The challenge has been set forth over at www.blakehammerton.com – my personal site for Applied Happiness Coaching (and hypnosis). The challenge is to be an everyday hero for 5 days (Wednesday through Sunday) and report back.  I invite you all to stand up for the common man, and practice acts of selflessness, kindness, courage and integrity.

This video blew my mind earlier this week, and it prompted the Everyday Hero Challenge.  I’m going to consider this a trial-run of the challenge. If it gets good reviews in the comments and on facebook, I’ll make it a regular event with prizes and awards.

So head over here and read about the challenge. Then leave your examples, thoughts, and heroic stories in the comments there!

Peace, Love, and a million successes to you!

Blake

Technorati Tags: appreciation, attitude, awareness, being bold, coaching, goals, gratitude, inspiration, lessons, personal power, reflection, success, teaching, wisdom

Click The Image to Vote!

We’ve been nominated for Intuit’s Love a Local Business competition to receive a $5,000 grant for our upcoming project! It would be incredibly powerful to win this grant and be entered into the drawing to possibly receive an additional $25,000 in grant money. Holy cow! We could really change some lives with that kind of capital!

So there are plenty of ways to get the votes in. Click the image at the top of this post and your vote will be counted. You can also head to our Facebook fanpage and click the link there. Even cooler, however, is to text in your vote!

Text happiness to 244326. There will be an automatic reply where it will ask for your name, and another reply asking you to say why you love Applied Happiness. That’s it! It’s totally FREE, and almost too easy not to do.

We are truly grateful for the love and support we’ve received in all our community projects so far, and with this grant money we’ll be able to start and finish even bigger and better projects. Send this out to everyone you know, and let’s get this started right!

Technorati Tags: appreciation, attitude, being bold, coaching, dream, fund raising, gratitude, happiness, success

Three Days Left

The “Declare & Conquer” workshop is only three days away!  This Thursday night we’ll be at the Palatine Community Center revealing the secrets to overcoming obstacles and reaching what you truly desire in your life. This two-hour class is designed to help you define what you really want, discover what’s stopping you from getting it, and equip you with the tools and resources to make it happen.  Have you ever felt a little “stuck” and wondered how you were going to get moving again?  Has what you wanted been just out of reach? This is exactly what the workshop is designed to help change.  We’re going to introduce the tools of the extraordinary – the secrets of the movers and shakers in the world.  This is such a powerful class that we can’t believe we’re practically giving it away at $30 a person! Oh, and speaking of giving things away, we have gifts for every attendee, and a chance to win more stuff the day of the class!  Head over to our EVENTS page, and REGISTER!

Not in Palatine?

Fear not, friends.  We’re going to turn this into a downloadable course, and offer many of our subsequent classes as webinars in the future.  However, this is the last workshop for this year! In order to get the hands-on learning, interactive atmosphere, and the free gifts, you have to register and get to Palatine.  If you have any questions, please feel free to email Blake directly. We hope to see you all there!

Declare & Conquer Workshop – Thursday, October 28th 7-9pm
Palatine Community Center
250 E Wood Street
Palatine, IL 60067

With Excitement,
The Applied Happiness Team

P.S. If you add a friend when you register, we’ll take $5 off each registration!!  So tell your friends, spread the word, Like us on Facebook – get the message out there!

Technorati Tags: awareness, clearing doubt, coaching, facebook, goals, inspiration, lessons, motivation, personal power, reflection, success, teaching, workshop

It’s official: We’re taking this show on the road! Starting October 28th, we’ll begin holding two-hour workshops in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago. This two-hour evening workshop is about defining what you truly want in life, discovering what it’s going to take to get there – including how to tear down that wall so many of us encounter along the way.

Head over to our EVENTS page to get all the details, and to register! The thumbnails on the bottom of the events page will also provide more details about the class, and my personal bio (so you know what you’re in for) – just kidding! This autumn is going to be very exciting, and it’s only the beginning of a whole new phase for Applied Happiness Coaching.

Hope to see you there!

Blake

Technorati Tags: autumn, awareness, clearing doubt, coaching, goals, lesson, motivation, overcoming obstacles, personal power, teaching, workshop

I have made it so far through the book, that it’s about time I started getting the word out about it. I am asking for help in getting it published and on store shelves.  The additional funds will be used to get the new Suicide Prevention and Life Celebration charity started.  These are exciting times, and I would be honored if any one of my readers became a contributor.

“The Unlimited Landscape – Exploring the power within you” is about the journey to that ‘more to life’ place we’re all searching for. Sometimes it’s a quest for success. Sometimes it’s a search for deeper meaning in the world around you. Often it’s a combination of many things. This book is an experiential piece – filled with exercises and lessons to guide you in discovering your potential, and explore that power. It is written with humor and sarcasm because that’s the kind of guy I am – as if we needed another sarcastic writer in the world, right?

