When You Wish Upon A Star

Sung by Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio by Disney Studios

When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are.

When you wish upon a star, your dreams come true.

If your heart is in your dream,
No request is too extreme
When you wish upon a star
As dreamers do….

Like a bolt out of the blue
Fate steps in and sees you through
When you wish upon a star
Your dreams come true.

 In the last blog, we looked at the importance of completing your old year before you can create your new year.  Once you have laid to rest any lingering resentments, incompletions and regrets over what did or didn’t happen for you last year, you are ready to create a whole NEW year to be just the way you want it to be.

(By the way, if you haven’t yet requested the “Relfections Exercise” that my coaching colleague, Sue Koch, and I developed to help you powerfully complete the past year and create the mental and emotional space for a year of new manifestations, please email me and I will be happy to send you this powerful tool.)

Every January, I ask my coaching clients to do another exercise that I want to share with you now. It is a very effective technique for creating your year on your own terms, rather than waiting anxiously to see how it all “turns out.” Yes, you can ask for what you want – and get it!

Create Your Year Your Way

This fun exercise is called CREATE YOUR YEAR.  I’ve been doing this myself for the past 10 years and the results have been truly amazing.  Most of the big things I wanted to create in each year actually happened, including declaring at the start of 2006 that I would be engaged by the end of that year – despite not having any prospects for a date, let alone a husband.  And did I mention that I was 53 at the time?  And twice divorced?

Declaring in January 2006 that I would be engaged by the end of the year spurred me to get off the fence and take ACTION. So, at a friend’s urging, I registered on the relationship website, eHarmony. Within two weeks, I was “matched” for compatibility with a handsome widower by the name of Rick Schwartz.  We corresponded for a few weeks by email, had our first “meet date” at the beginning of March and were engaged by September.  We got married the following May in a lovely wedding and reception with all our friends and family present.

So how does this powerful dreams-come-true process actually work?

What Kind of Year Do You Want?

STEP ONE: Create a “theme” for the year. How you would like to have this year show up for YOUR life?  Make it catchy so you can remember it on a daily basis.

A few of my past themes have been as follows:

2005: Living as Cleopatra; 2006: The Year of Effortless Abundance and Nurturing; 2007: The Year of Miraculous Manifesting; 2013: The Year of Swinging for the Fences. And I am declaring that 2014 is going to be The Year of Dreams Delivered.

How do You Want to Show Up?

STEP TWO: Create a list of attributes to describe how YOU want to show up for the world in 2014. State it in the present tense, as though it’s ALREADY a fact, and it soon will be:

In 2014, I am: A richly-rewarded Messenger of Limitless Prosperity and Possibility: Irresistible, Confident, Creative, Peaceful, Joyous, Patient, Humble, A Good Listener, Loving and Giving.  I attract effortlessly WHO I AM and EVERYTHING I want!! 

By declaring who you are in writing, you will actually see yourself begin to become this person. And these qualities and attributes will attract to you “who you are” and “everything you want.”  As the Law of Attraction, states, “Energy attracts like energy.”  Therefore, whatever qualities you cultivate in yourself will also show up in others who will be attracted to you.

Fill in the Details

STEP THREE: List the main areas of life that are important to you.  Then simply state what you intend to have show up in each area in 2014.  You don’t have to know HOW you are going to get it.  Each item is simply a declaration that this is what you WANT – stated in the present tense, as thought it’s already happened.

It’s up to God/The Universe to show you the “How.” It’s your job to listen carefully for the direction and then take ACTION.  That’s what I did when I joined eHarmony.  I took an appropriate action step, based on what I declared that I wanted.  I had no way of knowing whether it was going to turn out to be the perfect action. I just knew I had to try. There are no guarantees. But if you stay open and receptive to an inspired idea coming to you via your own imagination or a helpful suggestion from another, it is quite likely to eventually produce great results.

