Loving Who You are NOW!

When I consider my own life, I think that for most of it I have criticised myself to the point of no return.  I was always too this or too that, but the truth is that I was perfectly Hayley.

How many of us go through life comparing ourselves to others?  Sincerely, it’s like comparing an orange with an apple.  We are all so very uniquely crafted and that is the complete wonder and beauty of life – we are perfectly ourselves.

And as we are journeying and rubbing shoulders with others, we are responding to their perceptions, their expectations and their beliefs, but we still remain perfectly ourselves.  For sure we might adopt other’s thinking as we choose, but we are still the ones who choose.  What a liberating thought!

So as you are journeying through life, my suggestion is that you start to really appreciate yourself just how you are NOW!  Not when you lose weight, grow your hair, change your teeth, get a higher education, meet the right person or land the right job.  Start loving yourself for who you are right now, right here and with the same level of effort that you put into everything else in your life.

Sincerely, it all begins with you.  Now I know that might freak some religious people out…I was one of those.   Thank God, I am now a Christian, not just a religious person, because at the heart of Christ’s teachings was love God and your neighbour AND yourself!  We are to love ourselves and to appreciate all that we have in our unique life package.

There is no-one who will do what you do in the say way.  There is no-one who will think what you think in the same way.  There is no-one who will bring your gift to the world but you.  You are necessary, important, valuable, interesting, wonderfully created and inspirational!  So get on with the task of LOVING YOU NOW!

When I was growing up I was always the fattest girl in the class and I think this is where my root of self loathing came from – I didn’t have the perfect body, the perfect anything.  I just had a huge heart and passion.  For many that was way more important than perfection, believe it or not.  For the majority don’t recognise your imperfections and those that do were sent into the earth to help us to grow.  So it’s all good.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic, so please post a comment.

29 Ways to stay creative…

29 WAYS TO STAY CREATIVE from TO-FU on Vimeo.

Love this video as it dovetails into my training on how to get your creative juices flowing perfectly!

My Resilience Theme Song for 2012

Sometimes life throws huge hurdles at us but true resilience is when we stand up after being knocked down, ‘rising from the ground like a skyscraper’. There is no person or situation that can destroy us, only we allow ourselves to be destroyed. From every difficult situation, if there is still breath in our lungs, we have the opportunity to rise from the ashes of the moment and rebuild our lives.

History has shown us so many wonderful role models with regards to this…I think immediately of Corrie Ten Boom who visited those who tortured her and gave them her forgiveness and Dr Victor Frankl, who said that he was more free than his captors.

When we embrace the freedom that comes from our belief in ourselves and our connection with God and others, then we are able to shake off the pain, the hardship and the sorrow that comes from difficult circumstances and to embrace the fullness of life.

This does not mean that we no longer feel pain or are able to express our grief, but our pain and our grief are no longer overwhelming.

Enjoy the freedom that comes from knowing that in every situation you are enough.

Enjoying the journey…

Hayley with Arms Raised

Embrace Your Personal Freedom

Today I am not going to be the wisest, the shiniest, the brightest, the most wonderful…today I am going to be the most used, the one that knocks their knees trying, the one that relaxes and lets life dish it up. Today I am just going to breathe and be myself. So if you are looking for perfection, today is not the right day to look in my direction. Feel the FREEDOM!

Today I am not going to run from the rain, wind up the windows in the car so the wind doesn’t mess my hair or tell my children off for interrupting me cause I’m “working”.

I have decided that life is way too short and that there is so much pressure to be the perfect person, living the perfect life, in the perfect family, in the perfect house, in the perfect suburb, driving the perfect car, full of perfectly behaved children and partners.

BLAH!

Life is for living, for tasting, for experiencing in all of it’s glory and gore.

So while others are perfecting their illusion of having it all together, today I am giving myself permission to run in the rain, to stand in the wind, to taste life and to enjoy all that it has for me without fear.  Without fear that someone might see me, that someone might think something, that someone might tell someone else.

