Business by Janice

Well, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted, too long I think. I must admit, in this period of transition it has felt difficult to know how I should focus my posts. But things are now coming together, I’m on the verge of selling my shares in my current company, Windsor Idiomas, to focus on my new project as a Business coach with Shirlaws. http://www.shirlawscoaching.com

I’ve been moved to start writing again due to a series of “coincidences” this week which have impacted on me and which prove how The Law of Attraction never lets us down.

When I decided to move on from Windsor and sell my shares (in March), I told myself that all I really needed was to sell at a price that would allow me to have a year’s salary as a cushion and to invest in Shirlaws as a partner. After 8 months of ups and downs - finding interested buyers, getting them accepted by my actual business partners, due diligence proceedings, negotiating price- and with various obstacles popping up, guess what? I’ve finally sold my shares at EXACTLY the price that gives me that year’s salary and the amount needed to invest in my new project.

On Tuesday a friend invited me to a talk by a guy who earns his living giving LOA workshops throughout the world. After the event I introduced myself to him (Mikah de Waart) and we met for coffee the next day. He invited me to attend his day long workshop on Saturday (yesterday).  I’ve been studying and practising the LOA for the past 3 years but this workshop was something else - SO POWERFUL.  I’m still quite stunned by the whole experience!

Mikah’s workshop was infinitely practical and really worked on the subconscious blocks which largely inhibit us manifesting what we want into our reality. And I think, isn’t it just amazing that as I’m about to leap into an arena of “uncertainty” regarding my future, leaving a job with regular salary when I have 2 kids to support, along comes a series of events which leads me to a workshop where the skills I have learnt will aid me in assuring success.

Mikah is a living and breathing example of how the LOA works. On Thursday he had only one person confirmed for his workshop but he knew that between 15-20 people would attend. Guess how many people were there yesterday?  - 16.

The fact that I can see more and more people around me who are awakening to their power of creation is exhilarating and I feel so inspired to help people like Mikah to spread the word. It feels like my desire to contribute is coming together via Shirlaws on the professional front and individuals like Mikah on a more personal, individual level.

Mikah is back in Madrid on February and if you are remotely interested in creating the life you have always dreamed of, I  would heartily recommend you attend the workshop.

Check out his webpage on: http://www.mikah.es

Just off now to “do my homework” from yesterday - we have to photograph and plaster our collage/vision board EVERYWHERE to keep the energy flowing and to be able to manifest our goals more quickly!!

There’s been a lot written here about goal setting, success and the Law of Attraction. I don’t know about you, but I believe it’s important to keep submerging ourselves in this type of material to make sure the mindset really takes hold.

I read an article the other day which was extremely powerful;  an article which summed up in just 3 points the essence of everything I’ve been writing about in many posts.

The writer talked about “Spiritual Millionaires”, how he has studied their habits and has discovered that they achieve what they desire by using 3 powerful principles.

Firstly, they KNOW that they can create whatever they want through the  use of the Law of Attraction. They don’t just believe, they KNOW that by focusing 100% on their desire and imagining that they already have it (as it already exists at a different level of consciousness anyway), it is only a matter of time before it will manifest into physical reality.

Secondly, they take action, “inspired” action. They follow their intuition and take advantage of opportunities which leads them step by step to the manifestation of their goal. They don’t force action but at the same time they are not put off by being taken out of their comfort zone if that is what a next step demands.

Thirdly, they maintain an “attitude of gratitude”. This is essential in the whole process, as gratitude is an emotion which vibrates at an incredibly high frequency and thus draws more to you of which to be grateful for. Whenever you feel such gratitude that tears come to your eyes, immediately switch your thoughts to what you wish to manifest and this transformed energy will immediately start working and manifest what you want much more quickly.

So remember:

• Have total faith in the Law of Attraction
• Take inspired action
• Maintain an attitude of gratitude

This post was prompted by the article The Three Most Powerful Principles I Have Learned from Millionaires by Dr. Robert Anthony featured this week on the site Mind Power News.

