create a great life Archives - MaritaSteffe.com

Coaching and Human Design Work Together

How Coaching and Human Design Work Together

Coaching and Human Design Work Together

How are you? I’m so happy that you are here. Today I would like to share something with you that has been a life-changer for me. Oh, before I forget I would like to wish you a very merry christmas and a happy new year.

My studies and training in personal development and coaching have been extensive and just when I thought I can stop learning for a while, my coach introduced me to Human Design.

He used it in our coaching sessions and I was amazed how it helped me move through some issues that held me back. So now you might want to know….

What is Human Design and how does it work with coaching?

Chetan Parkyn, a human design expert and author of several books on the subject explains it this way: We each have our own unique design — a blueprint of our individual nature. Yet, few of us live in accordance with our Design, because we don’t know what it is. Instead, we try to mold ourselves to the expectations of other people. (That´s where the problem starts)

So the key benefit to knowing your design is that once you know how your energies flow, what your strengths and weaknesses are, you can better work with them, accept your unique nature and be yourself. Of course it will make it easier to accept other people for who they are, too.

You will have access to some simple strategies on how to make decisions according to your type and how to interact with others. It will help you to know which relationships will be good for you and which will be complicated, then you can decide if you chose to hang out with the difficult ones or not.

It will also be beneficial to accept the fact that life is programmed and that your internal navigation system will guide you through it. Now this is a tough one to swallow for some people but for others it´s a relief. I am a fan of 12 step programs and a practitioner of mindfulness and I found that these 3 practices work together in total harmony.

This is about all I want to say about the system and if you would like to know more about it you will find great information at Human Design for us all and Human Design America. I also would like to let you know that I am not a human design expert nor offer professional readings, I simply use elements that have proven to be beneficial for me and my clients in my coaching.

Some practical examples how it works.

First I print out an interesting chart based on name, place, date and time of birth of a person which gives me a lot of information about certain energies in the human being. Some people do not like this, that`s ok, but for the ones who like self-discovery and want to know the truth of how they operate in the world, this is truly an amazing tool.

Let me give you some examples of how it has benefited me. One of my challenges is fluctuating self-worth, I never thought about it and just knew it was there but did not really know how to work with it.

So I learned that it`s not my nature but what I learned while growing up, because most parents and society do not support individuality, they try to mold little people to their standards. So it’s easy for a child to believe that they are not worth anything, they are not lovable, or they always feel that there is something wrong with them. These are called patterns of belief and survival patterns. These are also the internal energies that keep us stuck.
The other important insight was that my energy fluctuates and that it`s very important for my wellbeing to be aware of my energy and not force myself to do things when the energy is not there, but fully utilize it when it’s there. I have to be aware of my flow not only for me but for my environment, because when my energy is off I mess up your flow. So I have some responsibility 🙂
I have some energies that work as a catalyst for others, meaning that when people are around me or work with me….out of the blue they open up to stuck energies, now this might sound a bit weird, but I notice it more and more.
The last one I want to mention is a huge creative energy which has to be shared with the others. Most of my life I was very closed and did not share myself, but since I started my journey of self-discovery I started to open up and the more I open up and share my findings the more fulfilled I feel.
Oh, here is one more…I am all over the place that means I am jumping from one idea to the next one excitement to the next, one task to the next and I thought I have to be concentrated and do one thing at a time. Knowing this has opened up new opportunities because I can accept that my energies work like this, but I can also learn how to be effective when I`m all over the place.

This is it for now, I could go on forever, but I just wanted to give you a taste. This information has been life changing and I am forever grateful to my coach and trainer Dave Buck, CEO of Coachville to use Human Design in our coaching sessions.

Simple Tips to Create More Visibility

Simple Tips to Create More Visibility

I hope you enjoyed a wonderful, happy summer with family and friends….. It's the beginning of September and a wet day in Germany. The rain is welcome after many, many hot weeks. Thursty trees and plants are soaking up the water and so am I. Are you ready for fall?

Ok, now lets talk about creating visibility for your business. I will share some of my strategies with you, which are easy enough for beginners or people who like to keep it to the basics.

Creating visibility online
Going out and meeting people

Today we will cover online visibility

Most of us know how to do it… many actually do it… some desire to do it… some talk about doing it… some never do it 🙂

Creating visibility online can be easy, but it’s good to have a simple strategy to get better results: how to effectively create visibility.

Writing posts and articles
Posting on social media
Creating videos

Writing blog posts and articles is a great way to share your expertise with others and get your tribe, (ideal customer) interested in your service or product. It’s very simple…. especially if you like to write. Before you start you should know a few things about your customer.

Who is your customer?
Where to find them online?
What is their problem?

Do your research by asking people, doing surveys and talking to experts… for example a social media or a business coach. …After you collect your information, write a blogpost about a subject that will help your customer with their problem.

