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© Copyright 2006 Susan Henderson Coaching
360-265-2838
coach@susanhenderson.com
coach@susanhenderson.com
The Successful Dilettante
March 5, 2007 Issue 17 ISSN 19354886
Editor: Susan Henderson, coach@susanhenderson.com
Visit my website at: http://www.susanhenderson.com
The Successful Dilettante, published on the 5th and 20th of each month, is sent only to those who have subscribed to it - or was forwarded to you by someone you know. I value your privacy and never share my mailing list with anyone. If a copy has been sent to you by a friend or colleague and you wish to receive your own copies, you may subscribe by filling in the form on the Home or Newsletter pages.
=====================================================
In This Issue
1) Greetings - Hope Springs Eternal
2) Susan's Musings - The Big "R"
3) Featured guest: Barbara Winter
Las Vegas-based writer, speaker and muse to entrepreneurs. She is the author of Making a Living Without a Job - Winning Ways For Creating Work that You Love. Read how she has designed her life to include her many interests.
=====================================================
Greetings
I am pleased to welcome you to Issue 17 of this ezine. As hope springs eternal, I have high hopes Spring is headed our way soon. I do this every year and then feel so betrayed when we have a freeze or snow beyond March. I offer a fresh, optimistic, new-buds-blooming welcome to both old and new subscribers alike.
=====================================================
Susan's Musings - The Big "R"
We have all faced it. It is mean and ugly and will chop you off at the knees if you let it. It is a shape-shifter and ever so sneaky. It has no conscience and will do anything to deceive you. It is a liar and a bully. It is invisible, but can be felt as a negative, repelling force. It feeds on your fear and wreaks havoc on your self confidence. It never sleeps and is always with you. It is the enemy within. And its name is Resistance.
Resistance most often shows up as procrastination and is the easiest to rationalize because we don't tell ourselves that we won't ever write that book, walk on the treadmill that's gathering dust, or start that business we are so passionate about. We tell ourselves we will do it tomorrow. Oh my, that resistance is a sneaky little devil, isn't it?
All is not hopeless. Last month, I was lucky to attend a teleclass offered by today's guest, Barbara Winter, titled Outsmarting Resistance. It was a major eye-opener for me. She says we all have twin forces within us: inspiration and resistance. Whichever one we give our attention to and feed will be the strongest.
You must learn what feeds your inspiration and put yourself there--everyday! Set a priority system for yourself that puts those high ticket items at the top and the busywork at the bottom. Concentrate on the payoffs of actually doing what you want to do. Set up some rewards. Get out of the paralysis of analysis; it doesn't have to be perfect to get started. Make a list of all your accomplishments--big and small; then keep adding to the list as you try new things. Then when you have doubts--resistance--reread your list.
Barbara gave a glowing recommendation for a book called The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. I bought it immediately, read it cover to cover and can sincerely tell you that if you want a better life for yourself and to conquor those inner demons that keep you from achieving all those things you have been "meaning to do, want to do, have a passion for" then read this book. It clearly exposes what resistance looks like in all its forms and then tells you the combat strategies to win the war against this little sucker of your creative life force. It is a war worth winning.
You are worth it.
(Wow! I feel like bursting into song!)
Hugs,
Susan
=====================================================
Featured Guest: Barbara Winter
I am so tickled to introduce today's guest to you - although to many of you here she needs no introduction. She wrote a timeless book published in 1993 that changed my life dramatically. Making a Living Without a Job jumped off the bookstore shelf at me when I most needed it. I have been a raving fan ever since. She walks her talk and is a great model for living your entrepreneurial passion and enjoying life to the fullest. She is a speaker, seminar leader, and offers teleclasses in support of creative multipreneurs like us. Welcome Barbara.
SH: Barbara, how have you come to live the life you enjoy today?
BW: It was an evolutionary process that probably started with my unhappiness in the jobs I had... jobs that everyone told me I should be grateful to have! I was more bored than grateful and started looking for alternatives.