The greatest freedom we can have in life is to own ourselves fully, to stand free from judgment of others because we are living true to ourselves and owning all of that truth.

So today I love Jesus and God and the Holy Spirit and I don’t apologise that I believe in a truth that makes me feel so happy and joyous.  Today I love myself.  Fully.  Without judgment.  Today I love the life that I have created, imperfect though it may be, I embrace it and I am thankful for it.  For the cracks that I see give it character.

Today I embrace my uniqueness and I rejoice that there will only ever be one Hayley Solich that looks like me, that has my gifts, that thinks my thoughts.

How liberating!

Will you join me in just giving yourself permission to be today.  To be all that you can be without the pressure of having to be something that you are not?  Step into your awesome self and wear you today! :)

Do you need a 1-to-1 Power Up Strategy Session to get 2012 in focus?

Power Up Flier

 

As a special Christmas present to all my friends and associates, I am offering a 1-to-1 POWER UP mentoring session for just $99 per hour (valued at $297 per hour) leading up to the end of year.

In this session you can ask me any questions about:

  • what’s stopping you from total success in your business
  • what tools and techniques could make your business more efficient
  • how to position, market and promote your ideas, products or services, to get buy in
  • how extend your vlaue and increase your business velocity
  • how to drive your business into the fast lane
  • how to your revenue off the shelf in 2012
And if you are considering joining my Make It Happen Mentoring Program in 2012, this is the perfect opportunity to see what kind of benefit you could get from working with me.
Here’s what others have said about my services…
Here is what Karen Creith had to say about her experience working one-to-one with Hayley Solich:
Karen Creith” Working with Hayley Solich has opened my eyes to the world wide web and all its infinite possibilities to levels that I never thought imaginable! Her knowledge is amazing and her power to share that wisdom easily with others perhaps less tech savvy like myself is very unique! This will be a relationship that will continue to grow over the years ahead!” – Karen Creith, 29 November 2011.
Here is what Dr Jenny Brockis had to say about her experience working one-to-one with Hayley Solich:
Dr Jenny Brockis“I met Hayley last year when she was working with another of her clients. I was impressed by her enthusiasm and obvious zest for what she was doing. I could also see the great results she was producing for her client. Since then I have started working with Hayley and got to know her better for the wonderful woman she is. She has integrity, a great sense of fun and a wonderfully creative mind, brimming full of ideas. If you want someone who is passionate for what they do, and really interested in you as the client and what she can do to help you grow your business, then I can highly recommend Hayley.” – Dr Jenny Brockis, 6 Feburary 2011
Here is what Jenny Jacob from Jacob Publishing had to say about her experience working with Hayley Solich:
Jenny Jacob“Hayley Solich from The Creaticians has helped me in my business in so many ways it makes my head spin.“Hayley is a rare and unique individual with a well of creativity that is mind blowing.  She has a high level of integrity, 100% commitment to the task and a gift for storytelling through her writing that is engaging and informative.  She is also a creative marketing person, never short of ideas on how to get your products or services noticed.  She’s also introduced new business to the magazine in terms of advertisers and helped me to monetise my website.“I have no doubt that Hayley was a Godsend to my business and has inspired me to never give up.  Her passion for people is inspirational and I have really enjoyed working with Hayley and have been referring her to my friends because she is gold.” – Jenny Jacob, 6 December 2010

Denise Smithson

Here is what Denise Smithson from Smithson Media says about working with Hayley Solich:
“For the past year I have been part of Hayley Solich’s Empowered Entrepreneur group and it is one of the best business groups I have been a part of. I have experienced first-hand Hayley’s ability to help you focus on what you need to do to achieve your business goals. I have gained more clients, but more importantly, she has helped me clarify my vision for my business. She has also expanded my network, helped me see the benefits of partnerships and pushed me out of my comfort zone – all with positive results!
“I would definitely recommend working with Hayley and her Make It Happen Mentoring Program in 2012 and see what you can achieve!”
TAKE ACTION NOW!  DRIVE YOUR BUSINESS INTO THE FAST LANE FOR 2012.  CALL HAYLEY ON 0402040008 OR EMAIL HAYLEY NOW.

