When you care deeply about your career and receive a great deal of satisfaction from what you do, this phrase can become the mantra for your life: When in doubt, work.

Woke up early? Work. Just arrived home? Work! Free Saturday afternoon? Work.

In and of itself loving your work and being eager to get things done is a great quality. Ambition and a desire for excellence can take you far. But problems ensue when this mindset creates an overall sense of stress that you have never done enough and guilt whenever you engage in activities other than work.

According to a Polaris Marketing Research poll, 42 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds reported feeling very stressed, and 49 percent of female participants said their stress levels had increased in the last five years. That’s a problem.

During my first few years of owning a business, I struggled with this work-whenever-I-can mindset and overcame it. This led to me found Real Life E Time Coaching & Training to help others accomplish more with peace and confidence.  Through these experiences, I’ve discovered some key strategies for investing your time wisely so you succeed both on and off the job.

Here are some of my key tips for success.

Diversify Your Time Investments

Wanting to devote a significant amount of time and energy to your professional life makes sense when you have your eyes set on making a significant impact in your field. But if you don’t intentionally diversify your time investments, you may end up with an unnecessarily high-risk portfolio.

For example, I begin putting together my clients’ ideal schedule by blocking in time for sleep, exercise, and relationships. Often these activities get relegated to the “time left over once all my work is done.” However given the pace of work and life, this typically means they get entirely squeezed out or reduced to an inadequate number of hours.

Getting proper sleep and exercise not only makes you feel better, but can literally add productive years to your life. According to a study published in the European Heart Journal, participants who slept less than six hours per night had a 48 percent greater chance of developing or dying from heart disease and a 15 percent greater chance of developing or dying from stroke.

Also, I’ll never forget when I sat in outplacement classes as a 21-year-old after having gotten laid off from my first job. All around me, people who had worked for their companies for 10… 20… 30… years lamented how they had sacrificed their health, their family, and their friends for the sake of their jobs and then been let go when they were no longer necessary. At that point, I vowed to make sure to invest in my relationships outside of work so that no matter what happened, I would have a safe place to land.

Bottom Line: Determine your top life priorities and make sure you allocate the proper time investment to all of them.

Invest Wisely & Deeply

A key element of making space in our life for both quality work and a healthy life outside the office is setting realistic expectations for ourselves and others. You have a better chance of leveraging the impact of your time when you put the most effort into your most important professional activities. Try these practical strategies for making this happen:

• Determine the activities that will have the greatest impact on bringing you toward your goals, raising your professional profile, and advancing your career. Block in time for those on your schedule first.
• Take note of what activities you do on a regular basis that don’t align with your goals and aren’t leading to any substantial results. If possible, stop doing them, delegate them, or spend less time on them so you can increase your investment in other activities. (If this involves committee work, try to cultivate a replacement or ask your boss about potential ways you could gracefully exit.)
• Before accepting new responsibilities, evaluate them against what you currently have on your schedule. If they have a higher return on investment, consider accepting them but decreasing or eliminating your involvement in another task. If they don’t have a higher return on investment and you have a choice of whether to participate, thank the people who made the request for the offer but let them know that unfortunately you don’t have the time to fully invest yourself in this new project right now.

Although it may feel tempting to think that you’re a “slacker” for not saying, “Yes,” to every opportunity that comes your way, you’ll almost always end up more productive for focusing on what matters most. I don’t believe that everyone needs to limit themselves to a 40-hour workweek as a recent Inc Magazine article, “Why Working More Than 40 Hours a Week is Useless,” advocates. But I do believe that consistently putting in long hours dramatically decreases your productivity and motivation to make progress on what’s most important.

Bottom Line: Focus on your most important professional activities and evaluate the return on investment before taking on new commitments.

Set Up Automatic Time Investment

Once you’ve consciously decided to diversify your time investments and to focus on what’s most important, how do you actually stick to your plan when you face the temptation to stay just a few minutes longer or check your e-mail just one more time before bed?

As author Tony Schwartz explains in a Harvard Business Review article entitled “Why You Need to Make Your Life More Automatic,” we have a very limited amount of willpower. These type of automatic time investment strategies provide the structure and motivation to keep you on track in the heat of the moment:

• Make commitments to others that give you a reason to stop one activity and start something new. As Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook, shares in her recent Inc interview, she leaves work at 5:30 p.m. so she can be at family dinner at 6 p.m. You could set up a similar type of system by making dinner commitments to family, friends, or your significant other.
• Sign yourself up for healthy activities that keep you accountable. Purchasing a gym membership can give you some motivation to go work out, but signing up for a Zumba class at a specific time or meeting with a personal trainer on a regular basis is even better. These sorts of items make wellness a set part of your schedule.
• Use technology to your advantage by installing a program on your computer that will start automatic shut-down at the time you designate so that you’re less tempted to get more screen time instead of going to bed.

