Reflect Your Best Self

It is important for us to reflect on our stories.

You know these stories; they are well-crafted and visited repeatedly for years and sometimes decades. These are the stories we tell ourselves, building beliefs and behaviors based on these tales. As Plato reminded us, perception is reality. Our thoughts create our perceptions and our perceptions influence our emotional, psychological, and physical responses.

I read Marianne Williamson’s book, “The Law of Divine Compensation” and was struck by her discussion about how negative thoughts deactivate the divine law, which falls into three major categories: 

1. Negative sense of self2. Anger3. Guilt

Wow – the big three!

This got me thinking how the big three derail other aspects of our life, including how we love others and how we lead others. As we reflect on a negative sense of self, anger, and guilt, let’s explore the following questions:

• Why do we hold onto these beliefs? Is it habit, unawareness, or true to you?
• Is it really true?
• Who would you be if it weren't true?
• With what loving thought can you replace the negative thought?

Our stories are sometimes on auto pilot. We need to just flip off the auto pilot switch and create a new story! Close the chapter on the old one and start writing a new story.

Think about this:When is the best time to plant an oak tree?Twenty years ago.When is the second best time to plant the tree?Now.

When we step into awareness about our stories and thoughts, we come to realize that we can change those thoughts, and ultimately change our lives.

I would love to hear from you. What’s stopping you?With love,Maria

Strong Heart, Strong Mind

Someone asked me, “How can you develop a thick-skin at work?” My initial response was “Develop a strong heart.”

Growing up, I was often teased because of my over-bite.  Called many names at school, I came home frequently collapsing into a pile of tears. My mother would tell me to ignore the bully’s hurtful comments and eventually they would stop. I did experience some truth in this, but what was even more impactful were her words, “Maria, you are beautiful, they just don’t see it.” Of course, she was referring to my inner beauty. I knew my outer beauty would catch up once I got braces!

Why is it that as adults we still feel the need to toughen up and not let other people’s words hurt us? Could it be that we forgot our inner beauty?

If so, don’t worry. Reclaiming our inner beauty and strengthening our hearts is easy to do. Developing a strong heart begins with self-love.

Practice these ten steps and in no time, you will not need a thick skin because you will have a strong heart:

• List your strengths. Next to each one, identify how you may leverage your strong points.
• Create an action plan for personal and professional growth.
• Reconnect with your intuition.
• Do something creative every day.
• Spend time in stillness each day.
• Get enough sleep. Six to eight hours are recommended for optimum health.
• Move your body every day. Some days it may only be walking to the mailbox.
• Eat foods that nourish your body in healthy ways.
• List at least five things each day for which you are grateful.
• Find ways to help others see their greatness.

 

I would love to hear from you. How do you strengthen your heart?

With Love,

Maria

Connect with Laughter and Love

Early on in my corporate career, colleagues advised me to learn golf, which they claimed as a great way to network, bond with clients, and create deals. I learned the sport, but I did not enjoy the game as much as other people did.At one of our corporate retreats, my boss and colleagues could not wait to get out on the course with some of the top executive staff. I was a bit confused by this because I knew my boss didn’t really like or get along with this group of people. I asked him about it and he said that on the golf course, unless you are a pro, there is no pretense; all are on equal footing and all are hitting poorly. The golf experience allowed them to bring down their guards and share the misery of their poor shots. Like golf, laughter allows us to connect with one another, letting our guards down…without the misery of poor golf shots.Laughter enhances communication by letting our shields down and showing that we are human. The model of professionalism for too long has instructed us to be super-human. We have also learned to check our emotions at the door. We are still human; we still have emotions. To deny that fact is insanity. This is certainly a healthy approach to emotions, which is very different from the professional corporate model we learned.Here are seven strategies for infusing laughter and lightness in your leadership and life:

1. Start developing your practice of laughter with consciously smiling today. See how many people you can touch and shift their energy with your smile.
2. Begin your meetings on a light note. I have the E*Trade babies’ videos on my favorites list and would start meetings with one or two of those commercials. The more I watch them, the funnier they are to me.
3. Watch a funny movie, making note of the elements that tickle your funny bone.
4. Listen to a comedy recording on the way to work, setting the tone for the day.
5. Laugh for 3–5 minutes every day. Faith it ‘til you make it!
6. Commit to do one silly thing a day to cultivate your playfulness.
7. Start collecting stories from work that are funny; invite everyone to participate and present these stories at the annual holiday party.

