And I’m getting rid of a lot.

Of dreams.

Not because they are too big.

Not because they are too small either.

But because they aren’t right for me.

Here we are, about to begin another year. Arguably, we begin a new year every day. But we, the “civilized people of the Western World” have chosen to designate January 1 as the beginning of a New Year, and it’s as good a date as any to spend in celebration and contemplation.

(Side note: birthdays are also good. Sundays too. As are Wednesdays and anniversaries and days of no consequence whatsoever except that they are your days to do with as you choose.)

So, in this week of celebration and contemplation leading up to the magical moment when the clock is reset and time begins anew, I spent some time reviewing my dreams.

They looked a lot like my closet often looks – some spots on the rack crowded with bright colors and rich neutrals while other spots show gaps where favorite wear-so-often-they-never-make-it-back-to-the-closet pieces are supposed to be. Fancy-frillies are hung at the far end where they are seldom noticed, while walk-the-dog hoodies snuggle up to speak-to-roomfuls-of-people jackets and skirts.

I gave myself the same challenge I periodically use to clean out my closet – “If you haven’t worn it in a year, if you don’t like the way it looks on you, if it worked for that one occasion but that occasion won’t ever come again, should it be taking up space in here?”

When addressing my closet, that usually results in a storm of fabric flying from racks to boxes, shoes thudding into donation bins, belts and purses pelting down from high shelves to join them.

I’ll pause now and again, running my fingers over some beautiful thing before I reluctantly admit it just isn’t “me.” Or wiping a tear as I lay some cherished, but no longer useful, item in the to-be-donated box, remembering when I bought it, where I wore it, the emotional threads inseparable from the silk and cotton.

But the time comes – I have to let them go.

Because, really, that burnt orange shade is hideous on me.

That cocktail dress is pretty, but I don’t want to go anywhere that I would wear it.

That jacket looks good, but I’m always fussing with the sleeves.

That old thing really IS an old thing – it’s worn thin with frequent wearing and washing and no miracle will make it look good again.

When I purge my closets I let go of anything that doesn’t serve me, whether it fits me or doesn’t.

Time to do the same with my dreams.

That dream that someone else thought was perfect for me? Gone.

The one that was so bright and full of possibility, until it went through the wringer a couple of times? Gone.

The one I so wanted to believe was real, until I saw the “faux” on the label? (That’s okay for leather and fur, but NOT okay for dreams.) Gone.

All boxed up and ready for someone else to pick up and wear.

So what is left?

The true dreams. Not the dreams already come true, but the dreams that are truly mine.

Are some of them too big for me now? Sure. But I love them enough to grow into them.

Are some of them so bright and bold that I have a moment of doubt, wondering if others will judge me for choosing them? Sure. But I love how I feel when I wear them, and that is the only judgment that matters.

Are some of them a little revealing? Sure. But I have nothing to hide.

I’m keeping only the dreams that make me feel good, that make me feel like the me I like best. I’m keeping the dreams that make me feel like dancing, like running, like jumping for joy.

Everything else has to go.

Because when you choose your dreams, it isn’t about dreaming big.

It’s about dreaming true.

For you.

In a previous post, which included my answer to what The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy author, Douglas Adams, called “The Ultimate Question of Life the Universe and Everything,” I mentioned that we’d be revisiting the question, and the answer.

Over the course of his series of novels, Adams takes us on a hilarious journey with his unlikely hero, Arthur Dent. Dent is a survivor of the planet Earth which, we learn, was actually built as a complex computer to discover the Ultimate Question. Another computer, Deep Thought, had been built to determine the Ultimate Answer, and after seven and a half million years had reached a conclusion.

The Ultimate Answer, Deep Thought said, was 42.

When the beings who had set about to learn the answer protested that they didn’t know what it meant, they were told it was because they didn’t understand the QUESTION.

