Posts Tagged ‘courage’

It’s Not So Bad

Thursday, April 8th, 2010

When I called my mother to tell her I had the rare genetic eye disease she had inherited from her mother, she said, “It’s not so bad.”

These were comforting words from her, but if anyone else had tried to say this to me I would have wanted to strangle them.

My mother lost her central vision in both eyes when she was forty. I was thirty-seven when a blood vessel broke in my left eye and I knew I was in trouble.

That was twenty years ago.

Now, I am an international motivational speaker and Follow Your Bliss coach. I take fun seriously, and I believe simplicity is sexy.

People who are losing their vision are often referred to me but rarely call. I think I know why. When I was in the first stages of rewriting the rest of my life, leaving the land of being able to read and drive a car and see the leaves on the trees and the stars in the sky, I did not want to be cheered up or inspired.

During the early stages of my vision loss, I saw a picture of a little girl who had suffered burns over most of her body and was now out, I don’t know, selling beauty products or being a motivational speaker or something inspirational.

My response? I didn’t want to be inspired. I wanted to scream or curl up into the fetal position and wait for something to happen, wait for my life to go back to the way it was when things were perfect and I could see. (Things weren’t perfect when I could see, but it felt that way.)

I knew I would overcome my vision loss. That is who I am. But when I was first facing this loss, I did not want to be strong and positive and inspiring. I wanted my vision back.

So if you are in those first throes of despair, why call it anything else, I want you to know it is safe to call me. I will not try to cheer you up. I am not afraid of you, and I don’t feel sorry for you. I feel enormous compassion because I have some idea of what you are going through.

When Help Really Helps

Right after I lost the central vision in both eyes, five years after that first blood vessel burst, I went for a month of training at the Oregon Commission for the Blind. They helped me enormously because they were not afraid of me, didn’t feel sorry for me, had lots of practical help for me and served as role models.

My Braille instructor was an angel, a being of light and humor. He had lived almost completely blind for most of his life and then had surgery that restored some of his vision, although he was still blind. Let me tell you — there is a big difference between almost completely blind and being blind because you have no central vision.

His big adjustment was more sight! Go figure! He had to get used to being a blind man with sight. He said I was a sited person with blindness and that was a whole different ball game.

Here’s the deal: whatever hand we are dealt, we have to deal with it. If we look at what we’ve lost, we will not be able to stand the pain. If we look at what is left, we have a big adventure ahead of us, an adventure that will take courage but will, I promise, reveal surprises that will deepen your appreciation of being alive.

I want to end by leaving you with a song I wrote about having the courage to mourn. This song says it all, I think. I could do a whole workshop just unpacking this song. Listen and see if you agree: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnsf_x9YgyQ

Blessings,

Vicki

Kicking the Dinosaur of Doubt Out

Friday, February 26th, 2010

Last summer, while in the beautiful city of Vancouver BC, I made a Vow.

The last time I made a Vow was when I was about 10 years old and I looked around my family and saw violence, alcohol abuse, and despair. I made a sacred Vow to myself that I would not re-create this family.

I kept that Vow. There was never any doubt that I would do whatever it took to get myself an education, and break the cycle of addiction and codependency that has held my family captive for generations.

This first Vow was for myself and my as yet uncreated family. My second Vow is for myself and my global family. My work with the Bali Institute of Global Renewal has given me a glimpse of how I might be able to use my gifts to change the world in a way I would never have been able to imagine for myself when I was that little girl of 10, deciding to take on the challenge of breaking the cycle of addiction in my family.

I made this new Vow last July when I was at a workshop presented by two dear friends of mine, Donny and Kirk. In four days they created a place where people could heal on a deep level. The energy and the vision they created for this temporary family was so magnificent, it inspired me to make a decision.

I committed to doing whatever it takes, spending whatever it takes, to create a first class team for my world-class business, a business that is committed to helping people get in touch with the deepest, wisest, juiciest, most courageous part of themselves, so they can go out into the world in the most magnificent way possible.

The result of making this Vow was the creation of my new business: Outrageous Visions: See Who You Are Meant to Be. My work takes me all over the world, providing workshops to help people sing, speak, write, and live without fear. In April I’m inaugurating my new club: Vicki’s Outrageously Alive Club. With my travel, and speaking, and retreats, I will have a limited time left over to work with private clients.