By the way,  I have to recommend a book that I have recently purchased, well, I’ve purchased it in CD format so I can listen to it in the car, it’s amazing - so detailed yet so easy to understand (even the heavy quantum physics section). It’s called “A Happy Pocketful of Money” by David Cameron Gikandi

http://www.revolutionscape.com/

As a coach, trained to ask powerful questions I have no doubt of just that - that questions are by definition powerful.

I had lunch with  a friend the other day who is feeling uncertain about her professional future and wanted to chew things over (as well as the lunch) with me. I gently slid into coach mode and she got clarity very quickly. It made me realise that when we speak to our friends and family they automatically start giving us advice and we often come away not feeling any clearer about our issue because WE  haven’t taken responsibility to decide our actions, we’ve just listened to what THEY would do.

Where there is confusion, clarity is waiting to be discovered. That is the purpose of the confusion.

Those of you who regularly read my blog will know that I ‘m in the middle of big change - selling my shares in my language school to join a business coaching/consultancy company. Feelings of doubt inevitably followed my initial feelings of excitement. How did I get through that confusion?  - By asking myself some very powerful questions.

Such as:

• Do I think I can do it?
• What evidence do I have to suggest I can do it?
• What is the worst that can happen if it doesn’t work out?
• What would my life look like if I stayed?
• What could my life look like if I moved?
• What do I really want?
• How does this project give me what I want?
• How does it support and enhance my values?

And most importantly -

• How do I feel when I ask and answer all these questions?

Effective questioning is like peeling away the layers of an onion. Each  honest answer to each powerful question brings a new awareness and moves us forward to the big answer. And if we are quiet enough to listen and  interpret our feelings, we will be guided towards our destiny. We cannot resist what the experiences our life are causing us to be. Many people try to resist because of fear of change and the pressure of family and peer opinion. It is resistence which causes stress and which ultimately causes dis-ease in our bodies.

So - what questions are waiting to be asked to take you from confusion to clarity?

THE ART OF PROGRESS IS TO PRESERVE ORDER AMID CHANGE AND TO PRESERVE CHANGE AMID ORDER - Alfred North Whitehead

I have to admit I’m a bit of a time mangagement/efficiency freak and in fact part of my personal growth journey is learning to be ok with situations and results that don’t turn out as expected or happen within my imagined time frame.

Now the first challenge in this area has been living in a country where punctuality is not a strength. But surprisingly, I got a handle on that challenge quite soon, and in fact waiting 20 minutes for someone to show up for either a date or a meeting doesn’t upset me at all. I can either go into a meditative state of visualising my goals, feeling good about them, raising my energy vibrations to attract more powerfully etc, etc, so in fact I know I’ve made good use of the spare twenty minutes. (Yep, still the efficiency trait coming out there). Or I can turn to one of my many to do lists appropriately organised to take advantage of different types of free windows of time.

Which me leads me nicely to what I really wanted to talk about this week - If you haven’t read it already, you MUST  read “Getting Things Done” by David Allan. (the place I got my special, super effective To Do lists from). It is the most practical time management book I’ve ever read, going far beyond the normal sphere of conventional time management to help people achieve focus, control and perspective in their life. The basic tenet is that to be truly effective, we must have a system that gets every thought of things we must do out of our head and into a system that reminds us of when we have to take an action at just the appropriate time.

But what I’ve recently discovered, due to the comments of a friend who actually conducts David Allen courses, is that the whole book is essentially spiritual.  On reading “Getting Things Done” the first time round several years ago, I didn’t notice this at all, but now I can see it on every page. When we go beyond the obvious purpose of improving productivity, what we find between these pages is a 21st century way of “being”. Implementing Allen’s system allows us to be totally focused and “in the flow”, doing things which match our highest values and vision.  And what happens then?  We invoke the power of the universe to bring us what “we’re asking for” and to create the reality that becomes our lives.

