Creating Thought Leaders

Creating Thought Leaders

What does being a thought leader mean to you? How do you do it? Why is it SO DAMN HARD? What’s actually hard about it?

This question was posed in a Facebook group and prompted my response below:

I encourage my clients to think for themselves and that unto itself is developing thought leaders.

My area of focus Pink Cloud Coaching – For Women Who Struggle with Food and/or Alcohol pushes against the grain in the industry of recovery.  Although I don’t coach recovery – I am usually pushed in that corner.

My ideal client struggles with alcohol and may be rethinking her drinking habit. She may even seem to be obsessively thinking about alcohol. She is in between Non-alcoholic and Alcoholic. We focus on discovery to prevent recovery. Taking charge of their drinking before recovery is necessary.

It took courage and time to get clear about who and how I serve. In the beginning, I felt compelled to regurgitate the same 12 step (no offense intended) and coach the recovering woman. Because it’s always been…Non-alcoholic or Alcoholic. I had nothing to model after. I had to create from nothing.

When women start seeking help they go on-line. There they find the same information over and over and over again – It’s all about the booze and the first step is admitting you’re powerless over alcohol.   Many women aren’t convinced I can help them because I don’t follow the popular theory, belief, or opinion of pick one: Non-alcoholic or Alcoholic. That can be a grand hurdle, but amazingly enough, they fly over it in no time. Women are powerful.

There is a whole lot of opportunity to change the trajectory between Non-alcoholic and Alcoholic. And I’m thrilled to say – Pink Cloud Coaching not only helps the woman break free from the hook of alcohol, but empowers her to really expand into life and fill it with soulful dreams, goals and aspirations.

I live the Pink Cloud Life and I witness more and more women successfully stepping into and living free from their alcohol habit through the Pink Cloud process.

So, yes. I am a thought leader. I am a pioneer in a virtually unchartered territory. I’m creating my own path as I’m going. And the beauty is I’m helping others become thought leaders by encouraging them to challenge what they’ve always believed; don’t play the same game just because everybody’s doing it; and don’t buy into “’cause that’s the way it’s always been done”.

Are you ready to become a thought leader?

Schedule a free coaching consultation today!  Ask me about my birthday month specials and schedule a time to chat – click here

– Teresa Rodden, Certified Life Coach

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You Are What You Think About

“A woman is what she thinks about all day long.” Ralph Waldo Emerson May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882

Such simple wisdom.  Not so easy to follow when the most recommended support for anyone concerned with their drinking is a one size fits all approach. And that approach requires you to think about alcohol on a regular basis.  Constantly reminding yourself you have an incurable disease waiting to pounce and annihilate you with the smallest sample of booze.

Which by the way is very true for some. But not for all.  As a matter of fact, emerging studies show there is a huge gray area of drinkers that fall in between Non-Alcoholic and Alcoholic, that have no where else to go or are routinely directed to the AA rooms for help.  Perhaps that is why AA has a reportedly low 5% success rate.  They’re serving the wide continuum rather than the alcoholics, as was intended.

What you resist persists.  – Carl Jung

Following is my personal experience.  I got sober for the first and only time over 11 years ago. I did outpatient for 89 days and was a devout AA member for about 8 months. I did over 90 meetings in 90 days, held a couple service positions, chaired meetings, and had a sponsor. I wanted different so bad I wasn’t chancing anything. I was all in.

Through my entire AA membership I was often referred to as being on a pink cloud. And warned that it was a temporary state and I would eventually slam to the surface of reality. You see I was filing for bankruptcy, sold nearly every possession I had to make right some business contracts and to properly dissolve my businesses, surrendered my vehicles, my then business partner and boyfriend emptied the bank account and left town, and I weighed in at a very unhealthy 217lbs., Yet, I had tremendous hope and optimism.  I felt an immense sense of gratitude for simply being alive.

“It’s easier for a human being to think negatively than positively. That’s why only five percent are successful. You must begin now to place yourself in that group.” Earl Nightingale December 3, 1921 – March 25, 1989

Around the 8 month mark I wanted to concentrate more on living my life and less on what had already contributed so much pain and angst, alcohol.  I had to make a decision. Do I want to focus on where I want to go or where I’ve been? I chose moving forward and rode out of the rooms of AA on my pink cloud.  That was over a decade ago.

I haven’t identified myself as an alcoholic in years. I don’t truly know if I am or not. There is no test to diagnose.  Quite frankly, it’s irrelevant, because alcohol simply doesn’t fit in my lifestyle.

What I do know…I have been sober and developed some solid methods to keep me moving forward and staying connected to my pink cloud for over 11 years.

I am what I think about. I am in the 5%. And I owe it to my pink cloud.

– Teresa Rodden, Certified Life Coach

Concerned with the way you’re drinking? Feeling over occupied by thinking about drinking?
Want to gain tools, support, and guidance to handle alcohol before it handles you. Click here!

Want to schedule a chat and experience what it might be like to work with me? Contact me!

– Teresa Rodden, Certified Life Coach

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Had Money But Broken

“The truth is that happiness is an inner pursuit that is very different from the pursuit of pleasure or the amassment of a fortune.”  Deepak Chopra, MD

Over a decade ago I was riding along on a warm summers day and I spied.  I spied a woman playing with her children in the front yard of a simple home.  The home was little more than a shack.  The yard full of weeds.  It was evident there wasn’t an abundance in the way of finances.  They were laughing and being silly.  I remember thinking,  “It’s amazing how some can have so little and be so happy and I have so much and miserable”.  A ping of jealousy stabbed me in the stomach.  I couldn’t remember the last time I laughed and carried on in such a playful way.  I had changed.