Here are examples from three of my own key areas of life of what I have asked to manifest in the coming year:

• Beauty/Well-Being:  I am at my ideal weight, confident in my appearance, strong, fit and healthy.  I enjoy exercising every day and eating healthy.  I maintain my fitness with ease and honor my worth with adequate sleep and regular self-care.
• Career: As I celebrate my first decade as a full-time professional coach, I enjoy working from home, traveling, speaking, writing and giving tele-seminars.  I am grateful for a thriving career as a True Purpose Coach ™, Personal Success Coach and The Practical Prosperity Coach ™.  The right clients and colleagues are drawn to me effortlessly and I help more people reach their dreams than ever before. Part-time, I help Rick and together, we build his real estate business to a solid six-figure income.
•  Balance: Rick and I take time each week to play, relax and spend lots of quality time together.  This rejuvenates me and I stay young and have great energy and focus for my work.  I coach 3-4 days a week and help Rick 1-2 days a week.  The rest of the time, we play, travel and handle our paperwork, marketing and accounting in a timely manner.  Our life together is full of EASE and ORDER.  I take time each day to exercise, pray, relax, read good books and have quiet time for myself.
• You get the idea.  The other areas of life in which I am creating what I want for 2014 are Love, Finances, Home, Travel, Giving Back, Spiritual Fulfillment and Loved Ones.

Stay Connected to Your Dreams

What matters most to YOU right now? As Jiminy Cricket reminds us, YOUR job is simply to Believe that you can have whatever your heart truly desires. Then release your attachment to the “How” and Fate will step in and lead you to it.

What it takes is reading your Year Creation list on a regular basis – either daily, weekly OR monthly, as you prefer – to keep you in touch with your dreams. Most importantly, you must express GRATITUDE every single day for all the good things that you have in your life right now.  That is what will set the Law of Attraction in motion to draw to you even more Good.

Create your new year your way and trust that your Dreams are already on their way!

NOTE:  A Cup of Caroll will be on vacation next week as Rick and I enjoy our final hoorah of “Holiday Time” at Disneyland. We love the amazing Christmas decorations, lights and fireworks… If we could talk Disneyland into keeping them up all year long, we would! The blog will return on January 12, 2014.  Until then, have a very Happy New Year!

******** Give the Gift of Dreams Fulfilled! **********

It’s not too late! You can still give a friend, colleague or loved one a truly unique New Year’s gift that can change their life — ONE HOUR of Personal Success Coaching.  It is absolutely F*R*E*E* with no obligation and no strings attached!  You can give this to as many people who will really appreciate it as you wish.  (If you haven’t been in coaching with me for awhile, feel free to claim it for YOURSELF, too!)

To claim their gift, they must contact me no later than January 31, 2014 to schedule a F*R*E*E* HOUR of phone coaching that will help them clarify their Big, Juicy Goals for the New Year and get into ACTION to make this their BEST year yet!   Their F*R*E*E* coaching session can be held anytime from now through February but they must contact me no later than January 31 at 888-503-8145 or caroll@practicalprosperitycoach.com to schedule their session.

Just as your car runs more smoothly and requires less energy to go faster and farther when the wheels are in perfect alignment, you perform better when your thoughts, feelings, emotions, goals and values are in balance. – Brian Tracy

I can hardly believe it, but it’s almost time for a brand new year to begin!  In late December, it can be daunting to realize how quickly another year has flow by.  We had great plans for how our 2013 would go, and then before we realized it, it’s gone!

Yet, this time of the year also represents a precious opportunity to wipe the slate clean and create a fresh start for your life.  Whatever happened in 2013 — for good and for bad – will not define your 2014. Your beliefs, expectations, attitude and the actions you take TODAY and TOMORROW will determine how your next year turns out.

Your Next Year CAN be Better

2014 marks my first decade as a full-time professional coach. During that time, I have been blessed to assist hundreds of individuals in pursuing their Big, Juicy Dreams. And I know from my personal and professional experience exactly what it will take to make your next turn out even better than this one did.

Two-Step Creation Process

Creating your next year the way you want it to be is a two-step process and this time of year is the ideal time to do it.  This week, we will discuss Step One: Complete the Old Year.  You can’t create something NEW in a space that is full of old stuff. So, if you want your 2014 to be more than just a replay of the same things you experienced this year, you must first complete your old year to make space for your new Intentions.

Complete the Old with  Ritual

Ceremonies and rituals allow your subconscious to recognize and accept that something old has ended and something new has begun (think graduations, weddings, bar mitzvahs, birthday celebrations, etc.) In my church, we complete every year with a “Burning Bowl” ceremony.