In the follow up book to “Getting Things Done”, “Making It All Work”, Allen writes:

“Ultimately what we desire is more freedom, not more work. At the same time we want to be capable of dealing with surprise, which is occurring more frequently than ever before. What we have, in short, is a desperate need to learn how to manage - not information but rather what things mean and how they all relate to each other. I’ve often been asked, “What’s new David , in the world of technology , communication and information that’s causing so much stress?” My answer is pretty simple - “Nothing’s new except how frequently everything IS new”.

Trying to manage everything that fights for our attention is one of today’s greatest challenges. I recommend you check out both Allen’s books, they really are life changing.

http://www.davidco.com/what_is_gtd

Talking about time mangement, as any working mother will know, we have to juggle a lot more than most men to keep our lives on track.  To focus in on this issue and the special challenges that women have, I’ve created a new blog at http://www.janicehaywood.net/  (madre emprendedora) - when I work out how to insert a link properly I’ll come back to edit.

I plan to write each blog once a fortnight to keep both readers happy  - and to keep my life appropriately balanced!!

Are blogs supposed to be personal or educational or both?

I suppose it depends on the blogger’s objective. I ask that question to set the scene for my next few posts. Being an open person, there will always be a large element of the personal in what I write, yet I like to be organised and focused so it’s important that I’m also clear about what the objectives are here.

The original intention of this blog was to raise awareness of issues in the language training sector in Madrid and to create a voice for language school owners. Many blogs are being written by teachers, none by “the other side”. In this way, I hoped to forment better understanding. However, I deliberately chose the title “Business by Janice” as business and personal development issues related to running your own business have always been my passion. I didn’t want to be restricted to the TEFL stuff.  I intended then to move onto coaching and the Law of Attraction.

As my regular readers have observed, there have been many personal development and spiritual posts. That, in fact has been where I’ve been at for the last one and a half years. And it has all led up to something really big, which I had no idea about 2 years ago. I’m completing what I now recognise to be one of my essential 8-10 year life cycles - I’m moving on from Windsor Idiomas to join a Business coaching company launching in Spain called Shirlaws.

www.shirlawscoaching.com

It’s interesting to hear people’s reactions. The majority are supportive (as due to the LOA I don’t have negative people in my life now) and are excited for me regarding this new challenge. However, there are others who think I’m crazy, that being on my own with 2 children to support, it’s too risky. The Shirlaws model is not as an employee, all Shirlaws coaches have to bring in their own clients, so yes, there is risk involved.

All I know is that fear is an illusion (false evidence appearing real), so i choose not to feel it, that when you feel excited and passionate about a project you invoke the power of the universe to inspire you to act to bring success.

Regarding this blog, I have to admit I’m struggling to find a focus right now as I’m in a phase of transition. Perhaps my readers could give me some feedback as to what subjects are the most interesting for them. I suppose, being in transition prompts many topics from the personal side,  and from a business point of view, I’m about to enter a new experience, that of selling my shares and managing the negotiations and integration of a new shareholder, so food for posts there.

What would I like you to get out of this post? I would like to emphasise that life is really one long journey and adventure. All the decisions we make lead us to where we are now and where we want to be. Are you making the right decisions?

Times of crisis affect everyone differently but the one thing that impacts on any of us is our level of proactivity.

What prompted me to write this post this week is the varying attitudes I see from teachers as they hunt for classes. There are teachers who take full responsibility for their own future and calmly and persistently seek out the few vacant classes that are around, and there are others that consistently project their neediness on us, demanding that we find them classes.

Getting more classes is what our business  about,  so of course , as business owners, we are going to be as proactive as possible to  achieve that end. In fact,  if we don’t have a minimum number of classes running, we are in danger of falling into a headlong spiral of losses which could ultmately result in the loss of our houses as the majority of the overdrafts from the bank are guaranteed by the business owners’ properties! The old story of entreprenuers taking risks in anticipation of greater rewards, I know. I just like to throw it in from time to time.

My observations this week got me thinking that regardless of whether you are an employee or an employer, you are responsible for your future. We are all our own “personal corporation” and must invest in ourselves and act accordingly. It is indeed our level of proactivity will give us results and shape our lives.

