How I get my To-Do List done with a squirrel brain:
Anyone ever go to start one project but instead get half of about 15 things done? Just me? In case you have the same attention span as I do and a vision for your future that requires being productive, I want to share a strategy that works FOR ME! (Note the for me part because we should try different things out to fit what suits our unique hearts and minds - for more on this, listen to ep 82 of my Hearts Unleashed Podcast How To Get AND STAY Productive) Here is my most effective approach to my work: I do best with 15-30 min increments of focused time and I am sure to take breaks in between. My breaks include a reward system. I have two main strategies here: 1) follow the flow of my 'squirrel' brain and bop from task to task that pops up in front of me. For instance, if I enter my email it may trigger three other tasks before ever making it past that email. 2) hyper focus on only one thing and VERY ACTIVELY set anything other thoughts or tasks that pop up to the side. For myself, both approaches include listing -not exactly for satisfactions sake - but for tracking purposes. My future self is always grateful for my listing because things don't get left behind. If I do either or both of these strategies in about four 30 min focused sessions, I will have gotten most of my work done for the whole day. I leave a lot less undone and usually am hella productive. This is also how I can activate flow and inspiration. As an entrepreneur, we cannot always rely on being inspired. Being able to create energetic momentum is a valuable tool when it comes to tasks that scare us or seem daunting. I save those projects for the third or fourth focused session. Like the third or fourth quarter of a game. I 'leave it all on the court' and call it a day. Some task masters, professionals, and gurus may have other approaches. Some might even advise against these processes but that is the point. These work well for me and I hope even in trying them out that you toss what doesn't work and only keep what does. Getting and staying productive is all about what works for you as an individual. Work what works.
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Yesterday, I spent my night going through each item I own and deciding if it brings me joy or not. From there, I decided whether to toss, donate or, keep everything.
It was truly a form of soul searching to decide if I really need all the physical evidence of the memories I have! It was both heart wrenching and empowering to admit that something I am so fond of may have already completed its purpose in my life. It was a true test of my transformation to be able to thank an item for a "job well done" in my life and let it go. Walk away lesson: #1 HOLY CRAP, I am a pack rat!!!!!!!!! On a serious note, I am at 100% choice about my environment and life. In this mindset, there is little/no room to be a victim of my circumstances. I am the creator. I have the say so....and trust me, spirit was present with a hand on my shoulder. She was encouraging me the whole time. She kept reminding me of the woman I am becoming. ___ About a year after college, I tucked away a box and a bag full of Puma gear that I insisted I would make a quilt out of one day. SIX YEARS later, I have not done a single thing to make that quilt or have it made for me. Cracking open that bag brought tears to my eyes and joy to my heart. What a wonderful rush of flashback. This was and is one of my all-time favorite Puma sweatshirts. It reminds me of college Abby who wore it with such ease, confidence, and pride. This one is a keeper. It brings me nothing but joy! I am beyond grateful for the memories that I have, but I am realizing that they belong in my heart and mind and not in my closet or on bookshelves. I'm so grateful for every experience in life. Good or bad, it's been a blessing. Good or bad, it's made me who exactly who I am. I will always be grateful to be a Puma. It's pretty interesting and ironic that the physical memory of that college campus is now facing it's own dissipation. It's something that belongs in our hearts and minds forever and it has made us all who we are. My hope is that the powers that be find a way to regenerate it's integrity as an institution so that it may create more Pumas and many many more memories. I Am Too Proud to be a Puma and I will always be a proud woman! I highly recommend the act of tidying. It's truly an act of cleansing. It is making room for all that is possible. It creates clarity, energy, and assurance that there is more to life and there is no limits to what can be. Guys, live the life you love by creating it and have a laugh while doing it. Here are 12 different faces from 12 different days in 12 different months with 12 very different stories and life experiences. 