New Website & Blog

www.OwningYourVoice.com

Work Life Balance

I can honestly say that I have reached a healthy place in my relationship to work. I never take work home. Now I am very lucky I have a great team of people that support me and it eliminates the need. In the past I would always bring work home. At work when I hire a new employee one of the things we talk about is “Time Worked = Time Paid” Nobody works for free. I like that and it makes total sense. To me work life balance is an equal exchange. I work for a company and share my expertise in return I get paid and I have money to live my life. There is an equal exchange. The moment I bring work home it is no longer equal.

This morning I was thinking about the concept of homework when we were in school. Were we trained to bring our work home? Why does school continue well after 3pm? I have to say that when I was in school I always chose to not do my homework…. Certainly something to think about.

A note to the Universe!!!

Today, yet again I was given the gift of awareness. This awareness revolves around an underlying story that has been playing out in my life. My story is that i grew up in a situation that involved a lack of money. The story was played out over and over as I grew up. Of course this same story has been playing out in my life as well. I have worked really hard at coming to terms with the truth of this situation. Ultimately this truth has been that regardless of the state of my bank account I am safe and I am loved. I am so grateful for all of the experiences I have had along this journey and the realization and recognition of what is really important in this trip called life. What i have been saying is that “I am at peace with this situation”. This is true I am at peace with this situation. I have peacefully accepted lack in my life. Now I do view this as a good thing, because I am not overcome by fear and stress. What I realized though is that I have not connected to the new story or the new reality that I can invite in. I have not been clearly stating what I want my new reality to look like. I have not fully believed that abundance can enter my life. Today I am officially drawing a line in the sand. I say, “Thank you to the Universe for this awareness of peace, and I am ready to integrate a new story of abundance into my life”

Free tele-class Mp3′s

_{I just posted two recordings to recent tele-classes on my website. They are available free for download.}

_{1) Inspired Communication – exploring the possibilities of meaningful connection}

_{2) Transforming Communication in personal relationships}

_{Follow this link to download}

_{Ross Tayler
www.workplacealchemy.com}

Bittersweet Symphony – The Verve

I love how music can speak to you in a way that the mind can’t really translate or understand. There is simply a knowing that exists when you hear a certain song or chord or melody. It moves you!

My fellow blogger Linda has a link to this song on her likes page (Thanks Linda)

There have been times when I have experienced stress or adversity and this song will begin playing in my head and I still get goosebumps when I listen to it. Below you will find an acoustic version as well as the music video. I thought about sharing my experience of what this song is…..but I will let you have your own experience.  Enjoy!!!

Accoustic Version

Music Video Version

Living life powerfully and purposefully

During coaching one of the areas that is explored is getting clear on your life purpose. This is often talked about in the context of “power”. Owning and discovering what makes you, “you”.  I believe that we all have a unique way of showing up in this world, which can have a profound impact on those around us. I realized something tonight as i participated in a conference call for the Conscious Connection Community. The channel shared that we are here to live a human experience and at the same time live a spiritual existence which honours the deepest desires of our soul. My observation was that this is really about balance, in the sense of being able to honour both. It is at this point of balance that we can live powerfully and on purpose. I had long struggled with the concept of owning my power, as I always thought it was about becoming more of something I was not. What I have discovered is that this is really about fully being who you already are. Allowing yourself to speak your truth and share your way of being with others. On the way, shedding the judgment and beliefs that I had created about myself from the experiences I had in my life. There is a wonderful statement which I learned during my coach training which is “Nobody gets to be wrong”. What I like about this is it removes judgement, fear, should’s etc. There are no mistakes you get to share your truth because it is your truth. Back to balance, this comes down to allowing the voice of our soul to become a more integrated part of our lives, while shedding some of the illusions of our human experience. All of this reminds me of the great quote from Marianne Williamson which I share below.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” ~Marianne Williamson

The “F” word is it really all that bad?