Times of economic recession are times of adjustment, reshuffling and flexibility. The first challenge for many comes from a simple acceptance of a situation. Yes, times are hard, let’s accept that and just get on with it. The next step is to ask ourselves, what needs to be done differently? How can I adjust to this new situation? How can I be flexible to change what I’m doing to fit this new situation? Because that what recession is - a process of change, so it makes sense for us to change as well. If we don’t, we will be in a state of resistance with all the negativity and conflict that that would involve.

I love the spiritual tenet that nothing is good or bad, it just is.  Something is a problem because we decide to name it so, and then surround the situation with negative energy.  If not controlled, that negative energy then takes on a force of its own as more negative thoughts are drawn to it by the Law of Attraction. Before long, we see a physical manifestation of our negative thoughts.

So, where are you? Do you view the crisis as a problem? If you do, what can you do to change your perspective? Because the crisis just is, the problem lies in how you see it.

Yes, we’re still with this subject at the risk of boring those readers who prefer the TEFL stuff.

Losing an hour this week end has really thrown me out, revealing how much a slave to time I actually am. What I indirectly mean to say by this, is that I only have time this week to let you know that I have fixed a date for the talk on the Law of Attraction that I mentioned two posts ago.

The talk will be on:

WEDNESDAY 29TH APRIL

Business Centre, ACN FUTURO, C/LISBOA 3, MADRID

METRO MONCLOA.

We plan to give the talk from 19.00-21.00, split into an hour of talk/presentation and the second hour, discussion and debate.

So if you’e at all interested in this subject and wish to expand your knowledge and share your views with us, or indeed have no idea what I’m talking about but have an open mind and want to embrace new concepts, please let me know asap re. attendance.

The talk will be in English and I’ll helped by Jaspar Loyal who came into my life “by accident”, (more of, and clarification of that in the talk), who shares my passion for this subject.

One of the people (Shawn) commenting on my last post about the Law of Attraction said “it’s easy to attract money” in response to a comment I had previously left saying “money is the hardest thing to attract”.

When we compare those two statements, what is revealed? It demonstrates quite emphatically that all of us have different beliefs.

We live in a belief based universe. Our upbringing forms our beliefs, our experiences form our beliefs, what we hear via friends and the media forms our beliefs, the list is endless. Books like The Secret are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to eductating us about the LOA. They tell us that we have to think about what we want to manifest, we have to feel positive about it, feel happy and grateful in the now and hey presto! what we want manifests!

Is it really that easy?  No, it isn’t.

I’ve just read a great book by Joe Vitale called “The Key - the missing secret to attracting anything you want” which goes much deeper than other LOA books to look at what psychological and unconscious limitations are holding us back from manifesting what we want. The book then details various techniques for unblocking what is necessary for the energy to flow through us unimpeded, which will then bring us what we are wanting.

Let me put some personal examples around this to illustrate the point.

My state of health is incredible, I’m NEVER ill, I never get colds or anything. Even before I knew about the law of attraction I believed I never got ill. I think this belief was initiated as a child as my mother paid little attention to us when we caught colds and flu etc, she just let it run it’s course.  So, no focus given to the situation, no situation. Now when I feel a tingle in my throat that I might be catching something I just tell it to go away and ignore it. It does.

Turning to the money issue;after leaving university the money started to flow as I got my first job, got promoted and eventually got sent to Spain on an ex pat basis etc. However, several years ago I experienced a very traumatic situation related to money via my ex husband who due to a serie of extremely irresponsible action, virtually left my kids and I on the street.  Has such an experience affected my belief about the abundance of money?  Of course, and this is evident in the comment of mine quoted at the beginning of this post. I’m sure everyone can come up with a parallel experience all be it in another area, relationships, career etc.

