Welcome to the 1st edition of Jump!
Jump! came into being because I want to share my passion with others, that is, to offer information, insights, inspiration, sprinkled with some playfulness.
I personally believe that in order to make this world a better place, we need to start with ourselves, to work from within. From there we can change our outer world. With this newsletter, I aspire to assist you to be inspired, energised and motivated, be empowered to be your best self, to live a life that more fully expresses your choices, who you truly are, personally and professionally. In doing so, you will in turn, inspire and motivate others to be the same and in that way we create a better world. In other words, this is to help you make that jump to the next step up, and be jumping for joy because of it!
Thank you all for your patience in waiting for this 1st issue of Jump! Given your patience I have produced a slightly longer and meatier newsletter than the following future issues, and as a thank you for subscribing you will receive my "10 Tips For Holistic Health".
As this is the 1st issue, I welcome any feedback, comments, suggestions, and requests for future articles. Tell me what you like, don’t like, and want to see in this newsletter! With your help, readership and recommendation to others my hope is that Jump! will develop into something that you gives you a very good feeling when you see it in your inbox - enjoy!
Until next month, be sweet, be peace, be true, be you,
Recommendations and offers
FREE trial coaching session
I am offering all my newsletter subscribers the opportunity to get clear on what you really want through a complimentary 45 minutes coaching session. The sessions are very limited so it will be a matter of first in first served. My complimentary sessions are designed to give you focus and clarity in the area of your life that is most important to you. It will also give you the opportunity to ask any questions you may have about the way I coach or coaching in general. To register for your session please click here.
If you have a friend, work colleague or family member who might be interested in a FREE trial session all they have to do is subscribe to the Jump! Newsletter, by 30th September. To take advantage of this offer, they can subscribe here NOW!
Book: Creativity - Unleashing the Forces Within by Osho
Osho writes about how making the switch from imitative and rule-bound behaviour to creative innovation and flexibility requires a profound change in our attitudes about ourselves, and our capabilities. He teaches, that creativity, to be creative, is an attitude, a state of mind. And with that, we are all creators. A quote from this book:
“Anything can be creative, it is you who b rings that quality to the activity. Activity itself is neither creative nor uncreative. You can paint in an uncreative way, you can sing in an uncreative way. You can clean the floor in a creative way, you can cook in a creative way. Creativity is the quality that you bring to the activity you are doing. It is an attitude, an inner approach – how you look at things.”
If you want a book that helps you understand the need to bring more creativity, playfulness and flexibility in your life, a book that will provoke your ideas about what creativity is, and encourage you to express your creative essence in the life you live, try this one.
Buy it from Amazon here.
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Featured Article
Warming up to what you really, really, REALLY want
Here in London, the summer sun seems to be withdrawing as the leaves on the trees transform into beautiful autumnal shades, leaving us in a reflective state as we enter the last quarter, the last season of the year.
If you’re in the southern hemisphere then are you gearing up with excitement at the sense of new beginnings that Spring brings?
Which ever season you're in, Autumn or Spring, it’s always a good time to take a step back and look at what we have achieved this year so far, and with that ask ourselves what do we want to achieve in this new season?
At the start of every season I take some time out to step back and look at my year plan, at the goals I have set for the coming season. It’s a way of looking to see if I am where I set out to be, if I am on track. It’s a chance to re-assess and make changes in the right direction if I have gone off track, or if I want to change track!
Are you on track of your goals?
Maybe you haven’t got any goals yet. If not, let’s start now, let’s start creating that masterpiece of yours! Why not? No time like the present! I can hear you already going, ‘But, but..’ you’re not ready, it’s the wrong time…you know what, it’s never a wrong time to start. There is never a better time than now, then the present – even the word says it all – the word present also means a gift. So…we have been given this gift, the gift of today, how are you going to use it to create something in your life that you really really REALLY want?
How do we start?
Great athletes warm up before they go out there and win that race, singers warm up their vocal cords before they sing their song, painters prepare their canvas and set up their paints before they put paintbrush to canvas, so must we prepare in order to make that jump up to achieve our heart’s desires.
