The Road to Fabulous.

Is That a Twinkle In Your Eye?

Good Morning!  Don't you just love Fridays?  Even though I work from home and my schedule is pretty much whatever-whenever, there is something about Friday mornings that brings the magic of possibility each week.  A relaxed, yet excited energy comes over me and I can't wait to get the weekend started. 

It's like I have permission to goof off (which I do almost every day anyway), but on Friday's it's easier to get other people to goof off WITH me.  Are YOU WITH me?  Yes?

Here's a faaaabulous way for you to goof off today.  You'll be *so* glad you did.  I tricked my husband into watching this with me this morning (instead of his usual CNN / Morning Joe/ death, destruction, ugh, whatever....). It's was amazing.

So, grab someone you love (or forward this link to them) and watch this.  Stay with it until the end- it's so beautiful.  I am completely & totally in love with Benjamin Zander.  Send me your thoughts after you watch it, okay?

Happy Friday.

xoxoxoxo

Hot Mess

It's 5am and I can't sleep, so I decide to give up, get up and enjoy the quiet morning hours with my favorite morning ritual, Cafe Mocha. (which sounds very fancy, but actually only involves pumping some chocolate syrup into your coffee)

I'm all comfy, sitting in the dark, in my overstuffed chair, watching the moonlight outside, sipping my hot, delicious, chocolate bliss and then.......

in my blurry, 5am, not quite awake, can't see very well stupor, I put my coffee cup on the table next to me and it lands just perfectly into this giant cavern carved into the table, that is supposed to add, what? character?

Why is there a frickin' LEDGE carved into my table???????

In one of those slow motion, "nooooooooo!, but can't stop it from happening" moments, my hot steaming cafe mocha splattered all over the place, the chair, the table, the floor and even into the electrical unit. Can you say "bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"? (luckily no sparks, but it does smell a little like brownies in here now)

I documented the mess so my husband will feel sorry for me when he wakes up, and so I can get out of a whole bunch of things. ie: "I spent all morning cleaning up that giant Hot Mess and I am exhausted, would you mind folding those towels for me?", "Wow, the fumes from that swiffer wet mop are making me dizzy, I think I need to lie down for a little while."

I also went the trouble of "re-creating" the cup slipping into the ledge, so you can fully appreciate the lack of forethought on the part of the furniture designers.

I'm going to make another cup of coffee now and hopefully, drink it.

Happy Friday!

     

Part 2: Is Your Brain Getting Off, but You're Getting No Where?

Today's article is the 2nd part of my discussion on Mental Masturbation - I received lots of notes from you guys, saying you recognized yourself in my description. You are not alone! Read today's article for the inside scoop on how I overcome my own mental masturbation addiction.

In my last article, we defined Mental Masturbation as: "The act of engaging in useless yet intellectually stimulating conversation, usually as an excuse to avoid taking constructive action in your life."

My theory is that we've become addicted to the "a-ha!" moment. When the light bulb goes off as we sit in a seminar or listen to an audio program or read a new book - it's like an orgasm! It feels soooooo great! We've figured "it" out, the missing link, the nugget of knowledge that will make everything fall into place, our life will make sense, the world will finally recognize our greatness and our bank account will triple. Ahhhhhhh, that feels good.

When we put the book down, return to our office or try to get back to work, it feels boring. We don't feel that same energy, the high is gone. So we go in search of the next 'a-ha' moment, the next intellectual orgasm.

You can break out of this cycle. You can stop sabotaging yourself. Just realize that it's only your brain, doing it's busy, monkey-mind stuff that keeps you searching for the next 'high'.

If you can plug into the ideas and projects that are right in front of you today, create your own urgency and excitement instead of waiting for your brain to get turned on. Turn YOURSELF on about your life and your business right now...

That's when you'll find your magic G-spot. :D (G= Greatness, Gorgeous-ness & Grateful-ness)

Here are the specific tools I use when I'm feeling pulled toward mental masturbation.

   Recognition - "My name is Sandy, and I am a Mental Masturbator."

This is the most important step, because so often we operate our lives in automatic mode and don't even realize we are doing it until we look at the time and realize we haven't gotten anything accomplished all day.