Earth was then designed to uncover to Ultimate Question, but before a conclusion could be drawn, the Earth was destroyed by Vogons. The beings seeking this Ultimate Question and Answer, which look exactly like creatures we know as mice, decide they don’t want to wait another eight million years and settle on an arbitrary question; “How many roads must a man walk down?”

So now we know that a man must walk down 42 roads – but we still don’t know which roads, or where he’ll end up.

As farcical as this may seem, (and as Adams no doubt meant it to be) it illustrates one of the greatest fallacies we ever buy into.

That fallacy is the idea that someone else’s answer is a solution for our problem.

I have had clients who just wanted answers. They wanted someone to tell them what to do: which of the 42 roads to walk down next. They wanted to use someone else’s magic wand to magically solve their own problems.

Certainly, I could give them answers. And they would be the right answers to some questions. But they may not be the right answers to the client’s questions.

In order to arrive at answers that are meaningful and applicable, we have to be asking the right questions. That’s why my process always begins with coaching (the questioning phase) even when I will be doing business consulting (the recommendation and answer phase.)

It might be an extreme example, but in my previous post I said “sometimes love is the only sensible response.”

That answer is true for me, it answers the questions I was asking at the time. (And I’ll be writing more about the questions I was asking and why that answer is so powerful and not at all extreme for me.)

But unless you know your own question, “love” might have as much meaning as “42.” Because without the Ultimate Question, you won’t know how to APPLY the Ultimate Answer, rendering the whole exercise as futile (and a lot less amusing) as Adam’s story.

Right now, many of us are  examining both life and business, gearing up for 2012.

I hope that before you look for answers, you’ll take the time to ask the meaningful questions. The results might be surprising.

But so often we close ourselves to our own magic and look to others for the transformations we want to create in our selves and in our businesses.

So I offer all prospects and clients a full disclaimer – “I do not have magic wands or magic pills. This transformation is going to take work on your part.”

Of course, we DO work magic together when the fit is right – and the resulting explosions are just as exciting and fulfilling for me as they are for the people I work with.

That’s because I’m working in MY “magic circle” – that place in the wizard’s diagram where gifts, talents, experience, expertise, and LOVE all intersect.

It took me a lot of years and botched recipes in the cauldron to find that intersection.

I’ve strayed from the circle a few times – and every time I’ve been reminded of how quickly the magic fades outside of that zone. And when I come back to working only in that place, I’m reminded of just how powerful that magic can be.

In a blast thru coaching session yesterday, I had a conversation with someone who is searching for HIS “magic circle.”

He isn’t alone – I talk with so many of you who don’t feel the magic when you’re doing what you do. Or, who feel the explosions, but don’t see the financial reward. (And the reward is part of the magic – wouldn’t you agree?)

So, what if you could wave a magic wand and suddenly be standing in your “magic circle?”

I haven’t figured out how to make it THAT easy! But I do know what it takes to find the magic wand that will illuminate that circle so that you CAN step into it.

I call it “igniting your light” – it’s finding the connection between

• Passion (that inner fire that lights you up,)
• Purpose (the changes, outcomes and impact you’re here to create,) and
• Presence (the visibility and attractiveness to draw others into your circle with you.)

Passion + Purpose + Presence = Magic Wand of Illumination 

I find that most people abdicate their “magic” in one of two ways:

• They give up searching for their “magic circle” and just do what they know how to do even if it doesn’t light them up at all. (They don’t connect passion and purpose.)
• Or, having located the “magic circle,” they say “I don’t know how to work in that place.” Then they go on doing something that doesn’t light them up, or doing something that does light them up, but in a way that is not financially rewarding. (They don’t successfully bring their passion and purpose into their presence.)

I want to share the exercises I use with clients to ignite that “magic wand” and illuminate their “magic circle.” But I want to share them with you only if you really WANT your own magic wand.

This isn’t a “if you’re serious you’ll hire me” message. It’s a “if you’re serious you’ll take STEPS” message.

