June 3, 2008 Intention

Hard to distinguish intention from vision, goal, mission,…  All of these words have a role in propelling us to the future…and sometimes I think the difference is in my mood.  What it looks like today is that my intention is motivating me to stop this and start that, to get on with it.

My intention is to focus on my income potential… so this looks like indulgence – It’s taken a while to babysit with Camron, cook and eat breakfast and break away from today’s book.  So I’m behind.  Have to pass over my email and get going.  Money distracts me and I have to undistract.  Always helps to restate my commitments-bringing joy and satisfaction to people’s lives – in harmony with Earth; environmental sustainability, social justice and spiritual fulfillment to all.

April 7, 2008 Unprincipled — michael@michaellipp.com

Because without the Principles of Relationships we are unprincipled, ho ho.  This is very simple:  Everything is relationships.  Everything.  And we are never taught anything about them.  There are courses up the wazoo about love and sex and – while these are the most serious aspects of relationships, they are certainly not general.  We can all agree that everything is relationship.   But NOT everything is love and sex. 

At last – a book on the rest of relationships – friends, neighbors and most seriously – workplace relationships… communication, fighting, starting, ending, growing…  We all take everything for granted.  It all comes with the territory.

I’m proud of this book.  Write me to get your copy, only $12.95,  cheap at twice the price.

It supports my commitment to empower people with joy and satisfaction and supports my mission to have a world with environmental stability, spiritual fulfillment and social justice for all of us.

April 6, 2008 Why Change? michael@michaellipp.com

What we take for granted disappears.  One of the things I do is turn my goals into affirmations and then I speak those affirmations every day.  Many people use affirmations.   They frequently write them down and post them on walls, on bathroom mirrors, on refrigerators, etc.  And what happens is they fade into the background and become invisible.

In this case, changing them periodically assures their visibility, their presence.  Now entropy assures that things change, but they change in the wrong direction; they run down.  We have to actively change to constantly create freshness.

I’ve begun to identify myself on the title because some people use feedblitz to be informed of a new entry and feedblitz doesn’t include your name, which strikes me as silly.  Besidews, it’s a change.

But I won’t change telling you my commitments – to bring joy and satisfaction to people and to bring about a sustainable environment, social justice and spiritual fulfillment on the planet.

March 23, 2008 Learning More

What makes the Internet so great is that there is constantly more to learn.  I can never sit back on my haunches.  I’ll never be able to stop — I’ll never have to stop.  The fun is forever.

I’ve been on the net now for around 8 years. I’ve been sending out my newsletters for about 5.  And I’m just now learning about emails – from Ali Brown (the Ezine Queen)–  I suspect the same can be said about every fine grain of  using the Internet.

I’m redesigning my USP -  I love the one Ive used:  Bringing Joy and Satisfaction to People’s Lives

March 28, 2008 I’m Changing

My weekly website essays are changing, which means my blogs are changing.  This one will continue to remain personal.  The others will have a broader range. 

Over the years I’ve seen that there’s no physical difference between nervous and excited.. I keep thinking I’m very anxious about my launch, but I realize I’m very excited. I’m  learning about launches.  And I see each teleseminar as a potential new launch… Very exciting.

A new development in coaching and a new thrust in forwarding my commitments.  Stay tuned.

March 20, 2008 Politics and Spring??

They’re predicting possibility of snow tomorrow -here in NJ-  Well, I’ve always said that in NJ if you don’t like the weather here, wait a few minutes… And snow on the first day of spring isn’t IthatI unusual, unless it is.

It’s interesting to watch the pundits debate about the impact of Obama’s speech.  I’ve already voted in the primary and I’m clear I’m voting Democratic in the election.  And, if he’s the nominee, I hope people listen to that speech.

Context is decisive – context, the background conversation is always more important than the content.  And the background conversation is, put the past behind us.  We’ve all been hurt by the racial divide – white and black and other hues.  We have to move forward.  So adult in its view and tone; so heartfelt; so real…. so different from his stump speech.  It may catapult him to victory.  I trust his intelligence and I was surprised at his maturity.

Since my commitment is environmental sustainabiity, social justice and spiritual fulfillment for all, I was pleased to find he included all three

March 13, 2008 Friday the 13th is on Thursday this month

But that doesn’t stop me.  In fact I recommend unstoppability as something we can all develop; that we use it where we find ourselves stoppped.  It’s a wonderful time to grow.
I think I became a coach was to strengthen that quality in myself from experiencing it over and over again in my clients.

