by Tara Joyce | Sep 19, 2013 | Personal Branding
The more value found in my signal, the stronger it will be.
I think of my signal as how I am perceived by others. Like a radio signal, my signal appeals not to everyone but to certain people.
I think of my value as how I am of service to others. The more I understand and grow it, the easier I can communicate it, and You can connect with it.
So I tune in. I listen to the marketplace and my community for ideas on what I’m signifying with my brand. And I listen to myself.
Who is tuning into me? What am I tuning into? Are there any discrepancies in what I am are hearing and experiencing internally and externally?
When I work on knowing my value, I work on “developing my authentic voice”. My true voice expresses what’s inside me, and my brand. And the more She shares, the stronger my signal is, and the more of You it will reach.
My signal holds a lot of power. So I need to be careful with it, my communications. I need to be mindful of how I connect with you, and how I share my passions, my values, and my talents with you.
When I find I’m not communicating to add value, it’s wise to choose not to broadcast. Thoughtful communications are what serve me and grow my signal stronger.
photo credit: BasicallyAdvanced
by Tara Joyce | Sep 10, 2013 | Cultural Creativity
A reflection of our disdain for authority in our own life.
The things our critic says are likely things we heard from an authority figure.
Things we did not agree with — but heard anyway.
Things that once were someone else’s ideas about us, that have now become our own.
It’s not the truth.
It hurts us anyway.
We hurt when we allow those ideas to have power over us again. Whether they come to us from an external source or from inside.
Our pain is our disdain for the un-truths we believe.
Our pain can be a tool.
If we observe it, it can support us in letting go of what we are holding onto inside.
It can show us where we can create more freedom. From authority. And from our own critical self.
When we drop the disdain, the judgement of authority, we can too drop the pain.
If we let go.
Of thinking we aren’t good enough. Of the stories we tell our self.
Can we accept that all the people in our life, even the most controlling, have added value?
Are we willing to let go of our pain around the authority that hurts us, and release the power our inner critic has over us?
Can we accept that our greatest pain can be our greatest power?
photo credit: mason bryant
by Tara Joyce | Aug 22, 2013 | Self/Business Growth
There was nothing in the world I feared more then when humans attack.
So much so, that for a long time, I did my best to avoid humans altogether. To avoid them meant I wouldn’t be attacked.
I’d be safe.
But, the attacks still happened, despite my attempt to control and prevent them. No matter what I did, I couldn’t control how you behaved.
So I drove myself deeper into hiding. Thinking deep down there I would be safe.
I couldn’t help but feel that I was somehow responsible. I couldn’t help but attach to what kept happening. I couldn’t help but be hurt by them.
A loud motorcycle going by.
An attacking human, whether directing their stuff at me or not, is like a loud motorcycle going by.
They jar me, and perhaps even scare me with their presence and noise, but beyond the distraction they create, they do not need to affect me any further.
Their noise is not mine. I am not responsible to it.
I do not need to attach to the noise you create, and hold on to it. I do not need to attach to the content of your attack.
Like a motorcycle going by, I can’t control what you do. I may feel the shock of your actions, but I get to control how easily I recover from them.
I have a choice in whether I attach to your noise, and let it hurt me further. Or just let it go.
It’s just noise.
Unless I want it to be more.
A motorcycle, and an attack, may always surprise and shock me, and I may never like the sound, but what happens next, once you do what you wanted to do, is always my choice.
I can throw a dirty look at the driver, or cover my ears in protest, but the noise has already been created. I can’t change that.
But once the noise and the distraction has passed — that is when my work begins.
Do I attach to what happened and let it distract me further, or do I do what I can to let it go?
How much do I want it to affect me? Can I let it be the loud motorcycle going by, that bothers me for a moment and nothing more?
motorcycle analogy credit: Teya Sparks, photo credit: 69Vagamundos
by Tara Joyce | Aug 8, 2013 | Pay What It's Worth Pricing, Self/Business Growth
It’s really lovely to know that through giving freely, I can inspire someone to be more giving.
Sometimes though, I encounter a person who consciously (or unconsciously) feels free to consistently take more than they give.
I need to watch my balance with them. For as much as I love to give, and to encourage it, I don’t enjoy feeling used.
With this kind of person, I need to check in with my giving self, and be honest about who they are and what they want from me.
Meet the Taker.
The Taker feels entitled to get more than they give. They feel owed — not just by me — but by the world.
And they are driven to do whatever they can to get what they feel they deserve.
For them, it’s not about an exchange, a give and take of equals, it’s about getting what they need.
They are a taker, and they’re gonna take.
All the giving in the world can not fill their lack.
I could blame the Taker.
But I stay away from them instead.
They’re so caught up in their own stuff, their own feelings of lack, that they can’t possibly see my value, let alone their own.
What they value is their needs fulfilled. What they see are things that could fill them.
To attempt to create an exchange with them will only leave me feeling their lack.
My love of giving can never change their love of taking.
Until they change it themself.
by Tara Joyce | Jul 24, 2013 | Innerpreneurship
Money can be very revealing. It can help us identify the places where we are allowing lack in our lives.
Our money, the credit we have, is a reflection of the value we place on our gifts, and as a result, the value the external world places on them.
When we find ourselves with an external debt it may be because we are not giving ourselves enough credit internally. We have not yet fully realized the value we create. The value we are. And thus we are in lack.
When we give ourself allowance to access all the credit we have inside, the external world will no longer show us a deficit.
We can employ money as a guiding tool to shape the best life (and work) we can have.
photo credit: 401(K) 2012