Bottom Line: Make commitments that reinforce your ideal time investments when your willpower is high so that you’ll follow through when your willpower is low.

With these time investment strategies, you should have an easier time of creating a well-balanced and successful life. As with any sort of investment, be sure to rebalance on a regular basis, such as every three to six months so that you keep your life on track for the greatest success.

To your brilliance!

_________________________________________________________

Elizabeth Grace Saunders is a time management life coach who empowers clients around the world to go from feeling frustrated, overwhelmed and guilty to feeling peaceful, confident and accomplished with how they invest their time. Find out more at www.ScheduleMakeover.com.

In an O magazine article, Matthew Keller, PhD, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Colorado at Boulder, shares this insight: “Sunny days and warm weather seem to boost mood and have a broadening affect on cognition, basically opening the mind to new ideas.”

How can you make the most of the mood and creativity boost often known as “spring fever” without experiencing a plummet in your ability to get things done?

Here are three practical strategies:

Plan Activities Where You Can Enjoy the Spring!

Set aside a time each week when you plan where and when you will go out. Not only does planning in advance give you a higher probability of being social and meeting new people, but also, it gives you the opportunity to be more creative.

Try these ideas for working off spring fever:

• Go to a nature trail for a brisk walk and laughter.
• Seek out restaurants that have window-side seating or skylights.
• Volunteer on an outdoor project like a Habitat for Humanity building.
• Attend an outdoor arts or cultural festival.

Take Every Opportunity to Enjoy the Weather

Throughout the day, you can give yourself a boost of energy and make working easier by taking advantage of little opportunities to savor the spring weather.

Consider these options:

• Transition to a conference room, sit in a lobby, or venture out to a coffee shop where you can sit by a window for some sunshine and a good view.
• Instead of driving or taking public transportation between meetings or events, try to walk or bicycle.
• When you have a personal call, go outside and sit on a bench or even in your car to enjoy more warmth and sun.
• Keep some fresh flowers on your desk or listen to some cheery music.

Give Your Mind Clear Directions on How to Focus

According to the Los Angeles Times article “Why the spring makes us feverish,” our serotonin levels rise in the spring, which may lead to the extra giddiness, energy boost and enthusiasm. To help counteract that extra level of distractibility, it’s essential to give our minds clear action plans.

These strategies can help you to focus when your mind wants to wander:

• Clarify the day’s parameters, i.e. any meetings and when you will start and stop certain activities for the day.
• Decide on the must do activities for the day and put them in order of importance.
• Estimate how long you think you should spend on each one.
• Identify a few additional activities that you would like to do if you finish the must do items.
• Start with the first activity and really focus on completing it within the estimated time.
• Repeat with each additional activity.

To making the most of spring!

About Real Life E®

Elizabeth Grace Saunders is the founder and CEO of Real Life E® a time coaching and training company that empowers individuals who feel guilty, overwhelmed and frustrated to feel peaceful, confident and accomplished through an exclusive Schedule Makeover^TM process. Real Life E® also increases employee productivity, satisfaction and work/life balance through custom training programs.

Elizabeth has appeared in Inc magazine, The Chicago Tribune, and on NBC. She was selected as one of the Top 25 Amazing Women of 2010 by Stiletto Woman and as a member of the Young Entrepreneurs Council featured in The New York Times, Forbes, Mashable, and many other media outlets.

Let me explain…

The “Point” view of networking tends toward these type of attitudes about and corresponding actions related to networking:

• Networking is an event. Therefore I should attend as many functions and conferences as possible.
• Networking is getting-oriented. Therefore I should only follow up with people when I need something.
• Networking is a phase. Therefore I should only network when I’m looking for a job or in some other transition.

But I contend that you should actually think of networking as a circular set of actions that leads to hopefully life-long, mutually beneficial relationships.

To help you integrate this approach into your life, I’ve laid out what I see as the four stages of networking and provided some practical tips for implementing each one. But before we begin, here are two important principles:

Principle #1: Routine is key. If you don’t naturally make connections with new people, you need to set up some type of routine to make this happen on a regular basis. That could be something as small as spending 10 minutes on LinkedIn every Friday afternoon or as big as joining the leadership team in a professional organization. The key is that you want to have regular prompts to spend time with new people.

Principle #2: Pace yourself. Unless you are in a field like sales or business development, meeting new people will not always be your highest priority. It’s completely reasonable to set a limit for yourself and to spread out meetings over the proper amount of time. For instance, you may decide that you will have 1 to 2 phone conversations with new contacts each week and that you will attend one event each month.

