Vol 3 Iss 4

Happy Spring to you! Here in Colorado we’re being teased with blue skies and warm breezes. It makes me want to fling open the windows and dance on the porch, but one look at the mountains in the west makes me realize we’re bound to have another snowstorm or two.

Have you been bitten by the clearing bug? That’s the one that makes you re-arrange your furniture and dust the top of the refrigerator. It sure bit me.

I just found some wonderful bookcases on sale and moved all my books into one space to create a library. My friend and coach-to-creative-people extraordinaire, Cynthia Morris, (http://www.originalimpulse.com) suggested that as I sorted through the books to shelve them, to make note of where the categories of books appeared.

I learned much about myself in the process, noticing what categories are there and which I’ve read once - or more than once. The result is I’m looking at shifting my coaching practice to encompass more of who I am. Stay tuned!

This month’s article has more about clearing and how it can help you in your quest for right livelihood. Please let me know how it impacts you!

Special note: Coach Lora J Adrianse has re-published one of my newsletter articles in her newsletter! Please visit http://www.connectionscoach.com/documents/April2006.pdf to read it, and check out the rest of her web page. She is obviously a very wise woman!

On the campus of the University of Colorado in Boulder is a small lake. In the summer it’s filled with ducks and fish and turtles and bubbling water; but in the early spring, like now, it’s quiet and still. As you look through the still water, what you see is slime and sludge: a collection of winter.

As I was thinking about how to illustrate the principles of clearing, the only word that came up was “sludge.” When you let your life collect sludge, like that lake, it gets more still and quiet… and boring…and stultifying. Isn’t that what it feels like when you hate your job?

According to feng shui, clearing is a fundamental element. You can’t place objects to maximize chi if that space filled with other things. You need to clear in order to flow. To create change, you need to channel energy to that area.

So how does sludge show up in your life? Well, it could be that closet, or garage, or basement that has been the clutter collector for lo these many years. It can also be your inactivity, a physical sludge if you will. Night after night of clicking the remote or burying yourself in your books. Or perhaps it’s that checkbook that you haven’t balanced in years, or those friends you haven’t connected with in a while.

Maria Nemeth, author of “The Energy of Money,” says energy flows to you like a conduit and there are six different kinds of energy that show up. They are the energy of money, time, creativity, relationship, physical vitality and relationship.

Clearing in any of these areas creates a little bit more energy that you can apply to clearing another area. You clear the sludge in one area and it creates energy to devote to clearing sludge in another.

When you balance your checkbook and know exactly to the penny how much money is in your bank account, it can lighten your step enough to take a walk after dinner. Opening energy in your physical vitality can inspire you to pull out the water colors and try your hand at painting the beautiful sunset you just saw. After the painting dries, it may move you to share it with your sibling that you haven’t call yet this year. And on and on.

Of course, creating energy to change your life is seldom that directly and obviously connected – but it is connected.

Many times clients come to me stuck in their career wanting to make a change, but don’t know how to get started. The way to kick start the energy of creativity in career change is to clear sludge from somewhere – anywhere! Whether it’s moving around more –maybe joining a softball team (the energy of physical vitality), or joining a group of people with common interests (the energy of relationship) or balancing the checkbook (the energy of money), stimulating energy in one field will open energy to flow toward your creative energy.

Think of your life as a collection of pipes that channel energy in those six forms and your career search as one use of your energy. Think of ways to clear out the sludge from the pipes that haven’t been used in a while. You know which ones they are. Before you know it, the energy will begin to bubble and the path will begin to open in front of you.

It’s already present inside you, your task is to clear the path. Make way!

You are free to use material from Moving Forward! in whole or in part, as long as you include complete attribution, including a live web site link. Please also notify me where the material will appear. The attribution should read:

"By Debra DeVilbiss, CPCC, of Forward Momentum, LLC. Please visit Debra's website at http://www.ForwardMomentum.com for additional articles and resources on creating your right livelihood."

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