Reflections

“If you’re not in the arena getting your ass kicked,

I’m not interested in your feedback.”

Brene Brown

.

It is easy for many to sit back and give their opinions, never risking themselves on the fields of leadership, change and innovation. Learning to step into your flow requires risk, courage and vulnerability. Today, I’m celebrating three months of having you travel with me on this Fire and Flow journey. Thank you for being part of my growing tribe.

You wouldn’t be reading this blog if you weren’t in the arena, everyday hazarding yourself through your actions and beliefs. As I move into the next quarter of blog posts, I’d love to hear your feedback and what you want to learn about flow, creativity and finding a more solid foundation for living your life with joy and excitement. Leave me a note at the end of this article and I promise to look into your requests, comments and questions with care and deep consideration. I know that you are in the arena with me, so let’s keep creating and growing together.

Below you will find short summaries of each article for this quarter, as a refresher guide to finding your Flow. Perhaps you missed one or two. And don’t forget, the two free audio trainings. So now is a great time to settle in with that cuppa (tea, for all the non-British in the audience) and invest in yourself. Dive in as you review these summaries and see which articles pull you onward and inward. New discoveries await. Enjoy!

…and then you remembered you forgot to have a weekend

This is the inaugural Fire and Flow blog post, introducing myself and the wonders of learning the process of Flow. How might your life be different if you moved from frantic to flow? Flaming Heart Media is your go-to resource for learning how to step into your flow on-demand. Subscribe to the blog and collect your free gift “Float the Flow” over on my Purchase tab. It’s your first Flow audio training and it’s absolutely free. I know you want to boost your creativity, mental focus and performance. Learning to Flow puts your deep internal resources to work. You have a life time of experiences you can retrieve and activate towards any challenge using my Flow training exercises. Welcome to life in the Flow lane!

Calm Your Heart – Cultivate Your Flow

We live in a time of perpetual stress. Our bodies have not evolved to the point that we can passively sustain our health in our pressure filled 21st century world. We must actively intervene by learning how to calm our hearts and cultivate our flow. This post includes a free audio training that doesn’t show up in the blog (sorry for the technological glitch). However, you will find the training over on my Purchase tab entitled “Heart Centered Practice.” It’s free, so put on your earbuds and give it a listen. Once you learn the technique, you can use it anywhere. No one will know that you’re calming your heart and boosting your immune system. You can do this one with your eyes open or closed, anytime, anywhere.

Why Am I Living Someone Else’s Dreams?

Here are 5 important questions to ask yourself about not living your dreams. Perhaps you’ve already noticed that your dreams have a way of coming back to you over and over. That can be a real nuisance when you can’t give them the priority status they deserve. The result of your delaying or inattention is often regret, frustration and shame. The good news is:  your dreams are still attempting to get your time and attention. A good dream is hard to put away. So now may be the time to view them with fresh eyes. Let’s reassess what stage you are in with your career, your economic situation and what’s truly possible in this moment. Even the subtlest of fear can stop your dreams. Drop into this article for a closer look on where you are in your dream fulfillment right now.

7 Ways to Stop Living Someone Else’s Dreams

Here’s a short list of tasks to get you back on track to living your dreams. Taken individually and consistently incorporated into your life, these tactics will render amazing results. You don’t need to juggle all 7 at once. Actually, please don’t. Simply choose the one that seems the most interesting or fun and begin. Once that activity seems effortless, then bring another one from the list forward. Often, slower is faster. You already are probably overwhelmed with life commitments and too few hours. However, make this dream changer activity the right size for you at this time. People complain it will take too much time then to accomplish their dreams. But, if you never start, you will certainly never accomplish them. Small steps are much better than no steps in the direction of our life dreams. Besides, all the parts of you that realize you’re turning toward the dreams of your heart, will dance with delight. You might even find your mood lifted and more smiles on your face. Let’s get started, now please.

Looking for High Level Creative Solutions:  Seek Ambiguity First

The power of ambiguity to stop us vs. launch us is profound. Our culture tells us to escape any hint of ambiguity as quickly as possible. Be decisive, now! However, being decisive without proper research and alternative seeking is what most 15 year olds do. Unfortunately, most of us find the experience of not knowing and tolerating ambiguity so unsettling that we make decisions based more on our emotions and half-formed facts. Ambiguity is a dark gift. But, teamed up with it’s traveling partner, curiosity, they can form a fierce coalition for creative problem solving. Don’t miss out on the fascinating research on how a vast majority of Fortune 500 CEO’s make decisions that don’t serve their companies or their shareholders. This post has 5 excellent ways to make your next decision a much better decision.

Ambiguity Plunge (Flow Activation Exercise)

One of the promises I’ve made to myself and you is to specifically give you activities, exercises and experiments to create more Flow in your life. Until you begin to experience Flow, it’s simply a nice, theoretical idea. But, once you have a felt-sense of it, coming deep from within your personal experience, you and I are now in a very different conversation with each other. As they say in Missouris’s state motto, “Show Me.” So here is the first of many Flow Activation Exercises. Unlike many of my audio trainings that are more contemplative in nature, this Flow Activation Exercise requires you to be up, out and doing. It’s a fascinating activity will bring you new information, resources and connections with whatever challenge you’re facing. How can I make that claim? Because, I’ve assigned this type of task many times during my career and the results have always been amazing. So, don’t take my word for it. Instead, make an appointment with yourself and give it a go. The only thing you have to lose is 90 minutes of your time. But if you try it, let me know about your experience. I know you are going to have an exciting and rewarding experience.