Here is my Top 10 for achieving success in business and in life:

1. Trusting Myself  

Trusting myself is my number one success strategy. “As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live” said Goethe and this has been the most important work in my life. My career and success has come totally from trusting my own instincts, from following my heart and soul, and not listening to anyone else’s limits, or even statistics or the bias of the culture. I am willing to listen to the original source of my own instincts and see where they lead.  I am willing to make mistakes, too, if that’s how I need to learn.  I finally started believing that no expert in the world had access to the resources that I had. I started believing that my desires and dreams are the whispers of guidance, and no one else had this same information.

2. Fuel Up on Self- Love

I have a saying in my book This Time I Dance! Creating the Work you Love…that goes “Only the tender can breed the fierce.” I’ve had to learn to encourage myself, be forgiving with myself, advocate myself and see myself as brilliant and having something wonderful to give. All this softness towards myself,  helped me be tough in the world. I have withstood rejections, cancellations, and every creative and business fluctuation, because I consistently championed myself whether others did or not. And I’ve enjoyed the ride!

3. Choose Once Again

I practice an attitude of firmness and forgiveness with myself. If I’ve set a goal and I don’t achieve it, I “choose once again.” I don’t spend time beating myself up for what I didn’t do in the past. That would distract me from focusing on what I could do in this moment.  “Choosing once again,” always puts me in the present moment. Here I can ask myself what can I do right now that will help me feel like I’m really making progress and I’m on my path? I also try to not spend too much time worrying about the future or what will happen if certain things happen or don’t happen. Again, “choosing once again” puts me in the central place of power, the present moment, where I have an active choice and a chance to really move into the life I desire.

4. Love the People in Front of You

Being in business for myself, I used to worry about connecting with “the right people,” people who could take me further and higher in my career. But I’ve learned that everyone in front of me is “the right person.” I believe whoever shows up in one of my workshops, is my assignment, my person to love and to nourish. The more love and present-focused attention I give to them, the more energy I feel. The more energy I share with them, the more energy they share with others when they talk about me. I meet the world, by connecting with the precious soul in front of me. I’ve learned that I don’t know who should be in a class and who shouldn’t or how many people should come to a workshop. The right people always come. My people always come. And my people, always take me and my work to more right people.

5. Do the Work that Energizes You

As a self-employed person, I could drown in details. Also, since I’m running my business at a national and global level, I could go crazy with marketing, networking, or using a million different success strategies. So I’ve found it really helpful to place my focus on the work that gives me energy. I don’t try to do everything. I do the things that feel alive to me. I do the things that call out my excellence.  I know I shine when I’m writing or when I’m giving a talk. I also know that where I shine, my business promotes itself. For example, when I speak to audiences, I attract more speaking engagements, sell more books and get coaching clients.  I know if I write articles, it’s the same thing. So I focus on speaking and writing and don’t focus on any other strategies, publicity techniques, networking, or even search engine optimization. I’ll get to those things when I can or hire someone when I can. Meanwhile, I focus on the work that energizes me. It helps me have more strength, enthusiasm, resilience and capacities.

6.  Boot Up An Inspired Attitude

 I take conscious time in the morning to sit with my Self and reconnect with my soul. I don’t allow myself to turn on emails or listen to my voicemails, before I’ve given my day to Spirit or to my Beloved Inner Teacher. I don’t want to read email messages with my own limited eyes or listen to voicemail with old conditioning or ingrained reactiveness.  I want to start each day accompanied and directed by a Higher Love. I want to make sure I’m plugged into that energy before I experience and interpret the events of the day.

I also read a Vision Statement that reminds me that I am giving my life to an Unlimited Power and that I am willing to be the Beloved. I am willing to have fabulous, inexplicable good flow into my life. I am tuning my mind to this possibility. I am re-training it from its habitual negative grooves.

7. You Can’t Plan an Inspired Life

Because I’ve chosen to live a creative, inspired life, I’ve also chosen to let go of planning every step. I know I don’t know how things will happen, but I no longer need to control the process. Instead, I make up my career and life moment by moment, by following my heart’s creative direction. I’ve experienced so many miracles in my career life that I could never have made happen, if I’d followed the conventional, safe path, engineered by my linear mind. I want to continue to open to the unimaginable good. I want to trust my guidance to tell me step by step what to do. This attitude really helps when things go sideways or seem to spin out of control. I remind myself that I don’t need to control the process. I trust that my Inspired inner voice, will lead me to my right opportunities in the right time.  It’s my fear that’s screaming for immediate results. But my Spirit hasn’t let go of the wheel or of the ultimate destination.  My job is to listen, follow my fire, and know that it’s okay not to have a map. I always tell my clients, “Find your fire, not a map.”

8. When I’m in fear, I write to a Voice of Love

When I’m in fear of anxiety, doubting or depressed, I write to my Inner Teacher, the Voice of Inspiration and Love. I let that wisdom respond to me. I dialogue back and forth until I feel peace. In the beginning I had to “fake it until you make it,” write what I believed a loving, nurturing advocate would say. Now it comes natural to me. I’m a big a believer in journaling and finding out what’s really going on for me underneath the “storyline” of the circumstances.  I also believe that it’s important to address my mood, interrupt the arc of it, before I make major decisions or have important communications with others. I try not to allow myself to go too far into a pained perspective, before addressing it in my journal.  It’s more powerful to live in love instead of fear, but it takes focused effort and awareness to do it.

9. Commit Fully, Not Forever

 In order to avoid “analysis paralysis,” I allow myself to experiment in my life. I make deals with myself….like “practice trusting for three months” and if you don’t see results, then change your strategy. If I had to be absolutely sure I was making the right moves, I would probably freeze up or deliberate for too long. So for me it’s important to dive into experience, give it a real chance, and stay present with it, knowing I can change my mind. This kind of flexibility allows me to learn, grow, move and expand my comfort zones. It’s also a great way to work with my fears. Because I know that my commitment is for a short duration, I can suspend my fears for that period of time. Then I can have a real experience, and allow that unadulterated experience to guide my future decisions and commitments.  I love knowing that I can always change my mind, and that my instincts and experience will always guide me to the next right place.

10. Surround Yourself with Inspired, Authentic People

I pick only nurturing friends and friends who inspire me in some way. I don’t spend that much time with people who do not respect my values, dreams or belief systems. I have expanded my definition of “family” to include soul friends and kindred creative spirits. Since I didn’t always know great people, I started support groups with a focus I wanted. I created groups that stayed in the conversation I wanted to stay in. I’ve created spiritual groups, writing groups, and living your calling groups. These groups not only became my family, but they became the seeds that spread my message and work to a larger public. Now we are creating a global family of creative and visionary minds with www.AwakeningArtistry.com