Now let’s begin to plot out the circle…

Stage One: Finding New Contacts

When you already feel time crunched, it can seem really overwhelming to think about meeting new people. How can you expand your network when you can barely keep up with the professionals you already know? But new connections are the life blood of your career that can open up new worlds of opportunity to you so try these strategies:

• Start by contacting people you already know or who you had promised to follow up with in the past. Although you may feel a bit embarrassed about the amount of time that has gone by, most people will be happy to hear from you and rekindle the connection.
• Ask for introductions from others. Cool people generally know cool people. It’s completely acceptable to ask if someone might be willing to write a quick e-mail introduction that could lead to you setting up a phone conversation or face-to-face meeting.
• Use social media strategically. Social media typically doesn’t lead to deep connections with people, but when used strategically, it can be incredibly helpful in facilitating an initial introduction. One of my friends, Shama Hyder Kabani, recently released her 2012 edition of “the zen of social media marketing” that contains incredibly practical advice on how to use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and other social media tools for business. If you’re looking for step-by-step practical advice, I recommend that you check it out.
• Go to events you enjoy. These could include traditional networking events with the chamber of commerce or a professional association, but could also include MeetUp.com groups, sports clubs, knitting circles or any number of places where you can interact with new people who you would like to get to know better. Intrinsically enjoying the activity will increase your motivation for regular attendance and make you happier during the event.

Stage Two: Connecting With People

It’s not enough to just make contact with new people. You want to go deeper and make a connection that will lead to a lasting (hopefully positive) impression. I’m amazed at how a single meaningful interaction has lead to people reaching out to me months or even years later about business opportunities.

• Know your lines. If you can’t clearly articulate who you are and what you do relatively concisely, it may be intimidating for you to reach out to new people, particularly at a business networking event because you are afraid they might ask you the inevitable, “What do you do?” Also, you limit people’s ability to think of people or resources to share with you. It’s not necessary to have a super formal speech, but you should have a short, clear answer to this question that feels comfortable to you.
• Talk to new people when you see them. This may seem beyond obvious, but as a general role, we like to stick to our comfort zones. That means that even at networking events our natural inclination is to only spend time with the people we already know or worse yet to whip out or mobile devices on breaks. When you’re out and about–at a restaurant, at a conference, at a networking event–consider saying, “Hello,” to the people around you. Not all of your efforts may lead to good connections, but you could have some big breakthroughs for relatively little effort.
• Follow up in 24 hours. Ask for contact info and then use it. I make it a personal goal to follow up on anything that I said I would do within 24 hours of meeting someone. This helps me to take advantage of the benefits from the connection and to keep the professional relationship moving forward.
• Plan in one-on-one time. Talking to someone for 3 minutes as you wait in line for food rarely leads to a pay off. But scheduling a phone call or a lunch meeting for even 30 minutes can have a huge return on investment. It’s completely reasonable to plan these one-on-one meetings even a month out from when you meet. But the important point is that you get it on the calendar so that you’ll be prompted to make it a priority.

Stage Three: Keeping In Touch

You don’t need to keep in touch with everyone. It’s OK to sort through business cards at the end of a networking event and to decide who to follow up with for a single discussion or for more ongoing connection. You also don’t need to keep in touch with everyone on the same frequency. It’s good to have a few people that you connect with more regularly, but it’s fine to cultivate other relationships on a 3-, 6- or 12-month basis.

• Passively stay in touch by adding individuals as social media contacts and sharing news and reading updates on a regular basis. Even if you don’t own a business, you may want to consider sending out a mass e-mail every 6 months to a year to past employers, old school friends or people who you met at conferences. Add them immediately to a group e-mail list (once you have their permission of course!). Then put a reminder to send the e-mail in your calendar and/or have it correspond with a memory cue like the anniversary of your business or January 1 or your birthday.
• Schedule a recurring phone call or lunch meeting with people you want to connect with more often so that spending time with them is naturally built into your schedule. If a recurring event won’t work, decide on your next meeting day and time at the end of each time you have together.
• If you’re working on a particular type of project where you may need help or advice in the future, set up a place where you collect names and notes about individuals who could assist with that topic. I keep my list in a simple “People to Help with Book” Word document, but you can keep yours in any searchable note taking or contacts tool.
• When people tell you to let them know when you’re in their area, add them to a list of people in a particular city or put a searchable location note or tag on their profile in your contact management system. That way when you plan a trip, you can quickly and easily know who you could potentially visit.

Stage Four: Introducing People to Others

The final element of the circle that makes sure everything keeps turning properly involves you taking the initiative to introduce people to others. As you do so, you increase goodwill, become a trusted resource for good connections, and generally make the world a better place.

• Make the question: Is there anything I can do to help you? a standard part of your networking conversation protocol. Then if someone mentions that they’re trying to complete a certain task or meet a certain kind of person, go through your contacts to see if you can help them with a connection.
• Welcome people at networking events. If you’ve already been at a networking event a couple of times, you can offer a warm welcome to new people to the group. This can be as simple as making an opening in your circle so someone hanging out in the fringes can join in the discussion or purposefully connecting people who you think might have something in common.
• Organize your own events. When you throw the party, you can invite all of the people who you think might enjoy knowing one another. For a simple get together, you can invite people to a coffee shop, bookstore, restaurant with a patio, or an outdoor community gathering.