 I would love to hear from you. What do you do to infuse laughter into your life?With Love,Maria

It's All About Attitude

I love the phrase, “An Attitude of Gratitude”. What exactly is an attitude of gratitude? In basic terms, gratitude is thankfulness.We usually remember to give thanks when we feel great. However, living in a state of gratitude is a way of being. Gratitude may be an activity, but you will live a much fuller life, and lead others more effectively, if it becomes your natural state and not just an occasional activity.In addition to the health benefits of gratitude, it is also an abundance magnet. The power of attraction applies; abundance creates more abundance. Many of us have found ourselves to be in the scarcity cycle. Scarcity thinking is focusing on lacking such things as finances, health, relationships, opportunities, etc.It is important to remember that whatever we focus our thoughts and attention on becomes our intention; you become what you think about.Sometimes scarcity thinking shows up in the form of accumulation and greed. People who hoard are deeply immersed in this mental model. If we hold on to anything too tightly, our hands cannot be open to what may be coming.#1. Keep a gratitude journal. Several years ago and I committed to keeping a gratitude journal. Each day I listed at least five things for which I was grateful, big, or small. Some days the list was a dozen, other days I struggled to come up with five! Then something happened…I soon realized that I was receiving more of whatever it was that I was grateful! Blessings surrounded me in my life, and continue to today.#2. Decide to live in a state of gratitude. Be conscious of your thoughts, always shifting from fear to love, scarcity to abundance. Soon enough, gratitude will become your standard operating procedure!#3. Move your thoughts into action. Tell those employees, family members, and friends that you are grateful for their presence in your life, and why.I would love to hear from you. What are some of the ways you cultivate gratitude in your life? How do you demonstrate gratitude?With Love,Maria 

Attraction Magnet: How To Discover and Reconnect with Your Passion

Passion is an attraction magnet, it is irresistible. How do you discover, nurture, and live in your passion?

We are drawn to people who enthuse passionate energy. Because passion is so appealing, it is a great energizing force for leaders. Leveraging passion motivates teams, as has passion motivated the masses throughout history.When we think about passion from an individual level, we know we cannot NOT do whatever it is we are passionate about. Our minds, hearts, and bodies must fulfill our passion. To our passion, we are driven to say, YES! We may be able to put it off for a while, but it burns like a continuous flame inside of us until we extinguish it. The only way to extinguish our passion is to fulfill the destiny inside of us or die of complacency.In this episode, I share with you three steps to discover and re-connect with your passion and your purpose.I would love to hear from you. What passion is inside of you eager to come out?With Love,Maria  

What is the Definition of Leadership & How to be an Effective Leader

So often, I am asked these simple, yet profound questions: What is leadership? How can I be an effective leader?In my experience, the words leadership and management are used interchangeably in the workplace. In the management and leadership classes I’ve taught over the years, we define them differently, however, recognizing that leadership is a critical part of management. I’ve always believed that defining leadership as a component of management was like saying cocoa is a component of chocolate.Many organizations use the term leader when defining certain management positions. However, a title does not make a leader. My Grandpa Jaime used to say, “You can put a suit on a bum, but he is still a bum.” One may put the title of leader on a person, and he or she may or may not be a leader.Most definitions of leadership have one over-arching similarity: vision. Creating vision and motivating followers towards the vision is the fundamental foundation of leadership. If there is no place to lead (vision) and no one to follow, then leadership is absent. I define leadership as the action of inspiring and motivating others toward a vision. I don’t believe it needs to be any more complicated than that.In this episode, I share with you 15 essential factors of being an effective leader.

