Steve Braun Workshop

Wow, what an amazing weekend it's been! I just got back from Minneapolis just in time to get to the Steve Braun/Jami Rudofsky workshop at the Onalee Ames Film Studio on Friday. And am I ever glad I got there in time!

Steve is an amazing person; he's from Winnipeg, but now lives and works as an actor in LA. He has paid his dues and now guest stars on popular television series such as the CSI shows, The Mentalist and more. He is extremely humble which makes him an amazing teacher of his technique which he calls Acting the Truth.

Now the name sounds like a paradox, but it's an absolute eye-opener. He teaches how acting is not at all about pretending anything! It's about feeling (truly feeling) every emotion you experience from moment to moment and tapping in to that as you experience your lines. Sometimes the scenes come out totally different than you'd expect, but they always come out real, authentic and beautifully.

What I especially love about his process is that his main starting point is that you absolutely MUST have a point of view. You must be able to look at the people around you and SEE everything about them, that they are doing, that you are experiencing because of it. You need to be honest and you also don't need to explain. He gives you permission to feel any feeling without judgement and then to just move on.

The strong point of view is what struck a cord with me, because it's the same thing in coaching and in life. If you don't have a strong point of view of what you want then it's virtually impossible to get it with ease, balance and joy. Imagine going to the airport to catch a plane but not knowing where you want to end up. Which plane would you get on? What terminal would you head to? What time would you go to the airport? Who knows?!?!! On the other hand if you know what your destination is then you know what time the plane takes off, you can follow signs to the the correct terminal and the airline attendants will check your ticket to ensure you're boarding the correct aircraft!

Learning to be clear on what you want, is the first (and often toughest) step in creating a life of success. But after that HUGE step, it's amazing how quickly, easily and organically opportunity for success will come your way. All of a sudden your friends have a connection that can lead you to your goal, you see an ad in the paper for exactly what you are searching for, you get a brilliant idea in the middle of washing the dishes on how to achieve what you want! Without a clear vision of the end, it's hard to know where to place your efforts in the beginning!

As a Certified Professional Coach, it is my pleasure to work with clients to find that end goal! To figure out what is calling to them, what it looks like, why they want it and why it's important. I help clients create effective action plans to make achieving their goals a simple and consistent daily practice instead of an intimidating mountain of work. I hold them accountable to their values and goals and bring to light any self-sabotaging or negative self-talk. With coaching, clients learn to believe in their abilities, expect success and actually achieve it step by step.

If you are interested in knowing more about Steve Braun, Life Coaching or this blog, please feel free to contact me:

Aisha Alfa, BA (Psych), CPC
Certified Professional Coach
Alfa Life Coaching
www.alfalifecoaching.ca
aisha@alfalifecoaching.ca
Dream Bigger. Succeed Faster.

"The Little Man Inside You" -by Ryan Anderson

The Little Man Inside of You
Who is this man? What does it mean?

Intro: Ryan Anderson is an extreme athlete, entrepreneur and client of Alfa Life Coaching. His passion is what drives him in life and we have worked together since October 2009 in order to hone that passion and energy to create the success he knew he deserved. This is an article he wrote after participating in the Arrowhead Ultramarathon Endurance Race in Minnesota in Feb of this year.

