MAWMonday Motivators 12/27/2015

by: Dr. Michael A. Wright In Blog, Coaching DiaryTagged , , , , , , ,

2015-Year-In-ReviewThe last #MAWMondayMotivators post of 2015. I started this weekly habit 10/05/2014, and have not missed a weekly post since. Each week, I express my challenges as well as my encouragements gleaned from Twitter as an open Coaching Diary. This week is no exception. I also want to take this opportunity to thank YOU, the readers who walk this path with me, and all the Twitter connections I have gained over the last year. @mawmedia went from 500 tweeps in 2014, to adding 1000 in the first 6 months of this year. The last 6 months witnessed the adding of another 1000. Before I look forward to 2016, I take time to reminisce on a great 2015. Big shoutout to #ThinkBigSundayWithMarsha. Her motivation and retweets offer both selfless, positive messages and a great group of positive tweeps to follow.

Looking over the year and the posts I have made, I wondered if I could sum up my year in the 5 tweets of that are MAWMonday Motivators. Too easy with the tweeps I follow. I hope that you have learned with me this year. It doesn’t matter what what they throw at you. It only matters what sticks. This year I was reminded that I’m not in this for what is thrown my way. I’m in it for what I can grasp and hold on to.

1. Success Jan 2015
Have you ever had to change your whole approach? I have. At the beginning of this year, I was in the last year of a 7-year plan. I had accomplish 2 out of the 5 achievements on my list. But, worse, I realized just how much I did not know about the goals I wanted for my life. I had just learned a great lesson about building networks and marketing, but I had no idea what was coming next. I took those lessons and outlined a new 5-year plan. My goal was not to do, it was to become.

2. Failure Feb-July 2015
I created my plan, and things began to fall apart from there. And, I mean everything…except everything that mattered. What was really happening is that I saw the fruition of what I had built. I felt the peeling away of distractions, fears, and thoughts of a comfort zone free from exceptional risk. I was thrust into a do or die scenario that tested my faith in myself. Just so you know how real it was, I confess that I was broken. It took me about 3 months to work through the surprise of being blind-sided. It took me about a month to realize that I was lying about being blind-sided. It took me another month, and conversations with mentors, friends, and supporters to come up with a new plan.



3. New Plan July-Aug 2015
I had to strip the flesh and blood from my 5-year plan down to the bone. With this skeleton, I began to add the additional learning I gained from failure. Networking, leadership, sales funnels, and branding. I attached myself to two specific existing networks in order to access customers. I refocused my production away from the bleeding edge of CD-based textbooks toward more traditional publishing and online education. I incorporated a new reality realizing that it was the reality I attracted through my vibrations all along.

4. Courage Sep 2015
It was right around the Fall of 2015 that I was able to articulate what I believe to be my most deep-seated fear. Not a fear of failure, but a fear that my contribution will not be honored. The best thing happened to shatter this fear. My contribution was not honored. From that moment (and when you get there you will understand) I was free. It turns out, as with other fears, it’s never as bad as you feared. It was not as bad as I had feared. Life goes on. The question is, now that you are free, what does your heart and intuition say that you want to become?

5. The Message Oct-Dec 2015
It occurred to me that my expertise and my gifts will make room for me. This was validated through one of the existing networks I signed up for, Fiverr.com. You can see for yourself. The contribution I was making was not only being appreciated with cash, the comments were saying heroic things. It was an unforeseen switch for me, but something I had read years before. Business experts caution, “Never be a product looking for a problem.” I was a solution looking to convince people that they needed me. The do need my solution, but that’s not how you run a business. The cliche is “Go where you are celebrated, not where you are tolerated.” My lesson to you is to get to that place where your contribution is celebrated. With this new applied knowledge, I enter a new year. If the last quarter of 2015 is any indication of the year ahead, 2016 will be a year of love and abundance.

Dr. Michael A. Wright received his Doctor of Philosophy in Social Work degree from the University of South Carolina - Columbia. Since 1997, Wright has led MAWMedia Group, LLC, a firm helping individuals and organizations tell stories and translate ideas into capital.