I'm excited to let you know that registrations are now open for the 2012 Creative Women Can Summit with the theme this year Creative Women Can Rocket In Business!

Here's a short message I've just recorded to tell you about the Summit.  We've got some amazing and inspirational speakers coming on board and I can't wait to share them with you.  Please share this video with your network of wonderful Creative Women who Can!
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It's been a big week for me already which, I might add, is absolutely awesome.  After yesterday's celebrating the new (and by the way I have decided to keep my new stuff to myself for now as it just seems more appropriate while the 'magic' happens) I spent time today at a workshop and got aha after aha moment which left me feeling energised and more alive than I have felt in a long time.  There was so much covered and I thought of so many inspiring things that I can share with you all that for the next week I'm going to pick one thing a day to share as part of the innovation challenge

Today's big learning opportunity and innovation challenge is related to something I'm calling the cost of action.  The reflection I invite you to take is to consider what the cost is for you to take action on your dreams.  It's action, with a good dose of strategy, that will make THE difference between wether your dreams stay dreams or become reality.  Beautiful, bold, exciting, motivating, inspiring, day in, day out, lived experience, reality!

What do I mean by the cost of action?  I mean what it will literally and figuratively cost you to take action.  Start by writing down a clear summary of the one dream you've been resisting.  It's the one thing that keeps coming up, time and time again.  The one that, no matter how much you try to ignore it, it keeps knocking at the door asking to be embraced and to become reality.  Yep..... it's THAT dream!

Next break it down into small steps.  Ask yourself, "What's the first step I could take to bring me one step closer to this dream of mine becoming reality?" and write down your answer

Then ask the question again but in a slightly different way, "What's the next step I could take, that stretches me a little from the previous step, and that brings me closer to my dream becoming reality?" and again write down your answer

Keep going until you have about 8-10 steps.  The next part is about looking at the costs you stand to incur.  Think about the costs in financial and emotional terms.  You could even create 2 columns and write your thoughts next to each step.  The really cool thing is that you may well discover (as I did when I looked at the costs of my 2012 visions) that there is no cost involved at all with many of the steps.  All there is in terms of a consequence is lots of wonderful gain.  That made me realise that I have nothing to hold me back.  There is nothing in the way of my taking action except me!

Truthfully, this process has the power to empower you to take action in a big, bold, daring way.  Once you know the cost of something and you can see clearly what lies before you it's hard to keep putting obstacles in the way and hold back and that is, quite simply, transformational

That was your innovation challenge for today!

Wishing you succulent, effortless success

Shannon
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Today is the Chinese New Year and we welcome in the year of the water dragon.  You'll probably see lots of articles about what that means and how to celebrate.  Did you also know that it is a new moon?  Now I'm not going to get all spiritual on you here but I do want to point out that this is a very auspicious time to welcome in and celebrate the new that you want to manifest this year

It's well into the first month of the year and if you've not yet set your intentions today's the day.  Forget the resolutions and instead focus on what it is you want that's new in your life.  You could write yourself a letter, create a list, paint it, make a collage or even create a ritual or ceremony to acknowledge and celebrate what is about to happen this year for you.  Doing this is your innovation challenge for today

It's only a quick post today... I've got new things to celebrate.  As always, feel free to share by adding a comment below.  Maybe tomorrow I'll share some of what I'm intending for this year

Be back tomorrow with the next innovation challenge!

Wishing you succulent effortless success,

Shannon

P.S. Can I also make a suggestion... as you get clear on the new you want think about the following question:
"How can this be easy?" and keep that in mind as you celebrate your new! 
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Following on from the destination theme of the past couple of days I have decided to devote today's message to helping you to define your destination success.  As someone who embraces and teaches what I know to be key principles to effortless success I often get asked to define success.  This is where it can get tricky.  I don't believe that there is one definition of success as I believe whole heartedly that it's a very, very personal thing.  What I write as my definition of success will not be the same as yours or the next persons

The term success is so popular and shows up all over the place.  You see it feature in personal development, psychology, health, business, education, sports, finances, relationships..... the list goes on and on

When you get to thinking about what it means to you - success - I think you could potentially end up with many different definitions, depending on what area of your life you are thinking about at the time.  What I do know is that your life experience, your path to this point, your environment, your 'map of the world' all contribute to your definitions.  These differences between us are to be celebrated.  It's the differences that make us unique and real.  It's what makes the world an interesting place and a place to explore and journey our own path to success and anything else we wish for
What do you think about these dictionary definitions of success;

