I am super stoked to share my new book, “Life on Your Terms: The Support You Need to Follow Your Passion From Inspirational Entrepreneurs”

Watch the trailer to learn more about this uplifting new book and special bonus gifts!

New Book, Life on Your Terms: The Support You Need to Follow Your Passion From Inspirational Entrepreneurs, offers personal liberation stories for budding entrepreneurs and people looking to reinvent themselves.

“Want to feel supported by entrepreneurial energy? Read this book!”

- Greg Reid, Author, Speaker and Filmmaker

Energize your life with insights from this exceptional group of entrepreneurs. In this amazing series of success stories, coaches, authors, executives, doctors, artists, and visionaries generously share their personal secrets for liberation.

This collection of more than forty personal interviews turns over the stones of accepted wisdom to reveal the tremendous power of the entrepreneurial perspective. With commentary and insights by Shann Vander Leek—an inspirational leader who, after eighteen years of serving the television broadcast model of Corporate America, reinvented herself as the founder of True Balance Life Coaching—Life On Your Terms is a valuable resource for any entrepreneur, and reminds us that the power to define success and personal freedom lies within ourselves.

Special Gifts For Pre-Ordering…

As a special bonus, all orders placed from this web site will receive a copy of Shann’s special report, Navigating the 4 Stages of Transition as well as an MP3 recording of  the Navigating the 4 Stages of Transition Teleclass.  Significant transitions are a natural part of our lives. This report will show you how to care for yourself through each phase of your experience. You will find informative descriptions about each stage, supportive tips for self-care and a better understanding of the cycles of metamorphic change.

Visit the LOYT marketing page to claim your copy of the book.

Note: These remarks are from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos commencement speech to Princeton’s Class of 2010, delivered on May 30, 2010. I think you will find this speech incredibly inspiring.

“We are what we choose”

Remarks by Jeff Bezos, as delivered to the Class of 2010 Baccalaureate on May 30, 2010.

“As a kid, I spent my summers with my grandparents on their ranch in Texas. I helped fix windmills, vaccinate cattle, and do other chores. We also watched soap operas every afternoon, especially “Days of our Lives.” My grandparents belonged to a Caravan Club, a group of Airstream trailer owners who travel together around the U.S. and Canada. And every few summers, we’d join the caravan. We’d hitch up the Airstream trailer to my grandfather’s car, and off we’d go, in a line with 300 other Airstream adventurers. I loved and worshipped my grandparents and I really looked forward to these trips. On one particular trip, I was about 10 years old. I was rolling around in the big bench seat in the back of the car. My grandfather was driving. And my grandmother had the passenger seat. She smoked throughout these trips, and I hated the smell.

At that age, I’d take any excuse to make estimates and do minor arithmetic. I’d calculate our gas mileage — figure out useless statistics on things like grocery spending. I’d been hearing an ad campaign about smoking. I can’t remember the details, but basically the ad said, every puff of a cigarette takes some number of minutes off of your life: I think it might have been two minutes per puff. At any rate, I decided to do the math for my grandmother. I estimated the number of cigarettes per days, estimated the number of puffs per cigarette and so on. When I was satisfied that I’d come up with a reasonable number, I poked my head into the front of the car, tapped my grandmother on the shoulder, and proudly proclaimed, “At two minutes per puff, you’ve taken nine years off your life!”

I have a vivid memory of what happened, and it was not what I expected. I expected to be applauded for my cleverness and arithmetic skills. “Jeff, you’re so smart. You had to have made some tricky estimates, figure out the number of minutes in a year and do some division.” That’s not what happened. Instead, my grandmother burst into tears. I sat in the backseat and did not know what to do. While my grandmother sat crying, my grandfather, who had been driving in silence, pulled over onto the shoulder of the highway. He got out of the car and came around and opened my door and waited for me to follow. Was I in trouble? My grandfather was a highly intelligent, quiet man. He had never said a harsh word to me, and maybe this was to be the first time? Or maybe he would ask that I get back in the car and apologize to my grandmother. I had no experience in this realm with my grandparents and no way to gauge what the consequences might be. We stopped beside the trailer. My grandfather looked at me, and after a bit of silence, he gently and calmly said, “Jeff, one day you’ll understand that it’s harder to be kind than clever.”

What I want to talk to you about today is the difference between gifts and choices. Cleverness is a gift, kindness is a choice. Gifts are easy — they’re given after all. Choices can be hard. You can seduce yourself with your gifts if you’re not careful, and if you do, it’ll probably be to the detriment of your choices.