If the beginning is right, the ending is right, otherwise we’ll have to back track and hence waste time and energy, so let’s get right from the beginning. Are you ready? Ok, to warm up, you need to follow three simple rules:
- Travel Lightly!
If you truly want to move towards your goals, let go of your fears. Don’t be attached to them, let them go. If you are to hold a beautiful flower in your hand, first you must unclench your fist; let go of what fears you are holding to (what I call the ‘yeah but’ weeds), open up your hand in order to receive your flower.
Don’t burden yourself with negativity, second-hand opinions (i.e those handed to you from social conditioning, any opinion that isn’t truly your own), or ‘reality’ as other people have explained to you. We often don’t even begin to try something because we allow our fears to hold us back. It’s abit like saying “I never eat strawberries because I imagine it will taste disgusting” without even having tasted the strawberry? And hence denied yourself the joy of strawberries - quite absurd!
- Own it!
In order to create your masterpiece, your goal, you must recognise that you, and you alone, are the creators of your reality, of your world. You’ve done it before and you can do it again. You and you alone are responsible for what you have created and what you’re about to create. This is about taking responsibility for yourself and your goals.
Look back at what you have created in your past. You got to where you are now by your own making – good or bad - this can be a hard pill to swallow, but remember if you are the creator, if you don’t like what you see then you create something else that you do like as long as you don’t get stuck on how bad it is. There’s no point in wasting your time and energy on feeling sorry for yourself, or get angry, blaming others at how your life is now. If you do you will be surrendering your creative power to them, and be rest assured they will not be using it to make you feel happier! Surrendering your power over to blame, resentment, anger or feeling like a victim is not going to get you towards your goal, in fact it will make you feel worse. So, wherever you are use your situation as a launching pad to fly towards your desired goal.
- Surrender your control!
Don’t be a control freak! Yes it be great if we could have guarantees that everything we try will succeed, there will be no risk. But it would also be abit dull don’t you think, always knowing that there would be no challenge, no adventure, and no excitement. However wanting to have everything in your control means you want to avoid all potential disappointment or hurt, before you even give it ago. That you need to know you’ll succeed before you even begin. Wanting the promise of a certain outcome means that you limit what you give, and thus this decreases what you get. Avoiding disappointment means avoiding life itself. Disappointment is life’s necessary teacher that tells us when we are off our path, and need to take a new direction.
Creativity is an organic process, when you put paintbrush to canvas, when you open you mouth to sing, you do not know always control every stroke, every note or what the end result will be. You can produce a painting and song that you never thought you had in you. Life usually has better plans than the ones we have for ourselves. So surrender your control, take some risks; after all there are no such things as ‘risks’ – just different outcomes. Real creativity comes from the true essence of you, your true self. Creating from a controlling perspective comes from the ego, and you cannot create what you really, REALLY want, from your heart out of ego, because what you really want are expressions from the soul.
TAKE ACTION: Write down all the achievements in your lifetime, from birth to now, no matter how big or small an achievement. By achievement I mean anything you decided you really wanted, put your heart in it, your mind to it (consciously or unconsciously!) and achieved it. The point of this exercise is to recognise that you are a creator, acknowledge your ability, your creative power, by that I mean your personal power to create.
You can create your own masterpiece, your life, as you have done before, so you will, and can continue!
In the next issue the feature article will provide the next step forward with guidance, tips and encouragement on how to set goals – that is, decide what you want and committing to it.
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Note this quote
“Whatever you can do or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now!” Goethe
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Creative Capture
JEN ORD- Freelance Artiste (classical diva!) jenord@gmail,com
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Originally from the Lake District, Jen moved to London 5 years ago, and has since performed with the New London Chamber Choir, Canticum – most recently as soprano soloist in Stravinsky’s Les Noces in the Stravinsky festival at Poole Lighthouse Theatre. She is a founder member of AdHoc (composers and performers collective), who currently perform exclusively collaborative new commissions at an annual event. All this whilst also working full time for the Financial Services Authority. |
Jen finally gave up her four and a half year career in financial regulation last September to pursue her passion full time – music. She now earns her crust teaching piano as well as singing at regular church services. Jen made her debut with the BBC Singers in this year’s Proms, and recently completed The Knack, a one year vocational performance skills course run by the English National Opera.