There's that old Eastern proverb that says, "When the student is ready the teacher will appear." That's pretty much what happened to me. First I met a man who was both an entrepreneur and an enthusiastic student of personal growth. I knew nothing about either of these things, but I could see that he operated from a higher state of being than anyone I knew and I wanted to live that way.
Then I read a little newspaper story about the women who started Supergirls, a personal service business in New York, that sounded like so much fun that I was determined to create my own enterprise. Their book about their adventures became my handbook.
I also became a big self-help junkie myself and as my self-awareness grew, I realized I was consistently making better choices based on my own dreams. Best of all, I stopped being afraid of my dreams and embraced them.
SH: When did you realize that you would be happiest doing a multitude of things?
BW: I think I always knew it. When I was in high school, it was kind of a family joke that I changed my mind about my future occupation almost every week. For a long time, I tried to take the conventional advice to just specialize in one thing, but I (like most entrepreneurs) have a very low threshold of boredom and once I learned to do something, I wanted to learn the next thing.
It wasn't until I started to think about having my own business that I realized I could build as much diversity into it as I could handle. The biggest surprise to me is how many participants in my seminars tell me they always wanted to do multiple things and thought something was wrong with them. I really believe we all have Renaissance souls, but have not had much encouragement to explore all our personal possibilities.
SH: How have you balanced your multiple interests into a meaningful career?
BW: Over time, a big theme emerged and so my profit centers really are quite clustered around my passion for the joyfully jobless life. But within that, I have great contrast with activities that are solitary and others that are filled with group interaction.
I also had an epiphany a few years ago when I realized that I'm happiest when I'm making stuff--and it doesn't really matter much what that stuff is! Baking cookies is as much fun as answering these questions, for instance.
SH: What a wonderful epipany. So, how do you manage your time? Do you make a plan?
BW: Long ago, I realized that people who are clear about their goals and priorities, don't really need time management training. Self-employed people also discover their own bio-rhythms and plan their work around those rhythms as much as is possible. So, for example, I am a morning person and try to do more creative work before 2 in the afternoon. Then I go into a bit of a slump so I use that to do more maintainence things like autographing books and getting them ready to mail.
I also find it helpful to give one aspect of my business top priority each day. Yesterday I worked on the next issue of Winning Ways newsletter. Today I'm doing more Internet-related projects. I also am very good at doing whatever I'm doing 100% so my mind isn't working on anything other than what's right in front of me.
SH: Have you had any mentors or books that have influenced you?
BW: Oh, so many. I'm often surprised at how many entrepreneurs don't have heroes and heroines. I'm totally fascinated by people who have mastery of any sort, whether it's Guy Laliberte, the founder of Cirque du Soleil, or Richard Branson or Paul Hawken or Paul McCartney.
My reading list is much too long to mention here, but at the top of the list are:
.
Last year, I came across more books to be crazy about than I ever had in such a short period of time including Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and Writing to Change the World by Mary Pipher. One of the reasons I love newsletter publishing is that it gives me a chance to share great reads
.
SH: What advice or tips would you share with our readers?
BW: Learn what it means to think like an entrepreneur. Devote yourself to making a contribution that matters. Leave it better than you found it.
SH: Great advice Barbara. Thank you.
************************************************
Barbara J. Winter is a Las Vegas-based writer, speaker and muse to entrepreneurs. She is the author of Making a Living Without a Job and publisher of the longest-running self-employment newsletter, Winning Ways. Her passion is helping others create their own inspired businesses.
Visit her content rich website at: www.barbarawinter.com and be sure to check out her Tip Sheets section where you will find Barbara's personal manifesto for living the joyfully jobless life, and many more helpful articles. Also, sign up for her free Joyfully Jobless News emailings.
