"I have seen an angel in the stone and had to remove the excess rock to make her free!"

Michelangelo

In our work with AQ, we talk about the importance of letting go of becoming someone to embrace the greatness of who we already are. A simple concept, yes; however, putting this concept into practice is not always easy.

Why is it so challenging to love ourselves?

It’s easier to love ourselves when we feel like things are going our way and we’re getting what we “want”. But even then, even in the “easy” times, how many of us struggle with really loving who we are? And how can we really love anything or anyone else fully until we begin to love ourselves?

I’ve been reflecting lately on this topic of what it takes to fall in love with yourself. If true abundance is exercising the freedom to be who we are, then being who we are is about loving who we are.

As life goes on, we get thicker and thicker layers of conditioning. We’re told what to believe and who to believe and how to believe and pretty soon we don’t even realize we’ve stopped believing the truth of who we are!

We’ve been trained by society to fall in love with all that is external.

Not thin enough? Buy this diet book.

Not smart enough? Take this class.

Not young enough? Apply the latest wrinkle cream. Oh, and don’t forget the Ab-Roller – the latest answer to those annoying love handles!

An abundant life is about allowing life to unfold through you, not because of you. It’s about peeling back the layers of who you’ve always thought you were, to reveal the inner knowing of who you’ve really always been.

AQ, then, is a process for falling in love all over again.

The result is a love that endures, that sustains, that reveals.

What will it take for you to fall in love with yourself? What are you waiting for?

Posted by Kim George at 05:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is my favorite time of year. The flowers are blooming, the trees are budding and the birds are singing. The world around us is literally bursting with life. There’s a sense of renewed energy. In the past month or so, I find myself in an amazing vortex of creative energy and joy. Like the natural world around me, I feel like I’m bursting with happiness. Anybody that’s been talking to me lately knows this.

I am happier than ever before.

I’m being more like myself than ever before.

What’s made the difference?

About a month ago, during a 1:1 coaching session, I found myself coining the phrase “meet the moment”. To meet the moment means to be fully present and open to what is coming to you, right here, right now. It also means being mindful of what is already on it’s way to you – “acting as if”.

When we are able to “meet the moment”, we allow the beauty of life to unfold through us, not because of us. We love what is and we look for the opportunity to learn and be and grow. This is especially true when the moment includes challenges, difficulties, unexpected happenings, and even pain.

“Meeting the moment” is about letting go of judgment and being fully alive in the honesty of who we are.

This is Courageous Abundance in action.

This is possibility.

This is living life out loud.

What does “meet the moment” mean to you?

Posted by Kim George at 06:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

“Abundance is an inside job.”

- Coaching Into Greatness: 4 Steps to Success in Business and Life”

So often, people view abundance as what we have.

Money. Wealth. Prosperity.

In AQ, we understand that true abundance is exercising the freedom to be who you are. Viewing life as relational begins with defining abundance as who we are being, not what we are doing or possessing.

The quality of our relationships begins with our relationship to ourselves. In other words, how we view others and the world around us depends on how we view ourselves.

Do we see ourselves as not enough or that we already having what we need, want and choose to be who we are?

Do we see life as something that happens to us or something that happens for us?

Do we view life as a series of transactions, a mad dash to the finish line (the one who dies with the most toys wins)? Or do we view life as a series of relationships to be discovered, developed, invested in?

Happiness, like abundance, is available to us right here right now. Just like we choose to practice AQ, we choose to be happy.

Each of you is already great. It is a matter of choosing your greatness over your fear that causes you to be abundant.

Success, and happiness, are a byproduct of being who you are.

Posted by Kim George at 04:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

AQ Community Call
AQ Guiding Principles Series
Wednesday, March 19th at 7:00 pm Eastern

Life is Relational, Not Transactional

Bridgeline: 712-421-8139 access code 5769#

Join us for another installment in the popular AQ Guiding Principles series. This month, we will premiere our newest principle: Life is Relational, Not Transactional.

People with a high AQ see the importance of relationships in all of life. They understand the connectedness of all living things and all events. They embrace synchronicity and allow life to unfold through them. Most importantly, they actively build relationships and invest in relationships in everything they do.

Life is not a marathon to be won, or another trip through the drive thru. Call in to discover the relationship between the art of connecting and abundance. Discover how, when you first connect with yourself, it then accelerates your connection to greatness and to the world around you.

Posted by Kim George at 04:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten we belong to each other.”

Mother Teresa

Love is in the air! Yes, it’s Valentines week! And yet, so much of what’s in the news isn’t focused on love, it’s focused on fear – a looming recession, the mortgage meltdown, the Iraq war.

I think the quotation from Mother Teresa says it best. We struggle most when we lose our connection to each other, to what really matters. The most important connection of all is the one we have to our inner knowing, our authenticity. But with the frenzied pace of life – the “have it all now mentality” so many fall under, it’s so much easier to do more and more, producing, laboring, racing on the endless treadmill.

Loving someone or something else begins with an ability to see beauty. To be able to see the beauty all around us, we must first begin to see it in ourselves. It’s an illusion to believe that we can truly love anything else while berating ourselves.

So, on this Valentine’s Day, when so many of us are focused on love, I encourage you to start with yourself.

Do one thing this week to reconnect with who you are, what you believe, and then what you love.

