Cara Lumen | Sing a Deeper Song

Sing a Deeper Song

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How Not to Make Plans

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There is no way I can make plans the way I used to.  I used to schedule telecourses and plan book deadlines.  I used to set goals for the number of clients I wanted to coach. I had a yearly  plan. I had a quarterly plan. I had my whole year mapped out. Planning in that much detail now feels foreign to me.  It feels pressured.  It even feels restrictive.  I want to learn not to make plans.  I want to simply let life unfold.

Forget pressure

I’m semi-retired so I have had time to develop a life style that is more organic.  The mere idea of setting some goals to finish the book I am now working on is painful.  How can I rush discovery?  How can I hurry understanding?  The book I am working on is a journey of discovery for me.  I have to let it unfold.  There is no pressure.  There is no deadline. There is only time to gain understanding and formulate my theories.  You cannot hurry the absorption of new ideas..

Let go of restriction

If I fill up my schedule with self-imposed deadlines, there is no room for spontaneity.  Nearly every day I have an insight that I feel compelled to write about in order to absorb it into my own life.  However, that insight and urge to explore it doesn’t come at a specific time each day.  Discovery cannot be hurried. Writing cannot be completed any faster than it is organically finished.  There are restrictions in schedules. There are limitations in too much planning.  Try simply labeling a day with one action: Production, Writing, Technical, Community Building and see how that makes you feel.  Then spend the whole day with one goal – to take steps in that major area.

But what if that’s not what is calling to you on that day?  I can’t be technical when I have inspired words bubbling up.  I can’t write when there is nothing at the moment that calls to me to explore. Be prepared to flow with your inspiration. Check in each morning and see what you feel like doing. Then give it your all.  Gibran says. “Work is love made visible.”  Love what you do and it will touch the hearts of others.

Choose valued qualities and let life unfold.

I have chosen several qualities that I want to express every day of my life.

“Unfolding” is my first major quality. It allows me to be in the present moment and not pend time planning ahead or worrying about what might happen.  I can be present with my passion.  Unfolding allows me to simply jot down a phrase that inspires me and act on it in the muse of the moment or be content with the recording of the phrase and turn it into a meaningful article when I am ready.   I act on my passion, not the clock.

“Awareness” is my second guiding quality. Awareness allows me to be present in the moment and it affects how I respond and react to other people. Awareness allows me to notice the world around me and increases my ability to be inspired by a small gesture, a few words or the birds outside my window.  Awareness allows me to listen to my own heart, to follow my own passion, and to be patient with my own journey.

“Mindfulness” to me is slightly different from awareness. I mindfully take a conscious action.  That means  eating, walking, talking, meditating mindfully.  Awareness is about watching what shows up around you and mindfulness is about consciously applying yourself to the moment.

“Simplicity” is a quality that makes me conscious of my consumption, my footprint on the planet and even the core concept of my work.  Simplicity allows me to appreciate what comes my way and helps me relinquish striving and goal setting. Simplicity builds trust.  The answers that show up are basic and right on.

What qualities will guide you?

You get the idea.  Chose qualities that keeps you present in the moment and allows you to appropriately respond to each circumstance.  When you make certain your responses are aligned with the qualities you value, your life experience becomes peaceful and serene. You move through your days like a gentle stream flowing cheerfully on its way.  You easily move around rocks, tumble down hillsides, and pool into silence.  Along the way, you will nourish and nurture those you come in contact with as you clear a distinctive path for yourself.

The only plans you need to make are what qualities you will cultivate in every moment.

What is Your Personal Promise?

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I write down a Product Promise for every article I write, book I publish, course I create and service I provide.  It occurred to me that I could also write a personal promise for the aspects of my life – what I give to myself and what I give to others.

What you are experiencing today originated with your thoughts of yesterday

Look at your current situation. What is present in your life today is the result of the choices and actions you made in the past. What would you change?  How are your relationships?  Is your business growing in the direction you want it to?  Are you allowing enough time for personal growth? Whatever change you want to make in your life must begin from within you.  You can begin here and now in this very moment.  Make a personal promise you can keep.

What do you promise to do for yourself?

Since all action begins from within, let’s focus our awareness by organizing our search for a personal promise into categories.  Jot down what comes to mind in the following areas:

Emotional:  What makes you happy?  What makes you feel bad?  Examine your feelings and identify what brings you joy. For instance, I know that learning and writing about what I learn makes me super happy.  I want to be certain to have that in my personal promise.

Mental: What do you believe that is holding you back?  Can you change that?  What we focus on attracts more of the same. Perhaps part of your personal promise is to look for the good things rather than the bad.    What do you focus on mentally?  What do you expect to happen?  Surround yourself with positive mental observations.