The Arrowhead 135 endurance race; another challenge. A famous quote reminds me that, “we all suffer one of two things: either the pain of preparation or the pain of defeat.” It’s two weeks before the race and I’m thinking to myself – have I done enough training yet? Do I have all the gear I need? Have I finally pushed the limits too far? Will this be my last race?
Visualization is one important tool in my pre-racing mentality, if not the most. If you go there in the mind, you go there in the body. A famous book by Maxwell Maltz, called Psycho Cybernetics is one of the most powerful books in this field and it talks about Olympic athletes using the technique of changing your own self-image and how your mind and, more specifically, your subconscious mind work. Whatever you focus on, your subconscious will atomically guide you there. It’s also known as your cervo- mechanism or automatic mechanism. Your subconscious brain cannot differentiate from the past, present or future so, the secret to success is to create, in your mind, the desired result prior to it happening in order for both your subconscious and conscious mind to help guide you there.
One technique is to recreate the entire scenario just like in a movie, using all five senses. Remember a time in your life when you had success and try to duplicate it. What does it feel like? What does it taste like? What are you going to do? How are people going to see you or treat you? Perception is reality to your subconscious, so by changing the way you perceive things and looking inside yourself, you end up changing the outside world around you.
Now usually when you finish, complete or accomplish a goal, you have two feelings after.
1) You feel amazing finishing a race with a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment. However, if you have visualized well enough ahead of time, you have already experienced a part of this in your mind.
2) The second is a feeling of setting a new goal or challenge – sometimes without it, you feel lost again. Since, I committed to going back next year; it’s that excitement again of a new goal, with new energy behind it.
As I have learned, the most important moment in any goal or dream is not when you finish it, no matter how big or how small. It isn’t when you run into challenges along the way either. No matter if it’s a physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, or financial goal it’s all the same; the most important moment is that exact moment when you decide 100% in your mind that you are going to do it. Napolean Hill writes over and over again in his famous and bestselling book, Think and Grow Rich, “It’s the burning desire backed by persistent effort that will make anything happen.” Once that decision has been made and you start taking action, everything else starts falling into place. People start talking about it around you, events present themselves, and things start to happen around to you that are precisely what you’ve been looking for. Dr. Wayne W. Dyer sums it up nicely when he said, “The state of your life is nothing more than a reflection of your state of mind.”
What did I learn from this adventure? Well, I learned that even though I “failed” in crossing the finish line, I gained something from it. The question is what? Was it to recognize how many great people in my life support me in my passion? Was it to tell me that I “still have it” in regards to staying on top athletically, but there’s always a new challenge? Looking back, I did accomplish more by completing half this race than in any other full race I had completed in the past; I ran and walked for 26 hours straight completing 70 miles/100 kms while pulling a 40lb winter sled behind me in the cold dark winter forest. I battled frostbite, dehydration, hypothermia and severe foot blisters to make it where I did. Maybe the lesson was to help keep me on track in life. Perhaps the lesson was a mixture of all of the above. But one thing that stuck with me was that along the trail when I was in the dark cold winter isolation I realized no matter what I had on my ipod - music, books or mind motivation – nothing could match the feeling of having a physical person there beside me. The realization that two people who just met can run beside each without talking for hours and not only be comfortable, but help each other accomplish each of their own goals and with ease.
I have learned lots from the Arrowhead 135 and I am now stronger, smarter and more prepared for the next adventure to come!
By- Ryan Anderson
February, 2010

Thanks for stopping in! Remember to check out my website regularly to hear about upcoming events and specials. www.alfalifecoaching.ca

*Save the Date: April 17th, 2010 for my workshop: Creating Your Vision and Finding Pathways to Success*

Aisha Alfa, BA (Psych), CPC
Owner, Certified Professional Coach
Alfa Life Coaching
www.alfalifecoaching.ca
Dream Bigger. Succeed Faster.

The Olympics!!!

They're here, they're here!!! The Olympic Game have made their way not only to our country, but also into our lives through commercials, merchandise and hot topics. We hear on the radio how commuters in Vancouver are annoyed with the traffic, we hear the troubles with creating snow for the events and the costs involved with producing the games. But all that sticks with me is the absolute I feel, the fever I experience that is full of inspiration, sportsmanship and joy. I watch the commercials and when I see athletes just realizing they've won gold- crying, singing the national anthem, experiencing the absolute release and bliss knowing all the hard work has paid off- I get so emotional (and not like the song!).

I am inspired byt the stories of hard training, sacrifices and focus on a goal. It reinforces my beliefs that everyone can achieve (and deserves) this feeling. We all just need our own goal to focus on and then we need to put our heads down and go for it!