12 months with no alcohol and marijuana has been THE BEST decision of my entire life. There were some months that included no sex, caffeine, coffee, or sugar. There were some months of this year that included no travel, no physical contact, and no visiting. There some were months that felt more intense than others and some that I felt more free than ever. Living life without these two particular intoxicants cleared pathways within me that have led to a life I had only ever dreamed of. I have done things like tripled my business and team. My relationships with family, friends, and clientele are thriving. I have found the love of my life and am engaged. I have manifested abundance and hilarious joy in every area of life and the growth feels so organic. I have also made some immeasurable strides in inner peace, acceptance, forgiveness, surrender, and devotion. I have healed and restored my relationship with myself, others, and my higher powers. Somewhere in the middle of this, I was asked about the difference between abstinence and sobriety. "Don't you have to identify as an addict to identify as sober?" The question made sense but I feel a particular way about choosing 'sobriety' over abstinence. To abstain from substances is a great choice. To me, abstaining seems as though there is a time to go back to something, as if there is a deadline or time limit. To choose when you partake responsibly works for some. To use certain substances as appropriate treatments is effective and natural in many ways. I don't see anytime I will be going back and relating to myself as indefinitely sober is a way of being. It serves as an anchor for integrity, alignment, and faith in my life. Sober is a place to come from, not a thing to practice or master. For me, I never thought I had a problem until my body told me so. When I couldn't unfog my mind. When my stomach always ached. When my skin was always broken out. When my focus faltered. When my energy lagged. When my motivation and communication suffered. It took me about two years to really quit alcohol for good and I am so glad that I did. Quitting marijuana took one month of going overboard after I knew my body's demand. It took time because I really actually identified WITH these substances. The Party Girl The Anxious One The Chill One The Creative The Relatable One.... Letting go of these substances meant letting go of the versions of myself that I was familiar with and loved very much. Choosing to not be them meant finding out who I am without them. To me, identifying as sober doesn't represent the severity of addiction. It represents a clear mind. Once I got off substances, I realized my real addiction: stress, anxiety, overwhelm, paranoia, overthinking, and worry. Once the physical effects wore off, I saw how I was also mentally and emotionally intoxicated by my own catastrophozing, fantasizing, and dramatizing. After 6 months sober, I set an intention for myself: "Relax into the adventure of releasing addictions of the body and mind" This meant surrendering completely to the path sobriety was taking me. I was going to find out who I am beyond who I had always been. I was willing to witness everything that being intoxicated and distracted successfully suppressed. I became willing to be with any discomfort with a clear mind and full heart. This has expanded me beyond what words can describe. I have never felt more clear. I have never felt so committed. I have never felt more sober. I have never felt so in my purpose. I have never felt more on purpose. And I am very clear that those inhibitors no longer serve me. I realized they wouldn't get me to where I am going in life. I know that I need every bit of my mind, heart, body, and soul to serve at the capacity I plan to. My body is not mine. It is rental property to function in this realm. It is a vessel for love, affinity, and abundance. It is for smiles, hugs, kisses, and words of affirmation. It is to deliver infinite intelligence in the least adulterated way. It is to shine light on the path of transformation and enlightenment. It is built to lead and love. I will do the best I can for this body to do what this soul came here to do. I will show up for that work as fully as I can. If you know there is more to you than what you are up to now, you are not alone. Listen to the whispers of your heart. Practice courage in honoring what you hear. You know you best. You know what's best for you. Own it, love it, live it. I love you. Spread the Love.
Spread the joy. Spread it like buttttaaaaaa, babe. You see, "todayyyyy is the day that Hallmark has made, let us rejoice and be glaaaadddd!" Consider that your relationship to this holiday = your relationship to Love! If you think of it that way what do you see? What IS your relationship to love? Finish the sentence, Love equals..... What is it for you? What isn't it? What do you want and wish it to be?? You see, the Love you experience in your life begins and ends with your experience of Love. read it til it makes sense. You are the one who controls how much Love gets to flow to and through you. So let down your barriers. Let Love in. And spreeeeeead the Love!!!!!! Happiest Valentine's Day, my love. I am sending you all I got. Open that heart of yours. Visualization means nothing if you cannot harness the feeling of that visualization.