What was the catalyst for the career change?
Well, music was always the plan, ever since I was a child – the biggest questions were always how and when was I going to do it? And these answers came to me gradually over the course of a couple of years, rather than as a bolt from the blue – I’d been doing a lot of what you might call “personal development”, working out exactly who I was and how that related to the changes that I wanted for myself, in my career and in my life.
I’d auditioned for several postgraduate music college courses without success, and was struggling to work out, if I knew I was good enough, and was certain that this path was right for me, why couldn’t I make it work? Then I auditioned for The Knack, and everything felt different – everything seemed to come together all at once. It’s difficult to explain. I had by then, developed a sense of self that I could have faith in, and felt totally secure in what I was doing. I just knew that I would get a place as soon as I started filling in the application form, and that it would be right for me – it was only a part time course, but gave me the impetus I needed to leave my job, and that was the start of everything!
What are your toughest challenges?
Three main things really:
- Money – lack of regular income when starting out has given my overdraft a real battering!
- Career path - having not followed the obvious route, it’s often difficult to know what I should do next, who I should be auditioning for, that sort of thing. To read the full article click here…
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Client Case Study
The challenge, solution and results from coaching!
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Robert Christie, Musician
The Challenging and Inspiring Goal: To Bang on in Ghana
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Robert’s goal was to achieve his life dream of travelling to Africa to develop his drumming skills as musician. He thought he might get there but would have to borrow money to do it, which was not a preferable option. The challenge was to have financial freedom and save $400 per fortnight to save the total of $3,000 at the end of our coaching series.
Easy enough for some, however Robert was fantastic at spending money but not saving - his incredibly large music collection is a testament to that! He was uncertain that he could save, that he would not get distracted from his goal. On top of having little idea of his bank balance his biggest challenge was to not feel was “missing out” on shopping and social life for this trip and resenting it. Robert’s challenge was realising that he had choices, and taking ownership of his choices and about implementing and keeping in place self-discipline by looking at his self-belief and his relationship to money before fully embracing the discipline.
The Solution
Robert worked with Sam in getting him to see past the “cant do it” thoughts in his head and accepting that he could achieve his life dreams of travelling to Africa. The first month we looked at where he was with his finances, checking that bank balance, and at what needed to be done in practical terms to prepare for this trip (legalities of Visa’s, passport application, health vaccinations) and research on Africa to get him excited, and in doing so the excitement of his life dream becoming a reality was a key motivating factor in getting the ball rolling.
By the 4th session they looked at shifting his focus to the possibility of what can be achieved, rather than what had to be forfeited. This was when the real challenge kicked in as… To read the full article click here…
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Soul Sentiments from the Sage
I have a story to share with you…
Carrot, Egg and Coffee...
(You will never look at a cup of coffee the same way again!)
A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.
Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She allowed them to come to a boil, without saying a word.
In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl.
Turning to her daughter, she asked, "Tell me what you see."
"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," the daughter replied.
Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots.
She did so and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she smelled its rich aroma and savory taste.
The daughter then asked, "What does it mean, mother?"
Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity - boiling water. Each reacted differently.
The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak.
The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened.
The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling
water, they had changed the water.
"Which are you?" she asked her daughter. "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?"
Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?
Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat?
Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff?
Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?
Or am I like the coffee bean? The beans actually changed the hot water; the very circumstance that brings the pain. Not only were the beans ground, but then as the water got hot, the grounds released the fragrance and flavor.
If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you for the better.
When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?
May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human and enough hope to make you happy.
The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way. The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past; you can't go forward in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.
When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling.
Live your life so at the end, you're the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.
About Sam Leongtave
Sam Leongtave is Creativity Coach for life and business, and is a fully qualified Graphic Designer. She coaches creatives, professionals and entrepreneurs to be empowered to be their best self, to live a life that more fully expresses their choices, who they truly are, personally and professionally. She is the publisher of the Jump! and founder of Noodlecrayon Coaching™ |