Success is the achievement of something desired, planned, or attempted

Success is the gaining of fame or prosperityand the extent of such gain

Success is the attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like

Success is the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors

Mmmmm.... not sure what I think about these!
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I've just been chatting to a great friend of mine and during the conversation we covered all sorts of things.  It was a bit of a general catch-up to see how we both were and, in usual form, we got talking about some relatively deep topics and then we got to the topic of balance

We both, as do many of our friends, and in fact a large majority of people I know, talk of searching for balance and suggest, through what we say that is an elusive, out there, thing

This got me thinking, what is balance?  really, what is it?  what do we say when we use the word balance?  what do I mean when I say I want balance in my life?
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This morning I received a fabulous message in my in-box from a blogger I have been following for some time.  She regularly shares inspiring, fun, quirky and simply awesome lists of different things as suggestions to help you in your life, your business or your career

Reading over her current list, which was focused on making 2012 your best year and having repeated my Seal Your Success webinar again last night, I felt inspired to share some ways for you to be more innovative in your effortless efforts to be a success, empower your visions and transform your life.  So..... drum roll please..... here are my 12 ways to be more innovative in your efforts to be effortlessly successful
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_Yesterday I read my daily Thought For Today message and felt so inspired to write something about this topic because it's such a great reminder on our journey to success, particularly if we want that journey to be exciting, eventful, full of achievement, but also very effortless

The message said;

"The Value of Flexibility - It is easy to fall into habits of ways of doing something. Sometimes these routines are helpful. But at other times they stop us seeing that there may be a better way of doing things. To achieve constant success we need to become flexible"

So you guessed it, your Innovation Challenge for today is going to ask you to take that stretching you did last week a step further to embrace your flexible self!

The Innovation Challenge question is;

What are you not currently happy with (in your life, business, career) and what are you doing that is restricting you, holding you back or preventing you from the creating happiness (or anything else) you seek?
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"All that is necessary to break the spell of inertia and frustration is this: Act as if it were impossible to fail. That is the talisman, the formula, the command of right-about-face which turns us from failure towards success" ~ Dorothea Brande

I've had an intersting few weeks with lots of changes happening in my world which have led to a big challenge when it comes to focusing and belief.  The blessing in all this was that I found the quote above and it really inspired me and delivered a big dose of nurturing hope for this new year and beyond.  I was also reminded of the little bit of wisdom I love from Audrey Hepburn who said "Nothing is Impossible, the word itself says, I'm Possible"
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The word inspiration has, I believe, a certain quality of inspiration about it.  When I hear this word or it's sisters, inspire, inspirer, inspired, I get a sense of expansion and possibility.  I have never met anyone who has not been inspired at some point in their lives.  My question is though, how do you go from being the inspired one to the inspirer; the one doing the inspiring?

There are many many people in our beautiful world who are natural inspirers.  They have the gift of inspiration, coupled with the gift of belief.  Belief in others and most importantly belief in themselves.  Without that belief I feel that the inspiration has a tendancy to lose it's power.  It gets diluted by self-doubt, incongruence, diminishing confidence and the message of inspiration just doesn't have the same glow about it

To embrace the Inspirer Believer lead-HER-ship style is not something difficult.  It is, in my mind a simple formula of 100% self belief, 100% belief in others, 100% openess to be inspired and 100% commitment to share your knowledge, experiences, gifts and personal magic with your community, be that your immediate friends and family or on a visionary creator global scale

What inspires you the most each day and how can you take that inspiration, coupled with the belief that if you've been inspired others may be too and share that with the world?  go forth Inspirer Beleivers and share your message with heartfelt conviction... the world is waiting to hear from you


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Do you feel compelled to create, time and time again?

Has your life been about big visions and bold goals?

If I were to ask you to describe your personal leadership style - the way you express yourself in your life, your business, your career - would you respond with a colourful, bright description of how you're going to fulfilling some great quest, be the first at something, infuse colour and creativity into everything you do and also help many many people along the way?

A Visionary Creator is one of the most common primary leadership archetypes expressed by entrepreneurial women.  Visionary women.  Women who thrive on creating.  Women who create in a big, bold, brightly coloured way.  Women who have a determination and passion that is big..... really big.  They see the potential in absolutely everything and they love the thrill of the journey to bring their dreams to reality

As a leader, a Visionary Creator is the one with all the ideas.  She's key to your team's success if you're all about doing things in new, different ways.  Her natural expression is grounded in clear-sighted vision, creativity, innovation and fun.  She generally see's things before anyone else and is often considered a real pioneer, the one who goes first, who leads the way for others across new terrain, navigating intersting, challenging landscapes with a refreshing, beautiful approach

Want to know if you really are a Visionary Creator and how to leverage your natural strengths to create Effortless Success?  Join me at an upcoming seminar, launching locally in October 2011



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