Joyful Soaring Tips

By Coach Barbara Luther Of Wind Beneath Your Wings

Email: Barbara@coach2soar.com
Web Site: www.coach2soar.com
Phone: (314) 878-4044

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In This Issue:

1) Joy Juice
2) Taking Action
3) Let's Ponder
4) Soaring Free
5) Play Time
6) Joy Supplies
7) Class Offerings

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Good Morning! I hope you enjoy this issue of Joyful Soaring Tips and find something that helps you have a Joy-Filled week!

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~~ 1) Joy Juice ~~
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"A single fantasy can transform a million realities." -- Maya Angelou

"Within you right now is the power to do things you never dreamed possible." -- Maxwell Maltz

"A dream is the bearer of a new possibility, the enlarged horizon, the great hope." -- Howard Thurman

Let your dreams be your inspiration and call to action.

"You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand." -- Woodrow Wilson

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~~ 2) Taking Action ~~
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People love to help one another, for the most part. How do you feel when someone asks for your help? Usually, we're glad to help when it's clear what help is needed. And there's the rub. Most of us don't ask for help very often, and we're not specific enough with our requests at other times.

So, let's practice asking for what we want. Say, "I need your help." Then make a specific request.

This is often the first step in reaching toward a dream - enlisting help. We CAN have help along the way to our dreams. As a matter of fact, that often makes the journey much more interesting and satisfying.

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~~ 3) Let's Ponder ~~
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As children, we did a lot of day-dreaming, fantasizing, and playing make believe. It was part of our job as children. Your parents may have asked about your dreams or playing, or they may have been oblivious to it. Either way, that dreaming and play-acting had an important role in shaping what you are today.

I remember playing house in the attic of our old garage, prancing about - sometimes as a cowgirl and sometimes as the horse, and having wonderful conversations with my make-believe wise owl friend who lived down by the creek. Oh, the situations I fantasized! One of my most vivid and recurring dreams was of racing the wind on horseback. That's one dream I also realized many times over and still treasure.

I wonder when the child's task of day-dreaming and fantasizing ended? I don't remember completing the job, do you?

Maybe we need to put that job back into our lives regularly. Block out some dreaming time on your calendar. If necessary, schedule time with a child expert to help you get back into the flow of the work. You may even have to put in extra time if you've been neglecting this work a while, so get to it!

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~~ 4) Soaring Free ~~
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Where are your dreams recorded? Do you keep a dream journal, collage, mind map, or list? Have you added to it this week? Have you selected one or two dreams that you've added a start-by date to?

I know, dreams are scary things, and they can be pretty threatening. If we have a dream and actually follow it, that means we accept responsibility for it and have more freedom/autonomy/power than we think. And it means we must work on bringing it to form. We might have to work a long time, or we might have to put ourselves on the line for our dream. Isn't it just easier to ignore those dreams?

Sure, you can ignore them, even the niggling little reminders, until time runs out. But I bet it's not going to be any fun realizing that we ignored our dreams then. Besides, all the fear and worry about dreams is just smoke. Thick smoke that hides the incredible joy you'll experience while pursuing your dreams. When you're doing what you were always intended to do, you'll experience an exquisite, effortless joy like nothing else. And once you've tasted that joy, nothing like a little work, rejection, or failure will keep you from it. Creating your dream becomes too pleasurable to resist.

So, record those dreams. Choose one close to your heart and get busy! That exquisite joy awaits you.

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~~ 5) Play Time ~~
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It's time to get out the Lego's. Did you play with these as a child? If yes, then build something you built back then. If not, it's time to give them a try. There are great little kits today. We recently gave an adult friend one of the little catapult kits that, once you have it together, tosses little discs across the room. Our friend is now terrorizing her cat with it.

We have a Lego microscope, a crank whirligig of some sort, a guy on a bike, and a little winged flier with wing flaps that really go up and down. What will you build?

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~~ 6) Joy Supplies ~~~
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Today it's time to build yourself a Reward Bank. What are some of the things you do to reward yourself for getting tasks done? Get some colored slips of paper, and write down 5 to 10 little rewards, using the same color slips for each. These might be treating yourself to 15 minutes of a favorite hobby or calling a distant friend for a quick visit.

Now, choose another color and write down 5 to 10 medium rewards for yourself. And with another color, write down 5 to 10 large rewards - something like a $20 shopping spree for yourself or dinner at a favorite restaurant. You get the idea.

Put all the slips in your Reward Bank, a jar, box, or tin that you might decorate or label and display. Then as you work toward specific goals and complete a task, decide what level of reward the task deserves and select one of those colored reward slips from the Bank. You'll enjoy the spontaneity of whatever reward you pull from the Bank. Remember to add or change the rewards every once in a while. As you use this Bank, you'll soon identify more rewards you want to deposit. I'd love to hear some of your rewards.

NOTE: Barbara offers links to many of the resources referenced here from her web site, www.coach2soar.com. If you cannot find some resource mentioned, contact Barbara for help at Barbara@coach2soar.com.

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~~ 7) Class Offerings ~~
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YOU'RE INVITED TOMORROW! Come join me on Thursday, May 25th at 5pm EST for a free Happy Hour Telebration for anyone who wants to come celebrate the miracles, shifts, wins, and overall happy things they've experienced during the past month. It's an open, drop-in time to visit and share life's good news with new and old friends. Put it on your calendar now! It's the last Thursday of every month at 5pm EST. The bridge number is 702-257-2699.

I'll be offering a couple different ADD classes in the near future through www.addcoachgroup.com and through www.worldacademyforlife.com.

There is an ongoing Practice Building Workshop for mentees. If you're interested in joining our group, please contact me for details.

Copyright (C) 2000 by Barbara Luther. All rights reserved.

o o o o o o o o Tired of Winging It Alone? o o o o o o o o

Call Barbara to discuss a coaching partnership today. Barbara is also available if you're looking for a great facilitator or tele-conference leader.

New coaches looking for a certified mentor coach: I can take 2 JumpStart mentees this month.

There are also 2 openings in my practice for tenure-track faculty who are struggling with the pressures of the tenure process and fear that even if they make it to tenure, they may be burned out or have lost the joy in their research area. I can help.

Email: Barbara@coach2soar.com -=*=- Phone: (314) 878-4044

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To contact Wind Beneath Your Wings
Coach Barbara Luther:
Email: Barbara@coach2soar.com
Web Site: www.coach2soar.com
Phone: (314) 878-4044
(Central Time Zone)
Fax: (208) 988-2142
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