Let’s face it; we all find ourselves blocked somewhere, some time.  And we all can use help in those moments — not to become dependent on it, but to grow from it.

I am awed to see how the music industry has changed and is still changing radically.  Hard to imagine Walmart as one of the major retailers and I think itunes may be #2, with Starbucks becoming a player.  But this is probably dwarfed by the Internet.  So the economics of it all are now fluid. 

I never listen to music on the radio.  When I want it programmed for me, I’ll listen to internet music and switch from classical to jazz  and I enjoy listening to “zen” music on my TV; very spacey.

Definitely makes me rethink my coaching.  I vary between three modes — first I can simply look at progress towards goals; second, I moight talk for a few minutes on a topic and let the group interact.  I more than simply orchestrate – I ask pointe questions and interfere gently, emphasizing some one else’s (sometimes inadvertent) points.  And third, I’ll suggest or allow suggestions of topics.  My point is that the clients have more than vested interests in the outcomes.

I am clear that my commitments are always being furthered- a sustainable environment, social jestice and spiritual fulfillment.  Look at my website for absolutely free coaching (no hidden hooks) The Relationship Principles (a 6-session seminar starting in April) – www.michaellipp.com

February 29, 2008 Extras

I wonder if I’ll write this date again for this journal.

I met this morning with Scott Rosen, owner of Transformations to talk with him about coaching.  He has formed a remarkable Holistic center and is trying to develop the coaching component.  What was interesting to me was noticing my own thinking about how to do it – not something I’ve thought about, but something I enjoyed thinking about.

I’ve long thought that creativity comes from commitment, that pressure (this wasn’t) is a spur to creativity…Some people see it as a hindrance, but that’s because they’re concerned about the pressure, not empowered.  This will create a new avenue to the future for me.  Because context is decisive and this will include many more people in my stand for spiritual fulfillment, social justice and environmental sustainability.

February 28, 2008 Awesome coaching

Last night was our session of Awesome coaching.  And we each spoke of our individual situation with our goals.  The rerason I think of this as Coaching 2.0 is that each person on the goal has an opportunity to become ‘the coach’ for whoever is speaking.  This works wonderfully.

Last night developed a common thread among each of us, something we knew but really needs to be highlighted.  That is:  The context we have for a goal is decisive in how we see and create our efforts to move forward.  If you don’t know that, I’ll say it in two different ways – 1-what is your overall vision that led to the goal?…2 – Why is your goal?

For example, one participant has a physical fitness goal and she hates doing sit-ups.  But she saw that she was seeing this as a chore and that she could create a context where she would love the effort, the discomfort, etc — like ‘I’m creating a sexy body.’  Another person shifted the context for decluttering. 

I saw that I’ve been looking at selling my books as a profit center.  The truth is that people who buy them will love them.  They provide value and enjoyment.  That creates a whole different context for selling the books and this shift in context will reflect in how I do this.

It’s important that I keep the context for my life, my overall commitments, what I stand for always present.  So I tell you I stand for spiritual fulfillment, social justice and environmental sustainability for all of us.  Everything I do is in service of that vision.

That’s why I commend my coaching to you – the free 6 session seminar started Monday and the Awesome coaching can be joined at any time; It is scheduled for Wednesdays.

February 1, 2008 Vintners and Mice

The trouble with being literate is you end up believing false truths.  I know that’s strange but I grew up believing that you, “build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.”  Not true.  And I often wonder how many truly marvelous mousetraps we’ll never see.

And I love the Rubiyat of Omar Khayyam and one of my favorite quotes is, “I wonder what the vintners buy, half so wonderful as what they sell.”  

Last year I started to learn marketing.  And that’s an open ended subject; there’s always more to learn.  I think that this year is learning about selling, the tail that wags the dog of marketing.  I had the belief about mouse traps, a ruinous belief.

Here’s what it is about vintners.   They buy from people who sell and don’t market.  But there’s a Lot to be learned about selling.  I am selling a bunch of really great e-books that I wrote (yes, I wrote.)  They are wonderfully displayed and blurbed on my website.  But I haven’t sold them.  So I now am.  Working on mini-sites right now.  You, of course, can avoid the mini-sites and just go to www.michaellipp.com/michaelsreadingroom/store.htm  or you can wait until I promote each one.

They will add to my spiritual fulfillment, social justice and my personal environmental sustainability. Up with vintners, down with mousetraps.