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In This Issue
Simple Gifts: What Does It Take to Prosper?
9 Strategies for Resolving Work-Life Conflict
Bring Authentic Promotion® to Your Organization
4 Systems that Work
The Bedside Table
Addendum: Writing the Artist Statement
Correction: Egocentric or Authentic? (or just confusing?)

Simple Gifts
What Does it Take to Prosper?
We hear a lot about prosperity consciousness, but is achieving prosperity as simple as changing your thinking? I think not. I know countless intelligent, sophisticated, self-actualized people who are not especially prosperous. Learn actions you can take right now to become more prosperous from my complimentary ebook, Building Purposeful Prosperity in a Professional Practice.

"I've done ALOT of work on self discovery, marketing / branding, and building my self care workshop and coaching business…Your ebook was a real gift to me on Sunday. The combination of the stillness, my focus, and your words made for a magnificent, empowering experience. Thank you!"
Jennifer Snyder, Self Care Coach and Workshop Leader for Women
http://www.selfcareforwomen.net

Download your free copy of this guide that can change your relationship to marketing at the Resources page of my Web site. http://www.mollygordon.com/resources/ebooks/index.html

9 Strategies for Resolving Life-Work Conflict
I like working with independent professionals and artists because, for us, life, work, and business exist in a nexus from which we cannot easily extract our ways of loving, relating, and making meaning. The challenges we face in business inform our personal lives and personal challenges affect our businesses.

Rich as it is, the relationship between personal and professional life can be rocky. I experienced this recently when, within a few weeks of declaring some audacious goals for my business, a routine mammogram turned up some abnormalities. In the following weeks I had additional mammography, a biopsy, and surgery, with the happy outcome that the abnormalities were benign. I wanted to put the experience behind me and get back to business, full speed ahead.

The problem was that I didn't feel like it. I enjoyed my client work and my speaking engagements, but I dreaded the creative and analytic work related to teleclasses and Internet marketing. Try as I might, I just didn’t have the juice for these projects. On the personal side, I felt I needed time and energy for processing and renewal; on the business side I felt I needed to make up for lost time.

I've been caught between the promptings of my spirit and the requirements of my business more than a few times, and I know pat success formulas don't help. I also know it is possible to take care of ourselves and our businesses if we are willing to do the work.

Here are nine strategies that, taken together, can help to change course without abandoning the destination.

1. Don't panic. Even if you feel panicky, you can choose modest, recoverable steps to address the situation. This is no time to get a divorce, fire an employee, or buy a new computer system. Tip: Talk with a coach or therapist to get perspective.

2. Return to Source. Whatever your spiritual orientation or tradition, connect with what for you is the Source of life or spirit. Know that there is something larger than you that encompasses you. Spend at least 15 minutes each day connecting with that Source. (I like Mark Silver's Remembrance Practice.)

3. Take a body inventory. Are you sleeping well? How are you eating? What's your energy level? If these are not up to par, get a professional evaluation and take the steps that will restore your well being.

4. Tell the truth. Sometimes energy flags when we've gotten into a pattern of pleasing others or living according to standards that are not our own. Notice where you're being less than forthright and get clear about your motives, then clean it up. (Talking to a coach or therapist can facilitate clear, authentic communication.)

5. Keep good company. Are you stimulated and encouraged by your peers and clients? Do you have great playmates? Playing on the wrong playground with the wrong kids is neither fun nor productive.

6. Tune Up Your Thinking. There's substantial evidence that managing the way we think can have a profound and lasting effect on mood and motivation. See The Bedside Table for books you can use to tune up your cognitive skills and/or make a date with a therapist. (If you are otherwise in good psychological health a skilled coach can help, too.)

7. Set Healthy, Flexible Boundaries. Yes, real life and real business are intimately connected, but that doesn't mean that you need to give up your privacy. Set boundaries so that you can feel generous without feeling depleted and available without feeling invaded. Keep them flexible, because (doncha know?) things change.

8. Create or Refine Systems. We can't manage real life and a real business without good systems. Look at where things feel most out of sorts and resolve to create or improve a system to get things on track. See the sidebar for ideas.