Here are a few things that help me stay on track and stop my own mental masturbation:

1. Stop - When I recognize the urge to 'engage in conversation...in order to avoid taking constructive action in my life', I try to stop in my tracks and observe what my mind is saying. If you slow down long enough to watch yourself, you'll actually feel the addiction. For me, it's the overwhelming urge to call someone or google whatever I think my problem is in my business or in my life and reading for hours, downloading audios, going to the bookstore to buy a 'how-to' book. This can be tough, because in any business research is an important part of learning how to grow and expand. But if you've already spent thousands of dollars on seminars, how-to books and coaches and still aren't growing your business or feeling like you've accomplished much, then you might be addicted to mental masturbation.
2. Ask - Instead of picking up the phone, ask yourself what you are avoiding doing? It might not feel like there is a connection between your closet overflowing with old clothes that you dislike or your filing cabinet that has papers in it from 1992, but that stuff is energy- and it's holding you back. Look around and ask yourself what projects have you been procrastinating on. Can you remember the last 'a-ha!' you had? Did you take action on it? What happened to that idea?
3. Decide - Make a decision to stop mental masturbation today. Put down the phone and make the decision to DO SOMETHING for your business. Do one thing. If your desk is a mess, clean it off, that will give you an immediate surge of energy. Then ask, what project would bring some cash flow to my business right now? What inspired idea have I been avoiding lately?
4. Action - Take action on something. I like to call it inspired action. I do this exercise just about every single day. Close your eyes, take a few deep breaths and get connected to your great-ness. From a calm, relaxed and inspired state of awareness, ask your greatest Self, "what one thing can I do right now that would have the greatest impact on my business?" Just notice what pops into your head. Try not to judge it's validity.

 When I ask this question, almost always something will pop into my head. Many times the idea scares me. That's when I know I'm on the right track. If you do nothing else, but consistently take small inspired actions, each and every day, you will be absolutely amazed what begins to happen in your business.

New opportunities show up. Inspired and powerful people are drawn into your orbit. When you continuously take action toward your big visions the Universe will bring you more and more opportunities to expand your life and your business.

If you need more reinforcement around breaking your addiction to mental masturbation, check out my Create Your Day Meditations. Each track takes less than 15 minutes and is designed to support you in creating your most amazing life. Available as CD set or digital download. (but don't just buy them- DO SOMETHING!)

~Have a faaaabulous week, Dahhhhlings~

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE, BLOG OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Sandy Grason is a Rock Star Author, Int'l  Speaker & Hot Mogul.  Get on the Guest List for Sandy's next Virtual Cocktail Party, gain access to private videos, articles, tips, tools and strategies.  Take the Hot Mogul Quiz and get Fabulous Free Gifts including: 60 minute mp3 download "The Manifesting Mojo Class" where you'll learn how to rock your manifesting mojo now at www.SandyGrason.com

Is Your Brain Getting Off but You're Getting Nowhere?

Mental Masturbation and How to Break the Addiction Pt. 1

Right about now, you’re either laughing and nodding in recognition or you are completely offended.
~ If you are the former- read on- have I got an ‘a-ha’ for you!
~ If you are the latter, well, what can I say, I’m sorry I’ve offended you but we’re all adults here. I never thought I’d be writing anything with the word masturbation in it either.

I can’t remember the first time I used this term, but I actually thought I made it up. It perfectly describes a state I used to get into (and still sometimes do) with friends where we spend ridiculous amounts of time analyzing ourselves and our thought patterns and trying to ‘figure out our lives’, hoping to have some big revelation that will solve everything.

So, as I sat down to write this article (the title popped into my head yesterday while coaching a private client), I googled “mental masturbation” and guess what~ it’s in the Urban Dictionary!

There are about 10 definitions, but this is the perfect one for the purposes of this article: (for more amusement, go read the other definitions esp. the sample conversations)

Mental Masturbation “The act of engaging in useless yet intellectually stimulating conversation, usually as an excuse to avoid taking constructive action in your life.”

Here’s the part that’s really interesting to me “usually as an excuse to avoid taking constructive action in your life.”

That was the revelation I had a few years ago. I was spending hours on the phone with friends, talking about different ideas for our businesses, projects we were really attracted to and things we detested. We shared quotes from books we were reading, knowledge picked up from gurus and we came up with insights about what was holding each of us back in our businesses and our lives.

I would finally press ‘end call’, hundreds of minutes later, my ear burning red and hot, letting out a deep, exhausted but deliciously satisfied ‘ahhhhhh’ and think, “That was great, I’m so excited about all of these new ideas and I can’t wait to get started on them.”

 Just then, my husband would walk in the door or it was time to go pick up the kids from school, my ‘work day’ was over and what had I really accomplished?

Nothing. Nada. Zero. Zippo.