Women Can Business Tips – Hayley’s Top 5 Tips for Women in Business

Hayley SolichI have always been a strong supporter of the notion that women can do anything they put their hearts and minds to and this certainly extends to the business realm.  Once we learn to get ourselves out of the way, to put to one side our hang ups about our strengths and weaknesses and our right to be doing what we are doing, there is quite  a lot of room for success.

Here are my 5 tips for how to be a Women Can woman in business in 2012:

1. Have a plan.  Start with a great strategic vision of where you are headed and what you want to achieve.

2. Invite someone into your life that is headed in the same direction but is a few steps further ahead who can short cut your learning and validate your experiences.  I have found mentors invaluable in my own life and I remember my first mentor in business told me to take dolly steps.  The best advice I’ve ever had cause it means you avoids the big risks and the big disappointments.

3. Write your “why” down and keep it someone handy.  When you start to flag in your enthusiasm because the cash just isn’t flowing, drag out your “why” and encourage yourself that you began with a vision.

4. Join an empowered group of women who are supportive and not competitive and will help you to stay focused and full of enthusiasm for your journey.

5. Reward yourself when you hit milestones.  You have worked hard and you deserve some little rewards along the way.

Whatever you choose to do in business there is always going to be a cost.  For many women that relates directly back to time spent with the family.  Remember that you are not super woman, but you are an empowered woman.  Families often take mum’s for granted, so a little bit of a shift won’t kill them but may require some adjustments.  But if you have very small children, cut yourself some slack and keep your priorities in right order.  You are not going to ever have that time again and your children really should be a high priority.

I remember a very successful business woman, Gail Kelly, CEO of Westpac if I remember correctly, was asked how she managed to juggle her very demanding job with her role as a mother.  She responded, “I live in the moment.  If I am in the boardroom then I am in the boardroom and if I am at my son’s soccer match, I am at my son’s soccer match.  Whatever I am doing I live totally in that moment.”

Sounds like great advice to me.

And remember, you are valuable.  You have worth.  You deserve to be treated well, to receive a good remuneration for your time and efforts, so charge what you are worth if your business had to go and hire someone in to do what you are doing how much would it have to pay?  That’s what you are worth.

Would love to hear your thoughts on this subject and don’t forget to take some “in the moment me time” over Christmas. :)

Are you taking the time to see a bigger picture?

Busienss SuccessI am all about strategy because when we are strategic we shortcut the time required to reach our destination and we capitalise on our resources.  Call me practical…I can’t help it, I was born this way.

My thinking is that if there are two pathways to the same destination and one is direct and the other is the scenic view I’d rather take the direct route, unless I’m in the mood for a bit of a leisurely drive.

We are in business to make money.  We really don’t need scenic views, we need direct pathways. To make money we need to capitalise on our assets – ourselves, our time, our money.  Once we have seen the increase, then we can decide to take  a scenic route every once in a while.

So my challenge to all you other entrepreneurs out there is to take the time to get a bigger picture for 2012.  I already have mine and it is way exciting, but it didn’t come to me without a price.  I had to put in the time of seeking the right ideas and then the time of putting together the plan so that I can realise that bigger picture.

Some really struggle with seeing the bigger picture.  They get stuck in the rut of the everyday running of their business, like rats on a treadmill going round and round.  Isn’t it time to get off the treadmill and to take a long hard look at your business or your life and choose to make 2012 a spectacular year?  I know I will be.  Join me.

I am really looking forward to working with the small group of entrepreneurs that will be joining my Make It Happen Mentoring Program in 2012.  I already have had many enquiries and one of the six has been chosen.

