Painting the Seasons
Just a quick post today…
As we look outside our windows throughout the day, how many of us see a beautiful landscape of luscious color just begging us to come outside? How many of us are looking outside wishing it was warmer or at least sunny right now? I don’t know about you, but I’m already getting excited about the summer sunshine and getting outdoors. Where I live, it remains quite cloudy (with some chance of rain) most of the time. That rain does make for vividly green trees and grass, colorful flowers on hillsides and a fresh clean rainy smell (that I enjoy). As I think about summer right now, I realize that I love every season… each for it’s own reason.
If you are the outdoorsy artistic type you probably love getting out and enjoying each season… painting the landscapes around you and seeing the beauty everywhere you go. We are surrounded by amazing sights daily. Have you ever wanted to travel, paint and explore with others.. possibly in France? I always wonder how things look to other people. Do they look the same to them, what stands out the most.. do they see tiny details or the general view?
If you are not the artistic type, or think you aren’t the artistic type, have you thought about trying it sometime? Do you want to be able to capture that beauty around you with watercolor? Then it’s time to start thinking about an experience that will be hard to beat. Imagine learning, or honing your skills, in watercolor painting while exploring the French Alps.
Coming up way too quickly is the Your Life Your Art France retreat. It takes place in October and will be the event of the year for beginner to intermediate watercolor artists. Keep a look out for more information on it and sign up for the newsletter to make sure you don’t miss out.
Think France in the Fall!!!
Kerri
P.S. Also, if you’d like to make some extra cash… For each person you refer that signs up, you will earn $200. So start getting the word out.
Create a Wide-opend Space
(excerpt from A New Adventure Every Day by David Silberkleit)
Create a wide-open space in your wallet. Make more room for money in your life. Clean out all the assorted junk that obliterates any space that might otherwise be filled with cash. Get a second photo wallet if you must carry pictures of all your relatives and discount cards from all the mass merchandisers. But make sure that you have an elegant wallet that makes you feel rich, with ample room to receive abundant amounts of cash.
Change Your Shoes!
This is a very short post, but I really like it. Kinda funny, but something very interesting.
Change Your Shoes midday. See if your day changes.
What are some other things that could change your day for the better. What things do you notice change your day for the worse. Make a list of anything that makes your day better and be sure to fill your day with as many as you can. What kind of day do you have after that? Is it really productive.. less stressful.. what? Try something new every week… see what happens.
Office Feng Shui
Adventures in the office - from A New Adventure Every Day, by David Silberkleit
Hire a feng shui consultant to help you rearrange your office into it’s energetic best!
what else can you do to help set your office up for maximum organization and efficiencies? Do you lose time looking for things that should be easy to find?
Have an AdventureFULL Day!
Display Pictures From Past Adventures
Adventures On The Homefront - from A New Adventure Everyday, by David Silberkleit
DISPLAY PICTURES
of your past adventures on the walls of your home. Display artifacts brought back form your travels. You may have only spent one week in Macchu Pichu, but make sure there is some evidence of your trip on display, to transport you back during the other fifty-one weeks of the year.
3 to 1: What Life Coaching Is And Isn’t
With the growing awareness of Life Coaching, more and more people are interested in finding out more. They get bits and pieces here and there but are still left wondering exactly what happens, how it works and how much it costs. As these things can vary quite a bit, one thing that is constant is that coaching is NOT giving advice. It is asking questions, clarifying the answers and accountability.
What is advice and why coaches don’t give it.
Advice comes from personal experience.
The things you personally have been through and how you handled them. Giving someone advice is giving someone your own answers to the questions and issues from your own life. These answers, although meant to be helpful, can often times cause the wrong outcome, hurt feelings and possibly a worse situation than when it started. Not only that, but the result will be your doing. This looks to be great if the outcome is positive, but even with a positive end there will be less ownership and self accountability from the person using your advice in the long run.
Why coaches ask questions.
When coaching an individual we want to focus solely on them. Telling our own stories or offering our own advice is really all about us, not them. In order to learn about the client, coaches will ask questions to try to get a better understanding of where the client is at and where they want to be. In addition, coaches ask questions to help the client realize for themselves where they are at and gain clarity on it. Each individual has their own answers; coaches simply ask the right questions at the right time to draw out the answers already within the client. Myself and many others call this the “ah ha” moment, or a paradigm shift.
Why coaches clarify the answers and how they do it.
After asking questions to determine where a client is and where they want to be, coaches will ask clarifying questions to get the client to be as detailed and clear as they can. Having a vague place to get to is like trying to drive to a friend’s house in Texas but all you know is that it’s in Texas. You’re heading in the right direction but probably never going to get there. Questions like,
“What would that look like?”
“Can you tell me more about that?”
“Describe that in more detail to me.”
These are great questions to get closer to what it is that the client really wants. This is more for the client than the coach. Asking these questions forces the client to understand better their own desires.
How coaches hold clients accountable.
