Wisdom |

November 8, 2013

| by

You Are Not Alone!

 

“Within your heart, keep one still, secret spot where your dreams may go.” Louise Driscoll

We spend much of our time looking for answers to our life questions, looking outside of ourselves ….. for the information we already possess and which are only found by discovering our signature inner strengths.

“What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.” Oliver Wendell Holmes

It has been said that our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate; our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond what we already possess, which is found only by stopping and looking inside.Make a Difference

Quite often as an Octogenarian, I am asked how do you stay so young at heart?  My answer is … Curiosity. Curiosity keeps us young in mind and heart. As a coach, it was my curiosity that led me to explore my inner strengths, even though, I was not aware that I possessed the signature strength of curiosity, when I started exploring my inner strengths at around 60 years of age. Twenty plus years later, I spend my time helping others to find their precious inner gifts.

As we rely too much on our own knowledge and opinions, we lose our ability to call on the strengths we were born with to flex our mental abilities to create new ways of accomplishing things.

We forget that we are more powerful when we call on long unused talents. We need to remember that there might be different ways of accomplishing things.

I rely on my talent as a leader to stimulate options for generating an approach that will cause my student to solve their challenges.  Through examination of the results of their inner strengths assessment, they are able to activate one or more of the sleeping treasures to expedite their endeavors to success. They report new insights that ignite breakthroughs that inspire them to build solid solutions.

If you feel that you are alone in your journey to achieve your dreams, your power is within you. By uncovering your inner strengths, you will discover that your deepest fear is not that you are inadequate; your deepest fear is that you are powerful beyond what you already possess, deep within yourself. And which are only found by stopping…

And taking a good look inside…

That within your heart there is a spot…

Where your dreams lie.

To learn how you can discover your inner strengths, please contact me at:

joci@ joci james.com

 

Inner Strengths |

April 10, 2013

| by

Is Your Life Aligned to Your Signature Strengths?


The next questions might be, “What are my Signature Strengths? How do I find them? How do I engage and express them?

 Your signature strengths are those that best describe the core aspects of you who you are.

 Do you find that your everyday journey is easy, fun and rewarding? Or is it tiring, leaving you feeling frustrated at  the end of the day.

 I spent most of my younger life feeling guilty before I closed my eyes at night, never having the satisfaction that I had done all of my “to do list.” What was missing was that I had not been introduced to the magic tool box that each of us are born with, our “inner signature strengths.”

 Signature strengths are the things we like doing and come naturally to us to execute. We find more happiness in our life if it is aligned with our signature strengths.

 For example, I love creating a mosaic picture in my garden with colorful flowers. I can happily spend hours in my garden forgetting to eat lunch and knowing that my muscles will be aching tomorrow.September 2009 - June 2010 003

 The end results of my labor and creativity excites me. But a constrained job as an accountant on a secretary sitting at a desk all day would leave me feeling tired and unfulfilled.

 As I mentioned, your signature strengths are given to you at birth. These strengths are the strong nudges you get when you are engaged in a task that you enjoy. They are the ones that are energizing and comfortable to use. Your friends and family would agree that these are definitely “you.” These are already pathways in your brain that you were born with or might have been evident when you were a child. Some of these signature strengths might be latent; however it is still within you.

 Discovering your 24 signature strengths by taking your personal strengths assessment will benefit your efforts in achievement and create your best life.

 When you learn to engage your strengths, you will feel as if you have more energy available to you.

People using their signature strengths find that they have more energy and excitement in their life.

They feel that they are being “real.” They are being the person they want to be, not the person someone else wants them to be.

 My top signature strengths are:

 Woo

 Woo stands for winning others over. I enjoy the challenge of meeting new people and         getting to know them.

 Learner

 I love to learn. I never was interested in learning when I was younger. Now it is exciting to learn new things.

 Responsibility

 I feel a strong responsibility to show up and deliver what I promised.

Activator

I know I will not be judged by what I say or what I think, but what I get done.

How can you use your discoveries in achieving your personal goals?

There is a natural progression that you may follow:

Take the Strengths Based Survey to determine your order of signature strengths.

 “You will find information on how to access the survey and ways to learn about your personal strengths here:

  http://jocijames.com/

 Scroll down to comment on this or any of the other blogs.

Joci James, Life Strengths Detectivedetective-goldbg

Inner Strengths |

January 28, 2012

| by

Uncover Your Excellence

Hello,

I’m Joci James, Life Strengths Detective,

I write these blogs to give you helpful tips and solutions to live smarter by uncovering your inner strengths to assist you in making life easier.