Then go back to start and repeat. As Ben Stein quips, “Personal relationships are the fertile soil from which all advancement, all success, all achievement in real life grows,” so transform your networking strategy from a point that fades away to a circle that keeps gaining momentum throughout your career.

To your brilliance!

About Real Life E®

Elizabeth Grace Saunders is a time management life coach who empowers clients around the world to accomplish more with peace and confidence.  For more brilliant time strategies, check out www.ScheduleMakeover.com.

Elizabeth has appeared in Inc magazine, The Chicago Tribune, Forbes and on NBC and is a monthly contributor to the99Percent.com blog on productivity for creative professionals. She was selected as one of the Top 25 Amazing Women of 2010 by Stiletto Woman and as a member of the Young Entrepreneurs Council featured in The New York Times, The Huffington Post, Mashable, and many other media outlets.

Elizabeth’s time coaching clients have the opportunity to go through her exclusive Schedule Makeover™ life transformation process through phone coaching and custom action guides or in-person training.

When you have this feeling day after day or week after week, it’s easy to criticize yourself for not doing more to invest in relationships. “What’s my problem?” you think. “Why don’t I have the time and energy to spend more time with people?”

But fortunately, there’s a better way…

As the research in the New York Times’ article “Go Easy on Yourself” explains, self compassion actually leads to better habit change than self criticism. That’s why you can increase your capacity for relationships by doing more of what you feel like doing versus what you think you “should” do.

Here are some practical action steps to make this happen:

• Think about what you find energizing such as reading at a beautiful library, running along the lake, or attending a concert.
• Brainstorm how you could include these activities in your time that you spend cultivating current relationships or investing in new ones.
• Decide on a time each week where you will contact people who might enjoy participating in these activities with you.
• Give yourself permission to do some of these activities on your own if no one can join you, but you would feel really energized by completing them.

By taking this more compassionate approach toward yourself, you’ll have the opportunity to do more of what you enjoy and attract the kind of people who love participating in these activities with you. Also, making dates an intentional part of your weekly planning decreases the chance that you won’t go out because you’re too tired to make a decision at the end of the day.

You can increase your dating life by doing a little more to love yourself in 2012.

To your brilliance!

About Real Life E®

Elizabeth Grace Saunders is the founder and CEO of Real Life E® a time coaching and training company that empowers individuals who feel guilty, overwhelmed and frustrated to feel peaceful, confident and accomplished through an exclusive Schedule Makeover^TM process. Real Life E® also increases employee productivity, satisfaction and work/life balance through custom training programs.

Elizabeth has appeared in Inc magazine, The Chicago Tribune, and on NBC. She was selected as one of the Top 25 Amazing Women of 2010 by Stiletto Woman and as a member of the Young Entrepreneurs Council featured in The New York Times, Forbes, Mashable, and many other media outlets.

It’s a simple question to help keep you on track. Expert time coach and work-life balance

Take a tea or coffee break with this mug in hand.

trainer, Elizabeth Grace Saunders, has just launched a new line of positive products to help keep you productive!

From clocks to water bottles to mouse pads to journals, all it takes is a glance to remind yourself to stay healthy and balanced!

Elizabeth’s practical products are perfect for personal use or make great gifts for that frazzled friend or harried co-worker.

Go ahead, check them out! — In fact, make it your priority to get one today!

About Real Life E®

Elizabeth Grace Saunders is the founder and CEO of Real Life E® a time coaching and training company that empowers individuals who feel guilty, overwhelmed and frustrated to feel peaceful, confident and accomplished through an exclusive Schedule Makeover^TM process. Real Life E® also increases employee productivity, satisfaction and work/life balance through custom training programs.

Elizabeth has appeared in Inc magazine, The Chicago Tribune, and on NBC. She was selected as one of the Top 25 Amazing Women of 2010 by Stiletto Woman and as a member of the Young Entrepreneurs Council featured in The New York Times, Forbes, Mashable, and many other media outlets.

If you’ve been following my newsletters for a while or worked with me as a client, you know that I put a big emphasis on the mental and emotional components of change.

One of the techniques that I’ve used in my own life and also taught others for years is the whole concept of “fighting” negative voices or mental patterns that try to hold us back. Here’s one of my classic posts on Overcoming Overwhelm.

Basically, you’re confronting the accusations that taunt you and replacing them with the truth.

This is a great technique, and it definitely works wonders.

But since I’m committed to learning and growing, I’m always on the look out for new ways to be my best self and to empower you to be your best self. And this week, I came across a very different, but also very effective approach in a book called Ten Days to Self Esteem by David D. Burns, MD.