This is a group with many gifts. I’m sure one of your gifts is the gift of a smart and capable brain. I’m confident that’s the case because admission is competitive and if there weren’t some signs that you’re clever, the dean of admission wouldn’t have let you in.

Your smarts will come in handy because you will travel in a land of marvels. We humans — plodding as we are — will astonish ourselves. We’ll invent ways to generate clean energy and a lot of it. Atom by atom, we’ll assemble tiny machines that will enter cell walls and make repairs. This month comes the extraordinary but also inevitable news that we’ve synthesized life. In the coming years, we’ll not only synthesize it, but we’ll engineer it to specifications. I believe you’ll even see us understand the human brain. Jules Verne, Mark Twain, Galileo, Newton — all the curious from the ages would have wanted to be alive most of all right now. As a civilization, we will have so many gifts, just as you as individuals have so many individual gifts as you sit before me.

How will you use these gifts? And will you take pride in your gifts or pride in your choices?

I got the idea to start Amazon 16 years ago. I came across the fact that Web usage was growing at 2,300 percent per year. I’d never seen or heard of anything that grew that fast, and the idea of building an online bookstore with millions of titles — something that simply couldn’t exist in the physical world — was very exciting to me. I had just turned 30 years old, and I’d been married for a year. I told my wife MacKenzie that I wanted to quit my job and go do this crazy thing that probably wouldn’t work since most startups don’t, and I wasn’t sure what would happen after that. MacKenzie (also a Princeton grad and sitting here in the second row) told me I should go for it. As a young boy, I’d been a garage inventor. I’d invented an automatic gate closer out of cement-filled tires, a solar cooker that didn’t work very well out of an umbrella and tinfoil, baking-pan alarms to entrap my siblings. I’d always wanted to be an inventor, and she wanted me to follow my passion.

I was working at a financial firm in New York City with a bunch of very smart people, and I had a brilliant boss that I much admired. I went to my boss and told him I wanted to start a company selling books on the Internet. He took me on a long walk in Central Park, listened carefully to me, and finally said, “That sounds like a really good idea, but it would be an even better idea for someone who didn’t already have a good job.” That logic made some sense to me, and he convinced me to think about it for 48 hours before making a final decision. Seen in that light, it really was a difficult choice, but ultimately, I decided I had to give it a shot. I didn’t think I’d regret trying and failing. And I suspected I would always be haunted by a decision to not try at all. After much consideration, I took the less safe path to follow my passion, and I’m proud of that choice.

Tomorrow, in a very real sense, your life — the life you author from scratch on your own — begins.

How will you use your gifts? What choices will you make?

Will inertia be your guide, or will you follow your passions?

Will you follow dogma, or will you be original?

Will you choose a life of ease, or a life of service and adventure?

Will you wilt under criticism, or will you follow your convictions?

Will you bluff it out when you’re wrong, or will you apologize?

Will you guard your heart against rejection, or will you act when you fall in love?

Will you play it safe, or will you be a little bit swashbuckling?

When it’s tough, will you give up, or will you be relentless?

Will you be a cynic, or will you be a builder?

Will you be clever at the expense of others, or will you be kind?

I will hazard a prediction. When you are 80 years old, and in a quiet moment of reflection narrating for only yourself the most personal version of your life story, the telling that will be most compact and meaningful will be the series of choices you have made. In the end, we are our choices. Build yourself a great story. Thank you and good luck!”

LOYT – Entrepreneur Spotlight

Akemi Gaines

Akemi Gaines is one of the interesting and successful entrepreneurs featured in Life on Your Terms.  Akemi once had a comfortable life in Japan, but internally, she felt suffocated. She knew she had a purpose in life beyond just living comfortably, and was ready to dump the comfort for the sake of her own personal growth.

Akemi took a leap of faith because she believed she could help people in a unique way. Today, she has a successful practice called Akashic Record Reading, through which she helps those who are serious about their spiritual growth. She also writes the Real Life Spirituality Blog, which is dedicated to inspiring people to create fulfilling lives, new businesses, loving relationships, and healthy bodies.

As people begin to transition into their great big new life, it’s easy to become overwhelmed and lose focus. Tell us how you’ve stayed inspired during significant transitions.