9. Keep the Goal, Drop the Plan. Sometimes the best way to achieve a goal is to let go of our plans. Promptly and clearly revise commitments and offers as necessary to bring current activity in line with current resources. Why abandon ship when you can drop anchor while you make some repairs (or while you enjoy a few weeks in the sun!)?

As for me, these strategies led me to postpone the re-launch of the Authentic Promotion teleclass and take a break from Internet marketing. Having stopped the war between myself and my business, I feel more engaged with the things that I choose to take on (like this newsletter). My audacious goals are now shining possibilities instead of looming obligations, and if it takes a little longer to reach them, arriving will be all the sweeter.

Talk Back: Please send your questions and comments to letters@authenticpromotion.com. Do not use the return address for this newsletter or your letter will be lost. If you do not want your letter to be included in the Readers Write Web page, just let us know. We reserve the write to edit all letters for length.

Bring Authentic Promotion® to Your Organization
Is your organization playing too small? Do you do good work, work that serves the world, yet struggle to get the word out? Does your staff resist marketing because it feels unnatural or pushy?

Authentic Promotion inspires and equips people at all levels of an organization to be effective advocates for meaningful work. Even those who usually resist marketing appreciate the dignity and honesty of this approach.

If your company or non-profit association could benefit from a fresh, intelligent approach to honest marketing that works, give me a call. I’m scheduling speaking engagements, workshops, and custom teleclasses now for 2005. (There are just a few openings remaining in my 2004 calendar, so act now to schedule something for this year.)

Phone: 360-697-7022
Learn more

4 Systems that Work
Coaches and those in related professions will find in Client Compass software a complete solution to storing and integrating client records from intake to session notes to invoicing. It even documents client contact hours required for professional certification. Click here for info.

Winning the Fight with Your Desk
This ebook by Jeffrey Mayer is the simplest guide to clearing your desk and keeping it clear that I know of, and it works. Send a blank email to cleandesk@mollygordon.com and I'll send you a set of free tips for getting the most out of Jeff's system. Click here for info.

While you're at Jeff Mayer's site, check out his other titles including Growing Your Business With ACT!, Customizing Your ACT! Database, and ACT! Power User Tips and turn your contact manager into a powerful system for growing your business. (Scroll down to see these titles.) Click here for info.

Getting Things DONE: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
David Allen has written the definitive guide to managing a complex workflow. Learn to capture details, organize your projects, and coordinate your systems. This is not a quick and dirty solution, but a thorough program that will rescue you from chaos if you give it the time it deserves. You may want to work on this with a coach. Click here for info.

The Bedside Table
Each of these books is an excellent, solidly researched, and highly readable guide to managing mood and becoming more skillful at shifting negative thinking. The Feeling Good Handbook also addresses includes a thorough discussion of medications and talk therapies as well as exercises to develop positive thinking.

Learned Optimism, Martin Seligman

Authentic Happiness, Martin Seligman

The Feeling Good Handbook, David D. Burns, M.D.

Click the book title to purchase through Amazon.

Addendum
I'd intended to include a link in last issue's Simple Gifts column for Ariane Godwin's comprehensive book about creating and using an artist's statements, Writing the Artist Statement: Revealing the True Spirit of Your Work You can read reviews and order it here. Ariane also has a free article at here.

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Correction
The last sentence of the fourth paragraph in the article Authentic or Egocentric? (April 7 issue) should have read (I include the preceding sentences for context): "Too often egocentricity poses as authenticity. It pretends to stand for immutable values and unassailable principles. What distinguishes this pseudo-authenticity from the real thing is whether or not we are willing to be affected and changed by our transactions and interactions."

Integral Artistry Intensive
Creating at the Edge, Boulder, Colorado, USA, May 30-June 2, 2004
Are you an artist working at the leading edge of consciousness, creating at the edge of language, culture, or vision, re-imagining the world and our place in it? If so, this weekend workshop is for you. Experience a supportive and challenging group context in which participants perform an integral assessment of themselves, their work, and their audience, in order to pinpoint those areas that will best facilitate their artistic growth. Details here.

Just Because…
Ridiculous time waster. Can you beat my top score of 593.5? (No, I will not tell you how long it took me.)

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