Easy isn’t it? Let me give you a simple example: Let’s say you want to help people with their communication: your customer might be people who have “bad” communication skills, the solution to the problem could be a blog post or an article: How to learn effective ways to have better communication with your customers. The result for them would be a more peaceful life and happy customers, yippeeeee.

This is a very simple example, but I hope it makes it easy to understand. Now the next step is to post it. If you don’t have your own blog you can post it on other people’s blogs or on Ezine. If you are on LinkedIn you can use their publishing platform, which will be great for visibility.

Two more things before I forget: If you plan to post it on several platforms, make sure to change the title and some of the text. Google does not like exactly the same content posted on different sites.

Just in case you suffer from “perfectionism” and want to make sure that your spelling is right; find a professional editor on Fiverr, where everything costs $5, or Elance. Outsourcing some tasks is a great way to get help and get things done.

Creating simple, fun videos

This is one of my favorites. You can create simple videos by sharing information that relates to your business. In my case it’s anything that relates to coaching, or to help people live more successful, fulfilled, happy and balanced lives.

You can use your phone, or a simple HD flip camera, a tripod, and a simple editing program called moviemaker. Moviemaker is a free movie editing program that comes with windows. It’s very easy to use. I am not a technical geek, so when I say easy….. it’s easy.

Some of you might need extra hand holding, just look into a schedule at your local college or find a student who can help you until you feel more comfortable. After you created your video you have to upload your videos to youtube, or another hosting platform. When your done with it, post links to them on social media and embed the video on your blog.

Simple strategies to be visible on social media

Ok, now it can get a bit confusing, I will share some of my favorite sites and strategies with you. No matter what you use, start with creating an appealing profile, to tell people about who you are and what you do.

Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Pinterest

In order to be effective on social media you have to use a strategy and post things that are of interest to your audience. Do not post: Buy my new product, look at me, I know this, I want to sell you this… click here… download this….. it does not work

I will just tell you about the most basic strategies I use. For more detailed knowledge check with an expert. All of them offer free training videos. I like Wendy McClelland and Amy Porterfield, Kim Garst, but there are man more.

Think about what inspires you and post things that inspire you and your audience or tribe. Something that will help them with their problem. Be social, be interested in others, connect and respond, be human, be fun, be kind, be creative. Make it about them, care about them.

Facebook is one of the most popular social media sites. People share other people’s posts and write some words to add a personal touch. You can like other people’s posts and maybe leave a nice comment. Make it personable and positive, nothing worse than people who spill their drama on social media.

If you want more visibility and post business related themes, it's a good idea to create a facebook page to post your business related content. Facebook has instructions on how to set up the page. Spend some time to find interesting videos on youtube, or podcasts, blogposts, audios and post links to them, along with links to your own material.

Once in a while you can share a post from your business page to your personal profile. In order to be more effective I would suggest to create a facebook ad in order to be more visible. Unfortunately facebook is limiting how many people can view your post. Paying for ads or boosted posts will get you more visibility. I will admit here that I have avoided advertising, although many experts say it works very well when done right.

Instagram

Instagram is one of my favorites. If you like to be creative and take pictures it might become your favorite too. It should reflect who you are, your desires, your personality, your creativity, how you express yourself. It took me a while to understand #hashtags, now I love to use them, actually I find it very creative.

They should represent the content of the image and your brand. I use: #dowhatyoulove #outwalking #lifeisgood #becreative #effectivecommunication #lifepurpose #behappy #makeyourlifework #instagood #createyourlife #healthylifestyle. The key is to have fun with it, lot’s of fun. Like with any other other social media, comment back when someone leaves a comment for you and when someone likes your image pay it back and go to their page and like some of theirs.

Pinterest is fun too, great for creative, visual people. First you create boards by themes and then you pin images onto the boards. Some of my boards are related to business with inspiring quotes, one is about vision boards, one is about music I love, one is about creative projects…Many creative ways to express yourself. You can also create a board with inspiration relating to your business and then post links to your blogpost in the text field. Be aware it can be addictive 🙂

Twitter

Twitter, is fast and you can only post 140 characters. Otherwise the strategies are the same. Retweet other people’s posts when you like them, reply to other people, thank them when they retweet your posts. Start conversations and create relationships.

Content ideas to post: inspirational quotes, business tips, links to your or other people’s blog posts, links to free offers, or to videos that you find interesting and which fit into my subject matter.

Hashtags are also a good way to be found by people who are interested in what you have to offer. #healthylifestyle #lifepurpose #businesscoaching #improvecommunication, whatever is relevant to your business. Make it fun, make it supportive, be there for people, be personable. Contact them personally when you see someone needs help, offer them support.