By being dumb — I mean, simple-minded . . . single-minded. I was lucky I already quit my regular job when I started my Akashic Record Reading. Sure, it added financial instability, but that was easier to manage than juggling day job, with all its stresses and concerns, and the unpredictable nature of starting a new business.

I want to emphasize that, for me, it wasn’t just about starting a new business. I knew it was about changing the way I live.  I wanted to serve the bigger audience in my unique way rather than assisting the people in the company within the defined function of my job. The Akashic Record Reading is just one way I do this, and if this wasn’t going to work out, I would have kept seeking other ways.

Blogging helped me remember this. I sometimes talk about my service in my blog, but Real Life Spirituality is far more than that. I’ve been sharing my vision, and this way I am always reminded where I am heading to.

Tell us about how you’re supporting and “sharing the love” with the world…do you have a favorite charity or cause?

I contribute to Kiva, Acumen Fund, and some local organizations. But really, my work is the main way I share love.

What is the most valuable piece of entrepreneurial advice you’ve ever received?

I am one of the lucky people who could have Naomi Dunford’s marketing consultation before she hit it so big and it became so difficult to get hold of her. She explained the concept of niche and encouraged me to go for the “spirituality” niche. Until then, I was thinking of offering more standard life coaching because I thought the Akashic Records were too — well — weird and woo-woo.

But she was so right. Precisely because it is a small niche, I rank high on Google and get seriously interested clients who are not surprised with what I have to offer.

Marketing is often the weakest point for a new entrepreneur, and I highly recommend hiring a good marketing advisor.

Tell us about your latest project.

I intend to be published. It’s about the Akashic Records, starseeds, and Ascension, and I already have a completed draft, but I want to improve it further while I look for a publisher.

Anthing else you ‘d like to share?

Get started. You can’t learn how to ride a bike until you get on the bike. Know you will fall a couple of times — maybe more — and still do it. Only then you can have the fun of riding the bike.

You can find Akemi at:

Akashic Record Reading:    www.akashicrecordreading.com

Real Life Spirituality:    www.reallifespirituality.com

Read more about Akemi’s personal liberation story within the pages of the Life on Your Terms: The Support Your Need to Follow Your Passion From Inspirational Entrepreneurs!

Are you happy at your current job?

Do you enjoy waking up every day and going to work for your employer?

If I asked you what you are passionate about,  could you give me an answer?

The sad reality is that loads of people are not happy where they work and have NO IDEA what they are passionate about.

What in the hell happened to us?  How did we create a career or work environment where the status quo is acceptable,  maybe even preferred? “I just want to do an honest day’s work for a honest day’s wage.”

What does that mean?

Do you have a pulse?

Bring in the crash cart!

If you are in a dead end job that is no longer challenging or you are working for a company stuck in the “old guard” way of doing things,  you have an excellent opportunity to dramatically change your reality.

No more excuses.

No whining.

No settling.

Prepare to leave the job that is killing your soul.

Imagine if you decided to let all of the drama fall away and began to take stock of your strengths, and true interests.  What if you could immerse yourself in a training program, class or book to learn more about your discovery?

What if you could become the most amazing version of yourself to to date?

A part of self exploration involves making an investment in YOU by taking some time  to map out your dream.  You’ve heard me talk about mind maps, vision boards and dream quests.  What do you have to lose by taking a closer look?

Stop putting up with corporate sadism and shake yourself off like the big dog you are!

It’s time to uncover your options.

What is it about you that makes you special?

If you could do, be or have anything you wanted,  what would that look like for you?

Do you really plan to wait another two, three, five or ten years to make a change?

WHY?

Are you a masochist?

That’s it …

Identify, Explore and Discover.

“Your life is worth much more than you know” – Maya Angelou

LOYT – Entrepreneur Spotlight

Marianne Weidlein

Marianne Weidlein is one of the brilliant entrepreneurs featured in Life on Your Terms.  Marianne initially chose to work for herself because she wanted to help people in the healing and spiritual arts. She developed a curriculum for teaching the development of a private practice, and began offering business courses to the self-employed. She knows that self-mastery is a key component of success, and in helping her clients to achieve that goal, she is constantly inspired to pursue her own personal development.

As people begin to transition into their great big new life, it’s easy to become overwhelmed and lose focus. Tell us how you’ve stayed inspired during significant transitions.

