Brilliance

Turn Stress To Success, part 1

Life is like a Piece of Cake

Have you ever considered all pieces of your life to be parts of the big yummy birthday cake Life is? Many busy professionals are focused on only two or three parts of the whole cake, and they think they will care for the others later, sometime in the future.

While this can be a strategy for solving the most pressing tasks, it is no long time solution. The other pieces will stand there screaming “eat me, eat me” and this add stress in the long run.

You may have heard of the “birthday cake” described as the “wheel of life”?  The wheel of life is a circle representing the different areas which need to be represented for living a life in balance and fulfilment.

Take a pen and paper now and draw the circle. Divide it in 9 equal parts. We will examine your own wheel. Let’s see how you can release some stress, by looking at the bigger picture, today.

Think of the circle as being a big yummy birthday cake, divided in 9 equal parts.  Think of how much of your time you focus on each piece, and how the balance between the pieces is. 

1. Take care of your Health and Physical fitness

Are you in a constant fight with your body? You feel unhappy with your weight, lips, breasts, belly…? Your body is your source of life and your vehicle on your life journey. If you want to be smarter, quicker, and more intuitive; start listening to what your body tells you.

Question: If you were at ease with your physical appearance, how would you act in the world? How would you be different? 

Action: List 10 ways your body is of service to you, today and every day. Take a minute to appreciate your body for it is wonderful support.

2. Spend Time with Friends and Family

Do you spend lots of joyful time with your family, or do you feel stress just thinking of them. Or do you have bad conscious for not having enough time for them? Many busy professionals don’t prioritize this piece, however, enjoyment and laughter with others is essential for less stress and balance in life.

Question: How much of this piece would be filled in your ideal life?

Action: Look at your schedule for this week. How can you design the ideal, right now?

3. Play with a partner

What are your feelings around romance and relationship? Heavy? Light? Joyful? A relationship is a mirror for you and the best learning opportunity ever. In a relationship you learn things about yourself that you never would have done otherwise. Loosen up the stress and turn inwards when you feel irritation or joy next time. See your own greatness in there!

Question: If you had the perfect relationship with someone, how would your life change?

Action: How can you honour and express the love you have, within you, today?

4. Expand within yourself

How big is this piece in the wheel of life? Big? Small? To access your own inner wisdom and strength on a daily basis is one of the keys to a stress less life. Building the relationship with yourself is building the foundation for your own life.

Question: If you were your own wisest and most knowledgeable friend, how would you care for yourself?

Action: Take 5 minutes sometime today and be still and quiet with yourself.  Just be.

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7 Keys to Balance Life Forever

I have worked with a number of highly successful people over the years. They have all what we call success; money, nice houses, cars, stuff…

Yet, many of them have a nagging feeling of some kind of failure; that their success is more a cover up for who they really are. For years they have pushed away their own dreams and wants, for fulfilling dreams and wants from others.

Many of these successful people are balancing on the edge to Burn Out, but they would never allow that thought to appear. It is too frightening! And for them, it’s not fun anymore! Their success has become toxic, feeling trapped on the treadmill. The success is driving them, instead of them driving their success! Feelings of failure, sadness, anger, bad conscious, and shame are constantly present.

What to do when your life is running on auto pilot?

1.                  Make a business appointment with yourself!

Mark a date in your calendar and block out undisturbed time. Plan at least 2-4 hours, make it a

full day if you can, so block out as long as you feel you want the meeting to be.

Prepare an agenda for the meeting. Include at least 4-5 points including; 

• Intention

• Reflection

• Vision

• Timeline

• Actions

• Feed back

Send the agenda and appointment to your self, as you do with every other business meeting.

2.                  What’s your intention?

At the date and time, start with setting your intention for the time you will spend and what you want to accomplish, and how you want to feel during the meeting.

One intention could be; “within the next two hours I will have a plan for how to have more time

doing only things I like” or “I have 4 hours undisturbed time and I my intention is to become

clear in what I really want”. You may have the luxury of a full day, so you decide to focus on

what makes your life meaningful. You may focus only on things that bring happiness into your

life, and how you can get more of that. Or, you may just want to sit quiet with the only

intention to let your thoughts flow, without deciding on a focus.

There is no right or wrong for your intentions, just make sure you have quiet, undisturbed time

with yourself. 

 

3.                   What is not OK? What is working fine?

First of all, make a decision to be honest and open with yourself. What are the feelings and

thoughts that pop up? Just notice, don’t go into a story about it, just let thoughts, images and

feelings, come, and go.

If you feel this is difficult, write a letter to yourself where you describe what you feel, and think,

what is bothering you and how you feel your life is, right now.

When you feel you are ready with the floating though exercise, take an empty paper and make a

T-bar. Listing all what is working in your life on the left side, and all what is not working on

the right side.  Continue until you think you have covered everything, all parts that are active,

and also not active.

4.                  What do you spend your time on?

Make a circle and draw lines from the centre to form pieces of a cake. That makes up 100%. The

circle represents you. Each piece is one of the following areas;

• Family / Friends

• Fitness / Health

• Career

• Money / Finances

• Personal / Spiritual growth

• Romance / Significant Other

• Living / Home

• Fun / Recreation

Make your pieces as big as you feel the importance it has in your life. You may find that Career,

Money and Family have the biggest portions. Maybe your Personal Growth and Fun are fairly

small. And Romance almost non existing? Get as honest and close to reality as possible. This

will help you to find out where the flip is.

Tips: if you prefer you can make a diagram, or illustrate the different portions in any way you

want, as long as you get a clear insight on what’s you’re spending your time and energy on. 

5.                  What is it you want?

In fact, most people don’t know what they want! They are so trapped in the daily routines and

duties so they have stopped dreaming a long time ago. When asked the question: “What do you

really want?” they can’t answer. Their inner, critical voice is asking: “Who do you think you

are?”, “Why aren’t you satisfied with what you have?” or “Why should you have more free

time/more money/ better job/ happier life… than anybody else?”.

Why not? Is there a reason that you shouldn’t live the life you’d like to live? The job that makes

you thrive?

This step is essential so grab your pen and paper, and start listing what it is you want!

6.                  How does your vision feel, sound, taste, and look like?

• If money didn’t matter, what would you do/ spend your time on?
• If all the obstacles were not there, how would your life be different?

Create your vision and think really big! No limits allowed!

Make your vision as vivid and colourful as you can. Include your five senses. What do you see?

What do you hear? Smell of fresh flowers, the sea? How do you feel? What is the touching

feeling? Start dreaming, and make it attractive, alive and juicy!

7.                  Take action!

What is the first, easy, step you can take today, that will bring you closer to your vision? One step and today!

Then, make an inspired action list over things you will want do, and think of what you would gain by implementing or changing your actual situation. Make a long term action plan, and get going!

Bonus Tips:

Revisit your vision and inspired action list every day.

Take a few minutes every morning before you leave for work. Reconnect to your feelings and how wonderful your life will be when your vision becomes real. Make it as if it already had happened. This is your vision! Review your inspired action list and set your intention for the day.

Congratulations! You’ve had a business meeting; you have a vision and a plan! Now it is time to decide on actions.

What is the first step you can take today, that will bring your closer to your dream?