Have You Missed Getting Powerful Presence By Email?

It’s been about a month since we switched this blog over to my new address at http://PowerfulPresenceBlog.MaiaBeatty.com

It’s been an exciting month – and it’s also included a steep learning curve as I’ve learned to maneuver around my new site as easily as I had around this one. Things that seemed insurmountable at first are now a peice of cake .

One of the things that seemed insurmountable at the time was how to get this blog back to you by email. You might have missed how to do it since it’s not as obvious on the new site as it was here. It took me awhile to figure it out - so I finally asked Chuck to solve the mystery for me.

I’m back to report that it’s very easy – once you know where to look!

If you would like to start getting this blog by email again, here’s how to do it:

1. Go to my new address: http://PowerfulPresenceBlog.MaiaBeatty.com
2. Look in the upper right hand corner, right above the words “Maia Beatty’s Blog”,  for the small reddish-orange square with white markings in it.
3. Click on that square and it will take you to a new page that says: Discovering Your Powerful Presence in big letters, and below it “Syndicated content powered by Feedburner”.
4. Just to the right of that it says: “Subscribe now!” in a square box.
5. About 2/3 of the way down in that box there’s a pulldown that says: ”Choose Your Reader”
6. Right below that there’s a link that says: Get Discovering Your Powerful Presence delivered by Email, with a mail  icon  right next to it. Click on it.
7. It will take you to a box that pops up on the left of your screen that says Email Subscription Request. Just fill in your email address and you are all set!

I hope you find this simple and straightforward and easy enough to do. Change always comes with its own set of challenges; and catching up with the details is usually one of them.

I look forward to being in conversation with you again and welcoming you to my new site!

Yes ~There Will Be Email Access!

The good news is that we are getting smarter every day on the changeover from this version of the blog to the new one.

Within the next two weeks, I’ll be sending out the details of how to register for the new blog – which I hope you’ll do – so you can get right back to receiving it by email again.

In the meantime, I hope you’ll visit the new site at http://PowerfulPresenceBlog.MaiaBeatty.com and see what’s up.

In today’s blog: another leap of faith.

Maia Beatty’s Blog Has a New Address!

If you were looking for the usual email with the next edition of this blog yesterday, you might have wondered what happened.

There was no email.

What happened??

The good news is that Chuck has helped me to move this blog over to our new address: http://PowerfulPresenceBlog.MaiaBeatty.com

That means that it’s now a part of my website, instead of having a home on WordPress. The benefit of that is that when anyone searches for Maia Beatty on the Internet, my blog will now be a part of the search and more people will find it – and me. That wasn’t possible before.

The sad news is that you will no longer be receiving emails with a new blog in it every day.

The good news is that you can go directly to my website and read it every day – OR – you can sign up for Google Reader (a very simple process that’s free) and you can read all of the blogs that you enjoy in one place.

Thanks so much for supporting this blog. Now that it’s grown up and moved up  to the next level of its development, I hope you will continue to read it and enjoy it.

Thanks so much for being a part of a huge milestone in the development of the Journey to Powerful Presence!

Being Willing in Action

I LOVE it when a plan works out!

Today is the first day that my new blog exists @ http://PowerfulPresenceBlog.maiabeatty.com ~ and I am over the moon.

A little over 3 months ago, writing this blog was my big mountain to climb; now it has its own domain and is getting ready for the big time with Search Engine Optimization (Thank you, Teresa Simons!).

The strategies of Being Willing have served me well: wondering what it would be like to really create a blog, investigating what it would take (Thank you, Chuck Beatty!), learning some new things (Thanks again, Chuck & Teresa!) and listening to that still small voice of mine who whispered, “Yes, you can!”

The final three clues to the strategy of Being Willing are there to help me keep my momentum going.

1. Trust your Intuition is the clue that reminds me to keep on the path I have chosen because I can feel that it’s the right one for me. (I can’t prove it to you, I just know that it’s true because of the intuition that has guided me this far.)
2. Nurture your Growth is the clue that reminds me to keep feeding myself with positive intention and action. Writing this daily blog is helping me to develop as a writer; it’s making it easier to write the book about Powerful Presence than any of my three previous books.
3. GO for it! reminds me to continuously stay in action and keep pushing the envelope of what I believe I can do by building on everything I’ve done so far. This is what helps me to develop an active practice of Being Willing and expands all of my horizons further than I can see right now.