Please don’t ask for these exercises unless you’re going to take STEPS toward working in your own “magic circle.” If you’re ready, really ready to ignite your own magic wand just send me an email at dixie@dixiedynamitecoaching.com and type MAGIC WAND in the subject line.

Yours for the asking. How magical is that?

When the delightful and insightful Ava Diamond shared  the picture above, taken with her brand new camera at Fossil Creek Reservoir in Colorado, the words that came to me were from the soundtrack from Jonathan Livingston Seagull, the movie. (Neil Diamond’s voice at its most spectacular, images that take your heart soaring and plummeting and spinning dizzy into places you didn’t know it could go, all illustrating the story that reminded us that we needn’t settle for lives of fighting for food and never losing sight of the shore.) It begins like this…

Lost, on a painted sky

Where the clouds are hung for the poet’s eye

Have you ever felt lost? I know I have.

“Who am I? What am I? Where am I and where do I belong?”

But you know, I don’t think that bird is lost, or lonely either. That bird knows how to BE. Like the chorus to the song…

BE

There’s a page that aches for a word which speaks on a theme that is timeless…

We’ve all said it;

“I really should BE…

“I wish you would BE…”

What do you put in the blank after BE?

Is it not enough, ever, just to BE?

To say simply “I want to BE.”

Have you ever just let yourself lie on a beach or in an open field, on your bed or in a hammock and just celebrated the fact of your being, your very existence and your ability to be aware of it?

Have you ever tried to just let yourself BE?

It’s harder than it sounds.

We’re conditioned to want to BE something and someone. When we grow up we will BE something. When we get married we will BE someone’s someone. When we have children or a boss or employees we will BE someone else’s something else. And the way we fill in the blank that follows BE then becomes how we define our existence and our expectations.

So when we meet someone we want to find out what fills in their blank and how that relates to what fills in our blank. Now we want to know what that relationship is going to BE. Will it BE fun, profitable, educational, edifying? Will it BE a relationship of days, months, years, a lifetime? What will fill in the blank after BE?

Our strength, our energy and our personal power do not come from the words we use to fill in the blank, but simply from our BEing. Everything else is development, growth and augmentation of that.

First I am. Then I BE-come.

First I allow myself to BE. BE followed by a period. Only then I can develop the things that fill in the blanks.

If I strive to BE something or someone before I connect to that BEing that is inherent in my existence, then all that I do and all that am will be weakened. The value I bring to the world is lessened if I ask myself to BEcome anything that isn’t connected to that core, because it is the period after the BE that forms the foundation on which I can build my value.

What about relationships? How do we fill in the blank after BE when we decide what we want from someone else? Well, don’t you think that first we must allow the other person simply to be? When we insist on filling the blank after BE it becomes not a relationship but a contract. Not that contracts are never appropriate, it’s just important to know the difference.

Who can you look in the eye and say, “What is most important to me is not that you are my friend, or my partner, or my child, or my client. What is most important to me is that you are you.”

Who can you allow simply to BE?

Perhaps you can BEgin with yourself?

Lost on a painted sky

Where the clouds are hung for the poet’s eye

You may find him

If you may find him…

Perhaps you will also find yourself.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull Soundtrack – BE

When I teach networking or coach clients on becoming connected and connectors, I am often asked “how much should I share with people, online or offline?” What you share is completely up to you, but I challenge you to share of your SELF, not only your professional story, but your personal story. What makes you the unique human being that you are? How will I know YOU if I don’t know your story? And how will I decide if I like you and trust you enough to do business with you or refer business to you if I don’t feel like I really know you?

We are in a business culture still crawling out of the “old-boy’s network” mentality of school ties and common opinions. But we are moving toward a culture of shared visions and common values. We once sought out communities of “like-minded” people. Now I see more communities of “like-spirited” people. You might learn how someone thinks without knowing their story, but will you know how they feel?