Even though we want to attract  more money, a great relationship, a better job etc, if we have certain subconscious fears related to these scenarios, the manifestation is gong to be a lot slower in coming as we are blocking the energy getting to us. Our subconcious wants to protect us. It says, “hey, you had a lot of money before, or a great relationship, whatever it might be, and you lost it, you don’t want to go through the pain of all that again”. So basically we have to GET CLEAR of these energy blocks to become more successful in attacting what we want.

How can we get clear? One of the methods outlined in “The Key” is Emotional Freedom Technique or EFT.  Has anyone tried it?  EFT is based on an ancient Chinese medicine using the same energy pathways called meridians  as are used in acupuncture.  The theory is that negative emotions such as those that block us from what we consciously want, are caused by disruptions in this energy system. By tapping on key points, we balance the energy and clear the blocks. All very interesting stuff. Of all the tools outlined in Joe Vitale’s books it’s the  one that resonates most with me so I’m going to give it a go. I’ll let you know how I get on.

I’d like to leave you with an excerpt from “The Key” which sums up really well how beliefs affect our lives:

“The energy is coming into me, and as it goes through me, it’s being filtered through my beliefs, and then I look out and see the results. Well, those results aren’t really real. What they are is a reflection of my beliefs. And if I don’t like those results, I have to look at my beliefs. change my belief, I get different results.”

As most of  my regular readers know, I’m a great advocate of the Law of Attraction, in fact one of my distant goals is to become a Law of Attraction specialist. It’s a goal that’s written down and has a time frame of 3 years hence.

A couple of months ago  I was at a coaching seminar/course and as part of the course we were required to do 2 coaching sessions, so of course, you have to choose a goal for the person coaching you to coach you on, (bit of  a mouthful that, but you know what I mean). I chose the goal of giving a Law of Attraction talk. There was quite a bit for the coach to go on - asking me about all the steps that I needed to take, when I was going to take them etc. Basically as coaches we use a model called GROW, which underlines a 4 stage process of: Goal, Reality, Options and Will (meaning the committment to action).

One of the essential questions in any coaching process at the Reality stage is, “What obstacles are in the way of you achieving your goal?”. And for me, the obstacle was that I don’t know enough about the quantum physics side of the topic; information  you need to answer questions from those sceptics who are not satisfied with spiritual postulating, but need  scientific evidence that the Law of Attraction does exist and does work.

A condition of successful manifestation of an intention is to just let it go out to the universe. Of course you have to believe you will manifest your intention but there should be no neediness around it, as neediness is demonstrating a sense of lack and so that is what you will continue to get, the lack of what you want. Since the coaching day I hadn’t thought about my goal, although if anyone had asked me I would have said that yes, of course, one day I’m going to give a talk on the Law of Attraction as a first step to realising my vision of becoming a Law of Attraction Specialist.

A couple of weeks ago a friend contacted me and said “I think there’s someone you should meet, you’ll get on like a house on fire, He’s just arrived in Madrid, is a fitness coach, very into affirmations, visualisations etc and wants to become a life coach (after doing a TEFL course in the meantime!)”

So we met last Friday and guess what?  The Law of Attraction talk is scheduled for the 29th April!! I’m just bowled over with the simplicity of it all. Turns out this guy is REALLY knowledgable about quantum physics as related to the LOA. It wasn’t until the next day that the idea of doing a talk together hit me, and when it did there was a rush of positive emotion which I know from all my studying that that is my inner being telling me that I have to do it. And as Joe Vitale states in “The Secret”, the universe likes speed. When you have an inspired idea you have to ACT on it quickly to complete the manifestation of your intention.

Many people don’t act on ideas and thoughts as fears and limiting beliefs get in the way. Our mind is responsible for a lot of things NOT happening as well as things happening. Now, whenever I have an idea or thought that gives me a rush of positive emotion I act on it, whenever a thought keeps recurring I’m more aware of it than before and start to think what action I need to take to follow this through on this nudge from the universe.

Anecdote - I told my 9 year old son that I was going to give a talk on the LOA and his reply was “is that about traffic lights always being green for you and getting parking spaces all the time?”