If you cannot sense it in your heart and being, you are sabotaging your efforts by visualizing something that actually triggers and disempowers you. The feeling is the most important aspect. When we visualize and our dream seems so big, scary, impossible, or far away that it activates negative feelings within us, we push it farther away with feelings of incompetence, envy, rejection, smallness, inferiority, isolation, and so much more. The feeling is so important because the feeling also causes the stream of thoughts that matches it. For example: If you feel anxious, you'll have anxious thoughts about your visualization. If you feel empowered and excited, you will have empowered and excited thoughts about your visualization. The best way to shift this is see that big, hairy, scary goal and imagine 5 major milestones between you and that goal. If you can envision being a millionaire, that might be too much to feel into right now. You will have to be a thousandaire first. Shit, you have to be a hundredaire before that. Sheeeeit...you have to get out of debt first! So feel yourself becoming richer by making a budget and sticking to it. Feel yourself saving more than you spend. Feel yourself paying bills on time. Feel accomplished. Feel proud. Feel responsible. Feel grateful. Feel progress. Feel smarter. Feel richer. Feel wealthier. And sooner than you can imagine, you will close the gap between you and your visualization. And this works with anything you can imagine and see in your mind's eye. Feel into it. Lean into your dreams, one beautiful milestone and feeling at a time. Happy Manifesting! Stay tuned for the Money Mindset Series in Season 4 of the Hearts Unleashed Podcast launching Feb 28 Don't fret about this or that and that or this.
Don't sweat the small stuff that will get smaller with time. Don't let your fear get a hold of you, my dear. For you have no idea what you have coming down the line. Put your trust in me and I will walk you home. I will reveal the path if you will trust the unknown. It is in your faith that your fortune lies. And if you stay in your head, you might miss its disguise. So drop into your heart and unleash your soul. Because your happy ending is yet to be told. -God I heard him say it myself Releasing Ceremony: letting go of resistance, attachments, fears, concerns, and considerations as we enter the new year. We are here at the Hearts Unleashed 2021 Launch Weekend and there are just some things that won't be coming with us into the future of this company or our lives. Major Manifestation Story: 5 years ago when I started my coaching business, I was a (pretty sad) solopreneur. I had the gift of healing, guiding, and coaching but I was no business woman. I struggled to offer the life changing work of transformation and definitely struggled to pay the bills. Going at it alone was super discouraging when I was already stretching it past my comfort zone to chase my dreams. This discomfort went on for 2 years before beginning to find my tribe. First, Jill Weeks entered my life and we started navigating building a business and team together. This was super new and uncomfortable as I learned how to trust and delegate. Then, Rhonda Lee joined on when I was looking to level up and develop the company to support more people, host more events, and provide more products. We worked week in and week out to mostly teach ourselves how to build a business from the ground up. We pieced it together and I cried a lot in my ascension from an employee mindset to CEO mentality. This was so stretchy for me as I released my fears and learned to practice patience, trust, and faith. Flash forward to today and 4 of our 9 core team members are here in person for our second annual launch weekend. We started this retreat last year and 2020 turned out to be our most abundant yet! Each year, we plan to see more of our core team hear and welcome on new coaches, mentors, and HUBC hosts along the way. People like Aviance Cobb Marci Lynn Victoria Marie Amber Werth Erin McPartlin and Sara Waggle have joined our movement to walk people home, back to love. Bringing people back to the core of who they are so that they may unleash their Hearts! The last 5 years have been so expansive and the last two years have been so abundant! So as we launch 2021 from San Clemente, CA, we are releasing any outdated limiting beliefs and resistant thoughts that would get in the way of us serving fully and faithfully. We have set new intentions for this year's experience, what we are committed to providing the planet, the difference we are looking to make, and the impact we plan on causing. Next year, there will be more leaders in this picture. One year, we will be talking this picture from the Hearts Unleashed Headquarters! And every year, this picture will be filled with love, passion, and gratitude. Happy 2021 to all. May your year be blessed, May your soul be light. May your heart be unleashed, May your future be bright.
Disappearing December was so good to me.