The book is really a stepping-stone for Applied Happiness, and myself. I am raising money to get the book published and on shelves, but I’m also using any additional funds to put together a charity for Suicide Prevention and the celebration of life. I feel in my soul that the emotions in this project, and the passion of the positive paradigm, will make the future charity possible – and I would be honored if you were a founding contributor to our success.

Please check out the fund page by clicking the book cover image above. There are incentives to donors as well. We have three packages that allow you to receive some great gifts for your donation. Check them out!

Peace, Love, and a million successes to us!

Blake

Technorati Tags: appreciation, coaching, fund raising, goals, gratitude, love, personal power, positive thinking, success, teaching

I write over at Rent a Smart Guy as well, and this is an article that another contributor, Brian Mattocks, wrote over there that I think goes well with the most recent post here. Definitely head over there and read what we can do for you!

Wisdom is a business worth billions of dollars a year. Many companies, individuals, and social organizations claim to understand it enough to teach it – but few of them bother building the business case for wisdom. Why? Fundamentally, it is because the very notion of wisdom is difficult to understand. What is it, really?

Wisdom in a Nutshell

When I was young, upon coming to a door that was stuck closed, I would attempt brute force to open it. After a few minutes of thrashing and pulling and sweat inducing effort I would give up on that method. Then I would analyze the door and see if I could understand where and how it was stuck. Only after trying to understand the problem could I then devise an approach to open it. Thirty seconds of looking at the problem and 2 seconds of finesse resulted in an open door.

Wisdom is a form of knowledge – but processed in a special way. Wisdom is the applied understanding that comes from knowledge. When looking for wisdom in an employee, they call it experience, insight, expertise, savvy, or know-how.

The definition provided above explains the key problem with businesses and institutions that focus on providing wisdom. Such businesses like self-help publications and seminars; and social constructs like religious institutions; can’t directly teach wisdom. They can only teach around it, because wisdom emerges from the experience of an individual.

The benefit of wisdom is in the outcomes it creates. Wisdom cultivates enduring, positive outcome generating environments. Beyond the single result – when applied, wisdom lays the foundation for more results, or paves the way for more wisdom. An added benefit of wisdom is that it often provides business value along more traditional dimensions like: quality, speed, or cost.

A wisdom based approach to problem solving, for example, looks for “everybody wins” scenarios. A wisdom based approach to patient care is comprehensive. A wisdom based approach to sales focuses on relationships. Each of these approaches build better outcomes than “me first”, “symptom management”, “close the sale” approaches.

There are a few ways to acquire wisdom in a more direct fashion. First, cultivate relationships with those who provide honest and meaningful feedback on your behavior. Second, put yourself in situations that you have not experienced before. Third, cultivate mindfulness. While these aren’t the only ways, they are the clearest path to acquiring wisdom.

However you may acquire it, it is clear that wisdom is a good investment.

Brian Mattocks – Rent a Smart Guy – www.rentasmartguy.com

Technorati Tags: business, coaching, employee relations, investment, lessons, teaching, wisdom

Free Coaching Session!

With 2010 coming to the half-way point in the next couple of weeks, are you happy with where your year has taken you?  Are there things you’d love to change, improve, increase, or achieve?  Maybe you would only like a little clarity about where you are and where you feel you’re headed on this crazy winding road.  Have you had a day where you left your office for some lunch and thought, “what am I doing?” or “is this really all there is?” or even “man, it would be so incredible if I could only (fill-in the blank)”?

Coaching is such a powerful place to turn to when you’re looking for some insight and fulfillment in your life.  Maybe you’ve looked into getting a coach, but you doubted your ability to afford it…

GREAT NEWS!

We’re giving away 30 minute coaching sessions!  No, really, we are!  F-R-E-E !

Not only are we giving away the first 30 minute session, we’ve discounted our fees to help get you closer to your dream without taking away your savings!  Head to the contact page and send us a message to set-up a free coaching call (or face-to-face meeting), and take us for a test drive!  If you feel like you could benefit from having your own incredible coach, we are offering 30 minute sessions for $25 each for the first 90 days!  Imagine as much as 12 complete weeks of personalized attention, focus, and support to help you discover your best self and show you how to create S-M-A-R-T action plans to get you moving forward.

FOR PEANUTS!

For those of you thinking, “C’mon, there’s no such thing as a free lunch,” truly, there’s no risk. No contracts, no gimmicks, no strings, nothing. The time is yours,and the decision after your session is yours. No hard sell. No fine print. NONE.

Head over to the assessment page and see what you, personally, come up with. They’re free too. If you find some area of your life you might like to improve, we would be more than happy to give you the free session to touch on it. Call 847-754-9615 or send a message our way to set-up your FREE session today! 

As a bonus for signing up for your free session, we’ll send you the Applied Happiness Inspired Action Workbook at no charge! This 30 page workbook will help you get a head start on what motivates you, and what might be holding you back from getting what you want.  This is $10 value, absolutely free.