 I would love to hear from you. What do you think? How do you define leadership? What are the qualities you admire in leaders?With love,Maria

How to Influence Others and Create a Legacy

How can we gain influence with people at work? How can we create legacy?

Very rarely am I involved in a conversation about leadership that does not include the topic of influence. I believe that influence is what most leaders seek; although, many will confuse influence with motivation. Motivation is important in leadership; it gets the job done. However, influence, is lasting. Influence is legacy.In this episode, I share with you several sure-fire ways to increase your influence with others.I would love to hear from you. What do you think? What are some of the ways you’ve found to influence others, and what are the best ways for others to influence you?With love,Maria

Influence Your Team and Your Boss

How can I gain influence with my team? How do I influence my boss?I’ve heard repeatedly from my clients, students, and colleagues these questions. While teaching leadership or marketing courses, I’ve often thought…Leading people and marketing are really the same activity. Isn’t the primary objective of both to influence people in the direction of a goal?You may challenge that statement! True, marketing and leadership could sometimes be an activity of manipulation, and not of influence. We have seen and experienced this many times in both marketing and leadership.Both activities of influence and manipulation have power. The key is that only one has sustainability. Manipulation can be an effective influencing tactic, but it is not sustaining; in fact, it is exhausting!Influence, on the other hand, is nurturing, motivating, and full of momentum.  In today’s video are 10 specific strategies to increase your influence.I would love to hear from you. What else would you add to this list to increase your influence? What time did you gain buy-in and what strategy did you use?With love,Maria

A New Reality, A New Leadership

We have to give it, share it, mentor it, and grow it.

It is love, knowledge, care, trust, love. As leaders, we have a responsibility to be students of those that went before us, stewards of our gifts and talents, and mentors to those that come after us. Our challenge is to go through our own inward journey, describe the lessons we’ve learned, and then return to teach those lessons to the next generation of leaders. “A journey to find the treasure of your true self, and then home to give your gift to help transform the kingdom – and in the process your own life. The quest itself is replete with dangers and pitfalls, but it offers great rewards: the capacity to be successful in the world, knowledge of the mysteries of the human soul, the opportunity to find your unique gifts in the world, and to live in loving community with other people.”[i] Meaning, abundance, and meaningful existence await.Today, we need a new reality. “To prevail in the face of violence, homelessness, malaise, and the many other spiritual challenges of modern life, we need a vision of leadership rooted in the enduring sense of human wisdom, spirit, and heart.”[ii] We need a new generation of leaders who have the courage and wisdom to love themselves, to love their Source, and to love others. We need you, the authentic leader within. “Our journey is a search, often arduous, for our spiritual center. Once we find our own light within, we can share it with others, offering our own gifts from the heart.”[iii] As we claim our light, let us remember the words of Rumi:You were born with potential.You were born with goodness and trust.You were born with ideals and dreams.You were born with greatness.You were born with wings.You are not meant for crawling, so don’t.You have wings.Learn to use them and fly.Rumi – 13^th century poet[iv] New year Blessings to you.With love,Maria

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[i] Carol S. Pearson, Awakening the Heroes Within (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991), p. 1.

[ii] Lee G. Bolman and Terrence E. Deal, Leading with Soul, p. 173.

[iii] Ibid., p. 177.

[iv] Rumi quoted by Wayne W. Dyer, The Power of Intention: Learning to Co-create Your World Your Way (Carlsbad, CA: Hay House, Inc., 2004), p. 120. Dr. Maria Church, CPC, is a leadership coach, speaker, and author of Love-Based Leadership: Transform Your Life with Meaning and Abundance and her upcoming book, A Course in Leadership: 21 Spiritual Lessons on Leadership, Love, and Life. Maria holds a doctorate of management in organizational leadership, teaches at several universities, and is CEO of Dr. Maria Church International LLC, a leadership coaching, development, and training firm. For more information, visit www.DrMariaChurch.com.

