The Happy Path

Welcome to The Happy Path

sandrasinclair — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 13:06:00 -0400

Welcome to The Happy Path. We feature an ongoing flow of inspired teaching, coaching, and interviews with experts in the areas of life transformation and change. I hope you enjoy the journey. -- Sandra Sinclair ACC www.thehappypath.com

What is Coaching?

sandrasinclair — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 22:09:00 -0500

What is coaching?

It's very simple. Coaching gets you where you want to go. I coach:

Individuals who are dealing with confidence and self-sabatoge issues.

Coaches and consultants with marketing their services. Click here to see the Coach Marketing Success Program.

Binge Bustin Bonanza Interview with Andrea Amador

sandrasinclair — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 00:13:00 -0400

MP3 File

In this interview, Andrea and I talk about her upcoming Binge Bustin' Bonanza with Balls - a really funny title for her workshop on zapping food cravings and learning to listen to your body through intuitive eating. For more info on the Binge Bustin Bonanza, go to:

www.thejuicywoman.com/en/news_events/bonanza/

Andrea Amador, aka The Juicy Woman, is a weight loss coach who inspires women to live juicy, fall in love with themselves, trust their bodies and yummy up their lives. Her website is www.thejuicywoman.com .

Sandra Sinclair
www.thehappypath.com

Sing Out Your Stress Interview- Linda Dessau

sandrasinclair — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 14:10:00 -0400

5 Tips for Achieving and Living Your Best Life

sandrasinclair — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 01:53:00 -0400

If you wish to live your best life possible – and who wouldn’t? There are several simple steps you can take to make it materialize.

Tip #1: Put Yourself First

Putting yourself first may sound selfish on the surface. In reality, it is not selfish at all. Putting yourself first does not mean you do not care about others. In addition, it does not mean that you hurt others in order to achieve your goals. Rather, it means that you do not allow others to selfishly interfere with your goals and with your priorities. If you hope to live your best life, you need to make your dreams and goals a priority. The more you allow yourself to be separated from that goal and the path toward the goal, the less likely you will be to achieve it.

Tip #2: Don’t Give Up

Along the path toward achieving the life you have always wanted, you will inevitably run into some roadblocks. This doesn’t mean you turn around and go back home. Rather, look for a way to work around that roadblock or to use it to your advantage. Never focus on the obstacles in your way – allowing all of your attention to be drawn to a problem is really just your self-critical voice speaking to you out of fear. Continue focusing on your desired outcomes and working toward your goals.

Tip #3: Learn From Others

Everyone around you provides you with a learning experience. Watch them and learn from them. By being observant and open, you can learn what to do and what to avoid in order to achieve your desired outcomes.

Tip #4: Work from Your Strengths

No one can do everything. We all have our strengths and weaknesses. Don’t waste your time and energy beating yourself down, worrying about the things you don’t do well. Instead, recognize your strengths, take full advantage of them, and ask others who have counterbalanced strengths to do the things that you don’t do well.

Tip #5: Follow Your Passion and be Happy Now.

Perhaps the most important thing you can do in this life is to follow your passion. But don’t make your happiness conditional on achieving your goals. Be happy now, no matter what the outcome. With this attitude, you will not lose motivation for your goals, but instead, will gain increased clarity, energy and desire to achieve them.

Sandra Sinclair, www.thehappypath.com

Press

sandrasinclair — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 22:10:00 -0400

Discovering Life's Happier Path. PRWeb Aug 24, 2006 :

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/8/prweb427930.htm

From Fear and Paralysis to Positive Action

sandrasinclair — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 00:00:00 -0400

In the last post, I spoke about fear of failure, and rewriting your thoughts around what you’re capable and deserving of achieving. This message is about a very important aspect of fear of failure- what your desired outcome really means to you.

Fear of failure can be a huge obstacle to taking positive action toward your desired outcomes, because so much personal esteem and happiness can depend on the outcome. After all, attempting something important to you, only to fail at accomplishing it, can potentially make you feel less than capable or deserving, or even crushed at the outcome. So it’s often easier to just never try at all.

