In the past month, the first group of Abundance Intelligence® Pioneers in the Leader Certification track have been exploring the Illusion of Time. After our discussion last night, something came to me today.

So often we talk about a person's ability.

Their strengths.

Whether they are ENOUGH.

For lots of us, seeing our shortcomings or those of others is easy to do. In fact, it's downright habitual.

But abundance is not about a person's ability. Not if we believe that we are born great. That we are ENOUGH. That we already have everything we need, choose, and want to be who we are.

When we're abundant, there's no questioning. We already ARE.

Abundance is about our AVAILABILITY.

The question is not can you do it, but will you do it? Are you open and ready and willing to be who you are?

Right here. Right now.

Today.

A person can have all the ability in the world, but if they are not available to abundance, then nothing happens. More of the same - living on the surface of life.

What are you focused on? Questioning your Ability or your Availability?

Posted by Kim George at 02:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"When I dare to be powerful - to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid."

Audre Lorde

Being abundant - exercising the freedom to be who you are - is the hardest thing in the world to do.

And yet, it is also the easiest thing to do.

If we only have awareness of the power of who we are.

You've had those moments, haven't you? When you've grasped the power of your greatness, the power of your uniqueness.

Maybe it was a split second. The pure, unbridled beauty of who you are fit together perfectly with where you are.

And you understood.

You knew.

But then something happened. Something came along - a thought, an old belief, a comment from a friend. And that knowing was gone.

Why is it so challenging to live who we are more frequently than not?

It's got to do with our fears. When we lose that knowing, it's because our fear is bigger than our courage.

But what is fear if not perception? Conditioning? Learned behavior?

What is stalling your Courageous Abundance?

Posted by Kim George at 03:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

New to Abundance Intelligence® - Abundance Intelligence?  Here's a quick synopsis for you:

Abundance Intelligence is a form of intelligence that is made up of aptitudes, conscious patterns and beliefs that enable us to do what we CAN do consistently and authentically.

Your Abundance Intelligence® is measured by identifying your Abundance Quotient - the prevalence of Abundance Aptitudes in your life.  Your SQ - Scarcity Quotient - is measured by the prevalence of the Illusions in your life.  Illusions are sources of scarcity thinking.

For every Illusion there is an equal and opposing Abundance Aptitude:

Self-Worth:  you are complete, you have more than enouch exactly as you are; conscious patterns: capacity, greatfulness, catalyst

Empathy:  compassionate internal awareness -- the degree to which an individual consciously directs his or her awareness inward; conscious patterns: internal drivers, discernment, effectiveness

Self-Expression:  the ability to consistently give voice to who you are; conscious patterns: receiving, simplicity, flow

Actualization:  consistent and authentic action; conscious patterns: stepping back, curiosity, perseverance

Significance:  knowing who you are and living into that greatness every day, shifting from external expectation to internal realization; conscious patterns: engagement, decisiveness, inquisitiveness

Surrender:  the willingness to let go, allowing life to unfold through us so that we can remember who we are; conscious patterns: personal responsibility, intention, vulnerability

Inquiry: the ability to question your answers consistently; conscious patterns:  willingness, strategic thinking, adventuristic

Posted by Kim George at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

New to the Illusions of Scarcity?  Here's your handy, dandy quick reference guide.

An Illusion is a layer of conditioning that provides evidence we are living in scarcity.  Each of the 7 Illusions is made up of conditioned patterns and beliefs.  All of the Illusions keep us from doing what we CAN do.

The Illusion of Not Enough: where the belief that you can't trust who you are results in feeling incomplete; conditioned patterns: more, scriptwriting, contingency

The Illusion of Comparisons:  consistently comparing ourselves to the external world to validate our belief of who we are; conditioned patterns: external drivers, personalization, busyness

The Illusion of Struggle:  the cycle of resistance, striving, and complexity that keeps people from doing what they can do; conditioned patterns: resistance, striving, complexity

The Illusion of Time:  focusing on what you don't have instead of what you do have; conditioned patterns:  rushing, attachment, distractibility

The Illusion of Hope:  waiting for other people or events to solve our uneasiness of who we are; conditioned patterns:  expectation, powerlessness, assumption

The Illusion of Control: when a person's happiness depends on re-arranging the world to fit their idea of how things should be; conditioned patterns:  care-taking, role-playing, self-defense

The Illusion of Certainty:  when the need to know an outcome keeps you from acting, making authentic decisions, and doing what you CAN do; conditioned patterns: complacency, tactical thinking, perfectionism

Posted by Kim George at 09:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As some of my readers know, I am the Pioneer Coach for the Social Capital & Networking community where I lead classes with Dr. Ivan Misner of BNI and Soni Pitts, my assistant community coach. This past week I led a Networking  Fearbuster call on the concept of Abundant Networking.