If you’d like to know more about the program, visit my information page or drop me an email and I’ll send you through some information.   Make 2012 the best year ever.  Get clear on your vision.  Put together a plan.  And take MASSIVE action.

I look forward to hearing all about the wonderful things that you have planned.

The Wisdom of Discipline

DiaryI have always pushed against the boundaries, challenged the status quo and been a risk taker.  

I have felt challenged by people’s love of structure and order, internally writing them off as square, conservative and people who need to ‘get a life’, preferring what I called “Freedom” and “Creativity” which was in reality just an excuse for laziness, craziness and impulsive risk taking behaviours.  I thought that the challenges that I was facing because of my lack of conformity were other people’s problems and not something that I personally needed to adjust or change.  I was the revolutionary, the spirited leader that was going to do away with things the way they were because they were not working the way that I wanted them to work and because I was being creative with my energies, so what I chose to do, no matter how negatively it affected my family, was okay.  However, my journey has led me to this day when I have realised that there is value in order, that there is value in structure and that it is actually order and structure that brings true liberty and abundance and our spirit sincerely craves that discipline.

I know what discipline is now and it is different to passion and creativity.

Passion and creativity will get you to jump up and out of your chair, but discipline is what tells you stop when what you are doing is going to infringe on others rights or your own well being.  Passion and creativity will lead you forward, but discipline guides you so that you achieve the mark.  Passion and creativity will want to take you off in all directions, but discipline leads you down the pathways that end in success.  You need passion and creativity, but you also need discipline.  You also need to have a structure within which to function because structure breeds confidence, stability and security.

I can only relate this to the years when I was a dancer at College.  For a brief period of my life I knew what discipline really felt like.  I had not learned discipline at school because I had no boundaries in my childhood and limited parental guidance.  I did not submit to authority easily because of the areas in our family that were broken.  However, when I went to college there was structure, there were rules and there was an opportunity for me to apply myself.  And for the first time I tasted real order, real structure and real discipline.  I learned how to really focus my energies.  I count my years at college as some of the best years of my life, but what happened when that structure was removed?

Initially I carried forward the same internal driving forces, keeping my home beautiful, keeping my physical body healthy and looking the best that it could be, striving to improve my mind and my opportunities.  However, once I married and other things started to press in the order and structure that I had loved for so long started to implode, bit by bit.  Until eventually the strictures of eating properly, of regular routine, of keeping my house beautiful slipped into the abyss as depression, despair and life’s pressures swamped me.

What had taken me years to achieve, quickly was eroded and until now has not been rebuilt.  

I want to make the comment here that “DOING” has never been an issue for me.  I have always kept myself busy.  The problem is that my energies are all being spent in directions that are not feeding back into the most important part of my life, my family.  And when you live your life “DOING” as I have, one day you realise that all that doing is of no value if it doesn’t feed back into your household, if it doesn’t translate into a positive improvement in your existence.

So now I face the odious task of rebuilding that order, that strucutre, that discipline back into our lives.  I face the task of taking control of my body, of my decisions about food and exercise, of my household, of eradicating laziness in all forms from our lifestyle.  You can be busy and still be lazy and that is one of the points that I want to make here.  Busyness doesn’t mean you’re not lazy, it just means that you are choosing not to address the core issues of your life.

This is not to say that I have not achieved big things in these years when my life has been quietly chaotic.  Quite the opposite.  I have achieved so much and it is surprising what I have managed to do with the loose structure I have maintained but imagine what I could have achieved had I been disciplined and focused and took the time to order my surroundings to the best of my ability and to bring order and structure to my children?  And what have I sacrificed for that achievement?  I had the revelation about how focus helps us way back in 2008 (The Kaleidoscope Effect Program I developed), yet have struggled to implement it in my own life and the fact that you can share your wisdom with others but not actually live it in your own life really bothers me.