Once you’ve asked all the questions and the client and coach are clear on where the client wants to be, the coach and client work together to map out the path to close the gap from where they are to where they want to be. The client will come up with “checkpoints” along the way with the coach pushing them to go a little beyond what is comfortable while keeping them realistic. At a mutually designated time both coach and client go over where the client is compared to where they want to be in the end and where they wanted to be by then. If they did everything they wanted, the coach will push them to try more. If they didn’t get where they wanted, the coach asks focused questions to help understand road blocks, realistic goals and how to overcome them. Coaches hold clients accountable, making sure they not only hit their goals, but are doing so effectively and efficiently. Not doing too much or too little.
Even people who set up and accomplish goals on their own would benefit from having an outside party help gain even more clarity and being held accountable to obtaining goals effectively and efficiently. Life Coaching is takes many forms but the core of coaching is asking the right questions, getting clarity and holding the client accountable to the desired outcomes.
Let Go!
Hello!
I’m back with another adventure for you. All of these adventures are from a book called A New Adventure Every Day - 541 simple ways to live with pizzazz by David Silberkleit.
This next adventure is a career adventure!
Let Go
of at least one complaint about your workplace each week. You may be right about a number of things that could be improved. But struggling with issues over which you have no control taxes your vitality. Focus on what you can control. Practice letting go. If necessary, find a new company that values your contribution.
What’s your Adventure of the day.
Adventures Close to Home
I am going to be adding new adventures almost daily on here! New cool things to do in your daily life to add small adventure everyday.
Today’s Adventures are close to home…
Sleep in a tent!
…in your backyard! Rent one at the local camping store, or get out the one you have, and spend a Saturday night sleeping in your yard with your spouse or your kids. Or leave your tent set up and sleep in it during a rainstorm, and get lost in the meditative drone of the storm.
Do Nothing!
Watch the trees blow. Notice the sea birds diving. Give yourself the gift of agenda-less time. And you’ll be free.
I don’t know about all of you, but those are two things I haven’t given myself the time to do on a regular basis. We grow so accustomed to having to be goal-oriented and results based that we never take the time to just stop and enjoy and relax. I remember being young and getting home from school and just laying on my bed staring at the ceiling for a while. No TV, no music, no noise, just me with agenda-less time. I need more of that back in my life. So starting today I’m going to have agenda-less time and purposefully let go of whatever issue, task or whatever is there that day and watch the clouds or a tree or my ceiling and just do nothing for a few minutes. Just enjoy my surroundings.
You with me?
Have an AdventurFULL Day,
Kerri
Contest: What’s Your Definition of Adventure?
Hello Adventurer,
I’m starting a new series of posts today that will be all about adventure, but first I thought we should define adventure. And here is where the contest comes in… keep reading!
The definition from the dictionary is
ad?ven?ture
? ?[ad-ven-cher] noun, verb, -tured, -tur?ing.
–noun
1. an exciting or very unusual experience.
2. participation in exciting undertakings or enterprises: the spirit of adventure.
3. a bold, usually risky undertaking; hazardous action of uncertain outcome.
4. a commercial or financial speculation of any kind; venture.
5. Obsolete.
a. peril; danger; risk.
b. chance; fortune; luck.
–verb (used with object)
6. to risk or hazard.
7. to take the chance of; dare.
8. to venture to say or utter: to adventure an opinion.
–verb (used without object)
9. to take the risk involved.
10. to venture; hazard.
Now as we can see and adventures can take many forms and be in many places.
About the contest:
What I want to know most is what an adventure is to you! Define Adventure in your own words, be creative. You can write it in similar form to the dictionary style or you can just write it out in sentence form.
Remember adventure doesn’t just have to be outdoors… where else can you take an adventure… how else can you take an adventure? I am looking to possibly use one of these definitions as a new slogan/tag line etc for my business, feel free to take a look around my website http://www.adventureon.net for more ideas.
What you win!
Everyone who submits an entry will not only receive a free surprise gift, but also be entered into a drawing to win free registration to one retreat in 2009. Restrictions and Limitations will apply and details will be sent out to the drawing winner. Not more than one free gift per person regardless of how many entries they submit.
The winning definition will also win free entry to one retreat in 2009. Restrictions and Limitations will apply to the retreat choice, the details will be sent out to the winner.
How to enter.
Simply fill in the form to the right… then email kerri.wood@adventureon.net to submit your definition. If you are submitting multiple definitions please try to have them all in the same email.
Dates of contest
This contest ends April 6th 2009 at midnight PST.
You may invite friends and family to submit their answers as well!
Have Fun and Good Luck,
Keep Adventuring,
Kerri
Kindness Quote We All Should Live By
“Be kinder than necessary because everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle” - Author Unknown
What an amazing way to view a stranger, acquaintance, co-worker, etc. More often than not we don’t realize what is going on behind the front people use to keep their secrets and sometimes misfortunes safe from the world. And who wouldn’t do that, it’s rare that someone will just tell a perfect stranger everything they are battling if they don’t know them at all… or in some cases if they don’t know them very well (like a co-worker). There are times when it may be appropriate to seek understanding and ask about what is going on, but for the most part we just need to realize that everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle no matter what it is, even if they seem to be the happiest person on the planet, they could use a little kindness.
Let’s go out in the world today and celebrate the new year and wonderful roads ahead and treat people with respect and kindness. Who knows… it will probably be good for you too!
Have an AdventureFull Day,
Kerri
