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Going at it alone?

One of the greatest act of courage in my opinion is not to find the strength to do it all, being independent or self sufficient. One of the greatest act of courage is to ask for help.Being courageous to me is knowing oneself, our strength and limitations, while finding the collaborators to bridge the gap to get to where we want to be.

Nothing in our world is self sufficient, everything is connecting and interacting with many other organisms and modalities. The cycle of life of plants are a perfect undeniable example: they need water and sunshine, and then birds and bees to populate. It’s team work.

How wonderful would it be to let ourselves go to the undeniable fact that we need others to survive, to grow, to complete our destiny, to fully live our story. We need many mirrors in our lives to reflect who we are, who we deny ourselves to be. On many occasions, we deny our heart to beat at its own rhythm, we deny the very fiber of our being to unravel into our authentic self. We tame our wildest dreams for fear to be ridiculed or end up alone.

I could blame our culture for it, I really think it’s just part of the human condition. We are gifted with free will and with so many opportunities, by our very nature, that the torture of becoming is the source of the most joy.

Some of us torture ourselves more than others. Some of us just go dormant and miss the show all together.

I always say: the heart never lies. Your head will tell you stories, your ego will distract you, but your heart will never lie to you. We don’t always want to listen, that’s all.

The word courage comes from the french word “coeur” which means “heart”. I invite you to listen to your heart as much as you can. That is the way, that is the only way to live your authentic story. Many people will come along the way to help you listen to your heart, to help your heart beat stronger and faster. We don’t go at it alone, and the story is not over until the last heartbeat.

Be courageous Darlings, for this is in you, it is your nature, it is yours to be and have.

Reach for the greatest version of yourself.

Paola.

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Ask and it shall…

My number one goal is for everybody to KNOW they can have anything they want. It’s a matter of belief, mindset, practice and repeat. It’s a little bit like switching a light on. We don’t know what light looks like until the darkness is gone. In the same token, we don’t know what possibility looks like if we only know limitation.

Have you ever ordered food at a restaurant? Of course you have. You pick a restaurant with a theme that resonates with your tastes, you peruse the menu, ask the server to bring you what you want and it magically appears in front of you. You need to ask first to get something. The way you ask will define the experience. If someone is rude to a server, that person may receive a different type of experience, or food, than requested.

Transfer that analogy to your current situation.

What resonates with you right now? Do you want more friends, a new hobby, a life partner, a new career?

What would be a good fit for you right now? Let’s take the example of a hobby. Do you want to do something indoor or outdoor? Will it be physical or leisurely, cerebral or creative? How many hours a week do you wish to dedicate to it. How much money are you willing to invest?

Do you see where I’m going with this? Start with the big idea and narrow it down from there. Once you know what you’re looking for, it will appear. It’s been proven to work regardless of your belief system. Einstein affirmed that frequencies match each other, period. Spiritual leaders will tell you that the Universe will give you what you ask, period.

Asking may be the universal subject we can all agree on. Our brain is wired to detect what we’re looking for.

In a store, it can be a hard to find item a shopper discovers in a pile, or it can be a shoplifter if you’re on the Loss Prevention team. Same environment, but different individuals looking for different things.

If you don’t know what you’re looking for, you’ll find a lot of what you don’t want, which is a very unsatisfactory situation to be in. Believe you can have anything you want and you can start asking. Ask today, ask now! What do you want?

Still not convinced? Keep it a secret. Don’t tell anyone. Just do it to see if it works, then brag about it!

One of my favorite movie moment is in “Miracle on 34th street” when little Susan, played by Natalie Wood, is in the car on the way home repeating “I believe, I believe, I believe”. Her wish came true, and then some.

I wish you to believe too. Just ask.

Reach for the greatest version of yourself!

Paola

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Gratitude and Apologies

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, a national holiday I’ve only recently been involved with since my arrival in the U.S. in 1996. I don’t have any romantic or historic attachment to it. After years of working in retail, I’ve developed more sensibility to Black Friday than the day prior. I just never got into the whole Thanksgiving thing. I don’t even enjoy turkey, or football. I appreciate that this is an important day for a lot of people and I’m personally all about Gratitude!

I see a lot of posts and references to Gratitude.What brings me to pause is the idea that a lot of individuals will mention gratitude, however, they won’t feel grateful. The words are there, the intention is not. Gratitude can be a foreign concept for some. We’re brought up to say thank you, and in the U.S., we’re brought up with Thanksgiving. Gratitude could be assumed to be as natural as brushing our teeth, I know for a fact that it’s not. We say the words, however, the feeling is missing.

There are side effects to gratitude: joy, satisfaction, awareness and peace. With 70% of the U.S. population unsatisfied with their job alone, it is safe to assume that the gratitude factor is low. Considering the current political climate, it’s safe to say that joy and peace are pretty low as well. The eternal optimist in me refuses to bow down to the current events though, and I will stick to my silver lining attitude. That includes gratitude for living in a country that has carried so many inspirational individuals and still does. I want to focus on that.

I know we can shift from grim to grateful. I know it because I taught myself to do it. I know it can be done!

As I reflected about the feeling of gratitude, the closest model that came to mind was apologizing. As children, we’re taught to apologize if we were involved in a situation that had a negative impact on others. We’re taught to be accountable and to recognize the consequences of our actions. In the U.S., we even apologize for other people’s negative experiences we were not involved in. We do it out of sympathy. That’s nice, although empathy would be more productive in my opinion.

