on the back burner and emotionally punished for speaking up for her herself.

This pattern kept her safe for many years in an abusive, dysfunctional home. However, as an adult it was the leading contributor to her feeling powerless.

For Pam, the key shift happened when she realized the 7-year-old girl who suffered in silence was not really who she was. She simply developed a behavior pattern which helped her avoid rejection and emotional annihilation as a child. Unfortunately, this 7-year-old was still calling the shots and making many of her decisions as an adult woman. 

The good news? She didn't have to change... she simply had to shift one pattern.

Realizing she wasn't "screwed up," she made a committed decision to take new action. She expressed her needs to her fiance, asking him to be the one step up and plan a date instead of waiting for her to do the planning. She told him she wanted to feel special.

This one simple change in behavior snowballed into massive, wide-ranging transformation.

Like any good man, her fiance wanted to make his partner happy. He just needed to know how to do it. With a little direction on her part, he took the ball and ran with it, planning an awesome date that made her feel loved. He cut back his drinking and joined her in a fitness routine where they are both losing weight together. They are connecting in an entirely new way.

Now that she's feeling safe with a man who is showing up for her, Pam feels like she's fallen in love with her fiance all over again. 

She's also armed with empirical evidence which proves she CAN get her needs met when she asks for what she wants...So she's kept speaking up and taking action.

Fed up with the boss who disrespected her, she quit her job and finally branched out on her own as an independent real estate agent. She set a financial goal for the remainder of 2017, and found herself being at 50% of the goal in the first two weeks. She's had to increase her goal to keep pace with her growth. She's putting herself out there to make new friendships. Most of all, she feels the freedom and self-respect which comes from taking ownership of her life.

She recently cried tears of joy as she told me it felt like an entirely new woman has finally come forward after years of hiding from the world. Six weeks ago, she wasn't even sure this new life was possible.

Could changing your life really be this simple? Yes. That doesn't mean it's always easy to put into practice. Without a higher sense of emotional intelligence, we can run our childhood protection patterns for decades,  believing the patterns are our identity. This simply isn't the case.

This is also why having the right coach or mentor matters. A great coach will help you gain clarity on what you want (instead of continuing to focus on what you DON'T want), helps you identify and remove the hidden blocks keeping you from getting it, and helps you create meaningful action steps to accelerate your growth and create rapid transformation.

You don't invest in a life coach to help you change who you are. You invest so you can become more of who you've always been.

I don't know what storms you are facing in your life today, but I do know you are a 2-degree shift from coming out of the rain and back home to yourself. I've got power back on in Florida and I'm ready to mentor you to help you find your way!  Click here to sign up for a complimentary, 30-minute discovery session today.

Crushing it in your life and don't need a coach? High-fives to you. Please feel free to forward this blog to anyone you know who might be looking for some help.