Ps: don’t buy twitter followers or facebook fans it will not help. Grow your followers using simple strategies, like follow your followers and engage in the conversation.

Oh wait ..one last tip to simplify posting on social media and save time is: Hootsuite. A great service to schedule your post on several different media sites from one dashboard. You can schedule your postings for several days. They offer a free and a paid version.

I hope these simple and fun tips to create more visibility in your business will help you. If you have some other suggestions please leave a comment.

Have fun with it alland please leave a comment.

Make a Vision Board Work – Be Confident

Make a Vision Board Work – Be Confident

Hi my friends… Sometimes people tell me that they made a vision board, but nothing manifested….Frustrating, I get it…. sometimes it happens to people who do not have a lot of confidence. But the good news is that you can practice to believe in yourself.

Life can be great, life can be miserable and it’s up to you what you how you want to experience it. Now this is a tough statement, especially if you went through a lot of suffering in your life. But on the other hand it’s extremely powerful and a great way to transform and create a great life. It’s worth considering the concept!

Do you have doubts that you can be successful, that you can achieve your dreams and goals? Do you know that you can do certain exercises, to be more comfortable with the idea of being successful, confident and wonderful 🙂

Affirmations and power patterns are used in coaching and they are great, simple tools. You just repeat the same short sentence over and over again, like a mantra. You do this every day for at least 5 minutes, and also as a remedy when your limited thinking comes up.

Like… you know what: The little voice in your head that tells you all the bad things that can happen, that you can fail if you try, that you can’t do it any way, good things happen to other people and so on…That’s when you use the affirmation or the power pattern. I have many and I use them all, they work!

Use the opposite of your limiting belief, something that totally resonates with you. The key is to feel great when you hear yourself say the words. If your mind is telling you “you can’t do it”, you say: I can do it, I can do it, I can do it. If it is: “It’s too hard”, you say: I can do this with ease, I can do this with ease, I can do this with ease. Below are some more examples:

I am brilliant and confident
I am fit and in great health
I attract wonderful things
Money is flowing into my life from expected and unexpected sources
I attract all the right people into my life
I am getting better and and better every da
I am loved
Everything is working out perfectly
I trust the flow of life
Everything I need is coming to me
I am here to express my gift

This might sound too good to be true, but it is a simple exercise, that will help you to transform your inner critic to your best cheerleader. Just try it! It’s like a brainwash.

One other simple exercise is to not engage in negative thinking. This technique requires some mindfulness and presence, but if you are aware of the thoughts coming up, you can chose to not engage in them. Just let them go.

To manifest your vision, you have to belief that you are worth it to achieve your life aspirations. You want to look at the vision board as much as possible and feel the images on the board as your truth. You see it, you experience it, you vibrate it, you will draw it into your life. Indeed you will!

Feeling happy, successful, with a wonderful partner, a great career, a great team, wonderful friends and family relations. Driving the new car, on route to your dream destination. Dream big, go for the stars!

If you think you need more help: I use a powerful coaching method called “Inner Freedom,” to help people move through resistance and fear. Also, John Kehoe has a wonderful program called mindpower, it is very simple with easy step by step exercises. It is a truly life changing program.

But first just try the exercises…..Let me know if they work for you and if you have other tips, please share them in a comment.

How Turning 60 Can Be Fabulous

How Turning 60 Can Be Fabulous

Hello my sweet friends….. How are you? I hope you are enjoying the warm balmy weather, I sure am and I'm so glad you are here, let me guess…. you must be close to turning 60 or just turned 60 or maybe close to the occasion?

How does that make you feel?

I turned 60 a few weeks ago…… There is a wide variety of feelings connected to aging, but no matter how you feel about it, you do not have a choice, like it or not, you can't change the fact. A few lucky "angels" find it easy, while it’s a visit into the abyss for others.

For some it’s the realization of….. oh my god, my skin is sagging, I hate those bumps… and the next action is to call a surgeon and get liposuction, a facelift, or maybe the famous breast lift….. Can you relate?

I can… it was a big decision to let my hair turn gray, which I had dyed blonde for 10 years. About 2 years ago I had enough of running away from age and of soaking chemicals into my skin. I asked my hairdresser for moral support, which he gracisously did….. so I got my hair cut very short and let it go gray over the course of six months.

It was a stretch, but now I love it. I wear a bit more makeup, more colorful clothes and fun jewelry.

Acceptance is such a huge help with anything in life….. have you heard the saying?

“What you resist not only persists, but will grow in size.” Carl Gustav Jung

The other difficult experience was….. when I noticed white patches all over my body and face…. I actually panicked. These spots were familiar to me, my mother and grandfather had them. It’s called vitiligo, a skin condition, where areas of the skin don’t pigment any more.

Not really that bad, but I freaked out, I thought…. oh my god I don’t want this, this can’t be true. Unfortunately my complaint and shock did not help. The fact is: I have it, it will not go away and there is no treatment.