Not a Dress Rehearsal

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.  Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.  Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice.  And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.  They somehow already know what you truly want to become.  Everything else is secondary. - Steve JobsI love this quote because it speaks to so many of us with the depth of truth. As we close out another year, let us honor and acknowledge the road we’ve traveled and with conscious intention, design our next chapter. This is not a dress rehearsal for life; this is it, your life now.Who are you and who do you want to be? Is there a gap between those two people? Who are you meant to be and what keeps you from living your purposeful life?  What resistance are you experiencing? Steven Pressfield refers to resistance in the War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles as “the most toxic force on the planet…the root of more unhappiness than poverty and disease.”Do you have a book inside of you, or a painting, or another calling? This is the year to break free from resistance and live the life you are meant to live. Here are five strategies for overcoming resistance:

1. Use the 5-Why technique and peel back the layers to uncover your why, your purpose, your calling.
2. Use the 5-Why technique to peel back the layers of resistance. Name it, and release it.
3. Give yourself permission to dream without resistance.
4. When you hear those negative voices inside of you saying, “Who are you to do that?” Simply reply back, “Who am I not to?”
5. Visit and sit with your dream every day and soon enough you will be living it without resistance.

I love to hear from you. What is your big dream and what resistance are you experiencing?With love,MariaDr. Maria Church, CPC, is a leadership coach, speaker, and author of Love-Based Leadership: Transform Your Life with Meaning and Abundance and her upcoming book, A Course in Leadership: 21 Spiritual Lessons on Leadership, Love, and Life. Maria holds a doctorate of management in organizational leadership, teaches at several universities, and is CEO of Dr. Maria Church International LLC, a leadership coaching, development, and training firm. For more information, visit www.DrMariaChurch.com.

Secrets and Challenges

The secrets of leadership include awareness, mindfulness, intuition, power listening, and perception shifting. These five skills are innate, although they become buried for many of us based on our cultural upbringing. The great news is that they never go away!  Reconnecting with and developing these five leadership essentials are key to successful leadership. These skills help leaders know themselves better, enabling them to understand and influence others. Let’s face it: leadership is about influence. We cannot influence others in an authentic and effective manner without first understanding ourselves as well as those whom we lead.The challenges that leaders face take on many forms.  When we peel back the layers of challenges or problems, we find that in most cases the same root cause affects everything – fear. Manifesting itself in many forms, fear shows up as ego, micro-management, misunderstandings, and reactionary behaviors. When we learn to recognize the underlying cause (fear), we then will know how to rectify the real problem instead of just putting on a band-aid or superficial fix. When we only treat the problems superficially, we experience the same issues repeatedly.What is your biggest challenge with leadership and what secret solution do you have? As always, I love hearing your insight.With love,MariaDr. Maria Church, CPC, is a leadership coach, speaker, and author of Love-Based Leadership: Transform Your Life with Meaning and Abundance and her upcoming book, A Course in Leadership: 21 Spiritual Lessons on Leadership, Love, and Life. Maria holds a doctorate of management in organizational leadership, teaches at several universities, and is CEO of Dr. Maria Church International LLC, a leadership coaching, development, and training firm. For more information, visit www.DrMariaChurch.com.

Leadership Secrets: Unlock Your Potential

While some of us demonstrate leadership skills naturally, I do not believe that leadership skills cannot be learned. I have seen many leaders who innately have great leadership potential, but do not use it; and I have seen leaders who choose to learn to be great leaders. I believe the combination of our authentic innate skills and characteristics (whatever those may be) along with proper education and training, and coupled with heart-based thinking, will produce fabulous, irresistible leadership.

The secrets of leadership include awareness, mindfulness, intuition, power listening, and perception shifting. These five skills are innate, although they become buried for many of us based on our cultural upbringing. The great news is that they never go away!  Reconnecting with and developing these five leadership essentials are key to successful leadership. These skills help leaders know themselves better, enabling them to understand and influence others. Let’s face it: leadership is about influence. We cannot influence others in an authentic and effective manner without first understanding ourselves as well as those whom we lead.