It’s called the “Acceptance Paradox,” and it works like this:

“Instead of defending yourself against your own self-criticisms. You don’t try to build yourself up or fight back. Instead, you do just the opposite: You simply accept the fact that you are broken, imperfect, and defective. You accept your shortcomings with honesty and inner peace. The surprising result is that you can often gain invulnerability when you make yourself completely vulnerable and defenseless.”

When I first read this paragraph, I thought, What?! This can’t be correct.

We can’t just be passive and allow these negative thoughts to pound us down. We need to stick up for ourselves, put up our defenses and fight back to the bullying thoughts.

And in some cases, I think I’m absolutely right that denying the lies and claiming the truth about yourself is the correct and most effective strategy.

But as I read on, I realized that this Acceptance Paradox technique might be a good alternative when getting fired up fails.

The absolutely essential and most critical key in the Acceptance Paradox technique is HOW you agreed with the accusations. You do this not from a place of fear, shame or denial, but with a sense of total inner peace, strength and self esteem.

In essence, this technique is not letting critics get to you. It’s the equivalent of a bully on the school playground saying something to you like, “You have a big nose.”

And because you really don’t care what that person thinks, their accusations don’t bother you, you know that your value is not based on the size of your nose, and you’re in touch with the fact that there is some reality to that statement, you simply reply with a shrug of your shoulders and a steady look into his or her eyes, “Yep. I do have a big nose.” Then you move on leaving the bully speechless.

Interesting, isn’t it?

When someone or something is really getting you down, you just might be able to release its power over you by finding and agreeing with the truth in the criticism but with a total, unshakable sense of inner peace and self acceptance.

Please give this technique a try this week when you start to feel discouraged and comment below to let me know how it works for you.

To your brilliance!
Elizabeth

P.S.–I really appreciate you Have a wonderful weekend!

“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.“

-Eleanor Roosevelt

About Real Life E®

Elizabeth Grace Saunders is the founder and CEO of Real Life E® a time coaching and training company that empowers individuals who feel guilty, overwhelmed and frustrated to feel peaceful, confident and accomplished through an exclusive Schedule Makeover™ process. Real Life E® also increases employee productivity, satisfaction and work/life balance through custom training programs.

Elizabeth has appeared in Inc magazine, The Chicago Tribune, Forbes and on NBC and is a monthly contributor to the99Percent.com blog on productivity for creative professionals. She was selected as one of the Top 25 Amazing Women of 2010 by Stiletto Woman and as a member of the Young Entrepreneurs Council featured in The New York Times, The Huffington Post, Mashable, and many other media outlets.

Elizabeth’s time coaching clients have the opportunity to go through her exclusive Schedule Makeover life transformation process through phone coaching and custom action guides or in-person training.

Work-life balance expert and time coach, Elizabeth Grace Saunders, describes how you can make small blocks of time work to your advantage. In her recent 99Percent.com article, “The Counter-Intuitive Benefits of Small Time Blocks,” Elizabeth describes how short bursts of creative energy can be even better than long stretches of work.

Your time is precious, so learn how to make the most of it with Elizabeth’s productivity tips.

About Real Life E®

Elizabeth Grace Saunders is the founder and CEO of Real Life E® a time coaching and training company that empowers individuals who feel guilty, overwhelmed and frustrated to feel peaceful, confident and accomplished through an exclusive Schedule Makeover^TM process. Real Life E® also increases employee productivity, satisfaction and work/life balance through custom training programs.

Elizabeth has appeared in Inc magazine, The Chicago Tribune, and on NBC. She was selected as one of the Top 25 Amazing Women of 2010 by Stiletto Woman and as a member of the Young Entrepreneurs Council featured in The New York Times, Forbes, Mashable, and many other media outlets.

All too often,  initial feelings of elation over your professional achievements soon give way to dread. Any change in schedule or expanded responsibilities can take some major adjustment.

In her article, “Shifting Expectations: How to Adapt to New Job Responsibilities,” time coach and work-life balance trainer, Elizabeth Grace Saunders, describes how to anticipate job changes and to regain a sense of order if you already feel overwhelmed. Her step-by-step techniques give you practical tools that you can start using today.

Check out Elizabeth’s 99Percent.com article now!

About Real Life E®

Elizabeth Grace Saunders is the founder and CEO of Real Life E® a time coaching and training company that empowers individuals who feel guilty, overwhelmed and frustrated to feel peaceful, confident and accomplished through an exclusive Schedule Makeover^TM process. Real Life E® also increases employee productivity, satisfaction and work/life balance through custom training programs.

Elizabeth has appeared in Inc magazine, The Chicago Tribune, and on NBC. She was selected as one of the Top 25 Amazing Women of 2010 by Stiletto Woman and as a member of the Young Entrepreneurs Council featured in The New York Times, Forbes, Mashable, and many other media outlets.

But it’s going to take a significant amount of time to put together. Before I move forward, I want to be sure you actually want it so I’m focused on what will bring the most value to the world…

More details near the bottom of this article on how you can make this happen

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Note #2: In case you’re wondering, this is a Follow Up to this Post which received more comments than I’ve ever had on one post before. You are all SO Awesome!