Relationships:  Are the people you hang out with nurturing to you? We have a choice about who we spend time with.  If someone is cranky, judgmental, overbearing, opinionated, or hard to get along with, why not excuse yourself from his or her presence.  In your personal promise, list the qualities of both word and actions that you want to have in your relationships.  Then use them as a measuring stick to select the people you choose to have around you.  Whether it is a relative, a friend or a work partner, if the other person does not share your goals, part ways.  Spend time with people who nourish and support you.  You deserve it.

Work: Do you love your work?  Are you passionate about what you do?  If not, perhaps you need to change jobs or reposition your business.  When we work with people who share our passion, we do our best work. Is your work aligned with your passion?  Have you made a detour you didn’t plan that has led you away from your original goal?  Did an unexpected opportunity open up new possibilities? What steps do you need to take in order to make every day a play day because you truly love what you are doing?

Health: Without health, we have limited choices.  Whether you need to get strong or stay strong, get flexible or stay flexible, get slimmer or stay slimmer, care for your body and your health is central to the quality of life you will lead.  Whether your personal promise is about taking longer walks, eating healthier food or stretching to get more limber, talk to your body and pay attention to what it tells you it needs.  Then agree to provide it. Keep it strong.  Your body is your only mode of transportation.

Spiritual:  Do you have a nurturing spiritual practice?  I’m not talking about a formal religion; I’m talking about time set aside for personal contemplation. It’s easy to get caught up in “doing” and forget about “being”. Whether it’s taking time to watch a sunset, or meditating during your day or journaling or reading inspiring words, choose specific ways to nurture your spiritual self.  Plan time to be silent, to listen to the voice within.

Look at your list. Now that you’ve noticed a few things missing from these areas of your life, what promise do you want to make to yourself?  Do you promise to be more helpful?  Do you promise to listen to your body more?  Do you promise to take time to listen within?

Define your personal promise

Begin to define your personal promise with this statement:  “When people experience time with me they come away feeling…”

Stop and think about how your words and actions make the other people feel.  Here’s how I began to define my personal promise:

Emotional: When people experience time with me they come away feeling listened to.  They know they are respected and appreciated.  They feel inspired by my enthusiasm.

Mental: When people experience time with me they come away feeling inspired and motivated.

Relationships: When people experience time with me in relationships they come away feeling that I care about how they are and what they think. They are nurtured by their relationship with me.

Work: When people experience time with me at work they come away feeling supported, listened to, encouraged, and inspired to do their best work.

Spiritual: When people experience time with me they come away feeling inspired by seeing me embrace my spirituality in all I think and say and do.

Write your personal promise

Look at what needs strengthening based on your work above. Write a personal promise around each area

My promise for the well-being of my emotions is to allow things to unfold, to be content to simply shape things as they come.

My promise for my mental well-being is that I will continue to look for and discover new things that excite me and share them with others so they can possibly add that awareness to their lives.

My promise for the well-being of my relationships is to walk softly, to listen mindfully and to think before I respond.

My promise for the well-being of my business is that I inspire others to do their best work.

My promise for my health is that throughout my day I will take time to listen to the needs of my body and take time to provide them. I help my body become more flexible so that we can do more things together.

My promise for my spiritual well-being is that I daily deepen my spiritual awareness through meditation, study, writing and ongoing awareness.

See how it goes?   What do you want to do for yourself and for others that becomes part of your personal promise.

What personal promise offered the greatest shift in your awareness?  Write me.  I’d like to know.

Have You Checked For Changes Recently?

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close-lookThere are two elements that are constantly changing in your life that you need to consider:  the changes in the environment of your business and the changes in yourself. 
 

Check for changes in the environment of your business

My friend’s business had been built on her ability to help writers publicize their books.  However, two major changes have occurred in the field of publishing – marketing itself has changed from selling to educating and the publishing business has broken wide open so anyone can self-publish a digital book.  Those major changes in her field meant that she has to complete rethink who her target community is and what she wants to offer them.  Publicizing a book is and always has been about your platform.  Should she start offering courses on platform building?  Did she want to work with the beginning author or did she want to work with people who had been writing for a while?  Who you work with and what you help them do are two vital decisions that will dictate how you repurpose your business.
 

Check for changes in you

My interests have shifted.  I am looking for ways to stay relevant as I gradually move into retirement.  That’s what I want to think about.  That’s what I want to figure out.  That’s what I want to write about.  That has shifted my target community from people interested in creating information products to entrepreneurs who are facing retirement with ideas still calling them.  I now have to figure out what that target community needs from me and what I am willing to offer.  It also requires me to let go of what I have created so far and look at what I am willing and eager to do next.  Letting go is hard to do, but you have to let go in order to embrace the new.
 

What have you learned?