With love,

Maria

Dr. Maria Church, CPC, is a leadership coach, speaker, and author of Love-Based Leadership: Transform Your Life with Meaning and Abundance and her upcoming book, A Course in Leadership: 21 Spiritual Lessons on Leadership, Love, and Life. Maria holds a doctorate of management in organizational leadership, teaches at several universities, and is CEO of Dr. Maria Church International LLC, a leadership coaching, development, and training firm. For more information, visit www.DrMariaChurch.com.

Are you Tom?

For some of us, finding our passion may be an ominous task or we may wonder why leveraging our passion is even relevant.  However, when we find and leverage our passion, the magic happens.For example, for Tom, the cleaning and maintenance man for a homebuilder I worked with, it meant creating beauty. Tom worked by maintaining and cleaning model homes and guesthouses. He treated these homes as if they were his own home with great care and love. The models and guest homes Tom maintained were so immaculate and clean that you could eat off the floor.Tom passionately cleaned and organized homes in his care, giving the appearance that the homes were just completed and furnished that same day. He delighted prospective customers with all of their senses, from the special aromas he hand-selected, pillows he fluffed, blankets folded beautifully, to detailed floral and accessory arrangements.Tom was passionate about beauty and he shared his unique love by ensuring that those around him too, would experience beautiful sensations as well. The homebuilding company led the sales in our marketplace, due in large part to Tom’s passion.What entices passion in you? What makes your heart sing, your soul stir, and captivates you for endless hours? Where do you first when you go in a bookstore? What section catches your attention, your desire? If you had a day off, with nothing to do, what would be your first choice to spend your day? What would you teach to others? What brings you joy? The answers to these questions will give you some clues as to where you passions lay.What are you passionate about and how do you leverage your passion?With love and passion,MariaDr. Maria Church, CPC, is a leadership coach, speaker, and author of Love-Based Leadership: Transform Your Life with Meaning and Abundance and her upcoming book, A Course in Leadership: 21 Spiritual Lessons on Leadership, Love, and Life. Maria holds a doctorate of management in organizational leadership, teaches at several universities, and is CEO of Dr. Maria Church International LLC, a leadership coaching, development, and training firm. For more information, visit www.DrMariaChurch.com.

Leading on Purpose

To lead and live on purpose, we must become aware of our values. You may have heard of “values-based” leadership. Aligned with the concepts of love-based leadership, this idea of self-awareness around our values makes complete sense. Our values play such an important role in our leadership. Values are the foundation on which everything in our life is built. Our attitudes and beliefs, our thoughts and our behaviors, all stem from our values.

Knowing your values, helps bring clarity to what is significant to you. Take a look at your calendar and review how you spend your time. Do the activities on your calendar align with your values? If not, why not?Looking at our values is a conduit to our inspiration and our passion. We have developed our strengths, in part, because we value those behaviors, and at some level of awareness, we’ve felt passionate about those activities. With the alignment of our values, our strengths, and the flame of passion and inspiration, leadership effectiveness is certain.This is the road to fulfilling our purpose. Leaders who live and breathe passion are irresistible; they are inspiring others with vision and hope.What do you value and how do your values influence your leadership? I love hearing your thoughts.With great value and love,MariaDr. Maria Church, CPC, is a leadership coach, speaker, and author of Love-Based Leadership: Transform Your Life with Meaning and Abundance and her upcoming book, A Course in Leadership: 21 Spiritual Lessons on Leadership, Love, and Life. Maria holds a doctorate of management in organizational leadership, teaches at several universities, and is CEO of Dr. Maria Church International LLC, a leadership coaching, development, and training firm. For more information, visit www.DrMariaChurch.com.

Leading with Fear Works!

