Category Archives: Sheryl Eldene

Manifestation through Balance

<div class=\"postavatar\">Manifestation through Balance</div>

by Sheryl Eldene, MA, MBA

During my corporate career, I was successful by using my strong will to drive myself to complete projects, and to please my employers. When I left corporate, quite burned out from 20 years of using that strong will, I was determined to run my private practice from the heart -to discover how to run a business as a spiritual practice.

What I’ve discovered over the last 15 years of managing the On Purpose Living center, is that without the discipline provided by that will, I can spend way too many hours playing computer games, creating new web pages and creating action steps that don’t get done. I am a powerful counselor, able to be fully present and to provide spot-on support when needed in my counseling room. However, without the discipline, I just jelly-fish my way through a feel-good day, if you know what I mean.

When I finally got very focused on what gifts I want to bring forward into the world and how I want that business to take shape, I began to see how those opposites of using my will OR my passion was holding me in an old belief pattern of the poor therapist OR the rich, heartless CEO. I am now on a mission to heal this distortion in my own life, and to create a successful business through helping people to bring their gifts forward and to become masters at manifesting wealth. Not specifically for the wealth (although that is important, too), but as a external mirror to the inner process of clearing, and allowing more and more of the abundance of the universe all the way through my heart into the core of our planet.

Yes, it is Big Dreams and Hard Work, but when that work is done purely from a strong will and without the passion of the heart, then it’s driving and striving, and eventual burn-out.

If you or someone you know is curious about the possibilities, let us know.

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New Habit? Keep Those Glasses ON

<div class=\"postavatar\">New Habit? Keep Those Glasses ON</div>

By Sheryl Eldene, MA, MBA

You may have heard that to change a habit, you need to practice the new lifestyle for 6 weeks for it to become your own. We have some interesting information now about how malleable the amazing brain is – it’s called the plasticity of the brain. Our brains are constantly adapting to our environment to a much greater extent that we ever recognized.

Well, here’s the story. Several years ago, NASA created eye glasses for astronauts that reversed images both right-left and up-down with the intention of helping them adjust more easily to weightlessness when up and down was not a given. They were to wear the glasses absolutely constantly whenever their eyes were being used (work, shower, eat, everything). To their surprise, they found that the brains of the astronauts completely rewired to correct the image by day 30. Amazing, huh? Here’s the other interesting part. When someone removed the glasses for just one day, say day 15, then the countdown began all over, at day 1, needing an additional 30 days to rewire.

When you create your written goals,  make a note of the day you begin and every single day for a full 30 days, speak an affirmation about that goal, feel the feeling of manifesting, look at the vision pictures, experience the joy of manifestation.  What have you tried that successfully helped you change a habit, and create a new part of your lifestyle?

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Perfectionism Sucks

(the life right out of you)

Why is that? What’s wrong with doing everything RIGHT? How can that hurt me? Bottom line – it isn’t sustainable. It actually isn’t possible. You may be perfect in the way you dress, sort of, for one day according to a magazine you read. You may be perfect in the way you work, according to your last boss some days.

The tricky part about perfectionism is that the “perfect” bar is never static. You envision exactly how you think you “should” be, and the second – the nano-second you reach that place, you reset the bar and continue to be just a little less than adequate.

Here’s some tips for getting PERFECTIONISM out of your way before it sabotages your best intentions for your life, your health and for your business.

1) Separate YOU from your PERFECTIONIST. That is NOT you. Maybe it feels that way, especially if you are ALL OR NOTHING. Spend some time stepping back and observing your behavior. You are not your mind, and that mind of yours, which created the perfect list, just made it up out of the ethers. There isn’t a place where the perfect whatever is engraved in stone. There just isn’t.

2) Give that part of you a new name – something that gets your attention and helps you switch gears. Maybe you want to call your perfectionist self something like “it’s Anal Annie or Perfect Paula!” Remind yourself that you are not your perfectionism. Perfectionism is just a way of thinking and you can change that…IF you recognize it when it comes. For me, it comes when I’m updating my web site, or even putting this article together. I can easily spend 80% of the time I have to put up a web page on details that NO ONE but Anal Annie ever notices, like perfect margins, a font color exactly matching a border, a tilt on an illustration, yaddah, yaddah, yada. When 45 minutes has passed and the font color isn’t just right yet, and my shoulders hurt, and I have to pee, but won’t until it’s perfect, I finally notice who has the keys to my life, and change drivers. (I’m trying to get that lapse in judgment down, but 45 minutes it is what it is at the moment.)