I find transition to be inspirational! I’m in the process of regenerating my life or building an altogether new life, so new ideas and relationships come to me on a daily basis. This is exciting because like watching a new building being erected from the ground up, I am watching my life expanding and changing day by day! I stay inspired because I watch the changes, and if needed, I can always step up my pace. It’s all up to me…

Tell us about how you’re supporting and “sharing the love” with the world…do you have a favorite charity or cause?

Each morning when I turn on my computer, I go to http://www.thebreastcancersite.com. It is a donation portal site that allows me to contribute to issues of hunger, breast cancer, child health, literacy, the rain forest, and animal rescue. I’ve been doing this every morning for several years, so I begin my day with the joy of giving.

What is the most valuable piece of entrepreneurial advice you’ve ever received?

I’ve been a solo-preneur for 26 years now, so I have no idea the most valuable advice I’ve received. But I especially appreciate AA’s motto that goes something like: May I always change what I can’t accept, accept what I can’t change, and have the wisdom to know the difference. This is excellent for any situation!

Tell us about your latest project.

I am a transformational facilitator with 20 years of experience with self-mastery and peak performance. In individually-designed telephone programs, I help women leaders to transform their sabotaging patterns by replacing them with self-honoring alternatives. In the process, they cultivate their magnificence, power, and ability to succeed and flourish. Interested? Mention “Life On Your Terms” and receive a 10% discount.

Marianne Weidlein is a facilitator, mentor, and author, with expertise in self-mastery, peak performance, relationship, intentional manifestation, and self-employment. She brings 40+ years of experience in business, human potential development, and awakening spiritual awareness to help people achieve peace, success, and freedom on all levels. Her books are Empowering Vision for Dreamers, Visionaries & Other Entrepreneurs, and The Passage to Freedom (due out in 2010).

You can find Marianne at www.empoweringvision.com

Read more about Marianne’s personal liberation story within the pages of the Life on Your Terms: The Support Your Need to Follow Your Passion From Inspirational Entrepreneurs! The Big Pre-Sale Promotion is going on now!

Living life on my terms is my mantra…I move at my own pace, I groove at my own pace and I encourage others to do likewise.  I openly rail against oppression in all shapes and forms.  I’m often caught saying things like, “Dude, what do you want for yourself?”  So, I have to admit, I almost get cocky sometimes – thinking I’m, like, über progressive and what not.

And then last week my teenage son said to me, “I’m going to be a sumo wrestler.”

The first words out of my mouth? “You are not going to be a sumo wrestler.”  Period.  Done.  Mother has spoken (rolled my eyes and everythang).  I didn’t give it a second thought.

But, my son—bless him for actually calling me out—says, “Um, Mom, didn’t you say you’d always support me in whatever I wanted to do with my life?  That I could be anything I want?”

Busted.

Yeah, so it turns out that I want all the delight and wonder of this wonky world to be discovered by the curious eyes and mind of my child [progressive, right?] … as long as it’s defined on MY terms [eh, not so progressive].

Reality check time:  As adults we get super rah-rah for each other when someone decides to quit their job and turn their hobby into a successful business.  We get misty-eyed when Richard Gere breaks corporate form in Pretty Woman and decides to help out the old man who was about to lose his company.  But what about our children?  Are we fist-bumping them for their most outlandish desires?  I’ve always told my son it’s okay to color outside the lines; draw a mouth where the eyes should be; go ahead and wear a faux-hawk to school – you’re living life the way you want to!

Because I said you could.  And keep in mind that you will go to college for a sensible degree.  Ouch!

So, we’ve had our reality check.  Now here’s the challenge:  be mindful of your dialogue with your children; be aware of your tone and body language.  Be an active listener…don’t think of what you’ll say next.  Take in every word and just sit with it for a while.  As I’m learning, after all the listening, you get to regroup and still be the parent that desperately wants your child to be happy and successful…but now you are equipped to have a conversation that includes the voice of your child as a dynamic participant in his own future. He’ll be living life on his own someday and will need the confidence to trust his own decisions and not rely on others to ‘tell’ him what to do.

And it looks like I won’t have a sumo wrestling son – we weighed the pros and cons, and came to the conclusion that traveling to Hawaii and doing a photo shoot on the wrestlers would be way much more fun.

~ Amy

About two and half years ago it occurred to me that it might be a cool idea to write a book about some REAL people who had already figured out their personal path to liberation.  I decided to begin interviewing inspirational entrepreneurs to learn more about the entrepreneurial perspective.  At that time, I was in the midst of my own personal transformation, and impressed by a number of creative thinkers I’d been following online.

