Tuesday 11 May 2010

Do you want to be a chocolate, cheese and freedom mouse?

There has been a bout of pull-out-it-is in my practice the last few weeks. 

We often don’t notice trends until they start happening more regularly and the time frame between incidents start to shorten.

I’ve had two clients wanting to pull out of sessions this week and a bout of pull-out-it-is a few weeks ago on workshops. Too many to ignore and enough to call a trend. 

So I sat down to figure out what was causing this because if I’m getting it there
a) a message for me

b) a message my people (that’s you) can learn from
I think I’ve finally sussed it out. 

It’s the new energy asking us to step up to new levels.

This month for the first time I taught Masters. It was one of my most joyous teaching experiences. However, my biggest learning from the weekend was that my pot cupboards had to get rearranged. The current set up was a logistical nightmare but on a higher level I was being called to step up and get ALL my small details sorted. 

As you know once you start moving one thing – everything needs to change and I now have a very practical purpose designed new desk (not the folding barbeque table a friend gave me eight years ago when I literally had no money to buy anything). I also have new storage shelves in the admin office and am fighting the good fight with the resident mouse before the pot cupboard can get sorted.

The mice are of course part of my lesson. You know when you get small irritating things turning up in your life – you need to take care of the small things = DUH moment!

I bought this fancy “mice device” that humanly traps the mouse and then you take him somewhere safe and set him free. This thing is the Rolls Royce of mouse catchers at $25. I have released one little mouse and left him with 4 organic almonds and a piece of cheese to help him on his journey.

His buddy though is proving more elusive. The treats are getting more extravagant in the “mice device” and now include aged cheddar and chocolate ….BUT he’s not having a bar of that and is still pooping all over the kitchen.

I’ve just had a break point where I stood in the kitchen shouting – “it’s the chocolate, the cheese and freedom OR it’s the cheese in the old fashioned trap – YOUR CHOICE BUDDY!

All the people who have been wanting to pull out of coaching sessions or workshops have all had good excuses. They haven’t done their homework, they have been sick, busy, had kid stuff on, had conflicting appointments, were down for no reason blah blah blah on went the excuses.

Bless them they made me step up and write back and give them a kick up the butt and remind them that the magic occurs in the dark times and in the hard places. These are the times the coaching will really work for them.

Yes, as a coach its great when the client turns up and it’s all love and light and everything is perfect. BUT I know for a fact that my very best learning experiences have come when I’ve showed up in those times when I didn’t feel great and in some instances when I really “should” have stayed at home. It’s the same for clients and workshop attendees – they get the best results if they have suffered a bit to show up.

I was to be seen at an event in Colorado passed out on the floor at the back from jetlag and exhaustion – but would I go to my room for a nana nap. NO because I knew I would still be in the energy of that room and picking something up.

The new energy we are moving into is bringing challenge and change with it. What I’m noticing is that it is challenging at the really basic levels, like cleaning up the pot cupboards. It is also asking us to show up in the hard places and deal with our dark side – those icky yucky horrible emotions and fears that we would rather not deal with.

Here is the segue to the mouse, the cheese and chocolate – you knew it was coming :-)


In the end the winners will be the ones who run into the arms of the people who are there to help them and care enough to have the humane trap lined with cheese and chocolate. 

They are the ones who are prepared to stand up, own their past mistakes, be seen as they truly are and be rewarded with freedom at the end of a scary experience.

However, those who keep pooping in the corner, not showing themselves fully to everyone around them and thinking they can live in an old paradigm will perish. Staying in your safe little hiding places where no one can find you will annoy someone to the point where they simply close the door on your behaviour.

You and your practice are the same. If you continue to hide behind your fears and lack of confidence, refusing to accept your greatness, in the end people are going to get sick of you and will just wipe you out of their life.

I also had someone step up to one of my high end programs today. She came onto the call stating she was sitting on the fence and she was sick of it. I reminded her that people who sit on the fence waiting for the right time to make their move will end up with one thing – pickets up their bum!

I’m really starting to understand this new energy demands us to go to the next level or get off the fence. Yes I know how hard it is to face who you really are. I’ve gone from the wimpy quiet and reserved beige girl in the corner (that no one ever noticed) to someone who is really out there now. It’s not easy and it takes a lot of nuts and guts but the rewards when they come are HUGE in every sense.

All I did to change my reality was to make a choice to change and I learnt from people who had taken a similar road to one I wanted to travel. I kept showing up even when I didn't want to. I took their advice and I took the actions they recommended. That's all.

Maybe its time for you to figure out which mouse you are. The one choosing to show up fully in the humane trap with the chocolate and the cheese or are you content to continue scurrying around the edges, hiding and setting yourself up for a nasty big bang.

This was just going to be a quick reminder for those interested in learning to teach teleclasses but it has turned into a great article with nothing to do with teleclasses. 

BUT if you want to be a chocolate and cheese mouse and run into the arms of someone who will help you step up and learn a new skill that will add another revenue stream to your business on your terms – check it out here

5 comments:

Lia said...

Congratulations on deciphering The Message! So refreshing when you can work out what you are being told in progressively more heavy-handed ways,(even managing to do it before the message has to turn into a steamroller. Clever you!)It's a talent that still tends to elude me.

My experience of mousehood is being stuck on my little wheel, going round and round interminably. I suppose it's good exercise,but the view is monotonous but I must be getting somewhere, since I'm expending all that energy, but didn't I see that same rung just a little while ago? It's not as messy or abrupt as the non-chocolate mouse's destiny, but not all that appealing either, and when you know how good chocolate and almonds taste together it's even less attractive as an option

Margaret GIll said...

The last non chocolate mouse was VERY messy and so abrupt his head went one way and his body went the other - had to cover him up with a tissue (with my glasses off) and go and get the owner of the restaurant next door to come and wrap him up and put him in the bin.

The chocolate and almond version is MUCH better for all concerned.

Unknown said...

WOW is all that I can say! You are phenomenal. Not only does that message need to get out to my clients but ... it hit giant cords with me and has drawn parts of my "lurking in the corners looking for scraps side" out and challenged it head on. Wow I didn't even realise I could be doing that. How empowering. Reminds me of the Nelson Mandella Quote (Actually written by a Margaret!) Who are you not to be great!

Thanks Mz M for being big enough to question yourself and big enough to challenge us.

Where are we not accepting the chocolate coated challenge that is in our best interest out of fear and pride?

Anonymous said...

Margeret! Thanks for that reminder. It is nt easy to climb off that fence, get out of the closet so to say . . . I am simply trying to sell an article - as usely I have been concentrating on other peoples business just to prevent myself from getting on what is important to my success. Oh dear.
What is the good of hurdles? To make us become aware of who in truth we are?
Maybe!

Beatrice
Margaret: Thanks for being you!

Sharon said...

Hi Marg, Great article I have experienced near meltdown at times when going to retreat or workshops, however I have pushed myself to attend & have always had a brilliant time & learnt a lesson or had a clearance! "The thing we most resist is the thing we need the most" I have been close to cancelling however from past experience it is usually fear that creates the resistance. I look forward to your Melb workshop 22/23 May - keep up the great work !
Sharon