This ritual involves writing on a sheet of paper ALL the things you are ready to release from your life, such as excess weight, limited finances, being single, a job you don’t love, a relationship that no longer nurtures you, etc.  Then place your list in a large fire-proof container and light the page on fire. (Be sure to be careful and stay away from smoke detectors!) As your old habits, circumstances, beliefs and disappointments turn to ash, their energy is released, thus creating space for what you want to co-create in your life for the coming year.

You then list whatever you would like to experience in the New Year (a great new career, financial abundance, travel and adventure, a loving relationship, new home, etc.) on a sheet of paper, and place it in a prayer box where they are affirmed at the church by a prayer team throughout the next year.  Around Thanksgiving, an envelope arrives in your mailbox containing the list of intentions you created at the beginning of the year, and you are amazed to see how many of them have been fulfilled. This is what we mean when we say that you “co-create” your Dreams: You ask for what you want, do whatever you know to do to show your commitment to your desires, and then leave the precise “How” for delivering them up to God/the Universe!

The Reflections Exercise

Another great “completion” process is simply to sit quietly and answer a series of questions that make you think deeply about the outcomes of your past year – the good, the bad and the ugly. Answering them honestly will clarify your underlying beliefs, expectations, attitudes and actions that influenced the results you got.

Every New Year, my coaching colleague, Sue Koch, and I give our clients a thought-provoking list of 30 questions we call the Reflections Exercise to fill out.

This exercise is designed to help you look objectively at what you did (and didn’t) do which influenced what happened for you this year. Only then can you decide what outcomes you are committed to creating for yourself next year. Determining accurately what caused your past outcomes helps you to identify new ways of thinking and being that will cause you to take new actions.  Taking new actions will bring you new results, while continuing on “auto-pilot” inside of the same thought and behavior patterns pretty much assures that next year is going to bring you more of whatever you got this year.

Here’s a sampling of some of the thought-provoking “completion” questions we include:

Part 1 – Questions to Complete the Year

• What promises did I break to myself and others in 2013?
• What did I do that did not work out?
• What do I wish I hadn’t wasted my time and energy on?
• What do I wish I HAD expended my energy and time on but didn’t?

 Part 2 – Questions for Acknowledgment and Acceptance

• What promises did I keep to myself and others in 2013?
• What accomplishments and milestones am I celebrating?
• What is the most important lesson I learned?  What’s important about the lesson?
• What am I thankful for regarding this year?

Once you have completed the 20 questions in these first two sections, you are ready to take on the final 10 in Part 3 – Questions for Creating Your New Year, including:

• What do I intend to do differently in 2014?
• What new skills or practices do I intend to put into place next year?  How would that make me feel?
• What would I most like to learn or master?  How would that make me feel?
• What do I intend to accomplish next year that will matter most five years from now?

Done right, the Reflections Exercise takes most people about two hours, but it can be broken up into several sessions – one sitting per section works great.  Many people like to do this exercise during the relatively “quiet” week between Christmas and New Year’s.

Just Ask!

If you would like a copy of ALL Reflections Exercise questions for powerfully completing your old year and then co-creating your new year, contact me at my email below and I will be happy to email them to you!

NEXT WEEK

I will end 2013 on a high note by sharing with you my all-time favorite method for co-creating your next year exactly as you would like it to be.  It’s a great adjunct to the Reflections Exercise. I like to think of the questionnaire Sue and I use as the “Head” method and the Year Creation method I will teach you next week as the “Heart” approach.  I have loved doing it for myself every New Year for the past 10 years and I bet you will too!

*********** Give the Gift of Dreams Fulfilled! ************

This New Year, give a friend, colleague or loved one a truly unique gift that can change their life — ONE HOUR of Personal Success Coaching.  It is absolutely F*R*E*E* with no obligation and no strings attached!  You can give this to as many people who will really appreciate it as you wish.  (If you haven’t been in coaching with me for awhile, feel free to claim it for YOURSELF, too!)

To claim their gift, they must contact me no later than January 31, 2014 to schedule a F*R*E*E* HOUR of phone coaching that will help them clarify their Big, Juicy Goals for the New Year and get into ACTION to make this their BEST year yet!   Their F*R*E*E* coaching session can be held anytime from now through February but they must contact me no later than January 31 at 888-503-8145 or caroll@practicalprosperitycoach.com to schedule their session.