So these private clients need to be Special. And by Special I mean people who are feeling a deep call to work with me, and have a willingness and readiness to do the work and the play necessary to free themselves from their limiting beliefs and bad habits. When we are free, we can stride deeper and deeper into the world, determined to become who we are meant to become. (That is a paraphrase of a Mary Oliver poem.)

If you know enough now to know that you want to apply to be one of my few private clients, click here to fill out the application. You are not making a commitment; you are following the deep truth that is within you. Fill out the application, and then we will chat. If you feel we are a good fit and this is the right time and this is what you are called to do, then I will ask you to make a three-month commitment to coach with me. Quite honestly, I don’t want to mess around with people. And it takes time to make big, deep changes.

Here’s what I offer my clients:

• The best of me, including all my experience, my courage, my intelligence, my creativity, my compassion, my enthusiasm, and my intrepidness.

• My wicked sense of humor. I can almost always find a funny way of dealing with an old, sticky problem that has you discouraged and defeated. Here is a Visionary Voice Message I created after a particularly bad day dealing with technology. And let me just say, I love my Macintosh computer, and technology is what keeps me connected to the world. But on this particular day technology was no fun.

Technology Tried To Kill Me
• Because I am a little psychic, let’s just get it out there, I am able to envision for my clients a future that is more magnificent than they are able to do. I’m not forcing any agenda on people. It’s more like I hold back the branches on the path, so you can see more clearly where it is you need to go, in order to get to the beautiful meadow that’s been waiting for you all along.

• Because of my experience as a high school teacher, an elementary school counselor, a performer, a drug and alcohol counselor, a grief counselor, an employee assistance counselor, a parent educator, I am able to help you untangle an area of specific problems in your life.

• Because of the obstacles and challenges I’ve had to deal with in my life, I know how to take on anything that gets in your way, and transform it into Joy Fuel.

• I know how to inject fun into almost any situation. And fun is not a four letter word. When we are having fun, we are full of more energy, we have an ability to solve problems better, we increase our immune system, and we attract happy people.

I want you to check in with yourself right now. Are you feeling a resonance with what I’m saying? If so, click here now to apply to be a private client of mine. If you are hearing a resonance and you say no to the resonance, then you’re not a good client for me right now. I want to work with people who are willing to listen to the truth that is in them, and willing to take the next step, and the next step, and the next step. I want to work with people who want a Coach for Life, someone who knows them, knows the terrain of their lives, and always holds the best and highest vision for their lives.

So if you want to work with me, if you have an inkling or nudge that you want to apply to be one of my few private clients, fill out an application and then we’ll set up a time to talk. It is important that we are a good fit. It is important that you make at least a three month commitment to work with me. I charge $497 a month paid in advance. This may seem like a lot of money to some, and hardly enough money to others. So be it.

Here’s the thing I have learned about money: when you set an intention, when you decide to do something, and I mean really decide to do it, the money will come. Money is magic that way. If you are hearing a clear call inside you, you may even be a little teary as you read this, then you need to commit to manifesting the glory that is within you. And part of that commitment is feeling that you are worth it. You deserve to have great coaching, and I am a fantastic coach.

Don’t think about it. If you are feeling a resonance with what I’ve written, apply now. Your applying is not a commitment. Filling out the application form is just the next step in finding out if this is truly a good fit for you. If it is, great, if it isn’t, the application form is going to give you more information about yourself. There’s no way to lose.

I’m going to paraphrase Marianne Williamson here. Say this aloud as you read it:

My deepest fear is not that I’m inadequate.
My deepest fear is that I’m powerful beyond measure.
I ask myself, “Who am I to be brilliant, talented, abundant, living a life I’d love, making a huge difference in the world, feeling happy for no reason?”
Actually, who am I not to be? I am a child of God.
My playing small doesn’t serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about my shrinking so that I don’t make other people feel insecure.
I was born to make manifest the glory of God that is within me.
And it’s not just in me, this glory is in every one I know, every one I’ll meet every day for the rest of my life.
As I let my light shine I unconsciously give permission to other people to do the same.
As I free myself from my fear my presence automatically frees others.

Click this here to get a recording of me saying this.

Please say it along with me every day. My job right now is to help you make a decision. Deciding to put off a decision, deciding not to even fill out my application now, is a :No.” Saying “No” is okay for sure if that is your truth, but don’t practice kidding yourself. You either learn to trust the deep wisdom inside of you and act on it, or you kid yourself. If you are kidding yourself and you want somebody to bust you for it, that would be Me!

Want to apply to be a private client? Click here.

Bless you on your journey,

Vicki

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