Claudia's Blog

Last year, I had the idea to start an interview series with experts and executives who'm I intended to ask about "The Human Factor" in the wake of (or better in the middle of) the Digital Transformation. 

Everybody talks about the infamous transformation and one thing is for sure: it won't leave us like a flu. It's here to stay. In our daily private life AND in all areas of business. 

Dividing lines between "work" and "life" disappear (they were pretty artificial anyway) and the radical and fast changes often trigger deep seated fears. And they don't care if this is business or private.

Alright - back to the topic: I will interview all sorts of people who are responsible for transformation, affected by it, lead it, consult on it, live with it (good or bad) - so that finally we're going to see a more detailed picture: about what's happening, what could happen, where the trends are, what the ideas are, and how those influential people deal with it...I guess that is still...

Well, I'm coming almost to the end of  what I decided to tell you - this one is a really long one - AND probably the most important step on the journey.

Get yourself a cup of coffee and come along.

Self-explorative journeys are great - I’ve gone through a few, only one was really effective though - I’ll come back to that later.

So last time I talked about my PERSONAL VISION, which I finally got to grips with. 

And the next problem that this resulted in: learning about - or better: re-connecting with parts of me that I had forgotten or ignored for a long time.

The playful me.

The ridiculous me.

The casual me.

The swearing me.

The soft me.

The lazy me.

The leaning-on-someone-me.

The big dreamer-me..

The courageous me, who speaks up.

The bubbly and YES, compassionate & spiritual me.

Jeez, these were completely new attributes I would have NEVER described myself with in the last few decades.

More likely I used words like strong, confident, pragmatic,...

No, not a house  - how we build our vision ;-) (actually I think that's quite funny for a German...). 

In my last post I pondered about WHY a vision is so crucial...the million dollar question is though - how the heck does it work to build OURS?

That was the question I was facing myself. 

Just putting together a board with nice pictures out of a magazine and looking at it all day long?

Having a lovely idea in my head where I'll be in "the future" - whenever this might be?

Writing an essay about how my dream looks like?

Well, those might work for some of you - for me it did not do the job.

So, I experimented a while, looking at many aspects, digging in all the stuff I've learned in the last decades and came to a fairly easy 4 step-model.

1. Who do I decide to be?

2. How would I love to feel?

3. What do I chose to do?

4. What’s important for me to have?

Short and sweet really. 

Now you might ask: well, THAT does not tell me how my dream looks like, does it?

...

Are you still with me on this journey - awesome, I really appreciate you. A lot. 

The track - that’s where I stopped last time. To keep me on track - well, and you. Eventually. If you decide to that is.

And most importantly WHY. 

I’m sitting on the sofa while I’m typing this up. Looking outside into a grey sky from our 7th floor apartment. It’s wet outside and probably cold and I’m wrapped up in a cosy cashmere shawl with some Celtic inspired music in the background and a candle burning.

On my own, with my lovely pug Florentine curled up next to me. 

Quite peaceful actually. 

(I’m a real sucker for soothing atmospheres. And cuddly dogs next to me)

Well, that is part of my track. Having moments of peacefulness. 

That is only one thing - or rather feeling - on a longer list. 

Do you know what’s on yours, I.e what is your track? 

THAT is what I call track. Moving towards or staying on this track...

ATTENTION - a bit of a longer part - if you’re in a hurry scroll to the end :).

Last week I got a call from someone who’d read my count down posts on Facebook (which is basically the same as this blog) and asked “what the heck are you doing there? You really got me curious!”

Well, that was the idea. Of course. 

…alright, alright…yes, I’m working on something epic. For you. And for me. 

Why?

Because I finally found the magic formula for taking fear and anxieties out of my life and tapping into joy, confidence and power, connected with an overwhelming sense of freedom (took me long enough). The foundation for success in life. Also found that out rather late.

And I’d love to share it with the world - that is you I’m talking about (just in case you haven’t noticed).

