Amy L. Burns, CLC Filled with interesting and inspiring thoughts, quotes, and questions, this blog is intended as a sacred space where I explore and reflect on my personal spiritual experiences as they relate to coaching, and share my favorite tools and techniques to assist you in your own journey.

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Wednesday, July 07, 2004   William Shakespeare Quote “We know what we are, but know not what we may be.” William Shakespeare Labels: Quotes # posted by Amy L. Burns @ 7:57 PM 0 comments Thursday, July 01, 2004   Gloria Steinem Quote “If the shoe doesn't fit, must we change the foot?” Gloria Steinem Labels: Quotes # posted by Amy L. Burns @ 9:28 AM 0 comments   MIDSUMMER NIGHTS QUIZ Take a minute to answer these quick questions and then check the answer key How much of your day, week, month, year, life do you spend doing things that you have great passion for and really enjoy? 0%, 10%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100% How much of your day, week, month, year, life do you spend begrudgingly doing things you find boring, routine, meaningless, unfulfilling, draining, exhausting, incongruous with your life purpose, unsatisfying? 0%, 10%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100% How much of that boring, meaningless, unfulfilling stuff are you doing because you actually want to be doing it, and how much are you doing because someone or something else thinks or says you “should”? 0%, 10%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100% How much of this boring, meaningless, unfulfilling stuff could be tossed out and replaced with fun, interesting, fulfilling stuff? 0%, 10%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100% What would it look like if you stopped doing even just half of the not-so-good stuff and started doing some of the great stuff instead? Horrible Okay Good Great Wonderful Magnificent! Labels: FunStuff # posted by Amy L. Burns @ 7:51 AM 0 comments   MIDSUMMER NIGHTS QUIZ ANSWER KEY This is the answer key to the Midsummer Nights Quiz. We can’t all quit our jobs and move to the Bahamas. Some of us wouldn’t want to if we could. But we can stop doing things that drain us and cause us misery much easier than we think, and replace it with things we love and experience passion doing! But how? How is this possible? I would like to challenge you to think outside the box. What does the box look like? The box is all of the things our society says are important for us to do. All of the “shoulds”. Sometimes the shoulds happen to be things we love. Often times, they are not. There are all kinds of shoulds that we plan our days and lives around... Sometimes these shoulds are cleverly disguised as needs. I should (or need to) have a big house, a husband/wife, 2.4 kids, a dog, a white picket fence. I should (or need to) have a six figure salary in a corporation and be happy we can pay our bills. I should (or need to) get a bachelors degree and then a masters degree and then a PhD in something practical and lucrative like law or medicine. I should (or need to) do what is safe, not take risks on frivolous things like having our own coffee shop or being a photographer. I should (or need to) stick with this job because I’m good at it, or there is nothing else out there for me, or they need me, or I’m not qualified for anything else, or my family/friends/boss will be disappointed in me, or it pays well enough and I should be grateful. What happens if these “shoulds” aren’t right for you? What if you’ve tried them out and they just don’t fit? Do you wear them anyway? Do you keep trying to fit yourself into a pair of shoes that are 3 sizes too small? What happens if you do? Your feet start to hurt, for one thing. Then they start to adjust their shape to fit the shoe. Pretty soon you’ve got deformed feet and can’t even walk anymore! How useful is that? Our passions, souls, and lives are the same way – fortunately its never too late to take off that shoe and get a pair that fit! If we imposed external values on ourselves our hearts and lives become deformed and unfulfilling. Living starts to be a pain and then gets downright unbearable. Would you choose to wear shoes that don’t fit and cause you this much pain? Why choose to live your life with any less care? Find a couple of those shoulds that don’t belong to you and that maybe feel a little less threatening to toss out than the others. Maybe its something you’ve been telling yourself has got to go for a long time but just haven’t taken it out of the closet and put it in the trash yet. Or maybe there is something huge that you’re ready to let go of. Whatever it is, take a deep breath and let that horrible, dissatisfying thing go! Now what? How much time, peace of mind have you gained back? What do you want to do with this time? Perhaps this time could be used for some of those fulfilling activities you’ve always talked about doing. Haven’t you always wanted to learn to play guitar, knit, start exercising, take Saturday naps, spend your holiday visiting instead of cooking, meet new people, join a club, read a book? What's on that list of “things that would nourish my Spirit” that you could now easily fit into that space you’ve cleared. Careful not to fill that space with more shoulds. Perhaps what you’d really like to do is... Nothing. Use this new found time to meditate, sit and relax, spend time with your kids or friends. Wow! Isn’t this great!!! Let me share an example of how tossing out a should worked for me. I’m a bright, multi-skilled, talented person (if I do say so myself) who learns quickly, often performs above expectations and consequently gets bored pretty easily. After working in several positions for a wonderful company it became a bit excruciating to go to work every day. I knew this day would come but was fortunate enough to prevent it for quite some time by taking on additional responsibilities, learning new facets of the business, and of course appreciating the paycheck I received twice a month. This job nourished parts of me and created extraordinary opportunities for me to learn and grow. But I had done what I came to do, and my options were to trudge on and lose sanity, or leave and do something that truly nourished my spirit. After a year of battling out my shoulds (yep, no matter who we are, those shoulds are real troopers) and looking into all kinds of possibilities -other jobs, going back to school, life coaching- I finally listened to what my inner guide had been saying all along... “If you don’t do something now, I will sabotage you so that you have no other choice.” I found that to be an enticing message. Oh, my inner guide also said “This coaching thing sounds perfect.” I negotiated using vacation and unpaid time off in order to have weekly time to paint and write – two of my wonderful passions, and took a week of vacation to take the level one intensive training with Coach For Life in San Diego. Now, when I say negotiated, don’t think I just walked into my bosses office and said “hey, I need a day off each week so I can paint and write and be a coach,” and then got it. It took me six months to get from two vacation days off a month (one every other week) to where I am today (a part time, hourly employee with three to four days a week). I had to do some pretty serious intentioning to make this come together (see previous newsletters for “What I create in my life is first created in my mind). But once I put my intention out there, the Universe moved to make it happen. It was nothing short of miraculous. So, now where am I? Honestly, I feel myself shifting again and I know that it is time to take that next step and go full time with coaching. Its time to let go of the office job which has served me amazingly and taught me so much, and go full force into coaching. With that said... Anyone need a coach? Labels: FunStuff # posted by Amy L. Burns @ 7:34 AM 0 comments