I wrapped up my best year in business, love, and life. I brought programs to a close. I took time off my podcast and social media. I also packed up my living space in San Clemente and moved across the desert to live with Tim Demme in Prescott, AZ. For the last few weeks, I have been working on a ghostwriting project for an amazing leader and pouring my heart onto some more pages. I have been serving clients and relishing in watching others do the heart work. I have been shifting, stretching, and growing far beyond anything I ever set out for. What do you do when you reach the goals you set out for? What's next when you manifest things you've prayed and worked for for years? What do you do when you finally feel the way you've been wanting to feel. You enjoy it. I see too many friends and clients (myself included) skip right over a major milestone because they are obsessed with the destination. They don't realize they have met or surpassed something they were working so diligently for. We are often averse to acknowledgment because somewhere along the line, we learned celebrating yourself is bad, conceited, or pretentious. We believe that the opposite of humble is arrogant so we sweep our victories under the rug or just put the trophy on the shelf and focus on the next goal. After years of this, goals, destinations, and achievements lose their flare. Because we know the payout of a 5 year goal might only be 5 minutes of excitement, hitting a benchmark becomes uninspiring and even unattractive. Years of this pattern take us so far from our natural inspiration, creativity, and passion that we forget who we are. Our 'why bother?' attitude over shadows our 'why not!' enthusiasm and we forget what excites us. When we can't get excited anymore, our time here gets confusing. Our souls took a body to come play human. Our souls are fascinated by this whole earth gig and came to see what they could do with these meat sacks we are learning to operate and love. You came here to create. You came here to share. You came here to celebrate. What has helped me remember what a gift this whole life thing is has been to slow down, celebrate the good, witness and accept the not-so-good, and be unconditionally grateful for it all. Being here is a blessing. Bless it. Bless these bodies. Bless these souls. Bless each other. And bless the process. Taking time to restore and reset in December was indescribable. I have enjoyed the head and heart space more than words. I am happy to be back and I am showing up slowly. I am coming back thoughtfully and in love. I am always showing up filled with Gratitude. I am feeling a special kind of restored tonight as I made my way back to the ocean, back to San Clemente for the Hearts Unleashed 2021 Launch Weekend. We had our first Launch Weekend in 2020 and it led to our best year in business. Our goal is to grow this team weekend every year -and mark my words‐ one day we will be hosting it from Hearts Unleashed Headquarters. We hit all the goals we set out for and more. Before launching into this next year, we took the time to review and celebrate our year. We acknowledged the growth and expansion. I will be intercepting the Hearts Unleashed ladies tomorrow and we will spend our weekend praying, planning, and preparing for 2021. As for myself, I made sure to make my way to the ocean a day early. I drove straight from our cabin in Prescott directly to the water's edge. This soul took this Abigail body but it's true home is in the water. I am writing this post listening to waves crash. I am going to finish my seventh book next to the water. (I have written 4 books for other amazing humans). And tomorrow, we are going to launch this new year of devotion and service sitting by the shore. I love the water. I am the water. I love life. And I live a life I love. Give it a try. The water's fine. 2021's word of the year came to me in an interesting manner and I will share how it came about for you to really consider what your word for the this upcoming year might be. What I know about these themed words is that we don't really pick them; they pick us. I learned this in 2019 when the word FLOW washed over me like a river. It was so loud from within, that I felt commanded to choose that word. I feel like because I honored what I heard, flow entered my life and that entire year felt like floating down stream towards success. 2020's word was a softer nudge and still very obvious when it presented itself. TRANSCENDENCE came to me in more of a whisper from the heart. Deep down, I knew it was the word but I also questioned it. It seemed pretentious. "What am I transcending?" I wondered. "Who do I think I am to know about transcending?" What I did know was to honor what I heard and so I did...and so I transcended. 2020 has been the greatest year of my life because of this word. A book was born out of this single word. This word generated a new course in the Hearts Unleashed Academy - Fluidity - and even launched the first ever HUBC Retreat! Honoring this word meant honoring myself, my divinity, and my purpose on the planet. This word lead me to finding love, faith, and even marriage. It was my most financially sound and abundant year. For all of this, I thank God everyday. It has been learning to lean all the way in on what I hear that has made the difference in my quality of life. Nowadays, I do my best not to think but rather, just listen. What I understand is that we are always being divinely guided and if we can quiet our mind, we can hear our hearts. This will lead us to love, abundance, and joy; of this I am absolutely certain. Our heart always has the highest good of all as its only priority. And so knowing that, in early December, when I realized it was time to channel the word of 2021, I began listening into my heart. The thought