You can still achieve in organised chaos.  

I am a prime example of this.  I don’t struggle with motivation – I get up and start work and work until I finish what is required.  So some would say that I am definitely not lazy, however there is a laziness that I see pervading my life when it comes to looking at things that require me to think hard and to apply them.  And it is in all this working that I have realised that I am taking the long roads instead of the short pathways, because I say in my mind, ‘that’s too hard, I don’t want to think about that’.  I am creating pain for myself instead of joy.  I am ignoring the opportunity to learn wisdom with relation to my financial management and my physical health, all because of a laziness to stretch my understanding and to take action in this area.

So I am sharing this message with my friends so that they can support me as I transition from this limited space to the next abundant space.  There is wisdom in discipline.  There is wisdom in listening when someone says to be careful.  There is wisdom in submitting ourselves to others, to hearing their opinions and to weighing their suggestions.  There is wisdom in conformity when it doesn’t challenge justice or truth.  To openly reject others because of differences or because they do not agree with what we want is folly.  What one sees as being conservative can sometimes be the voice of reason, the balance that is required and needed.

I have made a decision that I am going to invite discipline more fully into my world, that I am going to knock harder on the door of wisdom for myself, just as I do diligently already for my clients, helping them to bring structure and order to their world through effective planning, I am going to commit myself to doing so in my own life.

To those who already have an organised, disciplined and ordered life, I salute you.  Your order has challenged my disorder but I now have a healthy respect for you all.  I am sure that your wallets are full because with the wisdom of discipline there abounds wealth, honour and abundance.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this subject.  Do you struggle with discipline?  How do you bring structure your life?  I invite you to please share your wisdom with me.

 

How Would It Be?

Laptop in waterIf you’re struggling with motivation, swimming in a sea of work or opportunities, sometimes it’s because we lose track of the end point. Focus is a brilliant part of keeping energised.

Think about the sun. When it is shining broadly, it graces everything with a warm glow. But when you shine it through a magnifying glass, suddenly the intensity has the power to burn. Focus…is ENERGISING.

So to help you keep your focus and not be side tracked by the obstacles life throws at us to test our vision, a great question my friend always poses to me when I want to start complaining about something is, “How would it be if…” This then places whatever my issue is in that moment into the positive of the issue being solved and I can work my way backwards because I have the hope of the issue being able to be resolved. Immediately the issue loses it’s debilitating power because suddenly possibilities open up.

I think Dr Jim Rohn said it like this, “Why not you? Why not now? Why do good things have to happen to other people?” I love this quote as it DEEPLY impacted me at a time when I had little hope for the future. Why can’t it be us who get what we want in life?

If you can imagine yourself in the freedom that comes from a resolved issue and imagine how you would be feeling and acting in that state, it can be quite invigorating and motivating.

Happy days ahead for all of us!

Our lives are like a composite piece of art…

 

You probably do not realise it but each of these pictures is a collage of more than three images layered to create one. Like our lives, each layer adds some depth, some colour or some texture to the overall effect. Without even one of the layers the image would not be the same.

How many situations in life do we go through that are dark? These are our contrasting moments, our opportunities to grow, to learn and to expand our understanding. Without them our vision of life would not be the same. So too, the light areas are our bright lights that lift us off the page and highlight our characteristics, our thoughts and our ideals.

What is the image of your life looking like right now? Is it like one of my pieces where I had many of the layers in place but it just didn’t feel finished because it was missing a layer or two?

Whatever place you are at just know that today you are building a complex composite of your life. Today is the accumulation of a thousand yesterdays. You are all of those yesterdays. They are what defines you, what makes you special. They are your story! They are the image of your life.

The beauty is that you have a role to play in what the next layers are that will be layed upon your life. You can choose their opacity, their colour and their placement. Build wisely the image of your life that you will be able to view with pleasure, just as I view these and sigh in satisfaction.