Tomorrow I’ll tell you about the Being Willing Bag…

More Clues To Being Willing

Today was a very interesting day.

I think it’s funny as all get-out that I’ve started this conversation on Being Willing – only to find that the sense of Wonder I wrote about last night was exactly what I needed to get through my day.

ALL DAY.

The  later it gets, the funnier the circumstances are getting  – by next week I know I’ll really be laughing. Right now I’m just shaking my head at the timing of it all – then remembering how perfect all the events of life really are. That’s my belief, anyway.

There are three more clues to explore tonight; I can’t wait to see how they show up for me in the classroom tomorrow, where I’ll be teaching all day.

The first clue is I: Investigate the Possibilities. In order to be willing, you want to have as many choices as you can at your disposal. That way it really feels like your idea and not something you are forced into doing.

When you take the time to investigate the possibilities, you’re simply exploring your options. Along the way, you’re bound to find something you find enjoyable – or at least palatable. Finding it makes Being Willing possible.

The next clue is L: Learn Something New. You might not know everything you need to know in order to be willing – although you can always learn it. When was the last time you learned something new – something that you wanted to learn? There’s an excitement and a power in learning that fuels you; when you are willing to learn, you open yourself up to the skill of being willing in lots of other contexts. Learning will change your life.

The final clue for tonight is another L: Listen to That Still Small Voice Inside.

This is one of the most powerful strategies I  know; it puts all the power of acting back on you. When you listen to that still small voice inside you, it gets bigger. As a result, you get really clear on what you’re willing to do and what you’re not willing to do. Knowing the difference makes it much easier to decide what you want to do in any given situation. When you’re completely clear what you won’t do, Being Willing is a simpler and more congruent choice.

It’s been hours since sunset and hours to go before moonrise; I’m ending this interesting day with a smile on my face, knowing that tomorrow will provide even more opportunities for me to be Willing.

Being Willing is a Strategy

The idea for this posting hit me over the head at breakfast this morning.

For some reason last night’s post stayed with me long after I wrote it. At breakfast I started thinking about a keynote I created in the 90′s called “Being Willing.”  I realized that sharing it with you would be the perfect follow-up to my thoughts from yesterday.

I wrote this keynote to compete in a speaker showcase at the National Speaker’s Association in 1992; I gave it with my broken arm in a cast after using that arm to break my fall while ice-skating at a rink in June in San Antonio, Texas, on my 40th birthday.

This was just another occasion when I found myself sharing exactly what I needed to get through the circumstances I faced. This keynote was one more of the pieces that became a part of the Journey to Powerful Presence.

The point of the keynote is that Being Willing doesn’t always happen automatically.  However, if you can follow a set of clues, you can create the state of Being Willing whenever you need it.

Thinking about those clues this morning, I realized that this is exactly what I do these days when faced with a difficult situation. I’ve done it for so long that it’s become second nature. It has certainly served me well during the last three weeks.

Since it’s been so useful for me I thought you might enjoy it, too.

You’ll find the clues in the letters of the word “Willing” ~ each letter stands for a behavior that helps you increase your skill at being willing in any moment.

The first clue is the letter W. If you’re going to be Willing, it helps to start with a sense of Wonder. By that I mean that state of being calmly curious, the way you think to yourself, ” I wonder what would happen if…” There is something so powerful about that kind of curiosity, because you really don’t know what will happen, so you have no preconceived notions.

It’s like starting out on a trip; all you know is that you are headed for a destination and the rest of the journey is going to be a surprise. Because you’re traveling, you’re open to things you might never consider in your “real life” ~ things that change your perspective and leave you open to even more adventures.

This kind of openness  is so universal, it’s been the topic of  books, movies and songs for all of human history. When you use this clue, you put the power of  curiosity to work for you in spite of challenging circumstances.

The next time you’re faced with a situation that makes you want to turn and run, consider the possibility that you have another alternative. Having the choice of running or facing it with a sense of curiosity, you can decide what you really want to do. Just having that choice can get you one step closer to being willing; it makes a world of difference in what you can create.

There are more clues to share with you tomorrow, so I will see you then!

The Power of Diving Into Deep Water

On the wall of my office, right over my desk, is a short  poem by an anonymous author.