A major reason you might make a shift in your business is that you have developed a new skill.  As I got better at creating information products, I positioned my coaching practice to specialize in that. I don’t have the skill of staying relevant in retirement yet but I’m figuring it out. What new skills have you learned that you can put to use in the service of others?
 

Has your passion shifted?

It was a shock to find myself becoming uninterested in doing what I had been doing.  I no longer wanted to coach people in developing information products because I already knew how to do that.  I wanted to go exploring.  I wanted to learn something that was new to me and more relevant to my interest.  My passion shifted and I had to change my business to accommodate it.
 

Check for changes in your community

When you shift your business, you don’t have to develop a new community; you just have to notice how they are changing and address those changes. For instance, I’m aware that members of my community are growing older just as I am.  Their needs are changing.  They are beginning to look at slowing down, at retiring, and they will face the same challenges I am.  Of course, I could go try for a new target audience but why would I not simply find ways to keep on serving the people who already know me, those I have already served.  All I have to do is identify what they need from me now that I am willing to offer.
 

Watch for the signs

I’ve been thinking about this repositioning change for several months.  Not knowing what I wanted to do made me feel stuck and even lost.  I finally figured out that at the very least I would write about the topic of creatively moving into retirement. It was a topic I was exploring on a personal level and I knew it was relevant for others.  However, personal expansion is esoteric.  It’s much easier to coach someone to create an ebook than to help them find and develop their passion.  I watched my own progress, observed the questions I asked myself and I began to see how I would coach people – the questions I would ask, the exercises I would give them, the sequence I would use to help them unfold.  I wrote down a coaching sequence.  I love to coach and if I choose this path, I can help people move in this new direction.  What signs are showing up in your life that are asking you to change?
 

Redefine your offer

What do I want to offer?  What do people need?  What form does this take?  I can write.  I can teach courses.  I can coach.  I will write articles.  I will create self-discovery exercises that help people make strong choices.  I will help entrepreneurs who are moving into retirement with all their creative juices still flowing, to repurpose their passion and talent so they can slow down and still feel productive and relevant. I will encourages awareness and help people find balance.
 
Who do you help and what do you help them do? How does that need to be modified because both you and the market have changed?

  

The Hardest Part Of Moving On Is Letting Go

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take-it-easyWhat you hold on to weighs you down.  Whether it is a belief or a possession, a need or a desire, when you question what you are holding on to you will soon identify what you can let go.
 

The hardest place to change

 I’ve moved from California to the Midwest because I needed some physical support from family.  I downsized and gave away a lot of possessions simply because I would have to pay by the pound to move them,. I have had to adapt to new living space, new friends and a new climate.  I had to take time off for a couple of knee replacements.   However, the hardest change I have had to make is the perceived change in my identity.  If I’m no longer defined as my business who am I?
 

Our interests change

I’m semi-retired but I still need to feel relevant.  My passion remains – I love to write and to teach – but now I’m ready to learn about, write about and teach what interests me most.  In this case, it is how to stay relevant in retirement.  A new interest means a new direction.  How can I give up all the work I have done in the past?  How can I let go of an identity I have held for a lot of years and forge a new place in my world?
 

Repurpose what you have

This switch in mindset took some time.  How do I take what I know and what I love to do, point that arrow in a new direction and still keep the feathers on the arrow intact?  I realized that like me, the people I have worked with along the line, the members of my community, are aging.  When I shift the focus of my work from business to living a relevant, productive life in retirement, they will have an interest in that too.  How I choose to talk about living may or may not appeal to them but since it is based on the same spiritual philosophy as my coaching work, I think it they will be drawn to it.  The search for this hook to hang all my work on took its own sweet time coming but now that I see I can keep the parts of my work that I love and simply repurpose it, I can move forward.
 

How we see ourselves

The search for my own new self-identity is still a work in progress.  Rather than see myself as a Content Development Coach, I see myself as a seeker, a seeker who shares what she discovers.  My California minister once said there are two kinds of angels, the helpers and the ones who create awareness. I’ve always been one to look for deeper meaning.  He called that the Angel of Change.  When I tuck myself under that umbrella then what I change is not as relevant as the fact that I do help people develop a deeper awareness and that in turn helps them create the changes they want to make.  What is the broader umbrella you can see that describes you and how does that affect how you see yourself?
 

Let go

I have to learn to let go. I kept hard copies of all my plays and the ebooks I had written.  To me those were my legacy, my gift to others.  I have hard copies of an emagazine I wrote for many years.  Do I think I won’t remember the concepts I wrote about?  Do I think I won’t come up with a new, better, bigger vision of those topics when I sit down to write from my perspective today?  Do I want to keep those pieces of paper to prove my life has had meaning?  Who I am is so much more than actions of the past.  It’s what I do with today.  How I change.  How I apply what I learn.  How I use the gifts I have been given.  Life’s meaning is in the here and now.   The rest I can let go.  Your past is not your present and it certainly is not your future.  Let go of who and what you think you are and begin to redefine yourself as in this moment.  What do you want to give next?
 