Many of us learned how to lead with fear…and it works…sort of. Leading with fear comes with a price.Using fear as a motivation technique is sometimes effective, but the key to understanding the use of fear is that this method is not sustainable. When leaders and managers leverage fear in the workplace, it is important for them to understand that while it may move people immediately in the direction in which they want to go, it also immediately erodes trust.Know that when employees are motivated and moved by fear, employee movement continues both literally and figuratively. Employees start planning their escape. Literally, they escape by leaving the organization. Oops, there goes another one. We know the expense of employee turnover.Even more significant are the employees who escape figuratively…read “employee disengagement”. Employees disengage when they distrust. When people check out, they are not motivated, productive, or loyal. Think of the cost to your organization with a team who has checked out.Fear is not sustaining; in fact, fear is debilitating to an organization.We need to recognize that fear is the go-to method for many leaders and managers -- we learned it, cultivated it, and thought we perfected it. I challenge you to reconsider this technique due to the long-term destructive ramifications. Get your creative juices flowing for more innovative, value-centered, and love-based approaches to influence others.What are more effective techniques you use to motivate your team? Please share your comments below.As always, I love hearing your ideas.With love,MariaDr. Maria Church, CPC, is a leadership coach, speaker, and author of Love-Based Leadership: Transform Your Life with Meaning and Abundance and her upcoming book, A Course in Leadership: 21 Spiritual Lessons on Leadership, Love, and Life. Maria holds a doctorate of management in organizational leadership, teaches at several universities, and is CEO of Dr. Maria Church International LLC, a leadership coaching, development, and training firm. For more information, visit www.DrMariaChurch.com.

No More Denial

I got on the scale this morning and I am 26 pounds lighter – woohoo! With this experience, I’ve had a profound awakening.For several years I tried many diets and different ways to increase my will power.  I did so much self-talk about the virtues of denying myself all of the foods that were “bad” for me.And you can probably guess the outcome…no success with weight loss.The Aha! moment came when I unexpectedly saw myself in an elevator mirror and did not recognize the woman looking back.  Now I’ve looked in the mirror many times and was not crazy about what I saw, but this time was different.  This time, it was not disgust; it was unconditional, overwhelming love.That was the shift. I loved myself more than the fear of lack or the fear of denying myself the foods I thought I wanted.I desired self-love more than I wanted a cupcake.I desired health more than I wanted potato chips.I desired wellness more than I wanted chocolate.The desire for what I wanted weighed more than the fear of denial.Whenever we can shift the scale (no pun intended) for love instead of fear…miracles happen.What do you fear more than you love? Shift your focus and watch for miracles.With love,MariaDr. Maria Church, CPC, is a leadership coach, speaker, and author of Love-Based Leadership: Transform Your Life with Meaning and Abundance and her upcoming book, A Course in Leadership: 21 Spiritual Lessons on Leadership, Love, and Life. Maria holds a doctorate of management in organizational leadership, teaches at several universities, and is CEO of Dr. Maria Church International LLC, a leadership coaching, development, and training firm. For more information, visit www.DrMariaChurch.com.

Lead Without Being Bossy

I often come across leaders who want to be strong leaders but don’t want to be bossy. Many of the leadership models and examples they’ve experienced are aggressive, pushy, and downright nasty…and they don’t want to be like that!Yet, this same group of people doesn’t want to be “weak” or considered pushovers. They don’t see strong leaders being taken advantage of, not listened to, or not respected.Well the great news is that you don’t need to lead at either end to be a great leader.Strong, powerful leaders all have something in common and it doesn’t hurt or require you to do something super-human.Follow these seven practices and you’ll be leading without being bossy in no time:

• Ask questions before you talk. Find out what your team needs.
• Listen, really listen to their responses.
• Get dirty. Don’t ask your team to do anything that you would not do.
• Walk the talk. Maintain your integrity and do what you say you are going to do.
• Take responsibility for yourself and your team. When you honor them, they will honor you.
• Care about your people, individually and collectively. Remember that actions speak louder than words.
• Don’t rely on unspoken expectation. Be very clear what is expected of your team and of you.
• Invite people to participate rather than telling. Rarely, if ever, will your team decline the “invitation”. If you are following these principles, your team will not only accept the invitation, they will probably follow you wherever you go!