I crafted a letter and began the quest to attract inspirational entrepreneurs, write a book,  and create a thriving community that is turning out to be much bigger than I could have ever imagined.

The invitation:

I am writing a book about extraordinary entrepreneurs and “solo”preneurs who live on their own terms. They likely have achieved extraordinary results… leading to the creation of personal freedom. They are interesting, eccentric, bold, creative, unfiltered creatures of the universe who want to share their story with others to inspire them to follow their dreams…

This post circulated throughout the usual places online.  The response:  A magical deluge of incredible people to share some time with and write about.

The result: Life on Your Terms: The Support Your Need to Follow Your Passion From Extraordinary Entrepreneurs.

Thank you for making our first day of the pre-launch promotion a HUGE success. The support from the LOYT tribe is nothing short of awesome. I am filled with so much gratitude.

Check out what Stacie Tamaki AKA @TheFlirtyGirl posted about the book:

“If you hate your job and have been dreaming about starting your own company because you would like to live life on your own terms (fearless, expressing yourself, doing what you love, surrounded by people you admire and respect) “Life on Your Terms” could be all of the inspiration you need to take your first steps in moving towards a more contented life.” – Stacie Tamaki

LOYT Entrepreneur Spotlight

Lorraine Cohen

Lorraine Cohen is one of the inspirational entrepreneurs featured in Life on Your Terms.  She became an entrepreneur because she wanted the freedom to be her own boss, follow her spiritual calling, and make a difference in the world.

Lorraine appreciates that nothing in life is wasted. Every person and experience she has encountered has been of service to her personal growth, spiritual evolution, and business success. To Lorraine, creating life on her own terms means doing whatever it takes to follow the calling of her heart.

I caught up with Lorraine this week to ask her a few more questions…

As people begin to transition into their great big new life, it’s easy to become overwhelmed and lose focus. Tell us how you’ve stayed inspired during your transition.

Transition refers to the emotional and psychological reaction to change rather than to change itself. Cultivating a strong inner foundation that includes spiritual practices that connect me with my heart and intuition, prioritizing a strong self-care regime, surrounding myself with a solid circle of support with accountability, narrowing my commitments, and celebrating all the miracles, gifts, and blessings in my life daily are many of the things that help me to move forward with faith, trust, and courage. Inspiration comes from within. Creating space and time for stillness is essential for the inspiration to flow through. Some of my greatest ideas and revelations have come through me because of the time committed to contemplation, meditation, and quiet.  And when the inspiration flows – WOW!

Tell us about how you’re supporting and “sharing the love” with the world…do you have a favorite charity or cause?

As a broadcaster with a global business, I have the opportunity to host calls with some of the most influential and inspirational teachers and leaders on the planet which I make available for people to attend for free. Everything I do in my business is intended to help people worldwide to thrive, to grow, and feel loved; to know their value, and to prosper in their business, relationships, and within themselves. I have several favorite charity and causes. One in particular is a non-profit called Philabundance that helps people locally to have food. In truth, we have the capacity to easily end world hunger and I believe no one should go hungry. I care deeply about the environment, animal safety and care, and creating a one-world community of love and prosperity for all.

What is the most valuable piece of entrepreneurial advice you’ve ever received?

Be creative and experiment with doing things in fresh ways, market what you love to do from the perspective of what keeps people up at night, invest in having a great mentor, have a goal in mind and be willing to meander with purpose so that you are dancing with the Universe rather that trying to lead. And last, go the distance. Many people quit five minutes before the miracle happens.

Tell us about your latest project.

Thank you! I am so excited about two actually.

One upcoming project is a FREE tele-event July 27-August 12, 2010 called, Your Powerfull YES: Courageously Living An Inspired Life with some of the most influential and inspirational teachers and leaders on the planet including Neale Donald Walsch, James Twyman, Marci Shimoff, Janet Attwood, and Dr. Bernie Siegel to name a few. www.livinganinspiredlifenow.com. Some folks will experience healing right on the calls and they’ll have access to purchase the recordings and transcriptions plus receive some fabulous bonuses.

The second project is my new program called, From Spark To Flame: Awakening Your Courageous Heart that will launch in the fall 2010 as a continuity program which shows you how to shift from fear into faith, trust, and courage. This course was Divinely inspired and powerfully helps you release conscious and subconscious beliefs so that you can courageously live the life you were born to. During these incredible times of upheaval and change, many people are scared and worried about money, the future, their jobs, relationships…and this program is packed with the tools, healing meditations, models, and exercises to help people thrive no matter what is happening in their life. I’m a fear transformation expert and the time is ripe to change your relationship with fear and have a prosperous “joyfull” life.