If trying and not reaching your desired goal would feel terrible, then dreaming about it and not taking action can feel far more comfortable. That way, you can dream about what you want and then create reasons for inaction to make yourself feel better about never trying to reach your goal. You may even convince yourself that you could do it, but rather than risk failure, you can just dream, and stay safe. This is a natural, self-protective mechanism - your brilliant mind knows how to protect you from getting hurt.

I struggled with being stuck like this for years - happy to stay in dreaming mode, and paralyzed to action instead of pursuing my goals, because it was far more enjoyable to dream (it even felt like progress) than risk failure. But looking back, I realize how much time could have been spent actually doing something wonderful, instead of just dreaming about it. I realized after some time, that I needed a fundamental shift in thought to change my dreams into real action. But what would remove that paralyzing fear? As it turned out, I had to change what my desired outcome meant to me before I could move forward.

To change fear of failure into a force for positive action, you may have to change your thinking about what your desired outcome means to you in terms of your own happiness. This is may surprise you, because what I’m suggesting is this- If your very happiness is riding on the success or failure of this venture, you can literally block yourself from trying, because so much is riding on the result.

So at this point, you can ask yourself these questions:

How much do I need to achieve this outcome in order to be happy?

If I was still able to desire my goal without actually needing it in order to be happy, what would happen? In other words, can I accept reaching or not reaching my desired outcome and still be happy?

What would happen if I chose to be happy right now?

You may say that having this attitude of happiness now could cause you to lose motivation for your goal, your purpose, or motivation for anything, for that matter. But I have another proposal for you: What if actually being happy right now, whether or not you accomplish your desired outcome, actually made you more powerful in reaching it? You may find that wanting a goal without attachment to the outcome can change paralysis or self-sabotage into positive, inspired action.

Does this attitude guarantee that you’ll reach your goal? No, you may not reach your desired outcome, even with this attitude. However, you’re probably much more likely to achieve what you want through happiness and ease than through efforting and struggling against fear of failure and paralysis.

You may also say that it’s not that simple to just decide to be happy – that it’s not the way the world works. But the truth is that happiness is a decision, just as unhappiness is a decision. It can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. It’s a decision that’s independent of your past experience, and of others’ actions and opinions, unless you wish it so. No one can tell you what to believe or think. Any beliefs that were handed to you early on about the way the world works, what you’re supposed to feel or what you’re capable of are only truthful if you decide that they are. You decide your own truth, every moment.

Sandra Sinclair

www.thehappypath.com

How to Gain Mastery Over Fear of Failure

sandrasinclair — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 23:47:00 -0400

Do you find yourself floundering about aimlessly in life? Do you feel as if you cannot seem to achieve happiness, no matter how hard you try?   You may not realize it, but your failure to reach your dreams may be caused by your own fear - most likely, a fear of failure. That's right; you might actually be keeping yourself down and standing in your own way of success - in your relationships, your career, or other aspects of your life.

It may seem absurd to hear that you are stopping yourself from finding happiness, but a fear of failure is more common than you may think. A person who has a fear of failure either never works toward his dreams or self-sabotages his own attempts, because he is afraid of being unable to achieve what he desires.

Have you ever been interested in someone but never approached that special person because you were afraid of rejection? Or, perhaps you never applied for a great job because you decided you wouldn't be qualified enough for the job anyway. Maybe you never took a class in a hobby or activity that interests you because you thought you might not be that great at it.

Or perhaps you did take those beginning steps to start that new relationship or project, but early on you found yourself distracted, dissatisfied, stuck, and then sabotaged your efforts, or gave up before you had a chance to truly fail.

All of these examples are symptoms of a person with a fear of failure.

Rather than risk the possibility of failing, you simply do nothing at all, or sabotage your plans. And guess what happens? You watch that person you are interested in move on with his or her life, you stand by as others start their own businesses or land the jobs of their dreams, or you continue to yearn to try that great hobby or activity you've always been interested in, convinced that those things just aren't in the cards for you.

Overcoming your fear of failure takes a rewriting of your self-talk. It may be time to question your beliefs up until now. You may need to ask yourself "What do I want and why?" and then,"Do I actually believe what I've been told about my abilities or about my deserving this?" If the answer to the latter question is "Yes", then you may need to ask yourself "Why do I believe that?"

A limiting belief can come from the input of just one or two people in your life. Think about it. Did someone tell you something was not possible for you early on, and did you just accept what they said, unquestioning? If so, perhaps these beliefs need to be disassembled and reconstructed in a different way for you to move forward.