I find that whether I am focused on inviting peace into my life or my world, or focused on inviting wealth into my life or my world – connecting with other people is the key. And those connections are most easily and enduringly created through shared story.

Here is the original post – comments welcome as always.

This remarkable observation was shared by a friend of Laura Kessler who then posted it to her Facebook wall:

“This is America, where a white Catholic male Republican judge was murdered on his way to greet a Democratic Jewish woman member of Congress, who was his friend. Her life was saved initially by a 20 year-old Mexican-American gay college student, and eventually by a Korean-American combat surgeon, all eulogized by our African- American President.”… via Rabbi Wolpe

It seems to me that this is another demonstration of the power of personal story in creating connections and the power of connections in bringing peace.

I have long believed that being connected to our world and the other people in it is the way we connect to our highest, best, brightest and biggest selves. As I said in an interview with Dafna Michelson during her unbelievable project, The 50 in 52 Journey, it is harder to wage war against someone to whom we feel connected. I cannot hurt those I feel connected to without also hurting myself. And the more I know about someone’s story the more likely I am to find the commonalities, the shared humanness, the connection.

As one of my friends, wordsmith and thought provocateur, Katrina Plumb shared with me, ”The frog in the well has never seen the world.” (That is a loose translation from the Japanese and she says that the original may well have been “has never seen the ocean” but you get the meaning.) We can hide in our wells and spout our opinions and biases, but we won’t have a view of the world. We can choose our friends from those with whom we have the most obvious and superficial commonalities, but our world will become narrow and superficial.

Without that view of the world and the sense of being connected to it, it is easy to say “those people” and then hang all our insecurities, fears, grief and blame on that group. But when we open ourselves to sharing their individual experiences, dreams and disappointments they become first a person and second a person of another race, religion, political party, or other “subset” of humanity. We no longer identify the person as “white female” or “gay Catholic” or “Republican Veteran”  but as an individual of value.

Another dear friend, James Stafford, shared something one of his spiritual leaders said to him, “An enemy is just someone whose story you don’t know.”

I’ve heard people comment that technology is making the world “smaller” but really, it makes it possible for me to connect to more of the world and when I do it makes my world bigger. Whether or not it makes it better is up to me. It is up to me how I interpret my story – do I tell it with love or with hate, with acceptance and tolerance or with vengeance and resentment? It is up to me to connect to the stories of others and to listen long enough to find the ties that bind us together as human beings.

To change your world, change your story. To create a world of love and acceptance, abundance and joy, share stories of love and acceptance, abundance and joy. Because if you tell a story of hate and vengeance, violence and retribution to the world then that is what your world will become.

To find a friend, hear their story. To be a friend share yours. If you share enough you will find the connections that make up the foundation of friendship. If you reject their story based on obvious differences your life will be lacking a friend and the world will be one connection further from being united.

“Are you using ‘I am what I am’ as an excuse for being less than you can be?”

“I yam what I yam and that’s all that I yam.” One of the most famous lines ever delivered by a philosopher or comic book character!

I thought maybe I’d give you a little background on what made me write that down, or maybe I’d give you a little encouragement along the lines of “be all that you can be.”

But I think you know what it means. I think you know that you are more than a “simple sailor” or a simple ANYTHING. I think you’re looking for access to your deepest, biggest, awesomest self. Just like I am.

And just like I do, I’ll bet sometimes it’s tempting to say to yourself, “I am what I am, I can’t be more.”

So instead I decided I would share with you an exercise that my friend and coach, Dr. Mollie Marti, asked the members of her Heartland Mastermind group to undertake. To write a list of “I Am” statements – and use them as a challenge, as a way to raise the bar and as an incentive to accelerate the pace of the game.

More than the exercise, I decided to share what my fingers, left free to communicate with my spirit without interference from my brain, typed…

I AM…

A unique arrangement of universal matter. I have never been and I will never be again.

I am the seed and the soil, the rose and the rose hip. In everything that I am is everything that I was and everything I can ever become.

