As a follow-up to my 3-part series on True Guidance vs. False Guidance, I've begun to invite fellow bloggers to share their journey in following (or not following) their higher guidance. Amanda Murphy, whose blog is Everyday Courage, writes the first guest post below. Her website and contact info follows at the end. Thanks Amanda!
Thanks, Debbie, for inviting me to share my experience with guidance.
Last May, I was sitting in a huge room in a conference center in New Orleans. It was day three of CoachVille’s annual conference. I was tired. My feet hurt. I had heard hours of pontificating from expert after expert.
Then Suzanne Falter-Barnes led a group meditation for all 300 people. Not just any meditation: a marketing meditation! She took us to a quiet place where we can find our inner or higher guidance. Here are the four questions we asked our guides and the responses I got:
1. “Whom are you here to help?” Answer: “Women.”
What?! That’s never been my target market! But, I’m playing along, so I just write it down. I actually have a picture pop into my head of a room full of bright, intelligent women dressed in business suits.
2. “What are you here to help them with?” Answer: “Courage.”
Okay, I’m on board with that. I never would have summed it up with that one word, but it is perfect.
3. “How are you to help them with it?” Answer: “Role model.”
Wow! I never thought about it that way, but it really is true. That’s what attracts most of my clients, and what everyone around me counts on.
4. “Is there a perfect brand for you to be using?” Answer: “Courage Lender.”
Alright, now I really have to just write down the words. Courage Lender??? I hear all of the objections in my own head. But I have learned never to question what I have come to know as True Guidance.
True Guidance often doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t often agree with what your head tells you. Shoot, sometimes it seems downright crazy! But you can tell when it’s True Guidance.
For me, True Guidance is quiet. It’s calm. And it’s deep in my gut, not fluttering around in my head. My head may freak out in response and throw up all sorts of objections, but when I stop for a moment and quiet myself, there it is. Calm, deep, somewhere in my gut.
The breakthrough came for me in 2003 after years of trying to figure things out and force them to happen. The harder I tried to make my coaching business work, the fewer clients I got. I buckled down even harder, and got farther behind.
Finally I was down to two clients. And then one moment, it hit me like a gong in my head: THIS IS NOT WORKING. I literally threw up my hands, sitting at my desk, looked up toward the sky, and shouted, “OKAY! I get it!!!” And I quit.
I didn’t quit coaching; I just quit working. And all of a sudden, I had nothing to do. What was I going to do with my days now? Well, I noticed that two years after buying my house, all of the walls were still white. So I bought a book about paint and design, and started painting my rooms all sorts of delicious taffy colors.
And my phone started ringing.
I’m telling you: I did no marketing. I did not change my website. I did not write any newsletters. I did nothing but paint. I got four new clients.
I had received and followed True Guidance before this, relating to my personal life. (Want to hear more about that? Just ask!) But since that day, I have proceeded through my life in a daily state of surrender. I am a leaf, floating down a universal river. When I am quiet, I receive directions, and I follow them. Period.
So, Courage Lender it is. And the rest, as they say, is history!
Amanda Murphy is the Courage Lender. Please visit her website, www.CourageLender.com or email her at [email protected].
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