That’s right. I spent countless hours having these amazing, intellectually stimulating conversations but I wasn’t taking much action. Mental masturbation.

Here’s my theory:

We’ve become addicted to the “a-ha!” moment. When the light bulb goes off as we sit in a seminar or listen to an audio program or read a new book - it’s like an orgasm! It feels soooooo great! We’ve figured “it” out, the missing link, the nugget of knowledge that will make everything fall into place, our life will make sense, the world will finally recognize our greatness and our bank account will triple. Ahhhhhhh, that feels good.

When we put the book down, return to our office or try to get back to work, it feels boring. We don’t feel that same energy, the high is gone. So we go in search of the next ‘a-ha’ moment, the next intellectual orgasm.

 You can break out of this cycle. You can stop sabotaging yourself when you realize that it’s just your brain, doing it’s busy, monkey-mind stuff that keeps you searching for the next high.

 I’d like to make a distinction here: let’s differentiate Masterminding- which is an amazing tool to increase your results and add rocket fuel to your business and your life from mental masturbation. You’ll know you’re addicted to the intellectual high, if you’re having lots of great, stimulating conversations but your business isn’t growing or your life seems strangely unsatisfying.

Here’s what to do:

If you can plug into the ideas and projects that are right in front of you today, create your own urgency and excitement instead of waiting for your brain to get turned on, if you can turn yourself on about your life and your business right now.
That’s when you’ll find your magic G-spot. (G= Greatness, Gorgeous & Grateful)
Next time, I’ve got some tips for you on how to break your addiction to mental masturbation, stop avoiding taking constructive action and turn yourself ON in your business and your life. Grrrrrrrrrrr, baby!

~Have a faaaabulous weekend, Dahhhhlings~

I'm thirsty.

:-) Just saw this drink at the grocery store and it made me laugh.

It's got high caffeine content and their tagline is: "Bounce with BAWLS!" lol Have a grrreat day!

~sent from someplace Fabulous~ www.SandyGrason.com

I Love Shoes

My faaaabulous new shoes make me sooooo happy.

These shoes cost more than my first car.  no, not really, but they make me soooo happy.

What is my fascination with shoes?  I have no idea.  I didn't wear high heels much in my 20's & 30's.  Something happened when I turned 40.

I joke that's when Sandy became "Sandy-licious".

I started wearing the highest shoes I could walk in.  (and have bought a few pair that were not meant for walking - these are my Limousine Shoes)

My husband of twenty + years is not thrilled with my new-found love of crazy high heels, but I don't care.  In fact, I think that actually adds to my fascination.  It makes them..... dangerous.  Yes, really high-heeled, expensive shoes are not for girls who wish to play it safe.  They cost too much money, and they are way too high.  They are definitely not practical.

These shoes say; "This is a Hot Mogul.  She might be a little dangerous.  She doesn't care what other people might think.  She doesn't care if they make her taller than everyone else.  She doesn't mind standing out, not fitting in.  This girl's got B.A.L.L.S.  and really high shoes. :-)

What do your favorite shoes say about you?

ps: you can see me actually wearing the shoes in my photos on Facebook: Sandy's Facebook Page

I Love the Whole World

This video says "The World is Just Awesome", I totally agree.

Watch this and then tell me.....

What do you love?

 

Healthy Lunch

Oh my. I don't know what came over me. Chilli w/ cheese & onions and a side of fries. I think I'm going to pay for this later. :-)

Happy Friday.

~sent from someplace Fabulous~ www.SandyGrason.com

Life in the Shallow End by Nora Ephron

My husband sent me this post, by Nora Ephron on The Huffington Post, because it sounds very similar to my commentary when he makes me watch politics with him. I had to jump out of bed last night to demonstrate the Tim Conway shuffle- which is what I thought McCain looked like as he moved back and forth across the stage last night.

Remember that character? What was his name? I'm sorry....

I immediately felt terrible for imitating an injured war hero and his stiff, broken bones.

I guess I live my life in the shallow end, too. Thanks Nora, for making me feel better about myself. 

Faaabulous New Boots

Okay, I go to Whistler once a year to speak and I've been wearing the same brown boots every year so this year I upgraded.

Check them out! Not sure if my camera on the blackberry will allow you to fully appreciate the fabulous eggplant color ~ they are totally yummy. Made by Frye, got them at Intermix.

Hope we get a cold front in South Florida soon!

~sent from someplace Fabulous~ www.SandyGrason.com