I am more cat than dog, more spirit than reason, more complex than complicated, more portal than seeker.

I am a muse, amused and sometimes amusing.

A studier of all people and an imitator of none, an admirer of many and a worshiper of none, a respecter of all beliefs and married to none.

I am a safe haven where my friends can laugh, cry, be silly, be hysterical, can dream or do.

I am challenged by limiting myself to this plane of existence, not limited by the challenges of this plane of existence.

I am powerful, I am afraid, I am stubborn.

I am blessed, I am thankful, I am humble.

I am a free-form work of art, freely forming anew every moment of every day.

Even that isn’t ALL that I am. Because like you, I am more than I can guess, dream or comprehend. I am always becoming what I am, and the more that I become the more that I can be.

Today I challenge myself (and you) to keep becoming – to live from possibilities, not within limitations.

Share your “I AM” statements in the comments – we can ALL inspire one another to BE more.

I’m no expert on love. Believe me, I am as frequently and as completely baffled as any of you.

I love to read ABOUT love – from Rumi to Edna St. Vincent Millay, I’ve read the poets’ interpretations of love. But I’d never really thought about how it related to business until I crafted a keynote for Yellow-Tie International’s Build Your Own Brand event with Bob Burg and Scott Ginsberg. One of the questions I posed in that presentation was “what brings people back for more of YOU?”

Not more of your services or products but more of YOU.

Without exception, the answer lies in how you made them feel about themselves, not in how you made them feel about you. Did you make them feel smart, appreciated, beautiful, welcome, validated? In short, did you make them love themselves a little more than they did before they engaged with you?

Do you help people fall in love with themselves?

Because anyone who loves themselves even a little more because of spending time with you, doing business with you, having a conversation with you – that person is your fan for life. They will always love you because you helped them love themselves.

How in the world do you get someone else to love themselves more? Reflect to them the things you see in them that are worthy of love. When they feel genuinely appreciated, welcomed, respected or admired they feel like the little tomcat in the picture seeing the mighty lion in the mirror, they love what is reflected back to them.

What do people see when they look at you? Do they see only you, or do they see themselves reflected in your eyes?
How do you begin reflecting love? First, you have to be focused on them. What authors Bob Burg and John David Mann in The Go-Giver and the follow up book Go-Givers Sell More call “other-focused.” You can’t reflect anything back to someone else if you are only focused on yourself, your services, or your products. Second, it has to be genuine. Empty flattery might get you somewhere, but it won’t get you a friend or a client for life. That’s right, you have to focus on the other person and find them worthy of love.

Robert Merton, who is credited with coining the phrase “self-fulfilling prophecy” said “The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves.”

Love that does not begin with allowing others to be perfectly themselves is conditional love at best. No one wants to be loved conditionally – that kind of love is a barter agreement that says “so long as you are/do/say THIS then I will love you.” That won’t bring clients back for more of you. (It doesn’t do much for personal relationships either but that is NOT my area of expertise – see the opening sentence.)

Only by allowing and reflecting the other’s “personal perfection” can we help them to love themselves a little more. Only by treating them as the “complete and without defect or blemish” individuals that they truly are can we show them the “lion in the mirror.”

I have a number of people I turn to when I need to be reminded of the powerful lioness hidden in my kitty cat soul. Some are friends, some are people with whom I do business, many are both. They know I have my faults, but they remind me that every one of my faults is also a strength and that I am, in fact, perfectly myself.

I have a couple of stories I want to share about loving our faults but I think that will have to wait for the next post.
For today (or any day) go reflect love back to the special people in your life. Whether they are your clients, your friends, your family or your special someone, show them how much you appreciate, respect, admire and welcome them just for being who they are.

Keeping your goals from becoming a glorified to-do list.