The Story of How I Became a “Time Coach”

As you may or may not know, I am an “accidental” entrepreneur … meaning that I never actually intended to start a business. It just spontaneously emerged from the perfect storm of resigning from my job, getting none of the seven jobs that I interviewed for and having a large network of journalism contacts eager to take advantage of my writing, editing and photo styling skills (In case you were curious… photo styling means setting up the sets for the photographer to take the pictures.)

Before I knew it, my work was featured in about 50 publications around the country, including Real+Life Decorating, Do It Yourself, and Home Depot Designs for Living.

My life was full of describing the glories of inset sinks in marble countertops, scouring the city for just the right flowers (do you know HOW hard it can be to find pink ginger stalks?) and making sure that readers knew about gooseneck and bridge faucets and could pick which one would be right for their perfect kitchen.

I guess you could say my life was dreamy (it seems that all movies glamorize journalists!) but it definitely wasn’t balanced…

How This All Began

You see, I enjoyed my work and was grateful to be keeping busy but it started to bother me that anytime I wasn’t out at an event, I felt like I should be working…

So I would come home sometimes around 10 p.m. and think I should still answer work e-mail, and I rarely had a weekend where I was completely “off.”

But I remember the EXACT moment when this went from something that kind of bothered me to something where I was actually willing to Take Action.

It seems obvious now that no one should have to just settle for a life overwhelmed by work, but at the time, it was a bit hard to take that kind of stand because so many entrepreneurs tell you that feeling crazy busy is “just part of the game.” Or “you should be grateful you’re busy.” Or “you have to take the work when it comes.” Or “if you say, ‘No,’ people won’t hire you again…”

But despite the chorus of warnings and doubts ringing in my head, I finally came to terms with the fact that I would never feel successful if I didn’t have time to invest in what mattered to me outside of work—without guilt.

The Moment When It All Began

The moment when I decided to really make a change happened as I was talking a walk on a temperate July evening. There were some Canada geese squawking about and some people lazily casting their fishing lines into the river that flowed beside the trail, but I didn’t really notice much of what was happening around me.

I was in one of those mental states where you lose sight of what’s around you and don’t even quite remember that you’re walking and your mind just wanders about trying to make order and sense of what’s happening to you.

And something in me clicked, and I decided: Enough is ENOUGH! I don’t care what other people say! I don’t feel like a success when I’m working all of the time… when I don’t have time for the people and activities I love… and when the work that used to give me so much joy… kind of fills me with dread and a weighty sense of tiredness.

At First It Felt Like I Was Having Withdrawal Symptoms—Really!

I started keeping track of my hours and stopping when I hit my self-imposed limit for the week.

I hated it.

It felt awful to stop working when I “could” do more and when I didn’t always necessarily know how everything would work out.

But I told myself to “step away from the computer” and purposefully scheduled in activities after work that would force me to stop.

In time, taking evenings and weekends off went from being a HUGE struggle to being a natural part of my lifestyle.

I learned to say, “No,” to ask for more time when I needed it (instead of being too proud to let people know I wasn’t perfect) and to value the quality of my life as much as I valued the quality of my work.

The surprising thing I discovered is that people actually respected me MORE. Not only did I have better relationships with my friends and family and a whole lot less guilt, but also my business did better. (Go figure?)

Soon Other People Started to Get Curious…

How was it that I was continuing to build a successful business where I could support myself, have time and money to travel, and not be “crazy busy” all the time?

My approach to life and work mystified people—especially others with flexible schedules who thought that a total lack of balance was something that they HAD to settle for in life. Or that being perpetually sleep-deprived was a natural rite of passage to success.

It Took a Bit of Time

Around the same time, I realized that I wanted to make more of a positive impact in people’s lives in a way that went below the surface…

That I didn’t want to just be the interior designer of people’s homes (though I still appreciate great design!) but to be the interior designer of their minds, hearts and lives—to help them make something beautiful and life-giving out of chaos.

So I Started Talking With a Coach…

…About what it could look like for me to step away from the computer and the photo set and inspire more people to live the life of their dreams.

This lead to the launch of my second business, Real Life E ® that encouraged people to Dream! Dare! Discover!® who they were created to be.

I began giving key note speeches and doing training events on topics such as Think Inc: How to Thrive in Uncertain Times with an Entrepreneurial Mind™ (about helping employees have an entrepreneurial mindset) and High Heels: How to Advance in Business Without Losing Your Skirt™ (about embracing who you are as a woman to help you succeed in the business world).

But despite the fact that I was speaking all over the country and inspiring thousands of people, including speaking directly after Steve Forbes at a conference (a true “rock star” in the business world!) I didn’t feel satisfied that I was making the right impact for two reasons:

1. I inspired people for a day but didn’t get to see, encourage and support their growth and development over time.
2. Starting to travel so frequently for speaking violated the sense of balance and order that I had fought so hard to establish in my life.