What else would you add to this list of being a great leader without being bossy? As always, I love hearing from you.With love,MariaDr. Maria Church, CPC, is a leadership coach, speaker, and author of Love-Based Leadership: Transform Your Life with Meaning and Abundance and her upcoming book, A Course in Leadership: 21 Spiritual Lessons on Leadership, Love, and Life. Maria holds a doctorate of management in organizational leadership, teaches at several universities, and is CEO of Dr. Maria Church International LLC, a leadership coaching, development, and training firm. For more information, visit www.DrMariaChurch.com.

Imagine Leading in Peace

Imagine all the peopleLiving life in peaceYou may say that I'm a dreamerBut I'm not the only oneI hope someday you'll join usAnd the world will be as one. - John LennonYesterday would have been John Lennon’s 73rd birthday.When I look at lyrics from his famous song, Imagine, I am struck by the simplicity of his statements and the call to action. Living life in peace is possible in our world, our countries, our communities, our organizations, and our families. Peace begins with us, and feeling peaceful within ourselves. Of course, our internal peace is steeped in self-love.Feeling peaceful in our workplaces is sometimes challenging, but not impossible. To shift to peace, requires awareness and a commitment to live life in peace. Envision who you would be living and leading your life in peace and hold that vision until it becomes reality.Yes, it is true…I am a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us.With love while holding the dream,MariaDr. Maria Church, CPC, is a leadership coach, speaker, and author of Love-Based Leadership: Transform Your Life with Meaning and Abundance and her upcoming book, A Course in Leadership: 21 Spiritual Lessons on Leadership, Love, and Life. Maria holds a doctorate of management in organizational leadership, teaches at several universities, and is CEO of Dr. Maria Church International LLC, a leadership coaching, development, and training firm. For more information, visit www.DrMariaChurch.com.

Bring on Resistance?

I just watched an interview by Oprah with writer, Steven Pressfield. A thought struck me during this interview and I had one of those “Aha!” moments. Pressfield wrote in his book, The War of Art, “Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance”.I felt a pang in my heart when I heard this. Was the pang for the unlived life or a deep knowing that resistance still plays a role in my life?Perhaps both.What I love about Pressfield’s teaching on resistance is his explanation that resistance is a force of in nature, a natural occurrence that exists when we have movement or action. The key is to recognize this as something that will happen as we evolve and grow; that it is not us (even though it takes form in our thoughts) and that we just need to push through resistance. One such way to push through resistance is meditation. Meditation can actually bring us up above the resistance, like a hurdle jumper on a track. The runner does not stop and turn back with a hurdle—she jumps over it. Meditation allows us to jump over resistance.The other aspect about this understanding of resistance is the positive side of resistance. Resistance can be a beautiful affirmation that we are moving closer to action, movement, and creating something significant. If we are not feeling some resistance, we are not growing and expanding. Woohoo – bring it on!As always, I love hearing your thoughts. What are you resisting and why?Without resistance or hesitation,MariaContent copyright 2012. Dr. Maria J. Church. All rights reserved.

Today or Tomorrow - Which One?

“Today is great. Tomorrow is even greater.”

I just read this statement and immediately began to ponder it with questions, thoughts, emotions, and opinions. Yes, today and the precious moments of this time, this moment with fingers tapping on the keyboard, is the most precious gift of all – presence.

We’ve heard lessons and advise to not live in the past. I know many who do live in the past (myself included), reliving the stories of being hurt, victimized, or even greatness. The kicker about living in the past is that we just spent the precious moments of the present – poof, gone!

Focus on tomorrow, that is a tricky one! If we put all of our focus on tomorrow, the same phenomenon as living in the past occurs – current time spent with no refund.

Perhaps the answer lies in balance. We give a nod of honor and respect to the past including life lessons and joys. We include a nod to the future with respect, wonder, and awe.

And all of this is wrapped up with the bow of the present…fingers tapping on the keyboard.

What does this statement mean to you? As always, I love hearing your thoughts.

With love,
Maria

Content copyright 2012. Dr. Maria J. Church. All rights reserved.