This week we begin a new year (and a new decade) and if you are like most of the Western World you have begun making your New Year’s Resolutions. If you are a business owner and entrepreneur like nearly all of my clients and a good many of my friends you’ve also begun writing out your professional and business goals for 2010. And if you are like the “average” person you will have already “failed” to meet your goals or stick to your resolutions by the end of January 2010!

So why start?

I think it is more a question of where to start. Most people start with questions like “what do I most need to accomplish in 2010?” They may even begin with “what would I most like to make happen in 2010?” Very seldom does their goal setting process include connecting to an impelling “why.”

I’ve had clients apologize to me for having financial goals and I’ve had clients who refused to confess to having any goals that didn’t lead to financial success. And to them all I say “why?”

Yeah, why? What will change for you if you make that happen? Why do you care? Is your heart and soul engaged?

If you are in business I hope you are in business to make money. Richard Bach, author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Illusions and many more, was quoted as saying “I don’t want to do business with those who don’t make a profit, because they can’t give the best service.”

The character Ernesto, while demonstrating Law #1 in The Go-Giver says, “will it make money is not a bad question, it’s just a bad first question.” He goes on to explain to Joe that the best first question is “will it serve.”

So here is the vital question; “how will achieving your goals serve you?”

Again, “money” isn’t a bad answer. But it is a bad first answer. Because money, in and of itself doesn’t serve. No one wants money just to have money. You want money for what it will buy, for what it says about you, for the status, for the security, for the good you can do with it, for all kinds of practical and emotional reasons. Money alone doesn’t answer the question.

Why not try starting with the joy you will gain from achieving your objectives in 2010 and reverse engineer your goals? I can hear it now, “joy, you want me to start with joy?”

Yes I do. That kind of joy that sets your soul on fire and gives your heart wings. The outcomes that make you dance a jig and turn crazy cartwheels on the landscape of your mind. THAT k
ind of joy.

If you cannot think of ONE thing that you could do in 2010 that would have that effect you’ve already figured out why you don’t accomplish your goals. Or if you do it is a hard, hard road with more relief and pride than true celebration at the end of it.

Am I saying that your goals should not be financial? Absolutely not! There are no “wrong” goals or “wrong” resolutions – only “wrong” reasons. What is a wrong reason? One that you have no emotional connection to – one that does not light your fire.

What would happen if you started your goal setting or resolutions by asking yourself this question? “This time next year what accomplishment(s) do I want to look back on with tears of joy and a full heart and say – I did THAT?”

Grab hold of that feeling and don’t let go. Then start asking “what has to happen in order to reach that moment, who do I need to involve, what resources will I need, what must I do FIRST?”

Those are goals you are emotionally attached to, outcomes that light you up inside. And likely they will require that you make money, and they may even make you a lot of money. But the emotion isn’t about the money, the money is just a resource and a natural outcome.

So you say, “what about S.M.A.R.T goals?” (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely for those of you who haven’t been dipped in the magic well of Organizational Development.)

Stuff and nonsense (I HEARD those gasps of horror from my colleagues) AT THIS POINT. It’s too soon to think about being reasonable. I don’t want to hear about realistic and achievable. I don’t want to hear about “should” and “can’t” (although I’ll be talking about both of those brick walls in future posts.) Right now we’re still dreaming of the “impossible” and figuring out how to bring it within reach.

I have clients who are used to keeping five year business plans. And I have clients who never write a business plan. Either way, we don’t focus on the plan until we find the joy, the fire, the light they WANT to move toward. Only then are we are ready to write goals, plans, resolutions, create roadmaps.

Because when your “why” is clear then everything you write becomes an “I want to so I will” instead of “I should so I better put it on the list” and your goals become a sanctified “can-do” list instead of a glorified “must-do” list.

Last week I got to do something I had only dreamed of doing; I delivered a keynote for Build Your Own Brand, an event that showcased three of my greatest heroes, two as the featured speakers and one as the Master of Ceremonies. It was in my own city so I got to deliver to a “home crowd” – in fact, the audience included friends, fans and clients as well as local business owners and high level executives whom I had never met.