AND it was much easier than I thought.

Gasp - another big marketing promise? 

No. Because I loathe those. I spent money on empty promises. I fell...

The Catch - this is where I stopped.

Hang on. 

I believe I never mentioned the name of the core process which  produces great results AND is probably the world’s quickest life-changing process: It is called LIGHT UP. And there is a reason why I mention that. 

Remember I said that a call changed everything: in this conversation the person leading me to Light Up told me about his enlightenment (I left this bit out before….still makes me cringe a bit inside). 

So, when I heard that and the name of the process, all my resistance went up…I could never really deal with those what I thought were esoteric, non-substantial words, after all I’m this professional business woman, right? ,

There were these two voices in me: 

- The head telling me what the heck?

- And another little voice (which my partner heard louder than me) saying, THIS IS IMPORTANT!

Turned out it was. 

And now it’s at the heart of what I do -  after it took...

Continued...from part 3

The results. Yes. 

This is where I stopped last time (getting into the swing here...it's actually a reflection of another sort, writing up how we got to the place where we are today...sorry, I digress...back to the topic ;-) )

"Powerful and game changing….and not just on a mindset level, but on a much more profound and deep level."

And these are NOT my words, but those of people, I had the privilege to work with (quite honestly I find it still hard to use those big words being German. And pragmatic. Just saying).

Let's be clear: there are so many promises and "awesome" (makes me cringe each time I use the word) results claimed everywhere that it's pretty boring by now, right? 

So I get it when you yawn and think - oh gosh, ANOTHER one (rolling eyes).

And you know what? I could not believe it in the beginning myself. 

As I'm a down-to-earth person, I'm professional (hope so after 30 years of business experience) and more than...

Continued…

Mindset is at an incredible important part of us being able to become this unstoppable high performer in our life…or not. 

I was convinced it was at the heart of my framework to help business professionals to move from a place of fear, overwhelm and stress towards calm, success and fulfilment. 

And EXACTLY this damn mindset thing was in my way.

I thought that I’d cracked it - after all I’ve read about and definitely “worked” on those mindset changes for a long time already!!

Getting those limiting beliefs out of the way.

The thing is: we ALL have them. I simply don’t know a single person who does not.

Often we don’t even realize what they are (pro-tip: we can normally see them rather clearly when looking at our life and what it throws back into our face). Happened to me often enough….during my corporate life, in my last 15 years of building up and running my first successful business, during...

I believe that in a way we’re all leaders - first and foremost of our life including all aspects and the goal to  create this safe, successful, fulfilled and happy feeling, right?

And that of feeling accomplished. 

So, I had my 6 areas identified and defined lots of details to achieve exactly that - in almost all of those areas.

Except one.  

That was the one that got me stuck. 

And I knew intuitively that it was at the heart of everything. 

Some call it mindset. I knew though intuitively that this is only part of the truth. Our mind is great. And incredibly useful….still after having done a lot of work in this area….I realized that I did not really hit the core, but was circling around it without a real breakthrough. 

This infamous part of the puzzle was missing. And I knew without it the whole concept would be a great collection of useful tools…but lack soul. This crucial part which would be the secret to building the...

Well, this is a different kind of blog this time. No tips, tricks, just sharing how I got to where I am now and what I've learned along the way...AND my conclusions - for both, my business and my private life.

Gosh, this woman is self-centered - that's what I would have thought some years ago. About myself.

Now I know that a) I write up a lot of stuff for my own benefit (great reflection, try it out!) and b) I've learned that I can learn from others when I hear their stories. 

We all resonate with different things. So you might like my story...or you might not. And that's fine.

If you're curious....get yourself a cup of coffee and come on the journey with me!

Part 1

We know that the best way to move information from your head to your heart is through your hands" (Brené Brown..one of my favourite authors!)

....meaning, whatever new concepts we learn to do a better job, to be us, to follow our life's dream or to have better relationship or better health, we go to put them...