The greatest pleasure I know is to do a good action by stealth, and to have it found out by accident. – Charles Lamb

In the end, a person is only known by the impact he or she has on others. — Jim Stovall

Today, I want to start by wishing a “Happy Birthday” to my brother.  I hope you are having a day that is as special as you are, Big Bro!

I am proud to say that my brother is one of those special people who truly will be remembered for the impact they’ve had on the lives of others.  For most of his life, he has worked in service to people suffering from addictions and their families and more recently, adults with mental challenges.  He gives of his time, treasure and talents and I know he feels that he gets back much more than he gives.

This Holiday Season, my husband Rick and I have much to be grateful for.  We have come through five years of significant financial hardship due to the Great Recession. As a full- time Realtor, Rick watched his source of income evaporate and two of our homes go back to the bank when the Real Estate “bubble” burst.  Thanks to my successful coaching practice and God’s grace, we have survived. And this year, we can truly say we are beginning to thrive, with Rick once again helping many new and returning clients to find their dream homes and my coaching practice touching more and more lives as well.

We talked it over, and though we have more money in the bank than we have had for the past several Decembers, we aren’t going to buy gifts for each other this year.  Instead, we are going give ourselves the priceless gift of helping others to have Happy Holidays.

For instance, we and many other members of our church have enjoyed playing “Secret Santa” to a few local families who can’t afford to buy their own Christmas gifts this year. We chose an individual’s tag off a little tree at church, then purchased the item they requested of “Santa” and gave it to the sponsoring agency to wrap and deliver.  Rick and I were delighted to anonymously donate a video game gift card to an 11-year-old boy we’ll probably never meet. We love knowing that “Andrew” can use his gift to buy whatever games his heart desires. 

We also plan to give the priceless gift of  fellowship and fun to a couple we know who can use it right now. We will be hosting a dinner out at one of their favorite restaurants, followed by a stroll through a nearby beach-side neighborhood to Oooh and Ahhh together over the lavish holiday lights and decorations displayed on the  multi-million-dollar homes.

My husband and I don’t need more stuff.  What we can really use are  joyful memories that come from surprising someone who is lonely with the precious gift of our time and attention….Or someone who is struggling financially with a small gift card they can use for necessities like gas, groceries and gifts for their children.

Why am I telling you all this? Because I want you to consider that YOU can make a huge difference in someone’s life by giving of your own time, treasure or talents.

For almost nothing, you could invite them to join your holiday meal, offer to string up their holiday lights, take them on an errand or shovel their driveway.  It’s not money that will make a lasting difference for them. It’s the knowledge that you cared.  You proved to them that they matter…that they have not been overlooked in all the holiday frenzy.

So I invite you to think of just ONE person you could make feel like a million bucks this Holiday Season — a teacher, neighbor, colleague, friend or perfect stranger. Who could you bake a homemade treat for?  Take out to lunch? Buy a tank of gas for? Do a personal favor for?  Give a secret surprise gift to — knowing they will never guess it was from you?

Whether you call it the Law of Attraction, karma or Divine payback, you’ve seen it in action all around you: “Energy attracts like energy.”  Do good unto others, and someday when you need it the most and expect it the least, good will be done unto you.  And that’s one gift that is PRICELESS!

P.S. A Cup of Caroll will be on hiatus ONE more time this year — next week.  I am spending a long weekend with three of my close girlfriends in San Diego for our annual Holiday reunion.  In keeping with the theme of today’s blog, I want to show them how much they MATTER to me by focusing 100% of my attention (and fun) on them! The blog will return on Sunday December 22 with some great tips for creating your next year YOUR way!

*********** Give the Gift of Dreams Fulfilled! ************

This year, why not give a friend, colleague or loved one a truly unique gift that can change their life — a ONE HOUR Personal Success Coaching session!  This gift is absolutely F*R*E*E* with no obligation and no strings attached!  And you can give this precious gift to as many people who will really appreciate it as you wish.  (If you haven’t been in coaching with me for awhile, feel free to claim it for YOURSELF, too!)

To claim their gift, your friends must contact me no later than January 31, 2014 to schedule a F*R*E*E* HOUR of phone coaching that will help them clarify their Big, Juicy Goals for the New Year and get into ACTION to make this their BEST year yet!   Their F*R*E*E* coaching session can be held anytime from December through February — but they must contact me no later than January 31 at 888-503-8145 or caroll@practicalprosperitycoach.com to schedule their F*R*E*E* coaching session.