Anything else you want to share with the LOYT community?

YES!  I want to encourage you all to be willing and courageous to do the inner work of getting to know who you are and to step up and out to fulfill your life path. If you are hiding out and playing small, you are holding yourself back from sharing your gifts with the world – with the people who want and need your help. And when you walk with the Universe, the Divine, and take inspired action, magic happens.

More about Lorraine…

As a spiritual minister, life coach, hypnotherapist, counselor, published writer, inspirational speaker, and radio broadcaster, Lorraine’s great joy is helping people awaken to who they are, who they are meant to be, and what they here to do. For more than twenty years, she has helped thousands of spiritually-minded business owners, entrepreneurs, coaches, professionals, and leaders from a wide range of industries create prosperous businesses, meaningful careers, and fulfilling lives aligned with Spirit.  www.powerfull-living.biz

Read more about Lorraine’s personal liberation story within the pages of the Life on Your Terms: The Support Your Need to Follow Your Passion From Inspirational Entrepreneurs! The Big Pre-Sale Promotion is going on now!

“Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.” – Albert Einstein

Happy 4th of July weekend!

I am coming up for air after a whole lot of crazy-cool work to prepare for the pre-sale and launch of Life on Your Terms. I spent the last two days proofing more than 66,000 words. Thank GOD for professional designers and editors.

Writing, editing and publishing a book turned out to be a much larger project than I’d ever expected it would be. I found myself calling in all of the techniques learned as a coach to stay as balanced as possible through this enormous undertaking.

The professional support of a number of brilliant people made this book come together.

I am in awe of the process. I am in awe of the brilliant entrepreneurs involved in the project. I am in awe of each person who volunteered to step and help me. And finally, I am grateful to my family and close friends for supporting me through an experience,  that on some days felt like a manic ride!

This weekend I will be celebrating our nation’s independence while celebrating the completion of a manuscript dedicated to the sharing of stories about personal liberation.  How cool is that?

Perfect Timing!

It requires profound vision to see the path of liberation.

To all of the men and women who fought for our nation’s freedom,  and to all of the entrepreneurs who seek to lead each of us to personal freedom, this book is respectfully dedicated.

More details about the pre-launch promotion coming soon!

“Freedom lies in being bold.” – Robert Frost

Steve Miranda shared an excellent review of a magazine article by a Harvard lawyer named Tama Kieves, who gave up her law practice to pursue a lifestyle that was more meaningful for her. Tama’s message is summed up by the title of the article, “Your Divine Assignment: Doing the Work You Love.”  Here is Steve’s review with an LOYT spin on the lessons that resonated with both of us.

Enjoy!

Five Areas of Focus

1. It Takes an Intermission to Find a Mission: Multi-tasking prevents inspiration. You’re not going hear an inspired voice within you with a smart phone in one hand, a sandwich in the other, while driving your kids to the mall and making grocery lists in your head.

2. Honoring Your Crazy Love: You’re looking to feel alive. You’re seeking to fall in love. What you love has energy, and that energy will propel you into new experiences, insights, abilities, and expressions. . . . This is a dynamic path. Where you start off is not where you end up.

3. Trade in Your Label for a Ticket: The culture may demand definition, but your soul craves expansion. . . . You are as undefined as you are unlimited.

4. Only the Tender Can Breed the Fierce: The esteemed psychologist Abraham Maslow taught that “All creativity comes from safety.” It’s true. You cannot hear an inspired voice while underestimating yourself. True genius lives inside you. But it only grows in the soil of self-allegiance.

5. Just Start Dancing and the Band Will Find You: I often remind my clients: “You can’t plan an inspired life.”

Tama J. Kieves, an honors graduate of Harvard Law School, left her law practice with a large corporate law firm to write and to embolden others to live and breathe their most meaningful self-expression. She is the best-selling author of THIS TIME I DANCE! Creating the Work You Love/How One Harvard Lawyer Left It All to Have It All (©2003 Tarcher/Penguin) which was chosen as a Finalist for the national Nautilus Book Award, along with the Dalai Lama’s The Art of Happiness.

You can find more information about Tama at Awakening Artistry.