Don’t wait! This offer only runs through August!

Call or write us today, and discover what a coach can add to your life!

Audentes Fortuna Iuvat – Fortune Favors the Bold.

- The Applied Happiness Team

Technorati Tags: appreciation, attitude, awareness, being bold, clearing, coaching, gratitude, happiness, lessons, love, personal power, positive thinking, success, teaching, wisdom

What an exciting time! There are new projects on the horizon, potential new writing endeavors, and The Best Coaching Blogs of 2010 contest is here! We’re thrilled to be ‘in the loop’ this year, and have entered this time!

It’s such a great thing, even if we don’t win (although we’d really, really, really like to… hint hint) because it spreads more constructive and empowering ideas around the internet, and the world. These blogs are written by coaches and coaching students, and they provide some pretty stellar insight about life, and how you can change yours for the better! Just like us, they offer powerful questions, advice, and outside perspectives to help guide you to a better understanding of who you are, and what you’re capable of.

THE IMAGE ABOVE LINKS TO THE VOTING PAGE – CLICK IT – SCROLL TO APPLIED HAPPINESS – VOTE UP (Click the UP arrow)!

We’ve got a real shot at winning, and it helps to get readers, subscribers, and some great feedback for us! Let’s make it happen!

Peace, Love, and a million successes to you (and us!)

Blake

Technorati Tags: call-to-arms, coaching, contest

“Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death.” – Anais Nin

Today’s exercise is to describe your ideal self in the future, with one small afterthought. I’ll touch on that step in a moment though. As stated in an earlier post just down the page, many people see happiness as a destination, a place to get to – missing the biggest picture: Life is a journey, and happiness comes with the perspective you take at each twist and turn. Fulfillment in life is an exercise of choice; not something that will just happen someday.

Take some time for yourself, and get comfortable. You can listen to some music, turn the lights down, and maybe have a little wine to relax. Whatever you choose to do, make sure you’re comfortable and able to devote sometime to really focusing. Close your eyes and start to imagine yourself sitting in a garden. It’s filled with all the most beautiful flowers and trees in the world. You’re in a little clearing, sitting on a bench now, completely relaxed. Imagine the best possible future ‘you’ walks into your garden, and takes a seat on the bench just across from you. Also completely relaxed, this future ‘you’ is eager to speak with you, and answer all your questions.

What does your future self look like? What is he or she wearing? Does she look healthy? Is she happy? What kind of clothing is he wearing, and does it make you feel excited or anxious to see him dressed that way? Example – He is in great shape, wearing a beautiful suit jacket and slacks. They are a perfect fit, and he looks like a stud. You feel excited and proud to see yourself looking so dapper!

What does he or she do? What’s her life like? What are the greatest things she’s doing these days? Remember, this is your ideal future self, right here in your garden – what you should see is the exact picture of what you want for yourself in life. Converse with this future self, and find out what words of wisdom you think he or she could share.

When you think you’ve really connected with this version of yourself, and feel like you can accurately describe him or her in great detail, thank your future self for the time together, and make your way out of the garden. As you start to come back to reality, write out everything you saw, smelled, tasted, heard, felt, and learned in that experience. Essentially, you’re describing your ideal self – the way you envision him or her. Having sat in a garden with this future self, you’ve seen first-hand the way you’d like to be, so you should be able to create an incredibly vivid picture.

After writing out the description and everything that goes along with it, I want you add one more step. Imagine now, that you are that ideal future you, in all his or her glory. You’ve done it! You’ve become that great ‘you’ that’s always been waiting to emerge! Congrats! Step Two: Now What?

See, the story of your life is not about achieving that status or reaching that goal, it’s about the ‘and then’ that follows that milestone. Your task now is to declare what you’re going to do with this new power. You’ve just tapped into your inner strength, conversed with that ideal ‘you’ that’s always been there, although often hidden, and I’m daring to ask you what your next step is going to be.

All too often we get comfortable in the place we are, the roles we play, and actions we do and do not take. So comfortable, in fact, that we throw out great opportunities because they ask us to expand beyond what we’ve spent our whole lives masterfully developing. That sense of risk can be a gift or a curse – the choice between the two is yours once you realize it. So I’m challenging you to answer the “and then” portion of this exercise now. If you woke up tomorrow completely embodying every characteristic of that ideal future self, what would your next step be?

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“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” – Anais Nin

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It’s a big challenge, I know, but it’s important to realize that your life doesn’t stop at the end of the sentence. There’s always another “and then…” waiting for you.

So start here: I woke up this morning and discovered I am (insert now realized characteristics of ideal future self), and I can have, do, and be anything I desire. I got out of bed, gifted with this new discovery and then…

Peace, Love, and a million successes to you all!

Blake

Technorati Tags: coaching, fulfillment, future self, meditation, motivation, stillness