In this call, I explored how the 7 illusions of scarcity from my upcoming book parallel common fears people have with networking.  Here's an example:

"I don't have anything interesting to say."  This is a great example of someone who is stuck in the Illusion of Not Enough.  Have you ever had this thought run around in your mind before a networking event?  It points to disconnection with greatness, with who you are.  We fear that who we are isn't enough - smart enough, appealing enough - to engage others in conversation.  It's as if we need to jump somersaults and speak 10 languages to be compelling enough for people to actually talk to us.

When I discussed this on the call, Dr. Misner chimed in with an excellent suggestion.  If talking about yourself makes you nervous, all the more reason to focus on the other person.  Use who, what, how, and why questions to draw the person out.  Actively listen with curiosity and interest.  Be interested and in doing so, you will be interesting.

But of course, you already know, deep down inside that you are interesting. It's a matter of getting out there and doing what you CAN do, and being yourself in the process.

In February and March, I'm going to be leading a complimentary 4 part teleclass series on The Abundant Networker.  I'd love to have you join me.  To find out more and register, click here.

Posted by Kim George at 09:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you find yourself recycling the same old goals year after year and feeling stuck, try Declarations on for size.  The first step to moving from a goal to an abundant declaration is Capacity.

In my book, Coaching Into Greatness, I define Capacity as the belief that you already have within you all that you want, need, and choose.  People with a high Abundance Intelligence (Abundance Intelligence® ) embrace this concept.  Capacity is a conscious pattern found in the Abundance Aptitude of Self-Worth. Instead of looking at yourself as less than perfect, flawed, or needing to be fixed, you see your capacity for greatness.  When you were born, you were born with a DNA of Greatness.  Your life is a process of living into that greatness.

When goal's fail, it is because of the focus on becoming something.  Capacity says you already are that person.  You may not be actualized yet, but that capacity for who you think you should become is already there.  People spend their entire lives in a pursuit to become someone, when what they really are is more than enough if they would recognize and live into it.

Declarations declare to the world that you already are your goal.  I can hear you come back with the classic objection to this idea of Capacity.  "But how can I be great?  I don't have the job I want, the degree, the relationship, the house . . ." and on and on and on.

Capacity is not just the recognition that you are standing on top of a treasure chest of gold.  It is owning that you are the treasure chest. The gold is inside you, waiting to be invested.

Carole Zimmerman, one of the Abundance Intelligence® Pioneers, likened the idea of Capacity to the capacity of our brain.  It is said that we only utilize at most 10% of our brain's capacity.  Does that mean that the other 90% doesn't exist because we fail to use it? This is exactly the same concept with our greatness.

What % of your Greatness Capacity are you utilizing?

Posted by Kim George at 09:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"We each have our own tree to climb."

Julia Butterfly Hill, founder, Circle of Life

I had the privilege of interviewing Julia for "Coaching Into Greatness".  Many of you may be familiar with her story.  She spent over 2 years living in a tree to protect the famous redwood from certain destruction, and to protest the logging of old growth forests.  The picture on the left shows Julia at the very top of Luna.  What courage!

Here is an exclusive excerpt from Julia's interview in my book:

The gift of Hill’s self-inquiry is getting to the core essence of who she is. The investigation was, to Hill, much like using a magnifying glass to start a fire. “When we choose to really delve into ourselves,” she says, “is when we turn the magnifying glass toward the sun. That’s when it gets fierce.” We’re so afraid of this intensity, we keep the magnifying glass turned the other way. “The results,” she continues, “can only happen in the space of that intensity, so that in the process of being pulled in a million different directions and being unhappy most of my life, I can finally say ‘OK, I’m going to take it on now.’”

She did burn, but as she puts it, what burned were the illusions she had about who she was, and the illusions about not being enough. She switched from “being in the world of fear to being in the world of joy.” She’s learned to laugh more easily, and she can see more clearly the way our existing systems feed off our scarcity and fear.

Living in the tree wasn’t two years and eight days as one event, she says. “It was two years and eight days of moment by moment access of who am I choosing to be in this moment, and recognizing that all we need to be is who we are.” When asked “what can I do?” she responds: “What do you love to do? Find a way to offer some part of that. Who we are is exactly who we were meant to be.”

Hill concludes: “Everything I needed to be is already within me, but I had to be willing to embrace the real burning of the illusions; the letting go of the illusions. In the butterfly analogy, the melting of myself so that I could become who I already am -- a newer, more vibrant expression of who I am.”

Which direction is your magnifying glass aimed at?

 

Posted by Kim George at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

If you are going to doubt something, doubt your limits."

Don Ward

We never seem to have a scarcity of doubts, do we?  We doubt our greatness, our abilities, our intelligence, our future, and each other. 

Why do we find it so easy to doubt?  At it's root, this is an inherent form of scarcity, and a classic sign of the Illusion of Not Enough - when we don't trust who we are.

What keeps us from trusting who we are?  What makes us doubt that we are already great?  These are powerful questions.

And yet, perhaps the most powerful question of all is, as Marianne Williamson says,

Who are you not to be Great?

Posted by Kim George at 11:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

In this past week's class, we delved more deeply into measuring the patterns that make up the Illusion of Time.  This whole measurement process has been a bit squishy, to say the least!