With complete latitude to present anything I wanted, I scripted a signature speech that opened with The Flaming Lips and the story of a funeral, went right through some of my own challenges and epiphanies and wrapped up with a clip from one of my favorite films. (Sounds strange I know but it all makes sense in context.) I pulled out the stops and went straight for the heart of it.

The opportunity was a dream come true but there is nothing like a dream coming true to make you recognize how closely related dreams are to nightmares. I was pumped up but I was also having the speech writer’s version of night sweats. Was rocking out to The Flaming Lips at 8:00 in the morning too in-your-face? Was the story too personal, would they be able to relate? Was the slide show too over-the-top? And most of all – would I be able to do justice to the great speakers who would follow me on the stage and to the MC who was going to be “vamping” me in front of about 100 of his friends and fans?

That’s when my heroes stepped up to make me great. As the founder of Yellow-Tie International who were sponsoring the event and as the best “vamp” I know, Gill Wagner was MCing the event. He went to great lengths to tell the world how thrilled he was that I would be presenting. One of our featured speakers, Bob Burg, author of Endless Referrals and co-author with John David Mann of The Go-Giver, came into town a couple of days early to do some media interviews and spend some time working with me. While I never asked for reassurance Bob made it clear in dozens of little ways that he had no doubt that I was going to be “dynamite”. Finally, Scott Ginsberg, our other featured speaker and author of several books including Stick Yourself Out There, went so far as to slip me a note the night before the event that said “You OWN tomorrow – I believe in you.”

Magical words aren’t they? “I BELIEVE IN YOU!”

I realized that night, reviewing my slides and cues, pacing the floor, checking my face for last minute blemishes (oh come on, you have those nightmares too) and then trying to slow my heart rate down enough to sleep (way too early for MY natural night owl’s circadian rhythms) that was exactly what all three of these wonderful friends and fantastic pros were trying to tell me – they BELIEVED in me. Not in my talent or my material, but in ME!

Once that realization blasted through my half sleeping mind dozens of faces lined up behind my “big three.” The “boys of Spoke” clients, friends and lifesavers all, Dan Klein, Brian Schwartz and David Meyer, weren’t just sponsoring the event and producing the marketing materials because it was good business – they believed in me. The same was true of my client and good friend, Bill Ellis, who not only sponsored the event but brought several guests. And it was true of my friend Ruth Binger, whose law firm was a sponsor and who personally brought several guests. I finally got it – the people who had been saying “you’re going to ROCK” weren’t just giving me a pep talk – they believed it. They believed in ME. I breathed that in, drifted off to happy dreams and woke up ready to do just that – ROCK it!

Today a Facebook post from a friend I share with Gill Wagner and Bob Burg and whom the rest of you really ought to have the pleasure of getting to know – horticulturist, musician, foot-massager and humor-lover, Heather Williamson, really brought the lesson home.

Her Facebook status today said “What if you made others greater, every day?”

She does, I’ve seen her do it. And Gill Wagner does, and Bob Burg does, and Scott Ginsberg does and all those other supporters who told me in so many ways “I believe in you” do. It’s what they all have in common – they make others greater because they believe in the greatness of others.

They embody The Go-Giver Law #4 – the law of authenticity. They really believe and they share that belief so sincerely and so freely that the people around them can’t help but be greater. What I had to learn was Law #5 – the law of receptivity. I had to learn to breathe in the gift they offered and LET it make me great.

What does this mean to you? It means you CAN make others greater, every day. You have that power. And it means you can BE greater by accepting the gift of other’s belief in you. You have that power too.

Not sure how to connect those dots? Send me an email at Dixie@DixieDynamiteCoaching.com and tell me your greatest challenge with making others greater or letting others bring out your greatness. That’s right, send me an email and I’ll send you my thoughts. It’s that simple – it’s the least I can do.