Not Doing Jazz Fest

Once a year I go home to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. I spend two weekends with my Jazz Fest family. But unlike the half million people who line up for the food and fan out for the music, I’m there for the experience of being with the folks behind the scenes who make the event happen. For me, it’s an annual retreat to a place where I’m known and appreciated, and I get to contribute to people having an amazing time.

I spend most of those 10-hour workdays doing something that’s as integral to my work with leaders and organizations as anything could be – listening. Mostly I listen and monitor radio channels for stage managers, backstage managers and logistics teams. Do they have what they need? If not, how quickly can we get them what’s needed? I don’t actually DO anything, and I’ll say more about this in a minute. Instead, I’m part of a team that listens to leaders of teams, each doing their part to make an amazing event run smoothly.

It’s a space of almost immediate satisfaction when we hear the first beats of a new set on a nearby stage or see the live video feed go from standby ads for t-shirts, posters and souvenirs to Sting’s intimate performance for tens of thousands or Anita Baker being overwhelmed by the love and support of her overflowing field of fans. I find joy in not doing  the Jazz Fest. Listening and connecting people inspire me. When our team does that, and producers, agents, artists, drivers, builders, set designers, craftsmen, culture bearers, chefs, sound engineers, camera operators, music fans, food fanatics…I know you get the picture. When you and I get to focus on what inspires us, we each get filled up “with the joy of living.”

Universal Law

So this brings me to the Law of Inspired Action and its better-known counterpart, the Law of Attraction. While the Law of Attraction is the magnetic power of the Universe that draws similar energies together (attracting thoughts, ideas, people and situations), it’s most effective when it’s used in harmony with the Law of Inspired Action. This law says there may be several actions that you think you could take, but one of them is what you’re most drawn to. It’s the thing you really “feel like” doing or have the least resistance to doing. Do it. It’s the action with which you’re most in alignment. This is the Tao, the path, of nondoing. You do less and less until the point when nothing is done, nothing is left undone.

Align your thoughts, words, emotions and actions for the fulfillment of your intention, and then move in the flow of the energy with which you’re aligned. This way, you experience success with ease.

Internal Alignment + Attraction + Inspired Action = Your Natural Flow of Success

What could you “not do” that would make all the difference? What are you inspired to do right now?

Get clear about it and focus on it, drawing in the people and resources you need – and be drawn to those who need you too. Then do what inspires you!

Journey Well, My Friend.

Success with Joy,
Kysha

COMPOSITIONS COACHING

…and as soon as I thought I had recovered from the impacts of months of medication, just when I thought my clarity had returned, I found myself struggling with new challenges. I needed a cure for my cure! Success can be like that too sometimes. Things take off in one part of your life in ways that draw you in further and zap energy from other things that matter too.

I didn’t go back to Western medicine though. I was incredibly happy for the relief I’d gotten, but something in me didn’t feel that more of the same would be the solution to this new situation. I was pleased to get exactly the relief and results I needed with a simple remedy, used with consistency. Sometimes simple but consistent is just what the body needs so it can naturally restore balance and realign. Likewise, simple but consistent can be just what your heart’s desire needs as well – again, to restore, harmonize and realign.

Do you remember that “one day I’ll get to it” project that never lets itself be forgotten, but can’t seem to get itself done…and yes, that other idea that would be a game changer “if – you – just – had – time.” These are exactly the kind of completions we each deserve as we go all in on external accountabilities but find our promises to ourselves going unkept, undone. Isn’t that unacceptable? You deserve to give yourself your best too, and this is why I’m offering CLARITY FOCUS FLOW as an online coaching program that brings simple, but consistent attention to that special goal that matters most to you. We’ll take it on together, and you’ll get real results.

Visit Compositions Online Campus to Register. The next session starts Monday, April 23, and I would love to have you be a part of it.

I got knocked down, but not knocked out. So let’s get back up and get on with the business of having fun and getting stuff done!

Journey Well My Friend~

Success with Joy,

Kysha

 

PANTHER POWER

…so it was 3-D and Hi-D, and I was on the edge of my seat! I had a blast in the mid-day matinee of the Black Panther movie. I’m still unpacking the levels of message, but this post is about 5 superpowers we can call forth from the lessons of the panther. While I’m referencing the movie, I’m also referring to the medicine, message and magic of the panther as a totem, a symbol of rebirth across time and cultures, and how we can use these superpowers in our work and success.