=====================================================
© 2006-2007 Susan Henderson Coaching, All rights reserved
March 5, 2007 Issue 17 ISSN 19354886
Editor: Susan Henderson, coach@susanhenderson.com
Visit my website at: http://www.susanhenderson.com
The Successful Dilettante, published on the 5th and 20th of each month, is sent only to those who have subscribed to it - or was forwarded to you by someone you know. I value your privacy and never share my mailing list with anyone. If a copy has been sent to you by a friend or colleague and you wish to receive your own copies, you may subscribe by filling in the form on the Home or Newsletter pages.
=====================================================
In This Issue
1) Greetings - Hope Springs Eternal
2) Susan's Musings - The Big "R"
3) Featured guest: Barbara Winter
Las Vegas-based writer, speaker and muse to entrepreneurs. She is the author of Making a Living Without a Job - Winning Ways For Creating Work that You Love. Read how she has designed her life to include her many interests.
=====================================================
Greetings
I am pleased to welcome you to Issue 17 of this ezine. As hope springs eternal, I have high hopes Spring is headed our way soon. I do this every year and then feel so betrayed when we have a freeze or snow beyond March. I offer a fresh, optimistic, new-buds-blooming welcome to both old and new subscribers alike.
=====================================================
Susan's Musings - The Big "R"
We have all faced it. It is mean and ugly and will chop you off at the knees if you let it. It is a shape-shifter and ever so sneaky. It has no conscience and will do anything to deceive you. It is a liar and a bully. It is invisible, but can be felt as a negative, repelling force. It feeds on your fear and wreaks havoc on your self confidence. It never sleeps and is always with you. It is the enemy within. And its name is Resistance.
Resistance most often shows up as procrastination and is the easiest to rationalize because we don't tell ourselves that we won't ever write that book, walk on the treadmill that's gathering dust, or start that business we are so passionate about. We tell ourselves we will do it tomorrow. Oh my, that resistance is a sneaky little devil, isn't it?
All is not hopeless. Last month, I was lucky to attend a teleclass offered by today's guest, Barbara Winter, titled Outsmarting Resistance. It was a major eye-opener for me. She says we all have twin forces within us: inspiration and resistance. Whichever one we give our attention to and feed will be the strongest.
You must learn what feeds your inspiration and put yourself there--everyday! Set a priority system for yourself that puts those high ticket items at the top and the busywork at the bottom. Concentrate on the payoffs of actually doing what you want to do. Set up some rewards. Get out of the paralysis of analysis; it doesn't have to be perfect to get started. Make a list of all your accomplishments--big and small; then keep adding to the list as you try new things. Then when you have doubts--resistance--reread your list.
Barbara gave a glowing recommendation for a book called The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. I bought it immediately, read it cover to cover and can sincerely tell you that if you want a better life for yourself and to conquor those inner demons that keep you from achieving all those things you have been "meaning to do, want to do, have a passion for" then read this book. It clearly exposes what resistance looks like in all its forms and then tells you the combat strategies to win the war against this little sucker of your creative life force. It is a war worth winning.
You are worth it.
(Wow! I feel like bursting into song!)
Hugs,
Susan
=====================================================
Featured Guest: Barbara Winter
I am so tickled to introduce today's guest to you - although to many of you here she needs no introduction. She wrote a timeless book published in 1993 that changed my life dramatically. Making a Living Without a Job jumped off the bookstore shelf at me when I most needed it. I have been a raving fan ever since. She walks her talk and is a great model for living your entrepreneurial passion and enjoying life to the fullest. She is a speaker, seminar leader, and offers teleclasses in support of creative multipreneurs like us. Welcome Barbara.
SH: Barbara, how have you come to live the life you enjoy today?
BW: It was an evolutionary process that probably started with my unhappiness in the jobs I had... jobs that everyone told me I should be grateful to have! I was more bored than grateful and started looking for alternatives.
