A personal story by JENNIE HARLAND KHAN

http://www.thelifestyledesignstudio.com/blog/

This week has, I believe, been a fairly life changing one. Not on the surface, but today I am not the same person that I was on Monday morning.

It’s a pretty personal, but I believe in sharing my journey if I think it will help anyone else. Although I am positioned to teach concepts around lifestyle design from what I have experienced and the knowledge I have, I never want to be that person that ‘pretends’ to have it all sorted. That person doesn’t exist, it is just often veiled through inauthentic marketing, and being authentic is one of my highest values in life.

So here we go…

Recently I have been getting frustrated with myself due to my lack of ‘money making drive’ and it became clear to me that I had some kind of block that needed shifting. I had been ignoring it for some time.

I decided to do something about it and booked myself in with an incredibly effective coach called Michelle Zelli.

She ‘prescribed’ me the Demartini Method, and with my usual thirst for knowledge, I wanted to know exactly what it was, which she rightly quickly banned me from doing otherwise I would have intellectualised the process.

I approached the session with remarkable calm, despite knowing that there would be probing questions and drawing out things that I would be emotionally charged about but had perhaps suppressed.

There was good reason for my calmness. I was ready.

As a very brief synopsis, the Demartini Method is all based around your values system. When you get really clear on what your highest values are you gain an understanding of EXACTLY why you have lived your life the way you have, and why you are not achieving certain goals in life.

I was already clear on my values as I have worked personally on this before, but I hadn’t made the conscious connection as to why I was not achieving in certain areas of life, and in fact the harsh reality was that I never would if I just carried on as I was.

• My values are:
• Freedom of geography (be free to work and live anywhere)
• Freedom of time (be in control of when I do things)
• My family
• Being authentic
• Fitness

And here is a synopsis of my life to date:

School – University – 4.5 years travelling – supported various entrepreneurial businesses ensuring I had flexibility – taken a two month sabbatical for 2 months for the last 9 years to travel and visit family – everything is worked around the kids – exercise a minimum of 3 times a week – set up a business where I can be me and flexible.

Can you see the pattern there? Doesn’t that fit exactly to my values?

Can you see what is missing?

Nowhere does wealth exist in my current value set. It simply hasn’t been important to me.

It is also no coincidence that my passion is to teach about lifestyle design, as it isn’t all about making money, it is about creating the life that is perfect for you.

The realisation was that although I thought I was working hard on my business to make money, my subconscious mind was keeping me exactly where I was and aligned to my values. In essence, I already had my perfect lifestyle:

• I get to be there 100% for my family
• I am able to travel freely as a family as I have no ties
• I can exercise when I want
• I can be me

Why would I want to change anything? I already have what I truly value in life and my subconscious has delivered it perfectly. It always does.

The problem, and why I was out of balance and alignment, was because my vision got bigger. Through my work in personal development I am self aware enough to understand that our spirit is always seeking to grow. Nothing stands still; you are either growing or stagnating.

I have big growth plans. I have big goals. We have adventurous plans as a family. We need to finance them!

Bottom line is this. I have to shift my values to reflect that. And the great news is, to my relief, is that you can shift your values. It just takes a bit of work.

Subconsciously I have been holding onto the belief that when you focus on wealth generation you become trapped and restricted. My subconscious mind has prevented me from going down that route driven by this belief which is protecting my highest values.

Your beliefs drive your actions and your actions determine your results.

So what was the answer to this conundrum?

I am now shifting my values and letting wealth in. I needed to bring to my consciousness how wealth would support my highest values. It would give me more freedom to travel, to have more choice, to inspire my children, to treat my family and friends, to live life to the full, to serve more people in achieving their dreams.

This may seem so obvious and of course it is, but when you hold a belief logic doesn’t come into it, otherwise why would most people behave how they do?!!

This is such valuable work if you truly want to be able to design your lifestyle in a way that is fulfilling for you.

So have a good look at your life and how you have set it up the way it is, because YOU have, you have designed it just the way it is. Get clear on your values, your vision and recognise what is holding you back. Having said that, it is very difficult to do this on your own so I highly recommend that you get help and invest in yourself.

If you would like to find our more about Michelle Zelli (who I highly recommend) then you can go to her website at http://www.michellezelli.com

If you are particularly interested in the Demartini Method then click here.

Please do leave a comment, I would love to hear your thoughts.

If you would like to learn more about Jennie’s progress please click http://www.thelifestyledesignstudio.com/blog/ and  look out for her on-line Summit on 16th July 2011, featuring 12 top speakers in the field of time leverage and business freedom.