Dr. Don Deems, the Dentist's Coach - Free Newsletter: Twelve Ways to be Evolutionary

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Twelve Ways to be Evolutionary
November 17, 2004

Looking for ways to grow, we often begin by looking outside ourselves. As a coach, I want you to do differently. I want you to look inwardly, I want you to look at your strengths, and I want you to develop an acute awareness of your feelings, ideas, intuitions, and emotions.

Consider these twelve areas to make your growth evolutionary, not reactive. You'll open new and exciting doors!

. Surround yourself with new ideas instead of rehashing your existing beliefs.
Beliefs can limit your ability to experience life. Being open to possibilities and not censoring your experiences, thoughts, feelings, and ideas will create new options for you to explore.

. Seek out uncertainty whenever you can.
Most of us don't like change, so this may feel quite challenging. Uncertainty is wonderful in that it challenges us; we can either return to what we were doing before, or we may consider new opportunities. I don't recommend "stirring the pot" just for its own sake, but by challenging our beliefs and our knowledge, we learn.

. Use tolerations to evolve how you operate.
Every single thing you are putting up with is an opportunity waiting to be leveraged. Use these tolerations to propel you to a different way of living and being. Putting up with those same tolerations will get you, well, nowhere.

. Constantly experiment until you do so naturally and effortlessly.
Every action we take has a risk and a payoff. You may need to alter your relationship with risk in order to enjoy experimentation, and without it you won't become evolutionary. Worse, in our rapidly changing world, you'll not keep up unless you do experiment.

. Spend more time in nature.
Nature nourishes and calibrates our natural systems. Spend time being in the woods, or on a lake, or even in your own backyard. Find a spot you feel comfortable just sitting or standing in, and feel the breeze on your face, the smell of the grass, trees, or dirt. The results can be inspiring!

. Surround yourself with people who are eagerly evolving.
Seek out other people who are growing. Hanging out with the right crowd has its benefits! You'll be inspired and so will they. And yes, working with your own personal coach can be one of the best things for evolving your own life.

. Stop resisting.
When you feel yourself resisting, remember, it's not about them, it's about you! What are you feeling? Do you understand why you feel that way? If you're in a resistance mode, synchronicity and flow can't occur very often in your life.

. Choose a goal or vision that is bigger than you are.
Be pulled forward by it, instead of pushing yourself. If you keep making goals that are not bigger than what you already are, they won't do much for you. Make 'em big and bodacious, and don't be afraid! There is no such thing as failure; you will learn more about yourself in a bigger and more direct way, and you can always change the focus as you begin moving toward that awesome goal. And, if you're goal isn't 'big and bodacious', then what's the point?

. Get to know every element of who you are and how you operate.
This process of discovery and integration provides you with the awareness you need to handle whatever comes up in life, so that you don't get overcome and defeated by it. By making the effort of knowing every aspect of yourself, you'll not only grow exponentially, you'll find life much more richly rewarding.

. You have gifts: start acknowledging them.
Start first by acknowledging them first to yourself, then to others. Don't know what they are? Don't think you have any? Wrong! You do, and the more that you can learn and understand them, the more you'll develop, use, and express them. Gifts are one of the levers of evolution.

. Follow your whims.
Whims are messages, they are intuitive whispers; develop the skill to read them. Follow them, listen to them, and discuss them with trusted friends, your coach, or an advisor. They're generally huge, untapped sources of wisdom, ideas, and inspiration.

. Make what you don't know more interesting than what you do know.
Enjoy learning more than teaching. That's generally opposite of what is happening culturally, but do you see the consequences of only teaching? One of the many great things I enjoy about coaching is how much I learn from the people I coach! Make it a priority to learn about things you don't know or understand, and you'll be on a never-ending path of evolutionary growth.

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