It was then my long journey to heal, learn, and grow in self-love and life began.   At the time I didn’t recognize it as such.  I was still drinking and numbing away (hindsight).  My life was about running a couple of “successful” businesses (I’ll explain quotations another time), drinking after 5pm until I passed out most nights, and the weekend karaoke party and barbecue at my new home was all on me.  You’d think that with my extensive allowance for drinking I could have mustered a bit of HAPPY.   Nope – nowhere to be found.

A lot has changed since way back when.  Money no longer drives me.  But I’m not ignorant either.  You have to have money to live.   I love being able to gift my loved ones and support causes that I am drawn to.  Money can’t buy you happiness. 

Living a life always striving for peacefulness, acting from a place of love, and being grateful for all my blessings allow me to experience happiness fully when it pops up in all it’s yumminess.

If you haven’t felt happy in awhile take inventory.  Here are a few questions to get you started:

  • When was the last time you felt genuinely happy?
  • What were you doing?
  • Who were you with?
  • Where were you at?
  • Has anything changed?  If so, what?
  • What is within your power to do differently?
  • What do you think you need to be happy?

Re-read  what I wrote that I do to be available when happy pops up 🙂

Don’t be afraid to try something completely random and different.  Play for goodness sake.  Be childlike.

Pink Cloud Coaching – Celebrating What Makes You Different. Ready to journey within?  Click here to Be-come

Be bold.  Be brave.  Be you.

– Teresa Rodden, Certified Life Coach

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Phenomenal Woman

I was taking a much needed break from a fantastic life storm of uncertainty and change when I stumbled on the movie Beauty Shop starring Queen Latifah.  It’s one of those movies you can move in and out of while busying about doing other things, without really missing anything.

There were two scenes that captured my attention and both were Maya Angelou moments.  I’ll share the first one here and now, Phenomenal Woman.   When I pulled up the poem and read it in it’s entirety my soul hummed with joy, love, and appreciation for being a PHENOMENAL WOMAN!  Enjoy…

Phenomenal Woman

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I’m telling lies.
I say,
It’s in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It’s the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can’t touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can’t see.
I say,
It’s in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I’m a woman

Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Now you understand
Just why my head’s not bowed.
I don’t shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It’s in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
‘Cause I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

~Maya Angelou

We should all have friends who speak their belief in us the way Miss Josephine does in this clip.

I “pinked” a moment in the poem that spoke loudest to me – where I am right now.

Is there a moment that calls to you?  Listen and receive the wisdom flowing to you.  It’s a gift…just for you.

Don’t be shy and let me know what called to you.  I love the sound of your written words.

xo-T

Celebrating What Makes You Different

Ready to journey within?  Click here to Be-come

Be bold.  Be brave.  Be you.

Ending 2013 with love and acceptance

Goodbye 2013…it’s been real!

It’s been a very emotional two months leading up to the end of 2013.  My husband references the 13 in the year as though it’s been bad. To me, it hasn’t been so much as bad, as it has been a great representation of L I F E!

“Action and reaction, ebb and flow, trial and error, change – this is the rhythm of living.”

Action and reaction, ebb and flow, trial and error, change – this is the rhythm of living.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/flow.html#E4u0kPTLFtJgAHTB.99
Action and reaction, ebb and flow, trial and error, change – this is the rhythm of living.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/flow.html#E4u0kPTLFtJgAHTB.99

We moved back home…yes, home, January 2013.  What an absolutely fantastic place to be…home.  To  me that trumps all things.

I am madly deeply impassioned with my work.  And the more I dig in, stir things up, let it settle, and repeat, the better it gets.  I no longer run my business the way “they” say I should.  I want to work and that’s it.  I just want to impart my wisdom and reduce the risk of dependency by sharing what I know, what I’ve lived, and what I’ve witnessed.

My beloved Daisy who was diagnosed with bladder cancer over 2 years ago and revealed it had spread into her kidneys over  a year ago, still walks with a pep in her step and amazes everyone that she is 13 years old.

My husband and I just keep getting better and trusting more and more that even with the rough waters, we are together for the ride.  This is really an amazing and empowering place to be.

We just moved into a spacious town home with inspiring views of Mt. Hood and the cascades.  We feel confident we will enjoy this home until we decide how we want to live when we buy our next home.

We got to escort my oldest son, Cody, home from deployment and witness love and gratitude as he and his wife embraced for the first time in nine months.  This was an extended deployment due to the Syria concern which we all shared fear for our sailor.

My youngest son, Austin, will make us first time grandparents the beginning of 2014.  But I have been celebrating since the summer of 2013.

I have made peace with my strong and competent body.  It allows me to run for miles, wear great clothes, and I am gifted with the ability to breathe, hug, kiss, see, hear, communicate, taste, and feel.  Thank you, Jesus!  I had spent decades trying to hit a body weight that everybody else says is right.  I will continue to educate myself on nutrition and use exercise as my therapy and wellness plan.  Feeling great and able to live my life with plenty of energy are my gages.

Yes, I had to say goodbye to my sweet baby girl, Yoshi, on November 15th, 2013.  It was rather unexpected and heartbreaking.  And it launched what seemed to be an endless snowball of events to the very end of 2013.  We close this year by saying goodbye to the matriarch of my husbands family, Inga.  She left us on December 29th, 2013.

I have missed writing to you…allowing my visions, thoughts, musings, to take shape on these pages and sometimes learning a little bit more about the woman typing them.   I was starting to feel maybe I had lost my way, but reminded we sometimes need to be still and simmer to enhance the flavor of creativity.

It’s been a full life 2013!

Welcoming a greatly anticipated bright and beautiful 2014 <3

Ready to make peace or progress? 

Contact me and let’s get started!

Support as low as $99.00

– Teresa Rodden, Certified Life Coach

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