How do you measure intangible qualities like abundance and scarcity?  It's easy to quantify the number of products sold, or pounds lost, or revenues generated.  But measuring Attachment and Convenient Distraction?  Not so easy.

In fact, nearing completion of my book and entering the next phase of this Living Into Greatness work, I found myself getting overwhelmed by the opportunities coming to me and the sheer BIGNESS of this work, Abundance Intelligence® , that is unfolding.

Frankly, the Illusion of Certainty and Not Enough have been kicking my ass. 

Who am I to think I can create this thing called Abundance Intelligence?  I don't have the time, I don't have the background, I don't have the experience . . .

On and on it went.  For about a day and a half.

Then I remembered the words from my own book. 

I CAN do what I can do.

I already have everything I need.

Being who I am is perfectly enough.

And I took a deep breath. 

This stuff works.  How funny (and how perfect) that I have to be reminded by my own book . . . 

     That it's great.  And that it will be all that it can be.

      As long as I am being who I am.

Posted by Kim George at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What a great call last night!  Thanks to everyone who participated.  We explored the 3 primary conditioning patterns that cause the Illusion of Not Enough.   These patterns are the evidence that we're in scarcity. 

The 3 primary conditioning patterns for the Illusion of Not Enough are:

• More -- looking for more of anything to fill a perceived void inside yourself
• Storytelling -- the conditioned stories we identify are ours that run our lives and keep us from doing what we can do
• Contingency -- "If I get that job, then I'll finally be happy . . ."  The habit of looking for something outside of ourselves or someone else to fill our void

The highlight for me in last night's call was the conversation around the experiental patterns (more on these in future posts) that replace these conditioning patterns.  Here they are:

• Capacity - Personal RAM + Creative Energy + Flow
• Greatfulness - Gratitude + Appreciation + Greatness
• Catalyst - Initiating movement in alignment with your ideals

No, that's not a typo.  I really do intend to spell Greatfulness in that way.  I loved the conversation around this experiental pattern.  Here's how I explain the concept of Greatfulness:

    Those living in scarcity see the cup as half empty. 

    Those living in abundance see the cup as overflowing.

    Those who are living in greatness ARE the cup.

Can you view yourself as the cup?  What possibilities does this open for you?  Would this change how you're showing up everyday?

Posted by Kim George at 10:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

"We are the hurdles we leap to be ourselves."

Michael McClurg

This quote is so perfect for the Illusion of Not Enough.  In our search for more (more evidence, more validation, more love, more money, etc.) we are so disconnected from who we are.  It's all about becoming something, striving for something.  At the heart of all of this searching is the core belief that we are not good enough.

Perhaps the biggest hurdle of all is coming to grips with the concept that enough is enough.  When the change comes from inside us, then we already have everything we need.  Anything above and beyond that is gravy.

What are you hurdling today?

Posted by Kim George at 07:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In this Thursday's discusson on the "Illusion of Not Enough", we got into conversation about the need for more and what drives us wanting more of everything:

• time
• money
• planning
• evidence
• love
• tools
• energy
• details
• explanations
• options
• talent
• confirmation

In and of themselves, each of these things is not bad.  It is not bad to pursue learning, knowledge, new skills, or prosperity.  But within each of the illusions there is a tipping point - the point at which the illusion keeps you from doing the thing that you can do.

At the base of wanting more is the perception or belief that you are lacking something.  This is the definitition of scarcity -- the belief that there isn't enough to go around . . .a void . . .a lack.

Have you ever caught yourself saying one of these:

If I have more money, then I'll be able to drive that car I want.

When I get that second degree, I'll know what I'm doing.

When I meet my soulmate, then I'll be happy.

The Illusion of Not Enough is based on a life of contingency plans. Your greatness, your happiness, your success is all contingent upon something else.  Something outside of you.  And nothing that you have any control over. This operating system of contingency keeps you stuck, because you're focused on everything but the thing you can control.

What is your particular "more"?  What drives you to look outside of yourself for answers? 

Posted by Kim George at 01:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This blog (and the new book!) are based on my approach to Greatness.  I've already shared one of the important themes - that Greatness Is.

But here's another central theme of Living Into Your Greatness -- Falling in love with where you are.

It's not just about knowing where you are and accepting it, it's about falling in love with it.  That's where profits, passion, and possibility live.  That's where we all live.

Here's one of my favorite poems of all time.  Let me know what you think.

The Opening of Eyes

by David Whyte                                          

That day I saw beneath dark clouds

the passing light over the water

and I heard the voice of the world speak out,

I knew then, as I had before

life is no passing memory of what has been

nor the remaining pages in a great book

waiting to be read.

It is the opening of eyes long closed.

It is the vision of far off things

seen for the silence they hold.

It is the heart after years

of secret conversing

speaking out loud in the clear air.

It is Moses in the desert

fallen to his knees before the lit bush.

It is the man throwing away his shoes

as if to enter heaven

and finding himself astonished,

opened at last,

fallen in love with solid ground.

Posted by Kim George at 05:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)