As we learnt to apologize as children, we may have been reminded to “mean it”. The words we use to apologize only carry so much weight, fully appreciating the situation and its consequences is what matters. Gratitude works the same way. Saying “thank you” is nice, meaning it is what really matters. Being able to be grateful as many days out of the year as possible is where magic happens.

Today, tomorrow, and the days after, I’m grateful for the people I met in my life that inspired me to tap into my inner strength to become the happiest version of myself to date.

Reach for the greatest version of yourself!

Paola

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For the lucky ones…

First of all, I don’t believe in luck! I’ve been known to say, and often, “there is no such thing as luck!”. I said it once to a high level executive, in front of the store managers during a corporate visit, which stopped everybody on their tracks. It’s good to give individuals something to reflect on, right? And reflection took place, as my favorite manager at the time came to me later that day, and said: “It works both ways!” to which I wholeheartedly agree. I had taken credit for my success that day, and I was ready to take credit for my failures just the same.

I’m really stimulated by people that own their stuff! We live in a blaming culture. we blame the government, the weather, traffic, our coworkers….you get the idea. That being said, we’re very quick at taking credit when we feel we contributed to a successful outcome. In my opinion, as my then manager stated it, it works both ways. you’ll get what you put in.

Is the government acting in a way that doesn’t resonate with you? Did you vote? did you tell your friends to vote?

Is the weather bothering you? You can work with it or against it, the weather is out of your control, how you relate to it is all about you.

Too much traffic? Have you considered a different route or reorganizing your schedule?

Are your colleagues driving you up the wall? There is only so much you can do about how they want to act, however, we always have room to empathize and relate to others.

If any of those comments triggers you to an answer along the lines of: “she doesn’t understand, she doesn’t get it, I have so much to do and there is no other way to do it,..”

I hear you, I’ve been there, there is a way! You can take my word for it or ignore it. That being said, I do wish for more individuals to appreciate that they are the creators of their reality, that they are so powerful and capable. The more we focus on being the victim, the less we have energy to be the creator. I invite you to be a creator as I believe you already are one. Just do it!

So there is no such thing as luck in my opinion. Although I did use that word this morning with a friend and she caught it. She agrees with my perspective of creation. So I paused and I reflected. I felt lucky at that moment in the conversation relating to the fantastic things happening in my life right now. I felt lucky in a grateful way, in a blessed way. I felt lucky to be part of a system, world, planet, community, however we want to call it. Because when you’re part of something bigger than yourself, you want to create more than you may think you’re capable of. And you may find yourself, blessed, happy, voire lucky.

I invite you to create today, and feel grateful for your powers!

Reach for the greatest version of yourself! Don’t miss a post, Subscribe to my blog HERE.

Paola

 

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Did I order fries with my BMW?

At the risk of disappointing from the start, this post will not be about ordering fast food at a luxury drive through or winning a German car at a burger joint. It’s about self applied limiting belief, and my new car has a play in it.

I was in a car accident at the beginning of July this year. Like everything I do, the timing was perfect! I had just picked up my Gaby (I give names to my cars) from my longtime mechanic that morning. I was on my way to the dance studio where I teach with my partner, when the pizza guy happened to ram into my front wheel as I was turning into the shopping center. What’s perfect about that scenario? I was going 2 miles an hour, so I didn’t get hurt, and my partner arrived on the scene a few minutes later, so I was taken care off and had a ride back home.

My Gaby, a 2001 325I black BMW was totaled.

I needed a new car, stat! And I was on a budget. And I only drive BMW! I drive that brand due to the fact that I have certain standards, I like to feel safe in a car and I have the best mechanics in town. There are some things I encourage you to not trade down, what ever it is, for me, it’s my cars.

I started shopping around and quickly found very few vehicles that fit my present desire: 2005-2007, 3 series, silver, 2 doors, manual, decent mileage, $8000. Are you chuckling, laughing or rolling your eyes yet? Understandably so. Impossible to find right? Guess what? I found her! My 325CI, Sterling (named after the adjective) with grey leather interior, under 80000 miles and $600 under budget. She’s a beauty!

So what’s with the fries? I look at life like a restaurant, it’s the french in me. I get to the place hungry enough to be inspired, I look at the entire menu, I ask questions and order exactly what will match my mood at the moment. In food, as in cars, I rarely trade down. The fries are the suggested add on to a seemingly perfect request in a restaurant. You already ordered your food, but wait! , there is more, like sides and desserts.

I encourage you to not wait for someone to suggest it, be ahead and add to your already seemingly perfect request for anything your heart desires: job, relationships, vacations. Ask for it, dream it and you will get it!

Are you afraid to ask for what you really, truly want? Or do you put limitations on what you think you can get out of life?

The question is not: what do I think is available, available to me or reasonable? The only relevant question is: what do you want? What’s your heart most profound desire? Not sure? You’ll know it when you see it? That doesn’t work in my experience. Dream it first and you’ll recognize it when it comes to you.

This is not a post about my shopping skills or bragging about my latest purchase. This is yet another example of a method that I have successfully applied for years in order to build the life I dream of. It’s very simple, although it requires focus and dedication, and it’s available to all. Just ask! Contact me to book a consultation and get on the path to match what your heart desires, not what your self limiting beliefs are telling you.

So did I order fries with my BMW? Well I’m so glad you asked. I got a sunroof too, thank you!

Paola

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