So I made a decision that would change everything…

Instead of continuing down the path of speaking as my main focus, I would develop a coaching business. But not just any coaching business (the idea of being a general life coach terrified me because there are SO many out there!) but a very specific, focused, targeted business focused on spreading the message that “Life Could Be Radically Different!” in terms of how people thought about and invested their time.

I pursued coaching training and time management knowledge through best sellers like Getting Things Done. But MOST of all, I carefully observed the reality of what it took to create lasting habit change in people’s lives and used this to develop my Schedule Makeover™ coaching process…

When I Began, I Never Would Have Dreamed…

That I would have clients on four continents, that I would give time management presentations in Asia and Africa, that I would appear in Inc, Forbes.com, WomansDay.com and TIME.com and that I would see SO many beautiful transformations in people’s lives.

But I have…

… and I somehow feel like this is only the beginning.

I LOVE Time Coaching (there’s no way I would give that up! It’s the best thing I can possibly offer you.) But I just feel like it’s not fair for me to only offer this one option any more…

Here’s the deal.

The demand for insight on ‘how to be peaceful’ that goes beyond platitudes like “just relax” or “take time for yourself” or rigid structures like you must get up at 4 a.m. and spend two hours in contemplation has come…

As “The Joy of Quiet” article published in the December 29, 2011 issue of the The New York Times states:

“The urgency of slowing down — to find the time and space to think — is nothing new, of course, and wiser souls have always reminded us that the more attention we pay to the moment, the less time and energy we have to place it in some larger context. ‘Distraction is the only thing that consoles us for our miseries,’ the French philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote in the 17th century, ‘and yet it is itself the greatest of our miseries.’ He also famously remarked that all of man’s problems come from his inability to sit quietly in a room alone….

MAYBE that’s why more and more people I know, even if they have no religious commitment, seem to be turning to yoga, or meditation, or tai chi; these aren’t New Age fads so much as ways to connect with what could be called the wisdom of old age.”

The only problem is that everything—yes everything—in our world is specifically designed to distract… to allure… to capture your attention for even a moment.

So even if you’re someone who wouldn’t naturally have too many problems with focus, this over stimulating world can cause mental fragmentation. And if you’re someone naturally prone to distraction, the pings, bleeps, bells and boxes can make attention almost impossible.

Everyone Seems Concerned About This BUT No One is Telling You How (in a super practical way) to Be Different

With my time coaching, I really look to get below the surface of what’s going on and to look for answers to how you can fight back and create peace and order in your life in a world that’s attempting to swallow you up. This is a holistic approach that encompasses ALL of your life from your sleep schedule to your work schedule.

But I think there’s more I could be doing to have a larger positive impact. So I’m thinking of focusing in on the one specific area with a product about how to make time and space to think, to process what is happening to you, to stop running and to slow down… both inside and outside.

I’ve been really encouraged and amazed at the Tremendous Interest around this idea so I am thinking about giving you a value packed, 100% free Gift of “5 of the BIGGEST Obstacles to Making Space for Inner Peace & How You Can Overcome Them Now”

This is meant for you IF you’re serious about creating space in your life for the practices that give you a sense of internal order, calm, alignment and centeredness.

This Gift Will Include:

• A description of each of these 5 Major (but often hidden) obstacles and how you can identify whether they’re holding you back.
• Activities for freeing yourself from the power of each of these obstacles
• A short guided meditation recording where I help you release the worries of the day and prepare your mind for reflection before you head to sleep.

But Here’s the Catch

Because I want to be extremely clear on the true interest for this gift and I don’t want to send further e-mails to people who are totally not interested…

…I need you to let me know if you’re interested in receiving “5 of the BIGGEST Obstacles to Making Space for Inner Peace & How You Can Overcome Them Now.”

So Here’s What You Need To Do

I’m making a list of everyone potentially interested in receiving my free gift and getting in on the start of anything else that may come of this.

(Those who don’t sign up won’t hear anything more after this week.)

So if you’re interested: 1. Enter your e-mail address below, and if there’s enough interest, you’ll receive your free gift at that address. 2. Please leave any comments or suggestions below.

Email Marketing You Can Trust

If enough people get on this “interest list” (I’m thinking about 200 or more…) then I’ll make this free gift and send it to EVERYONE on the interest list (but none of those who haven’t signed up.)

If no one wants this gift, then no worries… I’ll direct my focus toward something else.

At your service,

Elizabeth

P.S.-Thanks so much for all of your comments and e-mails. You make this all worth it

P.P.S.-Feel free to share this info on Facebook, Twitter or e-mail it to those who might be interested. It would be truly fabulous if there’s the momentum to move this gift forward. Let’s start a movement!