 3) Don’t expect to be perfect in getting rid of perfection. Sometimes these strategies will work and sometimes they won’t. It is a process – a process that is well worth practicing. Actually, thoughts cannot be eliminated from the mind machine.  It’s the same with muscles.  Did you know that you literally cannot make a muscle stretch, you can only relax it and use a different muscle to straighten that flexed arm, for example. Similarly, you cannot eliminate those thoughts of “You blew it” “You’ll never be accepted if anyone sees that off color font”. However, you can say, “Oh, there’s Anal Annie talking again and I’m a good enough ___fill in the blank___________”.   

5) I like remembering that a Persian rug is always made with one flaw, since only God is perfect. Today I can try to be a perfect God (Goddess, actually) or I can be fully human, running my business the best I can, pee-ing when needed, and moving through my life with grace.

To your just right day, with its little flaws, its charming quirks and all the fun you can bring to the day.    Sheryl Eldene, MA, MBA

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Setting Your 2011 Intentions

GETTING WHAT YOU REALLY WANT…
If you haven’t yet set your goals for this year, stop here and consider what those might be.

OK, now look over your goals, and write down what you will FEEL when those goals are accomplished. Most of us are mostly interested in that feeling and are making the assumption that whatever we set as our goals will create that feeling. Let’s check that out.

WHAT FEELINGS ARE YOU REALLY AFTER?
Find a place where you are not likely to be disturbed for about 10 minutes, and put on your daydream hat. In your mind, move forward to December 31st, 2011, when all those goals are accomplished. Walk through your day with that vacation memory, that new corner office, that new pay check, your new staff, your new expanded client base, and just check out how that feels. It might feel just wonderful. On one hand, that expanded customer base may mean more commitment to being at the office, less time at home, or it can mean more passion for your work and for the service that you bring forward with a heart full of gratitude.

CREATE YOUR VISION BOARD
This year when you create your vision board (that collection of pictures that visually include your intentions for the year) include pictures that show what feelings you want at year’s end.  An easy way to create that board, is by finding pictures on the internet that you like, copy and past them into a document (I like powerpoint best because it’s easy to move and resize things). Then you can print that out. A web site, www.catalogueofdreams.com also has some helpful ways to create it.

The vision board can help you recall those feeling you’re after and can keep you on track.

To your 2011 Dreams!

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Welcome!

Welcome to Big Dreams and Hard Work!  This blog is dedicated to business owners, entrepreneurs, visionaries and authors who are committed to doing the hard work necessary to see their big dreams come true.

We’ll cover all kinds of topics related to success—marketing, self-awareness, networking, sales tips and more.  Our slant on things is a little different—we take an intuitive approach to business, emphasizing personal relationships, networking, and community.

Meet the blogger:

Gail Z. Martin is a bestselling author, international speaker and entrepreneur.  She owns DreamSpinner Communications and is the “Get Results Resource” for marketing strategies that work.  Gail is the author of The Thrifty Author’s Guide to Launching Your Book (Comfort Publishing) and 30 Days to Social Media Success (Career Press). You can find her online at www.GailMartinMarketing. Gail is also the author of the bestselling Chronicles of the Necromancer fantasy adventure series (The Summoner, The Blood King, Dark Haven, and Dark Lady’s Chosen) published by Solaris Books and distributed by Simon & Schuster.  Her new series, The Fallen Kings Cycle, will be released by Orbit Books in 2011.  Gail blogs every Wednesday.

In addition to our regular bloggers, we’ll be hosting a lot of guest bloggers, especially the amazing and dynamic professionals who have been guests on the Shared Dreams Marketing Podcast.  We’ll revisit their podcast interviews and expand on the knowledge they share with bonus blog info.  Look for guest bloggers every Tuesday.

Freebie Fridays!  Every Friday we’ll have links to great free downloads from our three main bloggers and from our guests.  Articles, ebooks, audios, videos—you never know what it will be, but it’s guaranteed to be great for growing your business!

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