There's that old Eastern proverb that says, "When the student is ready the teacher will appear." That's pretty much what happened to me. First I met a man who was both an entrepreneur and an enthusiastic student of personal growth. I knew nothing about either of these things, but I could see that he operated from a higher state of being than anyone I knew and I wanted to live that way.
Then I read a little newspaper story about the women who started Supergirls, a personal service business in New York, that sounded like so much fun that I was determined to create my own enterprise. Their book about their adventures became my handbook.
I also became a big self-help junkie myself and as my self-awareness grew, I realized I was consistently making better choices based on my own dreams. Best of all, I stopped being afraid of my dreams and embraced them.
SH: When did you realize that you would be happiest doing a multitude of things?
BW: I think I always knew it. When I was in high school, it was kind of a family joke that I changed my mind about my future occupation almost every week. For a long time, I tried to take the conventional advice to just specialize in one thing, but I (like most entrepreneurs) have a very low threshold of boredom and once I learned to do something, I wanted to learn the next thing.
It wasn't until I started to think about having my own business that I realized I could build as much diversity into it as I could handle. The biggest surprise to me is how many participants in my seminars tell me they always wanted to do multiple things and thought something was wrong with them. I really believe we all have Renaissance souls, but have not had much encouragement to explore all our personal possibilities.
SH: How have you balanced your multiple interests into a meaningful career?
BW: Over time, a big theme emerged and so my profit centers really are quite clustered around my passion for the joyfully jobless life. But within that, I have great contrast with activities that are solitary and others that are filled with group interaction.
I also had an epiphany a few years ago when I realized that I'm happiest when I'm making stuff--and it doesn't really matter much what that stuff is! Baking cookies is as much fun as answering these questions, for instance.
SH: What a wonderful epipany. So, how do you manage your time? Do you make a plan?
BW: Long ago, I realized that people who are clear about their goals and priorities, don't really need time management training. Self-employed people also discover their own bio-rhythms and plan their work around those rhythms as much as is possible. So, for example, I am a morning person and try to do more creative work before 2 in the afternoon. Then I go into a bit of a slump so I use that to do more maintainence things like autographing books and getting them ready to mail.
I also find it helpful to give one aspect of my business top priority each day. Yesterday I worked on the next issue of Winning Ways newsletter. Today I'm doing more Internet-related projects. I also am very good at doing whatever I'm doing 100% so my mind isn't working on anything other than what's right in front of me.
SH: Have you had any mentors or books that have influenced you?
BW: Oh, so many. I'm often surprised at how many entrepreneurs don't have heroes and heroines. I'm totally fascinated by people who have mastery of any sort, whether it's Guy Laliberte, the founder of Cirque du Soleil, or Richard Branson or Paul Hawken or Paul McCartney.
My reading list is much too long to mention here, but at the top of the list are:
.
Last year, I came across more books to be crazy about than I ever had in such a short period of time including Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and Writing to Change the World by Mary Pipher. One of the reasons I love newsletter publishing is that it gives me a chance to share great reads
.
SH: What advice or tips would you share with our readers?
BW: Learn what it means to think like an entrepreneur. Devote yourself to making a contribution that matters. Leave it better than you found it.
SH: Great advice Barbara. Thank you.
************************************************
Barbara J. Winter is a Las Vegas-based writer, speaker and muse to entrepreneurs. She is the author of Making a Living Without a Job and publisher of the longest-running self-employment newsletter, Winning Ways. Her passion is helping others create their own inspired businesses.
Visit her content rich website at: www.barbarawinter.com and be sure to check out her Tip Sheets section where you will find Barbara's personal manifesto for living the joyfully jobless life, and many more helpful articles. Also, sign up for her free Joyfully Jobless News emailings.
=====================================================
© 2006-2007 Susan Henderson Coaching, All rights reserved
| · | The War of Art by Steven Pressfield; |
| · | A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink; and, |
| · | Small is the New Big by Seth Godin |
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