Make the decision

Be patient as you move through this process of letting go. I’ve done some journaling and have written a lot of posts like this one that help me figure out what my process is and what I need to do next.  It took me a year and a half to be ready to go through some boxes I had stored and throw half of it away.  I will look at those boxes in another year and see what else I can let go. When I took many of my business books to the half price bookstore it was a huge letting go for me.  When I stopped subscribing to so many marketing blogs it was huge.  Now I subscribe to just as many vegan blogs but they are carrying me forward on this next portion of my journey.
 

Begin now to look for the essence of what you do and see how you can carry that forward into a life of retirement.  For me it’s about teaching and writing but my topic has changed.  I am letting this next book unfold as I live it and I’ve never done that before.  Make your change gradually but begin to start thinking about it more frequently.  How can you take your passion and your talents into the next segment of your life and keep on making a difference in the lives of the people who come to you? 

Out With The Old, In With The New

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This is one of those times I get reflective about how I’m doing and where I want to go. How can I make the next quarter better? Or the next year? Or the next five years? Am I headed in the right direction for me?  Am I headed for success?

Am I still going where I want to go?

How has my vision changed?  Can I see myself playing bigger, reaching more people, touching more lives? Have new paths opened up that I want to follow or explore?  Starting right this minute, what do I want to attract, create, and manifest over the next twelve months?

Write it down. Make it concrete. Prioritize. What’s at the core of all you do that you want to keep doing? Why do you get up in the morning and do what you do? What is your passion and are you still following it?

What new skills have I learned?

We are constantly learning and changing. What have you learned, discovered, experienced that has brought a new realization or insight that you want to incorporate into your life and business?  Have you added a new credential? Is there a new venue you want to explore?  Have you met new people to partner with? Write down your skill sets, see how many ways you can use them. Prioritize them and build them into your business.

What’s working and what needs to be phased out?

Get real with your dollars and cents. What is earning you money? What is fun but doesn’t bring in income?  How can you streamline your costs? What help do you need to get?  Shed the worst 10% of everything you’ve got – that includes clients, products and time wasters. That leaves room for you to add 10% more of the great stuff.

What are my goals for the year?

Only take the steps that forward the goal you have chosen for the year. That will keep you on target and produce more relevant results. Do you want to get more clients? How many? What do you need to do to make that happen? Get a coach? Do more networking? Do more referral education?  Pick tangible goals with measurable results and track your success. That helps you know what to keep and what to toss at your quarterly 10% house cleaning toss.

Re-price, Repackage, Reposition

The easiest way to increase income is to re-price – as in raise your prices.  Don’t look at what you do according to the time it takes you to do it. Look at the value it produces and price accordingly. When I coach a person in developing an information product, it’s not about the time we spend together or the time I spend strengthening the content, it’s about the value of the results she will get with the content we produce. Even more important is the knowledge she obtained that she can reuse again and again to make more  information products. That changes our thinking, doesn’t it?

Repackage – position your offering so people sign for longer periods of time. That allows them to make the buying decision only once. I ask for a three-month commitment because the decision-making process takes time.  The completing of the project is a snap after the decisions are made.  Some coaches have a six-month or twelve-month commitment.  How much time do you need to get the results you promise?  The coaching process is about change and that simply takes time. If you are settling for a three month commitment, look for other offerings you can make to up-sell that client to a longer coaching package. Keep finding ways to serve those loyal customers who already know and love you.

Chunk your products up or down. Present the same material in new formats. I broke a five-week telecourse down into a series of eight ebooks so people can access the information at a lower price point.  Breaking that information down also gave me the chance to expand each topic.

Reposition your offerings to a new target market. As I move into semi-retirement I have discovered a whole new set of personal challenges.  How do I stay relevant?  Who am I if I am not my business?  My passion to learn and teach and write remains but my interest has shifted.  I now help entrepreneurs who are moving into retirement with all their creative juices still flowing, to re-purpose their passion and talent so they can slow down and still feel productive and relevant. I’m focusing on personal growth. I help my clients find balance.  My business background can help them downsize and reposition their business. My spiritual background can help them prepare for retirement.  It’s the same me with the same skill set. It’s simply a different focus for my offerings.

Move more deeply in service

If you continue to move more deeply in service, to continue to find ways to support, nourish, guide, encourage, inspire your target market, you’ll be happy and they will keep coming.  Don’t throw out everything. Don’t start over with everything new, but take time to reflect on how you’re doing and how you’d like it to be different. Then simply take the steps to make it happen.