When this sank in I started to be grateful, that it’s only that and not a life threatening disease. The next thought was ok, I better accept it, because the resistance of not wanting it was very painful and it made me feel insane, yes… like "ouch" 🙂

To minimize the contrast in skin color, I stay out of the sun, wear tinted sun lotion, a hat, long sleeves and it’s fine..

A friend of mine actually said, Marita you are beautiful with your spots, why do you think you have to be perfect, just love yourself the way you look and are. That was candy for my soul….. ( I love my friend) 🙂

Now of course….. looks are not the only thing that need to be adjusted. What about attitude? For me getting older means that I look at myself more closely and every day I ask myself a few questions.

Who do I want to be?
What’s most important?
What do I want to do in the world?
Who do I want to hang out with?
Is this really what I want?
Is this good for me?
What simple thing can I do to make this world a better place?

When I was still married, I used to be afraid of being alone…. now I love it. Somehow it just happened, the more I like myself the way I am, the more I enjoy my company. What am I doing different now?

I hang out with positive people,
I Do things I enjoy
Go on little adventures
Hang out with people who are positive and nourishing
Exercise and eat healthy food
Laugh a lot
Listen to my needs

I also noticed that it feels good to express my uniqueness instead of trying to fit into the small box of what others want me to be like….. So why not get a crazy haircut, a tattoo, or maybe wear some wild clothes? Why not……have deep conversation, even if most people don't understand it. Why not say that you can start a new life with 60, or finally live out your passsion. Why not???

Would you allow yourself to do that? Ask yourself the question: What is one thing that you always wanted to do? And then....would you allow yourself to do it?

Please let me know what’s helping you to accept reality, be happy, be grateful, age well and be fabulous, I love you sisters….. and I love to read your to read your comments 🙂

How To Discover Your Super Powers

How To Discover Your Super Powers

Sounds great doesn’t it? Superman powers, Yoda powers, Angelic powers, Psychic powers, Divine powers. I sure want them, what about YOU?

Theses are actually not the powers I would like to talk about today….. The super-powers I am talking about are very real and yes, every human being has them. They are energy forces within your system that youl have access to.

There is a trick though…….you must be aware of them. Some of these super powers are conscious and some are subconscious, but even knowing about the subconscious ones will help you in your life as long as someone points them out to you.

My coach introduced me to human design and I found it soooo fascinating that I started to immerse myself into studying and now I get great results using some aspects in my coaching.

Ok, now the big question: what is it and how can this be of practical use for you? …. A human design chart is an interesting looking chart based on many aspects from Astrology, I Ching, Kabballah and Chakras.

It’s called “a system where science meets spirituality”. The most important fact is that when you learn about your uniqueness and how to express your uniqueness, you will be able to create a great life.

With work that you love, people that support and stimulate you, a healthy body and mind and the feeling of being alive. It will help YOU

Discover Your gift,
Discover Your purpose,
How to work with challenges
Create a fulfilled and balanced life
Make good decisions

One of my superpowers is my “gut feeling” a built-in guidance system, so as long as I listen and I am aware of it; my gut feeling tells me what I should focus on and what to let go of. I can’t go and make things happen I have to wait until something happens that awakens this gut feeling and then I can respond. This was a life saver for me, because I always tried to make something happen and when it did not work I was FRUSTRATED as hell.

Another superpower is my curiosity, which is always interested in things, in new programs, new ways of being, travel, transformation and sharing with people what I just learned. For years I was trying to be an expert and it actually killed my creativity. My unique way of presenting myself is to share my curiosity with others and stimulate them with my creative flashes.

The last one is my sense of timing… I was born and raised in Germany with never ending schedules and rules; when I had to what. My unique design is the opposite; I have to follow my own rhythm in order to be happy, I have to “go with the flow”. It is essential for my well-being to honor this. As a result of not knowing this, I always thought that there is something wrong with me. Now that I know, I can live my life accordingly and not schedule every minute of my day.

Now I leave unscheduled time to do whatever inspires me; well yes…. sometimes it’s doing the laundry 🙂

Can you see the practical use in your life? I can’t even tell you how good it was to know this………….. It has changed my life.

One other part is that my feeling of self-value fluctuates depending on who is in my environment, so it’s not my stuff. When I feel low self-worth I sense whatever people feel who are around me, this energy affects me. Being aware of this has helped me to look at feelings from an observer perspective. What is mine and what is yours and I do not have to be so affected by everything.

Ok my friends this is only a very small part of how to create a great life, there is a lot more to it. Are you ready to change your life from blah to great? Contact me and sign up for a complementary, 2 part exploratory session, where you will meet your own superpowers………..wow, how awesome is that?

Blessings

Marita