Love By Design E-Zine
Secret Garden Coaching

January 2009

Inside this Issue

1.  A Note From Dana Boyle

2.  Article:  Setting Your Intentions With Confidence

3.  Offerings

4.  Contact Dana

A Note From Dana Boyle

Greetings All!

Happy New Year!  It's been a whirlwind of activity for a few months, with the holidays, busy schedules at work and with families, the seasonal cold that went around and all the shopping, wrapping, unwrapping, visiting, merry making, baking, eating and rushing around. 

I don't know about you, but this time of year always makes me want to take some time to reflect on the year gone by, think about the year ahead and what I'd like to accomplish or do for myself and others, and take stock of the lessons I've learned and the things I can do to make the new year better than the last, or build upon the developments I began last year.

The economic downturn has us all conserving our resources, getting back to the basics, and reevaluating what really matters.  While I'm trimming the fat from my budget I got to thinking maybe I should trim the fat from my life in other respects.  That's not to say I won't be investing in what is important to me.  My great-grandmother constantly warned against being penny-wise and pound foolish.  Some things are well worth the investment, and some things should not be skimped on.

They say that some years are for questions and some years are for answers.  While I am sure that's true in mixed form for some of us, have you ever stopped to think about that statement and whether you've just been through a question or an answer year?  For me, 2008 was an answer year, no doubt about it.  I asked a lot of questions in 2007, so I am thinking that 2008 wasn't enough time for the Universe to answer them all.  I'm hoping for a few questions, one in particular, and many more answers in 2009.

Join me for some adventures in designing your life in 2009.  I've launched my monthly newsletter, created a blog, and I will be offering some tools, resources and products to facilitate keeping inventory on your life, creating the balance you have in mind, sculpting your vision and stepping into the life you wish for.

I want to extend my thanks to you for your support in the launch of my coaching business over the past year, and I wish you the very best and blessed 2009. 

Prosperity and Peace,

Dana

Feature Article:  Setting Your Intentions With Confidence

It's a brand new year.  Doesn't it feel liberating to start fresh, with a brand new calendar, a brand new twelve months to fill with experiences, memories and lessons?  Do you remember that feeling when you were in school and the academic year began?  Did you get excited to use new notebooks and folders and pens?  Wasn't it encouraging to know you had a fresh slate in the grade book and you could have As if you made that your goal for the year?

Now that we live in the grown up world, we don't start our year in August or September.  Instead, the New Year means we have a somewhat fresh slate.  The New Year is when we clean out closets, figuratively and literally.  We buy totes to store and organize things.  We take down the holiday decorations and clean under the furniture.  At the New Year, don't you get excited at the thought of setting new goals? 

At this time of year, most of us have made some resolutions and begun trying to achieve something, whether it be fitness or weight loss, financial fitness, getting debt-free, completing a degree, starting a business, launching an e-zine, writing that novel, or what have you.  Making a resolution is another way of setting an intention for the year.  If you want to lose 20 pounds in 2009, you resolve to do so.  Is will power what makes the difference?

Setting your intentions can become an important part of starting your New Year, your month, your week, even every day.  You may want to start with baby steps, deciding to have a positive day before you get out of bed in the morning.  You may decide that you want to set intentions on various levels, thinking both short-term and long-term, and making small and large goals. 

Intentions are a little different than goals.  How are they different?  An intention is an underlying energy that propels you forward and inspires you to take actions consistent with it.  Once you decide on an intention and commit to setting it, if you begin to live as if you are in perfect alignment with it, as if the end result is already in your life as you see it, your actions will effortlessly line up with the intention and you will see coincidences and circumstances lining up to meet your intentions.

Will setting your intentions take care of the results?  Not exactly, but when you begin to feel and use the energy resulting from the intention, and you align yourself to accept the circumstances and follow the coincidences where they want to take you, you will begin to see your goals unfold. 

How does this play out in real life?  Well, say you set your intention to leave your job in 2009.  This is your resolution.  You meditate on it, you think positively about it and you decide that for the good of all involved, this is what you desire in this new year.  Will that simply result in a change in your job status?  Probably not, though you may simply lose your job if you aren't careful.  As we all know, we must be careful what we wish for.

Nonetheless, if your intention is to leave your job this year, you probably also have set an intention to do something else specific.  If you haven't, your next step may be to get very clear about what it will look like to leave this job.  What will you do to replace that job, income, time, and activity?  What do you want to be doing?  Ask yourself very specific questions.  This applies to any intention you may set.  What does the end result look like?  Envision it, write it out, talk about it to friends. 

Once you have defined what it looks like, begin to take inspired actions toward your goal.  You may say to yourself, "What does an inspired action look like?"  You know what I'm talking about.  You've had moments when you are inspired to do something and, in those moments, you are in the zone.  You seem to effortlessly and easily complete the task.  You know exactly what to do without thinking too much about it or having to ask others about it.  The end result is usually some of your best work or most fun and it often results in making some sort of shifts in your world, whether you meet a new connection that is integral to your goal or gain recognition for your hard work, or reap rewards that propel you closer to your goal.  You know you are taking inspired action and that you are in alignment with your intention when you are smiling, eager to do something and you can't help but share it with people.

Have you experienced this kind of inspiration?  Think back and recall how it helped you to reach a goal that was important to you and that made you happy.  Better yet, think forward to the goals you have in mind for this year.  Take some quiet time for yourself and define exactly what they look like to you, in a perfect world, in the end.  Share your vision with your friends and loved ones.  Accept their goodwill and help, if it is in alignment with your intentions.  Listen to your gut and take inspired actions to reach the end zone.

Intention setting serves not just the purpose of plotting a roadmap to your success, however you define it, but it also serves to energize and supercharge your engine so that you can speed in the fast lane along the journey to your dreams.

Announcements

In this unsettling economy, I believe folks may need coaching more than ever.  I have slashed prices for February, to fit into your budgets. 

Group Coaching is now available for a minimum of three participants in discount packages from $99* ** per person per month.  Please contact me for more details.

Individual coaching packages have also been discounted.**

Standard Package - 2 sessions per month for $149* **

Premium Package - 3 sessions per month for $220* **

Gold Package - 4 sessions per month for $285* **

*All packages come with unlimited email support.

**Prices are subject to change.

I am also offering coupons in 2009.  If you sign up and pre-pay for three or more months of coaching services, I will discount even the discounted rate by an additional 10%.  Alternatively, for those of you who renew monthly, for every month of services you use, you will receive ten points, when you reach 100 points, you earn a month of coaching at half price. 

Stay tuned for tele-class and seminar offerings.

Please feel free to forward a copy of this e-zine to your friends and colleagues who might be interested. 

Contact Dana

If you are ready to expand the possibilities and move beyond the roadblocks to reach your goals, give me a call for a consultation.  Life coaching is designed to ask the powerful questions that help you to move beyond the excuses and do the things you want to do in your life.  

Secret Garden Coaching

Email Dana