It was Oprah who said, " The big secret to life is there is no secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you're willing to work"

This is one of the most fundamentally simple truths of coaching (whether it's an Olympic athlete, a young adult in transition or an entrepreneur). Nothing good comes without passion, effort and perseverence. Let yourself take the risks and sacrifices to work hard at a goal, so that you may fully experience the celebration of success. Know that you have created that success and that it was not a gift or an accident. It was a prize that you fought for, an end result that you worked hard at and a reward that you truly deserve.

It's my absolute pleasure to be a part of my clients' jouney's to their "gold medal" and that is what makes my wheels turn. That is exactly why I get so emotional (baby) about seeing success on these athletes' faces. It's the same reason I get so excited about all the successes my clients experience through life coaching. The Olympics have helped me realize that life coaching is exactly what I love to do and this process empowers me as well as my clients!

So, enjoy watching the Olympics this next month and remember, the line between the path of an Olympic athlete and yourself is imaginary; the logistics are different, but the process is the same. Get out your spandex and get down to business!!!

Thanks for stopping in! Have a magnificent day!

Aisha Alfa, BA(Psych), CPC
Owner, Certified Professional Coach
aisha@alfalifecoaching.ca
www.alfalifecoaching.ca

I just wanted to watch a movie!!!

So last night I was exhausted!!! I have been on this yoga detox challenge for three days and it involves doing yoga once a day, eating VEGAN and abstaining from alcohol for 15 days. Anyone of these things by itself would generally be a challenge for me, but add them all together and I'm really feeling a change!

I have been tired, energized, relaxed, frustrated, crave-infested, impatient, motivated, proud, sad and confused in an ever revolving cycle for the last 3 days! To top it all off, this has been my busiest month yet, so I think every emotion I'm feeling has been magnified ten fold!

So, last night I had no majorly pressing items left on my TO DO list and I decided I deserved a little movie night! I was very excited about the video on demand on my tv and that I wouldn't even have to leave my snuggly condo to rent a dvd. I went to the VOD page and attempted to check through the movies and set up my first order.

In the process, something in the technological world went awry and my tv decided to go snowy. Now, I love a good snowfall as much as the next detoxed yogi, but this was unexpected! I tried everything......I turned the cable box on and off (no luck), I turned the tv on and off (no luck) I called MTS and went through the entire automated system simply to find myself listening to a recorded announcement that their office was closed for the day (obviously...no luck). I am aware that this is the equivalent of kicking your tires when your car won't start, but that is about the level of my technological expertise!

Maybe it was the toxins leaving my body, or maybe it was the stress of the busy month, but for some reason this upset me more than it should have! I found myself standing in front of my tv, holding the remote with white nuckles and saying over and over, "no....this can't be happening" and "come on, not now!! I just wanted to watch a movie". It was as if I genuinely thought my tv was listening and was somehow punishing me for taking time to relax!

And so I sat down on the floor, remote still in hand, snow still fluttering on my television and said no more. I felt pathetic, defeated, sad and annoyed all at the same time. How could something so small and ridiculous cause such emotions!?!? I decided that in life when you feel like your tank is empty, it's always worth giving one final effort before calling CAA. So I picked my sorry butt off the floor and went to the tv to manually push some buttons (kind of like checking the windshield washer levels when you car won't start!)After realizing that changing the contrast wasn't doing the job, I decided my last resort would be to re-set the manufacturer's default settings. This took ages, but low and behold....my cable began to work again and the snow disappeared!!!

I AM BRILLIANT!!! was my only logical conclusion! By this time it was almost 11pm and I no longer had the stamina nor interest in finding a movie to watch. I turned the tv off, went into my bed and read until I fell asleep with the lights in my room on.

So the moral of the story....when life gets you down and you have exhausted all options, always give it at least one more effort because you never know what will happen! Oh...and if you want a nice relaxing movie night....just walk to Blockbuster and rent the darn thing! ;)

Thanks for stopping in! Remember to Dream Bigger. Succeed Faster.

Aisha Alfa
Owner, Certified Professional Coach
Alfa Life Coaching
www.alfalifecoaching.ca