So I’ve been getting a LOT of e-mails/comments from readers about my previous e-mail and blog post.

Sorry to be a bit reluctant to fully disclose what I’m thinking, but it’s been a long time coming and sometimes it takes courage to bring your thoughts into the light of day. But for the sake of bringing more people to a place of inner peace, here it goes…

As you may or may not know, time coaching has had such an incredible positive impact on the world in ways that I could not hope or imagine.

I never dreamed that I would do coaching and training on six continents and have the opportunity to truly start a movement calling for a greater sense of peace, confidence and meaningful accomplishment in a burnt-out, overwhelmed world.

I’ve been blessed to have helped thousands of people transform their lives for the better and have been deeply touched by witnessing their transformations.

It makes me SO proud when I see my clients and readers building their confidence, gaining focus, claiming their legitimate right to self care and investing in what matters most to them… especially connecting with the most important people in their lives and themselves.

I celebrate their accomplishments as if they were my own and gain so much from their insight and appreciate so deeply their encouragement (One recent comment that I was “worth my weight in gold” made me glow inside for a long time

So here is where I have been holding out for years…

I’ve been asked if I offer anything other than my one-on-one time coaching program.

And up to right now, I haven’t really had a good answer.

You see, up until now, I haven’t fully given myself over to developing new programs and courses because I’m so committed to only offering people what I believe will really produce results.

I completely believe in my services, and I don’t take on clients where I don’t feel that I’m the right solution.

And when I work with time coaching clients, I not only help them through basic strategies like planning their days and weeks but also offer them support and guidance on whatever is most pressing for them at the moment which could include:

• Being more assertive at work with setting boundaries and saying, “No,” without guilt
• Communicating effectively with your boss or significant other on differences in opinion
• Learning how to modify your cooking habits after you changed to a vegetarian lifestyle
• Etc., etc., etc.

Seriously, I teach the same principles but adapt the content of each call to address the most pressing needs of the moment because I’m TOTALLY committed to my client’s success so the program is custom tailored to them—down to each stitch.

That’s why the idea of offering a product to you (even a free one!), feels well… uncomfortable.

But as I explained in my last post, 2012 is the Year of Breakthrough. And because I so believe in the transformative power of coaching, I’ve engaged people to coach me on overcoming my own area’s of insecurity that are keeping me from creating the biggest possible positive impact on the world.

And they’ve challenged me (which is good, but makes me feel so vulnerable!) to step out and share more of what I know in a way that could make an impact on SO many more people.

So I’m still doing time coaching through skype and phone with a select group of clients from around the world, but I’m also considering building a Free Product that will help you start to…

• Live out your dreams of consistently feeling peaceful, confident and accomplished
• Increase your ability to deal with change, recover from difficulties
• Feel positive and thankful on a daily basis.

So, I’m Seriously Considering Doing This…

Creating a Free Product on one very specific topic where I open myself up to so much more of you and allow you to enter into the most important part of my life.

You see so often people ask me, how are you so wise and so peaceful at such a young age? And the secret is this…

For the last 18 years, I’ve made daily prayer and meditation the foundation for each and every day. Every morning, I gain perspective and release my worries and concerns and every evening, I process what has happened so that I can sleep peacefully and wake up refreshed.

And through my own experience, and through the lives of so many others, I’ve seen that consistent time for mindfulness, meditation, prayer (whatever you like to call making time for reflection and connection) is the biggest key to living a peaceful, calm, centered life where you feel focused, in control and full of joy.

This is the gift I want to give you: A clear, practical free product that helps you understand…

• What has been holding you back from making time and space to connect with yourself
• How to process and release what’s happening to you
• How to really feel a sense of wholeness

The goal: Peace with yourselves, others and the world.

Instead of giving you more stuff you should do (I know you already have enough partially used journals, unread books, and unheard recordings.) I want to give you specific guidance on how you can actually make the time and space to think, to breathe, to process, to connect with yourself and to higher truth.

Even if…

You struggle with intellectually knowing making space for reflection is good but practically speaking don’t make space to think a priority.

Or if…

When you do have some quiet time, you tend to get distracted or fall asleep (sound familiar?

If I Do This, It Will Take a LOT of Time to Create

I’m excited—no, absolutely thrilled—about the possibility of sharing with you, but I’m aware of how long it can take to do these kind of top-quality products so…

I ONLY want to do this if there’s enough interest.

Here’s what I need to know…

What do you think?

Should I do this?

Would you be interested?

Your feedback and thoughts either through commenting on this post or by sending an e-mail in reply to the newsletter are the fuel that will keep this going.

I don’t want to even think about doing this on top of my time coaching unless there’s enough potential interest.

So please take a second and leave a comment below and let me know what you think.

It would mean a lot to me, and I’ll do my best to respond to every comment.

Your time coach,

Elizabeth

P.S.-SO impressed that you read all the way to the end of this post. You’re awesome!