Readjusting your global beliefs about what you are able to do or deserve can be as simple or complex as you make it. Nothing you've done up until now forecasts how you will do in the future, unless you believe that's true.

It's actually a decision on your part to start anew, and not hold the past or destructive opinions as important to you any longer. If you think it's going to take a long time to change, overcome, and adjust your thinking - well, that's just another belief that you can choose to disassemble and reconstruct in a new way, if you wish. You may want to look at all of your beliefs about what is possible and ask these questions. You choose what you believe. No one else can do that for you.

Goal setting is another important step. To start with goal setting, take a look at your life as you are currently living and decide where you would like to see yourself five years from now. Then, sit down and develop a plan for reaching that goal. Break down the plan into small steps, with each one building on the previous step. Keep breaking the steps down into smaller and smaller bits until they start to feel doable. Remember that it's not all or nothing. Baby steps will get you there. You can also choose to surround yourself with people who value what you do, who will champion your efforts, and cheer you on.

As you transform your dreams into reality, talk yourself through each step, celebrating your wins, and questioning any doubtful thoughts that may arise. When a doubtful thought appears, ask yourself "Do I really believe that?" You may be surprised to find that the answer is actually "No". If the answer is "Yes", ask yourself why you believe it, and then you can question that too. Only you can choose to dismantle limiting beliefs and instead, choose to believe in yourself, in your abilities, and in your deserving of success on your terms.    -- Sandra Sinclair, www.thehappypath.com

Emotional Eating - Barbara Goldman Sherman Interview

sandrasinclair — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 13:39:00 -0400

MP3 File

In this interview, Barbara Goldman Sherman and I discuss emotional eating, what causes it, and successful strategies for handling those stressful moments when that pint of Haagen Dazs is calling your name.
Barbara is a Holistic Health Counselor who helps individuals and families to create their best health so that they can lead their best lives. To contact Barbara, you can go to her website: www.askbarbara.com .
Duration:39 minutes, 0 seconds

The Self-Trusting Warrior - Coco Fossland

sandrasinclair — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 20:54:00 -0400

MP3 File

Coco and I discuss how to manifest a massive, courageous outcome in life, in relationship, in business, in money, in self-expression or in your biggest dream by becoming your own self-trusting warrior.

The goal of this program is to support you in identifying the one big thing or heart's desire that you could reasonably accomplish this summer - if you added in a burst of confidence, self-trust and courage.

Quite literally, there exists a part of you that is as wise and as powerful as all the people from the past and present that you admire and respect.

Visit http://www.cocofossland.com/cgi-bin/cmd.asp?af=415588 to learn how to bring that wise, courageous and all powerful part of you out into the world!

--Sandra Sinclair, www.thehappypath.com

www.thepoweroftrust.org

Interview with Pamela Slim- Your Body Compass

sandrasinclair — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 14:59:00 -0400

MP3 File

In this terrific interview, Pamela teaches us an incredible exercise on how to listen and feel our bodies' responses to different events, and then use those responses to chart our best life and career course. Pamela Slim is a coach and consultant whose special focus is helping closet entrepreneurs break the confines of corporate jobs and start their own businesses. Check out her website: www.ganas.com and her blog: www.escapefromcubiclenation.com -- Sandra Sinclair, www.thehappypath.com

Part 1, Interview with Philippe Matthews, The Shock Philosophy

sandrasinclair — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 08:38:00 -0400

Part 2, Interview with Philippe Matthews , The Shock Philosophy

sandrasinclair — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 08:29:00 -0400

MP3 File

This is part 2 of my conversation with Philippe Matthews about the fascinating Shock Philosophy. Philippe's website is:  www.shockinstitute.com - Sandra Sinclair, www.thehappypath.com

Interview with Jean Caton - Overcoming Fear

sandrasinclair — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 22:39:00 -0500

MP3 File

This is my interview with Jean Caton about overcoming fear. In this super interview, Jean and I spoke about facing our fear and seeing it for what it really is, and how to go about overcoming it. Jean Caton is a career and life coach, as well as public speaker. Check out Jean's website: www.JeanCaton.com . -- Sandra Sinclair, www.TheHappyPath.com