came to me in a client call so I wrote myself a little note and focused back on the call. When I went back to my note in the evening, I said out loud, "okay 2021 word, what are you?" Immediately I heard "detached." "Huh!" I thought. It came into my mind but sounded like when you pick up a guitar and the first strum is out of tune. It had a weird twang to it. I listened in again and immediately heard, "departure." "What?!? Am I dying this year? I know we can do better than that!" I argued back. Regardless, I wrote both words down and gave the thought a rest for the night. I knew that if either of those were the words, they would repeat themselves to me. I didn't hold on tight to either word or any expectations. I just listened, flowed, and transcended above my human thoughts about doing it right. About 3 nights later, I sat down for my mirror work and after some dance and writing, I set my journal down and said out loud in the mirror, "alright 2021 word, wha...." "DEVOTION" "Ahhhhhhhhhh," I sighed a huge breath of relief as my jaw relaxed and my shoulders dropped. I loosened my hands, leaned back in my chair, and closed my eyes. "Devoootionnnn," I thought. I let it wash over me. I felt it filling every cell in my body and reconfiguring my being. "Detached, departure, DEVOTION." This felt like the perfect series of words that would follow TRANSCENDENCE. In fact, I was confused about the first two because transcending required so much detachment and departure in 2019 and 2020. I have been letting go of so much in the last few years. The word DEVOTION however, felt like the perfect amount of fitting and intriguing. What I really know about the words that present themselves to us present an invitation into expansion. It is a word that represents growth outside of your comfort zone. I have a sense of what DEVOTION means based on what I know but I am clear that my word for 2021 will take me far beyond any me, life, or world than I recognize. What's funny to me about this year's word is that it will take true DEVOTION to find out what it actually means. To me, this currently means surrendering to the devotion to my purpose and my commitment to the highest good of all. It means releasing any and every identity sense of 'self' to show up for what is being asked of me by Source. It means leaning even more fully, beyond Abigail preferences, into shining light, unleashing hearts, alchemizing energy, raising the Collective frequency, and spreading love. I devote my being to being a vessel of love in this world. There are many factors that can get in the way of that, cause doubt, make it uncomfortable, and challenge that DEVOTION and I am committed to being my best example of walking, talking, breathing, thriving love for any and all to see.
Don't have a word for the year yet? Maybe this workshop will help.
Join me in 2021 for a year of intention and power. I will teach you how to create endings so you can effectively and freely begin the next stages that await you. Register today and save on signing up for the whole year! 2020 has been the the greatest year of my life. There have been things I have withheld at certain points because I understand that is not the case for everyone. I respect how challenging this year has been and in my coachy way, I have welcomed and even celebrated the challenges and obstacles. Although there have been moments where I second guessed talking about my blessings, one core memory drove my willingness to share boldly; 2016 was the worst year of my life and I didn't expect anyone to dim their light because I was struggling. The opposite, a few select leaders sharing their shine helped me see the light at the end of the dark tunnel I was in during my toughest year. I am more than willing to be the light in the Collective dark tunnel of 2020. I have allowed myself to celebrate this year being the most abundant of all. Fulfilling a sobriety journey that has led to more clarity and access to divine intelligence than I have ever had access to; leading me down solo journeys that took me to great heights. From 2 best selling books to my first movie/documentary that has inspired so many to alter the direction and trajectory of their life. From falling in love with myself to falling in love with Tim and getting engaged, this year has been so blessed. From my first $11k month to having $10k steady in savings and investments, I finally feel like I have healed and recreated my relationship with money. Flowing with the demand month to month only to realize we hosted 20 book club programs this year was jaw dropping. I have felt we have been doing everything we can to serve this unprecedented year of great awakening. Recreating my relationship with God blasted open new pathways in my life that showed me more than I could have ever created for myself. Between the longest on-going support calls I've offered to serving men and women at my largest retreat ever, I am in awe of what has been created this year. I went from speaking on stages to facilitating deep inner work in National Forests. I went from chasing to leaning back. I went from masculine to feminine. I went from dreaming to having. I have made dozens of new friendships that mean so much to me and collaborative partners that have the same focus and commitment. This year is definitely one for the books, literally, and it really is just the beginning. This journey, this adventure is nowhere near over. I am taking the month of December offline to reflect, praise, rejuvenate, and re-calibrate, AND to finish learning Spanish!! Thank you endlessly for your love and support. The visions in your heart are YOURS. They are there for you to follow through and deliver on. Whether on or offline, keep showing up for your dreams day in and day out. You can have it all. Live the life you love |