The world will thank you.

Most importantly, you'll thank yourself.

Posted by Kim George at 04:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As I write this, it’s mid January. How are your New Year’s resolutions faring?

Are you confident or complacent? Energized or anesthetized? How about trying something new this year?

Instead of creating New Year’s Resolutions, consider creating and adopting an Abundant Paradigm for 2008. An Abundant Paradigm is a mantra, phrase or expression that captures the essence of what you want to live into this year. Even more so, your Abundant Paradigm captures your greater truth – it’s your philosophy of how you view life.

In our work with AQ, we help people identify their Scarcity Paradigm – what their fears have conditioned them to believe for most of their lives. I have talked openly that my Scarcity Paradigm used to be “Good Things Don’t Come My Way”. This largely resulted from a series of early losses I experienced as a child. The impact of this paradigm was profound -- no matter how much I succeeded, I wasn’t happy, and I lived with a great deal of anxiety, because I never trusted that anything good I was experiencing would last. Certainly not a recipe for abundance!

My reality today is much different. My happiness does not depend on what other people do or don’t do. I pay attention to what comes to me and have let go of my love affair with struggle. Moments of anxiety and doubt still show up, but they are fleeting because now I know what to CHOOSE. I choose my greatness over my fear. I am living life, rather than forcing it--all because I have adopted a new Abundant Paradigm – “What Is Meant For Me Can’t Be Lost”.

What might be possible for you if you adopted an Abundant Paradigm?

Posted by Kim George at 06:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Eggnog. Holiday Jingles. Family Fun. Family stress. Giving. Receiving.

The holidays are upon us. It’s easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of this time of year – the “doing” that the season brings. And yet, it’s a perfect time to look back on 2007 and celebrate.

Was your abundance showing? How did living into your greatness take shape?

Each year, I pick a theme. For 2007, it was “Lightness of Being”. I’ve always found it easy to work hard; what hasn’t been so easy in the past is having fun. All that changed this year. I can honestly say I’ve had the most fun ever. What made the difference?

I changed the way I view the world. More importantly, I changed how I view myself in the world. 2007 was the year I thoroughly embraced my abundant paradigm – “what is meant for me can’t be lost.” I’ve learned that I can allow life to unfold through me, not because of me. Feeling good and trusting my intuition has been the most accurate compass of all.

As you approach the New Year, what are you committed to choosing? As you give and receive, what are you open to unfolding in your life?

Perhaps the greatest gift of all you will unwrap this season will be the gift of your authenticity, your true self.

I wish you great joy this holiday season, and a lasting commitment to the true you. We’ll help you get there.

Thank you for being you!

Posted by Kim George at 06:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I know many of you have been wondering what I've been up to.

No, I haven't been off following Eric Clapton or the Derek Trucks Band (not every night, anyway)!

Last month we launched the first Certified AQ Leader training program. What an amazing bunch of people! The Certified AQ Leader program trains professionals how to utilize the AQ Leadership Model with individuals to reach greater resutls.

We met in Boston for 4 days -- learning, growing, challenging, and bonding together. There was lots of insight, emotion, and even some fear. Each of us reaches the crossroad where we can choose to face our fear about living into our greatness or turn around and go home. I'm thrilled to say we all faced this together.

The next step in the AQ Leader certification program is a 5 month practicum. We are blessed to partner with a wonderful organization called The Memphis Challenge, that will provide the amazing clients for our work. More about them in future posts.

Stay tuned for more updates!

Interested in finding out how you can become an AQ Leader? Send an email here with AQ Leader in the subject line.

Posted by Kim George at 11:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The cornerstone of our work with the AQ System is the belief that each of us is born great—born with everything we need, want, and choose to be who we are.

Yet our society is constantly bombarding us with message after message about improving ourselves, fixing our flaws, changing our lives and re-inventing who we are.

As if who we are isn’t good enough.

I think this is a load of crap. This kind of belief – focusing on what is “wrong” and what isn’t working, instead of focusing on what’s naturally great and already working--perpetuates and fuels the billion dollar self-improvement industry.

One of my favorite lines from Coaching Into Greatness is “Dogs get fixed, People don’t get fixed.” Is there something about yourself that you see as flawed? A weakness? Something you’ve been struggling to improve for years? Usually, when we negate a part of who we are, we’re also resisting the truth of who we are.

As a society, we’ve got to let go of our fixation with fixing ourselves. Let’s learn to be the Observer. Instead of making things wrong, we learn how to observe what we don’t want and choose what we do. This is engagement. After all, this is doing what we can do.

This is the work of AQ.

Posted by Kim George at 09:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I quoted these thoughts from the Brahma Kumaris in last night's AQ Community Call:

"Rest does not come with sleeping, it comes with waking. This is both an insight and an action of enlightenment. When we are enlightened we relise that real rest is possible only when we become free of illusion and we no longer struggle against life. Illusion is the idea that people should be, and do, what we want them to. The truth is, all is as it should be, despite appearances, or our perceptions of others to the contrary. This means you can be easy on yourself, easy with others and easy with the world around you. Easiness is a virtue, an attractive one at that. It is much more influential than force. So quit forcing, end the struggling and . . . relax!"

Remember, struggle is strictly overrated!

Posted by Kim George at 08:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)