Isn’t it interesting how excited we can get when we come across a new gadget, solution or trick to make life easier when we are planning or involved in a project?

I like to cook. Now this may not be your “cup of tea”, but whatever your hobbies or interests are, it would make the project more palatable if you had the tools to accomplish the project with less effort.

I just took the latest edition of “Bon Appetite” magazine out of my mailbox and, on the way up the steps to my front door; I was struck by the headline on the front cover, to an article inside that read, “The One Kitchen Tool You Can’t Live Without”.  I rushed in the house, ripped off the plastic sleeve of the magazine and turned to page 105, only to find out that the one thing you can’t live without is a cast iron skillet!

Now, I’ve been cooking with a cast iron skillet for 60 years.  People have cooked for centuries in a cast iron skillet.  The article went on to detail the skillet’s features. It holds the heat, it doesn’t stick, cooks evenly and, one they didn’t mention, it doesn’t need to be polished.  It does need to be seasoned (oiled) but I have that part down since I can relate – I too am well-seasoned.

We humans seem to be constantly on a search for a new trick or gadget to get our projects done, when all along it might be in our kitchen cabinet, in our tool box or tucked away in a drawer.

This can also happen when we think we are not equipped with the inner personal strengths to accomplish our dreams.

When you are dreaming of your vision of your beautiful life, picturing how it will be, planning your road map of how you will get there, do you get detoured by the thoughts that you just don’t have the talents or personal inborn strengths to accomplish your goal?

I’m encouraging you to search closer for talents you may have forgotten you have – could they too be tucked away in a drawer of your memory?

Unfortunately, we tend to highlight and focus on our so-called weaknesses.  Once our strong talents are discovered they rise to the forefront and become the leader of your intentions.  WHAT WE FOCUS ON WILL EXPAND.

Once we are aware of our inner strengths, the next step is to keep them highlighted, not stuffed in a drawer out of site.  They can only be of assistance to accomplishing a project if we use them.

My electric can opener finally bit the dust after 14 years.  I like to cook fresh food, so I rarely open cans.  However, when I do open a can, I am not happy about struggling to get the job done, telling myself, “You are too weak” or “You’re not mechanical.”  When all along I probably just didn’t know how to operate the hand operated can opener.  Ultimately, I bought a new, fancy, ergonomic, high-dollar, one I had seen in a cooking magazine. It looked fancy and folded flat so that it would fit nicely in a kitchen drawer, but alas!  I couldn’t operate it.  I struggled and struggled until I finally threw it in a drawer and tried again to operate with the old hand-screw type one which was still a struggle.  I finally got the new one out again and placed it correctly on the can.  It worked quickly, without effort, and even has pincers to lift the lid so that the liquid never gets on the lid!  Voila!  It’s all in believing that you (the operator) have the skills and the inner tools to get the job done.

This experience proves that when we are aware of our inner talents and strengths we will not only be compelled to start the project but have faith in our own extraordinary traits to guide us to the success of completing the project.

With the meaningful solutions for discovering your personal strengths provided in the series, “Power Surge Teleseries,” you will be encouraged to close the gap from not believing you already have the inner strengths to completing the task, to being aware that you do have the proper tools.  You also have the knowledge that you are skilled at using them

I have learned through years of feeling incompetent, to complete a project (which deterred me from even starting it) that it was not necessary for me to be well-rounded, to know how to do every part of a task.  All I really need is to discover my inborn strengths and talents and rely on them to light the path to lead me to success.  I also learned along the way that in doing  the process, the steps that were not my strong talents were revealed as either not important or the answer to the unknown was presented.

The truth is this: One can’t help but think of starting a project without believing in ultimate success when the discovery of personal inner strengths have been revealed and the knowledge of the faith in the inner guide to see the potential of achieving EXCELLENCE.

Discover how to uncover your fearless power within you by registering for a future teleseminar.

Power Surge Teleseminars are “treasure hunts” that will reveal to your creative power within. You will learn how to reach the strength within you and use it to your full advantage.

Discover how to uncover your fearless power within you by registering for a future teleseminar.

You will be able to uncover:

  • Your fearless Power Within
  • How to reach your strength within
  • How to use your gifts and talents
  • Ways to discover the keys to happiness and success

 

For more information and to register for the seminar go to:

Power Surge Teleseries

Joci James
About Choice Coaching
www.jocijames.com
All Rights Reserved