The “F” word I am referring to is FAILURE. In my work as a coach and also as a manager i seem to run into my fair share of perfectionists. I am certainly all for giving your best effort in any situation. However, when it begins to have an emotional and physical effect on your life I have to wonder where the benefits of striving for perfection are. What does perfection cost you physically and emotionally? Now I have to be honest, there was a time in my life when I could not be with failure. I wanted everything to be perfect and in terms of work I would put in extra hours to ensure that everything was done just the way that i wanted. Somewhere along the line I let it all go. At some point in my life I began to look at failure not as doom and gloom, but rather as an opportunity to make a different choice and switch things up. The interesting thing is that you will often end up with the same end result in less time with less frustration and stress and you will often experience a great deal of powerful learning as well. There are many famous people who failed over and over again before they reached their goals. I can only imagine that failure provided them with many different perspectives that eventually led to success. So perhaps failure leads to perfection???

So let’s look at a different perspective. What if in every situation we made a conscious effort to have “FUN” and experience joy? How would things be different? We only need to look to kids to see a great example of how to have fun and be present in the moment. Is it possible to have fun in every situation with everything that we do? Can you give yourself permission to have fun and release some of the stress? I work in an extremely fast paced work environment that can be quite stressful at the best of times. I can tell you that when we are having fun as a team it becomes almost effortless. We look out for each other and jump in when something goes wrong and we laugh when we make a mistake. The customers seem to enjoy this environment as well. When we are not having fun you can feel it in the air and we are struggling to achieve our goals.

I realize that this is a big topic for lot’s of folks and that there are many layers to it. The question is can you choose a different perspective? Can you make a different choice that allows you to still reach your goal?

Success and Failure

Recently I have seen and heard lots of discussion around the idea of success and failure. The F word is certainly something that we can struggle with. Below there is a link to a great TED talk:

Alain de Botton examines our ideas of success and failure — and questions the assumptions underlying these two judgments. Is success always earned? Is failure? He makes an eloquent, witty case to move beyond snobbery to find true pleasure in our work.

Enjoy the video.

Alain De Botton TED talk

Ode to Joy

I googled “Joy” and the video below was in the top 3. I love it. I mean, who doesn’t love The Muppets? Perhaps it’s a reminder, of what happens when we forget about following our joy and take life or ourselves to seriously.
Enjoy

Emptiness

In their pursuit of happiness, I often hear people say that they have followed their path in life, they have the career they always wanted, a loving family the ability to easily acquire all the things they want. Yet they quietly share that there also exists an emptiness within them. I wonder about the term empty, what does it really mean? Can you fill this emptiness? I don’t think so, I believe that is what we try to do in many forms, be it food, buying stuff, alcohol, the list goes on… the emptiness still remains. Perhaps, the emptiness is really more like a vacuum, a black hole and the more we stray from our life purpose and ignore what brings us joy and ignites our passion. The more intense the pull or vacuum becomes. Somewhat of a defense mechanism for the soul.

Underneath the many layers and experiences we have in our lives lies the answer. The way to disconnect this pull is to step into your soul purpose. Layer by layer begin to shed the beliefs you have held for so long and allow your light to shine. Breakthrough the blocks that were created by experiences you have had in your life. Ultimately, it is about giving yourself permission to “be YOU” It seems so simple, yet it can be such a struggle. However, the moment you become aware of this, is the moment you will begin to change. To be powerful is to express yourself fully and share your unique voice in the world. To be powerful is to fully embrace your unique gifts and share them with joy and passion. To be powerful is to listen to that part of you that already knows who you are becoming and take action with every awareness.

I give you permission to step out into the world and be “YOU”…try it, it feels great.

There is a beautiful song which I absolutely love, appropriately named “Empty” by Ray LaMontagne which I have shared below. There is a wonderful line  “well I looked my demons in the eyes, lay bare my chest, said do your best to destroy me”….to me he is saying…I am me, take it or leave it.