I found it while traveling in the Thousand Islands area of New York about 15 years ago and it totally knocked me out. I’ve never gotten over the feeling I had when I first read it; it hits me the same way every time I read it again. This evening as I arrive at my desk for my date with this blog, it’s clear to me that this poem has  contributed deeply to my understanding of  the Journey to Powerful Presence.

The poem is called The River of Life.

The soul enters a body
at the river’s edge
and there begins
a superb journey.
Some are content
to merely wade
in the shallow waters
near the shore.
Others venture
into deeper water
to see how it feels
to be buoyant
and to swim.

Powerful Presence lives in the deep water; to take the journey there, you have to be willing to go deep.

I live in the deep end of the proverbial pool; it’s easy for me to go deep, easy for me to help my clients and my fellow travelers go deep.

Over the last three weeks, I’ve had to go deeper than I could go alone and I had to ask for help.

In 6 sessions over the last three weeks, I’ve had the assistance of a skilled therapist at Stewart’s Caring Place to go deep with the long-hidden grief that hit me from out of nowhere when I got the news of our family member’s cancer.

Here’s what I learned:

1. There is always somewhere deeper to explore if you are willing.
2. Even people who are highly skilled in their chosen profession can hit a wall of emotion that defies logic and requires assistance to maneuver through.
3. The willingness to ask for help is a sign of strength, not weakness ~  your willingness to be vulnerable will guarantee 95% of your success (the rest of it depends on your willingness to do the work required).

Now that I’m on the other side of this experience, it looks like just another destination on the Journey.

The power of diving into deep water is the expanded perspective you get: you can always go deeper anytime you choose.

There is a Gift in Every Obstacle ~ No Kidding

Cancer is a very scary word;  the closer it gets to you, the scarier it gets .

Three weeks ago we learned that a family member has been diagnosed with a serious and rare form of cancer. When we got the news, it knocked us off our feet; the emotions were overwhelming at first.

After a few initial blogs about it, I turned my professional attention to other things.

Today I realized just how much has happened in the interim and how much of it points directly to the benefits of Powerful Presence.  The Three Beliefs have played a huge part in our being able to work through our emotions and move our focus to what we CAN do, instead of focusing on what we CAN’T.

The belief that Every Obstacle Brings a Gift really showed up today when I found myself talking on the phone to a friend who didn’t know.

Here’s what came out of my mouth before I realized what I was saying: “All of a sudden we are so happy that Chuck had cancer (6 years ago), because he is the perfect resource for our family. It’s like he is their Guiding Light, making the journey so much easier for them than it was for him. And it gives both of us the feeling that we can really help right now, which is making it easier for us to go through this, too.”

This is exactly what’s happening, although I hadn’t strung those words together in exactly that way before. When Chuck heard me say it, he smiled and nodded.

This is a difficult situation to be facing – for all of us. Yet the one thing I count on is that there are gifts here for us, too. Chuck’s cancer was devastating to both of us 6 years ago, and yet here we are, agreeing that going through it has turned out to be a major gift for our family.

Hindsight always highlights the gift when you are far enough away from the circumstances to see it; that’s the easy part. The thing I count on in the coming months is believing that everything that we are facing holds  a gift for us if we look for it – right now.

I plan to keep looking.

The Power of Restoration

Taking the time off last night and this morning to unplug from the world and reconnect with Chuck was just what the doctor ordered.

Taking that time off has restored me energetically and emotionally; it filled my Spirit and my Soul. When things are going so well with this work and the coaching and projects connected to it, it also felt counter-intuitive to step away from it when I am on such a roll.

What helped me to step away so easily was the fact that, after a week of his absence,  I couldn’t think of anything else but seeing Chuck at that point anyway.

The additional benefit of time away has been an increase in the number of ideas and connections about Powerful Presence that I’ve made in the last 24 hours.

I’m going to do some more of that tonight!

Taking a Moment for Myself

Chuck came home this afternoon after being gone for over a week working at his Association’s annual conference in Louisville, KY.

All of the strategies of Powerful Presence have been helping me to focus on every single one of  the positive benefits of being home alone this week. I needed the extra help because most of the time we had very limited communication due to the all-consuming nature of convention work.

Tonight I’m taking a moment to enjoy Chuck being home.