So, if you want to find out how to manifest even the trivialities of life such as parking spaces as well as the big stuff and  you are interested in attending the talk, drop me a line. I don’t know the exact venue yet but it’ll be somewhere in central Madrid. Anyway, I know I should walk my talk, so I’ll expect the ideal venue to manifest itself!!

Something weird happened this weekend which I’d like to share with you. It’s related to this blog although it may lead me to go off at a tangent… (or on a tangent?  mmm, I’m not sure, no wonder our students have so many problems!) Shawn or Troy, as seasoned teachers, if you’re reading this, I’m sure you can help me out on that one.

Anyway, I usually post on a Sunday afternoon and so begin to ruminate on possibie topics from Friday onwards. However, it got to late Saturday night and I still hadn’t had any inspiration. No worries though, I thought, I’ll think of something.

Would you believe it, I woke up this morning and I had been given the answer. I DREAMT what my topic would be. I had decided last week that a good source for my posts would be debates from experiences during my working week, and that is exactly what my subconscious gave me. What a gift!

Most of you who regularly read this blog know that I’m into Law of Attraction, (google it if need be), which I see as a natural extension of coaching. Law of Attraction then leads you into spirituality and the whole energy, intuition thing. And the more I read and study this area, the more I see it working in my life.  In fact I now use my feelings as much as my reason to guide me in my decisions .

How can our subconscious and feelings guide us to make the right decisions?

In essence, there are only two types of feeling, one makes you feel good and the other makes you feel bad. When we think about something and it gives us a rush, makes the hair on our arms stand on end, and even brings tears of joy to our eyes, that is the strongest indication  that  we are thinking about  something that is exactly right for us. It is our inner being, a being who is infinitely wiser than our physical brain can ever be, telling us that this is where our path lies. I have experienced this quite often lately, and I can vouch for its effectiveness when having to make important decisions.

Conversely, what about when our intution tells us “hey! don’t do that!”? How often do we take notice? I learned  a big lesson on this one  a short while ago. In September we signed a contract on an office in the centre of Madrid. The office seemed ideal, it was modern, in a great location etc but on going to sign, I had a feeling of foreboding. Guess what? Four months later we are still struggling with the most horrendous technological problems which have seriously affected our productivity and the morale of the team.

Just last Monday, 10 minutes before leaving for work, I suddenly had a wave of nervousness and dread. How weird I thought, what’s all that about? I drove a couple of miles and then my car broke down!

There really is a power within us that if we only learnt to be more sensitive to, and to develop, could help us so much in every aspect of our lives. We live in such a fast paced world that our intuition has been buried, and we rarely take the time to just stop and examine what our feelings are telling us.

Capitalism is fully lodged in our society for good or for bad, but there is gradual movement towards a  different consciousness, and a different way of doing business and treating each other. I think I referred to this in another post as “authentic” business, and yes, despite what some cynics may believe, I think we CAN combine spirituality and business. At the end of the day, businesses are run by people and if people are true to themselves and to what REALLY deep down makes them feel good and worthy, surely they will be led to take the sort of action which is beneficial for all concerned.

You see, I have gone off on a tangent. Ok, it may not be strictly EFL stuff  this week or business but what the hell, I felt INSPIRED! And I’m going to save my dreamt of topic (yes, related to a teacher EFL issue) for next week. Wow, my dream helped me with TWO topics in the end.

If you are interested in finding out more about Law of Attraction, coaching, personal development or spirituality I can recommend the following reading:

Mind Magic:- Marta Hiatt

Harmonic Wealth:- James Arthur Ray

The Science of Success:- James Arthur Ray

A New Earth: Eckhart:-Tolle

The Celestine Prophecy:- James Redfield

I’ll See it When I Believe it:- Wayne Dyer

The Secret:- Rhonda Byrne

Think and Grow Rich:- Napoleon Hill

The Law of Attraction:- Esther and Jerry Hicks

Coach yourself to Success:- Talene Miedaner

Take Yourself to the Top:- Laura Berman Fortgang

Conversations with God:- Neale Donald Walsh  (NOT religous, purely spriritual)