1. Legacy – Remember what got you here. In those times when it may seem that a challenge is insurmountable, remember [re-member]. Reassemble in your thinking and recall in your understanding your true identity as a real-time expression of generations of accomplishment, achievement and contribution.

2. Tradition – Honor the culture that created your leadership and your service by continuing to observe key traditions. This is how we stay rooted and ready!

3. Innovation – Be willing to learn and work in new ways and with new tools. There has already been an inventor like you, with your circumstances, background and resources. I promise it’s true. So I say you could be an inventor too. At the very least, you and I can invent a new way of viewing an old problem and be open to new solutions and expanded creativity. At the very least, we can each be willing.

4. Courage – Accept a big challenge if you want to make a big impact. Have the courage to take at least one action, and then another. Have the courage to trust others, and the courage to make corrections.

5. Complexity – Cultivate the fullness of your spirit and humanity and bring your whole self to meet the demands of the day. Understand that your perspective may be only one of a necessary convergence of views and strategies that each contribute to the transformation of complex conditions. This is the science of co-creation, the act of collaboration, the art of composition.

Stay rooted; stay ready; and journey well my friends!

Success with Joy,

Kysha

PEACE WITH WHAT IS

The world of comparison is a dangerous one. But the necessity of measuring has its dangers too. While I learned years ago to measure where I am against my own intentions (rather than to compare myself to others), there was a time when I added pretty harsh criticism when I felt I missed the mark. I misunderstood the true value of measuring – not as a look back for admonishment, but as a touchstone for learning and preparing to move forward. I had to learn to make peace with reality, to make peace with what is. The key lies in knowing how to look, where to look and what to observe.

What do I mean when I say “how to look?” What qualities matter to you? This is your observation, so be true to yourself. I’m pretty consistent with my Success with Joy encouragement, and I bring this to my touchstone measures as well. Was I successful in fulfilling my intention? When I look back on what happened, do I smile at what I see? Was there an experience of joy for me AND those involved? It matters to me that people are honoring and supportive of one another. Use what matters to you.

Where should you focus? Look at your own thoughts and actions, examine your feelings about yourself and your true feelings about what is. Replay your conversations with those involved. Did every aspect support your success? Was every component aligned? If not, how can you realign?

I know for sure that when I’m clear about my desired direction it’s so easy to hear myself speaking counter to my intention. Those who know me can attest to my mid-sentence self-correction, “That is so not what I’m committed to right now. I take it all back!” Then I say something new that still tells the truth, but also aligns with the truth I’m creating, “There is definitely ground to take in getting this done. The one thing I know I can do next is…” “There is so much ground to take in getting this done, and I have no idea what to do next. I surrender with a willing heart.”

Once we’ve done our honest self-check, it can be inspiring, enlightening or sometimes embarrassing to notice how our words, emotions and actions are reflected back to us. Few lessons are better learned than when we hear children repeating what we said, word for help-me-Lord word. We can begin to notice how the action we chose in fear led to others’ actions, which express and reflect just as much fear. We can see our love and generosity reflected. We can delight in our commitment to excellence met with inspired effort. And when we begin to see ourselves clearly, we can see those around us with new eyes too.

But then there are those times…there wasn’t anything distracting or undermining in what you said, your emotions were aligned to support your success, your mind was clear as a cloudless blue sky on a summer day, and you went every mile and the extra too. Things still went awry. What then?! My grandfather would say, “Leave it, go.” This was his encouragement for surrender. Fittingly, Granddaddy’s favorite hymn was Farther Along, which speaks of an understanding that only comes with the passage of time. In wisdom I’ve learned to be patient and watchful for the revelation of whose lesson was there for the learning in each experience. Not everything that effects you is about you.

Clarity and alignment are not always easy, but the more we practice, the smoother our experiences become. And the peace of knowing when to surrender in willingness brings the simplicity of mastering our journey and making way for others to master theirs.

Journey Well, My Friend!

Success with Joy,
Kysha